Mark Suster is a Partner at GRP Partners, a Venture Capital firm in Los Angeles. He blogs at Both Sides of the Table and can be found on Twitter at @msuster.
I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and business owners whether it is worth blogging, and if so, what they should blog about. On the first question, the answer is obvious to me — you must blog as an entrepreneur.
In this post I’ll cover why you need to blog, how to determine what to blog about, and finding your blog’s voice.
Why You Must Blog
I believe that blogging in your business is vital to creating a public personae and making your company more accessible. In an era where companies like Zappos have differentiated themselves based on service, it is important to be public and accessible.
My industry of venture capital, for example, has been shrouded in secrecy for 30 years, making the process of raising funds opaque for most entrepreneurs. When I started my first company in 1999, there were almost no public sources of venture capital fund raising information. Years later I discovered the blog of VC Brad Feld, then later VentureHacks, and Fred Wilson’s technology & VC blog, each of which clarified and demystified the venture capital process.
So when I started blogging, I mainly viewed it as “earned media,” or a chance to let entrepreneurs get to know me by sharing my thoughts online with complete transparency; a concept that is repeatable for any business.
In less than a year I’ve attracted a large monthly following of readers who come to my blog to discuss how to build startups, how to raise money, and to get my thoughts on technology markets. By publicly sharing my thoughts, I’ve been able to engage in online discussions with people all over the world, and though it was an unintended consequence, my deal flow has gone up dramatically. In other words, blogging can be a valuable networking tool and help the bottom line.
What Should You Blog About?
Start by defining the audience with whom you want to have a relationship. Presumably they are your customers, partners, suppliers and your broader industry as a whole. You should think about what kind of information they would find valuable. You should also try to talk about something that is differentiated from what other blogs in your field cover, even if your approach is just slightly different or new.
Make sure the topic is something that you’ll have a passion for writing about on a regular basis. If you’re not going to keep up with your blog, you shouldn’t start one in the first place. It’s a commitment, believe me. If you pick a topic that relates to your customers, but you’re not that passionate about it, then you may have a bigger problem on your hands!
The Right and Wrong Way to Blog
Let me give some examples of the right and wrong approach to blogging.
Right: I always liked the Mint.com blog. Even in the early days when they were relatively unknown, they blogged about personal finance. They talked about how to manage credit and balance your bank account — obvious topics for a startup focused on managing personal money. They were able to take a leadership role in talking about managing your money in a way that supported their brand and created a community around their product.
Wrong: A friend of mine has a company in the personal finance space also. His blog was all about how to run a startup and raise venture capital. He was outrageous, brash and crass in his style, and I told him so. I said, “Your goal isn’t to be the cool kid in the venture capital circles. Your job is to build a great company and you’ll be a hero in entrepreneurial circles as a result of your success. Speak to your customers — that is what a blog is for.”
Finding Your Blog’s Voice
So you know you need to blog, and you’re convinced you ought to write about something you’re passionate about and that speaks to your customers. How can you create something that people will want to come and read every day?
1. Be authentic
The thing that kills most blogs, in my view, is when you can tell that the writer is just going through the motions. You need to find a “voice” that is authentically yours. People will get used to your style and your style will become your signature.
2. Be transparent
The “old school” way of getting media attention was to submit press releases. These were artificially crafted documents that were filled with glowing reviews of your company. In short, they felt fake. The best way to establish your voice is to be transparent.
Be willing to talk like a human being. Be willing to show feelings and a point of view. Let your inner self come out rather than your “inner bullet point.” Don’t use too much lingo. Don’t feel like your prose has to sound like it was crafted by a university professor. Just speak!
3. Get inside your readers’ minds
I give this advice often and in many scenarios, including public speaking. When people speak to many audiences, they sometimes get into a canned routine. They give the same presentation no matter which crowd they’re addressing. The key is that each time you present, you need to think about who is in the audience and what they want to hear. The same is true for blogging.
On my blog, my audience is made of startup entrepreneurs and probably other VCs. When I write I try to be mindful of who these people are, the knowledge I assume they have, and what I believe they want to know.
4. Solicit feedback
I ask people what they want to read about. I regularly ask for feedback on what I’m writing. When people give me good suggestions, I try to cover those topics.
When community members write awesome comments, I’ll sometimes write a post about what they said to highlight them and their contributions. In my opinion, the best way to build an audience over time is to engage with them and to highlight those that really contribute positively to you.
5. Don’t be offensive or take big public risks
I sometimes read blogs that get extreme. I read a blog once that jokingly suggested “offering your angels cocaine if that would get them to invest.” It was intended to be funny. It wasn’t. And comments like this run the risk of offending people. This was a blog about personal finance, and I found the comment totally irresponsible and at odds with the brand image the blogger was trying to project.
I read a blog yesterday where the author was trying to make fun of a negative comment he got on his product. The blogger highlighted him and called him “retarded,” which I, and I’m sure many others, find offensive. There’s no upside to this type of comment, but there’s a big downside. My esteem for him went down.
Further, unless your company revolves around taking stands on controversial issues, it’s best to leave your political commentary at home. Statements like these stand to upset or anger half of your potential customers no matter what side you take.
6. Have fun
This may be obvious, but if writing a blog becomes a chore for you it will show. Try to make your writing fun and it will be easier to stick to. It will also reflect in your voice.
Happy blogging!
More blogging resources from Mashable:
- 14 Fantastic Free WordPress Themes
– HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog
– How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media
– Why Brands are Becoming Media
– 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence
– How Social Media Helps One Small Business Connect with Fans
Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, johnnyscriv
[Image Credit: Kristina B]
Remember when journalists were merely overworked and underpaid? In today’s hypercompetitive market, it’s not enough to be a tenacious reporter or an elegant writer; you also need to be a tech-savvy coder, a capable videographer, a constant conversation-engager, a shameless self-promoter, and, in general, a worthy bottom-line-improver. Call it the soft bigotry of high expectations: Journalists who hope to keep giving voice/shining lights/etc. must also become adept at designing web sites, producing podcasts, tweeting, Tumbling, and, just to be safe, mixing a mean martini.
A site launching later this month claims to offer some recourse in the case of the ever-expanding skill set. Its name was originally shrouded in secrecy, as suggested by its working title: Secret Journalism Startup. But the enigma now unveiled as NewsLabs is seeking journalist partners for what it calls “a service to publish your work to the world, which lets you focus on the content.”
We handle everything else: making money, getting readers, online marketing, etc. Whether you are freelancing, laid off, or still successfully employed, now is the time to move online, and we can make it as painless and profitable as it can be.
In other words: a partnership, NewsLabs promises, will allow journalists to focus on doing journalism — rather than spending their time engaged in the Everything Else that being a journalist requires these days. That subsidiary work being “the sort of thing that journalists (a) aren’t capable of doing except for a vast effort on their part, and (b) don’t want to be doing,” NewsLabs‘ Paul Biggar told me. He and fellow programmer Nathan Chong are behind the startup, which is funded by Y Combinator, Paul Graham’s noted startup incubator which has recently been interested in journalism projects.
