ValueWiki Blog

TechCrunch announced today that TheStreet.com has acquired their partner site StockPickr. TheStreet.com formerly owned 49.9% of Stockpickr, but has now purchased the remaining 50.1%. Stockpickr was founded and run by former hedge fund manager and published auther, James Altucher.

About TheStreet.com

TheStreet.com (TSCM) was started in 1996 by now-famous investing pundit Jim Cramer. The online investment site did not turn a profit until nine years later, in 2005. Continually expanding its internet presence, on March 8 TheStreet.com announced a distribution deal with Howard Lindzon’s popular Wallstrip.

About StockPickr

StockPickr founder James Altucher has commented that he will remain actively involved with the site, which would indicate TheStreet.com has wisely retained him on an earnout. I wouldn’t be shocked if a similar deal will be announced with Howard Lindzon. TheStreet.com would be wise to pull WallStrip’s popular content in-house, if they have the chance.

The consensus in the Finance 2.0 space is that this deal signals a growing embrace of Web 2.0 innovations by the financial world. This may encourage further experimentation and growth by startups as well as established companies.

InstantBull.com aggregates 8 stock message board sites into one easy-to-navigate location. It also frames the content of about 100 major stock blogs, and all the major finance sites such as Reuters, Yahoo, Bloomberg, and Forbes.

Features

InstantBull features a “hot list” which generates a tag cloud of stock tickers, representing the most searched topics for each day. You can fully navigate the universe of financial websites without ever leaving the comfort of InstantBull.com. CEO and founder Gal Arav has built a nifty piece of speedy technology. InstantBull has been featured in BusinessWeek and Barron’s.

Why is InstantBull Allowed to do This?

Because you are viewing content through frames, InstantBull does not pull traffic, unique visitors, or ad clicks away from the sites it monitors. If you do click an InstantBull ad, don’t think of this as content-poaching, think of it as compensating InstantBull for creating a unique and speedy search tool.

Concerns

My one concern for the company would be that InstantBull divorces content from community. I imagine it is harder to develop a loyal following when you allow people to view a discussion but not participate. In the long run, I think community sites will always generate more user loyalty and popularity.

InstantBull currently has an Alexa rank of 635,322 despite having media attention that ValueWiki would salivate over. Of course, InstantBull is extremely young, and was only launched last July.

An Interesting Research Tool

Google performs a service that is so useful they don’t require community features to pull in visitors. As InstantBull continually expands and tweaks its feature set, I imagine it can easily become an integral part of an investors tool kit.

I am currently fully invested. But the next time I am trolling for stocks, I will take InstantBull for a spin to how it impacts my due diligence process.

Howard Lindzon’s immensely popular WallStrip Web TV show is now available on TheStreet.com.

Howard has confirmed to me the new agreement with TheStreet.com and will soon announce the partnership on his blog.

Screen Grap from 9:57 AM on Thursday March 8

TheStreet.com TV offers 12 channels of financial news including Personal Finance, Executive Interviews, and Wall St. Confidential, a daily show featuring James Cramer. TheStreet.com, Inc. is publicly traded on the Nasdaq: TSCM, so if you’re very bullish on this deal you can buy the stock!

I first blogged about Howard’s new company on Monday, in WallStrip Juggernaut Keeps on Rising. After coverage in Business Week, the New York Times, and ABC News, this definitely seems to be the case.

If you are not yet one of the 10,000 people who tune in every day to watch Wallstrip, why not check out today’s Wallstrip.

Congratulations to Howard on this exciting deal!

If you haven’t watched Wallstrip yet, it’s probably time.

Finance blogger Howard Lindzon, of HowardLindzon.com (the internet’s 16th most popular finance blog) created WallStrip as a series of 3 minute episodes following Wall Street trends in a humorous way. Since its October 2006 launch, Wall Strip has maintained a strong internet following.

Aaron Pressman (whose Business Week blog ranks 2nd in online finance blog traffic) covered WallStrip extensively for Business Week. The site has also been featured in the New York Times (registration required).

Aaron Pressman reports WallStrip has raised $500,000 from investors, including Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures. Union Square has funded such Web 2.0 phenomenons as Del.icio.us and Feedburner. Here is WallStrip’s interview with Union Square partner Fred Wilson.

WallStrip’s episodes range from informative stock coverage, to completely zany comedy sketches. Here’s a taste to get you started on WallStrip.

*This Jim Cramer Parody received more than 30,000 views.
*This Jack in the Box Music Video is pretty funny, especially if you’ve seen the original SNL video.
*Today’s Episode is more indicative of a typical Wall Strip episode: three minute stock coverage with a humorous tilt.

