I Have An Issue

No matter how good your work is, you will always have people who will hate it. Just remember -

Someone else's opinion of you does not have to become your reality...

Hi Chris,

You will always get people who disagree with you, just present a reasonable and balanced argument in favour of your ideas and after that just let it go, don't get involved and any more banter with them.

Have you considered posting for a while without a signature, and only add one once the game has been launched? That way people will have the chance to get to know you first without feeling that you are out to make money from them from the off.

Good luck.

Steve.

Hi Chris,

I know exactly what you mean!

Have quite a lot of experience in the gaming niche myself.

Here is how I see it:

If you are promoting ANYTHING that costs money people will give you crap for it. Especially in the gaming niche.

I have even gone into depth with gamers about this and pointed out that they are paying to play a game so if they buy a guide and it is good content and offers value where is the problem?

Or do you complain when you buy petrol for your car or a Starbucks?

The BEST answer I have got back in these cases are:

"You don't need a guide!"

Then I tell them fine - no problem.

"It should be free"

To which I answer:

"Yes, I wish all services, products etc... were free too"

My advice is to just carry on regardless - if you have quality content and it is helping people for every hater you will have a customer for life.

Don't listen to the haters!

Chris

There will always be detractors, especially if you are successful and they're not. It sounds like you pissed someone off there who has some influence on the majority's opinion. Perhaps if you could figure out who that person or persons are you might be able to smooth things over. In the meantime double and triple check the TOS of the forum to make absolutely certain you aren't breaking the rules. That way when your post gets removed you can call shenanigans and have a leg to stand on.

Its probably because they know you are onto something big and that they are too late to capitalize on that idea!

People often don't like to appreciate other peoples work too much because they think anybody could do it, yet they don't have a clue. Also its probably just the community surrounding the game! Especially since the game hasn't even come out yet, people are probably going to be negative about people who are making sites that capitalize on the fact you can make REAL money in a game.

But don't worry what other people say, you should do well!

Put your masterpiece posts on a blog -- either on the site you are promoting OR on a blog that simply supports the money site.

Then link to your blog where the articles are posted, from your sig files. Don't use your target keywords in your signature. Instead, use words that attract clicks.

When in the forum, focus on answering questions, rather than posting masterpiece articles.

When people find your masterpiece articles on your blog, IF THEY LIKE THE CONTENT, they will link to them for you.

The thing is that you probably stink like a marketer in that world. You are better off to play soft there, generating link juice for the site(s) where your articles are posted, then pass the link juice from your article site to your sales pages.

This is sort of like using a condom for your money sites. Condoms are not guaranteed to prevent disease, but they do offer one more layer of protection.

You can achieve your search engine goals using methods of this sort, without tainting your reputation while you are doing it.

Take the PT Barnum method that states no publicity is bad publicity.

He went to extremes with it (I highly recommend reading his autobiography).

Take the criticism head on and blow it up to a grand proportion.

Funny thing is when people hate it usually drives sales up. Use it as a stage and create a lot of drama from it

Well, what's bad about taking crap from someone? If you wouldn't have enemies or competitors who would like to see you fail, then it means that you are boring and do not stand for anything.

I'm still waiting for the day when i will start doing something important that will give me new friends & foes.

Just be who you are and focus on the "good" audience.

[OP quoted to remind anyone still here what the original topic was.]

Chris, you may not be, as Paul put it, "putting a buy button in the post", but it can sometimes be very obvious that the person doing all that giving has an ulterior motive. And when it is, people feel their intelligence has been insulted.

I'm not saying this is what you did, but from what Paul posted, you do have that capacity and may have let your zeal leak through your helpful/interesting posts.

Even here, a lot of threads get nuked because someone "just tried to offer good information in the interest of helping" while leaving out an essential piece that - wonder of wonders - can be answered by clicking their sig.

Why not try Bill's idea? Dial back your wonderful contributions by posting them on your own blog. Link to that. You can usually even get away with occasional, relevant references to blog posts in your forum contributions.

