On this joyous day (iBC’s 4th birthday), I will share some of the details of my beginning into the disgusting world of blogging.
Before FlyonWallStreet, I used to mess around with political commentary and news. I was naive to the world and thought the republican party was God’s private club. It just so happens, the republicans are fucktards, just like the democrats.
Moving on.
I had moderate success doing it, even landing a top story headline on Drudge. My commentary once became the centerpiece of Michael Savage’s monologue and during the 2004 Presidential elections my web traffic was double of what iBankCoin gets on a daily basis.
The only problem: it was interfering with my business of managing money. I was so caught up in the bullshit, my business suffered. Well, by most standards, my business was great. But I knew it could do better.
So one day I decided to quit blogging. That was that. My wife was happy and so were my friends. Nothing is more annoying than some ideologue sharing “political wisdom.”
About a year later, I had an itch to start a new site. A fellow coworker of mine was a fairly successful financial website operator and it got my wheels turning. If I blogged about stocks, my productivity wouldn’t suffer and I could write again, something that was ingrained in my genes (I am related to a world famous writer, who happens to be dead now).
It was settled. I was going to launch another website and talk shit to the world.
My first site was idiotic. I designed it myself and I didn’t know anything about web design or programming. Aside from Jeremy the IT guy, no one knows about my first financial site. I posted my picks and linked to some news. There was no real commentary, aside from Briefing.com style notes.
At the time, Jim Cramer was a huge hit with Mad Money. It was a new type of show and everyone was sucking his dick. So, I started a blog that summarized Jim’s picks and commentary. Needless to say, within a few short months, it took off. Then, I launched FOWS blog with my business partner. The idea behind the site was to copy and paste our instant messages to one another, as we traded.
This platform was met with moderate interest from people who wanted to read the true, unvarnished, thoughts of real Wall Street money managers. The only problem with that idea was my partner. He was a fucking lunatic and didn’t want to “waste time” posting bullshit on some “stupid fucking blog.” Shortly after he quit the blog, I broke up our partnership.
Okay, so the Cramer site was still running and people loved it. The FOWS blog was all but dead. However, I knew it would be revamped soon, allowing me to discuss stocks and write. How did I know this? Well, I knew Cramer’s people would freak the fuck out one day and demand that I stop writing about him. I was not only right; I was exactly right.
His lawyers sent me a cease and desist letter, demanding that I stop posting Jim’s shit. I posted a copy of the email to the site and informed my readers I was shutting it down, but would continue blogging at FOWS.
Surprisingly, about 75% of my Cramer readers made the switch and I was off to a running start, garnering about 500 page views per day. Now we do 50-60,000.
The rapid success of FOWS is a whole ‘nother story. I will talk about it next year, on iBC’s 5th birthday.
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Real interesting stuff…love reading papa fly’s stories.
” something that was ingrained in my jeans”
I wonder what cloth said jeans are from. Surely it is not denim.
lol. Thanks
that crap makes me sleepy – jeeZ! YOu can do way better than that!!!!!!!!!!!
Diesel or Seven.
Sin,
Jason Treu
MARITHE + FRANCOIS GIRBAUD per say
” I will talk about it next year, on iBC’s 5th birthday.”
such a tease…
Interesting. It seems you’ve manage to combine two disparate life pursuits into one.
But as I read between the lines, I almost get the feeling that the writing is stronger passion.
Can’t believe I’ve been following since the days of Broker A/Broker B! Took me nearly as long to become truly comfortable and profitable w/ a strategy that works for me.
I love reading about the beginnings. I operate a couple of sites myself (not financial related) and generating traffic is a massive uphill battle. Content is always king and this site has always been fresh and unique. Thanks for all the hard work!
“Nothing is more annoying than some ideologue sharing “political wisdom.””
apt description of The Newt Gingrich …, who stole X-mas
8)
What writer are you related to?…And Happy Birthday.
Fly, T Bird, or anyone else with experience. I am thinking about starting a web site– not financial related. What books or web sites or other references do you know of where I could read about how to get started and eventually do this well? Thanks.
Im happy to help. You essentially need 3 things: a domain, dns forwarding, and a server. As a novice, I would suggest something like godaddy, they can do it all at one source and it will be simple (I personally run my own server bc I like to tinker). If you plan on starting a blog, I would suggest wordpress (I think this site uses it), if you are going make a traditional site look into http://www.oswd.org/ if you are going to make a retail site, check out oscommerce. Check into google analytics for site metrics, like page visits, etc. That should get you started. Good luck!
