http://www.ajstrades.com Ramblings on Personal Finance, Economics, Markets, Technology etc. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:32:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hypothetical In Person Questionnaire How many of us want to increase traffic to our websites? >> Everyone raises their hand! How many use one of the following: social bookmarking, blogging, search engine optimization, article marketing? >> Again, everyone raises their hand and nods their head to affirm How many really understand the true nature of ... http://www.ajstrades.com/web-traffic-super-spikes/ Milestone month! During the last month, my business partner and I conducted interviews, obtained feedback, incorporated the feedback into our product, and signed the company's first paying subscribers. It has, in short, been a momentous month, one that has infused both of us with a sense of optimism. I attribute our ... http://www.ajstrades.com/you-proved-your-business-idea-now-what/ Metrics, Metrics, Everywhere, But Which to Use? MarketingCharts has a good write up on a report issued by Paul Gillin, author of The New Influences. The good news for Social Media Marketers is that SMM tools continue to see strong adoption, with blogs and online video leading the pack. ... http://www.ajstrades.com/sm-cubed-social-media-marketing-metrics/ "Rivers of Revenue" is one of the many books I keep on my bookshelf. I highly recommend it. In Chapter 3, Kristin Zhivago writes about tapping into buyer desire through customer interviews. In the current marketing environment, the growing adoption of blogs and social media tools make ... http://www.ajstrades.com/more-valuable-than-gold-smm-buyer-desire/ Time, The Key Issue in Social Media Marketing (SMM). Last month in her book review of Now is Gone, But It's Not Too Late, Brandy Cummings wrote about SMM resource requirements. While I have not read the book yet, is has most certainly been added to my reading list. The ... http://www.ajstrades.com/business-blogging-a-13000-investment/ As a small business owner, I often wonder if the time commitment required to maintain a blog is worth the effort, especially in the very early days of a business. Can it really help you hawk your goods? Let's face it, when we create a blog that compliments ... http://www.ajstrades.com/business-blogging-does-it-really-make-sense/ Here's a comment from a recent post on CalculatedRisk that I found pretty interesting... http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/03/delong-sounds-alarm.html http://www.ajstrades.com/interesting-comments/ Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) On March 11th, 2008 (Tuesday), the Federal Reserve, in response to the most recent incarnation of the credit crisis announced the creation of the TSLF. From the press release: The Federal Reserve announced today an expansion of its securities lending program. Under this new Term ... http://www.ajstrades.com/what-a-week/ Economic Cycles & The Money Supply According to proponents of the Austrian School of Economics, boom and bust cycles are caused by inflationary monetary policy; that central banks "create the business cycle by inflating the supply of money in a fiat monetary system." They argue that policy expanding the supply ... http://www.ajstrades.com/rough-times-ahead-part-ii-an-austrian-view-of-the-great-depression/ The recent economic events have piqued my interest in The Great Depression and Crash of 1929. Out of concern over the resiliency of the US economy, I began reading historical accounts of the depression era, and while browsing through books on the subject, came across Robert S. McElvanine's aptly ... http://www.ajstrades.com/rough-times-ahead-part-i-revisiting-the-great-depression/