The idea is to replicate the infrastructural benefits of the newsroom — the resources shared among journalists, the content dissemination architecture, etc. — for journalists who, whether by choice or by something else, work independently of a newsroom. Journalists who sign on to work with NewsLabs (the site is aiming to cull ten or so to start with, and then to expand from there) will post their content to the site—”we want to be a centralized space for publishing,” Biggar notes — and NewsLabs, in return for that content, will provide the subsidiary support that will help them to keep producing it. Based on NewsLabs’ ad, that support includes:
Revenue generation: we only make money if you do; you get 80% of revenue from your content (not profit, revenue); ad sales; selling your story to publications; affiliate links; sponsorship.
Bring traffic to your stories: We submit your content to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, etc, appropriate tailored for each community; We automatically recommend stories to readers based on what they read, who they are, and what they’re interested in.
Community management: The new news model is about community interaction. We make this as cheap and simple as possible: Facebook Connect so people comment with their real identities; Automatic moderation and spam control; We organize your interaction with social media outside the site.
Lead generation: get tips from your readers; automatically get sources for your stories; find out what stories people want to hear about, before they know themselves!
Collaborate with other journalists
Analysis: We tell you: how much of the story readers read (when they get bored); what headlines are most effective; where does your traffic come from; what topics people want to hear about.
The unbundled news product is one thing; what NewsLabs is proposing is, essentially, unbundling the journalistic process. Revenues will come mostly from ads, Biggar says. “We take a cut out of the money that we earn for them,” meaning in the end that the journalists “get 80 cents out of every dollar that is earned by their content.” (The ad specifies a $30,000-$70,000 “salary” for participating journalists, but notes: “We help journalists make money online, and earn a small portion of the proceeds. So while this isn’t a paid position, we only earn money if you do. (So the 30K-70K is an estimate, not a concrete figure).”) “It’s difficult to know for certain,” Biggar acknowledges, “what our major revenue is going to be in the long term.” Much of NewsLabs’ success — or lack of it — will depend on the individual journalists who sign on to the service, and to the quality and popularity of the journalism they produce.
NewsLabs isn’t entering a completely open space. There are any number of tools and platforms available for journalists seeking back-end support, from ad networks to publishing tools. And NewsLabs’ idea doesn’t seem too far away from True/Slant’s, since both aim to make money helping journalists “build their brand online.” Biggar told me NewsLabs imagines itself as more of a brand-builder than a brand-facilitator — more of a comprehensive support structure than a simple platform. “It’s almost a distinction in wording,” Biggar says. “There aren’t contributors to our site. We are providing a service to journalists. It’s a difference of perspective.”
You can see a lot of NewsLabs’ plans in this discussion thread on Hacker News (part of Y Combinator), where Biggar (posting as “stealthyc2010″) answers questions about the startup’s plans, including:
We have many people interested. I haven’t triaged them all, but there are high quality people in there. We don’t need people to jump — there were 8000 journalists laidoff last year, and there are many many freelancers out there. The people interested are mixes of both, and some full timers who want to make money on the side, and are looking to jump online in the future.
The main distinction, Biggar notes, is the fact that NewsLabs will focus on collaboration among journalists, rather than competition. Tools are being built toward that end, he says, but he declines to specify what they’ll ultimately look like. (Biggar and Chong both have substantial comp-sci chops.) But they’ll ultimately rely, he says, on leveraging the network effect by way of empowering the individual members of the network. “The large media conglomerates are going to die whether they like it or not,” Biggar says. And “it seems obvious to us that the content providers — that is, the journalists themselves — are the ones who should be benefiting” from the content they produce.
“We’re really aiming for journalists to make a living out of this,” Biggar says. And “we want this to be the model for how news is generated.”
Mark Suster is a Partner at GRP Partners, a Venture Capital firm in Los Angeles. He blogs at Both Sides of the Table and can be found on Twitter at @msuster.
I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and business owners whether it is worth blogging, and if so, what they should blog about. On the first question, the answer is obvious to me — you must blog as an entrepreneur.
In this post I’ll cover why you need to blog, how to determine what to blog about, and finding your blog’s voice.
Why You Must Blog
I believe that blogging in your business is vital to creating a public personae and making your company more accessible. In an era where companies like Zappos have differentiated themselves based on service, it is important to be public and accessible.
My industry of venture capital, for example, has been shrouded in secrecy for 30 years, making the process of raising funds opaque for most entrepreneurs. When I started my first company in 1999, there were almost no public sources of venture capital fund raising information. Years later I discovered the blog of VC Brad Feld, then later VentureHacks, and Fred Wilson’s technology & VC blog, each of which clarified and demystified the venture capital process.
So when I started blogging, I mainly viewed it as “earned media,” or a chance to let entrepreneurs get to know me by sharing my thoughts online with complete transparency; a concept that is repeatable for any business.
In less than a year I’ve attracted a large monthly following of readers who come to my blog to discuss how to build startups, how to raise money, and to get my thoughts on technology markets. By publicly sharing my thoughts, I’ve been able to engage in online discussions with people all over the world, and though it was an unintended consequence, my deal flow has gone up dramatically. In other words, blogging can be a valuable networking tool and help the bottom line.
What Should You Blog About?
Start by defining the audience with whom you want to have a relationship. Presumably they are your customers, partners, suppliers and your broader industry as a whole. You should think about what kind of information they would find valuable. You should also try to talk about something that is differentiated from what other blogs in your field cover, even if your approach is just slightly different or new.
Make sure the topic is something that you’ll have a passion for writing about on a regular basis. If you’re not going to keep up with your blog, you shouldn’t start one in the first place. It’s a commitment, believe me. If you pick a topic that relates to your customers, but you’re not that passionate about it, then you may have a bigger problem on your hands!
The Right and Wrong Way to Blog
Let me give some examples of the right and wrong approach to blogging.
Right: I always liked the Mint.com blog. Even in the early days when they were relatively unknown, they blogged about personal finance. They talked about how to manage credit and balance your bank account — obvious topics for a startup focused on managing personal money. They were able to take a leadership role in talking about managing your money in a way that supported their brand and created a community around their product.
Wrong: A friend of mine has a company in the personal finance space also. His blog was all about how to run a startup and raise venture capital. He was outrageous, brash and crass in his style, and I told him so. I said, “Your goal isn’t to be the cool kid in the venture capital circles. Your job is to build a great company and you’ll be a hero in entrepreneurial circles as a result of your success. Speak to your customers — that is what a blog is for.”
Finding Your Blog’s Voice
So you know you need to blog, and you’re convinced you ought to write about something you’re passionate about and that speaks to your customers. How can you create something that people will want to come and read every day?
1. Be authentic
The thing that kills most blogs, in my view, is when you can tell that the writer is just going through the motions. You need to find a “voice” that is authentically yours. People will get used to your style and your style will become your signature.
2. Be transparent
The “old school” way of getting media attention was to submit press releases. These were artificially crafted documents that were filled with glowing reviews of your company. In short, they felt fake. The best way to establish your voice is to be transparent.
Be willing to talk like a human being. Be willing to show feelings and a point of view. Let your inner self come out rather than your “inner bullet point.” Don’t use too much lingo. Don’t feel like your prose has to sound like it was crafted by a university professor. Just speak!
3. Get inside your readers’ minds
I give this advice often and in many scenarios, including public speaking. When people speak to many audiences, they sometimes get into a canned routine. They give the same presentation no matter which crowd they’re addressing. The key is that each time you present, you need to think about who is in the audience and what they want to hear. The same is true for blogging.
