What's The Diff?

The things Quicken Loans team members care about and want to share with the world

Quizzle – Now Showing on a YouTube near you!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Just wanted a quick shout out to my homies over at Quizzle for launching a pretty cool "Quizzle intro" video on YouTube. The video is short (just a minute) and highlights the value of joining Quizzle.

The main value, of course, being a free credit report and score. And not free as in you have to pay for something else, but really free. But even with the score, Quizzle is growing fast and offers lots of other cool stuff, like home value reports, rainy day fund reports, mortgage analysis, etc. And much more cool stuff is coming soon. I can't spill the beans yet, but some very cool "scores" are being added soon, so come back in a few weeks and see for yourself.

In the meantime, enjoy the Quizzle video. We like it and hope you do too!

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Johntel Franklin – Taking Two for the Other Team

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Rivals High Tells Story of Inspiration and Hope on the Quicken Loans blogby Mike Dunklee

The concept of good sportsmanship applies to all walks of life, not just what happens in the gym or pool, or on the field or track. It’s about doing what’s right, even if it leads one astray from the easiest path to achieving their goal.

To keep it topical, exhibiting good sportsmanship is the very essence of what being “the DIFF” is.

I was particularly struck by a story I read on Rivals.com last week, and at once I knew the readers of this blog were the perfect audience to appreciate the outstanding character and selflessness displayed by the individuals involved.

A little background: High school basketball teams out of DeKalb, Ill. and Milwaukee, Wisc. had struck up a friendly non-conference, interstate rivalry, one in which the two teams would get together for pizza and sodas after each contest.

On the same day the Barbs were making the trip to Milwaukee to play the Knights, the mother of Knights’ senior captain Johntel Franklin was in the last hours of her life, losing her long battle with cervical cancer.

Continue reading “Johntel Franklin – Taking Two for the Other Team” »

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Are Please and Thank You the Magic Words?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Quicken Loans PleaseWhen I was younger, there were four little words that always served as a reminder of my manners: What do you say? Anytime I failed to say, “please” or “thank you,” my mother would throw me a look and ask me that pertinent question, just in case I forgot how I was raised.

Now, of course, saying please and thank you is second nature, but only in common conversation. When it comes to the web and searching, it’s a different story. Maybe it’s because as a user, I expect Google to return results for me no matter how politely I ask. After all, search engines don’t have feelings, do they?

Well, maybe so.

A reader, Brian F., over at the Good Experience blog submitted a story about searching the web with his 6 year old son. He talks about trying every search query in the book to answer his son’s questions, but to no avail. His son, who must have been raised well, asked if he tried saying "please."

Although he doesn’t say if he got results for his son’s question by adding please, he did go on to mention other queries whose search results significantly changed, just by adding please to the end.

A quick search for ‘Quicken Loans please' seems to find the places where we are actively out helping people on the web, including many of our social media profiles. Among other things:

So give it a try on a few searches of your own. You never know how far being nice will take you.

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Mardi Gras 2009 – Now on Twitter!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mardi Gras 2009Happy Mardi Gras!

If you've ever experienced the sheer joy of New Orleans' famous Fat Tuesday celebration, then you know how the magic transforms the crowded city into one festive frolic - from the family-picnic studded merrymakers Uptown, to the bacchanal, down-right raunchy revelry on Bourbon Street.

As a former New Orleanian, I find myself shifting between sentimental, sad, and thrilled on this day, as I simultaneously feel regret for not being there, and joy for my friends who are living it up, doing me proud before the sobering austerity of Ash Wednesday and Lent descend on the Big Easy at the stroke of midnight.

Today, as I was looking for news and web cams from which to catch a vicarious glimpse of the epic soiree, I found that the Times Picayune has enlisted a troupe of revelers to live-tweet the festivities!

