What You Read On Here Is NOT Gospel!

Well said.

Thank you.

We all make mistakes, no matter how much experience we have. It just compounds it if there are people taking our advice. Great post!

It's just like any other information you come across in life... you always have to take it with a grain of salt.

In my opinion, people give such high worthiness to information found in this and other online forums, that they're willing to bet their future on it, without doing their own DD!

Yes that is a very important point. I've seen exactly the same thing happen.

In my opinion there are two reasons it happens...

1. People who state the claims truly believe it and don't think they need to hint it may be wrong by saying in my opinion.
2. They want to convey themselves as a guru and some people do that by stating what they believe is "true".

Either way, Pat hit the nail on the head when he said "Always do further research and your own testing to determine what you've read is correct."

Another thing I would like to say is, just because someone has 4 figure post count, does not automatically mean that they know what they are talking about.

Vice versa, just because someone has a low post count, does not automatically mean that they're a moron.

Amen Brother Jackson ...

James

mis information exists everywhere it seems, but what do you do ? if you call it out you run the risk of a slap fight, so in many cases you just walk on by.

The post that you used as an example points to TWO different issues. Yeah, there is a lot of info on this forum and some of it is just incorrect information, fables, old wives tales, urban legends and the like. It's find to have opinions and to be able to state them or say "do what you want but this is my belief... that tons of crap backlinks will get you sandboxed" or whatever...

The other is that there seems to be more and more people using the general marketing forum to either blatantly do research for a WSO or to promote their WSO or website. Post a new thread asking for help in making money as fast as possible and then taking the info from that thread and creating a WSO. The worst is the post that you referred to in my honest opinion...that post couldn't be more of a sales page!!! WTF! Do I have a problem with it? You bet your bippy!

What's my suggestion? No signatures and maybe a moratorium on WSOs for a period of time. Sound harsh? I make no apologies. This forum is turning into crap and a waste of time.

Warrior Forum is also a huge commercial billboard for people making their money in the 'Make Money Online' niche.

Now, that demands visibility.

Warrior Forum is awesome, but a lot of it is, pardon my french, blatant self promoting.

Work more, read less.

Amen to that. Just in the last week I caught about two dozen threads / posts where someone was giving inaccurate advice, 4 of which violated another website's Terms Of Service / Use.

RoD

Great post - thank you. It is exhausting sorting the opinions and anecdotes masquerading as factual information.

Where facts are missing opinions reign.

Measurement ends argument.

My favorite posts start with: "I don't know anything about..." or "I've never done this but..." OMG - they then go on and bless us with their wisdom, usually pulled straight out of their aspirations. The unmarried giving married advice, the childless giving parents advice, the non-salesperson telling me how to sell, and the paycheck to paycheck employee telling me how to run the business. It goes on forever.

Today I read a good thread here on Adwords. At least three people started by saying "I've never done it" or "I haven't made any money from it" but then continued on.

However at least we were warned that we were getting brain farts instead of tablets from the mountain. As Twain said, what causes us the most harm isn't what we don't know but rather what we know that just ain't true. As others said, take everything here with a grain of salt - who says something is as if not more important than what is being said.

Good luck...Russ

Too many people believe what others tell them because it makes them feel better or it justifies a failure and gives them an excuse.

Listen, if you want the real data, the real honest facts about anything, then just turn on your TV, read a newspaper or visit wikipedia :-)

I once read on here someone saying "You have to work hard, learn the ropes, put in the time, test and never give up!" to make any money.

Hogwash!!!

That's not what the lady on Desperate Housewives said last night.

Anyway, I'm off back to the sofa to soak up some more facts from my TV.

Sam

Certainly don't take anything some fool named Dogscout says

Sometimes the misinformed will protest about this act themselves and yet they too will continue to spread their own lack of research on certain subjects just as if it were the gospel truth.

Another example

This poster has included this bit insinuating that there is no so called "duplicate content penalty" when in fact, when one goes to the horses mouth (in this case Google), we find:

Duplicate content - Webmaster Tools Help

So we now know that Google does use a term "duplicate content" and it is quite different from "syndication". They, Google, understand there is a difference between "duplicate content" and "syndication" but is there a penalty for this?

Let's read the Google descriptive page itself to see if the answer is there.

Ah yes, a little further down we find this:

Now we can see that Google has never really used the word "penalty" so I suppose technically that there is in fact no "duplicate content penalty" but is it now safe to say that there could be negative consequences in some cases for using "duplicate content"?

Of course.

So to appease those hardened semantically challenged, we should remind folks any time we see someone state that there is no "duplicate content penalty" while that is true, there is a "duplicate content negative handling of your website" that could occur.

I assume everyone understands when they read something I've written, it is my opinion, and assume everything I read is someone's opinion.

If I am stating something based on personal experience, and I feel it is something that would be challenged, I'll throw in some background information.

If I have a fact, I generally state where the fact comes from, for instance 'Google's terms and conditions state "yada yada"'.

Is this a backwards way of thinking?

If I were to put an 'In my Opinion' in front of each statement, I would be using that phrase dozens of times each day and in almost everything I write.

I think I can offer some advice here. Although I'm still fairly new to IM and very new to this site, I come to this arena with an extensive background in political blogging. In order to survive in that world, we have to adopt certain journalistic standards. It might be a good idea here.

