Collaborate and Crush It?

You raise some good ideas. In fact, these ideas might have the seeds of a Warrior Forum v2.0 - a social platform for online IM entrepreneurs that have built in features that weed out people based on trust and put people together to form products and takes a % of the companies created. Kinda like angelist but for IM products and traffic generators

I think you're asking for a debate that will probably never end, why? Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Everyone has become very narrow minded in terms of their goals, they want to be the next big thing (in their minds) or come up with the next big thing that they forget they can share the wealth and more times then none make MORE then what they initially would have.

Today I feel like a select amount (notice I didn't say all) rest on the "but what if they're scammers, thieves, blahty blahty blah..." We should really just let it boil down to the following reasons:
1. Greed
2. Distrust
3. Doesn't work well with others.
4. Overachievers
5. Some combination of the above.
6. Some other reason...

It'll be interesting to see what others have to say but of course this is my opinion hahaha.

Just have to find the right person or group of people to work with. Maybe I'm too harsh but for those who fall into the "how can you trust them" perhaps they need to investigate a bit more. I do my homework before working with anyone and if I get an inkling of trouble I'm gone.

I like your idea and I hope you follow through with it one day! Keep me in the loop when you do :-)

That was quite a long post. You could have said it in one sentence: "Let's stop building small rental houses and fight with each other for the customers, instead why don't we build a huge hotel together and share the profits?" I 've been saying this for years.

There are two factors what prevent people from collaborating: fear and greed. And of course, a lot of people seem to be happy with their small sites that usually last for 3-6 months. Once the sites run out of steam, they'll just create the new ones. Very few people seem to be interested in a long term business.
Like Ken Robinson said: "The problem with human beings is not that we aim too high and fail, more often it's that we aim too low and succeed."

Maybe we should get together and see if our plans coincide and how we can help each other.

Here are my plans:
1. First of all I have to finish my keyword research tool * - Keyword list so I no longer have to rely on someone else's software.
2. I 'll pull my portfolio from istockphoto.com (and gettyimages), because I think this business is a robbery. They pay their contributors 25% - take or leave some. I 've sold $40,000 worth of videos and have been paid $10,000. I'd be stupid to continue under these conditions. So I am looking for other content producers or resellers to start our own stock photo/video agency and offer much better commissions to contributors. With a few thousand videos I can also start my own tube website. So instead of working for Youtube by providing them with our content, why don't we start our own tube site?

3. I am willing to share my 14 year old 4-letter domain name with anyone who is willing to post quality content on this site and earn advertising fees from their content. On such an old domain you get a chance to rank high with very little backlinks, provided there will be enough people to create a few hundred thousands pages of content. (like eHow.com, buzzle, etc)

4. I am also looking to create a gaming website (games.mu) and language learning software ( I only speak 8, but looking to learn 20-30 more languages in the next 2-3 years.)

5. I am also looking to pull my stuff from eBay and start my own auction/store website, so I am looking for people who have or are willing to acquire some physical stuff to resell. I am paying about 35% in fees to eBay. It's a robbery, again. I probably have about 10,000 different $3 - $10 items to start the store. That should keep the visitors/buyers busy for a long time, unlike the stores that only have a few products. I will show my partners where to buy products for 30 cents that can be sold for $3. 10x profit.

6. I am also looking to start a freebie website to give away free software (php and javascripts). Only legal stuff of course. I have been a programmer since 1996, so I have a lot of stuff that I can share for free. As well as about 50,000 PLR products, some of which can also be given away for free, while most of those can only be sold or used in membership sites.
I believe I have a prefect, brandable domain name for free stuff. It's Index of /
It even has some pagerank and type-in traffic, but I haven't had a chance to even throw an index page up. Will do.

I am not looking to hire people, but want to find partners to work together, share ideas and resources and share the profits.

@HN

Good post. I could have summarized my initial post but guess I needed to get it off my chest and explain myself...

I'll start by addressing your projects, then I'll explain some of my own...

1. Cool tool. I tried it out and it works quite well. Not sure I'd be much help with it as I'm not a hardcore programmer...
2. Building a site like that sounds like fun. I have a decent domain that I considered using for this purpose in the past, PicPanel (dotcom)... A tube site would be cool too, not sure if there's decent software out there for that or if it would have to be coded from scratch...
3. Is the domain readable? Or is it just random 4 letters? I have a similar idea focused more on IM with a domain I recently picked up... MakeMoneyLab (dotcom)
4. I like how you say you only know 8 languages.. LOL. I know 1. The gaming site would be cool. MU reminds me of WordPress MU (multisite). Could let people create their own gaming site.. Like John.Games.MU or FPS.Games.MU
5. Physical products not really my thing.
6. Free site sounds cool but not sure it's up my alley... Not right now anyways...

Right now I'm focusing on video courses on web development that are accompanied by a resource site... Some may be free some may cost money. I'm also working on a forum for marketers and entrepreneurs but they all take time and a lot of SEO effort.

What skills do you have? I'll share mine briefly. Web developer for the last 10 years. Not a hardcore programmer, I usually hack stuff together with WordPress or other open source software. Knowledgeable on SEO, had a #1 site in Google years ago, sold it in 2008. Don't have software like SEnuke or Magic submitter, would make things a lot easier. Own about 20-30 domains that I think are quite good. Am online most the time and work really hard. Passionate about this stuff and just want to earn a decent income so I don't have to go work for someone else. As far as money goes, I don't have much of it right now... lol

For me the attraction to collaborating is mainly in the focus and motivation side. I have a few ideas floating around in my head but if it's only up to me to do something with them it's just too easy to put things off, change plans, lose focus and stretch the timeframe to infinity.

To me the logical thing would to find someone with similar abilities, basic website and / or graphics ability, the general knowledge of what goes into a site, product, promotion etc. sit down and short list a few ideas and then decide on a project to collaborate on, divide up the first tasks that need doing. Ideally what would happen is each collaborator feels an obligation to the other to do their bit in the agreed time frame. Soooo, stuff gets done instead of not getting done.

I see products being sold on the forum with multiple partners all the time, with 2, 3 and sometimes 4 partners, this has been going on for quite some time so I'm really not understanding your post.

Hey Joseph,

I know it happens and I've seen multiple people behind a WSO or product. I guess my point was that you don't see it very often. Seems like 80-90% of the time it's just a single person. And if you've heard of more collaborators doing well then maybe it's just a testament that it works... Most the people I encounter are doing this themselves... I started a group on iCrowd website (crowdfunding website) for solo DIY entrepreneurs and it's one of the largest groups on there. Pretty small sample size but to me it says that most of us are going it alone. And the reasons for that have been pointed out by some of the previous posters... fear, greed, ego, distrust, etc.

My question is why do you feel the need to have a partner or partners, there is no reason why you can't go it alone unless it involves partnering with a well respected member for name recognition.

What your suggesting already takes place, on a massive scale.

The key is you need to bring something to the table. Something valuable.

All the things you mention I can easily outsource for a fraction of the price.

You need to be more than just a 'jack of all trades' it needs to be worthwhile for BOTH parties (not just one).

Once you get there, you will develop a circle of people one which you will never need to look outside of.

Example - the product creators will have a set of "go-to" copywriters, designers, affiliates and marketers.

Most of which will - the relationship will have been built up over a number of years.

Once your in with the "it crowd" you're set - which is why its hard to get in, in the first place!

(Also, if you can sell in volume, im talking BIG numbers - this will get you "inside" VERY fast)