He also reveals some insights gained from his member survey, which should provide valuable information to anybody who runs a blog. The key takeaway for me — this jibes with what I’ve learned from my own experience & surveys — is to keep things concise and relevant to the site’s main topic. After seeing the results of the first survey I did I was surprised at the popularity of my links section. That survey made it clear that people were using me as a means to help them manage the tons of stock market info being published on a daily basis. So if my role is to help people maximize their time then I certainly don’t want to create even more information overload. In fact, I’ve been drastically cutting back on my own information intake which is why the number of links I post each day is way down from a year ago. I hope to keep it around this level and maybe even a little less as I continue to weed out the news feeds I track.

Another interesting thing from Kirk’s survey is that book reviews are one of his readers’ least favorite things. I’ve been struggling with reviews for at least the last year. I have a stack of 6 unread books that were sent to me to review. Two of which I tried my best not to accept because I knew it would be a while before I got a chance to read them, much less review them. (There are two others that I read long ago, liked very much, and still need to write reviews on — Enhancing Trader Performance and Financial Armageddon) After reading Kirk’s survey results I’m feeling better about my new stance of being extremely selective on books. And maybe I’ll even get those two reviews done before 2009.

Kirk also wrote that “Trading and investing in a fishbowl where others can review, constantly question, and critique every move I make has proven not helpful.” That’s not at all surprising to me and it’s part of why I try not to talk about my positions too much. Kirk mentions some of the other reasons as well — like the appearance of (or being accused of) manipulation, etc. This is stuff to seriously consider if you’re running a blog.

Like Kirk, I’m going to be making some changes to the site as well as the site’s content. You’ll start to see the changes in the next few days and hopefully they’ll be better for all involved.

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

Balance & Options

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Some of you know about FaveBot.com, which I’ve been building since this summer. FaveBot is a software agent (robot) that continuously searches the web for “stuff” of interest to you. That stuff could be any of the following:

• Local Events
• Blog Posts
• Books (New Releases)
• DVDs (New Releases)
• MP3s / CDs (New Releases)
• News Articles
• Photos
• Podcasts
• Online Videos

FaveBot can track those things for whatever topics you specify. So you could track your favorite sports teams, actors, musicians, hobbies, etc. But I wanted to show how you can use FaveBot to track stock market / finance related content. The advantage FaveBot has over, say, Yahoo Finance, is that it searches so many different media types. For example, there’s a lot of good financial content ‘buired’ in audio and video files that’s not picked up by Yahoo Finance. FaveBot will find that content for you if you choose to track podcasts and/or videos. Ditto for blogs.

To demonstrate FaveBot I set up a user, TraderMike, who’s based in New York. (the location is important for event tracking) There are two main areas of FaveBot. First is the user’s tracking list. That’s the list of topics (keywords) that the user has entered. Second is the “discoveries” list. That is the list of what FaveBot has found to match the user’s tracking list. You can choose to view all discoveries together or just the discoveries for one topic at a time.

Here’s a portion of the tracking list:

The tracking list is basically a control panel. Use the ‘New Tracking’ link to add a topic to be tracked. When you’re logged in you’ll see checkboxes next to each of your topics. You can turn those on & off from this page as well. You’ll also notice that there are numbers in parenthesis after each topic’s name. Clicking that number will take you to the discoveries for that topic. Likewise, clicking the Orange RSS button will give you the RSS feed for that topic.

Feel free to click over to FaveBot and see what it’s discovered for the 20 topics TraderMike is tracking. Here is TraderMike’s tracking list and here’s where you can see all of TraderMike’s discoveries across all his topics (equivalent to clicking the ‘discoveries’ tab when you’re logged in).

If you’d like to set up your own list, just go to the sign up page. Once you’ve got your list set you can have your discoveries sent to you via RSS (e.g. add them to your My Yahoo page) or via email. Please let me know if you have any questions and/or feedback.

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

Tracking Financial Info with FaveBot

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On the bright side, perhaps this will motivate me to finally load all my stock tools on my notebook as well so I can post from anywhere.

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

OK, Maybe I’m not Back Yet

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Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

Stanford Magazine Profile of Lindsay Campbell

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The bulk of my time between now & the Fed meeting will be spent working on the website/service I’ve been building. I’ve been making good progress and hope to get that launched in the next several days. Hopefully some of you will help me beta test it.

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

I’m Back…

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I’m passing along an email I got from Jeff, one of WallStrip’s producers. If you know somebody who fits the bill please pass the info along to them…

Adam and I were hoping you could help us out with a challenging, and very important, personnel search.

We’re looking for a super-blogger/web admin/web project manager for Wallstrip. The idea would be someone who understands blogging beyond the content side, knows how to modify the CSS on the widget, do some light coding, and understands the blogosphere and web 2.0 from the user side. Most importantly, though, we’re looking for someone with that “get in there and mess with it” creativity. When we launch CBS on Joost, for example, this is the person who’ll want to dive in and spend a day working with a front end developer to make a bunch of cool widgets for Wallstrip using their HTML interface.

