Business expanding in a new direction - looking for tips.
 

Short version:

I'm looking for newsletters that I could write financial articles for, networking groups looking for investments that work, and other distribution engines that anyone could point me towards.

example: http://www.bni.com/
http://meetup.com

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Long version:

I used to make 1M+/year in my heyday - but due to a business screwup by one of my vendors, this has been demolished to roughly 250k/year. It might sound like a lot of money, but it's not when your regular business expenses are burning through 16-18k a month.

I'm trying to save my team from being broken apart and having to start over again (many of them would have to go back to working day jobs) and I don't want to see them have to give up what they've earned up thus far as I'd like to take good care of my people.

One of the customers that was burned by the vendor is now blaming me for the referral in the first place, so they're out there on the internet throwing flames on every board they can get their hands on and trying to ruin my reputation. So that's not helping much either.

I've gotten a breath of fresh air and hope from a hedge fund specialist in my area - where the senior partners have taken me under their wing to teach me their tried and true business structures that take a stock within the junior capital markets towards the senior exchange. Once we've got the engine running, it won't be long before I've saved my team, and am back making 1M+ and higher again - and if one of your ideas can help save my business, I'd be happy to pass along what I've learned along the way and share some of the wealth to the idea helpers :) It's always been my personal policy to give dues where they're deserved, so if you find me an interesting distribution channel - I'd be more than happy to throw a little something your way. The last guy that alerted me to a marketing channel got a 10K "Thank you" in the form of an investment. Naturally, that's grown for them since, and they're keeping their eyes open for other opportunities to throw my way.

NOTE: I am NOT looking to sell to members of this forum, so don't take this as an advertising pitch - I'm just looking to pick your brains for other marketing channels. I've already run through my local board of trade and chamber of commerce as well as the two sites I've mentioned in the short version. I'm more looking for newsletters looking for financial article writers, and other distribution methods. I'm well aware of the 4 hour work week, alongside the 30day challenge (internet marketing through search engine optimization)

I'm still not 100% sure what the service you're offering is. Are you a financial adviser? Or do you strictly offer a referral service?

Honestly, I'm not sure I can do too much to help you here, but I figured I'd chime in anyway to point out that as far as I've been able to determine the Next Big Thing in advertising is blogs. The advantage to them is that it's a huge potential audience and there's virtually no overhead involved in setting one up. Either write it yourself or hire someone to do it for you, advertise it on a few sites to get some traffic going and try draw in your target audience and there you go. So long as it's well-written and provides good information on the subject at hand it ought to be a good way to get a few more customers.

You could also look at things like Facebook an Myspace; you can create groups there, which may be a way to get the word out. The advantage to these services (if they're viable, of course) is that they come with a built-in referral/advertising service in the form of the friends system. It would require a careful perusal of the ToS, however, to see if they allow that sort of thing, and it tends to be a younger demographic than you may be looking for. Still, it's a possible option.

Merlocke, I'm happy to help, but I have to agree with Martian - I'm not sure what would qualify as a good lead.

What's your current set of communications? Do you have a website, a blog? This would help me, as it is often best to build on what you already have. I currently manage a blog by one of my publisher's authors. It's a financial blog based on a book she wrote about the advantages of timing predictable market long cycles (a la Warren Buffet).

She gets 40 to 100 hits a day and gets media gigs from the book and the blog (both of which are her first, and still fairly new). Plus, traffic tends to pick up when she does these.

There are, of course, a number of other options, but as Martian and The_Jazz say, more information would help. The Internet is a big place.

I've read this and agree that I'm not quite sure what kind of thing you are looking for.

I do get it's written based, and you want to network.

My suggestions are simple and you'll prove yourself not just in words, but in performance.

Community trading groups like:
CakeFinancial.com
Covestor.com

I've been looking into these sites more and more because the advice given is not just someone touting that they make huge returns, but they post their portfolio so that you can see what their tracking and just how they are doing. It's easy to talk that you're making money making the hype, but I don't believe it with investment banker types why should I trust some guy on the internet?

