Monday, January 24, 2011

Making Money Marketing

Case Study: How To Have Fun Connecting With Fans Like A Superstar DJ

from the take-that,-management dept

deadmau5 (pronounced 'dead mouse') is a great example for artists that want to make it in the music business. He is famed for his great production and unique style, which helped get him noticed and separated from the crowd. That's a good thing, because then it's worth talking about. What's remarkable about deadmau5 stretches further than his unique production style and performances (he wears this huge mouse-mask on his head). His level of engagement with his ecosystem (or fanbase, if you will) is exemplary.

Minecraft has been talked about before on Techdirt. Back in November, deadmau5 set up his own server for this sandbox-game in which players can craft their own world. His fans love it, and deadmau5 regularly pops in to hang out with them in 'mau5ville.' In a way, both deadmau5 and his fans emerge themselves in fan art. There are tons of videos of mau5ville online, so you can take a tour. One user even used the game's tools to make a cover of a song by deadmau5, which deadmau5 then shared with over 2 million of his fans. Other artists sometimes prefer to go the way of a takedown notice when a fan puts his energy into making fan art -- but deadmau5 prefers to promote it. You can see both videos below:

However, deadmau5 is not like other artists, and recently he showed this by buying about 20 Minecraft accounts and posting the gift codes on his Facebook page. He understands that having fun with your fanbase and spending a little money on it can be much more important than telling them to buy your music. He listens to his fans, and he informs them when they can buy new music, because that's what his fans want. But it's about more than just pushing what you have to buy.

In the beginning of December, deadmau5' marketing team decided they should get involved in communicating to his fans.

Apparently deadmau5 didn't like the fact that his management was disturbing the trust and rapport he had built up with the ecosystem, because those status updates were followed by deadmau5's:

Then he checked the backend of his Facebook page…

Excellent choice, in my opinion. This is the best thing he could do to earn back the trust of the ecosystem, because you really don't want to get on the bad side of the ecosystem. The ecosystem can reject you, the ecosystem can move on, the ecosystem doesn't need YOU in order to survive.

And the cool thing is, he wasn't thinking about marketing or self-preservation or strategy in the process of making his choices. It's just him, genuinely. And I guess the status update he posted 1 minute later shows just that:

It looks like deadmau5 recognizes his fans have more value than just a few purchases. Instead of complaining that his fans should buy his album for 15 euros, he is actually buying them Minecraft accounts for 15 euros a piece. This might be hard to understand for his management and a lot of other people in the industry, because if fans are free, how can they have value?

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As
General Motors has shrunk, its pool of U.S. retirees has swelled.
Today there are almost 700,000 GM retirees and just 70,000 active
workers, a 10-1 ratio. The company’s $100 billion pension fund is twice
the market capitalization of the automaker itself, and keeping up with
funding obligations acts like a ball and chain on GM’s core car-making
business. Small swings in the value of the pension plan can have
massive effects on the value of the company. “That’s no way to run a
company,” said GM’s chief financial officer Christopher Liddell.

I
met with Liddell during the Detroit auto show this week, and he talked
extensively about GM’s more conservative financial philosophy since
emerging from bankruptcy in July 2009. GM’s objective is to carry no
debt, fully fund its pension plan, and pay for its day-to-day
operations using cash generated from the sale of cars and trucks. It
sounds so simple, but that’s not the way GM has been run in many years.

GM
took a big step in that direction Friday, announcing it had
contributed $2 billion in newly minted GM stock to its U.S. pension
plan, on top of $4 billion in cash it had contributed a couple of months
back to try to bring that pension fund closer to fully funded status.
As of the end of 2009, the portfolio was $17.1 billion short of what it
should have, under government rules, to cover its current and future
pension obligations.

The gap likely
closed some in 2010, thanks to strong market returns, but the gains
could be offset by further swelling in the retiree ranks. GM plans to
give an annual update on the health of its pension plan next month when
it announces its fourth-quarter financial results.

