Longtime readers know my basic view of social media is that it is like one big American Idol contest: basically, the idea is to create a niche community, and filter talent in that niche community. This is one of the best ways to monetize social media, in my opinion.

Well, I guess we'll find out, as I just launched the first trader we're raising money for on my trading site.

Fred is an investor in Covestor, a site that is doing basically the same thing. A couple differences:

1. Everything is priced in a virtual currency and hence is game play on my site. Covestor is more "real world." This is a big difference. There is literally a world of difference!

2. Covestor is like a real company, not like a dude in his apartment (though I'm a cool dude, and my apartment is walking distance to the ocean....so not just any dude, and not just any apartment). The "dude in his apartment" approach allows for a business model that is more community-centric, more community-owned. More crowdsourcing. I tend to think "dude in his apartment" is the end result of what happens when the edge owns the core.

I always try to get Fred to invest in The Business Plan That Saves the World because we are running from the same playbook, as I like to say. I met with Fred back in December, lol, that was fun. I got dissed though, I think the kook factor is just too much. Of course I'll keep pitching Fred. As everything falls apart I'm sure Kid Mercury will become far more tolerable, and thought of as a delightful introduction to poverty and how to stop it.