What is Social Media? A Succinct Definition...

What is social media? It is a mindset of using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc. to interact with other people on the internet.

Social media used to be called Web 2.0. The main difference between social media and old-school web pages, is that social media is interactive - where everyone is a creator and consumer.

A traditional web page is like a newspaper or book, in that it is a one-way conversation. The writer gives information, knowledge, wisdom, or entertainment. The reader receives the content.

With Social Media, everybody is a participant who can read what others say, as well as write. Think of it like a swap meet for ideas. People are trading information and knowledge.

Four New Blogs

I recently started work on four more blogs. I haven't listed them on my profile yet. I'm waiting until they are more established.

They are:

1. Gridiron Madness - where I write about and express my interest in NFL football.

2. Fun, Humor, and Comedy - where I share some of the internet humor and jokes that pass through my inbox.

3. Simplicity in Politics - This is where I express my frustration with the complexity and selfishness of politics and contemplate simple, elegant solutions to make the U.S. strong, safe, sane, and secure.

4. Talking About Real Estate - I discuss real estate investing, home ownership, financing, etc.

Reader Included Stock Trading Riches in Their Amazon List of Recommended Trading Books

A reader on Amazon included my book "Stock Trading Riches" in their list on formula investing books.

They even tested my system:

"When using Puri’s spreadsheet and making one trade on the S&P 500 ETF (Ticker: SPY) on the first trading day of each year from 2001 to 2008, the result is that his system did beat Buy & Hold. The compounded annualized return of buying and holding the SPY index only, was 1.7%, while Puri’s system delivered 2.0%. Better results may be had with individual stocks, other ETFs, or closed-end funds."

I am grateful for the review. Also, I recommend not using a general index fund because it will lack volatility because the fluctuations of the individual components will cancel one another out.

Instead, my system works much better with a portfolio diversified among stocks and/or sector funds. The "Stock Trading Riches" formula would then be applied individually to each stock or fund to generate a better return by taking advantage of each position's volatility.

Interested in Getting Traffic to Your Website?

If you run an internet-based business, you know that one of your biggest needs is traffic to your site. Of course, it can't be just any traffic - you want to attract visitors who are more likely to take action (subscribe, become a loyal reader, make a purchase, etc).

Also, you probably want to avoid paying too much for the traffic because you need to make a profit.

One way you may want to test is to see if you can Get 10,000+ visitors to your site daily with SendMeHits.com's free targeted traffic exchange and banner network.

With SendMeHits.com, you surf and view other sites in their network. For every visit you make, they will send a targeted visitor to your site. In effect, they are pooling similar sites together, and letting them swap visits.

Why The City of Chicago Pension Funds Are In Trouble

Last week, the Chicago Tribune had a two-part investigation into the city of Chicago's pension plans. The article is really disheartening because it shows how we have let incompetent individuals run things.

The whole country has probably heard that the state of Illinois is broke, and has unfunded pension liabilities. But this is about the city of Chicago itself. It has unfunded pension liabilities of either $20 billion or $40 billion (the politicians say $20 billion, but that is assuming an 8% average annual return, while the average return this decade of the pension funds has been around 4%).

The problem is that the politicians did not make required contributions to the pension funds - while also raising the employee's salaries and benefits. The politicians took the short-term, easy way out. They wanted to keep labor happy NOW, and who cares about decades from now, when they might be out of office?

The Tribune article looked at the example of the Chicago Teachers pension plan. Back in 1995, the plan was founded 100%. Then, in 1995, Mayor Daley took over control of the Chicago public school system, and he lobbied Springfield to allow property tax income (that went directly into the pension funds) to go to the school system's general fund.

In 1996, his administration went one better and got the law changed so that they didn't have to make a payment as long as the retirement fund was at least 90% funded. Because of the bull market, they didn't have to pay in for 10 years.

In 2006, they had to pay because the fund was below 90%. They contributed a little, then got the law changed again to let them make reduced payments for the next 3 years. Their excuse? Even though they didn't need to pay into the pension plan for 10 years, and thus got to keep an extra $1.5 billion, the school system spent it and was running a deficit.

Now, the fund is only about 73% funded and, by 2033, they will need to contribute $1 billion a year.

Some of the other pensions are even more seriously underfunded. Municipal workers are at 47%, police at 37%, and the fire fighter's pension is only funded for 30%.

Does this mean that the workers might lose their pension benefits? Maybe - but the Illinois state constitution was amended in 1970 to require that pensions to unionized government workers have to paid. So, slashing benefits may be unconstitutional. So, tax payers may be on the hook.

By the way, I don't think the workers are to blame. The main problem is the financial irresponsibility of elected officials.

Why do we have such incompetence?

I think the problem is that life is really hectic these days - people work long hours, then sit, burned-out, in front of their televisions at night.

Then, when it comes to voting, they either don't, or else just vote for the incumbents.

The Stock Trading Riches Message Board on iHub

I've created a new message board on iHub to discuss and answer questions about my book, the Stock Trading Riches system, trading and investing, stock picking, etc:

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=19287

The board is open for all, and it is free to read and post!

Orson Welles On The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts

Director / producer / actor Orson Welles was a gifted speaker with a genius, dry sense of humor: Here Orson Welles Roasts Dean Martin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKR0i-51S4&feature=related Here, Orson Welles pays tribute to Jimmy Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMKxTS4_FJM&feature=related

DECT Phone Website - Example of a targeted, Focused Niche Website

Here is an example of a tightly targeted and focused niche website. This site sells only one specialized type of product - DECT phones.

By specializing in this one type of phone, they can attract attention as an expert, and they can sell every single model of DECT phone. Thus, they are going deep vs. wide - which is when a store sells a wide variety of merchandise, but lacks more than 1 or 2 models in each area.

Quirky.com: Social Network-Powered Inventions

I read an article in "Parade Magazine" about a social website called Quirky.com that allows people to submit ideas for inventions. If the community likes the idea, the company then screens it for patent infringement, etc. If the idea passes, and they get enough pre-orders, they will manufacture the product, and the inventor gets a royalty.

The company was started by 24 year old Ben Kaufman who, at age 18, developed a company around the Song Sling - an iPod Shuffle case that has retracting headphones.

One day, at MacWorld, we asked people to come with their own invention ideas. A light bulb went off, he sold his company, and he founded Quirky.com. He wants to "reinvent the business of invention".

Tic Tac Toe (So Cool)

YOU GOTTA TRY THIS AT LEAST ONCE!!!!! IT'S GREAT.
Tic Tack Toe