In the world of common stocks there are two major ways to profit. The first is through appreciation of the price of a share of a particular stock. The second is to bank the dividends paid by a particular company. It is the second method that we are going to be talking about today.

Stocks and dividends are not a particularly difficult subject to master. A stock is share of ownership in a corporation and a dividend is a monthly, quarterly or yearly payout to owners of that corporation. Let's look at a real world example.

Generally the stocks I single out for investigation on this blog share many traits. In an ongoing series I outline the qualifications of these story-stocks.

When I invest in a particular stock, I'm really investing in the people employed by the corportation. While I do not know them generally, it's easy enough for me to find out certain things about them. The first thing I want to know is whether they believe in themselves. This, I can ascertain by investigating the level of insider ownership.

Generally, the stocks I signal out for investigation on this blog share many traits. In an ongoing series I outline the qualifications of these story-stocks.

Naturally we're all looking for investments that will generate a superior return on our capital. If we're long the market, we're looking for issues that will rise at a greater rate than the market as a whole. If we're short, we search out the opposite. Let's assume that over the long term you expect the market to rise and are looking for issues that will outperform the market as measured by some benchmark like the S&P 500.

Sometimes a confluence of events serves to provide investors with a bountiful windfall or a demoralizing defeat. Often times the same series of events will produce both effects dependent only on which side of the trade one is on. That may be what has happened in the case of Jamba Juice (JMBA).

In the past six months Jamba's stock has swooned from $8 a share in September to close Wednesday at $2.76. Several factors contributed to the freefall. Last month the company reported fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007 results to the disappointment of the street. Analysts called for revenue to measure $64 million for the quarter and $327 million for the year. Jamba reported $54.5 and $317.1, respectively. The stock lost 15% in the session following the announcement.

Of all the stories I've come across in researching articles for this blog, this might be my favorite, or at least the most fascinating. Today we'll be talking robots. Rock 'em. Sock 'em. Robots. Yup, robots!

Founded by "roboticists" from MIT, iRobot Corp. (IRBT) operates on the cutting edge of technology. iRobot's robotic offerings are targeted towards providing solutions to problems that are too "dirty, dull or dangerous" for humans to happily resolve. In the future, robots may battle mankind for control of the earth, but for now they're happy enough to do our vacuuming and mopping.

It sometimes takes courage to buy when the faint of heart are fleeing. In investing, like in life, cliches abound that command us to go against the grain and be greedy when others are fearful. However, equally important are the words of Kenny Rogers who advised that one ought to know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em. These are the thoughts pulsing through my brain at the moment as I reflect upon one infoUSA (IUSA).

The company, which operates salesgenie.com and peddles various marketing lists, elicits in me the great, dichotomous emotions of investing: greed and fear. First, a quick digression. I came by infoUSA while reading a recap of this year's slate of SuperBowl ads. For the second consecutive year, infoUSA ran ads for salesgenie.com that were universally panned as unfunny and somewhat more selectively panned as racist. I watched and I remember the ads well.

How often does a company with $160 million in debt and nearly $17 million in losses in fiscal year 2006 capture my attention? Rather infrequently I must confess. However, the IMAX corportation (IMAX) has achieved the status of an exemption. IMAX controls a niche in the specialty exhibition business, and they may finally be leveraging that status into prolonged profitability and growth.

In December, IMAX announced a deal with AMC Entertainment to install 100 digital projection systems in theatres in 33 American markets. In July of 2008 the company will roll out the first 50 units. In January they followed this pact with the announcement of 12 more screens in China and the Phillipines. This deal increases the IMAX footprint by nearly 40%. And certainly caught my attention. But as I thought about the IMAX story further I came to a couple of conclusions.

I subscribed to a newsletter from the Motley Fool not too long ago and received a copy of their Stocks 2007 publication. One of the companies highlighted, Marchex (MCHX), purchased more than 100,000 domain names in 2006 for over $150 million. After this purchase, the company owned well over 200,000 unique URLs on the this world wide web.

Well, this got me to thinking, as there are only so many usable configurations of letters and numbers that might be suitable for such a thing. I wondered, how much can a portfolio of 200,000 domains be worth?

I expect MEK to also issue further guidance for 2007. In the Q3 conference call the company offered preliminary guidance of $15.5 million in income, $137 million in revenue, and $0.89 a share in earnings. If Metretek can deliver on these numbers, year over year earnings would see 29% growth. Not too shabby for a company trading at 13 times forward earnings.

However, it is significant to note that the company derives a major percentage of its revenue from a single contract, with supermarket chain Publix. This, in and of itself, is a bit of a red flag. Though MEK did recently announced the finalization of at least five new contracts with utility companies worth around $11 million in revenue.

OptionsXpress, which raised its dividend by 25% on Friday, operates exclusively online without cumbersome retail locations to maintain. Without brick-and-mortar branches it has implemented an easy-to-use platform and sports top-notch customer service. I recently opened an account and found it to be the easiest process I've ever encountered for an online service company. They even provided a printable FedEx mailing label so I could deliver a hard copy of my application easily and free of charge. Needless to say, I was impressed. Evidently I am not alone on this count as the company was cited in 2006 by Barron's, for the fourth consecutive time, as well as Kiplinger's Personal Finance as the "Best Online Broker."

Jim Cramer, the co-founder and largest individual shareholder of TSCM, has become a cottage industry unto himself. With two best-selling investment hardcovers and the immensely popular Mad Money program on CNBC, he has positioned himself as a major commodity. Millions of people love, listen, and invest along with Mr. Cramer. Love him or hate him, his persona shines so brightly it would be fair to say he's reached star status. And the beneficiaries of Mr. Cramer's luminescence will be the shareholders of the website where his online content resides exclusively.

I suspect that TSCM would have garnered several mentions as an uncovered investment possibility by Mr. Cramer already had he not been clearly excluded from "pumping" his company by his employers. It's a clear conflict of interest. So he can't mention the stock favorably. Unfortunate perhaps for his viewers as the shares have nearly doubled in the last 52 weeks and seem to still have a significant way to go. But while Mr. Cramer can not recommend TSCM formerly, he does mention the company quite frequently. His fan base knows that if you want to read him, you must visit TheStreet.com. And that fan base absolutely reads him. They're coming to TSCM in droves while the company reaps serious economic benefit from it's association with such a major media figure.