Today’s top five safe haven investment strategies

Financial meltdowns always bring out crackpot pundits. Some advocate converting everything into cash. Others suggest investment schemes that defy the logic of any sane person.

 

And all of them seem to have a silver bullet for investing in today’s rocky waters. Well, investing just like life should never be done in a panic. That is a certain recipe for disaster. So friends, for what it’s worth – here is some hard learned advice. I openly admit I do not claim any expertise in advising anyone related to financial issues, but I do claim a lifetime of results where I have virtually no debt and a tidy portfolio to boot.

 

Top five strategies for investing in today’s volatile market.

 

1) Invest in companies where you really really like the advertising. Sounds crazy I know but think about it with me. Marketing is one of the best diagnostic tools out there to determine how well run a company is. Great advertising can only be created where a management team knows what they are doing. So if you find a company where you love the advertising – they are a good candidate for investing. 

 

2) Invest in companies where you understand what they do. Conversely, stay away from companies that are businesses you don’t get. I can assure you that if you don’t get it – neither will the investment community.

 

3) No matter what you feel – do not react in a panic. If you are heavily invested in a sector that is being heavily impacted – take a breather. Do your due diligence and then act with cool hard intellect.

 

4)  Remember – financial markets go in cycles. Maintaining your perspective is important to avoiding reactive and silly moves. I had a friend who bought half a dozen flip properties during the real estate boom who now is struggling to stay afloat.

 

5) Finally – “extreme” anything only works in sports – not in investing. Diversity and measured action is the way to go. Do not stop investing now. On the contrary keep investing. But don’t go off and buy 10,000 shares of a distressed stock based on some tip. Maintain a regular investing strategy. Steady as she goes is the mantra of the day.

 

That’s it – no great secret – no mystery – just good old fashioned common sense. It seems to be at a premium in today’s volatile market. But here’s the best news – no on can restrict common investing sense.

 

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The state of things to come – The Trusted Internet

Here’s a laugh. Among my circle of friends I am considered the quasi geek who can answer questions about online security and safety. I am considered the resident expert because of my experience with Comodo, an internet security company. The funny part is that at Comodo, I am considered the LEAST techie person around. 

But the real point is that everyone is looking for ways to stay safe online because everyone is getting MORE worried about online security. Everyone does more and more stuff online that causes them to be jittery. And, unfortunately, not without good reason. The “baddies” are getting better and better whereas most people still use 25 year old anti-virus detection technology to keep them safe.

No wonder people are scared. They should be.

But things are about to turn around because companies like Comodo are really focused on creating this state of the Trusted Internet. Here’s an excerpt from their Trusted Internet manifesto.

“The Internet has become the central communications engine of our time, expanding our reach more broadly than ever before. With this tremendous reach however, the Internet has yet to achieve its full potential as a Trusted Internet. Today, we must contend with an Internet fraught with fraudsters. We go online but we do so knowing that not all sites are equally trustworthy… 

This is why we, at Comodo, have committed our hearts, minds and resources to the vision of a Trusted Internet. This is where every digital interaction, every online interaction will include a new layer of security and trust enabled by an entire infrastructure designed to help us create mutual and real time trust.

And for it to benefit everyone, it must be delivered as a right to everyone; not as a luxury or a privilege dependent on a person’s ability to pay! To reach this state, we intend to change behavior and help people move from not using PC security because they can’t afford it to using PC security because we give away it away for free. We intend to change people’s low expectation of not being able to authenticate anything online to being able to authenticate everything online – identities, content and even a site’s legitimacy.

This will be how the Internet and the power of communications intersect, unleashing new ways for us to communicate, collaborate and exchange ideas that advance us all. And this is why Comodo believes that creating trust online is a mission that inspires us forward towards our vision of a Trusted Internet!”

That’s quite a noble vision. But they are putting their money where their mouth is. They now have in BETA a new Internet Security software that is state of the art in PC protection though prevention technologies combined with AV. You do not have to buy it — it is free – to anyone and everyone.

That is how the Trusted Internet will be built. By visionary companies who understand how a secure Internet will benefit everyone. This is the state of things to come… being online while taking for granted that you can interact within a state called the Trusted Internet.

To check out the BETA version go to: http://forums.comodo.com/beta_corner_cis/comodo_internet_security_35_beta_released-t26993.0.html

Judy Shapiro 

Can you teach a new dog old tricks?

 

The buzz around all the new digital marketing tactics can be so confusing – Web 2.0, social marketing, D-PR, blogs, viral marketing, widgets, WOM and on and on and on. I sometimes get the feeling that all the Web 2.0 companies and agencies want to keep this all very mysterious so we all have to go to the “experts”.

 

Well –  think again.

 

Believe it or not – despite all the buzz – the principles that drive the good marketing have not changed and it is really quite simple.

 

1) Know what your target wants and satisfy the need.

 2) Know what your competition is doing and why you can satisfy your customer’s need better than the other guy.

3) Get the word out within a structured and disciplined plan approach.

 

This simple outline does not minimize the complexity there can be in understanding and executing – but the deliverables need to be crisply reduced to these basics.

 

And when it comes to #3 – don’t let any “new media” agency tell you that it is impossible to do a digital marketing media plan. That’s just plain rubbish. The ability to create a “digital media plan” like any traditional marketing plan absolutely is possible. Digital marketing campaigns are centered around planning content campaigns where strategic themes are developed and seeded across the digital media landscape. These content campaigns can be done within a specified timeframe (e.g. 90 days) and can be measured to see how they drove search volumes.

 

So indeed you can teach a new “media” dog old tricks – it is called marketing and media planning.

 

And if your agency does not get it – find yourself a “new” new dog.

Judy Shapiro