I should also mention you will likely need a wysiwyg html editor, hopefully one that also can edit css. That way you can edit the look of your site. No sense in trying to learn php, perl, html, etc if you arent already familiar. One day you may, but start with a visual editor first to get up and running.
Another idea if you are interested in blogging is blogger.com. Many wonderful sites (including this one) got their start there and that shit’s free!
Once you are up and running, look into SEO, to learn how to drive traffic. seomoz.org is a great source.
Sorry gents, didnt mean to hijack the thread. Just wanted to help our Frog, since I always enjoy his insights on this site. Carry on…
T,
long time.. how are you?
Thanks a mil, T Bird. I really appreciate it.
BTW, Fly, your posts are particularly fascinating lately. The history of building a business, or any worthwhile endeavor, is very interesting to read about and to think about– particularly the personal experiences one has while striving to attain one’s goals.
thanks
Fly,
You have kids. Ever watch “Thomas the Train”? You are “Sir Top-Em Hat”. LOL
Nope. Never.
Fly I loved this post. You have the heart of a writer,(which now explains why my disregard for proper use english/spelling pisses you off so much). Its funny how paths cross and how we grow, for myself, well I am a Jim Cramer Lifetime Fan Member (even though we see the market different at this point). I never saw your Mad Money site, but boy did I read a lot about “his bashers” at RM and Stockpickr. I followed Jim around like a puppy in my early days of 2007, they had a scoring system at Stockpickr for Stock Answers and of Course Jim Cramer had the top score. Stumbling onto Stockpickr from starting to watch Mad Money..I became addicted to trying to understand why the stock market worked. I started to write and submit articles to The Street.com then, but omg, thinking back about it, I had been studying stocks for less then a year and why they allowed me to do this is amazing to this day.I started my site,not because I had a desire to write at all (which I don’t, stocks are my passion), but it was just a need for a place to talk about stocks 24/7..even if it is to myself at times and protect my content..other sites can wipe out your work when they redesign, having your own place insures that only you can control your stuff as long as you pay your $8.00 a month hosting fee. I would have never pegged you as a Political Beast, Stock Junkie yes..but Politics is rather boring….Fly, you have written a little bit before on how you found your love for stocks, but I would love to hear about more stories on the amazing decades long investment history you have, which I am so jealous of…did you start out doing only fundie analysis? Reading Analyst reports? who were your teachers? When did your space craft crash on earth? Happy Birthday!
Thanks.
I will discuss all of that shit in due time. I need to be in the mood. Recently, I have been in the mood to write about it. I will probably go another 6 months or so before I reveal more, however.
As I have said before, You are such a tease, 🙂
The Fly is taking a page out of Steve Jobs’ book. If he ever wants to get to 100,000 page views a day he has to create a level of mysteriousness around himself so that he leaves his readers yearning for more of his fucking mastery of the English language. All the while dominating the game of $ management in the process!
Another great post, Fly.
Did I miss it? What did FOWS mean anyway?
Fly on Wall Street.
Happy blogiversary! Entertaining and educational what more can folks ask for?
how did you used to do the internet laser beam thing?
Fly,
Thanks so much for your fabulous verbage and rants! Love them all. You gotta see Hunter’s Thompson, movie with Johnny Depp- “Rum Diaries.” Between your blog and this movie, I’m inspired to write about my real estate career working with the public lunatics and swiss cheese heads!
I’m a guy who has been following for only a year or so. I enjoy this site because, frankly, ideas here just make sense. In a world where bullshit is accepted as truth (read: the internet), I find that iBankcoin is a source of originality, truth, and intuition. I too have enjoyed the more personal posts from you, Fly. The personal stories seem to pull everything together. That is, daily commentary/blog posts are derivatives to what is largely unknown and anonymous. Reading through the blog over the past week or so has been interesting in that I can finally start to grasp where you’re coming from in your attitude, writing style, etc. Though, I’ve yet to figure out how Rick Ross has worked his way in as a IBC staple, but I f*cking love it. Congrats on your successes.
Happy Birthday iBC! I am a much better trader because of the help and wisdom of my virtual friends here. Thanks for all you do.
Dr,
You are a fine writer, there is something “special” about your writing style which separates you from other blogs.
Believe me, you might do better $$ at writing than trading ..at least you should try to write a book..
