Comments on: What Happened to Prosper on Lazy Man?

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:20:55 +0000

Again, we don’t really know if they won’t be what they are cracked up to be. The stock market returns the last two years weren’t what they were cracked up to be either.

By: ChristianPF

ChristianPF — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:05:37 +0000

Lazy,
regardless of why you stopped promoting them, I appreciate you giving some facts in this post. I had always been intrigued by the “promised” returns, but just never jumped in. I am a bit relieved now that I know they weren’t what they were cracked up to be…

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:40:22 +0000

Lazy – I guess my point is that if Prosper had a better referral program it would probably encourage me to post more often and think creatively on how to generate referrals. The program was okay but certainly not motivating.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:13:24 +0000

WRT the referral program, Prosper shut down just as LendingClub started up again – if you wanted to write about p2p lending, you could still do it and replace Prosper with LC and still get referrals.

I think Lazy Man’s point on novelty wearing off is true, I didn’t write about it a lot but after the initial announcement, I don’t see much point in writing more about p2p lending myself.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:04:52 +0000

Tom, maybe their referral program influenced the frequency of posts for other people, but not for me. (And I am quite a bit insulted if people imply that without going back and researching my posting history.)

I not only agree with DGI, but it also explains the high rates of payday loans.

By: Dividend Growth Investor

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:57:51 +0000

Prosper was a nice way to make money by refering people. Other than that the bad part is that they seem to have done nothing with delinquent/late loans there.
Anyways most people were seeing double digit interest rates and got hooked on without considering the fact that defaults could occur. Anyways, now we know why credit card companies charge such high interest rates, don’t we?

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:32:04 +0000

Well I disagree with you on one point – there is plenty to write about. I think of about two posts a day for p2p lending. Sadly, I’m lucky if I find the time to write two a week. I have a whole list of things I’d like to write about but just don’t have the time to tackle.

As for the referral program – let’s be honest. It does influence frequency of blog posts. Although I have not been disappointed with my return on Prosper (yet) I have been disappointed in the payout rate for referral bonuses. I haven’t tracked it but I’m guessing for every 20 new members that signed up through my site only one became a borrower or lender.

I’ve been much more impressed with Lending Club and Revolution Money Exchange as far as referral bonuses go. Once a person signed up through their programs they were much more likely to result in a bonus.

When Prosper comes back hopefully they will come back with a new and improved referral program.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:10:07 +0000

Fair enough – coincidentally one of my main affiliates is a discount brokerage which I wrote posts about before they started their referral program.

I see your point (and Brett’s) about running out of angles to write about.

Mike

By: Brett @ Personal Loan Portfolio

Brett @ Personal Loan Portfolio — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:25:17 +0000

Four Pillars: The Prosper referral program only shut down today according to the email I received. Regardless of previous program closure announcements, they seemed to still be paying out bonuses. Despite posting not very positive information about Prosper, I was still having people use my referral links. Oh well, some people have to prove it to themselves. I must agree with LM&M that it is getting tiresome to write about P2P lending. There are only so many times you can slice LendingStats' data and re-post announcements without becoming bored of the topic. The stats Get Rich posted are no surprise to anyone who has followed P2P lending regularly. I also agree that the returns are less than I had hoped -- although, my loans are still doing reasonably well at both Prosper and Lending Club. Plus, the industry seems to be having regulatory and possibly profitability issues. I would rather not invest a great deal until I am certain the platform will survive. By the way, see the comments in this post to find out more about Muleshoes, the $400K lender with -17% return.

By: Amber Weinberg

Amber Weinberg — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:48:49 +0000

I tried telling a friend who was interested in investing in Prosper about the amount of trouble multiple bloggers have had with people defaulting, but he didn’t care. Wonder how he’s doing now…

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:46:46 +0000

I actually wrote a lot more about Prosper before they had a referral program. Plus, up until an hour ago when I just got an e-mail from them, I was still in the referral program. It seems that due to the SEC filing and no longer allowing lenders to sign up, the referral program doesn’t work.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:21:21 +0000

Come on LM – are you telling me that the fact that Prosper shut down their referral program had absolutely no bearing on the amount you wrote about them?

Not to pick on just you alone – there are quite a few blogs out there who just sort of stopped prosper blogging the day the referrals stopped…