Online Video Phenomenon

Howard Lindzon’s $500,000 in angel investment surpasses the previous record for an online show, set by Ask a Ninja. Ask a Ninja signed a $300,000 deal with Federated Media in January, earning more than $30,000 for their Hollywood agents at the United Talent Agency. Successful internet shows are proving they can compete with Television in both viewership and investments. The next key to look for will be profit. Stay tuned.

In an obsessive compulsive frenzy, I have compiled the top 100 finance blogs sorted by Sunday, February 25th’s Alexa Rank (the first list) and Technorati Rank (the second list).

Alexa Rank

Alexa attempts to measure your site traffic by averaging the number of page views with the number of visitors. Finance Blogs that belong to big domain names (e.g., Herb Greenberg at MarketWatch.com, Aaron Pressman at BusinessWeek.com) have an unfair advantage in the list below. There are also a few blog aggregators and other sites that have an unfair traffic advantage because they are not pure blogs. I have bolded sites below that may have these special traffic advantages (including ValueWiki).

Technorati Rank
To compensate for those sites with Alexa advantages, I’ve posted a second Top 100 List by Technorati Rank. Technorati measures your popularity by averaging the total number of blogs linking to you by the total number of incoming links. In certain ways, this democratizes the list, as big domain blogs like MarketWatch and BusinessWeek drop considerably. However, measuring incoming links favors older sites, and does not offer as clear a snapshot as Alexa. Furthermore, a few popular blogs like TheKirkReport are almost certainly not measured accurately, and some blogs are not measured at all.

Accuracy

I have blogged about Alexa accuracy many times, and believe Alexa is occassionally more accurate than bloggers like to admit. That being said, it is not a perfect system. If your blog is hosted at blog.com I am unable to measure you at all, and your blog is simply not included!

Inclusions, Updates, and Corrections

I predict this is my final incarnation of the Top 40 Finance Blog list, and the Top 60 Finance Blog list.

I have moved both this Top 100 Finance Blog list over to ValueWiki. You can login for free to update or add your statistics to the list. ValueWiki is like Wikipedia where anyone can edit.

Special Updates Monday, February 26 247wallst.blogspot.com has moved to 247wallst.com and should be ranked 12th on the list with an Alexa Rank of 95,446.