As someone who speaks, reads and writes in many languages I know quality.
Happy birthday!
BLogging is a lot of work.
I dont know how u do it FLy. I ran mine up to 300-400 a day but the pressure of having to do it daily on top of increased job responsabilities was just too much.
I applaud you on your consistent efforts and excellence.
Fly-
Great post, but I would have taken the C&D and wiped my ass with it (and sent it back of course).
There’s nothing they can do to stop you from commenting on a TV show, or for that matter a website. TV Guide and all the other places that review TV shows would have been out of business a long time ago.
Once he talks about it on air, it’s fair game. I’m sure you credited it as Cramer’s analysis: “this is what Cramer said tonight” or “Cramer said MMM was going to be the stock to watch and I think he’s full of shit.”
Truth is, at that point you could have probably cared less about fighting with those asshats, and at least they spent money with the lawyer writing up the letter.
Fly, Great stuff. Thanks.
Fly: Four years of killing it. No one lays it on the line in a more hilarious, transparent fashion. IBC FTW.
“(I am related to a world famous writer, who happens to be dead now).”
Hunter S Thompson ??
Happy B-Day IBC….and Congrats Fly….it is quite a machine you are creating.
Fly, if you ever have the interest to do so, I’ll bet a lot of folks would be interested in reading a blog post by you regarding all of the specific things that are unrealistic about the film Margin Call.
I can see how a guy wouldn’t be surprised at how much his boss makes, as you said. That’s why he’s working there– to eventually make that much himself.
It also seems to me that it would be impossible for a firm to sell that many MBS’s all day long without the price diving even more than it did in the movie. I can’t imagine that Bear or Lehman were able to dump tons of MBS’s that quickly.
Lol.
Margin call was ridiculous
Oh, and if people stopped doing business with firms that had sold them worthless crap in the past, I imagine there wouldn’t be any big Wall Street brokerages left.
That is the whole idea of the stock market: Buy low from a sucker. Sell high to another sucker. Hope there really is “a sucker born every minute”, as the saying goes.
Congrats on your 4th BDay. You put a lot of work into this even though it isn’t your day job and it shows.
Although I don’t really belong on this site (too old, too liberal, investor not a trader), the quality of your writing keeps bringing me back.
How did you get your nickname?
Happy Birthday iBC!
settled,” i was gonna start a website just to talk shit to the world”. i’m dyin heah.thats the best.fuckin “get back” tastes soo much better when served up cold,no.rof……dont ever stop. H-berfday
I believe there were a couple of plebs that stumbled across your pre-2006 financial site. Wasn’t that the one that headlined “$100 Oil Coming” after testing rel 1.02 of your time machine, and the Cramer cease and desist? Subject for another day?
In any case, happy birthday to your creativeness, and the whole iBC community.
Yes, I started a blog called $100 oil when it was at 40
Horatio Alger in mufti.
Fly, aren’t you a little worried about the Telegraph’s article today stating that the ECB bought the majority of the bonds offered by the EFSF?
Oh, nevermind, the Telegraph jests:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/13/us-eurozone-efsf-idUSTRE7AC0M520111113
sorry, also edit out the word “Majority.” Replace it with “left over.”
Way to put that Big 10 edumacashin to good use.
Keep up the good work and thanks for a place for us “little bloggers” to have a place to cut and paste!
Fly, you sure call a lot of things right, including politics.
“the republicans are fucktards, just like the democrats.”
True, dat.
One reason why political discussion is so acerbic in the U.S. is that it consists mostly of pointing out the flaws of the other party’s candidates and putting them down. This happens because no one can praise their own party’s candidates– because they are not praiseworthy.
This is one place where being more positive would help everyone– if people can find candidates who are praiseworthy and support them, instead of slinging mud at the many fucktards.
You can’t get anything done by being AGAINST someone. You have to actually DO something constructive, or at the very least vote FOR someone who will do something constructive.
Ditto that.
I will never support the two party system.
Happy Birthday iBC. If you don’t have iBC set as one of your browser’s startup pages, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life, I really don’t.
Yeah right, you go ahead and go long. The Dow is just 1600 points from an all time high. Think about that….then think about the differences between now and october 2007 in terms of macro economic, unemployment and pending ‘soft patches’ .
PETE
Also if the market continues to go up. You may aswell call it the zimbabwe rally. It would mean cheap liquidity has created yet another bubble and terrible inflation is right around the corner.