Who are the top people on here?

@ Joe

What golf course did you get that divot from? You carry it well.

Thanks! - I'm glad someone noticed that.

I also knew that some people would be missed even if I spent ages trying to make a list, and, like I said - there are people others would put who I have my own reasons for not including, so it's always going to be a personal thing.

Alexa, didn't you know that a high post count is comparible to Clickbank gravity

There's plenty more dude, including you

You can add Istvan to it and everyone on my friends list

You would think that someone like me who has a few thousand posts would agree with you... but I don't. Judging people by how many posts they have made is not a great way to do things.

If I see someone who has a high post count ALL it tells me is they are, or have been, more active on this forum than most other members. But it doesn't mean I am necessarily going to respect their opinion anymore than the next person.

Respect doesn't come from a post count. It comes from the way people behave and interact on the forum.

Heck, have a look at some of the most successful and well respected Internet Marketers around, guys like Jeff Walker, Brad Callen, Joe Lavery, Matt Bacak

You can see they all have fairly low post counts but they are people I definitely respect and would always listen to.

Where did I criticize you? I don't believe I even mentioned you.

Because any small list I could come up with from the top of my head is just that ... a very small list that will leave a lot of people out that could be included.

The OP doesn't really need a list. They need to participate in the forum and see what's going on for themselves. It will be easy enough for them to decide who to trust, who they like, who they would like to connect with.

It's really quite individual. There are a lot of people I like or don't like that other people will not have on their list.

Take this advice for what it's worth because that's all it is...advice.

Forums are a tricky place. Some people come off as "trustworthy" and
knowledgeable because they're...

nice guys or gals
have a gift with words
don't rock the boat
throw around compliments like crazy

whereas others come off as "not to be trusted" because...

they speak their mind
they're abrasive or even abusive
they seem to have big egos

And the list can go on forever of "unattractive qualities"

But until you REALLY get to know the person, you can't possibly make a
determination.

As for the info they give, talk is cheap. Try out some of the things they
recommend and see how they perform for you. If you try 10 different things
and none of them produce any results, unless you're just a brain dead
tadpole, maybe the problem is that their advice is full of crap.

Personally, I've gotten to know a hand full of people here who I would trust
with helping me with my business any day of the week. But that doesn't
mean they're going to be of any help to you.

Why?

It brings us to this one very important thing.

NOBODY is great at everything.

If I'm going to approach somebody about writing newsletters, it'll be Paul
Myers. He probably knows more about that subject than anybody. Heck,
he's probably been writing newsletters longer than anybody.

If I'm going to approach somebody about article marketing, it won't be
Paul Myers. I don't even think he does article marketing. I'd approach
somebody like Alexis Smith or Tim Gorman or a number of other people.

But I wouldn't approach any of them for copywriting. For that, I'd go to
Vince Montello if he'd give me the time of day, or Michel Fortin.

SEO? Probably nobody on the list that I've mentioned so far. Probably
Kurt Melvin for that.

Point is, there is no one size fits all and if you're looking for that, you're in
for a long wait.

And then there are personalities. There are some people, damn smart people
who really know their stuff, who I could never get along with because we
clash. It's that simple. Other people, I feel like they're family already. But
many of them I'd come to for very few things simply because what they're
expert in is something I don't need to know.

If you're going to look at a list of names here that people are going to
toss at you and take that list as the be all and end all, you're going to be
doing yourself a disservice at both ends of the spectrum.

1. You're going to rule out people who probably could have helped you
better than those on the list.

2. You're going to hook up with people who really can't help you all that
much or worse...will be just flat outright bad for you.

I have a reputation here for having a big mouth and speaking my mind and
a lot of folks don't like that, which is fine. I'm not here to win friends and
influence people, though Dale Carnagie would probably be turning in his
grave if he heard a marketer say that.

No, I'm here to tell you what I think under no uncertain terms...good or bad.

As I said, it's just advice and just MY opinion.

