Blog focus: The Disciplined Investor

Last Updated on Saturday, 27 February 2010 06:34 Written by Saturday, 27 February 2010 06:34

Coverage: trading, quantitative analysis, technical analysis, fundamental analysis

Platform: wordpress

Reach: Newsflashr: #11, Alexa: 137065, feedreaders: unknown

Updates available: RSS, twitter, facebook, podcasts

Premium services: sales of book “The Disciplined Investor”, promotion of managed investment service

Frequency of posting: several times daily

Monetization: primarily through promotion of book and managed investment service, plus display ads that appear to be for affiliate programs

This is Andrew Horowitz’s site, and not surprisingly it focuses on the strategy outlined in his book, The Disciplined Investor.  The strategy – Horowitz calls it “QuantaFundaTechna” – begins with quantitative stock screens that filter stocks for size, sector, earnings growth, rating, corporate structure and price momentum. Next, fundamental overlays are added to refine the list.  Finally, technical analysis is considered for entry and exit points. 

The best way to get a sense of how Horowitz synthesizes these different approaches is to look at his review of an actual stock, such as this review of Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM).

Is reader identity fair game?

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 February 2010 12:27 Written by Saturday, 20 February 2010 12:27

Tim Iacono has a post on The Mess That Greenspan Made where he posts a detail discussing the fact that he received a blog visit from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Nothing real unusual there, except that Iacono posts a screenshot from his stats provider indicating the user’s IP address, referral URL, and outclick.

Are these kind of details off limits?   I cannot imagine that a reader anticipates that his or her IP address or URL will be published.  Financial bloggers, weigh in: do you think its fair game to write posts about the identity of readers who do nothing more than visit your blog?

Blog focus: Wise Bread

Last Updated on Monday, 15 February 2010 09:45 Written by Monday, 15 February 2010 09:45

Coverage: personal finance, frugal living, saving money

Platform: unknown

Reach: Alexa: 11805, feedreaders: unknown

Updates available: RSS, email, twitter

Premium services:

Frequency of posting: 1-5 times daily

Monetization: display ads, affiliate ads, “deal” style posts, newsletters with affiliate advertisements

Wise Bread may be the most popular personal finance site out there, and its a well-deserved reputation.  The scope is very broad and the posts frequent.  If there is a money-saving tip, you can probably find it on Wise Bread.  Post topics run the gamut from helping your teenagers to become money smart to getting a better job and more money.  The approach is broader than I Will Teach You To Be Rich, but both are worth reading.

Wise Bread’s breadth is largely a result of its writers.  Wise Bread is a group blog, meaning it has several contributors who each write posts for the blog. Top recent contributors include Linsey Knerl, Lynn Truong, Marla Walters, Myscha Theriault, Nora Dunn, Paul Michael, Philip Brewer, Sasha A. Rae, Sierra Black, Sonja Stewart and Stacy Johnson.

Wise Bread uses several monetization techniques that other financial bloggers could learn from.  First, it does an excellent job mixing various ad types.  Like many other top tier blogs, Wise Bread foregoes AdSense entirely.  Wisebread uses several display and affiliate ads of differing sizes in its right sidebar, and 468×60 advertisements between some (but not all) posts.  By varying both the size andplacement of the ads, Wisebread helps counter ad blindness.  Wisebread also includes “best deals of the day” type posts with links to affiliate programs, and opportunities to sign up for newsletters containing these daily deals.