Looking at my new fascinating woopra statistics, I clicked on a few of the keywords that appear in the dashboard. I noticed that there are several advertisements (adwords) that appear in Google results related to peer-to-peer lending. So I searched on several related key terms to see what appeared in the google paid search results. I thought that I would save the results so that I can later compare how these results change over time since changes in the paid advertisements may indicate changes in the P2P lending market.

Key Word: Prosper
Results: 14 million results
Paid Search results include: Read the rest of this entry »

Prosper Marketplace has just announced that their affiliate program has shut down and has requested that sites “take down any reference to Prosper immediately.” It seems ridiculous to remove all references to Prosper especially since this would take a long time to remove all mentions of Prosper in a P2P lending blog. However, I will remove the advertisements that are currently being displayed here offering the Prosper account sign up bonus.

It does not surprise me that the closure of the Prosper referral program follows the announcement of the Prosper quiet period. This is the same pattern that Lending Club followed — except Lending Club announced the quiet period at the exact same time they closed the referral program. I hope that Lending Club’s referral program returns soon now that they have exited their quiet period and returned to P2P lending.

Here is the note from Prosper announcing the end of the referral program that I received tonight: Read the rest of this entry »

Lending Club is offering a 5% ROI bonus in the form of a “Thank you!” to investors who lend more than $5,000 before February 3rd 2008. If you lend $5,000 before the deadline, you will receive a bonus of $250! If you use my Lending Club Affiliate Link and open the account with $1,000 initially, you will receive an additional bonus of $50! That will add up to an extra 1% to your P2P lending ROI. The best news is that the more you loan, the more bonus you will receive, so if you loan a total of $10,000 before the deadline, you will receive a $500 bonus payout. Even better you can take the bonus out in cash or reinvest it at Lending Club.

How would the Bonus Impact your Lending ROI? Read the rest of this entry »

Although not yet formally announced, Lending Club now has an affiliate referral program. Rex Dixon, Director of Social Media Content at Lending Club, has confirmed it in the P2PNoBank Forums. I believe the deal is the same as Prosper’s referral program — $25 for both referrer and the new person who signs up using the link. However, the details are still vague, so check back at the forum while Rex answers more questions about the affiliate program. I’ll also post a summary of the clarifications.

Update: The referral program is now $25 to $50 cash bonus. $25 for funding your account with $500 or receiving a loan and $50 for funding your account with $1000

Create your Lending Club affiliate link like the one below replacing your Lending Club ID with mine: https://secure.lendingclub.com/refer.action?referrer=PersonalLoanPortfoliocom

Please note that I do not recommend using the email system at Lending Club for referring people until they have addressed the issue of the second link to Lending Club not containing the referral code. I mentioned this issue on P2P No Bank forums. Instead you should construct your own email using the link format above to insure that both parties receive the credit.

Update (11/21/2007): Rob from lending club posted some clarifications on the Lending Club affiliate program.