Dan Brown Knows How to Promote His New Book

Media

Dan_Brown_lost_symbol_book

Dan Brown, author of The Lost Symbol, launched his book campaign in Toronto with a brilliant promotional stunt.

Once the morning flow of commuters came into Union Station in Toronto, all they saw sitting on the benches were people reading The Lost Symbol. These professional ‘book readers’ were literally buried nose deep in the first chapter of Dan Brown’s the Lost Symbol. After the flow of commuters saw all these professional ‘book readers’ a salesperson was set up to sell The Lost Symbol book.

This is buzz marketing at its best. When commuters saw all these people reading The Lost Symbol, they must’ve wondered “what’s this book all about – it must be good!”.

10 Tips For Investing During a Recession

Investing

1- Buy stocks on sale. When a recession hits, investors pull out of the stock market. This leaves you the opportunity to pick up good stocks on sale. I picked up RBC at $30 and Manulife at $12.
2- Ignore the Media. Newspaper companies sell more newspapers with negative headline news. Naturally, the media will pump fear into you. Ignore this fear, and invest in stocks.
3- Remember, the economy will bounce back. Have you ever been super sick and thought you’d never get better? That’s how people think during a recession. The economy will bounce back, study historical trends.
4- Dividends will make you comfortable. Even if the stock market keeps on tanking after you invest, the dividends from stocks will make you happy. RBC sent me a 6% Dividend per quarter during the recession.
5- If you can’t stomache a 40% loss, don’t invest. Near the low point of the stock market crash – March 2009 – my stock losses amounted to 40%. But I sucked it up, and now I’m making money because I kept those stocks.
6- Don’t time the market. Warren Buffet was way off when he invested in GE and Goldman Sachs. But he’s laughing to the the bank now, with capital appreciation and annuity.
7- If you want to time the market…The stock market will reach it’s lowest point once all the unemployment, bankrupty and low earnings in the news are the WORST that can be reported. So when the media shifts focus to news like the Swine flu (as it did in March 2009) times are better for the economy.
8- If you invest, invest big. You’ll be kicking yourself in the butt if you buy 1 share in RBC when one year after the recession the return is 150% and you could have made thousands.
9- Don’t listen to your teacher. Don’t listen to teachers, analysts or politicians. They’re too busy in their ivory tower to know what how the recession is impacting the real world. If you see more people driving new cars and buying Starbucks coffee, chances are the economy is turning around. Invest.
10- Urgency to Invest. Don’t wait until the media starts reporting about good times in the economy. Invest when people are fully depressed about the economy. You know you’re too late to invest when the analysts start slapping buy ratings on every stock on the market.

Google Street Maps Canada Finally!

Random

Google announced today: Walk through the streets of Canada’s biggest cities with Google Street Maps.

The Google Car finally scoured Canada’s major cities to include Canada in Google Street View. If you want to check out Google Street View for Canada, see photos below for Montreal Street View, Toronto Street View, and Vancouver Street View.

Play around with Google Canada Street View now Just drag the yellow Google-man from the top-left corner to the map.

Google_Street_Maps_Canada
Google_Street_Maps_Montreal_Canada
Google_Street_Maps_Toronto_Rogers_Centre
Google_Street_Maps_Vancouver_Canada

Telus Tuesday: ½ Price Movie Combo at Cineplex Theatres

Media

Telus_Tuesday_Cineplex_Movie_Theatre

Telus Tuesday rewards movie watchers big-time!. At Canadian Cineplex Theatres, Telus is helping to cut the price of movies. General admission ticket, Regular Popcorn and Regular Fountain Drink are now approximately 50% off of the combined retail price.

I was at a Cineplex Movie Theatre last night – Silvercity – and stumbled upon the Telus Tuesday Voucher that was included with movie tickets. The Voucher translated to FREE Popcorn and Pop. Great deal, now I’m going to movies on Tuesday’s. More Telus Tuesday information

Capitalism: A Love Story Review

Media

capitalism_love_story_michaelmoore

You owe it to yourself to go see Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore paints a shocking picture of America post financial crisis. The movie depicts the story of Wall Street versus Main Street, haves versus have-nots. By establishing this socio-economical contrast, Moore hits home the fact America’s wealth is vastly disproportionate.

1% of Americans control 95% of the wealth in America. And yet Moore explains for years 99% of American people settled with a smaller piece of the pie, but the Financial Crisis dismantled the American Dream altogether, clearing their rosy glasses.

The movie also shows the apparent connection that Regan established with Wall Street in the 80’s that led to rampant financial de-regulation for the years to come. At this point in the movie, Moore started questioning the integrity of government and fabric of democracy.

At the end of Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore asks the audience to join the fight to end greed in America and restore the country back to its more ethical foundation. In his closing comments, Moore says something along the lines of “I can’t bear to live in a country like this, and I’m not leaving”.

I think it’s honourable for an individual like Michael Moore to shed light on what is happening to ‘real Americans’ amidst the recession, because the media seems to have focused entirely on Wall Street, and lately the coming boom in the stock market.

For me, the biggest point to take home from Capitalism: A Love Story is to never forget the lessons from the financial crisis else be doomed to repeat a another crash and ensuing recession. To this point, Capitalism: A Love Story opened with striking paralles of America and the Roman Empire. Moore provided the backdrop to an old film about the Roman Empire, showcasing a scene that described the path that led the Romans to their demise. It was an eye opener.