Continue reading “Mardi Gras 2009 – Now on Twitter!” »

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More than mortgages: the “other” sites of Quicken Loans Web Marketing

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Learn about the other sites of the Quicken Loans marketing team

You know Quicken Loans is an online company. But do you know how much all of us are actually online? We know this makes us a bit nerdy, but it's also what makes us smile. Forgive us?

At a quick glance, our small Web Marketing team runs something like 17 websites to support the Quicken Loans family of companies. Total head count on Web Marketing? About 18 people. You do the math.

With the little time we have left in the day, many of the internet superstars on my team still run their own personal websites, internet businesses and blogs. Sometimes we call them our "side hustles" because we're weird like that.

We all held a meeting last week to talk about our personal sites and ended up offering support, ideas and so much more to each other. Since there are so many personal sites and they're all just so fantastic, I decided the DIFF needs to recognize each of them.

I admire each of these people for making the time – my own site is merely still just a thought in my head. Since I write all day at work, I find it hard to go home and write more. Still, I'm sure with the support of all these great people and our bi-monthly meetings, I'll be plugging my own blog/site soon enough here on the DIFF. Or maybe I'll put it on the Insider. Or maybe Quizzle blog? Too many to choose from…I don't think there will ever be a shortage of my writing for you to find on the internet.

Continue reading “More than mortgages: the “other” sites of Quicken Loans Web Marketing” »

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IHOP National Pancake Day 2009 – Get your pancake on for charity

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IHOP National Pancake Day on the Quicken Loans blogOn February 24, 2009, IHOP (the International House of Pancakes) is hosting National Pancake Day 2009 to raise money for Children's Miracle Network and other great causes.

Here's how it works from IHOP's National Pancake Day site:

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products…hence the name Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday.

Continue reading “IHOP National Pancake Day 2009 – Get your pancake on for charity” »

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Quicken Loans wishes you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day from Quicken Loans DIFF blog!

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Quicken Loans Deposit explained – a lesson in business transparency

Saturday, February 14, 2009


Any internet marketing professional worth their salt knows they have to listen to their customers in today’s internet-dominated world of business.

Any word of mouth marketing professional worth their salt knows they have to listen to their customers in today’s internet-dominated world of business.

Scratch those thoughts.  Let me try one more time.

Any MARKETING professional worth their salt knows they have to listen to their customers in today’s internet-dominated world of business.

That’s more like it.

Continue reading “Quicken Loans Deposit explained – a lesson in business transparency” »

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Happy Birthday Mr. President (Lincoln)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy 200th Birthday President Lincoln Wow, what a day for 200th birthdays.

First I find out that Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago. That's impressive.

Now I hear that Abe Lincoln, perhaps the greatest president of all time (sorry Ronald Reagan – that's just how it is), was also born 200 years (that would be 10 scores years) ago today.

Well then, I guess I'll just give a shout out to Abe and wish him a big old 200th. He was quite a man and quite a leader.

Let's see, what did he do in his lifetime???

Well, he kept the United States together by standing up to and defeating the Confederate forces. Can you imagine how different history would have been if the U.S. split into two countries? It's mind-boggling. Certainly Detroit may have never become the manufacturing powerhouse that auto giants like Henry Ford created in the early 1900s. It's a well-known fact that Southern labor was was largely responsible for building Detroit into the Motor City.

Lincoln also began the process with eventually ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. That's a little part of American history that's well worth mentioning, I'd say.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday Mr. President (Lincoln)” »

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Happy Darwin Day

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy Darwin DayHappy Darwin Day everyone. Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with the Darwin Awards – one award no one with half a brain every want to win.

Nope, today is Darwin Day and it's a worldwide celebration of Charles Darwin (who would have been 200 years old today) – the father of the theory of evolution.

Darwin is arguably one of the most controvertial figures in the last several hundred years and his teachings have spurned endless debate and even violent clashes over the 150 years since he published his book On the Origin of Species.

Continue reading “Happy Darwin Day” »

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Thursday, May 17, 2012