Take it for what it's worth to you.

Right now, the top people are:

MikeTucker
Zesh
Sarevok
ueon
nagidr
oraclebaby
mpx305
AndyHarris
James Harrison
BabyMama

But, that changes every time someone posts a new thread or a message in a thread.

That's why it's so hard to maintain lists like this. It keeps changing all the time!

The same thing happens.

Someone DID ask for a list of people who you trust before and I got the same flack for my list that time

The problem with such lists is that we all have different experiences with people and one person I might like - you may not like. One person who has ripped me off and stolen from me - you may think talks a good game and consider them a guru. Of course I'm not going to say anything bad about anyone so I just leave them off my list, but then someone else will go "I can't believe you didn't mention X" and put them on the list, so the list you end up with is a mix of different people's opinions.

What really matters is - who do YOU trust/like/want to deal with. Anything else is irrelevant.

I do think there's value to stearing people to members that have proven over an extended time to provide value and knowledge and are not just here to try and make money from fellow members.

A lot of us have been here through hard times and good times and seen many 'gurus' come and go and so you see who stays around and has some consistency to their values and mindset.

I don't personally care for lists but I'm very happy to spread the word about good people.

Andy

Almost 40 posts and no one has bothered to mention Allen?

The fact is, this is a broad forum, with many subforums. The "top" persons about topic A may know nothing about topic B.

Ironically, I recently came across an older, but excellent post a while back by someone. I looked at their post count: 1.

Here's some "general" tips for evaluating if a person knows what they are talking about:

- Length of posts

- Post count

- Time on forum

- Thanks by others

- Name being used (real or bogus)

- Does what they say make sense

- Check their sig and external websites. Are they link spamming or does their website provide useful information?

.

While I certainly don't disagree, that kind of misses the point of the post I made. The criteria many in this thread have told others to adhere to are not, at all, any indication whatsoever of credibility or indication of success.

Forum post count, account age, or how "nice" a poster is has nothing to do with how adept they are at online marketing, direct sales, or otherwise, in any market. It's confusing that anyone would think otherwise.

And I stand by my original point: it's when someone has an extraordinarily large post count (especially in relation to a relatively limited account age) that it should send up a red flag as to what this person actually spends their time doing: working at their business or...simply talking about it?

Why not bash them back? If others can be Warrior like in their comments then you can certainly be Warrior like in your responses to them. Dust enough backsides off you may find yourself with an ardent following. Just be discriminate in who you're dusting off. Otherwise you risk acting as a troll yourself.

Easy, Rod. I'm not kicking your puppy. Just voicing my own assertion and observations.

Have a nice day.

(but I can't help but notice that every poster that has vehemently disagreed with my statement that high post counts don't mean anything as far as credibility all have very high post counts )

i totally agree with this. i have been making good money for 15+ years online (since i was a 16 year old kid). and no one has ever heard of me because i have never marketed to the IM niche.

but you let any marketing guru talk to me and they will conclude that i do indeed know a good bit about internet marketing.

My point is that there are hundreds if not thousands like me on this forum.

I basically just decided to start giving back to this forum a few days ago. i probably should have been doing so for years, but hey...there is no better time than right now to do the right thing.

for me its not about the number of posts (ie activity) its about the quality of the posts. do they answer the questions with a similar amount of investment as the question was asked with.

by that i mean...those who ask in one line on a new forum thread "how to make money online" didn't put in enough investment for me to bother with much. heck i will probably do more work answering their question than they will put in to follow the advice.

This is the answer I was looking for. You must be willing to trust yourself and your own instincts first before you go and place your trust in strangers.

You may think you know people in this forum, but unless you've met them or spent time with them, you don't really "know" them.

On the internet, anyone can be whatever they want, a persona completely different from reality.

So Jill's advice to confirm those "confirmed facts" is spot on.

I don't trust Shemp!

Preach it!!!