The Difference Between Twitter and Facebook

Random

Twitter = Communicate with new contacts.

Facebook = Socialize with current friends.

In my opinion, Facebook is the new MSN. MSN, and ICQ before it, helped us socialize with our friends. On the flip side, Twitter is a way to find new people who share the same interests as you. it seems that as my friends and I grow more distant, Facebook and I grow more distant. Lately, I have been exploring Twitter more to build a network of business contacts, entrepreneurs, and interesting people.

Speziale – Origins of Speziale

Random

As you all know by reading my blog, my last name is Speziale. I’ve been researching my last name Speziale for years to find out its meaning. Today I stumbled upon a new Wikipedia Speziale page. I had to translate the Speziale page to english, because naturally, it was written in Italian – Italy being the origin of the Speziale last name.

The Wikipedia article describes Speziale: “The chemist in the Middle Ages was the one who took care of the preparation of medicines, usually had a shop called pharmacy, within which the activities carried out also for the sale of spices and medicinal herbs.”

So my ancestors were presumably the modern-day equivalent to pharmacists and chemists. Interesting. Check out the full Speziale Wikipedia article

Bell iPhone, Telus iPhone – Apple iPhone Now Available to All Canadians

Random

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For more than 1 year Rogers owned exclusive rights to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada. But soon, Rogers iPhone exclusivity will be broken by Bell and Telus. Bell and Telus should be getting the Apple iPhone in November.

Globe and Mail reports “the two carriers [Bell, Telus] would announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network. Bell confirmed Tuesday morning that it has a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada in November”

This is good news for Bell and Telus customers. I myself am a Bell customer who longed for better cell phones on the Bell network. Now I’ll seriously consider buying the iPhone. Any Bell or Telus customers who are going to buy the iPhone?

Press Release: Buddingup Founder Helps Jobless Students, Grads Beat Unemployment in Canada

Startups

University of Waterloo co-op student launches job site to help jobless students, grads beat 16.4 percent unemployment rate in Canada. Social networking is changing way young job seekers expect to find jobs online. Newly launched job site Buddingup makes it easy for students and grads to connect with employers and recruiters across Canada.

The numbers are discouraging. 16.4 percent student jobless rate; Statistics Canada’s lowest record since 1977. Enter University of Waterloo student Robin Speziale who launched Buddingup to help jobless students and recent grads beat unemployment. Buddingup.com helps students and grads network with recruiters, friend fellow job seekers, connect to campus recruitment programs, and search jobs all across Canada.

“The old job boards don’t address the new needs of young job seekers” states Robin Speziale, founder of Buddingup.com. “Students and grads are used to social networking like Facebook where they can easily connect with people, so when they search or apply for jobs on these old job boards, it’s like hitting a wall – theirs no connectivity between them and the employer” says Speziale.

In developing the idea for Buddingup, Speziale wanted to provide a better job search experience. Robin Speziale states “Buddingup is all about helping students and grads find a job – so we added more job search features than the average job board.”

– On the find recruiters section, students and grads can contact recruiters directly in order to network to their job. “Now if you want to follow up with the employer after applying to a job or ask a recruiter questions, you can” states Speziale.

– With Career Pages, students and grads can link directly to campus recruitment programs. “The campus recruitment pages are available in one click so that students and grads won’t have to spend their time navigating through hundreds of company websites” states Speziale.

– On the job search, students and grads can search new entry level jobs, co-op jobs and internships from across Canada. “The job search on Buddingup pulls jobs from all over the internet, so all jobs are in one spot” says Speziale.

– Students and grads can join Buddingup to network with each other and share job tips. “I added a social component so that students and grads could connect to the job seeker community in Canada, making the job search more fun” states Speziale.

– Students and grads can create a professional profile on Buddingup, including a brief description of their skills, eduation, qualities and post links to their blog, Twitter, and Facebook “so that they can better advertise to recruiters” says Speziale.

Can Robin Speziale help jobless students and grads beat the 16.4 percent student unemployment rate in Canada? Robin Speziale argues “at the end of the day, students and grads will be the ones who beat the high unemployment rate – I’m just giving them a better job search experience to help them find jobs.”

Stock Market Predictions for 2009 and 2010

Investing

The stock market is a complex machine that takes many factors into account. Among the most significant are psychological factors. With 2009’s low stock price levels, the bulk of mutual funds that experienced mass redemption in 2008 are gaining confidence, figuring this may be the end of turbulence.

This positive attitude is self-fulfilling: Money Managers will begin to deploy hard kept cash reserves and pump up undervalued stocks. A herd mentality will kick in and an onslaught of mutual fund companies will follow suit and inject cash into stocks so they don’t miss the stock market boom in 2010.

However, a factor that could slow stock markets in 2010 is the still looming credit collapse. Credit for so long was the steroid that pumped up companies to disproportionate levels. The era of easy, fast credit is over and thus a new era of internal capital investment will reign.

Because internal capital investment is fueled by income a company generates and its cash flow, investments will be conservatively planned and pursued and thus growth will be slower. 2010 stock market performance will fall in line with future gradual growth of corporations. As Warren Buffet put it: “The party is over”