Four years ago I had this little idea of creating a website for the purpose of sorting out all my ideas about investing. Writing everything down on scraps of paper and then trying to learn from my mistakes wasn't working. I kept losing my notes and then making the same mistakes over and over again. I had to find a better way.
So I created this website and I initially set it up for my two passions in life - investing and photography. At the time I made the conscious decision to resist any and all advertising on the site and to this day there hasn't been any annoying ads. Perhaps one day I may put forced to display a very limited number of advertisements on the photography side of this site, but only if I can find what I consider appropriate support from camera equipment companies. On the investment side, however, I will resist placing any ads completely. For now, and for the most part, there aren't any advertisements on either side of the site.
I'd like to keep it that way for a very long time.
So I created this website and I initially set it up for my two passions in life - investing and photography. At the time I made the conscious decision to resist any and all advertising on the site and to this day there hasn't been any annoying ads. Perhaps one day I may put forced to display a very limited number of advertisements on the photography side of this site, but only if I can find what I consider appropriate support from camera equipment companies. On the investment side, however, I will resist placing any ads completely. For now, and for the most part, there aren't any advertisements on either side of the site.
I'd like to keep it that way for a very long time.
"Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need."
-- Will Rogers, Humorist
Now I’m not adverse to making money (you'll notice I do write articles about investing) but I’ve been perplexed by all those advertisements I see on other investing websites. I understand the idea behind all that advertising. Bloggers sell space on their websites so that naive investors who visit those investing websites looking to read the interesting investing content are bombarded with advertisements. At times those advertisements may even look like content. Readers are then expected to click on those ads and the site owner, in return, makes money. It's a "pay-per-click" moneymaker.
This is a fairly simple concept to understand, but it makes me wonder why any investing sites would have any ads at all. Think about it. Is the purpose of the site to sell ads? Or is the purpose of the site to provide information on investing? Do the ads make more money for the website author than simply executing the advice that’s being provided? Why doesn't the author just use his own advice and invest accordingly? Surely there's a hundred times more money to be made by buying and selling stock based upon the websites advice (if the advice is any good) than there would be in the few dollars made from all those annoying advertisements.
This is a fairly simple concept to understand, but it makes me wonder why any investing sites would have any ads at all. Think about it. Is the purpose of the site to sell ads? Or is the purpose of the site to provide information on investing? Do the ads make more money for the website author than simply executing the advice that’s being provided? Why doesn't the author just use his own advice and invest accordingly? Surely there's a hundred times more money to be made by buying and selling stock based upon the websites advice (if the advice is any good) than there would be in the few dollars made from all those annoying advertisements.
"The public doesn't particularly care for advertisements."
-- John C. Malone, Chairman of Liberty Media
I find these advertisements on other investing sites simply annoying or down right irritating and I assume others would find them annoying on mine too. So I've made the conscious decision not to include these annoyances. Fortunately I have the luxury of not having to pay for this site (thank you Weebly) because it is so graciously hosted by Weebly.com for free.
I’ve had other websites in the past and I can honestly say this is the best development site I have ever used. Weebly.com makes putting websites up on the net easy and simple. If anyone wishes to create a website for just about any purpose, I highly recommend you at least visit their site and spend a little time reading their literature. You’ll be surprised at just how user friendly it is. It’ll allow you to quickly get past the mechanics of putting a website together and allow you to concentrate on the content you want to include on your site. And that should be what your website is all about, right?
If you've read any of my articles you've come to understand that I write about my investing style and the stocks that I am or am not investing in at the moment. I also include many of my investing ideas and the reasoning and rationale behind my buys and sells. I do not charge to visit my site and I don't sell advertising. I put it all out there and with both quantitative data and enough hot links that I can be checked and criticized.
I have a relatively simple investing philosophy and only a few guidelines and processes. To tell the truth, I sometimes think I’m just repeating that philosophy and those guidelines and processes from article to article to article. But I may be wrong. In the end only the readers of these articles can really decide if these articles are repetitive or redundant. I’ll eventually find out when the statistics of this website start to falter.
Hopefully each article articulates or explains a slightly new or different approach to the way I invest. And hopefully I can spark a new idea in the minds of those who read these articles. It’s just one of the reasons I continue to write. But most important of all, I’m not just writing about the topic of investing, I’m writing about the strategies and methods I use when I’m investing with my own money.
I’ve had other websites in the past and I can honestly say this is the best development site I have ever used. Weebly.com makes putting websites up on the net easy and simple. If anyone wishes to create a website for just about any purpose, I highly recommend you at least visit their site and spend a little time reading their literature. You’ll be surprised at just how user friendly it is. It’ll allow you to quickly get past the mechanics of putting a website together and allow you to concentrate on the content you want to include on your site. And that should be what your website is all about, right?
If you've read any of my articles you've come to understand that I write about my investing style and the stocks that I am or am not investing in at the moment. I also include many of my investing ideas and the reasoning and rationale behind my buys and sells. I do not charge to visit my site and I don't sell advertising. I put it all out there and with both quantitative data and enough hot links that I can be checked and criticized.
I have a relatively simple investing philosophy and only a few guidelines and processes. To tell the truth, I sometimes think I’m just repeating that philosophy and those guidelines and processes from article to article to article. But I may be wrong. In the end only the readers of these articles can really decide if these articles are repetitive or redundant. I’ll eventually find out when the statistics of this website start to falter.
Hopefully each article articulates or explains a slightly new or different approach to the way I invest. And hopefully I can spark a new idea in the minds of those who read these articles. It’s just one of the reasons I continue to write. But most important of all, I’m not just writing about the topic of investing, I’m writing about the strategies and methods I use when I’m investing with my own money.
So how do I make money with this website?
At this point you may be asking yourself exactly how can I afford to write all these articles. Or how do I make money writing these articles? Well, I don’t. Not a dime. These articles are truly a labor of love. But before you start to feel sorry for me, I must tell you that I do make money from these articles in a round about way.
The way I make money from this site is by taking my own investing advice. I actually research, write and then do the things I discuss in my articles. The result is that I'm able to make some very profitable trades by taking my own advice. Writing these articles ends up being my way of clarifying my ideas about the investing I do. They end up being a catharsis for me. They’re my epiphany.
If no one ever reads these articles they’ve still been worth creating just for the fact that they have improved my understanding of the markets and my trading. Every day my trading strategy becomes clearer and clearer to me. If I ever begin to second guess my decisions, I simply refer to my earlier articles. These articles continue to reassure me on a daily basis that my investing philosophy, guidelines and processes remain on track. And if any of this has helped anyone else, then all the better.
Good Luck and Good Trading.
At this point you may be asking yourself exactly how can I afford to write all these articles. Or how do I make money writing these articles? Well, I don’t. Not a dime. These articles are truly a labor of love. But before you start to feel sorry for me, I must tell you that I do make money from these articles in a round about way.
The way I make money from this site is by taking my own investing advice. I actually research, write and then do the things I discuss in my articles. The result is that I'm able to make some very profitable trades by taking my own advice. Writing these articles ends up being my way of clarifying my ideas about the investing I do. They end up being a catharsis for me. They’re my epiphany.
If no one ever reads these articles they’ve still been worth creating just for the fact that they have improved my understanding of the markets and my trading. Every day my trading strategy becomes clearer and clearer to me. If I ever begin to second guess my decisions, I simply refer to my earlier articles. These articles continue to reassure me on a daily basis that my investing philosophy, guidelines and processes remain on track. And if any of this has helped anyone else, then all the better.
Good Luck and Good Trading.
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