What you expect?
Money from blogging?
Me?
Want to know what I think?
One good investment or one good trade for 2016 should be many times the dollar value what one could get from blogging.
Now that's getting our priorities straight! (Something for wannebe bloggers out there)
Wink.
There are quite a lot of interesting characters that make this watering-hole a fun place to mingle (龙蛇混杂) - provided one is not so thin-skinned that one gentle poke you go, "Teacher, teacher! Botak disturb me!"
If you are a regular here, you'll know the popular and recurring characters.
I've thanked and complimented them (they will say where got?) enough already.
Today, I'll share the unintended and unsung benefits that I've found from blogging:
Getting to know interesting people.
These characters you seldom see them commenting here. If they do, its once in a thousand years...
1. The Cartoonist
He's a real life scientist. Got publish research papers kind. I've forgotten how we met over here for I don't recall he's into investing or trading... I suspect its because he's into drawing cartoons and I into painting with words.
This man knows his heart's compass when he shared the cartoons he drew depicting how he and his wife met and fell in love... (If I'm a girl I'll go aw...)
This man knows his heart's compass when he shared the cartoons he drew depicting how he and his wife met and fell in love... (If I'm a girl I'll go aw...)
He has since left Singapore and is now residing in Canada. Miles apart, seldom stay in touch, but he is one of those people where if we meet and talk, it would feel like we have just parted yesterday.
2. The Cat Woman
This "crazy" woman (she'll know I say it with affection) trades WTI crude from home, and is once upon a time a legend from the trading community. Yes, having a pretty face helps. But that's more a distraction.
If you can go beyond her crazy (did I say it again?) good looks, you'll discover she's a warrior trader - one who can bring meat to the table!
I never understood her psychedelic charts. She will make 20 t0 30 trades a day, lose a few hundreds here, make a few hundreds there. End of the month she'll be up $10,000??? How on Earth she does it???
She's not trading now. She is now full time taking care of her hordes of cats living with her.
3. Smart Beta
This is one good example of a one-sided relationship; I'm the thick-skinned one. You can tell by the way he blogs he is or used to be from inside the industry; not the usual regurgitate what they've read from books and re-summarise for dummies kind of blogger.
Waiting for his next post to engage with him is like watching paint dry...
He is the reason why I like to mix with people who are different from me.
Beginning of the year, during the commodity rout, he made a brave trade to long the Canadian Dollar without leverage (which shows how much money he has).
I on the other hand decided to short the Canadian Dollar end of this year just after OPEC's agreement to cap oil production with 10:1 leverage (which shows I'm tiny).
Beginning of the year, during the commodity rout, he made a brave trade to long the Canadian Dollar without leverage (which shows how much money he has).
I on the other hand decided to short the Canadian Dollar end of this year just after OPEC's agreement to cap oil production with 10:1 leverage (which shows I'm tiny).
We both made money.
4. Patty,
You won't see him commenting on my finance related posts. He'll only appear on my wine, woman, and song posts. Especially when it concerns Anime, Manga, and all things Japanese.
I've stolen with pride quite a few "inspirations" from his Facebook page for my blog posts.
He definitely got culture and soul in his heart. And a song or two!
Now he is busy playing with his DIY bicycles?
Idiot, makes me look bad with my inactivity...
Blogging to receive
So many have grand manifestoes to give and share. Yet they spend quite a lot of time and effort on blog monetisation...
I suspect that's the main reason why most bloggers stop blogging after the honeymoon period...
A beggar would probably make more money than us!
But I don't feel poor.
On the contrary, I feel quite "rich" with the relationships I've made.
Thank you everyone! (I now sound like a politician)
P.S. Eh! So when you are going to buy me coffee?
IKEA coffee 50 cents only, and comes with unlimited refills!
(That's how you tell whether a company is great or not. If an ex-employee leaves and continues to promote his ex-company... The company is good, better, best!)
Blogging to receive
So many have grand manifestoes to give and share. Yet they spend quite a lot of time and effort on blog monetisation...
I suspect that's the main reason why most bloggers stop blogging after the honeymoon period...
A beggar would probably make more money than us!
But I don't feel poor.
On the contrary, I feel quite "rich" with the relationships I've made.
Thank you everyone! (I now sound like a politician)
P.S. Eh! So when you are going to buy me coffee?
