1 internet marketing

There’s a reason Prince made it onto Time’s 100 Most Influential Celebrities list.  His musical legacy is easily apparent, and his opinions are still making headlines.  Recently, the purple-clad eccentric has endured great scorn for his statement, “The Internet’s completely over.”  Just so you know he’s serious, Prince has banned his music from YouTube and iTunes, shut down his own website, and announced his newest album 20TEN will only be distributed as a free CD inside the British paper the Daily Mirror (much to the chagrin of my wife and sis-in-law, huge fans).

After blasting online music distributors, Prince calls the technology itself a fad that’s on the way out:  “The Internet’s like MTV.  At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.”  Obviously, he’s out of touch; MTV was a diversion, not a tool that expanded the potential accomplishments of virtually every business and individual in the world.   Nor were millions of people physically addicted to MTV and its content.

 Though his statement is demonstrably false, there’s something to the sentiment behind it.  I’ve rarely bought mp3s online that I could buy on a physical format for two reasons:  first, lower sound quality (to bring the file sizes down, they remove frequencies and decrease the audio’s resolution), and I prefer the limitation of having to choose and listen to one CD at a time.  Just browsing through a collection of mp3s ripped from the same CDs, I appall myself, getting so easily bored and skipping through music that I find exhilarating when I commit to it.  Despite an age difference of three decades, Prince and I find solidarity in this anachronism.

But aside from personal taste, the problem with online mp3s is that the music industry has long been plagued by piracy– much more than TV or film due to smaller file sizes.  Despite the option of cheap, convenient, buffet-style digital music stores, pirates are still ubiquitous, and they cost record labels serious money.

For those conservatives not familiar with the concept of receiving a good or service without paying for it, online piracy is the unholy union of the West’s appalling entitlement mentality, anti-corporate zealotry, and a warped sense of economic progress.  For the uninitiated, here is a list of what I’ve dubbed the Six Levels of Piracy:

Level 1:   Listening to burned CDs from friends (technically illegal, but akin to the virtuous Before Christ residents of Dante’s Inferno)

Level 2:  Downloading mp3s from music blogs which host songs without permission from artists

Level 3:  Paying for a Rapidshare Premium account but not paying for music

Level 4:  Downloading torrents

Level 5:  Leaking content onto torrent sites

Level 6:  Openly promoting piracy

What online pirates (generally anti-corporation leftists) fail to realize is that music distribution, like any business, has costs that need to be made up when selling its product:  payroll for songwriters, artists, producers, and recording engineers who actually make the music; manufacturing, packaging, and shipping CDs; promotion, marketing, and expensive ads called music videos; plus administrative and legal costs and taxes (most labels are international and have to pay European VAT taxes).  Then, retailers buy the music and have to sell it at a higher price to cover their own costs and make a profit (profit is how these people stay in business and make sure we can still have music in the future).

Artists such as 9 Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor have fueled pirates’ costless fantasy world, lamenting,

“Wait – you sell for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they’ll sign anything.”  

In response, let’s think up a little analogy that progressives like Mr. Reznor can understand.  If the benevolent feds charge NASA with building a new shuttle that will collect tons of pure gold on a distant planet, the astronaut who pilots the shuttle will not receive the majority of the gold.  Congress funded the building of the ship. They authorized the mission. They took the financial risk, so they will reap the majority of the financial reward. The astronaut will still get copious amounts of money; it’s just that most will be from the speaking tour after the mission. 

Regardless, Reznor and fellow ‘90s sensations Radiohead have tried a novel idea—allowing customers to set their own price for albums. In 2007, Radiohead released a self-produced album, In Rainbows, and before it hit stores, anyone could log onto their website and type in how much they would pay for the twelve tracks.  I’ll admit that I paid nothing, mostly because I find Radiohead disgustingly overrated.  The band hasn’t released any sales figures for the experiment, but they’ve said they won’t do it again. 

For bands such as Radiohead, their established fan base (which exists largely because of the evil music industry corporations) can potentially make this donation-based distribution work.  It may also work for smaller indie bands that have low production costs.  But for developing artists trying to go national, a small core of rabid, paying fans likely won’t be able to cover the costs of ambitious, professional recordings, so I doubt that many will adopt In Rainbows’ strategy.  Sites with free song streaming plus ads, such as Grooveshark.com, show potential also, but between the Wall Street Journal, Hulu, and (allegedly) MySpace deciding to adopt subscription-based services for online content, this business model might only yield the results of Keynesianism in time.

Therefore, what Prince says may be true to a point.  Digital distribution of music could end up a bust; that may be the reason that sales of vinyl records are on the rise.  It’s certainly a much more credible assertion than Radiohead’s Thom Yorke predicting that the entire music industry will collapse within “months” (he gets a pass from the press, cuz he’s a courageous crusader against climate change).  Regardless, it’s good to see such a bizarre, entertaining character—read the whole interview; you’ll thank me—retain some semblance of free thought instead of slipping into leftist orthodoxy after so many years in the music business.

Viacom v Internet: round one to Internet

Cory Doctorow at 10:02 PM Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010

Google's won the first round of the enormous lawsuit Viacom brought against it. Viacom is suing Google for $1 billion for not having copyright lawyers inspect all the videos that get uploaded to YouTube before they're made live (they're also asking that Google eliminate private videos because these movies -- often of personal moments in YouTubers' lives -- can't be inspected by Viacom's copyright enforcers).

The lawsuit has been a circus. Filings in the case reveal that Viacom paid dozens of marketing companies to clandestinely upload its videos to YouTube (sometimes "roughing them up" to make them look like pirate-chic leaks). Viacom uploaded so much of its content to YouTube that it actually lost track of which videos were "really" pirated, and which ones it had put there, and sent legal threats to Google over videos it had placed itself.