Top 100 Finance Blogs by Alexa Traffic Rank

1 blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg TR: 45,736 (205 links from 79 blogs) A: 688
2 www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/ TR: 190,727 (77 links from 21 blogs) A: 885
3 www.ft.com/alphaville TR: 44,038 (531 links from 82 blogs) A: 1,965
4 Seekingalpha.com TR: 159 (21,480 links from 2,840 blogs) A: 5,123
5 BloggingStocks.com TR: 610 (69,303 links from 1,623 blogs) A: 20,216
6 bigpicture.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 27,382
7 www.deepmarket.com/ TR: unk A: 60,706
8 TheKirkReport.com TR: 120,991 (99 links from 32 blogs) A: 77,373
9 www.fatpitchfinancials.com/ TR: 17,938 (712 links from 192 blogs) A: 77,454
10 TraderMike.net TR: 7,059 (2,102 links from 396 blogs) A: 79,073
11 www.theessentialsoftrading.com/Blog TR: 164,898 (51 links from 24 blogs) A: 81,974
12 blog.valuewiki.com TR: 125,136 (111 links from 31 blogs) A: 100,640
13 www.swing-trade-stocks.com/taz-trader-blog.html TR: 225,242 (24 links from 18 blogs) A: 102,094
14 22dollars.com/ TR: unk A: 132,421
15 www.traderfeed.blogspot.com/ TR: 17,337 (1,078 links from 196 blogs) A: 146,142
16 www.howardlindzon.com/ TR: 9,813 (1,050 links from 308 blogs) A: 171,999
17 www.informationarbitrage.com TR: 16,160 (623 links from 210 blogs) A: 172,926
18 tickersense.typepad.com/ TR: 48,986 (563 links from 74 blogs) A: 173,045
19 antandsons.com/wordonthestreet.html TR: 239,272 (21 links from 17 blogs) A: 191,764
20 valueinvestingnews.com/ TR: 85,717 (525 links from 44 blogs) A: 193,150
21 www.brettsteenbarger.com/weblog.htm TR: 103,341 (328 links from 37 blogs) A: 214,829
22 BillCara.com TR: 21,088 (589 links from 166 blogs) A: 226,552
23 www.investortrip.com/ TR: 25,466 (303 links from 137 blogs) A: 227,799
24 investorgeeks.com/ TR: 36,593 (361 links from 98 blogs) A: 247,388
25 longorshortcapital.com/ TR: 25,466 (497 links from 137 blogs) A: 249,128
26 www.maddmoney.blogspot.com/ TR: 81,632 (85 links from 46 blogs) A: 249,737
27 blog.fallondpicks.com/ TR: 87,877 (243 links from 43 blogs) A: 252,723
28 stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/ TR: 30,259 (2,579 links from 116 blogs) A: 262,260
29 www.thebulltrader.com/ TR: 31,608 (381 links from 111 blogs) A: 276,625
30 Footnoted.org TR: 15,661 (768 links from 217 blogs) A: 277,908
31 jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 278,713
32 www.philstockworld.com TR: 97,618 (126 links from 39 blogs) A: 344,167
33 equityinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/ TR: 34,235 (703 links from 104 blogs) A: 344,382
34 Gannononinvesting.com TR: Unk A: 345,706
35 www.nyquistcapital.com/ TR: 62,336 (201 links from 59 blogs) A: 345,709
36 Maoxian.com TR: 31,937 (635 links from 110 blogs) A: 350,602
37 www.crossingwallstreet.com/ TR: Unk A: 364,566
38 www.alphatrends.blogspot.com/ TR: 27,916 (1,519 links from 125 blogs) A: 374,388
39 randomroger.blogspot.com/ TR: 24,727 (773 links from 141 blogs) A: 407,314
40 www.uglychart.com/ TR: 32,965 (573 links from 107 blogs) A: 412,315
41 www.controlledgreed.com/ TR: 41,529 (586 links from 87 blogs) A: 419,489
42 accountingobserver.com/blog/ TR: 28,830 (282 links from 121 blogs) A: 459,043
43 billakanodoodahs.com TR: 46,969 (344 links from 77 blogs) A: 561,710
44 traderx.blogspot.com/ TR: 32,258 (728 links from 109 blogs) A: 565,838
45 www.underthecounter.net/ TR: 81,632 (137 links from 46 blogs) A: 575,279
46 worldbeta.blogspot.com/ TR: 498,039 (28 links from 8 blogs) A: 607,988
47 www.allaboutalpha.com/ TR: 145,379 (135 links from 27 blogs) A: 611,479
48 valuestockplus.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 627,864
49 tradinggoddess.blogspot.com/ TR: 68,737 (235 links from 54 blogs) A: 664,652
50 kevinsmarketblog.blogspot.com/ TR: 113,340 (99 links from 34 blogs) A: 695,792
51 valuediscipline.blogspot.com TR: 87,877 (143 links from 43 blogs) A: 700,128
