Buy on the rumor; sell on the news. - Wall Street Proverb

Now free real-time stock quotes are available at several places on the web.

Google announced yesterday that its finance pages will feature real-time NASDAQ quotes. The real-time quotes are part of a pilot program offered by NASDAQ OMX Group. Real-time quotes for NASDAQ will also be offered through CNBC, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and Xignite.

Yahoo, Inc. launched real-time quotes for its Yahoo Finance site last week. Yahoo quotes cover both NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. However, the real-time quotes offered by Yahoo come from Electronic Communications Networks or ECN. Since ECNs do not represent the actual exchange, the real-time Yahoo quotes are not exactly real-time.

"The road to success is always under construction." - Lily Tomlin

It never fails to amaze me how the process of getting a presence on the Web is becoming easier. Lifehacker.com, again one of my favorite sites, recently had a post about Webon. This is an online what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) web site editor. One of the big differences here is that, unlike Google Page Creator, there is no registration required on Webon.

I played around with the editor and it is - to me - a bit like Blogger. But, again, on Blogger there is the obligatory "sign in to use Blogger with your Google account." I like Webon and it can be a great tool to create an information or blog.

I had never expected that the China initiative would come to fruition in the form of a Ping-Pong team. -Richard M. Nixon

Have you met the Fuwa? No? Well the Fuwa are the "Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace - and good wishes from China - to children all over the world." They are five cartoon characters each having its own color - like the Olympic rings. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. Their names, put together, form the greeting, "Welcome to Beijing." Ignore the sites that suggest the Fuwa are harbingers of doom.

I have found the official 2008 Olympic website to be really interesting. And, with only 71 days to go (as the site tells me), I wanted to point out an important feature of the site. You can learn foreign languages with the Fuwa!! Yes, the Fuwa teach simple phrases in French, English, and Putonghua (that is, standard Mandarin, the official Chinese spoken language). With the website "Chinese website users will be able to learn simple, useful phrases that might come in handy next summer with visitors from around the world." While other "users of the official website [will] acquire basic conversation skills." Sample phrases include:

• What is the maximum amount of money we can withdraw from the ATM each day?
• She is not only intelligent but also beautiful.
• I want to withdraw 500 euros.

The site allows you to listen to each phrase in any of the three languages. I do not think the Fuwa do the actual translating. China Daily interviewed Han Meilin, the creator of the Fuwa, and you can read an English transcript at their site. Meilin reports he was paid one yuan for the effort (and copyright). Finally, on the Fun Page you can download screen savers.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. - Andrew Carnegie

© laughlin

Ducttapemarketing.com has an interesting link today to the SCORE website. Score is offering two free how-to workbooks for those who register at the site. The two how-to books are: How to Really Start Your Business and How to Really Structure Your Business.

Jon Jantsch had featured SCORE in his podcast last year and posted about it. It is an underutilized resource for small businesses. SCORE is "a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)." If you are a small business owner and you have not perused the SCORE website, then you are missing some valuable free information. There is a business tools page featuring a start up business plan and financial projections in .doc and .pdf, a template page for financial statements, and a complete section on disaster planning for small businesses - just to highlight a few of the resources available.

Local offices of SCORE run small business workshops and help business owners find mentors in their area. There is a zip code search feature that locates local offices quickly. Another section I truly enjoyed was "success stories" where businesses that SCORE assisted are profiled. Great site, free advice, inspiring stories, and a free give away!

Lofty words cannot construct an alliance or maintain it; only concrete deeds do that. - John F. Kennedy

Small Business Trends posted two articles with opposing views on the use of Social Networking yesterday. The posts are written by professionals and offer two wholly divergent views without hype and without some tangential argument over MySpace versus Facebook.

Author John Mariotti takes the con position in his article. He states, "real business people realize that this social networking trend is superficial." He lists four networking alternatives and four marketing alternatives. I encourage you to read the article, it is very good. In summary, Mr. Mariotti concludes that there is no real business to be developed through social networking sites, relationships are superficial, and it cannot replace face to face solid relationship development.

Author Ivana Taylor offers the pro position in her article. She states, "if you want to be in business in the next 20 years, you'd better be using the tools that 20 year olds are using to decide who to buy from." She stresses that social networking now has an integral place as a part of a marketing strategy - chiefly, as promotion, "communicating your offering."

Now I read both of these articles because Anita Campbell of smallbiztrends.com uses Twitter and she regularly informs those who follow her about posts to her site. So, this begs the question, if I found the articles as the result of a social networking site, does that mean Ms. Campbell's use of social networking is working? Well, kind of. I did read her biography and now I know Ms. Campbell is a fellow attorney with her J.D. from the University of Akron. I do not know if I would have known this about her in any other way or interacted with her except perhaps at a continuing education seminar.

But I accept Mr. Mariotti's premise as well. Do I have a close relationship with Ms. Campell such that I would use her firm? No (at least not now). And, I do not expect Small Business Trends, LLC to become a new client of my firm either (but, Anita please call if you are interested - quality legal representation for a very competitive price). Quite frankly, I did not even click on any of the ads on the site. So, online social networking - solely with the belief that long-term, deep business relationships will develop - is not an effective stand-alone tool. But, I use it.

It is not "complicated" as Mr. Mariotti suggests. And, with all due respect, I cannot get to all of the "clubs" and "professional societies" networking functions - assuming I am invited. I suspect working professional moms feel the same way. I do not spend much time on LinkedIn or Twitter and it is easy for me to tweak my profiles over coffee on a Saturday.

I perceive value in having learned about Ms. Campell, Ms. Taylor, and Mr. Mariotti's points of view and having learned about them, their experience and know how. I may pick up one of their books. Perhaps, I will convert their sage advice into my own when speaking to an unsuspecting client someday. When and if I ever meet them face-to-face, I will have something to discuss and it will be about them. I will be prepared with my message and who I am and what I have to offer. And, ultimately, those that can combine solid time proven strategies with the new will be the most successful.

"Retire to what? I'm a golfer and a fisherman. There's nothing to retire to." -Julius Boros

Last night I was going through my mail and I received a nice little post card from a credit card company suggesting I take my economic stimulus check and give it to them to pay down a credit card so they could issue me a better credit card. No thanks. I turn 40 this year and I have my own little wake up call going on. It is called retirement.

Online retirement calculators are great tools to look at your finances and give you an idea of where you stand. I have assembled a list of online calculators here that do not require a sign up or start with annoying commercials (Bloomberg).

• The Motley Fool - The best of the group. It has calculators for many financial topics.
• CNNMoney.com - is relatively straightforward.
• MSN Money at MSN.com
• USA Today - A great set of financial calculators.
• Yahoo Finance - One of my favorite financial sites, the calculators work well. I have encountered some serious lag as ads were loaded.
• About.com has a retirement planning site with articles and calculators.

No matter your age, it is important to have a real sense of what you would need to start doing right now to have a decent, supporting income when you want to retire. I guarantee if you do that before the economic stimulus check arrives, you will think twice before purchasing the HDTV and seriously consider starting a low cost Roth IRA.