I apologize for getting your panties in a bunch. I should say it has to be taken into account when you look at how long someone has been here. If you have 10k posts in 10 months, you have no time to be making money, outsourcing or not, because posting on the forum is your full time job. I can make a reasonable guess at how much time based on how much time it takes to make a post. So your first point is absurd. Correct on your second point, and if you notice my bias disclaimer at the top. Overall though I'm going to stick with every point I made.

U mad?

This thread is getting off topic pretty quickly.

That's a pretty good point.

I tend to listen more carefully to those that don't appear to have anything to profit from the warrior forum.

Not that there's anything wrong with the people who do. I just feel I can learn more from the people who don't rely on the IM Niche for their income.

I 100% agree with this. There is a lot of good information on here but there is also a lot of bad information on here. I've seen quite a few people on here give a lot of wrong info and people praise it. Don't value the worth of information on here soley from post count... Research and learn things yourself, even if it sometimes means the hard way.

Shannon Herod's next product, "How to make friends on the forum."

Ha ha, just joking.

I do agree you should take most things with a grain of salt and test things on your own. A lot of misinformation here, like any forum.

However, I don't care if somebody wouldn't have a business if this forum were shut down. Doesn't mean they are not worth listening to on some topics, such as all those WSOs about how to sell WSOs, ha ha. Some guy who runs a restaurant would not have a business if the health department shut him down. A doctor would no longer have a business if his license was taken away, etc. That is, if these people relied solely on their business and didn't diversify in any way. Some of these guys selling WSOs like crazy have real businesses or other sources of income outside of the forum, some of them maybe not so much. I am not too concerned, either way. My main concern is if they are worth listening to in their topic of expertise, related to the forum or not.

I would have hit 'Thanks' after the first two paragraphs, but you lost me on the third one.

Obviously, it's a cakewalk for these alleged "celebrities" to give great replies - they've been here longer, heard pretty much the same questions hundreds of time, and can appropriate, assimilate, and refine all the response in all those threads. More importantly, all of us can benefit from it - whether we happen to be the clueless newbie asking the same question again, or one of those who takes the time to respond constructively, or one of the tens of thousands of lurkers who never post!

I submit it's precisely the reverse - we wouldn't have much of a forum if they "shut down!"

Okay, so they do get smug and snarky at times. I can live with it because most of the time they are cutting through the noise and misinformation. That's worth more than a "grain of salt."

Are you sure they were actually 16?
It seemed to be the "fashion" for a while,
like all the fake babes.

I should've actually worded this a little differently. What I meant to say is just because they are popular WSO creators does not mean they know what they're talking about either. What I mean by that is they create WSO's based on what is hot in the forum. Not from experience.

So, just because they are positioning themselves to be an expert does not mean they are actual experts. You need to get more information and do some research. And in the end you need to test everything for yourself.

I am just one that believes you should teach from experience and not from what you've researched when it comes to teaching people how to run a business.

Will, 'Struth. The numbers have little to do with anything at all.

Example: You post more than twice as many times per day as I do, on average. Should that impact anyone's decision to trust your opinion, either way? I can't see how, but I'm sure there are people who'd find ways to see it as a positive or negative factor.

Jim Straw has fewer than 200 posts, but he's been in business since I was in diapers, and knows more about making money honestly and prolifically than most people here ever will. That's a name that should be on every list like this, and rarely is.

The numbers mean nothing if you don't know the context behind them. The only way to really judge how useful a given person's comments will be to you is to look at them yourself. Even the smartest SEO geek in the place is probably not going to be helpful if your business model doesn't involve search engines.

That's why I don't usually care for these generic list threads. Not that there's anything wrong with the people on them or offering them. Just that they're almost useless for most readers, and they can lead to following people whose information might not be a good fit.


Paul

This is flawed.

Michael Jackson knew how to make a lot of money. He also knew how to spend a lot too.

One of them cut off my left hand...hardly harmless. I won't name any names,