Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)

[KopiKat]

The idea of blogging and using it to generate a regular stream of income sounds very appealing and easy. In reality, it can be a lot of hard work that can consume a lot of time.

First, you need to generate the contents. It must be attractive / useful and regularly updated enough such that your visitors will want to come back again and again.

Next, you have to create an awareness of your blog. There're millions of blogs out there, you won't get more than a handful of hits if no one is aware. Further, these accidental visitors may not be your target group of visitors and will unlikely visit again. This part on creating awareness can also be very time consuming. If you openly advertise in forums (for free), you'll likely get into a lot of quarrels.... Besides this, you may have to entertain discussions, rebuttals or just plain quarrelsome people who doesn't like your posts... All these can be very time-consuming...

Lastly, your visitors will need to click on the adverts on your blog site before you'll even get some decimal of a cent...

Especially when you blog in the area of Stocks Investing, I don't think there's a very huge community in Singapore ie. your target group of people is not that huge. Further, the thought which come to mind is, if you'd been reasonably successful in your investment analysis (to make money), wouldn't your time be better spent to focus on this, rather than to spend it on sharing and trying to earn from the adverts clicks???

IMO, by all means blog to share or if it helps you to consolidate your thinking or even to invite others to point out mistakes in your analysis. But, if you're spending too much time trying to earn from the adverts..... I personally think you're not being very smart and productive with your time...

PS. I have been blogging since '05 and I do have more than 10 blogs, mostly either private or restricted to close friends and family members. I have experienced what I posted above and would actually prefer not to continue blogging publicly for the above stated reasons...

[Big Toe]

There are a number of very smart people lurking in this forum.
Meaningful discussion is fruitful and many readers gain from it.
Argument is pointless in a faceless forum, there is no reward for winning.
At the end of the day, when you do make plenty of money from investing,
the last thing you want is to do is to let many people know exactly how you did it.
(Unless you wish to start some trading/investment class)

[Temperament]

There are a number of very smart people lurking in this forum.
Meaningful discussion is fruitful and many readers gain from it.
Argument is pointless in a faceless forum, there is no reward for winning.
At the end of the day, when you do make plenty of money from investing,
the last thing you want is to do is to let many people know exactly how you did it.
(Unless you wish to start some trading/investment class)

i think actually many people blogging here have more or less say it directly or indirectly how they do/did it, at least at times. But just like a Taichi Master can show you his skills, you most probably can not copy from him. You need practice and practice but still you may not be able to do it the way he does. That's why he is a "Master" and we are just his pupils.
Anyway, i think i am a pupil for life. i am willing to learn from anyone; good or bad. Why bad too? If don't know what's bad, how do we know what's good.
But i agree, people who come here just to try to advertise or promote about their busineses is at the wrong blog.

[Greenrookie]

There are a number of very smart people lurking in this forum.
Meaningful discussion is fruitful and many readers gain from it.
Argument is pointless in a faceless forum, there is no reward for winning.
At the end of the day, when you do make plenty of money from investing,
the last thing you want is to do is to let many people know exactly how you did it.
(Unless you wish to start some trading/investment class)

Actually if "exactly how you did it" means which buy at what time and what price, yes. But I feel (maybe naive) that many are already sharing quite selflessly. I am actually quite surprised at some of the info received here (maybe i start with a low base so easily contented ) and some other blogs. I was quite cynical before,and thought, "sure, they will answer your questions", but surprising I think I learn more about about reits and property counters from forums than from reading books and attending training/ seminar (I am not going to do it anymore).

I think the truth is there are many successful ppl willing to tell you how they do it, but most didn't do it overnight and the journey is not without risks. Sometimes its we ourselves who didn't apply what we know, I for one, have a low threshold for Margin of safety, although we are taught to have 50% margin of safety, I sometime out of impatience, just get something at lower margin...