IKEA coffee 50 cents only, and comes with unlimited refills!
(That's how you tell whether a company is great or not. If an ex-employee leaves and continues to promote his ex-company... The company is good, better, best!)
Ikea kopi is good. Weekdays afternoon still OK to lim kopi there
ReplyDeleteCW,
DeleteNext year if got people jio us we meet there?
Cheers!
Anywhere in Singapore. No issue.
DeleteCW,
DeleteIt's not the location. I got take care of our readers one.
If they accredited investors or top management (like that Head of Department guy), we say Starbucks or Coffee Bean ;)
If they same same like us, I'll say Ya Kun.
If young 20 somethings fresh starting out, I'll say IKEA. Won't burn a hole in their pockets. 2 of us together only cost $1 ;)
Ouch! Stay low also kena poke...
DeleteBelated merry Christmas !! Smol
Actually hor, got a question, u say u go around poking people on their "parroting" see fish "fresh" a not, but how come u never poke my analysis on companies but only on my "bo Liao" posts?
2017 coming !! Yeah
Sillyinvestor,
DeleteYou are a masochist.
What to do? I'll do anything for free kopi!
Ready?
Here I come:
I've already complimented you on your 随心笔 posts.
What's NOT said can be more deafening ;)
Do you go to a fishmonger and ask him about orchids?
How to get intellectually stimulated when most are summaries of summaries (old wine new bottle) copy paste from sell-side analyst's reports?
Do you think I'll jio you out to seek your opinion on the Oil and Gas sector?
I'll do better by asking the Oily Man out instead ;)
But if I want to know more about the major services and products our public schools intend to buy or outsource to for 2017, don't be surprised I'll call you out of the blue to jio you out for kopi!
I think most folks over-estimate what they can achieve from blogging. For example, I can pull a 12-hr shift at a hostel earning $8/hr and get paid $96 for half a day's work. How many bloggers actually earn more than $96 a year..? My #1 benefit in 2016 is probably free beer and a nice chat with the founder of a start-up. Ah, the simple things in life.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
DeleteYou are one of the regulars here that attract other readers to my watering-hole ;)
Not very ego boosting when readers tell me they find the comments here more interesting and stimulating than my posts :(
LOL!
I'm pretty much Zen about it; if not I would have stopped blogging long ago!
Your refreshing honesty and humour complements my irreverence and barbed tongue ;)
My philosophy is simple - if it ain't fun, why do it?
You have plenty of interesting characters here already. I'm contented to be the "boring" one!
DeleteI think most of us who blog, do so not because of the money. Ironically, most of us don't even need this source of kopi money :D There must be something deeper / more meaningful / more fun that drives us.
It's a yin/yang thing. After all, you have to get the ball rolling before we all chip in with our nonsense!
Kevin,
DeleteYes, I play the "catalyst" role.
The brick that attracts jade here ;)
抛砖引玉
Hi Smol
ReplyDeleteI think IKEA is also popular for their meatballs
Small Time Investor,
DeleteI love their almond cakes - super sweet!
And chicken wings!!!
As for the meatballs... They do not taste the same like before during my time ;)
"How do I look in this dress honey"?
"You look great! Hey! You looked even more fabulous in that other dress!"
Now that's how you tell her which dress is "nicer" ;)
LOL!
Hi Jared,
ReplyDeleteExtrapolating from the 1 out of 4 of your interesting characters, you only have 25% females viewers/fellow bloggers. Don't turn this into a sausage fest leh.... haha!
Jes,
DeleteHow not to like a girl who knows her innuendoes?
If you promise to bring more of your jie-mei here, I can do Cosmopolitan stuffs like skin care, perfumes, shoes, men seduction, and how to eat all you want and remain devilish slim ;)
Just so you know, I got do egg tarts topics too:
How to ensure adequate H&S coverage
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting post again.
Quite straightforward to see which bloggers are blogging for income and which are the ones who use it to exchange sake's of camaraderie. I prefer the latter :)
I agree with TI/Kevin that, on a cost/unit-time basis, taking on another part-time job beats blogging for an income hands down (unless one is a celebrity blogger, that is).
Anyway, after some time, those who blog for income will publish their own books on investing. If I myself do not even buy my favourite bloggers' books, will I buy a fellow new blogger's book on investing? Food for thought, really.