If admins approve your posts, and when the cabal protests, leaves things at deleting a post, take it as a sign that you may have crossed a line. If it happens too often, you might look for somewhere your contributions are welcome rather than trying to start a war on someone else's forum. Even if you're in the right, that's a good way to get banned.

I'd discuss the issues with the person who is criticising your work. There may a degree of validity to this, however if you are still unhappy that it does not reflect your work then seek legal redress

Since its a gaming niche, maybe you are dealing with unruly teenagers?

Either way you cant make everyone happy, there will always be someone who doesn't see your vision or like your work. Thats the way it is.

But keep up the good work. You will be the one laughing all the way to bank in the end!

Diablo 3 is finally coming out?! Can't believe I missed that. Man, I've been waiting so long...

Gamers are a hard crowd to market to because they are tech savvy, suspicious, and very social - In other words, once one has a problem they all have a problem, and vice versa. I know because I am one.

My advice would be to get rid of the signature link for now... Treat the forum like a farm; you're planting the seeds and you'll harvest in the future.

If you drive your reputation into the ground there's not much you can do to salvage it. It might already be too late.

Hi,

This is a difficult subject to talk about, especially with my limited vocab.

The truth is, everyone is our mirror. They see us in many perspectives.

Whatever they say about our qualities -> is the nearest reflection of ourselves.

IMHO, we have got 2 choices here:

A. Swallow it, improve it and get on with our life. It'll be better and more productive.

B. Fight it, we'll receive the sharpest and highest resolution image of ourselves, which we don't really want to see.

Choose one.

For someone with limited vocab, you sure spoke wise words!

BTW, I'm also tired of people following me around and accusing me of promoting my sig.

Interesting thread.

I opened it because I was curious what kind of "issue" this guy had. Then I learned it was about his aggressive forum "marketing" elsewhere.

I don't remember his earlier posts... although the avatar looks familiar.

Then Paul came with his post - suggesting a lot of food for thought... and putting things in perspective.

My common sense approach would tell me to make a post that happily identifies the poster with the OP after the post linked above - would put me into the same not-so-positive light.

Seemingly, others don't think the same way... and the thread-hijack show has started

P.S. I am not following anybody and I am not a fan of anybody.
:p

Much troll food has been deleted from this thread. Some 50+ posts worth.

I suggest the folks who were involved with that take it out to the parking lot. It doesn't belong here.


Paul

You should expect people to criticize your work and your marketing efforts. They even did it to Jesus!

So I'm coming back into this thread a little later than I wanted to, and I must say that the response has been outstanding. So many great ideas are in here, and I think I should respond with my thoughts thus far:

Paul - Sorry for past headaches.

Everyone Else - I agree that the issue IS ME. I come on strong with 1200 word posts and put a great deal of effort into them. These posts do not require people to click on my forum signature (remember, this is for another site, I am not advocating you to click on my sig with this post) yet still angry forum goers targeted me for having a signature that I can profit off of.

My reputation proceeds me, as many are angry that I sold my World of Warcraft site for $50,000. Angry because I apparently made money "exploiting others." My buyers don't think that, but these forum goers do. Credibility matters, so I tried to build some by having really long and well thought out posts.

What's interesting is that youtube videos and similar advertising methods ARE allowed.

There are many factors going on over at the other forum, but I still could improve in many ways. Here are some ideas I am thinking about at the moment:

1. I could create content without a signature.
2. I could on occasion, maybe 10% of the time, link to a blog post.
3. I could use links when I don't start the post, instead of always having one in when I am the thread starter.
4. I could use a different "layer" to sell than the initial link.
5. I could only give links to people who message me on the forum.

You know what the biggest lesson I've learned from the whole process is?

I can't position myself as an expert, even if I am, until I've proven myself in the trenches. You can't just post 1200 word posts on day one and expect people to respect you. It takes time, conversation, and practice.

Chris, Hey... you got over it.


Paul