Take It Easy On The "Newbies", We Were All There Once (My Somewhat Comical Story)

Awesome story, that's really cool. Opportunities really are all around us. And as you say: Always be aware of opportunity! And when you see it, don't just stand there looking at it - TAKE ACTION!

Yikes, this is going to turn into an entrepreneurial thread. Hopefully newbies will see there are lots of opportunities if you only pay attention.

Back in the eighties I worked in healthcare. I dispensed lots of expensive orthopedic back braces and related items every day. One day I took one home to my seamstress girlfriend and asked if she could duplicate it with some improvements (added value). She did it.

I schlepped around LA for a couple of weeks finding wholesalers for each of the items used in the production of these things and started making them. They cost $3 to make and wholesaled for a little over $20, about $5 cheaper than they were paying before. I was selling a better product for less to the clinic where I was working.

Within six months I quit my job and was doing this exclusively, outsourcing all the labor and making three times as much as I did as a worker ant. And I started the whole thing with about $200 out of pocket. Opportunity is everywhere. Okay, your turn.

Exactly

I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time... I was smart enough to know I wasn't getting my money back any time soon.

I'd probably deal with it better today than back the days though LOL

Best,
Dean

I agree, especially on the WF search statement. If a person does not have enough motivation to search for an answer, whether or not it's on here, or on the Internet in general, then why waste your time? I think a lot of people simply want everything done for them. In all fairness and hats off to you folks - I have not seen the "search it out" police. So you guys are way cool in that regard.

I'm new here, but not to message boards. The first few things I went looking for was a "Read this first" sticky, then an "introduction" sticky and/or section, and lastly, a FAQ type section, or sticky.

I would imagine a lot of newbie questions might be eliminated by the addition of an IM terms and concepts FAQ. Whenever I find an acronym I'm not familiar with, I immediately search it out on Google, which takes some time. It would be nice to have a quick reference type guide within this site.

Not complaining, just my observation.

I agree, that would be a stupid question.

Speaking of stupid, I was just introduced to stupid via private message. Someone sent me a PM today asking if they bought my program, would I set everything up for them and run the business for them.

I politely told them that I couldn't do that, I have my own business to run, but that I would be happy to answer any questions they have, and make sure they have all the info they need. Their reply: Since you won't operate my business for me, your program must be junk. I can only roll my eyes at stuff like that, LOL. I didn't even reply back...what is there to say to someone with that kind of mindset?

Very good tip.

Excellent observations. When I pulled off my permanent match caper it was 1968 and I was 14. I served in the Navy from 78 to 82 as a medic reaching Petty Officer Second Class in four years. I went to college well after the Navy.

I've got a professional license in healthcare but haven't used it since 1992. I call it an insurance policy. But I'd be a very unhappy camper if I weren't able to figure out how the next project or deal is going to work. I think that stuff is in our blood.

I never served, a heart condition kept me out, but the desire was definitely there (family members & friends who served probably added to that desire). If I had been healthy enough, I'm sure I probably would have.

Hi Patricia...

You bring up a couple of interesting points. You say there's not a definitive logical progression to learning this stuff. I'd agree there's no formal outline but there could be one for those who would take the time to step back from the whole thing and look at what online marketing consists of.


There are four essentials necessary for success:

• Website and all related support stuff
• Content & Copy and all related support stuff
• Driving Traffic and all related methodologies
• Relevant Marketing Strategies

If people would step back and define everything they could think of that fell under the main categories they'd get a clearer picture of what they might want to do and what they actually have a decent chance of doing.

I'm a writer and have the second item pretty much under control. I can also get by as Web designer along with some basic Webmaster duties. I suck at driving targeted traffic. I understand very well what needs to be done but I don't like doing it.

I see the big picture first and the details later. I'm a pretty extreme right brain person and shun detail-oriented tasks. Taking care of all the stuff necessary to get traffic to an offer is torture to me. I'd rather be writing.

If people would first look at everything that needs to be done they could then easily identify the things they like to do and those they need to find help with. There are only a very few who are good at all of it.

As for being slammed for asking a question about something and having it appear stupid to some. So what. You seem like an intelligent person and would most likely frame the question intelligently. When you do people most often answer in kind.

It also helps for newer folks to look at all the resources on this site. Do some exploring before participating. I hung out here for a few months before getting involved. Many of the questions that cycle through this and other boards have been beaten to death. The answers can easily be found with the search feature.

