Profitable business

Howdy, Fools. Last week, I made an attempt to share with you exactly how I approach an unfamiliar oil stock for the first time. I chose Gulfport Energy (Nasdaq: GPOR) for the exercise, figuring that its small size and fairly concentrated operations would yield to a simple analysis relative to larger E&Ps like Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) or Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN). Nevertheless, we've faced a few curve balls.

We have concrete and specific ideas about what it means to be customer-friendly. Free soda refills. Free return shipping for catalog items. Guaranteed airline seats that don't get overbooked. Even dog-friendly shops complete with a water dish.

Every now and then I write about "effective" dividend yields, such as in this piece about how my dividend yields are bigger than other people's. I occasionally hear from some readers who grumble that I'm wrong to pay any attention to such numbers, and that the current yield is all that matters.