Posted by AGORACOM
at 1:39 PM on Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Pleased to announce we just completed this interview with Zack Miller (former Seeking Alpha guy) of New Rules Of Investing. Great discussion concerning online investor relations, electronic shareholder forums and the future of investor relations.
I was also labeled as “indefatigable” in his intro, which was a really nice touch – after I looked up the definition 🙂
The information contained in the interview is well worth the 5 minutes. Moreover, when you’re done, have a look at Zack’s other interviews and articles. Great stuff if you want to be on the cutting edge of the future of investing.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 4:55 PM on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
On Tuesday January 21, 2009 Nayarit Gold Inc. was added to the AGORACOM 100. Nayarit Gold is focused on the Orion Project which lies in the Sierra Madre Occidental, a prolific mining district in northern Mexico.
Highlights include:
Completed $10m financing – (July/08)
Phase II Drill Program in progress
30,000m of drilling underway
Targeting resource calculation in Q1/09 and scoping study in Q2/09
Posted by AGORACOM
at 3:08 PM on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
I am proud to announce that AGORACOM 100″ is now live. The full description can be found on our earlier blog post here. If you prefer video, I’ve included our nationwide TV commercial below, as well as, the 2-minute overview that you can find right on the marketplace.
2-MINUTE VIDEO
NOTE: This is the YouTube version. If you want the clearest player, please watch the video here.
30-SECOND NATIONWIDE TV SPOT
This TV commercial started playing on major Business TV channels and search engines on Monday. Look for this 30-second spot on CNBC and Bloomberg in the United States (Dish Network), as well as, BNN in Canada. Naturally, look for a major push via search engines and our content partners.
NOTE: If the player does not show up below, I’ve included the YouTube version below.
The AGORACOM 100 is going to become an incredible research tool for small-cap investors and outreach program for small-cap public companies.
Why?
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY – THE RESEARCH FILTER FOR SMALL-CAP INVESTORS
With close to 10,000 small-cap companies listed in North America, small-cap investors simply can not differentiate between great small-cap companies and the rest of the “noise”. As such, we created AGORACOM 100 for the sole purpose of providing small-cap investors with a filter that focuses on quality over quantity.
THE SMARTEST IR PROGRAM FOR SMALL-CAP COMPANIES
Much like investors, you are having difficulty differentiating your great company from 10,000 others – most of whom should not even be public. As an AGORACOM client, you automatically become a part of The AGORACOM 100, an elite group of small-cap companies.
ARE YOU IN IT? 65 SPOTS ALREADY TAKEN PRIOR TO LAUNCH
If your small-cap public company is not in AGORACOM 100 but deserves to be, simply contact us and we’ll get back to you within a couple of business hours.
We only have 35 spots left to round out our 2009 group – and we haven’t even launched yet. You now have an opportunity to become part of the best small-cap IR program ever created. With Google, Yahoo, AOL, Blackberry, CNBC, Bloomberg, BNN and Globe Investor on our side, I guarantee this will be your greatest opportunity for IR success in 2009 and beyond.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 12:57 AM on Friday, January 16th, 2009
I am proud to announce that AGORACOM is officially launching “Meet The AGORACOM 100”(Live Link on Monday) via major Business TV channels and search engines on Monday. Look for this 30-second spot on CNBC and Bloomberg in the United States (Dish Network), as well as, BNN in Canada. Naturally, look for a major push via search engines and our content partners.
We are now offering small-cap companies an opportunity to become part of this elite group.
Why?
1. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY – THE RESEARCH FILTER FOR SMALL-CAP INVESTORS
With close to 10,000 small-cap companies listed in North America, small-cap investors simply can not differentiate between great small-cap companies and the rest of the “noise”.
As such, we created The AGORACOM 100 for the sole purpose of providing small-cap investors with a filter that focuses on quality over quantity. Our nationwide marketing program will make AGORACOM 100 the research starting point for retail and institutional investors in 2009.
2. THE WEB’S BIGGEST SMALL-CAP INVESTOR COMMUNITY
More than just lip service, our marketing efforts to date have already turned AGORACOM into the web’s biggest small-cap community with over 1.2 million investors visiting the site 7.6 million times and reading 101 million pages of information this year alone (Full Report).
In addition, our Bay Street Hold ‘Em events attract small-cap fund managers and brokers that manage over $10 Billion in assets and will be utilizing AGORACOM 100 as a starting point.
3. THE SMARTEST IR PROGRAM FOR SMALL-CAP COMPANIES
Much like investors, you are having difficulty differentiating your great company from 10,000 others – most of whom should not even be public. As an AGORACOM client, you automatically become a part of The AGORACOM 100, an elite group of small-cap companies.
