Your Favourite Posts of 2009

Welcome to 2010. Let's start the year by looking back at what you read here on Riscario Insider in 2009.

Overall

The trends look great once again. Your visits more than doubled (increased by 2.4 times for the second year in a row) and 82.2% of you were new. You stayed 18.3% longer per visit and viewed an average of 1.5 pages each time.

The Top 10 Posts

Here's what you read

1. PersonalBrain 5: data to information to wisdom (a surprise)
2. Quotes related to Stephen Covey's Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (a must-read book)
3. Does Warren Buffett "Buy Term and Invest The Difference"? (#1 in 2008)
4. Six Basic Fears From 70 Years Ago [Napoleon Hill]
   
5. Secret 7: The Best Tax Sheltering in Canada
6. Does billionaire Seymour Schulich help you "Get Smarter"?
7. How advisors fool you (and what you can do)
8. Surviving an audit: two lies and three tips
9. Should you switch to an actuarial career?
10. Three reasons why financial literacy eludes us

Worth A Peek

These 2009 posts didn't make the most read list but might suit you

• Your life expectancy exceeds one billion seconds
• Warren Buffett's tough career choice: actuary or billionaire?
• Faster: how to deal with the rat race
• Tips to bulletproof your job
• The three major obstacles to growth according to Brian Tracy
• The effects of banks selling you insurance online
• Is an executive physical worth the bother?
• The least prestigious professions
• Why you can't (and don't) buy on price
• Three steps to keeping financially solvent
• Why is financial planning ignored?
• The gift of networking
• Three ways to make money (without winning a lottery)

If you prefer, you can listen to the podcasts. Here are the top five:

1. "The Snowball" rolls into Warren Buffett
2. PersonalBrain 5: Data to Information to Wisdom
3. Me an actuary? Seven question from a student
4. Outliers: Mastery plus Opportunity trumps Talent (book from Malcolm Gladwell)
5. Warren Buffett's tough career choice

Other statistics follow.

The Top 5 Countries

You read from 139 countries (up from 99). Here are the top five.

1. Canada: Toronto, Ottawa (was #3) Vancouver (was #2), Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal
2. United States: California, New York, Texas, Florida (was #5), Illinois (was #4)
   (by city: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta)
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia (was #5)
5. India (was #4)

Source of Traffic

1. Search Engines: 46% (down from 61%) (94.0% from Google, 2.3% from Yahoo, 1.8% from Bing)
2. Referring Sites: 40% (TheBrain, Canadian Capitalist, Canadian Personal Finance Blog, StumbleUpon, Thicken My Wallet, The Globe & Mail)
3. Direct: 14%

Keywords

Here are the key words typed into search engines to get here.

1. seymour schulich
2. 7 habits of highly effective people quotes
3. personalbrain 5 review
   
4. dwayne daku
5. six basic fears

Browser used

• Internet Explorer: 48% (down from 59%)
• Firefox: 34% (unchanged)
• Safari: 8% (up from 4%)
• Chrome: 7% (up from 2%)

Operating System

• Windows: 85% (down from 91%)
• Macintosh: 12% (up from 7%)
• Linux: 2% (up from 1%)

Some visits came from portables such as iPhone, iPod, Blackberry and Palm devices.

Screen Resolution

• 1024 x 768: 23% (down from 35%)
• 1280 x 800: 20% (up from 18%)
• 1280 x 1024: 15% (up from 12%)
• 1440 x 900: 11% (up from 9%)
• 1680 x 1050: 9% (unchanged)

How's that for detail? Thanks for reading.

For more frequent updates, Follow @riscario on Twitter.

Links

• Your favourite posts of 2008
• Your favourite posts of 2009 for entrepreneurs (Marketing Actuary blog)
• image courtesy of Ana Silos (Mexico)

Podcast Episode 49 (7:10)

direct download | Internet Archive page

The Gift of Networking

It isn't just what you know, and it isn't just who you know. It's actually who you know, who knows you, and what you do for a living.
--- Bob Burg

No cost. No pollution. No limits. Networking makes a perfect gift. As with gardening, you harvest what you plant and nurture.

Are you committed?

Our son wanted a pet chinchilla when he was three. We got him a Tamagotchi (a digital dog on a keychain). Like a real animal, this pet required food, cleaning, rest and attention. Too much work for him. The digital dog soon died of neglect. Lesson learned. No pet.

It's easy to start networking online

1. join: pick LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, your choice
2. lurk: see what others do so you'll blend in
3. participate: help your network now and into the future

The challenge is sticking with it.

Like an Elephant

Like an elephant, the Internet never forgets. Your online activity leaves a permanent trace. So you're wise to think of the implications of your messages

• don't say something that would offend you, a family member, a potential client or a potential employer
• don't send something unless you're in a proper frame of mind; it's too easy to misinterpret others and too easy to be misinterpreted

When You Mess up

Despite your best efforts, you'll make mistakes. Some people go out of their way to find ways to get offended. If you've established a history, you'll have credibility with the rest. They'll be more forgiving. Plus the volume of your activity will bury the inappropriate statements.

The Science of Giving

The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.
--- Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone

Give for the sake of giving. Give to make the world better. Your generosity will change you forever. If that's not reward enough, give because your network will reciprocate if you need help. Is that hard to believe?

Dr. Robert Cialdini explains why reciprocity works:

It becomes possible for one individual to give resources to another without giving them away. What you get instead is a credit. When you need something, you can call on other members of the group who you have helped in the past and they are very willing — in fact, they are waiting — to help because the saddle of obligation weighs heavy on us.

We want to repay our debts. We want to give back to others who have given to us.
--- Dr. Robert Cialdini

Caution: Build Then Invite

How would you feel if you visited a new store with empty shelves? Build your destination before opening the doors. On Twitter, this means having several tweets. On LinkedIn or Facebook, have a reasonably complete profile with your photo and the basics about you. Be sure to add the details later. You'll now make a stronger impression when it matters most: the first time.

Now find out who else you may know on the network. This is easy. Just upload your contacts and inform suitable ones. If they don't respond, be patient. You gain nothing by pestering them or feeling offended.

The best way to network is to start. Now. You don't need to wait for spring.

Final Post of 2009

The best to you and yours during the holidays.
May 2010 give you what you yen!

Links

• Universal principle of influence #1: Reciprocity
• Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret
• definition of yen: miss, long for
• image courtesy of Henk L | Holland

Podcast Episode 48 (4:46)

direct download | Internet Archive page