You have no doubt heard of MySpace, but did you know that it and other sites like it such as Facebook, Orkut, and YouTube can be used as great research tools that can put you way ahead of the market?

Let me show you exactly how this works: Companies that are using these sites as a regular part of their business and media models have a huge edge over their competition who just don’t get it.

These sites represent many of the top 10 most visited sites in the world.

For instance just MySpace and Facebook alone get around 2.5 Billion with a B hits a day… A DAY!

The kicker is that the vast majority of the business clients that I consult with don’t have a clue about how to capitalize on these numbers. But those that do it right can see phenomenal growth no matter what business they are in.

This is part of the reason why I can base 95% of my consulting fee on guaranteeing to improve revenue and profit by 10% to 20% within just a few months for my clients no matter the size or type of business they are in or I don’t get paid.

How many other consultants will do that?

I am currently working on two books based on using these effectively. The one you see is for Investors and I will be giving you some of the best and most relevant concepts from it over the coming weeks.

The other one is a “How To” for businesses to show them how to capitalize on this.

The largest problem for many companies is that their IT people usually don’t have a clue about marketing, and their PR and Ad people don’t have a clue about IT. It is a double whammy. But for those companies that do get it, they have a huge advantage.

In the book I will teach you how to use these alternative methods and tools to find hidden and not so hidden gems.

First off, find out if the company has a MySpace or Facebook page and see how they are using it.

As far as I know, I have not seen a concise book on using these sites as a research tool. But then again, if someone is using them the way I am going to show you, more than likely they are not going to broadcast how they do it.

But there’s a rub – and it’s really ironic. The more people that find out about these tools and use them the better it is for everyone.

Want to see how it works right now? (more…)

Why are we here? Not the big, big question, but the smaller one, Why Am I An Investor?

Well, I have been thinking about it and here is what I came up with and see if you agree.

“As an investor, I want to make as much money as fast as I can ethically, and repeat this formula consistently on a regular basis for the rest of my life”.

How is that? Does that about cover it? Well if it does, then you came to the right place. I have been on a quest for the above since I was in 3rd grade when I started selling combs and Christmas cards door to door. (more…)

Everyone seems to talk about the best investments, which one, which type, which market and without a doubt the best investment you can make is in yourself.

Think about it, with all of the information out there on the net, you have better access to information than the best Analyst did just 5 years ago.

Granted there is a ton of info that is wrong and irrelevant but still, you have at your fingertips every bit of information that you need to make solid investment decisions.  My family has always been a big believer in self-reliance and who better to look out after you money than you?

Here is an illustration on what happens when you improve your rate of return by just 4% over a portfolio over a 10 year period.  This is a portfolio worth $100,000

At 8% compounded annually we end up with:  $278,474.45 

At 12%  compounded annually we end up with: $389,203.15

At 16%  compounded annually we end up with: $540,075.13

and finally at 20% compounded annually we end up with: $743,775.32

The payoffs can be very significant if you educate yourself on the various investing techniques and learn how to tweak your game even just a little bit as you can see.

I myself, never look at investment if I don’t have a chance at getting at least a 20% annualized return.  What is interesting is that you often get what you expect.  Frankly most of the time I far exceed 20% in many cases but even when I don’t, even if I fall short by 50%, I still do Ok.  But here again, it is all about what knowledge base you have and what you are willing to settle for, and what you expect to come out with.

The game is won over time and not with any one trade or investment.  So, you should play for the long haul with the preservation of capital being first and foremost.   Because if you don’t have any marbles you can’t be in the game at all.

So, perhaps take an extra hour or two a week put it into improving your investment knowledge and the payoffs can be large indeed.

You may just find that your best investment is yourself.

This is going to end up being a huge section. I will be evaluating a long list of Tools that can help directly and indirectly with your Investing.

This topic is going to cover a wide variety of products and services that range from keeping you organized, to communications and actual trading tools.

Rather than putting all of these items into one page, I will be putting them into one Category called “Tools and Resources”.

I want and need your feedback on the recommendations. So, please feel free to let me know what you think and if you have a Tool or Resource that you would like me to review, just post a comment here and I will be in touch!

Tool Number #1

Communications

Ok, here is the first Tool I am going to recommend. This not only has uses for your investing, but in all parts of communications. I have been using this for a while now and if you have never heard of this and you are not using it you should do yourself a favor and signup for it right now.

Get Skype for your Business – free conference calls and video calling. Free and Low rate local calls

Skype allows you to make free calls to other members around the world and to any phone in the world at a low, low, price. You can also do free conference calls and free video calls. Want to record a call? You can do that as well.

They even have a business service that you can integrate with a snap. Sign up, it is FREE. Once you try it you will be amazed at the quality of the calls. I call Russia, Australia, and India on a regular basis and the calls sound better than most of my domestic calls.

In order to have an automated voice mail and to be able to have message follow you, after you get Skype, you will want to download Pamela below. It works seamlessly with Skype and adds more features. Oh, yea, you can download it for free too.

This is one of those services that I still find a bit amazing. How does this compare with Vonage? Well, most of it is free, and if you want to use a regular phone, it only costs your about $3 bucks a month, versus $24.95 a month. So, the question is, do you want to save $21 dollars a month and have more features or not?

As far as a stock play, I think that Skype and some of the other options I will be mentioning, could end up taking Vonage out of the market and is one of the reasons for their big decline in value. That and the fact that EBay owns Skype means they have some deep pockets to keep adding to their services.

I like Skype and I think you will too! Oh and I almost forgot one thing. You can also add a tool called KishKish which is a real time stress tester. So, you have a good chance at telling if the person your are talking to is, how shall I say this, taking creative liberties with what they are telling you. Not sure how accurate it is, but it is fun.

If anyone wants to test it with me, add a comment here.

A couple of other features that you get with Pamela and Skype.

Using Pamela, you can add notes to your call recordings. I don’t know about you, but it I had recorded every called in Trade I would have made I know that I would be tens of thousands of dollars richer just from missed or blown trades by various brokers.

It also allows you to transfer a call to another Skype user. Talk about a virtual office set up. You can even have callers leave you a video message and transfer files to you as well! It sure makes doing deals a lot easier.

These two products are definitely the dynamic duo. Look for more great tools like this. Click below to listen to the quality of the sound of the phone and messages.

Enjoy!