Fully conscious of the fact small-cap budgets vary widely in 2009, AGORACOM delivers amazing IR programs at every price point, ranging from $2,500/month + stock options right up to $12,500 + stock options, depending on the level of service you require.
Click hereto see a 1-page PDF outlining the $2,500/month program.
Click hereto watch an 8-minute video about our full-service programs.
ARE YOU IN IT? 65 SPOTS ALREADY TAKEN PRIOR TO LAUNCH
We only have 35 spots left to round out our 2009 group – and we haven’t even launched yet. You now have an opportunity to become part of the best small-cap IR program ever created. With Google, Yahoo, AOL, Blackberry, CNBC, Bloomberg, BNN and Globe Investor on our side, I guarantee this will be your greatest opportunity for IR success in 2009 and beyond.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 4:27 PM on Thursday, January 15th, 2009
The following photo came from a passenger on a ferry that was sent to pick up passengers from the US Airways plane in the Hudson River (click to see full sized image).
“Jkrums” used his mobile phone to take the picture, then post it via Twitter, where it was then sent around the web like wildfire. In the meantime, all CNN could do was provide aerial footage from helicopters.
If you’re a small-cap CEO that still doesn’t believe in the power and speed of Web 2.0, you’re more doomed than the passengers of this flight – who all got off safely thank goodness.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 2:27 PM on Sunday, January 11th, 2009
Fortune Magazine recently published Web 2.0 Is So Over, Welcome to Web 3.0 , to which I call bullshit. On the one hand, the premise that many Web 2.0 companies have failed for lack of a business plan is absolutely true. I’ve been banging the table on this since the first Mesh Conference, on Twitter , TechCrunch (Web 2.0’s most destructive blog) and GigaOm.
But for Fortune to go the next step and say these are representative of Web 2.0 business models is utter bullshit and, quite frankly, lazy journalism. Yes, YouTube / Facebook / Twitter may be the most popular members of the Web 2.0 class – but pinning the Web 2.0 business outlook on them is akin to pinning the future of a high-school class on its most popular jocks….and I’m sick of it.
For some reason, Web 2.0 bloggers (i.e. Techcrunch) and writers (i.e. Jessi Hempel) insist on using traffic as a measure of success. Folks, if a million people use your services but refuse to give you a dollar, you don’t have a business – you have a hobby. Fortune and Techcrunch still don’t realize this – it’s as if they weren’t around for dot-bomb and are still star struck by Super Bowl money-burners.
2 COMPANIES THAT MAKE MORE MONEY THAN YOUTUBE, TWITTER AND FACEBOOK COMBINED
The fact of the matter is that if you took a minute to look past the popularity contest, you would actually find thriving Web 2.0 companies like Freshbooks and AGORACOM that have used Web 2.0 technology to deliver value-added services that customers are – gasp! – actually willing to pay for. No, we don’t have a zillion users viewing a gazillion pages and posting a gigazillion number of messages/photos – but we each make more money than YouTube, Twitter and Facebook combined.
TECHCRUNCH START-UP COVERAGE DESTROYED THE WEB 2.0 ECOSYSTEM
I don’t expect Freshbooks and AGORACOM to get more overall coverage than popular Web 2.0 sites – but when it comes to discussion about business models, we deserve our props and so do other real Web 2.0 companies that we don’t know about. Not just for notoriety reasons but as an example of what other Web 2.0 entrepreneurs should be doing.
Why?
The Techcrunch glamorization of cool but useless Web 2.0 companies has inflicted significant damage on the entire ecosystem by encouraging the development of free mass-market “me too” technology. In dot-bomb, companies were selling $1 bills for 90 cents. Today, they just offer stuff for free and don’t even bother asking for money. They may be burning through significantly less money – but the result is the same. For what it’s worth, it was more fun watching companies burn through $100 million in 6 months than the slow agonizing death of today’s money-less losers.
Covering companies that have taken the time to cultivate and succeed from real business plans, on the other hand, would have inspired many others to go this route – and we wouldn’t be reading articles titled “Web 2.0 Is So Over”.
If the bloggers and journalists can’t do their jobs, maybe you can. I’d love to hear about other Web 2.0 companies generating real revenues ( > $500,000) and real profits from real customers.
UPDATE: Mark Evans has jumped into the fray with a great post that also refers to this post. You can read my comment and why I believe this needs to become a topic at the upcoming Mesh Conference.
UPDATE #2: Chris Anderson, Editor-In-Chief of Wired, posted a story on this very subject to the Wall Street Journal. Clearly, we are at a tipping point in the world of online business models. Glad to see it after pounding the table on this subject for 3 years now.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 12:41 PM on Thursday, January 8th, 2009
On my recent family trip to Disney, I couldn’t help but notice the enormous amount of people using their phones in long line-ups to snap photos, shoot small video clips and communicate with their friends via E-Mail, SMS and MMS. In addition, a large number of parents were using their smartphones to surf the web as they waited for their kids to complete rides.