52 www.sinletter.com/ablog.aspx TR: 897,153 (5 links from 4 blogs) A: 726,351
53 247wallst.blogspot.com TR: 20,056 (3,492 links from 174 blogs) A: 819,866
54 stockbee.blogspot.com/ TR: 120,991 (69 links from 32 blogs) A: 837,359
55 themicrocapspeculator.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 840,494
56 StockCoach.Blogspot.com TR: 120,991 (187 links from 32 blogs) A: 847,561
57 www.thestalwart.com/the_stalwart/ TR: 57,891 (128 links from 63 blogs) A: 851,254
58 visualtrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 293,984 (30 links from 14 blogs) A: 873,713
59 oneguysinvestments.com/ TR: 120,991 (56 links from 32 blogs) A: 874,008
60 www.thestockbandit.net/ TR: 151,284 (44 links from 26 blogs) A: 1,025,855
61 moderngraham.com TR: 113,340 (908 links from 34 blogs) A: 1,032,365
62 www.ronsen.blogspot.com/ TR: 90,166 (206 links from 42 blogs) A: 1,049,342
63 zentrader13.blogspot.com/ TR: 181,266 (80 links from 22 blogs) A: 1,074,613
64 woodrow.typepad.com/the_ponderings_of_woodrow TR: 34,235 (317 links from 104 blogs) A: 1,088,010
65 peridotcapital.blogspot.com TR: 139,807 (81 links from 28 blogs) A: 1,094,952
66 flyonwallstreet.blogspot.com/ TR: 647,009 (10 links from 6 blogs) A: 1,101,887
67 ValueBlogReview.blogspot.com TR: 79,728 (168 links from 47 blogs) A: 1,130,397
68 knighttrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 97,618 (139 links from 39 blogs) A: 1,178,269
69 10qdetective.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,195,043
70 theaveragejoeinvestor.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,231,333
71 downtowntrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 83,604 (218 links from 45 blogs) A: 1,259,922
72 polonitza.blogspot.com/ TR: 2,674,201 (No blogs link here yet) A: 1,260,972
73 special-situations.blogspot.com/ TR: 317,056 (25 links from 13 blogs) A: 1,261,935
74 www.31contracts.com/ TR: 406,108 (13 links from 10 blogs) A: 1,323,950
75 www.financialnirvana.com/ TR: 239,272 (678 links from 17 blogs) A: 1,372,462
76 www.stocktradinginsights.com/ TR: 139,807 (115 links from 28 blogs) A: 1,617,631
77 traderjamie.blogspot.com/ TR: 53,500 (345 links from 68 blogs) A: 1,617,635
78 financeandinvestments.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,745,083
79 trade4cash.blogspot.com/ TR: 172,793 (44 links from 23 blogs) A: 1,745,553
80 prudentinvestor.blogspot.com/ TR: 79,942 (72 links from 47 blogs) A: 1,746,307
81 contrarianedge.com/ TR: 106,710 (87 links from 36 blogs) A: 1,843,831
82 www.themarketspeculator.blogspot.com/ TR: 190,727 (51 links from 21 blogs) A: 2,139,043
83 guzzothecontrarian.com TR: 201,509 (86 links from 20 blogs) A: 2,175,283
84 nasdaqtrader.blogspot.com/ TR: unk A: 2,360,532
85 Davidneubert.com TR: Unk A: 2,414,644
86 short-termtrading.blogspot.com/ TR: 92,509 (153 links from 41 blogs) A: 2,518,393
87 2dtrading.blogspot.com/ TR: 406,108 (190 links from 10 blogs) A: 2,651,342
88 thepanelist.com/ TR:2,674,201 (No blgs lnk here yet)A:2,752,386
89 accruedint.blogspot.com/ TR: 164,898 (113 links from 24 blogs) A: 2,808,094
90 mikesnewsletterinvesting.blogspot.com/ TR: 125,136 (107 links from 31 blogs) A: 2,958,989
91 filteringwallstreet.blogspot.com/ TR: 145,379 (90 links from 27 blogs) A: 2,964,786
92 tyrotrader.blogspot.com/index.html TR: unk A: 3,057,529
93 theflyonthewallblog.blogspot.com/ TR: 145,379 (77 links from 27 blogs) A: 3,396,314
94 paulstocks.blogspot.com/ TR: 897,153 (39 links from 4 blogs) A: 3,823,990
95 www.biasfinance.com/ TR: 1,200,844 (47 links from 3 blogs) A: 4,076,081
96 internetoutsider.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 4,233,152
97 stocks.techpenny.com/ TR: 1,696,884 (4 links from 2 blogs) A: 4,816,242
98 ecopreneur.blogspot.com/ TR: 897,153 (4 links from 4 blogs) A: 5,564,790
99 swingtrading.catspeaker.com/ TR: 2,674,201 (No blogs link here yet) A: 5,584,400
100 pink-sheets.blogspot.com TR: 317,056 (53 links from 13 blogs) A: 7,742,089