Maybe I should be like cartoonist. Be hardcore and go publish my journal article. Following which, then leh long on the blogosphere? Product differentiation! LOL. Not on investing, but on psychology. XD
Okay, let me poke you. How come your blogosphere bff not in the list above?
Unintelligent Nerd,
DeleteThe cartoonist's thesis and research papers are published by Scientific Journals and Professional Bodies.
Vetted by editors and put under the scrutiny of his fellow scientific peers.
You should know. The "pokes" in your academic circles can be a lot more vicious as reputation and prestige are at stake ;)
It's not the same as "self-publishing" by financial bloggers - which anyone and everyone can do it.
And you know how I feel about any activity that anyone and everyone can do it ;)
The regular and popular commenters you read here are the obvious and visible ones whom you and many other readers can readily relate to.
But they are just the tip of the iceberg.
The list of characters in this post are the ones who remain mostly below the waterline.
Our relationships are developed outside of this blog - via Facebook, private emails, at the protagonist's blog, etc.
And in one case, it's one-sided. I go to the mountain; I don't expect the mountain to come to my watering-hole ;)
This is not a list who is my best friend forever or Top Ten Popular list.
Its to show the DIVERSITY of backgrounds and if not for blogging, how on Earth would someone like me have the privilege to enjoy their company and time?
Hi Unintelligent Nerd,
Delete"Hijack" your reply for a bit ;) In my simplistic example, there is a part two (learn from the Shifus here, because say things can only give half the story hahaha).
In the case of part-time employment, we're exchanging a finite resource, time, for money, and we cannot scale this up easily.
In the case of blogging as an example, we can put in the same amount of time (30 minutes a week) writing a post, but the returns would vary greatly depending on whether the pageviews is 10 or 1,000 or 1,000,000. This is an exciting prospect that draws people in. Unfortunately, for every 1 success story we see, there are countless ppl who gave up.
>.<
SMOL,
DeleteYah man. Academic pokes more painful. So far I've only experienced it at the university level nia. When one goes broader, the pokes are more sophisticated and acerbic, or so I heard.
Actually can "cheat." Those who come to my field are most apprehensive of numbers and the more science-y part. Present in those areas will make those who shun those sub-fields chua sai and not poke you at all.....unless you are dealing with a subject matter expert in those sub-fields, then GG liao.
Hi TI,
I agree with you in that respect as well. Scalability works well exponentially. However, only a select few can manage to pull it off >.<
Jia lat lah me. Everyone in the blogosphere so sublime and give "half the story" while I'm so direct one -.-
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteHahaha, readers also come and go, according to the tides of the market, the ups of the bull and the downs of the bear :) I think the regulars are like fossils already, you hit us also won't go away :)
The real kick out of blogging is really to meet people from all walks of life, from different age group, different educational background, different jobs, and all coming together in space and time to meet together for a brief moment or two.
It's magical.
LP,
DeleteInvesting and trading full time from home can be quite solitary.
But with you all as journey companions, its not so lonely anymore :)
Life is good!
Ha! Ha!
ReplyDeleteTo remain sane we have to be "insane"(Talk Male Chicken)at times.
Golden Rabbit,
DeleteWelcome! Thanks for joining the fun!
I am Fire Goat of 1967 ;)
That makes you as one of the few commenters (beside temperament) who are more "senior" than our CW.
Good, good.
We need more qian-beis as counter-balance and share with the youngsters here stories from when police wear shorts...
Many young readers have no idea when brokerage commissions were 1% and about the wild euphoric days of CLOB - makes S-chips trading looks like child's play ;)
SMOL,
ReplyDeleteAs the newbie here from over the Causeway, do you mind sharing the link to Smart Beta's blog? :-)
Like this, you get to look generous for increasing his readership, I get to follow people you admire.
Win-win ma..
Tabula Rasa,
DeleteWelcome!
A friend with a Latin name from our neighbour up north ;)
Go to the right column and scroll down to the end until you find "Ebony and Ivory" - make a wild guess what do they denote ;)
Continue to scroll down to bloggers starting with "S".
And there you are!
P.S. I don't think Smart Beta cares for readerships or pageviews. Be forewarned. He writes when he feels like it. Waiting time can be more than a year... LOL!