Three
factors determine the health of any pension fund: asset returns,
company contributions and the discount rate, which is used to calculate
the present value of pension liabilities and is tied to interest
rates. In the past, market swings and interest rates would cause GM’s
pension fund to fluctuate wildly between being overfunded and
underfunded. In the 1990s, GM borrowed heavily to pay off its pension
plan, saddling itself with hefty interest payments. As long as the stock
market remained high, the value of the assets in GM’s portfolio
exceeded its liabilities. But even a change in the discount rate could
cause big swings in the plan’s funding status.

Between 2005 and
2007, GM’s pension plan was in great shape, and the company didn’t need
to make any contributions. But then the equity and credit markets
collapsed, coupled with declines in the discount rate (which made the
present value of GM’s pension liabilities rise significantly) and more
early retirements at GM, increasing the number of beneficiaries.
Suddenly, the pension plan was $17.1 billion in the hole.

“We’ve
got to get this company to where the economics, everything, is driven
around designing, selling and producing cars,” Liddell said. “Things
like the pension plan don’t enter into the equation.”

Liddell
said he believes GM can fully fund the pension plan within three years
at which point, he plans to “de-risk” the portfolio by investing less
in equities and real estate, and more in fixed income assets, which
generally provide a lower rate of return. “Perfection to me would be
where the assets exactly equal the liabilities in both their maturity
and their risk profile,” he said.

He’s not expecting perfection,
but he is expecting GM to operate debt-free in the future. It seems
like forever that GM has been up to its neck in debt, including its
pension and health care obligations to retirees. But it’s only in the
past 15 years or so that GM has been highly leveraged. Before that, it
was a AAA-rated company.

Now it’s working to get back there. It
off-loaded retiree health care to a union trust fund in 2009, is
working on the pension problem, and restructured the rest of its debt
during its government-controlled bankruptcy. In 2010, GM lowered its
debt from $14.2 billion to $5 billion, and reduced its $9 billion
preferred share obligation to $7 billion. It obtained a $5 billion
revolving credit loan, but Liddell said he doesn’t think GM will have
to tap into it.

Perfection? No. But progress, yes.

I
agree, it's not perfect but it's progress. GM is doing the right thing
by topping up its pension plan now that times are good. If they can
reach fully funded status in three years, so much the better. Of course
that entirely depends on where markets are heading. In the
meantime, GM can focus on its core business and hope that car sales pick
up steadily in the next few years.
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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

News Happening Now - KRQE

(KRQE NEWS 13) - As of 7:10 a.m. - President Barack Obama is putting the finishing touches on a State of the Union speech Tuesday that'll mostly be about one thing -- jobs. Comments. Latest Headlines. News Happening Now � Sunday News ...

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

American fitness guru Jack LaLanne died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, California, according to his long-time agent, Rick Hersh. He was 96. The cause, said Hersh, was respiratory failure due to pneumonia.

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

News Happening Now - KRQE

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

Right Wing News is the best source on the net for conservative news, views, & interviews.

News Happening Now - KRQE

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Interviewing Thomas Sowell On Basic Economics | Right Wing News

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Business Making Money

Popular financial news and commentary website Seeking Alpha seems to have a pretty sweet setup — the site has built up a large readership (40 to 45 million pageviews per month) with articles that are written for free. So the announcement that the site will start paying its contributors looks a bit odd — why start paying for something you were already getting for free?

The move seems especially risky since Seeking Alpha’s Premium Partnership Program will pay a rate of $10 per thousand pageviews. That means a big chunk of the money the site makes from each article will go to the writer. (On the other hand, Seeking Alpha founder and CEO David Jackson told me last week that the site charges its advertisers premium rates thanks to its high-quality audience.)