Other filings reveal profanity-laced email exchanges between different Viacom execs debating who will get to run YouTube when Viacom destroys it with lawsuits, and execs who express their desire to sue YouTube because they can't afford to buy the company and can't replicate its success on their own.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ruled that YouTube was protected from liability for copyright infringement by the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA has a "safe harbor" provision that exempts service providers from copyright liability if they expeditiously remove material on notice that it is infringing. Viacom's unique interpretation of this statute held that online service providers should review all material before it went live. If they're right, you can kiss every message-board, Twitter-feed, photo-hosting service, and blogging platform goodbye -- even if it was worth someone's time to pay a lawyer $500/hour to look at Twitter and approve tweets before they went live, there just aren't enough lawyers in the universe to scratch the surface of these surfaces. For example, YouTube alone gets over 29 hours' worth of video per minute.

Viacom has vowed to appeal.

In dismissing the lawsuit before a trial, Stanton noted that Viacom had spent several months accumulating about 100,000 videos violating its copyright and then sent a mass takedown notice on Feb. 2, 2007. By the next business day, Stanton said, YouTube had removed virtually all of them.

Stanton said there's no dispute that "when YouTube was given the (takedown) notices, it removed the material."

Calling Stanton's reasoning "fundamentally flawed," Viacom said it was looking forward to challenging the decision in appeals court.

Judge sides with Google in $1B Viacom lawsuit
(Thanks, Mike P!)

(Image: Viacom, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from mag3737's photostream -- used with permission)

online stock trading online stock trading

Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Kids Meal Toy Fail - FAIL Blog: Epic Fail Funny <b>...</b>

Actually, this was reported multiple times over. The Mexican newspaper El Universal Mexico ran the story, and the Los Angeles TV station Univision (channel 34) also ran it – both of them as truth. El Universal even “quoted” CAP News. ...

Early Market <b>News</b>: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ <b>...</b>

Several breaking news stories will affect stock prices when trading continues. The following companies should see some movement: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C). ...

Fox <b>News</b> launches Android app – Android and Me

If you are a fan of Fox News, accessing all their shows and content just got a lot easier with the release of their new Android app. Fox News rates as the United States' most watched cable news channel and their first attempt at Android ...

Buying Investments Online

Roundup, deals, VC

RevenueLoan Pushes New Funding Model, Tippr Expands in Group Buying, Microsoft and Google Lure Startups, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

Gregory T. Huang 6/8/10

OK, things have started to pick up in terms of deals news around the Northwest. This week was headlined by the activities of a trio of well-known characters in the Seattle tech scene.

—Xconomy had an exclusive in-depth interview with entrepreneur Andy Sack about his new company, RevenueLoan, which has raised $6 million from Voyager Capital, Summit Capital, and Founder’s Co-op. The idea is to make “revenue-based” investments in mostly tech startups. That means instead of taking an equity stake in a company, RevenueLoan will get paid a percentage of the company’s future revenues up to a certain multiplier of its investment (typically 3-5x). I first wrote about this investment model, and how it could shake up the VC ecosystem, last fall.

—Seattle-based BigDoor Media, the Internet startup run by Keith Smith and Jeff Malek, raised $5 million in Series B funding led by Boulder, CO-based Foundry Group. BigDoor has developed a software platform that lets Web publishers add videogame-like mechanics to their sites—things like reward points, leader boards, and virtual goods and currencies—with the goal of boosting traffic and revenues. It’s all part of an increasing trend towards “gamification” of the Web, as led by companies like Zynga and Foursquare.

—Seattle-based Tippr.com, the online group-buying site led by Martin Tobias, acquired Chitown Deals, based in Chicago, for an undisclosed amount. Tippr is now active in 10 cities around the U.S. including Chicago, the hometown of deal-of-the-day giant Groupon. Tippr rolled out its website in February, after acquiring the patent portfolio of Mercata, a former dot-com backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.

—Not exactly deals per se, but it’s interesting to note that Microsoft and Google are appealing to tech startups and developers in new ways. Bing Maps is providing a software development kit for startups to build location-based applications on top of its maps. Meanwhile, the Google Apps Marketplace added another Seattle-area company’s software to its list of offerings. Napera Networks, which makes network management and security software for businesses, earned that distincition from Google.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's National IT Editor and the Editor of Xconomy Boston. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2249, or follow him at twitter.com/gthuang.

Roundup, deals, VC

RevenueLoan Pushes New Funding Model, Tippr Expands in Group Buying, Microsoft and Google Lure Startups, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

Gregory T. Huang 6/8/10

OK, things have started to pick up in terms of deals news around the Northwest. This week was headlined by the activities of a trio of well-known characters in the Seattle tech scene.

—Xconomy had an exclusive in-depth interview with entrepreneur Andy Sack about his new company, RevenueLoan, which has raised $6 million from Voyager Capital, Summit Capital, and Founder’s Co-op. The idea is to make “revenue-based” investments in mostly tech startups. That means instead of taking an equity stake in a company, RevenueLoan will get paid a percentage of the company’s future revenues up to a certain multiplier of its investment (typically 3-5x). I first wrote about this investment model, and how it could shake up the VC ecosystem, last fall.

—Seattle-based BigDoor Media, the Internet startup run by Keith Smith and Jeff Malek, raised $5 million in Series B funding led by Boulder, CO-based Foundry Group. BigDoor has developed a software platform that lets Web publishers add videogame-like mechanics to their sites—things like reward points, leader boards, and virtual goods and currencies—with the goal of boosting traffic and revenues. It’s all part of an increasing trend towards “gamification” of the Web, as led by companies like Zynga and Foursquare.