As a result, I have to conclude that 2009 will be the tipping point for mobile surfing and communications. I know most early adopters have been doing this for years but I’ve always said we need the masses to participate for any tool or app to really gain big traction.
AGORACOM COMES LOADED ON EVERY BLACKBERRY DEVICE
Consequently, look for AGORACOM to significantly advance its mobile efforts in Q1. I say “advance” rather than “launch” because we’ve had a pretty good mobile profile for a couple of years now. Specifically, AGORACOM is the exclusive provider of small-cap content to every Blackberry device on the planet and 1 of only 13 Blackberry financial content partners.
Here is the official list of financial content providers to the Blackberry Finance Channel. It obviously does not look as good on the web because it’s built for mobile – but you get the picture. If you want to view it on your mobile browser, it is a long URL, so I’ve created a shortened version that you can easily punch in: http://tinyurl.com/BlackberryFinance
HERE IS HOW TO GET IT ON YOUR BLACKBERRY, IPHONE OR ANY SMARTPHONE
The same thing goes for the AGORACOM Small-Cap Center on Blackberry. If you want the true view on your mobile, use the following URL - http://agoracom.com/rim/index.html – and make sure to bookmark it!
Look for substantially bigger mobile news out of AGORACOM later this quarter.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 9:58 PM on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
You’re a small-cap CEO and looking for a way to tell your story to investors beyond text. I have always maintained that video is the best new online investor relations tool because of its personal touch (CEO speaking to investors) and demonstration abilities (new product, factory, etc.).
However, until a couple of years ago, video was nearly impossible to execute for all but the most savvy small-cap companies due to the lack of cheap channels such as YouTube. Moreover, online video usage was in its infancy with a limited number of users.
ONLINE VIDEO IS NOW ON
Today? Welcome to the ubiquitous world of online video. According to this NewTeeVee report, the amount of time U.S. Internet users spend watching video is up an impressive 40 percent year over year. Specifically, watchers tuned in for 273.1 minutes of online video in the month of November 2008, up from 195 minutes. Some other interesting stats include:
77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
The number of video viewers was up 6% to 146 million.
97 million viewers watched 5.1 billion videos on YouTube.com (52.3 videos per viewer).
The duration of the average online video was 3.1 minutes.
HOW DOES THIS IMPACT YOUR INVESTOR RELATIONS?
Buy a good digital video camera and make video part of your IR program. The connection created to your shareholders will be invaluable. Meetings, executive addresses, new products, new facilities. If it’s something you want investors to know about, shoot it and share it. AGORACOM’s video strategy is already in full swing, just click on any of the logos above to see just some of our syndication.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 8:46 PM on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
You’re a small-cap CEO and thinking about ways to broaden your shareholder base. You can continue knocking/calling/e-mailing the same people from the same tired lists, or you can take your message to the entire world via online investor relations.
Personally, I think the entire world is a better target market. If you need more proof about how big of an audience we are talking about, consider the fact that 2009 will be the year when Chinese internet users surpass the total population of the United States. Here’s the graph courtesy of CNN and JP Morgan:
CLICK ON GRAPH FOR LARGER CLEARER IMAGE
As you can see, by December 2009, China will have 322 million internet users. That is a blow away number, let alone the 375 million expected to be online by December 2010.
Anybody interested in creating a long-term shareholder base out of this group over the next 2-3 years? I can tell you AGORACOM is already planning to create a massive Chinese stock community. Look for news by mid-February.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 1:33 AM on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Good morning to you all. As we approach the new year, investors are looking for trends and trading strategies for 2009. Last night, AGORACOM Chief Commentator Peter Grandich was a guest on BNN Market Call and the 20-minute interview + phone-in session will be well worth your time.
Why?
All bias aside, the reason we acquired Grandich.com and merged Peter into AGORACOM was due to his uncanny ability to call the direction of the general markets and specific commodities. As such, if you’re looking for information pertaining to overall trends, Peter is about as good as you are going to get.
He’ll be the first to admit his specific stock picks in the junior resources sector blew up on him in 2008 despite healthy gold prices – but stock picking is something best left to you once you’ve taken his market calls into account.
HIGHLIGHTS
Here are just a couple of highlights:
Time to get back into oil stocks as there is limited risk to the downside. On the upside, he likes $75-90 over the next 12-24 months.
He is acquiring ETF’s that short US Treasury Notes. This is the last of the bubbles and it is going to pop as interest rates head tremendously higher.