So why change things? Jackson said it’s because the pay model allows Seeking Alpha to reach a new set of writers. Until now, most contributors were financial advisors or other professionals who saw their articles as a way to build their reputation and attract new customers. But there’s a big pool of writers who have expertise in a specific financial subject but aren’t looking for customer leads (for example if they’re retired, or if they’ve built up knowledge as an individual investor). Those writers need a different incentive to contribute — namely, money.

The ultimate goal, Jackson said, is to become “the eBay of financial content, to put people in business who otherwise wouldn’t be in business.” Your average Seeking Alpha article receives between 2,500 and and 20,000 pageviews, he added — which means a payment of between $20 and $200. (The payments will be made quarterly, and to reduce the company’s overhead, you won’t get paid until you’re owed at least $100.) For some contributors, the payments will just represent an extra bit of spending money, but for others it could be a nice income.

Some of Seeking Alpha’s existing writers will switch to the new model, while others will not, Jackson said, because if you want to get paid, the site will require exclusive rights to the article.

One of the risks of the pay-per-pageview model is that it might encourage sensationalism for the sake of chasing traffic (and making more money). Obviously, the site wants to grow pageviews, but Jackson said he’ll be relying on its editorial team to act as a quality filter as the amount of submissions grows.

Seeking Alpha already has 4,000 registered contributors, Jackson said. The site’s investors include Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners, and DAG Ventures.

Next Story: iPhone 5, iPad 2 rumors abound: dual-core processors, high-resolution display Previous Story: Evidence suggests Stuxnet worm set Iran’s nuclear program back

Daily Intel
Murray Hill is a Never-Ending Frat Party

Vulture
Heroes Creator Scores With Touch

Daily Intel
Funeral Homes Now Also Wedding Venues

Daily Intel
Wikileaks Reported Threat Exaggerated

Vulture
Ben Affleck Eyes American Bullshit

Vulture
The Weinsteins Take on TV—Again

Daily Intel
Columbia Drug Ringleader Can't Go Home

Vulture
Watch Jeremy Piven’s Bathroom Freak-out

Vulture
The 30 Differences Between the American and British Skins

Vulture
NBC Delays Returns of Law & Order: LA, Marriage Ref

The Cut
Elle Macpherson’s Gown Had a Very Long Tail

The Cut
Burberry’s Sales Boom Is Supposedly Due to Asian Men Buying Satchels

Grub Street New York
Sure Enough, the Paty’s Taco Truck Gets Towed

Vulture
George Lucas Fears 2012 Apocalypse, Says Seth Rogen

Daily Intel
Bill Frist Tells GOP to Snuggle With Health-Care Reform

Daily Intel
Peace Corps Founder Sargent Shriver Dies

Grub Street New York
Lucky’s Famous Burgers Returns to the Lower East Side; Park Slope Loses La Taqueria and Willie’s Dawgs

The Sports Section
So What Did the Jets Do Right Against the Steelers in Week 15?

Vulture
Watch a Super-Cut of People Excusing Themselves in Movies

The Cut
Christina Hendricks Almost Lost an $850,000 Bracelet at the Golden Globes and Then Stashed It in Her Bosom for Safekeeping

Vulture
See the Entire Cast of X-Men: First Class in Costume

Daily Intel
Does Today’s Stock Rally and Gonzo Earnings Mean Apple Can Thrive Without Steve Jobs?

Vulture
Watch a Large, Drunk Puppet Stumble Around Ireland

Grub Street New York
Brio Brightens Up Long Dark Lunetta Space

Vulture
Former American Idol Finalist Alex Lambert Is Homeless

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » Mammoths news ...

“Japanese scientists attempt to resurrect Mammoth” shouted the news agency AFP (source: The online version of the Japanese newspaper “Yomiuri Shimbun”: Daily Yomiuri Online). The article lacks any hints about the major hurdles of such ...

Perfect Market, news ad firm, lands $9 million in funding round ...

Perfect Market Inc, a start-up that seeks to help news organizations make more money through online advertising, has won $9 million in new funding in a round led by Comcast Interactive Capital, the cable giant's venture arm.