Needless to say, we’ve been having a lot of trouble finding the right person. We’ve had many applicants with hardcore networking or coding experience, and plenty of bloggers who are content-centered, but have been unable to find the right web 2.0 hybrid who wants to innovate like we innovate on the show.

Since you’re working in this space every day, we’re hoping you might be able to help us find someone. The job is full time in NYC and pays 52k - 65k a year (depending on experience) plus benefits. It starts ASAP (like a month ago!). It’s not necessary that we have someone with a ton of work experience. Young, enthusiastic and creative in this space is really what we’re looking for.

Please email us with any thoughts you might have, or potential candidates can email resumes directly to amanda - at - wallstrip.com with the subject line: 2.0web admin

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

WallStrip Looking to Hire ‘Super-Blogger’…

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I’m taking a little summer vacation so posting will be light over the next month & a half or so. I’ll be doing a little traveling during that time as well as focusing on a project I’d like to get off the ground soon. And frankly, I just need a break from the daily blog posting. There will be some new posts from time to time but it’ll probably be something like twice a week. I will try to keep the links section up to date though. Later…

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

Gone ’til September

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The rumors going around for the last week or so have put a LOT of emphasis on the hostess, (with the most-ess) Lindsay Campbell. Obviously Lindsay does a great job and I think she was a perfect choice for the host position. But people really need to recognize the talent and hard work of Adam Eland, Jeff Marks (BrightRed Pictures) and Jon and Roman from Fresh Bread Network. These guys really know their stuff and have been working their a$$es off to get these shows out every day. I’ve seen the shooting and editing process and was shocked at how much work it takes to produce 2 to 3 minutes of video. It’s truly been a team effort and CBS is acquiring a team that knows a lot about producing and distributing web video and is damn good it.

Speaking of video, here’s today’s WallStrip which covers the CBS deal. Enjoy:

P.S. NewTeeVee has a bit more on the deal with CBS.

P.P.S. Fred “Rolodex” Wilson (aka Super VC) has a great post about this WallStrip deal. He gets to the heart of why CBS wanted to bring the team in-house.

P.P.P.S. TechCrunch has a follow-up to their original rumor post. They still don’t seem to get it. Perhaps Duncan needs to read Fred’s post.

P.P.P.P.S Be sure to read the comments by Jeff and Adam on that TechCrunch post for the real deal.

And finally, here’s the official press release from CBS:

  CBS Interactive today announced the acquisition of Wallstrip, an online property that produces and syndicates a daily webshow focused on financial news. The acquisition was first referenced in Wallstrip’s program this morning.

  While Wallstrip will maintain a separate identity, the Wallstrip team will work with CBS Interactive to build original web and mobile-based content and community.

  “CBS recognizes that original web content - whether it’s news, sports or entertainment - is starting to show real traction with audiences, producers and advertisers,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “As CBS evolves from a content company into an audience company, we need to build a team of talented web producers who ‘get’ the growing online demand.”

  Wallstrip brings to CBS a loyal community of stock market enthusiasts, venture capitalists, business students and traders. The show’s unique blend of irreverent humor and finance attracts a young, predominantly male viewership.  In the six months since it launched, the Wallstrip team secured syndication for its daily content through properties such as YouTube, Veoh, Blip.tv, iTunes, Yahoo! Podcasts, Google Finance, TheStreet.com, AOL Uncut, vSocial and Revver. Through these and other distribution outlets Wallstrip has built a sizable online audience.

  “CBS is a great match for Wallstrip,” said Howard Lindzon, Wallstrip Founder and CEO. “The CBS Interactive team is committed to growing the property and expanding the programming while keeping true to the core product. We have a lot of room to grow inside of the financial news vertical and CBS will help us get there faster.  In addition, it will be exciting to watch what happens when the creative talents of Adam and Jeff are unleashed inside CBS Interactive.”

  Continued Smith, “The Wallstrip team is made up of savvy and resourceful web content creators whose talents we will utilize as we build our next-generation roster of programming verticals.  Also, their distribution strategy of syndicating their content to many video properties rather than force people to visit Wallstrip.com is very much in line with the CBS Interactive philosophy.”

  As part of the acquisition, Wallstrip writers and producers Adam Elend and Jeff Marks will executive produce original video content for CBS Interactive and Lindsay Campbell will continue as host of the program. Wallstrip creator, Howard Lindzon will take on an active consultant role for the division.

  CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW - a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime and CSTV Networks), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products) and video/ DVD (CBS Home Entertainment). For more information, log on to http://www.cbscorporation.com/.

 

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CBS Acquires WallStrip

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Who Would You Like to See Interviewed on WallStrip?

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As you can see, I was getting over 3 times the normal traffic last night. That pushed my daily traffic to a record high (I hear I’m not the only one Barry, also got a huge spike in traffic) (Edit: Barry has now made a post about his traffic spike and his thoughts on what this means for blogs & the mainstream media.):

If this selling keeps up I have no doubt that I’ll be able to turn to my old trusty “this market sucks” indicator to call a bottom.

Post from: Trader Mike's Blog

A Record Day in More Ways than One

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