Top 100 Finance Blogs by Technorati Rank

1 Seekingalpha.com TR: 159 ( 21,480 links from 2,840 blogs ) A: 5,123
2 BloggingStocks.com TR: 610 ( 69,303 links from 1,623 blogs ) A: 20,216
3 TraderMike.net TR: 7,059 ( 2,102 links from 396 blogs ) A: 79,073
4 www.howardlindzon.com/ TR: 9,813 ( 1,050 links from 308 blogs ) A: 171,999
5 Footnoted.org TR: 15,661 ( 768 links from 217 blogs ) A: 277,908
6 www.informationarbitrage.com TR: 16,160 ( 623 links from 210 blogs ) A: 172,926
7 www.traderfeed.blogspot.com/ TR: 17,337 ( 1,078 links from 196 blogs ) A: 146,142
8 www.fatpitchfinancials.com/ TR: 17,938 ( 712 links from 192 blogs ) A: 77,454
9 247wallst.blogspot.com TR: 20,056 ( 3,492 links from 174 blogs ) A: 819,866
10 BillCara.com TR: 21,088 ( 589 links from 166 blogs ) A: 226,552
11 randomroger.blogspot.com/ TR: 24,727 ( 773 links from 141 blogs ) A: 407,314
12 www.investortrip.com/ TR: 25,466 ( 303 links from 137 blogs ) A: 227,799
13 longorshortcapital.com/ TR: 25,466 ( 497 links from 137 blogs ) A: 249,128
14 www.alphatrends.blogspot.com/ TR: 27,916 ( 1,519 links from 125 blogs ) A: 374,388
15 accountingobserver.com/blog/ TR: 28,830 ( 282 links from 121 blogs ) A: 459,043
16 stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/ TR: 30,259 ( 2,579 links from 116 blogs ) A: 262,260
17 www.thebulltrader.com/ TR: 31,608 ( 381 links from 111 blogs ) A: 276,625
18 Maoxian.com TR: 31,937 ( 635 links from 110 blogs ) A: 350,602
19 traderx.blogspot.com/ TR: 32,258 ( 728 links from 109 blogs ) A: 565,838
20 www.uglychart.com/ TR: 32,965 ( 573 links from 107 blogs ) A: 412,315
21 woodrow.typepad.com/the_ponderings_of_woodrow TR: 34,235 ( 317 links from 104 blogs ) A: 1,088,010
22 equityinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/ TR: 34,235 ( 703 links from 104 blogs ) A: 344,382
23 investorgeeks.com/ TR: 36,593 ( 361 links from 98 blogs ) A: 247,388
24 www.controlledgreed.com/ TR: 41,529 ( 586 links from 87 blogs ) A: 419,489
25 www.ft.com/alphaville TR: 44,038 ( 531 links from 82 blogs ) A: 1,965
26 blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg TR: 45,736 ( 205 links from 79 blogs ) A: 688
27 billakanodoodahs.com TR: 46,969 ( 344 links from 77 blogs ) A: 561,710
28 tickersense.typepad.com/ TR: 48,986 ( 563 links from 74 blogs ) A: 173,045
29 traderjamie.blogspot.com/ TR: 53,500 ( 345 links from 68 blogs ) A: 1,617,635
30 www.thestalwart.com/the_stalwart/ TR: 57,891 ( 128 links from 63 blogs ) A: 851,254
31 www.nyquistcapital.com/ TR: 62,336 ( 201 links from 59 blogs ) A: 345,709
32 http://tradinggoddess.blogspot.com/ TR: 68,737 ( 235 links from 54 blogs ) A: 664,652
33 ValueBlogReview.blogspot.com TR: 79,728 ( 168 links from 47 blogs ) A: 1,130,397
34 prudentinvestor.blogspot.com/ TR: 79,942 ( 72 links from 47 blogs ) A: 1,746,307
35 www.underthecounter.net/ TR: 81,632 ( 137 links from 46 blogs ) A: 575,279
36 www.maddmoney.blogspot.com/ TR: 81,632 ( 85 links from 46 blogs ) A: 249,737
37 downtowntrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 83,604 ( 218 links from 45 blogs ) A: 1,259,922
38 valueinvestingnews.com/ TR: 85,717 ( 525 links from 44 blogs ) A: 193,150
39 valuediscipline.blogspot.com TR: 87,877 ( 143 links from 43 blogs ) A: 700,128
40 blog.fallondpicks.com/ TR: 87,877 ( 243 links from 43 blogs ) A: 252,723
41 www.ronsen.blogspot.com/ TR: 90,166 ( 206 links from 42 blogs ) A: 1,049,342
42 short-termtrading.blogspot.com/ TR: 92,509 ( 153 links from 41 blogs ) A: 2,518,393
43 www.philstockworld.com TR: 97,618 ( 126 links from 39 blogs ) A: 344,167
44 knighttrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 97,618 ( 139 links from 39 blogs ) A: 1,178,269
45 www.brettsteenbarger.com/weblog.htm TR: 103,341 ( 328 links from 37 blogs ) A: 214,829
46 contrarianedge.com/ TR: 106,710 ( 87 links from 36 blogs ) A: 1,843,831
47 moderngraham.com TR: 113,340 ( 908 links from 34 blogs ) A: 1,032,365
48 kevinsmarketblog.blogspot.com/ TR: 113,340 ( 99 links from 34 blogs ) A: 695,792
