Open Source Blogging

Bob Warfield has it all right: Loic Le Meur’s call for authority-based Twitter searches is all wrong.

What is Loic’s idea? To let you do Twitter searches with results ranked according to number of followers.

You’d think I’d be all over that idea, right? After all I have a lot more followers than Loic or Arrington has.

But you’d be wrong. Ranking by # of followers is a stupid idea. Dave Winer agrees. Mike Arrington, on the other hand, plays the wrong side of the field by backing Loic’s dumb idea.

Here’s why it’s a stupid idea: everyone is gaming … Continue Reading

Some people hate them, but I'm a sucker for prediction articles. The switch over to the next calendar year always provides the perfect scenario to decide what the fate of marketing will be.

We reached out to the Junta42 community, as well as the Junta42 Top 42 bloggers, to get their take on what the new year would hold for content marketing and social media.  As you will see, lots of opportunity amidst great uncertainty. Just the way we like it.

Thanks to those who … Continue Reading

I’m working on a column for Fast Company Magazine about how microblogging companies like FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr might make money. Here’s a little sneak peek based on a conversation I had today with Tumblr founder/CEO David Karp.

First, we didn’t focus on just advertising. Tumblr is joining media sharing sites Flickr and SmugMug into charging its users for stuff. People in the industry call that the “freemium” model. Give away one version, but charge for more features. Like what Flickr does. SmugMug goes further and just plain charges, but it’s worth it for … Continue Reading

Average household debt in the United States is 130 percent of average household income, up 20 percent since 2005 and double what it was 20 years ago. The U.S. household savings rate is close to zero. Consumer confidence has plummeted with the value of 401(k) plans and retirement nest-eggs. Retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September, double the expected decline. Car sales are at a 15-year low. And credit card defaults look like the next shoe to drop as cash-strapped Americans have run up credit card debt to postpone the day of reckoning.

Click Here for totally free debt help, … Continue Reading

Britain’s biggest banks will be offered £4 billion by Europe today to lend to small and medium-sized businesses, in a move that will restrict their ability to impose punitive interest rates.

The banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Barclays, will receive the money only if they agree to tight parameters set by the European Investment Bank (EIB) on how it is handed out. There is widespread political anger that banks are forcing businesses to renegotiate loans on harsher terms when they come up for renewal, despite large cash injections from government.

Europe puts tight controls on … Continue Reading

Consumer groups have long complained that credit card issuers push cards onto people who don’t need them or can’t afford them. They say that rising credit card defaults - just like mortgage defaults - are largely the fault of banks who lent to risky borrowers.

Innovest estimates that about 30 percent of Bank of America’s credit card loans are to subprime borrowers - second only to the failed Washington Mutual Inc., which had almost half of its credit card loans held by subprime borrowers.

Innovest also estimates that more than half of Bank of America’s credit cards are high-limit cards - second … Continue Reading

Lenders are shunning consumers already in debt and cutting credit limits for existing cardholders, especially those who live in areas ravaged by the housing crisis or who work in troubled industries. In some cases, lenders are even reining in credit lines after monitoring cardholders who shop at the same stores as other risky borrowers or who have mortgages from certain companies.

While such changes protect lenders, some can come back to haunt consumers. The result can be a lower credit score, which forces a borrower to pay higher interest rates and makes it harder to obtain loans. A reduced line of … Continue Reading

Since 1999, Keith and Deborah Krinsky of Magalia, Calif., have seen their health insurance deductible soar from $1,000 to $10,000.

A combination of Keith’s chronic asthma and potential heart problems, Deborah’s connective tissue disorder and fallen arches, and their kids’ various scrapes and stumbles led them to amass a pile of credit card debt and forced them to refinance the mortgage on their house — which they now are having trouble paying.

Keith, once a plant manager for a trucking company in Chico, took a $30,000 pay cut to get a job with better health benefits. Deborah, who doesn’t work because of … Continue Reading

Consumers in the UK with poor credit histories are being targeted by unscrupulous high street retailers. About 100 retailers including chains such as Woolworths, Comet, Mothercare and B&Q have signed up to a doorstep lending scheme that results in consumers paying an APR of 222%.

Outrage Over Credit Cards with 222% APR QCK, UK - 1 hour ago The money must then be repaid at a rate that is more than 10 times the average APR of a credit card. Debt groups and politicians have expressed anger at the …

Click Here for totally free debt help, advice and … Continue Reading