If you are stating anything other than absolute common knowledge as fact, it's best to back it up with sourcing. We usually do that by including a link to a credible source of the information. For example if Mathew Cutts does a video stating that Google is doing something or other, don't just state that Google is doing this, drop in a link to that video.

If the FTC or the IRS comes out with a new rule, don't just state it because you happen to be aware of it, drop in a link to the actual government document or to a professionally published news article from a highly credible source, say from CNN, or the NY Times or something along those lines.

It only takes a few seconds at a Google prompt and what this ultimately does is it allows us all to judge the credibility of the writer and make informed choices.

In the thread you refer to, the OP definitely had an agenda, that agenda being to direct people to his Backlinking service in his signature. He was called out pretty quickly about his "theories." The entire post was designed to be a sales pitch rather than a really informative post.

There is an old saying "believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see'
or as my dad always said better for people to think your a fool and say nothing then to open your mouth and prove them right

-WD

Another example of terminology and individual definitions creating confusion is "squeeze pages" "landing pages" and "opt-in pages".

When I started out on the net a landing page was your front or "home page". This was where people landed after clicking through to your site.

An opt-in page was a page with an opt-in form.

A squeeze page was a page that was "squeezed" between a front page and the page the visitor was trying to get to.

You could offer a freebie and when the visitor clicked to the download page there in between or "squeezed" was another unexpected page that usually had an opt-in form on it. We also said it was a page that squeezed more information out of the visitor.

This, I believe is why people starting calling opt-in pages squeeze pages but a squeeze page could have a "one time offer" OTO instead of an opt-in on the squeeze page. Therefore, the squeeze page was not an opt-in.

This resulted in a big discussion once between me and another fellow a while back.

If we had both been using the same definitions for the terms we were using it would have a saved a lot of time and trouble.

People are always spouting off as if they are an authority and it leads to so much mis-information.

I was curious to see what the thread was about but it appears to have been taken down.

The post you referred to appears to have been deleted, so I have no idea what it was about other than it was apparently a self-promotional ploy. Even so...

That's the most important thing a person can take away from this thread. Look, this forum, and the whole internet, is filled with misinformation -- and yes, that is my opinion. The point is, each person has to be responsible for what they choose to believe.

It would be nice if each person who publishes information only published "true facts" but people can't even agree on what the facts are in many instances. Asking people to self-label their own comments as opinion is not the answer. In the first place, many times when people believe something they already consider what they believe to be a fact, that's why they believe it, so they have no reason to think their opinion is not factual. A lot of people don't think any deeper than that.

Secondly, if Joe Schmoe is in the habit of prefacing comments with "in my opinion" as suggested, that can create a false sense of security that what he doesn't label as opinion is indeed fact, when it may not be.

To me, asking people to label comments as opinion is a bass-ackwards way of lessening or removing the responsibility for what a person chooses to believe from the individual making that choice.

Asking people to frame their comments in a certain way is nothing less than an attempt to implement voluntary censorship according to your opinion about what is best. I don't know about you, but I've never liked being told what I can and can't say or how I should say it. I served my country to protect our rights, which includes freedom of speech, and I'm not about to relinquish that right no matter how well-meaning the intent.

And with that, I'm not saying people don't have a responsibility to post accurate information, but if they don't they surely are subject to being corrected, I'm just saying the responsibility for what you believe is yours and yours alone. No amount of rules or suggestions can legislate away individual responsibility. I would go so far as to say you don't own your life until you accept full responsibility for everything you believe, do, and say, and for all the outcomes you experience.

It's laudable that you want to protect others from themselves. I applaud you for that and for your post. I just think it's best handled by educating them, as you have just done, than by placing the onus on those making comments. Those whose intent is to deceive are the ones we most need to watch for, and they aren't going to cooperate, that's why education serves best.

I get your point, but because I've never jumped off a cliff without a parachute doesn't mean I'm not qualified to tell someone they could get hurt doing it. Just because I've never tried crack cocaine doesn't mean I'm unqualified to tell others about the devastation it causes. Sometimes those not experienced in a given situation can give better advice than someone who is or has been involved because they can offer an entirely different perspective, one unencumbered by emotional content and attachment to outcomes.

Using your own example, a conscientious employee can often tell an employer things the employer doesn't know about his business that could help the owner run the business better. Why? Because the employee is in the trenches, whereas the owner is often far removed from the trenches. In fact, that's why some businesses have suggestion boxes to collect ideas, and offer monetary rewards to employees who offer useful suggestions.

Should we consider the source? Yes indeed, in all cases. But to dismiss suggestions or advice based solely on the source is short-sighted -- in my opinion.

In my opinion, you should never mistake enthusiasm for wisdom.

In my opinion, it's wise to add "in my opinion" to things other people tell you... whether or not they're enthusiastic.

In my opinion, even if someone else's advice sounds good, you're responsible for your own decision about whether you use or implement it.

In my opinion, if you don't see a written guarantee, don't assume there's a hidden one.

In my opinion, most people mean well most of the time, but can sometimes get caught up in how they feel about something. It's easy to assume that a strong feeling proves that ideas are right. And some people are only out to scam whoever they can for whatever short-term gains they can get away with.

The way to tell them apart is to ask about how they want to be of service, helping other people benefit ethically. A sincere person will welcome the opportunity to express their values. While those afraid of their values being exposed will try to make you feel somehow ashamed that you asked the question!

In my opinion, an enthusiastic attitude is usually helpful.

say "mr enthusiastik"

Just noticing something funny - but you do have a good point there.