—Seattle-based Tippr.com, the online group-buying site led by Martin Tobias, acquired Chitown Deals, based in Chicago, for an undisclosed amount. Tippr is now active in 10 cities around the U.S. including Chicago, the hometown of deal-of-the-day giant Groupon. Tippr rolled out its website in February, after acquiring the patent portfolio of Mercata, a former dot-com backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.

—Not exactly deals per se, but it’s interesting to note that Microsoft and Google are appealing to tech startups and developers in new ways. Bing Maps is providing a software development kit for startups to build location-based applications on top of its maps. Meanwhile, the Google Apps Marketplace added another Seattle-area company’s software to its list of offerings. Napera Networks, which makes network management and security software for businesses, earned that distincition from Google.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's National IT Editor and the Editor of Xconomy Boston. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2249, or follow him at twitter.com/gthuang.

Mike Fuljenz Mike Fuljenz

foreclosure homes

BofA executive Jack Schakett made some interesting comments earlier today:

"There is a huge incentive for customers to walk away because getting free rent and waiting out foreclosure can be very appealing to customers."

Schakett noted that the foreclosure process is currently taking 13 to 14 months ...

For many the timeframe is apparently much longer. On Monday David Streitfeld wrote in the NY Times: Owners Stop Paying Mortgages, and Stop Fretting

The average borrower in foreclosure has been delinquent for 438 days before actually being evicted, up from 251 days in January 2008, according to LPS Applied Analytics.
...
More than 650,000 households had not paid in 18 months, LPS calculated earlier this year. With 19 percent of those homes, the lender had not even begun to take action to repossess the property ...

These long foreclosure time lines can have a significant adverse impact on housing.

Housing economist Tom Lawler alerted me to a 2008 research paper by Freddie Mac economists Amy Crews Cutts and William A. Merrill: Interventions in Mortgage Default: Policies and Practices to Prevent Home Loss and Lower Costs. They studied the foreclosure time lines and costs in several states and found that 270 days is sufficient time to allow the borrower to cure, and any more time actually incentivizes the borrower to strategically default:

There are many challenges that policy makers, investors, servicers and borrowers face in minimizing the incidence of home loss through foreclosure. Among them is the tension between too little time in the foreclosure process, such that some borrowers are unable to recover from relatively mild setbacks before they lose the home but investors minimize pre-foreclosure time related costs, and too much time in the foreclosure process, such that the borrower is incented to let the home go to foreclosure sale during which no mortgage payments are made (in essence, free rent for a significant time) and investor costs rise rapidly.
...
A sweet spot for the optimal time in foreclosure likely exists around a statutory timeline of 120 days (the current national median, and equivalent to 270 days after adding in 150 days for pre-referral loss mitigation activities by servicers through workouts) in which the borrower’s incentives are aligned with both a high probability of curing out of the foreclosure and keeping the pre-foreclosure costs to the investor contained.

One of unintended consequences of the government foreclosure delaying strategy (probably aimed at limiting supply and supporting house prices), is that strategic defaults have gained fairly widespread acceptance. And that means the eventual cost to the taxpayer will be higher than if the lenders had either modified the loans, or foreclosed, or approved a short sale, within about 270 days.

Foreclosure Mediation Programs Succeed Across The Country — Will Pawlenty Give Minnesota’s A Chance?

Today, across the country, mortgage mediation programs aimed at helping struggling homeowners stay in their homes are getting underway. Programs are launching in Maryland, as well as Florida’s 6th and 10th judicial circuits — encompassing Pasco, Pinellas, Hardee, Highlands, and Polk counties — while Cook County, Illinois is beginning a huge round of outreach for its burgeoning program.

In all, “the number of jurisdictions with foreclosure mediation programs is nearly double the number a year ago, with jurisdictions in 21 states now offering foreclosure mediation or negotiation programs.” Not on this list, however, is Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) saw fit to veto a program last year.

The Minnesota state senate recently passed the bill again, sending it to the state House, so Pawlenty could very well get a second shot soon. And there’s simply no reason for him to oppose the program, as mediation — during which a bank meets face-to-face with a borrower, often in the presence of a judge and housing advocates, to try and forge a mortgage modification or other arrangement that prevents a foreclosure — is one of the most successful methods of helping struggling borrowers stay in their homes.

Connecticut’s mediation program, for instance, has kept 60 percent of its borrowers out of foreclosure. Philadelphia’s success rate is also 60 percent, while Nevada claims an 85 percent success rate:

About 80 percent of homeowners at risk of losing their homes don’t engage in any efforts to negotiate with their lender. And those who do so on their own often run into a bureaucratic mess, including hours on hold, lost records, and customer service representatives who know nothing about the borrower’s situation. Mediation helps to ensure that situations like that don’t happen.

“These new protections empower our fellow Marylanders, putting them on a more equal footing with mortgage companies that too often can’t be bothered to pick up the phone before beginning a foreclosure proceeding against a Maryland family,” said Governor Martin O’Malley (D). And lest Pawlenty think this is a purely partisan issue, it has also won the praise of Gov. Jodi Rell (R-CT). “Clearly, mediation is an effective tool homeowners can use to ward off foreclosure,” she said. “This program is a beacon of hope for hard-pressed homeowners and a real alternative for lenders.”

In mediation, there’s no requirement for a lender to accommodate a borrower, but it’s often the case that preventing a foreclosure is in the best financial interest of both the borrower and the lender. As CAP’s Andrew Jakabovics and Alon Cohen wrote, “the simple act of participating in mediation consistently yields solutions short of foreclosure that are acceptable to both sides.” Hopefully, should the Minnesota legislature do the right thing and create a program, Pawlenty will allow it to stand.

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personal finance money management

Save Money by Establishing Passive Spending Barriers

If you're looking to save money—and who isn't?—good money habits go a long way towards keeping cash in your checking account. Establish passive spending barriers to keep spending in check.

