You are grossly misjudging your audience. The number of "desperate" threads are people who are desperate to make money with secret online schemes. They are not desperate to create and run businesses.

One thing to consider if you haven't, is this may not be a them problem but a you problem.

How? (Don't take this personally - I'm just thinking out loud and have no reason to believe you are doing anything wrong or have done anything wrong)

Your teaching style may not resonate with them.

You may have no credibility (or not enough) for them to want to invest in listening to you. All the real gurus charge but you have plenty of time to waste (or don't have enough of your own work or customers to fill your day).

You may have physical or personality traits that turn them off.

You may seem untrustworthy in the sense that if you recommend a particular web hosting or whatever they know you are sticking them somewhere, somehow so you get your cut. No one else is doing it for free so how are you? You are getting commissions off them which means it's not free but part of your sales plan.

You may come across as not knowing what you claim you know. Even many of the desperate ones have studied and lurked for many years and intellectually know how things work.

Again, I'm just giving another perspective that you may want to consider if everyone is dropping out.

Mark

I'm not one of those that say that anyone that does free coaching is a scammer or doesn't know what they are talking about. I understand the wanting to give back - I do and have too.

But it only took one major case of wasted time and effort to quickly cure my desire to help for free (or for future commissions or similar arrangements). I just gave up on it at the time. I wasn't going to let myself be abused like that. For example, I would be on Skype waiting and they never show up till the next day with an excuse.

So I'm with you - want to help those that need it, have the skills and knowledge to help, but can't waste any more time going in circles. It seems like there is not a good solution for this type of scenario.

I do appreciate those that try to selflessly give back though.

Mark

Zodiax beat me to it. Maybe make an ebook for the war forum, that way you filter out some people who wouldn't invest a small amount for war forum membership.
I'd certainly be interested in reading what you have to say

I'm not sure if you caught my "Making My First Million" post earlier this year, but I essentially said the exact same thing- only 1-2% would stick it out and make something of themselves. The only difference was that I was giving them jobs while I trained them, and that could possibly be where you're going wrong. People do have to eat and it's just not practical to expect inexperienced people to stick with something without any cash-flow.

So let me ask you this- why can't you do like I did, hop on Elance and grab some assignments to let newcomers work on? You make a little bit of money, they get feedback and eventually they're where they can start making cash on their own.

Then again, it sounds like you just want to be a mentor. So throw out a few Craigslist ads and get some folks locally to work with. If you already have a set course then great, but don't be upset if most people don't finish before vanishing.

It's not you though- it's them. Trust me on this, I did the exact same thing for almost five years straight...and I'd honestly say that I FULLY trained six writers for internet marketing. But I helped hundreds, and that's the part you need to focus on. If they drop out and do something else, then they probably wouldn't have made it on their own anyway.

There have been many people on this forum post their stories about working hard and coming up empty. Plenty of people looking for a mentor also.

Unless you're in a rush, stick around, wait for the right people to show up here (gauge their responses to advice they get here) and send them a pm. Simple.

I think you're on the right track with filtering people by making them do certain things first. Make them go through a questionnaire, and ensure they actually read and perform what you ask them to do in order to be considered for your coaching.

Action speaks a lot louder than words here, and since you're not wanting to charge anything for your coaching (which I find very admirable and noble, by the way), I think the best way to weed out the tire-kickers is to require a decent amount of predetermined action as the prerequisite to getting coached by you.

[DELETED]

Free is the new expensive.

No one attributes any real value to things they got for free, or very cheap.

If you want to be taken seriously, you have to stop saying "free."

Oh, it's can be "free" - but with a "price."

Most people are going to be unwilling to put in the work required for this industry for free. I wouldn't even bother unless you are charging and weeding out the get-rich-quick seekers who aren't serious. Questions alone aren't going to be enough of a filter, IMO.

It's not just IM. Same in Offline. Giving people the training and then letting them get to work, with daily coaching, has never worked for me. People will happily take what you give them...and then flake away.

Don't waste your time, energy and emotion offering free coaching.

