Prosper Lending Review - the first month

This site, Prosper Lending Review, is one month old today. In June my brother Matt told me about Prosper, a P2P lending site, that he had been funding loans on for about a year. I was immediately intrigued. On June 15th we launched Prosper Lending Review – a blog about the P2P lending marketplace with a focus on Prosper lenders.

This has been a fun project for us. We both enjoy reading and writing about Prosper and our readers have been great. This has been a true learning experience.

We have written 36 posts during our fist month so the odds are very good that there is new content everyday. Here are a few of our most popular articles. I've placed a double asterisk next to my favorite.

Lending on Prosper
**Prosper: A hands-on education in risk management - I recommend all new lenders read this before placing their first bid. Addresses diversification and the risk of low credit grades. It opened my eyes.
Prosper lending - How to avoid bankruptcies
**When to bid on Prosper loans - another must read article for new lenders written by Matt
Most Prosper lenders do not diversify their portfolio
Prosper Lending 101 - a review of Prosper's lending webinar including FAQ from new lenders
Analyzing Prosper data - a quick look at some of the third party tools
Prosper lenders avoid high risk loans - the marketplace has changed
Build your own fantasy Prosper loan portfolio
**Are all Prosper loans within a credit grade created equal? - the results of this analysis surprised me
An analysis of pre-payment risk on Prosper loans
What effect would a recession have on the Prosper marketplace - I don't think many lenders are thinking about this yet

Borrowing on Prosper
**Why would a borrower use Prosper instead of a traditional bank? - Matt provides a solid answer to a common question
Loan money to family and friends through Prosper

Prosper news and information
A Prosper scam: The story of Jessica Wolcott - This is by far our most popular story with twice as many views as any other single post. It is also the most popular topic in the forums.
**Review: Top Prosper Blogs - our review of Prosper blogs
Do Prosper lenders discriminate? - this article provoked a very spirited discussion on the forums
Prosper secures an additional $20 million in capital
TechCrunch's bias - Prosper versus Lending Club - my initial thoughts to the heavy media coverage Lending Club is receiving
eBay + MySpace + ? = Peer to peer lending
50 best websites of 2007 - Prosper scores again - Prosper makes Time's list for the second year in a row
Rent A Coder: Prosper clone for $250
Prosper referral program

News about Prosper competitors - While this has been a fun area for me to read and write about, our coverage of Prosper competitors have been the least viewed articles. I have a couple Lending Club articles in the queue which I will go ahead and publish. Based on reader reaction we may limit our coverage of Prosper competitors and focus more on the Prosper niche. What do you think? I'm of the opinion the competition is good and will only make Prosper better.
Facebook's Lending Club passes $100,000 mark
Peer to peer lending in Canada - CommunityLend
eHub interviews Lending Club CEO
Lending Club's Blog educates readers
Lending Club hits quarter million dollar milestone
Boston Globe features Prosper and competitors - Prosper Andrew added a great comment to this post

I'd like to thank all our readers who really make this fun. The comments we have received are often from deeply experienced lenders with great insight. Like most people on Prosper, we are learning as we go along. By sharing our experiences we all learn - so thanks for sharing!

Announcing guest posts - If there is anyone interested in writing a guest post, please let us know. We allow you to use your own referral links to Prosper and link to your group if you are a group leader. The posts must be honest and be useful to lenders or borrowers. (We will not publish any posts that talk about how Prosper is an easy way to get a 29% return on your money.) If interested, please email me at prosperlending@gmail.com.

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