Adam Baker, over at the financial blog Get Rich Slowly, decided the best way to keep money in his pocket was to set up passive barriers that worked for him instead of against him which made it easy to keep with them until they became a habit. For those of you behind The Great Corporate Firewall, you can check out the contents of the video via the list below:

1. The 30-day list for Wants -


2. Two items out for every item in -


3. Experiences over possessions -

I have a strong appreciation for the last two. I'm at the age now where the majority of my friends have purchased homes and have accumulated a bunch of stuff. I'm actively decluttering my home and office every day to pare down the stuff I already have and I feel almost hypocritical piling more stuff on somebody else as a gift. Lately I've been much more likely to give something to a friend that they can experience—theater tickets, a bottle of wine, taking their kids to the park so they can have dinner with adult conversation, etc.—than I am to give them something they have to dust and put a roof over. You can read more about the idea of giving experiences here.

Have a tip or trick that you'd add to the list above? Let's hear about it in the comments.

A recent study found that poor folks - households earning under $13,000 per year - spend about 9% of all their income on lottery tickets.

Jonah Lehrer:

The study neatly illuminates the sad positive feedback loop of lotteries. The games naturally appeal to poor people, which causes them to spend disproportionate amounts of their income on lotteries, which helps keep them poor, which keeps them buying tickets.

I wonder what would happen if on a certain number of the losing scratch-off cards, scratching off the latex ink won you free personal finance and budget management services.

Lotteries [The Frontal Cortex] (Thanks to Jim!)

The impact of narrow decision bracketing on lottery play [Journal of Risk and Uncertainty]

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The most important factor of growing up is learning how to manage our money. Chilton (1998) claims that most of us learn money management from our parents along with their values, beliefs, spending habits, and how much they share and teach us about money. Even though most of us listen to and follow the fundamentals our parents instilled in us, we still develop our own values, beliefs, and habits. As we gain our own ideas, and learn an understanding of personal finance we can develop a plan to benefit from proper financial planning.

Financial planning is an essential element to personal finance by setting up goals and a path to meet your goals creating that personal freedom for those who strive for it. Financial planning consists of budgeting, savings and investing in your future. A strong budget allows managing your money to include savings and investing. The key step in knowing how important savings is in a financial plan is you can go far with out it. Without savings you can't accumulate enough capital to invest, or if something were to happen you may have to cash in valuable investment with a huge loss due to unexpected emergencies.
A financial plan specifies your financial goals and sets a path to achieve those goals. With a good understanding of personal finance you have the ability to make your own financial decisions. A good understanding allows you to judge and give yourself sound financial advice. The whole idea of Chilton's novel, "The Wealthy Barber", is to save money now and live better in the future. By making sound financial decisions you can create wealth for the present and well into your retirement and after.

A few benefits of understanding personal finance are being able to protect your assets and income. If something terrible were to happen to yourself or your spouse, the right planning and the knowledge of having the proper insurance is all you need to protect yourself and your family. Knowing how to invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate can produce a substantial return to benefit you in the future. The right understanding allows you to minimize risk and maximize returns. The proper understanding of how to save and invest can lead to accumulate sufficient money to support yourself after you retire.

A true understanding of personal finance allows us to buy the best house for our family, put our children through college, and retire young enough to enjoy the remainder of lives with our loved ones. Getting a financial advisor without the proper understanding where your money is going can be very dangerous. Your ignorance can lead to someone taking advantage of you and your money, which could cause you to lose your entire nest egg. An understanding of how to manage our money, assets, and investments is our responsibility and we can reap the benefits in the long run. When it comes to personal finances "people are reluctant to discuss personal finances outside the family circle, except with financial advisors-bank managers, solicitors, accountants - whose professional standing provides an assurance of confidentiality." (Aldridge, 1998: pg.8)

Usually one does not talk about savings with their financial advisor, because it's always about what are the best funds or stocks to increase their net present value. It is essential to know how much to save and how to make it work for you. Savings can be viewed as short-term goals or long-term goals. A short-term goal is saving extra money for a short period of time for a major purchase, like a down payment on a house or car, possibly a household renovation. These types of items that you would normally save for minimize your payments or avoid an interest bearing loan. Long-term savings goals are plans to have readily available cash at hand, with no plans on spending it unless of an emergency. It's a long-term savings because you can maintain it until you retire and it continually builds dividends. A common long-term savings goals is an emergency fund that should consist of a minimum six months worth of salaries and if able up to a full years salaries. In addition to an emergency fund a sound financial plan should have money allocated to another savings account on a monthly basis.

Credit management is important because you can't survive without it. It's important to consider you can't buy a house, a car, or get a credit card without some kind of credit history. Credit management begins with your first bank account and doesn't end until you die and in some cases it can out live you. You start to establish history with every dollar you save and spend. Starting off right is the first step to establishing a good credit history. You have to manage your credit by paying your debts on time. The better your credit gets the more creditors want to give you and this can be trouble. Your one credit card turns into five cards, as a result you then have a new car loan, and you're using your credit cards to pay other cards and your car payment.

This is a typical situation with inexperienced people who do not know anything about credit. It's very common for a family to go out for a night on the town and take a credit card. A credit card may carry a fee, and also a risk of theft and forgery, but it is very convenient and the free credit period allows money to be held temporarily in a form earning more than a bank account. (Robinson/McGoun 1998).The convenience and safety of credit cards offer you just can't get with cash. Credit cards are the most used form of credit and have the potential to be misused. If you misuse credit it usually will takes years to recover and you have established a bad credit history. Tyson (2006) recommends that you "get all three of your credit card reports, and be sure each is accurate".