[KopiKat]

There are a number of very smart people lurking in this forum.
Meaningful discussion is fruitful and many readers gain from it.
Argument is pointless in a faceless forum, there is no reward for winning.
At the end of the day, when you do make plenty of money from investing,
the last thing you want is to do is to let many people know exactly how you did it.
(Unless you wish to start some trading/investment class)

Actually if "exactly how you did it" means which buy at what time and what price, yes. But I feel (maybe naive) that many are already sharing quite selflessly. I am actually quite surprised at some of the info received here (maybe i start with a low base so easily contented ) and some other blogs. I was quite cynical before,and thought, "sure, they will answer your questions", but surprising I think I learn more about about reits and property counters from forums than from reading books and attending training/ seminar (I am not going to do it anymore).

I think the truth is there are many successful ppl willing to tell you how they do it, but most didn't do it overnight and the journey is not without risks. Sometimes its we ourselves who didn't apply what we know, I for one, have a low threshold for Margin of safety, although we are taught to have 50% margin of safety, I sometime out of impatience, just get something at lower margin...

When it comes to investing, I don't believe there's such a thing as 100% certainty. There're just too many variables, many of which are not within our control, to deal with. What we can do is to increase our probability of being lucky by digging, searching, reading, analysing... It helps (for people like me who are lacking in many areas of necessary competencies like accounting or industry knowledge) to have alternative view points from others who're likely to have varied and different (from me) competencies and focus. We think and debate through their view points, go back to digging, searching,.... to verify, if we think it's important enough. The odds can only get better.... or we may even suddenly realise we are totally wrong cos' we had not seen / ignored some critical factors...

VB (from WS days) is the best thing in Stocks Investing that could have happened to me when I first stumbled on it in '05. Altho' the majority here are very likely thinking in the same manner or varying degree of similarity as Big Toe, all I need is just a handful of others (even just 1 is enough) who're more inclined to sharing, to make my visit here worthwhile.

[cfa]

I fully agree with kopikat , most people in this forum are more willing to share rather than being selfish.

[chialc]

I benefited from VB (plus the previous incarnations too).

My diary entries recorded my discovery of *this* website since May 2006 aka Wallstraits.com

Our friend Dennis was already an active contributor and so do cif5000. (bigtoe/wood is on and off).

I learn a lot from Dennis (and subsequently from d.o.g. too).

This is a place that ignite my "value investment" vs "TA" soul searching journey.

I blog here (travel and tour) with only one goal.... add fun to VB.

As I'm not savvy enough to add value in "Value investing" nor "TA", I shared my travel stories so that you can share my joys and my excitements.

Happy reading.

[Dividend Warrior]

I benefited from VB (plus the previous incarnations too).

My diary entries recorded my discovery of *this* website since May 2006 aka Wallstraits.com

Our friend Dennis was already an active contributor and so do cif5000. (bigtoe/wood is on and off).

I learn a lot from Dennis (and subsequently from d.o.g. too).

This is a place that ignite my "value investment" vs "TA" soul searching journey.

I blog here (travel and tour) with only one goal.... add fun to VB.

As I'm not savvy enough to add value in "Value investing" nor "TA", I shared my travel stories so that you can share my joys and my excitements.

Happy reading.

Thanks for sharing chialc!!!

[Big Toe]

Good to hear everyone's view.
Sharing is good. Disagreement is good as well, we'll all be doomed if we all think alike.
(Soros/paulson/buffett all made good money even though they don't think alike.)
The problem starts when people start to to think that they are more right and gets into a heated argument.
The point I am trying to get across is that don't get carried away, this is a faceless forum,
the real reward does not come from winning in this forum, it is winning from the market that matters.

Also there is a difference in sharing what we know and how exactly we go about doing things.
I.e. D.O.G is a well respected/generous contributor and shares his thoughts. Adds a lot of value to the forum.
But does he reveal what exactly he is doing and his modus operandi? Never. If he did, he's not d.o.g

I am a believer of difference in things you can get for free and what you can get for a fee.
(Even though sometimes the quality of investment courses can be questionable but that's besides the point.)

---

Just to share I think AIG looks very attractive.
Very vested

[memphisb]

short qn.

Anyone seen old forummer madam lark around in other forums?