Get Serious, Or Give Up Now.

Inspired by another thread, I'll take first swing at this.

We need to be better within the forum.

Plain and simple.

In fact, I should end the post there, everyone who knows what I mean will automatically get it and understand what they should do.

But then there would be people who just don't pay attention at all and wouldn't understand, so I'll go into greater depth, for my sanity and yours, the reader.

This forum is supposed to be about working with one another, sharing strategies, support, and guidelines to create, manage, and grow our own online businesses. It is supposed to be full to the brim with ideas, great and powerful, or simple and easy to implement.

But lately this is a few and far-between deal going on. I think I've seen the same questions in thread titles by different people over and over and over again in the past few weeks. Its slightly aggravating, to me anyways.

I'm seeing way too many one-liner posts, no avatars, and new folks opening up WSO's.

I personally didn't try my first WSO until I was at 200+ posts, and even then I think that I was still too green to offer any real advice.

I want to target those here who are serious, and I will be blowing a horn that has been sounded time and time again. But if you are truly serious, and new here, let me tell you how to get going right.

GET AN AVATAR

Even if its not really of you (Ideally it should be, but we all understand the need for obscurity at times). This helps show those guys who mod, who run these six/seven/eight figure businesses, that you have a real face, and makes it easier to connect to you. Connection is what its about here, and learners, earners, and teachers will do what they can to connect to their audience, those who will read your posts.

3-5 LINE POSTS

I personally try to refrain from posting if I know I can't make it a decent post. A paragraph at least. This keeps the threads thoughtful, and provides good reading. Even if you're the only one on the thread who does it, go the extra mile and write out as much as you can.

Obviously there are exceptions, but I think everyone in their good judgment can figure those out on their own.

QUIT THE DAMN BITCHING AND WHINING

I cannot stress this enough. Sure, we poke fun at it from time to time. But seriously, you want to be a marketer, prepare to be marketed to.

Its that simple. If you don't like someone marketing to you, or you get spammed, or whatever. TAKE CONTROL AND HANDLE IT LIKE AN ADULT.

Unsubscribe, press the spam button, delete, do whatever. Don't throw a temper tantrum here. No one cares to see it.

Also, if you're not making money within your first week, month, YEAR, just stop, step back, and look at what you're doing.

It's taken me the better part of learning for 6 years to get where I am and what I know. I didn't make a cent 89% of that time. There are others who have been doing it longer without and payment either. This is a Trial and Error business, and requires real effort.

GET YOUR HEAD STRAIGHT

Nothing is achieved in this business without sacrifice. There will be nothing to gain if you're not willing to put anything into it. The only way to succeed is to take it all with a bit of salt.

Yeah, you'll fail, and it will be tough. I won't sugar-coat it for you. But you need to try again, fail again, and fail better. The more you try, the better it gets, and eventually (Some sooner than others) you'll find what works for you. Just keep trying and keep positive.

What you put out into the universe, the universe will give back to you.

GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION PLEASE

I understand that some peoples native languages are not English, and I can totally get behind those who try to learn it. It's a difficult language to learn, even for native speakers it sometimes seems.

This is more for those who speak it already, you other guys keep up the good work.

We all went to school, we all know how to use punctuation correctly, how to do all of this. Lets use what we learned in 4th grade, it's elementary. Literally.

Better yet, instead of writing ????? or !!!!!!!11!! and in text speak, why not write every post like you're writing your own products copy? Only the product is you, and you're trying to sell us on you.

ASK QUESTIONS

Hell yeah! We love it. Make it a good question. If there's one thing this place was built for it is asking good questions.

Just please use that little link there in the top bar and search your question FIRST before posting. Seeing the same thread question after the same thread question after the same thread question gets old after a while. And you can possibly save yourself time if you find the answer in a different thread than the one you just started.

POST YOUR PROGRESS

HELL YEAH AGAIN!
We absolutely love to see our members taking action. It warms our hearts and our bones to see someone implementing a strategy and getting things done. It serves to motivate those of us already working to see someone else having results.

Although we'll try to denounce that fact sometimes.

GOT A NEAT TRICK, LINK, ETC? POST IT!

Neat tricks are always fun to see. Links that can help us are fun to use. Etc is whatever else interesting that can pertain to this forum and its members. Just make sure you post in the right subforum, please.

SPEAKING OF, USE THE RIGHT SUB-FORUMS!

I see a lot of threads being moved around recently. That is work that the mods really shouldn't be having to do on such a constant basis. If you have an adsense question, post in the adsense forum. If you have a CPA question, post in the CPA forum. And so on and so forth.

This will free the mods up for much more important duties than moving threads.

FOR PETE'S SAKE, LEARN THE RULES!!

Its simple enough, learn what you can and cannot do within the first few days here in the forum. IT will make your life, and ours, so much easier its not even funny.

WANT TO POST A WSO?

Absolutely fantastic! What are you bringing to the field? Is it something new? Something we may have not heard of yet? Is it a system, script, plugin, widget, blog, etc, that you made all on your own?

We support creative thinkers who make their own products. It will show in your sales. You need testimonials? Check the next section.

MAKE FRIENDS HERE

Talk to people, friend them, PM them. BUT ONLY IF THEY DON'T MIND.

This isn't saying PM the hell out of someone asking for their secrets, no. This is saying that you should make friends, people you talk to on a regular basis (or semi) via PM, and have real relationships with these people.

Trust me, after you've made some hard-ballin' friends, they'll let you know whether or not your product can use tweaking, or your copy can be rewritten, or a ad campaign and benefit from something.

Mastermind with people. Connection, connection, connection.

THE WAR ROOM IS WORTH IT

It is. It's great. We all love it. You should love it too. Simple enough.

RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO SAY, SEAN?

Seems like it.

So I'll end this little ditty and say this.

Follow this guide, make connections with people, follow a simple business model, and get to taking action. Get Serious.

And by the end of the day, after working hard, it might just turn out all right.

EXCELSIOR!

-Sean