Schneier on Security: More Stuxnet News

January 17, 2011. More Stuxnet News. This long New York Times article includes some interesting revelations. The article claims that Stuxnet was a joint Israeli-American project, and that its effectiveness was tested on live equipment: ...

Friday, January 14, 2011

Free rental agreement forms line

It has always been the case that anyone who has the benefit of Legal Aid would go running to their solicitor at the first sign of any problem. They did this on the basis that they weren't paying for any legal advice so they would have as much as possible! Sometimes however this shot them in the foot.

Free rental agreement forms online without prescription

Very often, funding is not a free lunch. If, (in a divorce for example) the parties are arguing over money or a house then some of the value of their house or their money may be at risk. There is an exemption which (the last time I looked) was £5000 but other than that any monies or property in dispute were at risk. In a nutshell, if the fund paid for someone to fight over the old matrimonial home then in the event that the matrimonial home was awarded to the person with the benefit of Legal Aid then the Board would want the costs they had paid, repaying from the value of the home.

online Free rental agreement forms

Make sure to pay ALL future fills and obligations online. This is an obvious one of course, but it is so very important to keep things completely clean at all points forward.

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There are several other specific and little-known steps that can accelerate your success with getting the right kind of mortgage and can help you avoid a bad credit mortgage--make sure to keep reading and researching.

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Apple, News Corp delay The Daily's debut | iLounge News

iLounge news discussing the Apple, News Corp delay The Daily's debut. Find more Apple news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

President Obama's dramatic news at last night's memorial service in Tucson that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' has just minutes before opened her left eye for the first time since the shooting has created some confusion in light of news from ...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Making Easy Money

I've been working in the IT/Internet field since the pre-Google era, so it's been a number of years now. It's been a rough ride of ups and downs, but a great one. Being constantly on the internet, I've always wanted to do something extra, apart from my full time job.

I've tried a million different things and had truckloads of ideas on how to make money online. Forums this, blog that, advert here and advert there, but they all failed. I've read gazillions of documentations, watched hours and hours of presentations about how to make money online — how easy it is to work from home and make over $10,000 a month. Really? Well you want my opinion? Screw all that and do it your own way because YOU LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Look at the history of most companies, giant corporations of today, especially the online ones such as Google, Twitter, Facebook and many others. They all started as a hobby, as a project, and never specifically to make money out of the idea. All the founders of the above mentioned companies, believed so much in their idea, that they dedicated their life to building it. It is not a matter of luck that they are who they are today, but it is sheer determination and good ideas. Money is a secondary thing; it's the result of what you've done. I never used to believe this but now I do believe it, been there, done that.

As I specified above, I've tried a million types of online ideas and website, but they all failed because I specifically wanted to make extra money. Thought there was only one thing that I really liked and loved, and never gave it a shot, music! It was always my dream to have the time to discover new bands, to have all their original CDs and albums, and if possible get in touch with them.

Harry How/Getty Images

While the Cincinnati Bengals don’t have much more to play for, the San Diego Chargers' postseason destiny already seems sealed, as they are one game behind Kansas City in the division and a wild-card berth is unlikely, as they are two games behind both Baltimore and the New York Jets.

Our latest NFL odds have the Chargers as -7.5 in this one with an over/under of 44 points.

Still, the Bolts will come to play behind standout QB Philip Rivers, who has the second best passing offense in the NFL and has thrown for 4,141 yards and 29 touchdowns with just 11 INTs.

The Bolts sure turned things around after starting the year 2-5 and went on a tear including a stretch of six wins and a single loss to the Raiders in Week 13. However, that loss to Oakland can be labeled as the one that ended their hopes of clinching the club's fifth straight AFC West title, as well as knocked them out of playoff contention.

The Chargers have played masterfully at times, and besides Rivers’ golden arm, they have also been able to nurture their rushing attack back from extinction. Running back Mike Tolbert leads the charge with 737 yards and 11 touchdowns, while Ryan Mathews is looking to have a bright future after several early season setback and rookie mistakes.