In addition to credit cards you have various types of loans. You have personal loans, car loans, house loans and school loans which all build your credit history. Credit management affects what kind of loan you have available and the terms of the loan. With bad credit, loans have a higher interest rate and they can take longer to pay off. Once you learn good credit management you can use it to your advantage in financial planning. Wisely choosing the best loans and terms of your choice vise the creditors is an advantage. When doing your financial planning, the amount of credit you can afford to have is very important because it can lay the framework to a successful financial future.

Buying a home may be the single biggest investment you will ever make, so the decision should be taken very seriously. As claimed by Chilton (1998) it is said that about ninety percent of the world's millionaires have become millionaires through real estate. (pg. 60) With that said not everyone is ready to buy a house. When it comes down to it the decision is it better to buy a home or rent? In addition Barnes/Jaret (2003) states achieving the "American Dream" has often been associated with living in a thrifty manner, accumulating savings, and subsequently purchasing a home of one's own, which then appreciates in value and becomes a large component of one's personal wealth. When it comes to purchasing a home there are a lot of factors to be considered.

First the larger the down payment the better chance you have of getting the home you want. You need a house to meet your needs and a house you can afford. A house provides security and it represents your own little piece of that "American Dream". Every month that you pay into that a house you can say you own just a little bit more of that dream. With a little luck as the years go by, your house appreciates in value. Once you pay it off or sell you can feel like you made a difference in someone's life, to include your own. A down side of owning a home is you can tie yourself to a location and into a deal that you can't get out of easily. "Patience is always one of the most valuable attributes in investing, and nowhere is that more true then in real estate. It may go down, but it seldom stays there indefinitely." (Chilton pg. 62)

Determining the amount of life insurance is the most important in financial planning because the amount can focus the way you chose insurance. There are two methods of determining how much life insurance is needed. The first income method is a general formula for determining how much insurance based off your income. The income method suggests you multiply your annual income by ten. This is a straight line method that doesn't take into account a single person salary vise a family of four which will require more life insurance. The second method is a budgeting method, which determines your life insurance needs by considering your future budget based on your household's future expected expenses and your current financial situation.

The budgeting method takes into account your annual living expenses, special future expenses, debt, the job marketability of your spouse, and the value of your savings. Robinson (1998) highlights, in budgeting, we treat all sources of income identically and add them up. However, a formal model based on some theory of smoothing lifetime income and consumption would allocate a large part of any windfall into savings rather than expenditures. Once you have established the amount you need for life insurance, you have to consider what kind of life insurance that best suits your needs. When it comes to your financial plan, investing is an intricate part in securing your future. Money management is about short-term and long-term planning, and having a nice size nest egg, as you get closer to retirement.

Chilton (1998) recommends to not throwing all your eggs in one basket. To avoid living pay check-to-pay check, we have to plan and learn to invest in our future. In today's market you have so many choices that you can invest in. Depending on your willingness to take risks and where you want your money will set the basis for you individual investment portfolio. Some of the most common types of investments are IRA's, Stocks, and Bonds; each type of investment has its advantages and disadvantages.

Chilton (1998) recommends indulging in the stock market. Stocks are very popular and can be a risky investment and can produce a larger return or break you over night. A stock is a certificate of partial ownership of a firm. With the Internet, the option of buying stocks is easier than ever and has introduced new opportunities to an individual investor. It uses to be that you had to look for professional help but now it a few clicks away. Stocks are riskier investments but yield higher returns. Common stock is basic stock sometimes giving you rights to vote and elect board members who will run the company. Preferred stock guarantees you to receive dividends over the common stockholders. The downsides to stocks are the price of stocks can drop and you can lose an entire investment.

Another way to make yourself more financial set is to watch your spending as sated by Tyson (2006). Tyson recommends reducing spending in order to become more financially set. Simple ways to avoid spending money are as simple as using public transportation, using regular unleaded gas and servicing your car. Also it is important to avoid buying clothes that require dry cleaning, not indulging in the latest season's fashions and to keep accessories to a bare minimum.

No matter how you decide to save money and invest money, it should be made to fit as part as your financial plan. Both Chilton and Tyson make very good points about spending and saving, what to invest your money into and what not to. I have learned a lot about my personal finances through reading these two books. I found that Chilton's book was more of a story and more personal, then Tyson's to-the-point facts about finance. Out of the two books I think that I learned more from Tyson's, but both were enjoyed. Also both books made me realize that really I am investing in myself and my future.

References:
-Aldridge, Alan (1998) "Habitus and cultural capital in the field of personal finance." University of Nottingham

-Barnes, S & Jaret, C. (2003) Sociological focus The "American Dream" in poor urban neighborhoods: An analysis of home ownership attitudes and behaviors and financial saving behavior. Purdue University and Georgia State University

-Chilton, David. (1998) The Wealthy Barber. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing.

-Gill, Suveera (2005) An Analysis of defaults of Long-term Rated Debts, Vikalpa volume 30

-Robinson, Chris and McGoun, Elton (1998) The sociology of personal finance. Financial Services Review 7

-Sandlin, Jennifer (2005) Culture, Consumption and Adult Education: Education for adults as a political site using a cultural studies framework. Texas A&M University

-Tyson, Eric. (2006) Personal Finance for Dummies 5th Ed. Hoboken, NJ. Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Knight <b>News</b> Challenge: GoMap Riga won&#39;t make much new, just <b>...</b>

The lines between news, civic engagement, and crowdsourcing blur for one of the 2010 Knight News Challenge winners. A project called GoMap Riga wants to build a.

Toshiba unveiled their Android 2.1-based netbook, the Dynabook AZ <b>...</b>

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Making Money Your

It is a good day for consumers as important components of the "CARD" legislation have gone into effect. As of today, February 22nd, all credit card companies must do the following:

• Keep all due dates the same on your credit card: Now you can better plan for your credit card payments each month without fear of being late because they have arbitrarily changed the grace period.

