Lead generation is fast becoming the darling of the Internet space. What other industry can boast annual growth in excess of 70%? In the last two years alone, we've witnessed just about every possible approach and methodology to generating leads both online and offline.

How do you achieve a healthy balance of targeted reach across transparent and blind networks? First of all, tailor your ads differently for the audiences you know vs. the audiences you don't. Think of it as a date....

It's NCAA tournament time - when thoughts of Cinderella stories, Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights and Final Fours do their big dance through our heads. From hundreds of candidates, the NCAA tournament committee has found what it believes to be the 65 most deserving. Wouldn't it be nice if your lead program could be like the tournament -- evaluating scores of prospects around the country to come up with the most likely customers? Or better yet -- the 16 or 8 or 4 best?

Although not yet a household name, online lead generation was by far the fastest growing category of online ad spending in 2006, with a reported 71 percent year-over-year growth. Marketers are increasingly adopting this growing medium because it provides something search and the other more publicized vehicles do not: consumers' explicit permission to be added to your database and contacted for future marketing purposes.

Much like the "Web 2.0" movement, we're seeing a Lead Gen 2.0 that is more transparent than the lead generation of the past, ultimately giving buyers and sellers more control over their businesses and profits. Where in the past we've seen large, single-vertical aggregators that take the majority of the profits from a lead transfer, we are now seeing the emergence of smaller, more efficient lead marketplaces that serve multiple verticals.