As good as the offense is, the defense has been that much better and ranks third against the pass and 11th against the run. Shaun Phillips leads the Bolts' pass rush with 11 sacks, while Antoine Cason has snatched a team-high four of the Chargers' 14 interceptions for the year.

That could play a huge role in cutting off the Bengals' passing attack in this one, as QB Carson Palmer has thrown 18 interceptions so far this season. Offensively, the Bengals have been dreadful, with many of Carson’s 3,396 passing yards and 21 touchdowns coning in garbage time.

The season has been a huge disappointment for Cincinnati, as they went from first to worst in the AFC North in just a single season and have one of the worst records in the entire NFL this season.

Running back Cedric Benson has gained 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground, but he too has continued to perform a little too late.

Flashy and sometimes controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens leads the Bengals in receiving but will miss the remainder of the year, leaving Chad Ochocinco as Carson’s main target.

Defensively, the Bengals have not been kittens, holding the opposition to just 25.9 points per game. With plenty of young talent, this could be the core strength of the team heading into next season.

Free Prediction: San Diego -7.5

I expect the Chargers to win this one outright and against the spread with their ability to move the ball and their stingy defense.

Interested in making some money this NFL season? Check out what our expert NFL handicappers have to offer in their weekly NFL picks.

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

Attorneys for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today asked a federal judge to subpoena President Barack Obama to testify in Blagojevich's upcoming corruption trial on charges that include allegations Blagojevich sought to sell Obama's former ...

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

This news is devastating to the Southern Coal Fields and our entire state. The Spruce Number One permit was issued years ago after undergoing a comprehensive permitting process. It is hard to understand how the EPA at this late hour ...

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Blagojevich defense wants Obama subpoenaed - Chicago Breaking News

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BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Monday, January 10, 2011

foreclosure victims

There is nothing wrong with reforming the servicing process, in and of itself. It’s just that you’ll never be able to do that without showing clearly that criminal sanctions on the servicers themselves, reaching all the way to the top, are the appropriate response to criminal behavior. I know we don’t really have a rule of law in this country at a certain level of income, but if we did, you would simply have to apply it in cases where banks bilked people out of their homes through servicer-driven defaults, or where they charged outrageous rates for forced-place insurance to jack up their own fees, or where they broke into occupied homes not even in default and changed the locks. These are simply criminal actions; you’d have to be willfully blind to consider them “inherently civil.”

What Miller’s talking about is fine as far as it goes. The proposed resolution would ban dual-track, where servicers negotiate on a loan modification and seek foreclosure at the same time. It would create a general fund for foreclosure victims who were wrongfully evicted. It would seek to reform the loan modification process by mandating workouts with borrowers who have a certain ability to pay, including introducing principal reductions as a remedy. I don’t have a problem with any of this. But without criminal probes, it’s not really backed up by anything. Why would there be follow-through on the part of the servicers if they can just renegotiate a future settlement? We’ve seen in previous settlement cases that the servicers just don’t follow the guidelines, leading Attorneys General or regulators to sue again. There’s only one way off the merry go-round, and that’s with criminal sanctions.

As one of Yves Smith’s commeters points out, you already have grand juries impaneled to investigate the criminal fraud from foreclosure mills, who the servicers basically hired. Civil actions at this point are basically inadequate.

Needless to say, this is compounded by Miller promising the exact opposite approach to advocates just weeks ago. The AG investigation, if this is the track, could end up creating some nice newspaper articles, but result in nothing close to an actual reform to servicer abuse. Keep in mind that Miller’s name was floated to be the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I suspect that making nice with an Administration averse to “looking backward” could have something to do with this.

