THE NUMBERS GAME

We have all tracked numbers in an apparent aid to making a decision in our lives. How many millions went to see the opening premier of a new action movie? how many people tweeted about that rock stars nude photos on the Internet? and the list goes on and on.

Well in the investment world these types of stats can be used as well to track visitors to certain web sites, page views and even end users of a certain product. These figures can be generated and presented to a general audience for their own interpretation without a promise or guarantee of validity. You have to wonder though if true numbers can be an adequate yard stick measurement for continued success or monetary success in today's fast paced economy.

If I present a number of visitors that found this article and read it does that mean everyone did get the message and arrive at the same conclusions that I did?I think that's a big stretch to paint the human mind so black and white. I can go on line and find a traffic sharing site and join in so that people are driven to this article even though they don't want to see it. The instant they show up they may want leave but they will log as a view and show more people looking at this on the Internet. I guess my point of this experience is that its not realistic for tracking real visitors and at what intellect do we put our readers to assume they will be impressed by pure and unregulated visitors or views?

I had to sit back though and ponder what a statistical number would do for me if I saw an article had a high number of reads. If the number was low then maybe I was one of the first to find the article. The numbers don't lie but they can be viewed in so many ways that they should not be relied on for any Internet site in my view. If I have 10,000 Facebook likes does that make me better or more popular? I also found you can buy Facebook likes on the Internet, that was a shocker let me tell you. If a site believes by showing a high number of visitors to their site that they have a greater value then there must be a monetary exchange of some sort. The belief driven by some sites is that the more viewers the more valuable the space on that site is for advertising.

This gets really funny when you see sites that don't care about rogue spammers or feeds to their site because in the end they create more traffic. The traffic though is not always welcome and can have a rebound effect on the true original users of the site. I think these general beliefs on site counts and user counts paint a somewhat shallow intellect of the sites own users. The end users are now being told to rely on numbers to decide what site you want to see and what article you want to read. Once you scratch the surface on driven traffic you wonder why anyone would value this information.

I don't like to track numbers, I don't ultimately care who reads or agrees with my viewpoint on investing or what I have to say about the current market. I do however enjoy sharing my views with others and enjoy the support of my readers. I do a lot of research and strive to show the positive and negative reasons for watching a certain company. If you enjoy what I write please share it. If you follow my blog feel free to pass on the web site address. As well I always welcome articles from anyone about any company they feel worth presenting.

Next time you see something with a traffic counter ask yourself how you feel about it and  if it adds any value. Sites like Facebook and Myspace were highly touted through the use of user numbers that were supposed to attach a value to the site itself. Once the company finally went public it did not perform the way some expected and this expectation was connected to so many others trying to fight in the same space. Did Facebook launch too late? Will we forget sites like Facebook and follow something yet to be introduced? The trick to success in the Internet can be finding whats in demand before people realize they want it. If users are not consumers then ultimately they may add no value. In the grand scheme of things so many people go to sites repeatedly because the service is free. Once a price is attached to that service the game changes.

By the way, I do intend to post this on other sites and ultimately link it back to my own. The reasons don't have anything to do with advertising and a majority of companies I write about I have never invested in. No the reason I like to drive readers back to me is so that they can browse through articles from the past that I have written that express my fight through the learning curve of the markets. We should all share our experiences and help each other navigate the propaganda in the media and the open forums. Gather information from a variety of sites and then analyze it and make your decision to invest or not. With so many instruments to choose from you may find self directed investments the less attractive and higher risk of all the choices.