It's all about presence. This is why I brought up the blog. The woman that writes it has a published book and has an established money management company. If you can build a brand or image around what you do, all that you need to worry about is how to distribute that effectively.

Agreed, but that isn't much to differentiate him from any other money person. If you look at these particular sites that I posted, you'll see that they are commuities of investors that are about meritocracy and not hype. People there are looking to emulate and do the same thing as those that are actually truly making good returns and have to show that they are making such returns. If not, why should I believe that individual over any other internet voice?

AVoiceofReason who hyped Jim Cramer, following his stocks. Now if you watch the Jim Cramer show on CNBC you'll see him now backpedalling on his statements in the past, showing where he made mistakes and where he foiled himself. He shows how he lost money on his own hype.

He's got all those things that you mention. Blog, books, TV show, brand image, and he's stated on the record that his picks are not much better than any one else's even with the years of experience he has.

Cynthetiq, Cramer's a bad example because he's a nut who doesn't know what he's talking about.

I was talking about branding and image as done by reputable individuals and companies. It is possible. In many ways, you stick out when you go against the status quo. Especially when it comes to investing, those who know what they're talking about are usually running against the herd.

You may not like Jim Cramer, and you're entitled to your negative personal opinion but you can't say he's a nut and "doesn't know what he's talking about."

Cramer ran a hugely succesful hedge fund and over a long period of years made millions upon millions of dollars for himself and his hedge fund partners.

So do you know more about trading and markets then he does, and do you have a track record to prove it?

In word: no. But I didn't say that Cramer doesn't know what he's doing. He just doesn't know what he's talking about. He generally exacerbates the problems with the herd mentality in the marketplace, and then loses it when things don't go the way he wants them to. Maybe it's an act. I don't know. All I do know is that I would never recommend anyone follow his advice. There are many other intelligent advisors out there; one doesn't need to pay attention to this guy. But I guess it all depends on what you want to do. You want high risk? Then go ahead. But I think the average investor is interested in protecting their money from undue losses. There is much going on in between the extremes of "buy-and-hold" and "stock picking"; it's called intelligent investing.

So to clarify, you are saying you used to "gross" a mil+ per year, not make it. And then there are others involved so really it's the company or business unit that is grossing that revenue and the profits are somehow shared with the work group?

Other people involved means that's it's more than just you we are talking about which confuses the question even more. I'd like to understand better just what service you're offering as a whole here: is it a team or just from your perspective?

Ah herein lies the conundrum.

I have to represent three factions:

1) An educational based company that teaches people on how money works and methods to increase their wealth by increasing their financial IQ. How to read a financial statement, How incorporating saves money on taxes, etc.

2) An investment banking group (essentially a hedge fund) that I have partnered up with to give my client base access to restricted, but discounted shares via Private Placement Memorandums.

3) A media site where I will be interviewing publicly traded companies to help showcase their companies to the general public to increase public awareness of who they are, and what they do.

-=-

My duty is to perform these three things by increasing distribution. Would any of you have any connections to newsletters - or just know of any publications that would benefit from any of these three topics?

Does this clear up the questions that people have about what I do?
FYI - I am not a licensed financial planner. No slight to them, but I've been making better investment decisions on my own portfolio and not having to pay their management fees to boot. I'm more of a financial researcher. A guinea pig if you will - I test out investments, and if they pass the smell test I pass the information along to my group.

Baraka_Guru,

Do you think you could send me the link to said blog? I'd love to read it to see what they present to their audiences. PM me if it's a nono to post the link here, but I'm guessing others may want to read it as well.

I've got a website in the works, alongside blogs, and eventually a wiki as I hear WIKI is the new hot thing for Search Engine Optimization. Once the dust settles a bit, I'll post them to anyone that's interested.

Thanks,
Merlocke

Will do. If anyone else wants the link, just PM me.

[Mods? If I can post the link here, please let me know.]