Exclusive: Huckabee Working With Scam Artist Notorious For Targeting Foreclosure Victims

Fox News personality and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) recently began appearing in television commercials calling for viewers to dial a 1-800 number to sign a repeal petition against health reform called “Repeal It Now.” The ad, a “project of Restore America’s Voice” (RAV), a political action committee run by Huckabee’s friend Ken Hoagland, also directs viewers to a website that solicits donations. “Well now, we’ll do our spanking on the Congress,” says a cheerful Huckabee before claiming that Americans will “rule” again if the petitioned is signed.

Huckabee, who has a history of using his ubiquitous media presence to fundraise for political groups benefiting himself and his family, is again associating with a shady political venture. ThinkProgress has learned that Huckabee is working with a firm notorious for defrauding families facing foreclosure with false promises and predatory fees.

According to disclosures filed with the FEC, RAV’s campaign is managed by a firm called the 949 Media Group. 949 has been paid tens of thousands of dollars to set up RAV’s website and Google search optimization, and receives a regular commission of $10,000 for related media work from RAV. ThinkProgress spoke to a representative from RAV, who told us that 949 is run by an individual named Derek Oberholtzer. According to the representative, Oberholtzer has worked with RAV since the PAC formed in October.

Oberholtzer is well known as a scam artist who has used a myriad of tricks to defraud people out of their money. In addition to 949 Media Group, he started a number of companies, including “Apply 2 Save” (A2S) and Giant Media Works. Consumer report websites are rife with complaints about Oberholtzer’s odious business practices. In one scheme, Oberholtzer paid for radio and other advertisements telling distressed homeowners to contact his company A2S to pay a flat $595 fee to receive assistance in renegotiating their loans or to block a bank foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission has prosecuted Oberholtzer for deceptive practices. In numerous cases, Oberholtzer took the $595 payment, and never did anything to stop a foreclosure or even contact the mortgage company in question. In many instances he continued billing his customers further fees totaling nearly $1,000 without lifting a finger to actually renegotiate their mortgage or halt a foreclosure, as his “Apply 2 Save” company promised.

On message boards discussing mortgage fraud, story after story details A2S’s trickery. There are heartbreaking tales of families spending their last savings on a lifeline promised by Oberholtzer’s company — only to be defrauded and forced out of their homes.

After receiving over 150 complaints about Oberholtzer’s companies charging up-front fees of over $1,500 without delivering on any foreclosure assistance, the Idaho attorney general banned Oberholtzer from engaging in the home loan business in his state. “Apply 2 Save operated for less than a year, signed up hundreds of clients, and took in millions of dollars,” said Lawrence Wasden, Idaho’s attorney general. “Yet few consumers ever received the mortgage modification services they purchased.” After a successful lawsuit, Wasden was able to win $45,000 from A2S to distribute to Oberholtzer’s victims. In Maryland, Oberholtzer has been served an order to cease and desist after the state commissioner of financial regulation received multiple complaints about Apply 2 Save’s fraudulent scheme. Eventually, A2S was forced into bankruptcy and a wave of legal action in Idaho spurred Oberholtzer to move to California. Oberholtzer also agreed to pay $4 million to settle a civil suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission.

Once he was driven out of the business of defrauding already desperate people facing foreclosure, Oberholtzer became active in Republican politics. The “Repeal It Now” campaign set up by Restore America’s Voice and 949 Media Group claims endorsements from Huckabee, Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, and somehow from deceased president Ronald Reagan. Olberholtzer also owns inactive domains called electmichele.org (presumably for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), repeality.biz, electme2012.com, and ravpac.info. The “Repeal It Now” campaign Huckabee stars in does nothing to accurately discuss health reform or address the health care crisis. It only exists to rake in donations and spread right-wing hysteria.

As ThinkProgress has reported, there are a number of right-wing consultants who appear to orchestrate campaigns simply to enrich themselves. For example, one of the well-paid leaders of the Tea Party Patriots made a career before the Tea Party movement concocting pyramid schemes with herbal nutrient products and the Tea Party Express is run by an infamous Republican consulting firm known for starting front groups to funnel donations back to themselves. Similarly, people like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich seem to be willing to say or do anything to earn a quick buck. However, Huckabee’s central role in legitimizing fraudsters like Oberholtzer might be a new low, even for the radical right.