On my blog, my audience is made of startup entrepreneurs and probably other VCs. When I write I try to be mindful of who these people are, the knowledge I assume they have, and what I believe they want to know.
4. Solicit feedback
I ask people what they want to read about. I regularly ask for feedback on what I’m writing. When people give me good suggestions, I try to cover those topics.
When community members write awesome comments, I’ll sometimes write a post about what they said to highlight them and their contributions. In my opinion, the best way to build an audience over time is to engage with them and to highlight those that really contribute positively to you.
5. Don’t be offensive or take big public risks
I sometimes read blogs that get extreme. I read a blog once that jokingly suggested “offering your angels cocaine if that would get them to invest.” It was intended to be funny. It wasn’t. And comments like this run the risk of offending people. This was a blog about personal finance, and I found the comment totally irresponsible and at odds with the brand image the blogger was trying to project.
I read a blog yesterday where the author was trying to make fun of a negative comment he got on his product. The blogger highlighted him and called him “retarded,” which I, and I’m sure many others, find offensive. There’s no upside to this type of comment, but there’s a big downside. My esteem for him went down.
Further, unless your company revolves around taking stands on controversial issues, it’s best to leave your political commentary at home. Statements like these stand to upset or anger half of your potential customers no matter what side you take.
6. Have fun
This may be obvious, but if writing a blog becomes a chore for you it will show. Try to make your writing fun and it will be easier to stick to. It will also reflect in your voice.
Happy blogging!
More blogging resources from Mashable:
- 14 Fantastic Free WordPress Themes
– HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog
– How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media
– Why Brands are Becoming Media
– 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence
– How Social Media Helps One Small Business Connect with Fans
Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, johnnyscriv
[Image Credit: Kristina B]
Remember when journalists were merely overworked and underpaid? In today’s hypercompetitive market, it’s not enough to be a tenacious reporter or an elegant writer; you also need to be a tech-savvy coder, a capable videographer, a constant conversation-engager, a shameless self-promoter, and, in general, a worthy bottom-line-improver. Call it the soft bigotry of high expectations: Journalists who hope to keep giving voice/shining lights/etc. must also become adept at designing web sites, producing podcasts, tweeting, Tumbling, and, just to be safe, mixing a mean martini.
A site launching later this month claims to offer some recourse in the case of the ever-expanding skill set. Its name was originally shrouded in secrecy, as suggested by its working title: Secret Journalism Startup. But the enigma now unveiled as NewsLabs is seeking journalist partners for what it calls “a service to publish your work to the world, which lets you focus on the content.”
We handle everything else: making money, getting readers, online marketing, etc. Whether you are freelancing, laid off, or still successfully employed, now is the time to move online, and we can make it as painless and profitable as it can be.
In other words: a partnership, NewsLabs promises, will allow journalists to focus on doing journalism — rather than spending their time engaged in the Everything Else that being a journalist requires these days. That subsidiary work being “the sort of thing that journalists (a) aren’t capable of doing except for a vast effort on their part, and (b) don’t want to be doing,” NewsLabs‘ Paul Biggar told me. He and fellow programmer Nathan Chong are behind the startup, which is funded by Y Combinator, Paul Graham’s noted startup incubator which has recently been interested in journalism projects.
The idea is to replicate the infrastructural benefits of the newsroom — the resources shared among journalists, the content dissemination architecture, etc. — for journalists who, whether by choice or by something else, work independently of a newsroom. Journalists who sign on to work with NewsLabs (the site is aiming to cull ten or so to start with, and then to expand from there) will post their content to the site—”we want to be a centralized space for publishing,” Biggar notes — and NewsLabs, in return for that content, will provide the subsidiary support that will help them to keep producing it. Based on NewsLabs’ ad, that support includes:
Revenue generation: we only make money if you do; you get 80% of revenue from your content (not profit, revenue); ad sales; selling your story to publications; affiliate links; sponsorship.
Bring traffic to your stories: We submit your content to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, etc, appropriate tailored for each community; We automatically recommend stories to readers based on what they read, who they are, and what they’re interested in.
Community management: The new news model is about community interaction. We make this as cheap and simple as possible: Facebook Connect so people comment with their real identities; Automatic moderation and spam control; We organize your interaction with social media outside the site.
Lead generation: get tips from your readers; automatically get sources for your stories; find out what stories people want to hear about, before they know themselves!
Collaborate with other journalists
Analysis: We tell you: how much of the story readers read (when they get bored); what headlines are most effective; where does your traffic come from; what topics people want to hear about.
The unbundled news product is one thing; what NewsLabs is proposing is, essentially, unbundling the journalistic process. Revenues will come mostly from ads, Biggar says. “We take a cut out of the money that we earn for them,” meaning in the end that the journalists “get 80 cents out of every dollar that is earned by their content.” (The ad specifies a $30,000-$70,000 “salary” for participating journalists, but notes: “We help journalists make money online, and earn a small portion of the proceeds. So while this isn’t a paid position, we only earn money if you do. (So the 30K-70K is an estimate, not a concrete figure).”) “It’s difficult to know for certain,” Biggar acknowledges, “what our major revenue is going to be in the long term.” Much of NewsLabs’ success — or lack of it — will depend on the individual journalists who sign on to the service, and to the quality and popularity of the journalism they produce.
NewsLabs isn’t entering a completely open space. There are any number of tools and platforms available for journalists seeking back-end support, from ad networks to publishing tools. And NewsLabs’ idea doesn’t seem too far away from True/Slant’s, since both aim to make money helping journalists “build their brand online.” Biggar told me NewsLabs imagines itself as more of a brand-builder than a brand-facilitator — more of a comprehensive support structure than a simple platform. “It’s almost a distinction in wording,” Biggar says. “There aren’t contributors to our site. We are providing a service to journalists. It’s a difference of perspective.”
You can see a lot of NewsLabs’ plans in this discussion thread on Hacker News (part of Y Combinator), where Biggar (posting as “stealthyc2010″) answers questions about the startup’s plans, including:
We have many people interested. I haven’t triaged them all, but there are high quality people in there. We don’t need people to jump — there were 8000 journalists laidoff last year, and there are many many freelancers out there. The people interested are mixes of both, and some full timers who want to make money on the side, and are looking to jump online in the future.
The main distinction, Biggar notes, is the fact that NewsLabs will focus on collaboration among journalists, rather than competition. Tools are being built toward that end, he says, but he declines to specify what they’ll ultimately look like. (Biggar and Chong both have substantial comp-sci chops.) But they’ll ultimately rely, he says, on leveraging the network effect by way of empowering the individual members of the network. “The large media conglomerates are going to die whether they like it or not,” Biggar says. And “it seems obvious to us that the content providers — that is, the journalists themselves — are the ones who should be benefiting” from the content they produce.
“We’re really aiming for journalists to make a living out of this,” Biggar says. And “we want this to be the model for how news is generated.”
existing franchises for sale , franchises for sale
Infinity Ward bosses suing Activision <b>News</b> | Eurogamer
Read our Infinity Ward bosses suing Activision <b>News</b> for.