49 StockCoach.Blogspot.com TR: 120,991 ( 187 links from 32 blogs ) A: 847,561
50 oneguysinvestments.com/ TR: 120,991 ( 56 links from 32 blogs ) A: 874,008
51 stockbee.blogspot.com/ TR: 120,991 ( 69 links from 32 blogs ) A: 837,359
52 TheKirkReport.com TR: 120,991 ( 99 links from 32 blogs ) A: 77,373
53 mikesnewsletterinvesting.blogspot.com/ TR: 125,136 ( 107 links from 31 blogs ) A: 2,958,989
54 blog.valuewiki.com TR: 125,136 ( 111 links from 31 blogs ) A: 100,640
55 www.stocktradinginsights.com/ TR: 139,807 ( 115 links from 28 blogs ) A: 1,617,631
56 peridotcapital.blogspot.com TR: 139,807 ( 81 links from 28 blogs ) A: 1,094,952
57 www.allaboutalpha.com/ TR: 145,379 ( 135 links from 27 blogs ) A: 611,479
58 theflyonthewallblog.blogspot.com/ TR: 145,379 ( 77 links from 27 blogs ) A: 3,396,314
59 filteringwallstreet.blogspot.com/ TR: 145,379 ( 90 links from 27 blogs ) A: 2,964,786
60 www.thestockbandit.net/ TR: 151,284 ( 44 links from 26 blogs ) A: 1,025,855
61 accruedint.blogspot.com/ TR: 164,898 ( 113 links from 24 blogs ) A: 2,808,094
62 www.theessentialsoftrading.com/Blog TR: 164,898 ( 51 links from 24 blogs ) A: 81,974
63 trade4cash.blogspot.com/ TR: 172,793 ( 44 links from 23 blogs ) A: 1,745,553
64 zentrader13.blogspot.com/ TR: 181,266 ( 80 links from 22 blogs ) A: 1,074,613
65 www.themarketspeculator.blogspot.com/ TR: 190,727 ( 51 links from 21 blogs ) A: 2,139,043
66 www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/ TR: 190,727 ( 77 links from 21 blogs ) A: 885
67 guzzothecontrarian.com TR: 201,509 ( 86 links from 20 blogs ) A: 2,175,283
68 www.swing-trade-stocks.com/taz-trader-blog.html TR: 225,242 ( 24 links from 18 blogs ) A: 102,094
69 antandsons.com/wordonthestreet.html TR: 239,272 ( 21 links from 17 blogs ) A: 191,764
70 www.financialnirvana.com/ TR: 239,272 ( 678 links from 17 blogs ) A: 1,372,462
71 visualtrader.blogspot.com/ TR: 293,984 ( 30 links from 14 blogs ) A: 873,713
72 special-situations.blogspot.com/ TR: 317,056 ( 25 links from 13 blogs ) A: 1,261,935
73 pink-sheets.blogspot.com TR: 317,056 ( 53 links from 13 blogs ) A: 7,742,089
74 www.31contracts.com/ TR: 406,108 ( 13 links from 10 blogs ) A: 1,323,950
75 2dtrading.blogspot.com/ TR: 406,108 ( 190 links from 10 blogs ) A: 2,651,342
76 worldbeta.blogspot.com/ TR: 498,039 ( 28 links from 8 blogs ) A: 607,988
77 flyonwallstreet.blogspot.com/ TR: 647,009 ( 10 links from 6 blogs ) A: 1,101,887
78 paulstocks.blogspot.com/ TR: 897,153 ( 39 links from 4 blogs ) A: 3,823,990
79 ecopreneur.blogspot.com/ TR: 897,153 ( 4 links from 4 blogs ) A: 5,564,790
80 www.sinletter.com/ablog.aspx TR: 897,153 ( 5 links from 4 blogs ) A: 726,351
81 www.biasfinance.com/ TR: 1,200,844 ( 47 links from 3 blogs ) A: 4,076,081
82 stocks.techpenny.com/ TR: 1,696,884 ( 4 links from 2 blogs ) A: 4,816,242
83 polonitza.blogspot.com/ TR: 2,674,201 ( No blogs link here yet ) A: 1,260,972
84 swingtrading.catspeaker.com/ TR: 2,674,201 ( No blogs link here yet ) A: 5,584,400
85 thepanelist.com/ TR: 2,674,201(No blgs lnk here yet) A:2,752,386
86 bigpicture.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 27,382
87 www.deepmarket.com/ TR: unk A: 60,706
88 22dollars.com/ TR: unk A: 132,421
89 jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 278,713
90 Gannononinvesting.com TR: Unk A: 345,706
91 www.crossingwallstreet.com/ TR: Unk A: 364,566
92 valuestockplus.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 627,864
93 themicrocapspeculator.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 840,494
94 10qdetective.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,195,043
95 theaveragejoeinvestor.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,231,333
96 financeandinvestments.blogspot.com/ TR: Unk A: 1,745,083
97 nasdaqtrader.blogspot.com/ TR: unk A: 2,360,532
98 Davidneubert.com TR: Unk A: 2,414,644
99 tyrotrader.blogspot.com/index.html TR: unk A: 3,057,529
100 internetoutsider.typepad.com/ TR: Unk A: 4,233,152

