Mentor me for a % of future earnings.

Hi Rob,

I'm sure I will be able to help. Either Skype me or contact me through my website link.

Seems to me the OP hasn't said anything that should elicit negative responses.

I glanced at the thread in your link Ivan, which you said is similar, but I see key differences. The glaringly hostile tone of the OP (who deserved the sarcasm he got) in that thread is absent in this one.

By no means should Rob even consider working for free for 6 months-ridiculous. He can learn what he needs to know to turn a profit in one month, then keep learning by investing part of the profit in his continued education.

He'll mostly learn by doing anyway, with a small amount of guidance-not by having constant attention, or being overloaded with input.

Basically, the OP in the "similar" thread was saying "I think you gurus are full of b*llsh*t, so prove me wrong by mentoring me, and in exchange I'll admit I was wrong".

By contrast the tone of Rob's post is one of humility. He's asking for help, and offering to share profits from his work, following a mentor's advice, rather than issuing a belligerent challenge, and offering nothing in return.

He is also admitting that he doesn't know if this is the right approach, doesn't know the right percentage, or how long to pay it, etc. In other words, he's very open-minded, and willing to make a deal that works, with terms suggested by the mentor.

Izaya raised valid concerns, but the way they were framed assumes dishonesty and a bad outcome.

It's true that he's not known so the trust factor isn't in his favor. There are ways to mitigate that concern. One of the easiest that comes to mind is simply to have the mentor retain ownership of part or all of the business/es. That way it's Rob that would have to do his due diligence, not the other way around.

Depending on the business model, there are ways it could work.

For example maybe Rob finds a mentor that builds numerous quick-to-create profit-making niche blogs, and could simply teach Rob by example-and have Rob create and promote blogs in the same manner.

In exchange for a weekly email assignment with brief daily action reports from Rob, and perhaps a mid-week "attaboy", or "pick up the pace" from the mentor, the domains of half the blogs Rob creates and promotes could stay in the mentor's possession, and registration could even be paid by Rob, and the other half, Rob could keep.

To make it easy, with no contract enforcement needed, the first blog Rob creates could be the mentor's, the next one Rob's, etc. That way Rob pays for the brief guidance he gets on each project by first doing one for the mentor.

The OP is simply asking to do a win/win JV with an experienced partner, and demonstrating openness to suggestions on how to structure it. With a little creativity, such an arrangement, while not guaranteed, could work. If done right, the mentor would still profit from his efforts even if the OP drops the ball at some point, and almost no effort would be put in before the mentor gets a payoff-the first blog-so there would really be no downside.

In my opinion, to just shoot him down because you assume the partner would get burned, or to compare him to a hostile, frustrated newbie that's trying to get something for nothing is excessively negative.

It's always easier to think of why something can't work, but if you give yourself the opposite challenge, I think there are ways such a partnership might work well, be rewarding for both sides, and possibly even yield a long term friendship, and/or multiple future successful JVs.

Personally, I think the best course of action for you, Rob, is to either follow werna's advice and implement some of the great advice to be found on this forum, or join an already existing coaching/mentoring program after doing your due diligence on the person/s behind it.

There are some great values available for very little investment-just pick carefully, and avoid the hype-if it sounds too good to be true...you know.

Then, as it's been said many times on this forum, the trick is to stick with one plan that isn't too complicated, without getting distracted by new "shiny objects"-the latest WSO showing you how to "make $500 by this time tomorrow"-rarely does anyone make those work.

There are so many ways to make money online that the overwhelm factor can just kill your chances, so focus is the key (coming from a classic "entrepreneur's ADD" sufferer). Walk before you run, and don't fall for the "easy button"-it's fake, and will kill your chances of success.