• Provide you 45 days notice before they raise rates: While there are no limits as to how high the rates can go and they can still jack up your interest rates, at least you now have much more time to prepare for these rate increases.

• Younger adults under the age of 21 will find it much harder to obtain a credit card: I used to have a portion of my workshop for college freshmen that cautioned them against credit card companies that solicited their business... that practice will severely be limited because of this age restriction.

• No more double cycle billing: Card companies used to be able to charge interest on a debt that had already been paid in a previous month. As wrong as this practice was it was legal... not anymore.

• No more over limit fee transactions unless previously approved: If you have a500 limit and charged505 there used to be a fee for going over your limit. You must now give consent to make this possible and issuers cannot charge more than one of these fees per billing cycle.

• No more paying to pay: This is huge because the credit card companies took advantage of the ease of which you can pay your debt if you use the internet or phone to pay your debt. It never made sense to me to have to pay a fee just to pay my debt... this practice is now over.

• Longer notice: Companies were required to send statements 14 days in advance; they are now required to send statements 21 days before a payment is due.

That being said, I want to reveal a piece of groundbreaking news to you that might floor you so make sure that you are sitting down before you read this next statement. The news is: Credit card companies like to make money!

Did I shock you?

Of course I am being facetious but the bottom line is peoples always seem to be shocked when they find out that credit card companies are lobbying, bending rules, and manipulating as many people as possible to increase their bottom line. These rules still leave a lot of loopholes that you can be sure the credit card companies will try to exploit. They are not in the business of making payments easy for you, but to make as much money as possible. Therefore, these rules do not negate the need for personal responsibility. It is preposterous that people have items piling up in their garage collecting dust that they don't use but they are still paying for on their credit cards! If it is not an emergency (no a new video game system for a crying child who feels he deserves it is not an emergency) or you are not using the card to establish credit history (i.e. making payments at the grocery store with a credit card and paying it off within the week to establish a good history of timely payments) then DO NOT use your credit card.

An individual who uses a credit card will spend 35% more at the time of purchase. The average purchase costs 112% more when using a credit card verses using cash after you factor the interest rates and other fees. The credit card companies, who could give a darn about your personal financial situation, are steadily trying to find ways to get into your pocket... let's not make it easy for them and start planning and using credit cards wisely.

New York Times Now Making Money

The New York Times Co. made money last year! A $20 million profit for 2009. Revenue fell more than 11% in the fourth quarter—but it's declining less than last year. Silver linings! Celebratory year-in-review internal memo below.

From: NYTIMES MAIL

Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 10:31 AM

Subject: On the Record from Arthur and Janet

To: NY TIMES INTERNET

Vol. 2 2010: Ending the Year Profitably

We are delighted to report that as a result of your dedication, courage and innovation, our Company ended the year profitably. As you can see in our earnings press release, 2009 ended far better than it began, with advertisers increasing their rate of spending across our newspapers, Web sites and other platforms during the fourth quarter. As we reported, operating profit increased both for the quarter and year.

Our fourth quarter and year-end numbers were a result of countless difficult decisions and sacrifices that were made at The New York Times, New England and Regional Media Groups and the About Group to restructure our cost base. We had to say goodbye to many colleagues and found ways to do our work more efficiently and productively.

As a result of all these actions, we have continued to reposition the Company to grow as a business while enhancing our ability to achieve our core mission: providing our audiences with high-quality news and information.

You have our gratitude for all we were able to achieve last year.

The fourth-quarter improvement in advertising trends was, of course, only part of the story. We also continued to aggressively pursue a long-term strategy that enhanced our Company financially and journalistically while providing new ways to compete in a media industry with proliferating news and information options. Specifically:

* We secured strong performance on costs by focusing relentlessly on increasing productivity and efficiency, achieving approximately $475 million in operating cost savings in 2009.

* We reduced the Company's debt by over $290 million to $769 million from its balance at the end of 2008. This means that our debt load is now far more manageable.

* We continued to diversify our revenue streams by introducing an array of new products and extending our reach to new audiences. Constant innovation and reinvention are core competencies for the Company, and we see examples of this wonderful digital creativity at all of our Web sites.

* We leveraged our brand strength to grow profitable circulation revenue, as we believe – and have been proven right – that continued strong user demand for our high-quality news and information is a testament to the value they provide.

* We also sold WQXR, our New York City classical radio station, for $45 million, and used the proceeds to reduce our outstanding debt.

With of all this said, revenues were still down for the quarter and year, and we are still in the midst of a challenging business environment. In almost every On the Record, we have talked about making the transition from a company that operated primarily in print to one that is increasingly digital and multiplatform in delivery. With that in mind, we wish to point out that online revenues are becoming a more important part of our mix, with Internet businesses contributing almost 14% of our total revenues and 22% of our ad revenues in 2009.

Last month, we announced that NYTimes.com has decided to introduce a new metered model in 2011 to create a second online revenue stream. We are already hard at work at executing this plan, and it is our expectation that this new effort will improve our ability to grow our Company.

Of course, the metered model will be one of our major 2010 initiatives, but there is more to do. While it would be helpful to have a greater sense of where the economy is heading, we are confident that we can build on our increasingly solid foundation. We will continue to streamline costs, strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our digital businesses. We recognize that the quality of our journalism is at the heart of our Company's success, but we also acknowledge that quality journalism can only survive as part of a profitable business organization.

For more information about our fourth-quarter earnings, please see the Company's release, available at http://www.nytco.com/investors.

Arthur and Janet

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.