And no questionnaire, test, set of Herculean tasks to overcome will find you the right person. The FIRST chance they get to bolt back to apparent safety--even if it means moving halfway across the country to go to work for a parent at a job they don't really like--they'll go.

What these people are really looking for is a magic solution to their problems. One where they don't have to do any work.

If someone pays something, even well below market value, for what you offer, they at least are indicating they know it should cost them SOMETHING. And I mean in terms of an investment. Not just financial.

The freebie-seekers want it EASY. As soon as anything resembling the shape of W-O-R-K shows up, they're gone in a flash.

Don't waste yourself.

Because people take different understanding on the word "FREE". Your coaching/course is FREE, but then people realize that to be an entrepreneur is factually not free. When you just even tell them to buy a domain name... you just lost them away. Simply as that.

You have to charge! If you don't you do a bad service to those who you are coaching, they will not listen or implement etc.. It's better for them if you take their money then if you don't even that this is counter intuitive! It's also better for you or you will loose will to coach!

You want to help people make money online but you are not making money online. You draw job seekers because you are a job seeker. An entrepreneur will always charge something because the value is part of what they teach.

You give free stuff then upgrade to account then upgrade to one on one. Its a process which you should do yourself.

Q

You can understand how given the state of things, free coaching seems dodgy. It could also be because people have so many options that they just drift from one thing to another without committing to one project.
One of the reasons I'd give up on a free coach would be if I felt he was making me do too much work for too little earnings. But it's not exact science and it's hard to predict the income. If you are still looking for students, I could give you 6 months of my time and follow your lead religiously during this period. That's enough to gauge the potential of the projects you are making me do.

My only skillsets are writing, knowledge of SEO, basic wordpress and research.

Yeah, you're really not helping anyone by not charging them a premium price...

Or at least a price in the first place.

If you don't value your time, why should anyone else?

People are either entrepreneurial or they aren't. The ones that are will be self starters. They'll be out there learning on the fly. Experience is the best teacher.

And they'll almost certainly feel like a leech if they take you up on your time & expertise at no charge. Of course, as John said there are organizations like SCORE that were built on helping entrepreneurs for free. But that's their purpose for existence. You're a single person.

If SCORE helps them, maybe they feel like their repayment is building a business that brings value to their community through goods, services, job creation, etc. Or perhaps that they'll pay it forward some day. If you help them, maybe they'll feel like they owe you one.

As an aside, the reason the tire kickers & "job seekers" as you call them keep flaming out is because as long as they never really start, the dream is still alive.

To put it simply there is a reason most internet marketing coaches make their clients pay for their advice other than money – it helps to weed out the people that aren’t serious about it.

The truth is most of the people that come on this forum and any other make money forum are looking for some quick way to make a million dollars and we all know that doesn’t exist. There simply not looking to learn how to build a business but how to just make money fast.

Yes.. alot of interesting information left here for you by many members.

I think you have to identify who your target market actually is. There are some people out there in the world that are just plan lazy so it won't matter what you do... they won't do anything anyway. So don't work with them, - they are the wrong crowd.

I agree with some of the others. Set up a blog site.. do videos and create lots of content and coach that way. Plus work on building a community of people who want what you are willing to give.

It's called attraction marketing.

Identify your target market... and only work with them. There are people out there who want an online business, who want to work from home.... but you want those who are professional and are willing to do the work.

If people are looking for success in life they do have to work at it. There are no freebies in the world.

Look at professional athletes, they work hard until they get to where they want to go. They have vision, focus and discipline... those are the people whom you want to work with.

Those with vision, focus and discipline... not the freebie people they will never do anything.

Happy to discuss further if you like.

Send me a message to connect

Cheers

Tiff

There is no value is free. I agree it's human nature to put zero value on something that is free. And even more true in today's world. Free can be seen a something to question heavily and ignore.

Charge a modest amount that will attract people who are serious about making a business online and they will appreciate your coaching expertise more and actually listen to you.

Why do you bother?

what is in it for you? My guess there is something in it for you.....

are you doing MLM?