Last year will long be remembered as a pivotal one in the online lead generation category. This spring marked the one-year anniversary of the FTC's wake-up call to the industry in the form of a formal investigation into the use of the word "free" in lead-gen ads. This piece, however, isn't really about the investigations or settlements per se; we all know they've received considerable media coverage and commentary over the last twelve or so months. Rather, the story I'm interested in telling is about how our industry united under these trying circumstances and took action to ensure the long-term …

While news exclusives can attract new audiences and help a site grow, advertising exclusives are bad news for online publishers. When it comes to online advertising, publishers need to be like the manager of a football team before draft season: they need to keep their options as open as possible.

Understanding the correlation between the successes of one media type over another can be a challenge. With many case studies under my belt, I can say, however, that there is a proven connection between CPM successes when a performance-based pricing model is implemented during the same time.

There are plenty of available contact points with teens on social sites (friends, gifts, games -- you name it), but no proven method of engaging the throngs of teens hanging out in those increasingly popular virtual malls. What has worked for some to create brand engagement has typically been highly custom efforts, typically labor-intensive and not logically replicable for different brands or verticals.The answer to organized engagement starts with the considering the teen audience's agenda, not the marketers'. Give them a reason to want to spend time with your brands, and do it within the rules of the social environment.

We have seen a new type of "scam" on the lead generation front. Actually, it's been going on for years, but it seems to have become more rampant than ever: companies claiming lead-gen capabilities, Internet reach, etc., that just aren't true. This includes third-party providers claiming to have particular Web sites in their "network."