Steve Proffitt: New World <b>News</b> Tonight
An exclusive sneak peak at what ABC's World <b>News</b> Tonight will look like after the <b>News</b> Division completes its transition to a leaner and meaner "digital journalist-based" operation.
Small Business <b>News</b> for March 3, 2010 | Small Business Trends
Learn more about what's important to your small business today. Here is our latest roundup of the <b>news</b> articles and blogs we're reading and what's important,
The bad news is that most reform comes when the existing system collpases rather than when it becomes clear that the math predicts insolvency. The good news is that reforms can work well. They change the game more quickly than expected because a savings base is formed and a huge part of the population are active capitalists. Chile is center-left politically but pretty conservative with economic policy because everyone loses when politicians start attacking private sector players or draining resources.
The actuarial reality is not liberal or conservative. The whole basis for our particular system hinged on ever expanding demographic growth in the working age category (from births, from adding work force participants and/or by moving up the retirement age.) What saved SS in the 1980's wasn't tweaking some payments or adding to retirement age, it was massive inflow of women into the workforce. Massive inflows of immigrants in the 1990's have helped FICA. There are non FICA costs to school districts, healthcare, law enforcement, etc. but FICA has benefited.
Increasing the defined benefit has been magic wand stuff – you assume that wealth will grow and productivity will increase. Social Security has played the magic game a bit through COLA and turning a blind eye to rampant fraud allowing ineligible recipients and criminals to tap payments. State and local governments have completely abdicated fiduciary responsibility and made defined benefit promises that are untethered to the tax base or common sense.It's heads I win, tail you lose for public sector employees. Stock market falls, tough luck, raise taxes and give my dough. In the private sector, companies go bankrupt and defined benefits end.
Part of the Chile story involved allowing people to choose to opt in or opt out of a private system if you were above a certain age. I think it was around 50. If you opted in, you kept the promised payments and the payments had to budgeted into the government budget. If you opted out, you received a credit based on past contributions but went to defined contribution and private accounts. Many more people opted in than pure actuarial analysis would have predicted largely because people don't trust politicians and want their own accounts.People decide if they want to retire early or work more, they can be frugal and pass savings on to their estate.
There is a safety net payment for the destitute but that is welfare not "retirement" and must be funded in each budget. You have to deal with larger reported deficits when making the move to allowing people to have their own accounts and the government is no longer robbing the funds to pay current bills. It is not as bad as it sounds and the system starts with indiviudal accounts having to allocate a percentage of investment to government bonds – something that is prudent anyway in a diversified portfolio.
Over time, most restrictions on where the investments go have been lifted and riskier investments allowed.People have separate broker accounts and could always allocate other savings to whatever level of risk they wanted.
It is not perfect but it is better than what we have and young and old pull together.
Perhaps the most standout feature of this revamp is the improved categorization that takes a ton of work off the plate of the user. The guys at Quicken have developed a learning algorithm for Quicken Online that allows users to self-tag, with the Quicken Online software remembering those tags and then applying them to other people's data. The more people who use it, the smarter the tagging gets. In my tests, the automatic categorizing/tagging works exceedingly well. Though Quicken Essentials takes a lot of cues from Mint.com, it's method of categorization is different (and superior). Mint obtains its categorization by performing a relatively simple Yellow Pages look-up. Later in the year Intuit will be combining the two approaches and hopes to achieve 95% categorization accuracy (Intuit bought Mint in 2009).
Out of the box, Quicken Essentials supports 12,000 US and Canadian banks. That will grow to 16,000 banks in the next 2-3 months. That's full coverage of every credit union and bank in the US. Transferring and converting your data from Quicken for Windows to Quicken Essentials worked pretty well in my tests. I just saved a copy of my Quicken for Windows file, moved it to my Mac, and double-clicked on it. All my data was easily imported without any errors. Keep in mind that I was only working with two years of Quicken data though. Quicken Essentials allows for conversion from previous Mac programs, Quicken for Windows 2007+, and the now defunct Microsoft Money.
If you're like me and just want a simple program to view all your financial accounts, see where your money is going, and keep track of balances and upcoming bills, I highly recommend Quicken Essentials. If, however, you're a Quicken power user who needs investing and planning tools, investment buy and sell tracking, TurboTax integration, or in-app bill pay, then QEM is not for you. Think of this edition of Quicken Essentials as iPhoto for your finances. It presents a snapshot of your finances and transactions in a simple to use interface. If you need more than that, it's best to look at iBank or Quicken Premier for Windows running under VMWare Fusion or Parallels.
Quicken Essentials for the Mac goes on sale today for $69 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6, an Intel-based Mac, and 1GB of hard disk space.
Index Funds, Dowdy to Some, Get a Notable Endorsement [NY Times] “The wealthiest would have fine returns without the volatility and high fees if they simply used indexes to diversify their money across asset classes.”
It's property tax assessment time. Here's what homeowners need to know. [The Washington Post] “Even if a homeowner's property tax assessment declines, the tax bill may not.”
Questions to Ask Before Buying Disability Insurance [Bucks Blog] “Starting the list with a few dozen questions [you should answer before buying disability insurance."
What's the best use of the energy tax credit? [Smart Spending] “For most homeowners, insulation gives you the best bang for your buck, but you might want to start with an energy audit.”
Which Tax Form to Use “Use the simplest form to meet your needs and avoid errors.”
— FREE MONEY FINANCE
Even though Twitter is still a relatively new service it has quickly become a go-to source for getting advice on anything from your next electronics purchase to how to get out of debt. The ability to connect with thousands of experts and enthusiasts on a topic makes it an appealing medium for learning more about personal finance Thanks to Mint's Money Tweets and WalletPop's Twitter lists, it's even easier to find quality personal finance tweets.
First off Mint.com, a personal finance tool, has a tool called Money Tweets which displays tweets from experts on money topics including investing, saving, budgeting, loans and retirement. It also features a Mint Question of the Day that solicits the advice of every Twitter user, bringing responses from people with a broad range of life experiences.
In addition to the advice from Mint, WalletPop has searched through millions of tweets to find some of the best personal finance experts on Twitter and added them to the WalletPop Personal Finance Bloggers list. You can follow this list on Twitter and see the action below.
This diverse group contains everyone from personal finance rockstars like @Ramit, @ManVsDebt and @JDroth to debt expert @GetOutofDebtGuy and real-world personal finance bloggers like @BudgetsAreSexy, @MattJabs and @NoDebtPlan.
You can also follow WalletPop and all of the WalletPop writers on Twitter by subscribing to the WalletPoppers list on Twitter.
The soundtrack to Iron Man 2 at least seems novel. According to a new press release, it’s going to feature an awful lot of AC/DC and, presumably, not much else. Pre-orders are open today for the album AC/DC:Iron Man 2, set to shelf on April 19th, 9 days before the movie hits. Below the break you can read the whole press release and full track listing and watch the video for Shoot to Thrill, complete with clips both new and old from Iron Man 2.
A lot of the footage is from the Stark Expo scenes and therefore focuses on dancing girls in skimpy outfits modeled on details of the Iron Man suit. Between those clips and the shots already seen in the trailer, this is hardly dripping with fresh images. But, heck… don’t listen to me being a downer. That’s just my hunger for more talking.
