amateur's corner: business

Showing posts with label business. Show all posts

Monday, August 8, 2011

Two beers and a drop of 600 points in the market later!

If you haven't seen Inside Job yet, go rent it, pay 5 bucks for it on demand....see it immediately.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/174282/movie-trailers-inside-job---trailer

Basically the point of this blog is to bring up how rating agencies, specifically standard and poor's, dropped the *&^%ing ball when it came to the banks on the verge of clapse and the buying up of junk mortgages. All those banks that went bankrupt, were bought out, or received a ridiculous amount of government bailout money had AAA ratings just days or hours before they filed chapter 11. How did our rating agencies screw up that badly? They suck that is how.

Why didn't our government prosecute our rating agencies for....i don't know...accurately rating our banks. you know ....their jobs. And now Standard and Poors downgraded the US GOV to a AA+ rating, sending our stockmarket into the dumps again. As big a drop as in 2008.... once again you screwed us standard and poor. Thank you very little.

Friday, April 29, 2011

traffic from interesting sources

so as anyone who blogs would know, you can see where traffic to you your blog comes from. the stats page tells you various cool information like keyword searches that brought your blog up in google, among other things. interestingly i saw more than usual traffic coming from certain keyword searches, that were, surprising, and well ummmmm....disturbing.

now think of what someone might search, that would accidentally bring up a blog called amateur's corner. if you were thinking along the lines of pornography, you would be correct. i can't believe, that it took me two years to realize that my title had a dirty innuendo. i am usually so good with clever innuendo, i guess this one just slipped by.

anyway, for the internet community that stumble upon my amateurs corner by uhmm...accident, i apologize for the mix up. let me just say, it is pretty unlikely that any risque photos will be posted here.

how hilarious that i received way more traffic to my blog than i would've under a less ambiguous title. as a marketing professional in training, i wonder how useful a tactic that is for seo. give links or web pages potentially dirty names, in order to get more keyword hits. one unconfirmed stat that i always hear is that the web is 70% porn, so someone could strategically use that to their advantage......right?

:)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

The ethical side of business

my accounting instructors have mentioned everything from fudging numbers, to creative accounting, and keeping things off the balance sheet. no wonder so many execs have been caught participating in unethical business practices. maybe we should take a closer look at how we are teaching accounting and financial practices to mba students. it seems to me that damn good accounting and illegal activities can look very similar.

but this post isn't to talk about the sarbanes-oxley act, it is to shine the light on some companies doing the right thing, just because. few have realized that there is money to be made if you stay true to values. here are some of my favorite.

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http://www.outofprintclothing.com/

t-shirts that feature the original book art on classic novels.

"For each shirt we sell, one book is donated to a community in need through our partner Books For Africa."

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another is the shoes adopted by the so anti-trendy, that is has become trendy, pseudo-sub-culture, the hipsters. and it goes so well with their flannel and chunky boots. tom's shoes donated a pair of shoes for every purchase to a child in need, all over the world.

http://www.toms.com/

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the greater good website (specifically the shopping part)

The GreaterGood Network is a family of websites that provide simple, effective, feel-good ways to directly help people, animals, and the planet. Thank you for your caring online actions.

I am a fan of this website because when you choose rescue animals, then each product for sale, tells you how many bowls of food that it will buy.

https://www.theanimalrescuesite.com