This isn't directed to you, it's for everyone, including some of the folks who've been around awhile as well. Oh, BTW welcome.

I served in the Army 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles and also went to college afterwards. Guess what? My military training, to this day, is more fundamental to my business logic than my Masters degree. I also hold NASD 7/63 license and mortgage brokers license that were acquired as part of my work as a software developer for IBM.

These days, the Facebook kids think they're going to start out at the top, bypass everybody in the field just because they know how to play Farmville.

The one thing my dad (and the military) taught me is "give respect where it is deserved" so I'm not about to give respect to some newbie who hasn't cut their teeth in real life. I'll extend a hand of friendship and let them know what they're doing wrong, BUT in my world, respect is earned.

Hi Scouser,

This part seems to contradict your underlying point, but I think it's really important.

What I mean by the contradiction is that this -

...leads people to 'do it for themselves' and answer their own questions. The more that they do this, the sooner they will have less questions and more answers and can therefore spend their time here helping others, or just building their business. Who would not want that to happen sooner rather than later?

I 'encourage' as many people as possible to learn by doing rather than being told. There are many, many reasons for this - all good ones.

I regularly use THIS to answer someone who asks a question that deserves it.

Why?

Because teaching someone WHEN it's better for them to go and learn how to find things in Google themselves is one of the greatest gifts I could give them.

When you learn to use search engines properly, you are not only less dependent on others to help you out, but you also start to learn something else that's really important.

See how I didn't spell out the answer at the end of that sentence above? See how I was cryptic?

I often do that too.

Why?

Because it encourages people to think for themselves and when they do that, they are much more likely to remember AND utilise the answer than if I just tell them. Plus, it is forcing them to develop their critical thinking ability, something that's vital in business, especially if you want to be fresh, unique, original, creative and therefore successful more quickly.

The answer to the cryptic sentence above is that it teaches them how search engines work, which is a vital component of getting traffic to your web pages. It teaches them how they themselves use a search engine when trying to find something. It teaches them (to a degree) how other people search for things and how other people find things and what problems they encounter while doing so.

They may identify faults with their searching techniques and learn to improve them, but they may also find later on that their web page visitors are not as knowledgeable and therefore when they choose their keywords, they can allow for searchers who know what they are doing and those who don't. If you never learn about using search engines, you won't learnt to do this.

When I am a little cryptic, or a little abrupt, or seem a bit snarky, or offer some tough love advice, I often get people biting back. That's OK, I know I am trying to help them and I also learn from the exchange.

But I promise you, not every instance you see here that makes you think 'hey, that guy was a bit abrupt/harsh' etc, is necessarily because the person needs to be told to 'take it easy on newbies.'

Some of us remember being newbies in some areas (and we are still newbies in many other areas) and we only want to lessen the pain and shorten the curve for others, which is why we spend time posting here for no visible gain. I often like to answer questions that I find hard to answer, because it develops my critical thinking and communication skills.

Kid gloves is NOT always the best approach and some of us believe strongly that our tough-love approach is the most helpful, for the reasons outlined above, amongst many others.

Here's an example -

mrelosa (just above) said -

I agree. Sometimes, it's really hard.

But making a success of your business is also often really hard.

Therefore what makes good entrepreneurs who are going to last the course different from the majority of people who will opt to continue to be wage slaves? What do they do that entitles them to expect to earn really good money once they are successful?

They are not scared of things that are really hard. In fact, some of them actively seek those things out and ignore things that are too easy, because they know that if they are too easy, nine times out of ten they will be saturated, abused and ruined by those who only do things that are really easy.

They may also have a lot of self-belief and confidence and believe (for good reasons) that their time is better spent on difficult problems - again, for many reasons.

For example - if you want to avoid being ripped off by sharks, then you will want to adopt this attitude (looking for things that are really hard.)

Why?

Because in general, the sharks hang out in places where what they have to do isn't really hard and where their victims are looking for things that aren't really hard.

So for example, learning to build and operate websites is quite hard for most newbies.

And this is why you will see a ton of people selling 'cookie-cutter' ready-made websites and selling them with sales spiel that says, 'just throw them up and the traffic will come and you'll be rich.' Or websites that are already hosted and all you have to do is redirect a domain to them.

By adopting the entrepreneurial approach of seeking out tough-stuff with a 'bring it on' attitude, you avoid a lot of the pitfalls and traps out there. This is just one of the many reasons I suggest this approach and try to pass it on and use tough love when answering questions.