George is the blogger behind Fat Pitch Financials, the 5th most popular finance blog on the internet. George took a moment to answer a few questions about investing, blogging, Fat Pitch Financials, and his newest project, Value Investing News. He offers his insight into earning money from blogging, the key to good blogging, and where finance blogs are heading in the future…

 
VW: When did you start investing?

I have been involved in stock investing for over 16 years. I bought my first stock back in high school. However, I only really became an intelligent investor about six years ago. That is when I finally got what Warren Buffett was saying about investing. Before that I really didn’t know what I was doing.

VW: What made you decide to start blogging?

I decided to blog when I got fed up paying for the stock message board that I belonged to before I started my blog. I liked the process of writing down my investment research and then getting feedback from my online friends. However, I never really liked the unstructured nature of forums and I really did not like to pay to write. Once I discovered blogging in 2004, I realized that creating a blog would be a great way to maintain discipline and get feedback on my investment research.

VW: Interesting! How did you get the name Fat Pitch Financials?

Fat Pitch Financials’ name came from a Warren Buffett quote.

“That’s what we look for?. a fat pitch. And that’s what I would try to teach students to do.” -Warren Buffett (1998 Shareholders Meeting)

This came from his comment on Ted Williams…

“Under these circumstances, we try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. Swinging only at balls in his “best” cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his “worst” spot, the low outside corner of the strike zone, would reduce him to .230. In other words, waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors.” (1997 Chairman’s Letter)

I too try to wait patiently for fat pitch opportunities in the stock market. There are no strikes called in the game of investing, so I wait for perfect pitches.

VW: How has the world of finance blogs changed, and where do you see it heading in the future?

I never dreamed at how widely distributed and read financial blogs would become. Now when you look up quotes on Yahoo or Google you not only get major media articles, you also see the latest stock posts by bloggers on the quote page. There are enough financial blogs that you can find one covering just about any niche investment topic, technicals, value, activists, etc.

I think the future of financial blogs will be driven by the need to filter all the content being produced. Social bookmarking and social networking of financial blogs will shape the future of how financial blogs evolve.

VW: What blogs do you read?

I read a lot of blogs. My favorites stock blogs include ControlledGreed.com, Gannon on Investing, 10Q Detective, David Polonitza’s Blog, The Peridot Capitalist, ValueBlogReview and a few others. I also see several other blogs via ValueInvestingNews.com. I also keep up with blogging and web stuff by reading ProBlogger.net and SEO Book.com.

VW: These are some great recommendations. What do you think is the key to a successful investment blog?

I think the key to the success of an investment blog is creating unique and in depth research that is well documented. Blogs that go beyond the headlines and link lists catch my attention.

VW: Tell us about your new website, Value Investing News.

Value Investing News is a community driven value investing news site. You can submit links to news items, bid up stories to the front page, bid down stories, and make comments. Members are rewarded for the success of Value Investing News by sharing in the Adsense revenue.

I wanted to give value investors a place to get together on the web that was free of hype and was instead focused on high quality reading. Web 2.0 was starting to produce some great tools that utilize the power of groups. I wanted to adapt the concepts of Digg, Reddit, and del.icio.us to value investing. That’s my inspiration for Value Investing News.

VW: So it’s a web 2.0 site for the value investing community. Who designed the snazzy features for submitting stories and voting for favorites?

Much of Value Investing News’s features come from the wonderful Drupal CMS community. The software is great and is under constant development. I took what I felt were the best features and modules and combined them to produce Value Investing News. I installed and maintain Value Investing News all by my self. I’m an ultra low cost operation.

VW: Do you monetize Fat Pitch Financials and ValueInvestingNews, and is it enough to pay the rent?

As a value investor, I’m always looking at revenue streams. However, Value Investing News is just starting to pay the rent, especially since my rent is so low. As you might know, I provide a significant revenue share with my members by rotating their Adsense code on the stories they submit. I also actively seek sponsor’s for the monthly contests at Value Investing News. In the future, contest sponsor may become part of the revenue stream if I have more monthly prizes than I need.

VW: What’s your market prognosis for 2007?

I think 2007 will be a bumpy year for the market. The markets have been so calm that investors are getting complacent again. That will cause any big events to shock investors into panic. When panic ensues, here or abroad, I hope to be ready to take advantage of opportunities.

VW: Any final words?

I recommend that everyone look at their own competitive advantages this year. As an individual investor, I’ve discovered unique opportunities in going private transactions, tender offers, and other special situations. These opportunities keep me busy while waiting for fat pitches. I keep all my research on these unique small opportunities in my premium site, Fat Pitch Financials Contributor’s Corner.

These opportunities are what originally put Fat Pitch Financials on the map. I’ve leveraged my original Current Going Private Transaction List into a fairly successful blog, premium content community, and a social bookmarking site for value investors. Online I have take advantage of my ability to fill small niches by maintain a very low cost operation.

