Well, (why am I hearing that word in Ronald Reagan's voice in my head?) a non-American really "getting" what SI means or has meant and will mean again in America really is quite a bit like expecting a modern teenager to grasp what Beatlemania was.
Speaking of which, that's another way you know you're old.
When you're in England (or maybe it was when we say the "Love" show in Vegas) and you ask your peers, many of whom you think are your age, just what it was like to be English during the "British Invasion", beginning with the Beatles. I'd imagine the feeling of national pride must've been awesome. 20 years prior, the Yanks acted like they were unaware there was a European war happening, then suddenly they're all wrapped around the fingers of 4 young Liverpudlians? That had to be cool!
But after posing the question, I was met with blank stares. Hell, I could've sworn at least Clem is my age. I'm 50. Granted, I was 4 years old when the Beatles burst onto the scene and only 11 when they broke up, so I never was one of the screaming fans, but I do remember seeing them on Ed Sullivan and getting all excited when a new song of theirs would play on the radio. Couldn't buy the albums or anything. Nothing to play them on. Biological family was dirt poor with 7 kids in a 3-bedroom house, but that's another story, though it may well explain my either admirable or damned foolish lack of fear of failure and why it's not an option and somehow seems not to happen. If I were a boxer, I'd be dead by now. "Throw in the towel? This guy Tyson ain't beat me yet. I'm still breathi..... (lights out)"
Digression, eh?
Most American and even Brits below 50 just can't grasp Beatlemania and I think most non-Americans don't quite get what a big deal SI is/was, though to this day when I talk to people and (well, up to about a month ago) would mention that I run Investors Hub and Silicon Investor, if they're in the market, they've heard of SI but I've never met a stranger outside of an iHub-specific gathering who'd ever heard of it. 10 times the traffic (surely a lower multiple now with our recent gains) and SI being 14 years old compared to iHub's roughly 8 isn't that huge a difference in today's terms.
But maybe it boils down to the kinds of people I'm likely to meet. Most strangers I meet are affluent gearheads that have brought one of their more than 2 cars to the racetrack and I'm teaching them how to get it around said track quickly.
A lot of them have a portfolio and some of them either manage it themselves or at least do some research to see what their broker has them in (it's how I found SI all those years ago), and on more than one occasion I've introduced myself and been told my name sounded familiar, told them what sites I'm with, and been met with "Are you 'SI Bob'?" One especially close track friend made the "SI Bob/Bob Zumbrunnen" connection even before I mentioned SI. He knew the name and the site quite well and even now often congratulates me on site mentions, my being quoted somewhere, or Best of the Web wins before I'm aware of them.
And previously I used that wider public awareness and perception of SI being an influential site as great leverage for selling ad space. But I think you have to really be in an American advertiser's head and really feel the subtle nuances the name "Silicon Investor" carries with them to have any chance of optimizing or even semi-effectively making use of its leverage.
Leverage not only to sell SI ads but to sell iHub ads. I still have to get the ad network ducks in a neat line before I can start on direct sales, but in the past, SI was a comparatively easy sell. Even with its comparatively small inventory (which isn't necessarily a bad thing when a site is at least "big and busy enough"). I wouldn't tell an advertiser like Scottrade that I only had about x million message page impressions per month in total. It was x million a month for the next 3 months not spoken for yet and "Really, I'd rather see you there than your competition since I have an account with you myself, so I'll make you a deal and strongly suggest you lock it in for at least 3 months ahead of time..." Scare someone enough of their competitors getting a lot more visibility a lot cheaper and sometimes you have them asking if they can lock in a year. "Sure, but with the site's growth trends, I can only discount the coming 3 months inventory that isn't spoken for yet and that's only because I like you guys and it'd be nice to be done doing sales for a few months. The other 9 months will cost more."
Then I'd ask if they'd like to really lower their overall CPM on this particular buy (who wouldn't!) and THAT was the time to introduce them to iHub and often get them to buy a ton of inventory on it at a comparatively low CPM, but still well over what I averaged at the networks.
I'd kick the door open with SI, and find the door wasn't really locked, then bring iHub in with me. That order. Gotta be when you're selling to American advertisers.
But if you aren't in an American advertiser's head well enough to know the reaction to the name "Silicon Investor", it's only intuitive to lead with iHub since it gets (got) 10 times the traffic of SI. You can't blame anyone for thinking you lead with your far busier site. And as iHub gets better known, that's less "wrong". But from 2003 to 2006, SI had about 1/5th the traffic of iHub yet nearly the same and frequently more ad revenue. And if I didn't have it to open the door, I couldn't have done anywhere near as well with iHub's advertising. I've looked at graphs of iHub's ad sales, and they shot up a bunch in 04 when I rolled out this version of SI and was finally able to focus on ad sales for it. And never needed to resort to fishnets and stilletos. Not that I'm disparaging that. Business is business and though I'm serious about business, it'll still always be a beloved hobby with which I'm able to make a decent living, so I have a different view of things than real business people do. Gambling ads? Sure, if the t's are crossed, i's dotted, it adheres to the letter of the law and the money had better be damned good. Stock promoting ads? Pass. I'm content with less lucrative avenues. I spent too long in the trenches fighting touts before I was "SI Bob". It's like trying to sell an American any Japanese product in 1950.
From a purely business perspective, arguably dumb, but it's nice to have that luxury again. <happy sigh>
Finally getting to the point of why I'm even writing a post here this morning, interesting to see that AVFCY traded at $4.70 yesterday, which is the first time it's traded above the London price.
And I see one of the marketmakers is finally really paying attention and keeping their bid right at the London price. Funnily, the same marketmaker who kept selling me shares way below the London price (and couldn't have really had them to sell) when the ADRs first became tradable. The first trade was me buying something like 300 of them at $2.50. And I really wasn't trying to buy them. I put in sell and buy orders at the same time, far outside where I expected fills, just to see if my bid and ask would show up. I only saw myself on the bid briefly because I got filled in no time, and for a long time I was able to keep buying in small amounts far below London value.
Felt like I was picking the pockets of Jack's giant so long as I only took a little at a time. My guess is their short position finally got large enough someone decided to cover it and got an unpleasant surprise when they learned they'd lose a chunk of change buying the raw shares in London and converting them, or trying to buy them in America where I was the only person who owned any and, sure, I had a few for sale. At about a 20% premium over the LSE price. Or another marketmaker who was paying closer attention would sell them short for later delivery at an even higher premium.
Hope that's not illegal and seems counterintuitive that it would be. If a marketmaker wants to put up some nonexistent shares on the ask at a price far below what I'd pay in London, nothing wrong with me buying them rather than saying "Ummmm, guys? You got a calculator, LSE quotes, and GBP/USD quotes? You're selling your 'shares' at a huge discount to the LSE bid!" Nah. Easier to say "Okay, you drive a hard bargain but I'll take them. By the by, got any more of them laying around you'd like to unload at that price while I'm in a buying mood? Yeah, wanting to decorate a bathroom with certificates. That's the ticket..."
I was a pretty loud advocate of ADVFN buying from their local market and converting those to ADRs to really offer for sale in the US, but in the end I'm glad they didn't listen to me. On that particular item. Though it took a long time for my ADRs to reach a more fair valuation relative to what they were worth before I converted them, it was pretty interesting, amusing, and lucrative to just jump on an ignorant/inattentive offer or sit on an unreasonably low bid yet get fills.
Looks like I don't get to play that game anymore, though. The main marketmaker I was taking advantage of (though they weren't alone) has kicked me off the playing board by keeping their bid more "correct". |
