Ya sure I will do that, just dont want to burn it out before its ready.Originally Posted by ArmpitLover
Ya sure I will do that, just dont want to burn it out before its ready.
But man I must say that the sites are not really the problem or what I am after, more effective ways to dive traffic to my sites, and I am about to open an affiliate program for the first time would like to start off running with that too.
Some of the people on this board would be great consultants, but all the professional consultants we've ever worked with were awful wastes of money and some even hurt our business. Feel free to pm me privately for more info.
Max,
Just a hint. Before hiring a consultant, why not try changing the way you deal with people here first.
Let me be blunt and my hope is to help you, not hurt you. But I have to tell it like it is first. Most of the people here find you to be an ass -- flippant, critical, argumentative, and quick with the reply button. You have a reputation of not listening, but just droning on about things and not listening.
Now, if you worked on your board personality so that you were more helpful with your posts, then you'd probably find a lot of people would be willing to chat with you on AIM and give you free advice. I can be an ass, too, and a little quick with my reply button (check the link list thread) but I also try to be helpful. I've built up a number of good relationships with people here, several of whom I can always buzz for advice.
In my close relationships here, I work with people, give as much as I take (I hope), help with links and cross-selling. Hell, look at xstr8guy and me, we have the exact same products with a lot of the same content and we still send one another traffic. We co-operate, we don't compete. I've gotten heaps of free advice from Bec, Lee, AndyMike, basschick, GayDemon, JUB Bryce, Brian Pistol Media, Andy Dill, and many others.
If you really want to make it in this business, I think you need friends. Consultants, while they may deliver some information to you, really just want your money. That's not to say that they're all bad. But I would listen to Bec more carefully than I would listen to some consultant I didn't know.
Take, for instance, the AVS is dead thread we recently thrashed about. You continued to argue with me about whether AVS is dead or not, and I worked for an AVS for two years in one stint and a year and a half in another contract. I've been in the AVS market since 2001 both personally and professionally. While AVS has changed and it's not the cash cow it once was, it's far from dead and still quite profitable. Yet you wouldn't listen to what I had to say. You had your ideas and there was no getting through, and on more than one occasion I thought, "Why am I trying?"
Sure, you may have thought I was a board rep just trying to get your business, but my "Dzinerbear's Moving On" post had 24 replies and 268 views. It was kicking around for quite some time. How'd you miss it?
Max, I think you'll find that if you try to contribute more real information and opinion here rather than just "going off," you'll find that over time you'll start building relationships, and these people will be willing to help you. But for now I think so many people have you on "ignore" that you're not even getting through.
But the fact is that people still try to help you. That speaks to the quality of people we have here. These people who take the time to reply to your posts aren't after anything. They just want to help.
Why not try and benefit from the incredible resource that you have right in front of you, and why not start by reaching out and trying to build good, solid relationships. You can see by the responses here that in spite of rubbing people the wrong way, they're still willing to help you.
Anyway, enough. I'm truly sorry if I've hurt you, but I think -- I hope -- the blatant honesty will help you.
Michael
speaking as a boardmember and a consultant (and sometimes project manager), i'd like to point out that asking advice on a board can get you a lot more advice. the problem is that without a lot of knowledge - and depending on the advice, even with a lot of knowledge, there's no way to know which suggestions are good ones. all advice is not equal.
btw, desslock, i have worked as a consultant for over 8 years and one thing about hiring a consultant - one that the client has talked everything over with - makes the client a lot more likely to really listen and implement changes than from getting advice on a board.
sure, there are plenty of horror stories out there but that doesn't mean there are no good consultants. it means get referrences - plenty of references - and check them!
Basschick: Good point to me about consulting. I didn't intend to paint such a black and white picture. As an example, if I decided to expand my business into China... that would be a really new area which could deem some paid consulting. However, if I wanted some advice on the very basics of my day to day business... I'm not so sure hiring a consultant would be the right way to go.
Everyone's situation is different, your mileage may vary.
If you were a culinary chef running a restaurant, you should probably consider hiring a consultant on an alien subject - like putting up a website for the restaurant. However if you were a webmaster, I'd be careful of hiring people to tell you how to run a website business. That's my distinction.
So much of running a small business.... particularly our kinds of businesses.. is trial and error. But that's okay, for me that's how I've attempted to be innovative. And of course my own mistakes don't happen to cost me very much, out of pocket at least.
I suspect that MaxPower, however, has set his expectations improperly regarding what to receive from hiring consultants for your main business.
Steve :frog:
I truly do want a good relationship with all the members of this board and the adult community as a whole, but I am a webmaster after all sensationalizing things is in my blood, so I hope you will expect my apology.
No one cares if you say “ever decreasing sales and traffic” but if you say DEAD, then all of a sudden people start to pay attention. I don’t know its just how the world works sometime man.
I would love nothing more than to work out some equitable relationship with everyone on this board, and I am working hard to create the most profitable sites possible for its affiliates, as well as working with as many trusted professional leaders in our industry I can, to insure a professional and trusted system for everyone involved.
Again I would like to apologize too anyone that is upset with me I will try in the future to not annoy everyone. :crybaby:
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