YOUR FAVOURITE POSTS OF 2012

Welcome to 2013. We’ll start by reviewing what visitors read here on Riscario Insider in 2012.

This blog started in 2006, which is a long time ago in Internet years.

The Top 20 Posts

As usual, there’s repetition in the most popular posts.

1. Why we switched to Ooma phone service
2. Quotes related to The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (down from #1)
3. Napoleon Hill: The six basic fears from 1937 (unchanged)
4. How ‘Cake Boss’ Buddy Valastro made bitter batter better at 17
5. Does Warren Buffett "Buy Term and Invest The Difference"? (down from #2)
6. The horror of Rogers Ultimate Internet
7. Why advisors become advisors
8. Reach your goals with Pick Four from Zig Ziglar and Seth Godin
9. The risk of financial innovation
10. Should you switch to an actuarial career? (down from #5)
11. Secret 7: The best tax sheltering in Canada (down from #4)
12. What are you doing about your high investment expenses?
13. The perils of whole life insurance
14. The problem of “trapped” retained earnings (up from #16)
15. The Globe and Mail on Canada’s Insurance Loophole (down from #9)
16. How Lamar Odom’s mom saved his life
17. Napoleon Hill: Fear #3 (ill health) (down from #12)
18. The pros and cons of financial leveraging (down from #11)
19. What happens during a paramedical exam for life insurance? (down from #15)
20. The foolproof measure of trust

Half these posts were in the top 20 for 2011 (including two of the top three). There are advantages in having a “back catalog”.

Worth A Peek

Here are the 2012 posts by category. We looked primarily at financial literacy, advisors and insurance.

Financial Literacy

1. How to spot biased referrals
2. The perils of pyramids and multilevel marketing (MLM)
3. Tips for first-time homebuyers
4. Insights from Carl Richards (@behaviorgap) and his napkin drawings
5. Ellen Roseman makes financial basics lively
6. How to repay a nonfinancial debt
7. Repairing your computer vs. fixing your finances
8. An actuary invests in himself: beyond the Globe and Mail interview
9. How to spot a fake fee-only financial planner
10. Where financial bloggers fail
11. What does your advisor drive?
12. “Financial doctor” interviews “insurance doctor” (video)
13. Forget financial literacy: check your pizza literacy
14. Why we get bad advice

Advisors

1. The word advisors imply but dare not say
2. Where is your advisor’s blog?
3. Why insurance advisors also sell investments
4. The passion of Guillermo del Toro, Neil Hetherington and your advisor
5. Why advisors become advisors
6. Unethical email? Do advisors put your interests first?
7. When your advisor is on vacation
8. Imagine your advisor in the Olympics
9. How musicians and advisors have evolved since the 1980s
10. Do your advisors help you with your financial literacy?

Insurance

1. The lure of “exclusive” financial strategies
2. The perils of whole life insurance
3. What to do about the insurance turmoil
4. How ‘Cake Boss’ Buddy Valastro made bitter batter better at 17
5. Exploring the inner worlds of investments and insurance (video)
6. Imagine James Bond selling insurance
7. Reinstatement: trying to get your insurance back

Trust

1. The new prescription for trust
2. Looking beyond TD Bank and the Rothstein Florida Ponzi scam
3. Three powerful protectors against corporate misconduct
4. Keeping promises when no one’s watching
5. How sorry is Jonah Lehrer for his plagiarism and lies?
6. Lance Armstrong, incentives and behavior

Goals

1. Where there’s willpower, there’s a way
2. Reach your goals with Pick Four from Zig Ziglar and Seth Godin
3. Is the Pick Four goals program right for you?
4. From bucket list to balk-it list

Career

1. Can an advocate serve two masters?
2. Interviewed on Liquid Lunch
3. Unintended lessons from three entrepreneurs
4. The new Best/Worst jobs list and you

Various

1. How your brain works … against you
2. When your student leaves home
3. Why we switched to Ooma phone service
4. How TEDxToronto has changed
5. Reminders from disasters like Superstorm Sandy

The Top 5 Podcasts

You’ll find over 200 podcasts. Here are the top five.

1. Does billionaire Seymour Schulich help you "Get Smarter"? (unchanged)
2. The three major obstacles to growth according to Brian Tracy (up from #3)
3. "The Snowball" rolls into Warren Buffett (down from #2)
4. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Mastery plus Opportunity trumps Talent (unchanged)
5. Albert Einstein on education and learning

The Top 3 Countries

You read from around the world

1. Canada: Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal (#2 in 2011)
2. United States: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston (#1 in 2011)
3. United Kingdom: Teddington, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester (#3 in 2011)

Sources of Traffic

1. Search engines: 52% (down from 69%)
2. Campaigns: 17% (mainly via subscriptions and Marketing Reflections)
3. Referring sites: 16% (up from 14%) [main sources: The Globe and Mail, Marketing Actuary, Twitter, LinkedIn]

Keywords

Here are the top keywords typed into search engines to get here.

1. 7 habits of highly effective people quotes (#1 in 2010)
2. quotes from 7 habits of highly effective people
3. buy term and invest the difference
4. seven habits of highly effective people quotes
5. rogers ultimate internet
6. buy term invest the difference
7. innovation
8. napoleon hill six basic fears
9. trust
10. napoleon hill 6 basic fears

Browsers Used

1. Internet Explorer: 29% (down from 37%)
2. Chrome: 25% (up from 20%)
3. Safari: 19% (up from 14%)
4. Firefox: 19% (down from 25%)
5. Android browser: 3% (new)

Operating Systems

1. Windows: 68% (down from 76%)
2. iOS: 13% (up from 7%)
3. Macintosh: 12% (unchanged)
4. Android: 3% (up from 2%)
5. Linux: 1% (unchanged)

Screen Resolution

1. 1366x768: 14% (up from 12%)
2. 1280x800: 11% (down from 19%)
3. 1024x768: 9% (down from 12%)
4. 1440x900: 7% (down from 8%)
5. 1280x1024: 7% (down from 8%)

Mobile Devices

In 2012, 17% visited with mobile devices (up from 9%). Apple devices rule at 75% (down 1%) with the iPhone and iPad leading. Android is 18% (unchanged) with Blackberry at 6% (up from 5%).
For the first time, mobile visitors stay on this blog longer than computer users.

Links

• Your favourite posts here: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007
• Your favourite posts for entrepreneurs: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007
• image courtesy of Billy Alexander (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Podcast 201

direct download | Internet Archive page | iTunes

PS Happy New Year!