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Wotlk Making Money

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Making Money Online Scams

My guest on Hedge Fund Radio this week is penny stock trader and Internet entrepreneur, Tim Sykes. Every once in a while I run into a natural born trader, someone who crawls out of the crib quoting options spreads, price earnings multiples, and book values. His first spoken word was “Sell!” While other kids were practicing their ABC’s, Tim was pouring through prospectii.

During his college years, Tim skipped classes and turned a $12,415 Bar Mitzvah gift into $1.65 million by trading the market from his dorm room. By the time he graduated from Tulane in 2003, he was already running his own hedge fund. Barclays Bank rated it the number one short bias fund during 2003-2006.

Tim argues that if you cut through all the hype and manipulation in the penny stock market, it is clear that there are huge opportunities on the short side. Most of the companies trading there are frauds, and most will fail. Mini Enron’s and mini Madoff’s abound.

Defined as trading under $5 a share, these stocks are purchased mostly by individuals desperate for “get rich quick” success. Promoters buy lists of email addresses from major online publishers, sometimes paying millions of dollars, to launch a never ending onslaught of “pump and dump” schemes. Email barrages and Twitter spam have replaced the dinnertime telemarketing calls and junk mail of yore.

The SEC is so inundated with tips on Madoff copycats and competitors ratting out each other, they don’t have time to pursue gripes about $1,000 losses emanating from penny stock scams. It’s like expecting the FBI to pursue shoplifters of 99 cent items from Seven Eleven stores.

Some of the claims made by these bogus IPO’s boggle the imagination. Tim’s favorite was one company’s efforts to promote vitamins infused with stem cells. Another offered a solar spray that turned you house into an energy source. Then there was the BP Gulf oil spill that threw up innumerable crude eating forms of algae. As for my own experience, I’ll never forget the aquaculture farm in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert. To separate out the obvious rip offs from the legitimate companies, Tim spends hours a day gleaning through voluminous SEC filings, some of which are blatant cut and paste jobs from earlier failed floatations.

Even though most of these companies are fake, prices can run away to the upside, wiping out the early short sellers. So some risk control discipline is required. When a stock truly rockets, “buy-ins” of shorts can also be a problem. A few hundred penny stocks are launched each year, but only about five a month catch on fire. And remember, Apple (AAPL), and True Religion (TRLG) jeans were once penny stocks.

To avoid being taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous con men, Tim offers some very basic advice. If it is too good to be true, it generally is. It also helps to read the SEC filings, which can be obtained online for free.

Tim claims to have a success rate with his short strategy of 75%, which has delivered a 56% return in 2010, proving he still has the golden touch. His problem is that the strategy is not scalable, and can only be executed with a small amount of money. No mega hedge fund for him.

That’s why Tim has turned to online education instead of ramping up a big hedge fund. Today, he is offering several subscription newsletters, trade alerts, chat rooms, along with a DVD course on making money in the penny stock market at his website at http://www.timothysykes.com/ .

To listen to my highly informative and entertaining interview with Time Sykes on Hedge Fund Radio, please click here at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/december-22-2010-time-sykes.html .

To see the data, charts, and graphs that support this research piece, as well as more iconoclastic and out-of-consensus analysis, please visit me at www.madhedgefundtrader.com . There, you will find the conventional wisdom mercilessly flailed and tortured daily, and my last two years of research reports available for free. You can also listen to me on Hedge Fund Radio by clicking on “This Week on Hedge Fund Radio” in the upper right corner of my home page.

To listen to my highly informative and entertaining interview with Time Sykes on Hedge Fund Radio, please click here at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/december-22-2010-time-sykes.html .

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