Through a unique collaboration between Marvel Studios and Columbia Records, AC/DC’s music will be featured in Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster film. In addition, Columbia Records will release the album AC/DC: Iron Man 2 on Monday, April 19, 2010. AC/DC: Iron Man 2, features 15 classic AC/DC songs selected from ten of the band’s studio albums, ranging from 1976 to 2008. The complete track listing can be found below.
Pre-orders begin today, January 26th at Walmart.com for the AC/DC: Iron Man 2 CD and at Amazon.com for a deluxe version of AC/DC: Iron Man 2 – CD+DVD and two LP vinyl packages. The film opens internationally beginning on April 28, 2010. In the U.S., the film will be distributed by Paramount Pictures and is scheduled for release on May 7, 2010.
The debut video from AC/DC: Iron Man 2 is the AC/DC’s classic album cut “Shoot To Thrill,” which was filmed live last month in Buenos Aires during the band’s highly acclaimed Black Ice World Tour, the second highest grossing world tour of 2009 according to concert industry trade publication Pollstar. The video also incorporates exclusive footage from Iron Man 2 and debuts today worldwide. Check ACDC.com and Marvel.com for more information. “Shoot To Thrill” was originally recorded for the band’s 50-million selling album Back In Black, one of the best selling albums of all time.
- Taylor Lautner Skips Out on Max Steel in Favor of Stretch Armstrong; Rob Letterman May Direct Stretch
- More Crazy Rumors: Jonah Nolan to Direct Superman?
- The Tobolowsky Files Ep. 18 – Without a Handle
- Casting Notes: Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood Work with Todd Haynes; Jamie Foxx and Ashton Kutcher are Buddies; Hugh Laurie Romances Leighton Meester
- Cool Stuff: Jim Horwat’s Comic Illustration of Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything
- Danny Boyle Will Use Two Cinematographers for 127 Hours
- The /Filmcast: After Dark – Ep. 88 – Making the Crazies and Deconstructing The Hurt Locker (GUEST: Breck Eisner, Director of The Crazies)
- Teaser Trailer: Five Short Films From RSA’s Carl Erik Rinsch, Jake Scott, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, and Hi-Sim
- VOTD: Meet the Musicians Behind Sherlock Holmes
- Geek Deal: Rocky: The Undisputed Blu-ray Collection for Only $38
Jose Vidro must feel like one of the characters from “The Shawshank Redemption”, finally getting out of the prison known as the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals long after everybody else of note left. Jose Vidro was once regarded as one of baseball's finest middle infielders, but knee and ankle problems now have limited his range. Jose Vidro is headed west, northwest to be exact, having been traded to the Seattle Mariners, the last of the promising young Expos that finally has been paroled from his fate playing for one of the sport's worst franchises. In the case of Jose Vidro, it remains to be seen if his stay in the moribund Expo organization has taken too great a toll on his once wonderful baseball skills.
Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1974, Jose Vidro made his major league debut with the Expos in 1997. Playing in the dismal Olympic Stadium up in Montreal, Vidro struggled his first two years as a part-time player, hitting just .249 as a rookie and .220 as a second year pro. Vidro shuffled back and forth between second and third base, and it was not until his breakout season of 1999 that he firmly established himself at second and at the plate. Vidro batted .304 that year with 12 homers and 59 runs batted in. Vidro was one of several promising youngsters on the Expos, along with Vladimir Guerrero, Michael Barrett, Orlando Cabrera, Rondell White, Javier Vasquez, Carl Pavano, and Uggie Urbina.
Vidro had his career year in 2000, hitting .330 with 97 runs batted in. Playing before sparse crowds in Montreal, Vidro made the first of three All-Star appearances. The Expos attendance woes began to cause the team to cut corners, and by the end of the 2003 season, Guerrero has been allowed to bolt for greener pastures in Southern California, taking with him any chance the franchise had of contending for the next few years. Vidro had batted better than .300 for five seasons in a row from 1999-2003, making the All-Star team again in 2002 and 2003. But gradually everyone that had been playing around him began to leave. If Guerrero was Tim Robbins, getting out while he still had some good years left, then Vidro was Morgan Freeman, finally getting his parole when Washington dealt him to Seattle for outfielder Chris Snelling and hurler Emiliano Fruto.
The past couple of seasons have seen Vidro's numbers dip as he hit .275 in 2005 and .289 last year. He underwent knee surgery at the end of the 2004 season and played only 87 contests in 2005 and then had problems with the knee and hamstring this past year. The resulting lack of range forced Nationals' skipper Frank Robinson to move Vidro to first base, and he saw the writing on the wall. After discussing the potential move to Seattle with his family, who still live in Puerto Rico, Vidro decided to accept the deal, one that he had the power to nix through his no-trade clause.
In Seattle, Vidro is expected to become a designated hitter and back up the infield positions. Jose Guillen, who was with Vidro the past couple of seasons in the nation's capitol, has also moved on to the Mariners, and his presence there helped Vidro make up his mind. Over his ten Major League Baseball seasons, Jose Vidro is a career .301 hitter in over 4,200 at-bats, with 115 home runs and 550 runs batted in. During his best years, Jose hit doubles in droves, with a high of 51 two-baggers in 2000. In the field, mainly as a second baseman, Vidro has a .984 fielding percentage, with above average fielding skills. However, his lack of mobility cut down on his range, and the American League, with its designated hitter rule, may be just the place for Jose Vidro to spend his remaining days in the sport. Seattle has been active this off-season, acquiring some starting pitching in Horatio Ramirez from the Braves and Miguel Batista from the Diamondbacks, Guillen and his power bat from Washington, and now Vidro. Oakland has incurred some losses, as Frank Thomas is gone to Toronto and Barry Zito is poised to leave town as a free-agent. The Angels are trying to regroup after a down year in 2006 and the Rangers never have any pitching, no matter what deals they pull off, so Seattle and Jose Vidro may actually contend in 2007. Nobody deserves to play for a viable contender more than Vidro, who never caused even a peep of controversy in his ten years in “prison”. If only his career can have as happy an ending as the film.
The soundtrack to Iron Man 2 at least seems novel. According to a new press release, it’s going to feature an awful lot of AC/DC and, presumably, not much else. Pre-orders are open today for the album AC/DC:Iron Man 2, set to shelf on April 19th, 9 days before the movie hits. Below the break you can read the whole press release and full track listing and watch the video for Shoot to Thrill, complete with clips both new and old from Iron Man 2.
A lot of the footage is from the Stark Expo scenes and therefore focuses on dancing girls in skimpy outfits modeled on details of the Iron Man suit. Between those clips and the shots already seen in the trailer, this is hardly dripping with fresh images. But, heck… don’t listen to me being a downer. That’s just my hunger for more talking.
Through a unique collaboration between Marvel Studios and Columbia Records, AC/DC’s music will be featured in Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster film. In addition, Columbia Records will release the album AC/DC: Iron Man 2 on Monday, April 19, 2010. AC/DC: Iron Man 2, features 15 classic AC/DC songs selected from ten of the band’s studio albums, ranging from 1976 to 2008. The complete track listing can be found below.