Google adsense is a good program for those who want to monetize their web site or blog. It is relatively easy to implement on your site or blog by simply installing a bit of code into the page. Google provides this code and it generates ads on your page according to the textyou already have in that page. For instance, if the text on yourpage is about the latest dog food scare from China, the google adsense ads will also be about dog food.

The first step is to get signed up for google adsense. Google makes this easy from their home page. Just click on "Advertising Programs" on the google hompage, follow from there, and you will be able to gather all the information needed to get started. As you get acquainted with customization of your google adsense ads, you will begin to wonder about colors and placement of the ads on your own page.

Its best to keep to a blended look of the ads with the color of your page. You probably are like me and do not really look to be "pitched" to when you are seeking information on the web. More than likely your readers are the same. If you can think like your readers, your google adsense ads will be more effective.

If you were to ask the so called "gurus" on the web your question of; "How do I make money with google adsense ? ", more than likely you will find some basic similarites in their answers. One answer would be; "Do not design your site around google adsense.". If you want to start a web site solely for putting google adsense ads on it and making money, there are plenty of people already doing that as you read this. Google designed their adsense program as an option to monetize your web site, not as a stand-alone money maker for a web site.

There are no hard rules against building a site around google adsense, but most people, including myself are much more likely to go somewhere else when a site is dominated by ads instead of useful information. Google has the last word, of course, as to who gets to use their adsense system.

What is a perfect site for google adsense ads ? One that is already getting moderate, targeted traffic on a popular category. What is a popular category ? "A.T. and T cell phones" is one. There are many others, and you will want to do your own search to see if your particular site is one that would have the high paying google adsense ads.

If you are a Webmaster, take the time to do a thorough search in your range of interests. More than likely you can optimize at least a few of your pages to coincide with those higher paying google adsense ads and drive some of your visitors to those pages. Yes, they will be leaving your site, but you will also be making money.

As a summary, money can definitely be made with google adsense, but the best way to do it is to look for related top-paying categories for your own existing site
or blog. That way you can stay focused, and it will be more likely that your readers will also become repeat visitors as well.

It is a good day for consumers as important components of the "CARD" legislation have gone into effect. As of today, February 22nd, all credit card companies must do the following:

• Keep all due dates the same on your credit card: Now you can better plan for your credit card payments each month without fear of being late because they have arbitrarily changed the grace period.

• Provide you 45 days notice before they raise rates: While there are no limits as to how high the rates can go and they can still jack up your interest rates, at least you now have much more time to prepare for these rate increases.

• Younger adults under the age of 21 will find it much harder to obtain a credit card: I used to have a portion of my workshop for college freshmen that cautioned them against credit card companies that solicited their business... that practice will severely be limited because of this age restriction.

• No more double cycle billing: Card companies used to be able to charge interest on a debt that had already been paid in a previous month. As wrong as this practice was it was legal... not anymore.

• No more over limit fee transactions unless previously approved: If you have a500 limit and charged505 there used to be a fee for going over your limit. You must now give consent to make this possible and issuers cannot charge more than one of these fees per billing cycle.

• No more paying to pay: This is huge because the credit card companies took advantage of the ease of which you can pay your debt if you use the internet or phone to pay your debt. It never made sense to me to have to pay a fee just to pay my debt... this practice is now over.

• Longer notice: Companies were required to send statements 14 days in advance; they are now required to send statements 21 days before a payment is due.

That being said, I want to reveal a piece of groundbreaking news to you that might floor you so make sure that you are sitting down before you read this next statement. The news is: Credit card companies like to make money!

Did I shock you?

Of course I am being facetious but the bottom line is peoples always seem to be shocked when they find out that credit card companies are lobbying, bending rules, and manipulating as many people as possible to increase their bottom line. These rules still leave a lot of loopholes that you can be sure the credit card companies will try to exploit. They are not in the business of making payments easy for you, but to make as much money as possible. Therefore, these rules do not negate the need for personal responsibility. It is preposterous that people have items piling up in their garage collecting dust that they don't use but they are still paying for on their credit cards! If it is not an emergency (no a new video game system for a crying child who feels he deserves it is not an emergency) or you are not using the card to establish credit history (i.e. making payments at the grocery store with a credit card and paying it off within the week to establish a good history of timely payments) then DO NOT use your credit card.

An individual who uses a credit card will spend 35% more at the time of purchase. The average purchase costs 112% more when using a credit card verses using cash after you factor the interest rates and other fees. The credit card companies, who could give a darn about your personal financial situation, are steadily trying to find ways to get into your pocket... let's not make it easy for them and start planning and using credit cards wisely.

New York Times Now Making Money

The New York Times Co. made money last year! A $20 million profit for 2009. Revenue fell more than 11% in the fourth quarter—but it's declining less than last year. Silver linings! Celebratory year-in-review internal memo below.

From: NYTIMES MAIL

Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 10:31 AM

Subject: On the Record from Arthur and Janet

To: NY TIMES INTERNET

Vol. 2 2010: Ending the Year Profitably

We are delighted to report that as a result of your dedication, courage and innovation, our Company ended the year profitably. As you can see in our earnings press release, 2009 ended far better than it began, with advertisers increasing their rate of spending across our newspapers, Web sites and other platforms during the fourth quarter. As we reported, operating profit increased both for the quarter and year.

Our fourth quarter and year-end numbers were a result of countless difficult decisions and sacrifices that were made at The New York Times, New England and Regional Media Groups and the About Group to restructure our cost base. We had to say goodbye to many colleagues and found ways to do our work more efficiently and productively.

As a result of all these actions, we have continued to reposition the Company to grow as a business while enhancing our ability to achieve our core mission: providing our audiences with high-quality news and information.

You have our gratitude for all we were able to achieve last year.