It looks like ValueWiki is following a similar path by leveraging wiki technology. I look forward to the success of your site.

VW: Thanks George. And thank you for sharing your time with ValueWiki!

Charles Kirk at TheKirkReport.com has some great portfolio ideas posted. One of the hats I wear is portfolio manager, and I have to say there’s some great inspiration in Kirk’s post. I probably subscribe most to Ben Stein’s approach, because I love the EEM Emerging Markets ETF, the EFA First World Index, and the Russell 2000 Small Cap Growth ETF. Check out Kirk’s post on “lazy portfolios” if you have a chance.

Sometimes, your morning rss read gets a little bit dry. Ipod this, DRM that, yadda, yadda, yadda. That’s why it’s always refreshing to encounter that great web phenomenon…

The Blogger Tantrum

Normally, bloggers carefully choose their words, optimizing anchortext and anticipating the next big digg. But occasionally the stars line up, and a blogger says what he really feels. And the entertainment begins.

A Blogger Tantrum Gem

Hat tip to Stockjockey for pointing this out to me. Yaser Anwar, who runs the 27th most popular finance blog according to The Top 60 List, rips into Henry Blodget (55th most popular finance blog) is his sizzling post, [sic] Henrey Blodget is a Two Faced A**Hole. In the post, Anwar calls Blodget an “A**HOLE”, a “Son of a B****”, and “wishes [Blodget] would get run over by a truck.”

Yasar’s motivation is to defend Jim Cramer, of all people. To be fair, Blodget did lay into Cramer, saying (among other things) “Admit it: You watch [Cramer] because you wonder if this is the night he finally has a heart attack, kills someone, or explodes in a tirade of expletive-laced slander.” Blodget is not the most popular guy on Wall Street, having been banned for life from the securities industry after illegally touting internet stocks that were investment banking clients of Merrill Lynch. Yasar, on the other hand, is a Canadian college student who normally writes cogent and perceptive analyis.

My Take

Judging from the comments, I don’t think Yaser lost any fans with his tirade. In fact, I think he gained fans. This is what interests me about the Blogger Tantrum phenomenon, and I will probably blog about this in the future. The blogger rant almost always results in higher readership, more link-backs, and increased audience respect for the blogger’s authenticity.

Stock Jockey pointed out to me that Yasser’s rant was posted at 12:40am on a Saturday Night. Perhaps there was some booze involved. To his credit, Anwar has left the post up and clearly stands by his remarks.

Last week I singled out 10QDetective as a great finance blog more people should read. Apparently I am not the only fan. Business Week is featuring 10QDetective as its upcoming weekly “Must-Read” Blog. The article link is here (login required) and the magazine will be on stands later this week. Congratulations to David Phillips for this great recognition!

Here is a transcript of the article.

A KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE & BUSINESSWEEK “MUST-READ” BLOG!

FEBRUARY 12, 2007

BLOGSPOTTING
Number Crunch

10qdetective.blogspot.com

To read SEC filings with a guide, go to this blog run by David Phillips, an investment newsletter publisher. He focuses on financial-statement “soft spots,” such as restructurings, and also takes on issues like executive pay, recently analyzing the actual compensation of $1-a-year ceos like Yahoo!’s (YHOO ) Terry Semel and Apple’s (AAPL ) Steve Jobs. Phillips delves into the data and lets others handle the witty asides, sprinkling in lines from movies and songs. On the payoff to shareholders from Semel’s low official salary, he paraphrases Tom Waits: “The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.”

We live in a world where many of the most popular finance blogs offer superficial coverage of popular topics, and too rarely delve into any depth. That is why it is satisfying to read sites like Deep Market, Footnoted, and 10QDetective, that scratch below the surface. Congrat’s to 10QDetective.

So I once spent a whole month data mining the Dow. I learned that sunny days in Manhattan outperform cloudy days. Mondays outperform Fridays. The 3rd quarter is typically dismal, and the 4th quarter is historically the best. So if you conglomerate this data and leverage the Dow Diamonds, you can theoretically make money by buying Dow calls on a sunny Monday in November, right? I’m not sure if anyone’s ever had the guts to start a sunny-day-hedge-fund, but I would be very interested to hear the results!

Anyone interested in technical analysis and data mining should check out this fascinating site, DeepMarket.com. You can examine correlations between stocks - in tandem or apart. You can even study seasonal analysis - what historically is the best day of the year to buy Google? (Answer - August 20 averages 6.73%). I have no idea how Eric Cahoon has built these data mining tools - he must be some kind of genius. If you don’t know Deep Market, go check it out, play with the tools, and read Eric’s daily blog. Big thumbs up.