Pre-orders begin today, January 26th at Walmart.com for the AC/DC: Iron Man 2 CD and at Amazon.com for a deluxe version of AC/DC: Iron Man 2 – CD+DVD and two LP vinyl packages. The film opens internationally beginning on April 28, 2010. In the U.S., the film will be distributed by Paramount Pictures and is scheduled for release on May 7, 2010.
The debut video from AC/DC: Iron Man 2 is the AC/DC’s classic album cut “Shoot To Thrill,” which was filmed live last month in Buenos Aires during the band’s highly acclaimed Black Ice World Tour, the second highest grossing world tour of 2009 according to concert industry trade publication Pollstar. The video also incorporates exclusive footage from Iron Man 2 and debuts today worldwide. Check ACDC.com and Marvel.com for more information. “Shoot To Thrill” was originally recorded for the band’s 50-million selling album Back In Black, one of the best selling albums of all time.
- Taylor Lautner Skips Out on Max Steel in Favor of Stretch Armstrong; Rob Letterman May Direct Stretch
- More Crazy Rumors: Jonah Nolan to Direct Superman?
- The Tobolowsky Files Ep. 18 – Without a Handle
- Casting Notes: Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood Work with Todd Haynes; Jamie Foxx and Ashton Kutcher are Buddies; Hugh Laurie Romances Leighton Meester
- Cool Stuff: Jim Horwat’s Comic Illustration of Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything
- Danny Boyle Will Use Two Cinematographers for 127 Hours
- The /Filmcast: After Dark – Ep. 88 – Making the Crazies and Deconstructing The Hurt Locker (GUEST: Breck Eisner, Director of The Crazies)
- Teaser Trailer: Five Short Films From RSA’s Carl Erik Rinsch, Jake Scott, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, and Hi-Sim
- VOTD: Meet the Musicians Behind Sherlock Holmes
- Geek Deal: Rocky: The Undisputed Blu-ray Collection for Only $38
bill bartmann on making mortgage audit established franchises for sale, existing franchises for sale, low cost franchises sale franchises for sale buy mutual funds
I wasn't the only one to doubt the New Orleans Saints, but I was definitely one of the loudest.
If you read anything by me in the last month, you probably hated me if you were a Saints fan. Green Bay Packers fans can attest to that, as well (except they actually did lose).
I called the Saints defense dirty (even though I still think it kind of was).
The logic was there. Peyton Manning and his MVP season was there.
Dwight Freeney was even there.
But really, looking back, there was nothing that was going to stop this. This tidal wave of “Who Dat!?” fans, Archie Manning's soul torn between his son and his beloved franchise.
This was pure majestic bliss, and all for a city, a state, a franchise, that needed it more than anyone else in the world.
The New Orleans Saints and the entire state of Louisiana are partying like it's Mardi Gras. As they should be.
For all the doubters and haters (myself included) that Tracy Porter 74-yard pick-six was a slap in the face. A final “Who Dat ?” that left a bitter taste in your mouth.
And for all the fans and supporters that believed all along, it was nothing short of righteous. This was revenge and glorification on a football field.
This was Drew Brees playing his best, backed by a defense that wouldn't let Peyton Manning own them.
Seriously, 17 points? A pick-six to turn the tables? A goal-line stand when the game was almost certainly over?
Yeah, that's not too shabby.
Darren Sharper, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and the rest of the lot. You've earned my respect.
I will never be a member of the “Who Dat” nation, but as a sports fan and as an unbiased writer (contrary to popular belief), I am mystified. More, blown away.
This is NFL beauty and glory at it's finest, and when you look over the entire body of work, the 13 wins to start (and the three straight losses to end) the regular season, this was just too good of an ending.
Once the Saints were 5-0, everyone was jumping on their bandwagon. Once they were 13-0, irate fans of opposing teams started screaming “fraud” and “set-up”, claiming the Saints were given countless opportunities by refs to go 16-0 (see: Washington Redskins game).
But, really, that's just a load of crap.
Short of a still controversial NFC Championship overtime period, there's no doubt in this writer's mind that these Saints did this all on their own.
Drew Brees finally got the MVP award he deserved, despite arguably getting the snub for the regular season award.
Jeremy Shockey has been vindicated. Reggie Bush did his part, and for all intents and purposed, really can no longer be labeled a bust.
The Saints devoured the Arizona Cardinals, won a fist-fight with the Minnesota Vikings, and completely owned the Indianapolis Colts in the second half of the biggest stage in sports.
Tracy Porter was Larry Brown in two straight playoff games. Two straight big playoff games.
The Saints fought adversity once again, as they and their state have grown accustomed to, and stormed back in the second half, truly living up to the old adage, “No guts, no glory”.
A gaudy 31-7 run (25-7 in the second half) to end the game was all anyone really had to know, in order to prove that this was a well-deserved win.
It wasn't easy. It took all 19 games. But finally, the Saints have our respect.
And the best part was, they didn't even earn it. They grouped together, just when everyone was betting against them, and they took it.
And for that, I say to the New Orleans Saints: Congratulations.
May the wounds dealt by Hurricane Katrina begin to fully heal. Let it be known that Drew Brees is among the greats.
Archie Manning, console your son while hiding your grin. It has finally happened and it was glorious.
For more NFL news and feature articles, go here .
A logical fallacy that a lot of sports fans make is that sports is finite. Sports in general are similar to life. But in a much more contained sense and obviously there are many differences.
I'm not really big into writing existentialist ideas regarding sports especially when I am not even sure what I am saying is correct, but it just seemed like a good time to write this.
People assume that because things happened a certain way before that they will happen again. But it's hardly the case. Events in sports are shaped by a series of opportunities, and there are times when those opportunities are seized, and many other times when they are not.
In the case of the Sacramento Kings in the early 2000's, they were many opportunities seized. And with most opportunities, there is almost always a sort of risk.
The Kings traded the cornerstone of their franchise, Mitch Richmond, for a troubled player in Chris Webber that many assumed had never met his potential and was an underachiever. Webber nearly retired after he had been traded to Sacramento. But he didn't.
Sacramento signed a rundown old post player in Vlade Divac who many thought his best years were well behind him. Vlade was a two-time All-Star with the Kings, and revitalized his career.
Doug Christie was thought to be the odd-man-out in Toronto and was dealt for Corliss Williamson as a way to appease the disgruntled Christie. He was a fan favorite and the perfect backcourt companion to Mike Bibby.
Bibby was also a question mark, as the Kings traded their loved but plagued playmaker Jason Williams for him. J-Will was one of the catalysts who breathed life into a team thought to be perennial losers just before the turn of the decade.
Geoff Petrie signed relatively unknown players in Scot Pollard, Bobby Jackson, and Maurice Evans. And drafted an unknown player in Hidayet Turkoglu. Petrie also acquired players that many thought were fading into obscurity like Jon Barry, Jim Jackson, and Damon Jones.
The point of all of this is through a series of well timed and executed acquisitions the Kings built a contender that even at its prime could not top the juggernaut know as the Lakers.
The Kings had one true opportunity to prove how good they really were. But they failed. They could not get over the hump. It was an opportunity lost.
An opportunity that perhaps the Sacramento will never have again.
What opportunity the Kings do have is a chance to build a good team around one of the best young players in the league in Tyreke Evans. Along with some other solid role players in Omri Casspi, Beno Udrih, and Jon Brockman.
