The Blogroll… who ARE these people?!
It’s Saturday, and I’m being lazy. I want to post on my blog but I want to take a break from the various financial topics you see in the column to the right… the topics listed under the label Categories. So… Let’s explore the various people and websites on my Blogroll and learn who they are and how they got to be so lucky as to have a spot on my list of links. If you hover your mouse over the links in the Blogroll in the right column, a brief description will come up. You can click on any link regardless whether the brief description pops up or not.
You may have noticed the list is in alphabetical order; this is quite simply the best way to organize the Blogroll. As I reference these various websites, it will make them easier to find in my list of links… and it means I can hide any favoritism that I might have deep in my heart for any one of these websites.
Now when you view the list it’s like I love them all equally… just like your children and step-children, we all know it’s not true! Hey, you can tell it’s a Saturday, that last comment probably wasn’t even remotely PC for me to say. But it’s Saturday so I am straying from my normal, formal writing for a little more loose, personal writing. Let’s look at the list and please visit these pages, I wouldn’t list them if I didn’t think they were worth your time and I believe you will get some value out of them…
AaronForgue.com You don’t have to surf far on the Internet to find a web developer that has his head in the game. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you… Aaron Forgue. This guy knows his stuff. And he’s been doing it for a long time, dare I say since the near beginning of the Internet first became widespread. Ok, so maybe he wasn’t there when the Internet was just a cool Star Trek type gimmick in the development stages at a couple of universities (or maybe you should ask him… perhaps he WAS there for that!!!)… but regardless when he started, he has been developing websites and helping improve the way in which we surf for many years.
He created this website, and although I’m sure he has created far more sophisticated sites I like to think that this is as good as it gets! But I’m biased… a little… in this respect. Not only does Aaron know his web development and tools, he holds an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Northern Kentucky University. He created the website Pin300.com, which we will discuss later in the Blogroll, and in the interest of full disclosure I should say that I am a proud partner in the Pin300 website.
AndrewTobias.com This gentleman needs no introduction in the world of personal finance. He’s had 3 New York Times Best Seller books, appeared on numerous tv shows and news programs, won too many awards to list and thanks to his hard work has helped pass auto insurance reform in California despite his failed initiatives on the ballot in March of 1996. Makes me wonder what his thoughts would be on my recent blog post regarding the diminished value of a vehicle after an auto accident.
Coldwell Banker - my real estate website. It’s just what it says it is. As many of you may know, or can learn by reading the About the Blogger page on my website, I am an Ohio Licensed Realtor. I have held my real estate license and been with Coldwell Banker since 2001. Assuming I remember to renew my license this year, I will be be licensed through 2009 in the state of Ohio, and I will continue to sell in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio area markets. Please visit my real estate sales website if you are interested in learning more about buying or selling real estate - residential, commercial & investment, or land - in the southwest Ohio area.
Nathan Sawaya. Website is NathanBrickArtist.com I had the opportunity to see this guy’s work first hand at an insurance conference in downtown Cincinnati in 2006. Nathan builds some interesting things using Lego brand building blocks. On his website you can see his various creations and the many places he has been along the way.
OneStrayPea.com The nice young lady that runs this website is a personal friend of mine. Her website contains a pretty active blog that isn’t afraid to tackle any issue, from the local traffic in Cincinnati to the recent celebrity gossip or news hitting Hollywood.
You will find One Stray Pea to be a pretty entertaining piece of evolving literary work. It’s like an online soap opera. Once you become familiar with the characters and the ever-changing storyline, she’ll have you hooked. She can be quite sarcastic but she tells it like it is… and you will love the humor in that! She comes across as a Republican but I think she might be harboring some Democratic tendencies, so don’t hold her staunch political views against her… rather, click the link, read her blog and tell her what you think.
If you love her work, give her some rave reviews and pass along her website to your friends. If you absolutely hate what she has to say, I’m sure she won’t care… but you should tell her what you think. She needs to hear it. She thrives on feedback and you might even get to be featured in her blog if you can put her in her place! Oh, and sorry all you single men out there… she’s spoken for. She remains anonymous in her blog so I won’t say anymore… just do yourself a favor and hop off the financial blog for a bit and get yourself a quick dose of reality… served up in a heaping bowl of stray peas.
PJHile.com Like Aaron Forgue, PJ is an excellent web developer. In fact, Aaron and PJ have teamed up on numerous projects. PJ is also involved in the Pin300 venture, which you can read more about in the next paragraph. These two also went to school together… both high school (Moeller) and college (Miami University). Please take a moment to visit PJ’s website, then come back for more fun in financial blogging… or perhaps jump over to Pin300.com
Pin300.com This website is the creation of Aaron Forgue, with some help from PJ Hile, and was originally conceived as a place for bowlers to post and track their individual scores online. The three of us are now working on developing this website even further, to hopefully attract entire bowling leagues and bowling alleys to use the website and make it a much bigger bowling community online.
Check out the Pin300 website now and keep track of your own scores online. It’s free, it’s easy to do, and you can send us feedback and suggestions to help improve the website. Watch it evolve and grow over time. Regardless what your skill level, or even if you’ve never bowled a frame in your life, you will find this website easy to use and easy on the eyes. Thanks to Aaron and PJ for all their hard work in getting the website up and running. I’m looking forward to seeing this thing expand and improve over time! You will probably see more blog posts in the Entrepreneurship category for this venture.
SeekingAlpha.com Are you seeking alpha? Do you know what alpha is? Well, here’s a nice little investing website that is essentially a community of people who all have some vested interest in the stock market world… the visitors, members, and contributors on this website range from the novice investor, college student, and stay at home spouse, to full time day traders, Wall Street Professionals, Hedge Fund and Portfolio Managers, Academia, and so on.
So what is with the name you ask? Alpha, in the investing world is an abnormal return on your investment (most would focus on the abnormally high return of course)! There is a return on your investment that you can expect given a company’s balance sheet, company history, and the industry in which they operate in, the alpha is the edge that every investor is looking for to make that extra money… that higher return.
SoloSignal.com Here is yet another project of Aaron Forgue’s. Mr. Forgue has created a website for business people who need help understanding how the web works and how to make it work for their business. Aaron is building a community space online for entrepreneurs to gather and strive to improve their websites to meet their business needs. In the process this will help make the Internet a better place to do business and to serve more customers’ needs and expectations.
If you’re interested in learning how a website works behind the scenes, how the Internet has evolved and is evolving still, you owe it to yourself to check out Solo Signal and subscribe to the feed… it’s free and it’s informative. If you’re an entrepreneur, you are welcome to contribute and to provide feedback to the site, you will make the site a success and help grow your business in the process. Give it time to get going, it’s at the ground level right now. Check up on it frequently though… I fully expect it to take off in the near future.
I plan to keep adding more links as time goes on, but I don’t want to diminish the value of the links that I already have… creating too many links gives the appearance that the existing ones are cheap or of little value because there are so many. This could not be further from the truth, I will only add links that I find interesting and have some good content and value. The value may be educational (i.e. financial in nature) or may be for some entertainment (hey, we can all use a detour or pit stop on the road sometimes!)