This word, consolidation has been uttered amongst insiders relative to the future of the industry.

$2.7BN in VC Capital is presently out in 1,300 finance / business finance related start-ups.

This number has been increasing year over year... So it's kind of like a Tsunami is on the horizon because not only are threats from outside of the industry going to make it tough to compete, but the fierce competition for leads right now are driving up costs of customer acquisition across the board.

I think a funder posted here that he started out spending $5 on Google and eventually got to $15, next year is going to be the opposite of Christmas in PPC.

So... I've been sitting around thinking about this, like; "what would I do if I were a funder?" I have fun with these sorts of things, probably too much. lol

Anyway, I came up with the most ridiculous idea / thought you guys may have heard in your lives, but follow me...

Funders who spend significant sums of money in PPC should sell each other their leads.

No, I haven't been drinking too much of the brown water, let me explain.

If the average click for a premium placement costs $20, AND your conversion rate is 40% (Holy Grail), then your average cost per lead is $50. If only 1 in 10 of the those leads convert to a sale (within a set time period), then your average cost per sale is $500.

We all know merchant shop around, and that only 2% buy from the first place they arrive at. So, by selling a competitor and now collaborator the 9 (QUALIFIED) leads that never converted to a sale, puts you both in a position to get what is essentially 2 customers for the price of 1.

I think this is pretty cool because it's a way of striking back at Google. Google's leverage in setting these auction prices lies in the fact that you guys are engaged in a slugfest. You start collaborating across the board, PPC prices go down across the board.

Clearly, this is the type of deal that would have to be made between guys that knew and trusted each other. But, if I were paying a crap load in PPC, it's one of those deals I'd certainly go out and try to make...

I have been brainstorming a bunch of ways guys can collaborate I've probably taken up too much of your time as it is!