There are some big question marks as well like Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes, Donte Greene, and Kevin Martin. We all know about how good Martin is and what he is capable of but the question remains as to if he really fits with this team and where it's going.
Hawes and Thompson are just struggling to find some consistency of any kind and Greene is an intriguing case. He has all the intangibles to be a really great player, its just a matter of how or if he can pull them all together.
To make a very long educated guess short, the Kings have some nice pieces to build around, it's just a matter of what opportunities are created and if they are able to seize them. There is nothing certain about the Kings future. And it doesn't help that they are located in one of the least desirable cities in the league.
There is always the chance that things will fall into place like they did in the past decade. But it is not something to dwell on or even consider realistically happening. The only thing we as fans can do is wait and hope. Whatever happens will happen.
Deciding to buy and run a franchise is a life changing decision, and is ideally not a decision to be taken lightly. When finding and choosing a franchise that's right for you it is essential to consider a number of things, including costs, rights, reputation, fees, marketing materials, target markets, the marketplace and overheads to name but a few.
When choosing and selecting a franchise opportunity it is necessary to weigh up both the pros and the cons, for example a pizza shop/takeaway franchise may initially have higher overheads and running costs than say a cleaning franchise. Would initial costs put you off a franchise? And if for example a franchise costs more than you thought and takes longer to start earning you an income would it still be a viable option for you? All sorts of things need to be considered when finding a franchise that's right for you. I would suggest creating a list of what you require and are looking for.
For example draft up what type of things you are interested in and ideally passionate about, as it is not really worth starting a pet grooming business if you are not really interested in pet grooming, also write down and work out just how much cash you have to get the business up and running – how much do you need initially and over say the next 12 months to run the business and possibly live off?
There are literally hundreds and thousands of franchise opportunities out there, but of course all of these are not right for you, so its best to conduct some market research of your own. For example what types of businesses are successful and what are not in and around your area/target marketplace. Narrowing down your choices, and making decisions early as to what type of franchise you want to do will help you find the franchise opportunity that's right for you.
Browsing the internet, visiting franchise exhibitions and events and talking to other franchise owners, as well as family and friends before you take the plunge will help you establish what you want out of a franchise, where your strengths and weaknesses lie – which will lead you into finding the right opportunity.
Most importantly take your time, don't rush and don't be pressured into doing something you are not wholeheartedly ready for, or interested in. Remember to do your sums and calculations, as with any business figures can soon get out of hand if you let them, so stay in control.
I wasn't the only one to doubt the New Orleans Saints, but I was definitely one of the loudest.
If you read anything by me in the last month, you probably hated me if you were a Saints fan. Green Bay Packers fans can attest to that, as well (except they actually did lose).
I called the Saints defense dirty (even though I still think it kind of was).
The logic was there. Peyton Manning and his MVP season was there.
Dwight Freeney was even there.
But really, looking back, there was nothing that was going to stop this. This tidal wave of “Who Dat!?” fans, Archie Manning's soul torn between his son and his beloved franchise.
This was pure majestic bliss, and all for a city, a state, a franchise, that needed it more than anyone else in the world.
The New Orleans Saints and the entire state of Louisiana are partying like it's Mardi Gras. As they should be.
For all the doubters and haters (myself included) that Tracy Porter 74-yard pick-six was a slap in the face. A final “Who Dat ?” that left a bitter taste in your mouth.
And for all the fans and supporters that believed all along, it was nothing short of righteous. This was revenge and glorification on a football field.
This was Drew Brees playing his best, backed by a defense that wouldn't let Peyton Manning own them.
Seriously, 17 points? A pick-six to turn the tables? A goal-line stand when the game was almost certainly over?
Yeah, that's not too shabby.
Darren Sharper, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and the rest of the lot. You've earned my respect.
I will never be a member of the “Who Dat” nation, but as a sports fan and as an unbiased writer (contrary to popular belief), I am mystified. More, blown away.
This is NFL beauty and glory at it's finest, and when you look over the entire body of work, the 13 wins to start (and the three straight losses to end) the regular season, this was just too good of an ending.
Once the Saints were 5-0, everyone was jumping on their bandwagon. Once they were 13-0, irate fans of opposing teams started screaming “fraud” and “set-up”, claiming the Saints were given countless opportunities by refs to go 16-0 (see: Washington Redskins game).
But, really, that's just a load of crap.
Short of a still controversial NFC Championship overtime period, there's no doubt in this writer's mind that these Saints did this all on their own.
Drew Brees finally got the MVP award he deserved, despite arguably getting the snub for the regular season award.
Jeremy Shockey has been vindicated. Reggie Bush did his part, and for all intents and purposed, really can no longer be labeled a bust.
The Saints devoured the Arizona Cardinals, won a fist-fight with the Minnesota Vikings, and completely owned the Indianapolis Colts in the second half of the biggest stage in sports.
Tracy Porter was Larry Brown in two straight playoff games. Two straight big playoff games.
The Saints fought adversity once again, as they and their state have grown accustomed to, and stormed back in the second half, truly living up to the old adage, “No guts, no glory”.
A gaudy 31-7 run (25-7 in the second half) to end the game was all anyone really had to know, in order to prove that this was a well-deserved win.
It wasn't easy. It took all 19 games. But finally, the Saints have our respect.
And the best part was, they didn't even earn it. They grouped together, just when everyone was betting against them, and they took it.
And for that, I say to the New Orleans Saints: Congratulations.
May the wounds dealt by Hurricane Katrina begin to fully heal. Let it be known that Drew Brees is among the greats.
Archie Manning, console your son while hiding your grin. It has finally happened and it was glorious.
For more NFL news and feature articles, go here .
A logical fallacy that a lot of sports fans make is that sports is finite. Sports in general are similar to life. But in a much more contained sense and obviously there are many differences.
I'm not really big into writing existentialist ideas regarding sports especially when I am not even sure what I am saying is correct, but it just seemed like a good time to write this.
People assume that because things happened a certain way before that they will happen again. But it's hardly the case. Events in sports are shaped by a series of opportunities, and there are times when those opportunities are seized, and many other times when they are not.
In the case of the Sacramento Kings in the early 2000's, they were many opportunities seized. And with most opportunities, there is almost always a sort of risk.
The Kings traded the cornerstone of their franchise, Mitch Richmond, for a troubled player in Chris Webber that many assumed had never met his potential and was an underachiever. Webber nearly retired after he had been traded to Sacramento. But he didn't.
Sacramento signed a rundown old post player in Vlade Divac who many thought his best years were well behind him. Vlade was a two-time All-Star with the Kings, and revitalized his career.
Doug Christie was thought to be the odd-man-out in Toronto and was dealt for Corliss Williamson as a way to appease the disgruntled Christie. He was a fan favorite and the perfect backcourt companion to Mike Bibby.
Bibby was also a question mark, as the Kings traded their loved but plagued playmaker Jason Williams for him. J-Will was one of the catalysts who breathed life into a team thought to be perennial losers just before the turn of the decade.
Geoff Petrie signed relatively unknown players in Scot Pollard, Bobby Jackson, and Maurice Evans. And drafted an unknown player in Hidayet Turkoglu. Petrie also acquired players that many thought were fading into obscurity like Jon Barry, Jim Jackson, and Damon Jones.