The fourth-quarter improvement in advertising trends was, of course, only part of the story. We also continued to aggressively pursue a long-term strategy that enhanced our Company financially and journalistically while providing new ways to compete in a media industry with proliferating news and information options. Specifically:

* We secured strong performance on costs by focusing relentlessly on increasing productivity and efficiency, achieving approximately $475 million in operating cost savings in 2009.

* We reduced the Company's debt by over $290 million to $769 million from its balance at the end of 2008. This means that our debt load is now far more manageable.

* We continued to diversify our revenue streams by introducing an array of new products and extending our reach to new audiences. Constant innovation and reinvention are core competencies for the Company, and we see examples of this wonderful digital creativity at all of our Web sites.

* We leveraged our brand strength to grow profitable circulation revenue, as we believe – and have been proven right – that continued strong user demand for our high-quality news and information is a testament to the value they provide.

* We also sold WQXR, our New York City classical radio station, for $45 million, and used the proceeds to reduce our outstanding debt.

With of all this said, revenues were still down for the quarter and year, and we are still in the midst of a challenging business environment. In almost every On the Record, we have talked about making the transition from a company that operated primarily in print to one that is increasingly digital and multiplatform in delivery. With that in mind, we wish to point out that online revenues are becoming a more important part of our mix, with Internet businesses contributing almost 14% of our total revenues and 22% of our ad revenues in 2009.

Last month, we announced that NYTimes.com has decided to introduce a new metered model in 2011 to create a second online revenue stream. We are already hard at work at executing this plan, and it is our expectation that this new effort will improve our ability to grow our Company.

Of course, the metered model will be one of our major 2010 initiatives, but there is more to do. While it would be helpful to have a greater sense of where the economy is heading, we are confident that we can build on our increasingly solid foundation. We will continue to streamline costs, strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our digital businesses. We recognize that the quality of our journalism is at the heart of our Company's success, but we also acknowledge that quality journalism can only survive as part of a profitable business organization.

For more information about our fourth-quarter earnings, please see the Company's release, available at http://www.nytco.com/investors.

Arthur and Janet

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.

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Best Investments Online

If the future was easy to predict, we'd all be millionaires. But the more you understand the past, the clearer the future begins to look, including financial investments. There's no crystal ball or magic formula, but here are 5 investments that in roughly 10 years will have you saying "why didn't I think of that?"

1. Gold

Okay, so this one sounds obvious and much less panache or fashionable, but it's my #1 for a reason. Gold is famous for increasing its value when everything else is tanking, most people know that. What you probably don't know, is that today, people actually own more gold than exists. "That doesn't make sense!" you say. You're right, it doesn't. Many people that "own" gold merely own the promise of gold, which is why gold prices have fluctuated more in line with the rest of the markets recently.

The trick is to actually, physically, own gold. History and current events seem to be hinting at some sort of economic collapse within 8-10 years, and when that happens, promises aren't always kept. Own Gold!

2. Desalination

No, I'm not living in "SimCity2000" and yes, I realize you can't just plop a desalination plant down wherever you want. The fact is, population is growing fast, and water shortages in some places are real problems, including parts of the American southwest. Taping into the world's saltwater supply (97.3% of all water on earth) has been an unreachable dream even since Aristotle did experiments with filters in the 4th century B.C. However, there are actually 15,000 desalination plants in use today, although still too expensive for large-scale use.

So, what's the investment advice here?

"Water is blue gold; it's terribly precious," said Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians. Water indexes are up 133% in the last 10 years. Within 10 more years, some scientists predict that they will have developed a cost-efficient desalination system. Just imagine the demand.

3. Laser-Tattoo removal

This article is some kind of joke, right? Nope. Fashion fades, tattoos don't. Eventually all those 18 year olds will turn 40 and their wrinkly blueish blobs of "what-was-I-thinking" will no longer be fashionable. Laser-tattoo removal is currently the only ticket in town right now, and it's a process which takes 6-10 or more painful monthly sessions of literally frying the tattoo off at a cost of $100-$300 per session. This can end up costing anywhere from $800-$5,000.

A few things will happen within 10 years to make this a hot investment. First, laser technology is always improving and will make this process easier and cheaper. Second, becoming popular is a special tattoo ink that claims to only require *one* laser session to remove. Both of these factors will make tattoo removal easier, cheaper, and generally more attractive to consumers. People will continue tattooing themselves for years to come, but in 10 years a lot more people will want them gone. My final, out-on-a-limb prediction? Tattoo removal kits will be available for $50 at Wal-Mart by 2017.

4. Cell Phones.

Cell Phones will become popular... uh, tell me something I don't already know... No really, it's a concept called "convergence" and cell phones have been dropping hints for years now. It was about 3 years ago that I predicted privately what has today begun to happen with cell phones. Convergence.

Within 5-8 years, your life will be on your cell phone. First it was your day planner, then your alarm clock, then a calculator. Now it's your camera, email, and internet, all converging into one piece of technology. What's next? Your phone will replace your wallet, credit cards, passport, and even your car keys will become obsolete. Apple, Motorola, whoever you want to pick, just invest!

5. Real estate in Greenland.

Ok now you're just pulling my leg, right? Wrong! Between 1000-1200 A.D. Viking civilizations prospered on Greenland. Global temperatures were warmer during this period than they are now, and Vikings grew corn and other crops while raising cattle and other animals. Temperatures eventually dropped and Greenland was no longer prime real estate. Well not anymore! Now, although I do not buy the unscientific claims that humans are causing global warming, temperatures are rising none-the-less- Climate history predicts it. Along with growing world populations, a mostly uninhabited (pop: 56,000) island that's 1 ½ times as large as Alaska is bound to become *hot* property within 10 years.

Note: The Author does not have any personal financial interest in the aforementioned investments.

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