The point of all of this is through a series of well timed and executed acquisitions the Kings built a contender that even at its prime could not top the juggernaut know as the Lakers.
The Kings had one true opportunity to prove how good they really were. But they failed. They could not get over the hump. It was an opportunity lost.
An opportunity that perhaps the Sacramento will never have again.
What opportunity the Kings do have is a chance to build a good team around one of the best young players in the league in Tyreke Evans. Along with some other solid role players in Omri Casspi, Beno Udrih, and Jon Brockman.
There are some big question marks as well like Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes, Donte Greene, and Kevin Martin. We all know about how good Martin is and what he is capable of but the question remains as to if he really fits with this team and where it's going.
Hawes and Thompson are just struggling to find some consistency of any kind and Greene is an intriguing case. He has all the intangibles to be a really great player, its just a matter of how or if he can pull them all together.
To make a very long educated guess short, the Kings have some nice pieces to build around, it's just a matter of what opportunities are created and if they are able to seize them. There is nothing certain about the Kings future. And it doesn't help that they are located in one of the least desirable cities in the league.
There is always the chance that things will fall into place like they did in the past decade. But it is not something to dwell on or even consider realistically happening. The only thing we as fans can do is wait and hope. Whatever happens will happen.
bill bartmann on making forensic mortgage audit established franchises for sale, existing franchises for sale, low cost franchises sale franchises for sale
Mobile location-based social network and gaming service Foursquare has been generated a bit of buzz lately, especially amongst the early adopter crowd. In just under a year, it has amassed a user base of 300,000, and with deals like the one it recently signed with television network Bravo, some believe Foursquare may be ready to hit the mainstream.
That's good news for the company and its investors, but as Foursquare starts exploring the commercial opportunities that come with popularity, it may find that maintaining the 'cool' factor and maximizing commercial opportunities at the same time is a difficult thing to do.
As AdAge details, various businesses are starting to experiment with Foursquare. The appeal is obvious: Foursquare knows where you are. That means that Foursquare offers a lot of potential to businesses with physical locations. One such business is frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite. It's using Foursquare to deliver promotions to Foursquare users who check in to a location near one of the chain's 50 stores. And it's also testing out a loyalty program that rewards users for checking in and making purchases.
According to Tasti D-Lite, “preliminary data is showing that this is driving foot traffic in stores“. That's good news for Tasti D-Lite, and for Foursquare. But before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Foursquare may be on the verge of cracking the location-based mobile advertising nut, it may not be quite so easy.
On Sunday, TechCrunch's MG Siegler discussed how Foursquare's 'Douchebag' badge was creating controversy amongst some users. The complaint: it's offensive. The badge is awarded (if that's the right word) to users who check in to locations that other users have tagged. These tend to be 'trendy' locations, such as Barney's.
Putting aside the political correctness of a 'Douchebag' badge, it's obvious that this badge creates a potential conflict between the interests of the businesses Foursquare needs to court and the interests of its users. As one commenter, Jim Kerr, put it:
They are an innately local business, which will live and breathe with the success of dealing with local brands and establishments, and yet they…overtly tag local businesses (their lifeblood) with badges like “douchebag.”
Foursquare, which, according to AdAge, is earning little to no revenue from its initial deals with businesses, apparently has no plans to ditch the badge. Dennis Crowley, the company's co-founder, posted a response:
The douchebage badge isn’t going anywhere.
It’s supposed to be a joke, I feel like 97% of users are in on it, and the only way to unlock the badge is to check-into places that *other users have tagged* douchebag. Sure, it’s a little out of control in some places (I unlocked it on the N/R train over the Manhattan bridge!) but that’s part of the fun of it.
While it would be premature to claim that a somewhat offensive badge is going to destroy Foursquare's business potential, there is a question as to whether things like this will fly once Foursquare decides to start asking businesses for money.
When it comes down to writing a check, a business might be inclined to look at the situation and demand some protection in return. A guarantee that users who check in to their locations aren't labelled 'douchebags' would probably be a good start. Will Foursquare give in, potentially diminishing its 'cool' factor with the early adopters propelling its current growth, or will it decide to give potential paying customers a reason to second guess deals? Only time will tell.
Foursquare's dilemma is not unique of course. Many successful consumer internet businesses find that certain elements of their original offerings that contributed to early appeal eventually come to threaten their potential as businesses. Without users, of course, that potential ceases to exist. But users and no revenue isn't exactly viable either. In short, sometimes you can't stay cool and become filthy rich at the same time.
Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr.
Obama’s Financial Hope and Change: Free Money for Wall Street
by
J.C. Arenas
A recent Pew survey revealed the nation’s big banks are drawing the most ire from the American public, and now that the Federal Reserve is poised to hand them another victory, it’s easy to see why Main Street’s anger burns deep.
Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke released a statement to the House Committee on Financial Services which detailed the accommodative policy the Fed implemented as a result of the Great Recession and outlined its exit strategy from that policy.
The objective of the Fed’s intervention was to alleviate the pressure on the balance sheets of the banks, which would provide them with the financial flexibility necessary to begin lending to consumers and businesses once again. To meet such an end, the Fed increased the size of its balance sheet through purchases of securities and real-estate loans from the banks, and decreased the interest-rate for interbank lending to nearly zero percent.
The banks’ first ‘Win’ came as a result of those sales to the Fed which produced billions of dollars in revenue. Afterwards, many of us were wondering why the banks weren’t lending again, despite raking in record profits, but the answer was simple. They quickly realized they had found themselves with a can’t lose proposition, as they could make guaranteed money instead of taking on more risk from lending to consumers and businesses during a period of economic uncertainty.
How could they do that?
They made the federal government their primary customer and charged them a higher interest rate than the artificially low rate the Fed had set as their cost to borrow. Additionally, they parked more than the federally mandated amount of reserve funds at the Fed, and received interest on those excess amounts.
The banks’ second ‘Win’ will come as a result of Bernanke’s proposed exit strategy, which calls for an increase on the interest rate the banks receive on the aforementioned excess reserves.
Why would the Fed want to do that?
Bernanke has to encourage the banks to keep their money parked at the Fed as opposed to filtering it into the economy through lending to prevent an increase to the money supply that would cause inflation.
So what will the banks do?
They’ll keep raking in the cash.
Their primary customer is poised to spend even more money, and they’ll be right there to lend it to them. Per their standard procedure, they’ll charge them a higher interest rate than their cost to borrow, and because of Bernanke’s incentive, they’ll keep even more money in the Fed’s coffers; the profit-making cycle repeats itself.
The government and Federal Reserve have forged a collective effort to stabilize and stimulate the economy, and in the process, they’ve unintentionally rewarded the banks for not engaging in their principal business and now the Fed is forced to financially incentivize them to continue to not lend to prevent another economic catastrophe.
While Main Street continues to be mired in a long losing streak, the banks remain undefeated at the expense of taxpayers; don’t expect those results from the Pew Survey to change anytime soon.
7469487 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jarenas/2010/02/14/obamas-financial-hope-and-change-the-undefeated-banks/Obama%27s+Financial+Hope+and+Change%3A+Free+Money+for+Wall+Street2010-02-14+13%3A59%3A42J.C.+Arenas
online stock trading, robert shumake, robert shumake, loss mitigation training