I have mixed emotions about forums. I love helping people and forums are a great way to do so; however, the level of bad advice given on most forums is atrocious. As a result, I strictly limit my participation in most forums. Keep reading, though, if you want to know my “exceptions” — and to learn about the forums where I “hang out”.
I’m a certified computer security professional and I’m naturally drawn to discussions about computer security problems on forums. I seldom make a comment, however, simply because I don’t want to be confused as “just another person” dropping an opinion into an ocean of conflicting advice — a lot of which, while well-intentioned, is atrocious.
In one particular instance, a person had received a “cease and desist” notice regarding a product that he created and for which he owned the copyright. While I’m not a lawyer, I studied Business Law back in my college days and keep track of it because legal issues are an important part of computer security. I can therefore usually at least spot bad advice, even if I don’t know what “good advice” would be in those instances. The person who received the notice asked what to do on a forum, and of course all kinds of people started chiming in, offering “advice”.
Pretty soon a “real lawyer” came by and basically told the person that following the “advice” given on that forum would land him in trouble and that he needed to go talk to a lawyer and get specific advice about his situation.
So what happened after that? A few minutes later the “advice” started again… The expert — the only one giving good advice — was shouted down. Horrible.
When it comes to forums, you’re dealing with people who want to try to help but in most cases really don’t know what they are talking about. You are also dealing with forum trolls who love to stir up trouble — and in some cases, give purposely harmful advice. You’re dealing with people who have never made a sale in their life who are telling you how to take your business to the next level. And you’re dealing with people who know the answers, yet give you bad advice to keep you from succeeding (presumably so you won’t take a cut of their market share, or some such nonsense).
So what do I recommend? Why do I even bother with forums?
I won’t go into the “why I bother” (at least not in this post, although there are certain objectives to my forum activities); I will, however, tell you what I’m doing about it — after a short illustration of my logic.
Let’s say, for example, that’s there’s a fast food restaurant sitting right next to a five-star restaurant. What’s stopping the people who normally go to the fast food restaurant from going to the five-star restaurant?
That’s right: the price of admission. Whereas a burger and fries will cost you a few dollars, enjoying a unique dining experience at a five star restaurant is going to cost you. But you get what you pay for.
The same thing goes for forums. There are three forums I absolutely love. All of them are extremely helpful. All of them are run by people who are both top-notch marketers AND top-notch individuals. And all of them cost money to get access. This keeps out a lot of the forum trolls and others who aren’t serious enough about their business to make the investment.
The first forum is at Willie Crawford’s Internet Marketing Inner Circle. I like to think of this forum as “Joint Venture Grand Central Station”. Lots of JV opportunities, lots of group projects, and lots of help from serious people who are actually making money on the Internet. There are a ton of interviews for you to download and some other helpful tools, but the heart of the membership is the discussion forum. This site has a one-time fee (which you can pay in monthly installments). And, of course, I can’t speak highly enough of Willie Crawford.
Speaking of “speaking highly”, may I talk about John Delavera for a moment? John has created the Turbo Membership (that link leads to a video about the membership). This membership has a monthly fee and a helpful discussion forum (I help out on this forum as a moderator as a favor to Willie). It also has John’s hyperactive brain behind it!
This membership site literally has everything you need to run your business. Web hosting, e-commerce framework (JV Manager), an autoresponder (an aWeber private label), new products to sell every month, resale rights products, training (including “Turbo University”), additional membership sites at deeply discounted prices… and the aforementioned forum, where you can get help. Join this system — and stick with it — and you can build a successful business.
Again, here’s the link to a video about John Delavera’s Turbo Membership.
The last one (but definitely not the least!) is Scot Standke’s and Jim Morris’ Niche Rockets (that link will get you a seven day trial for only $1 and saves you $50 a month of the regular membership price; you can only get that offer by signing up via that link). Again, the focus of this site is the forum. This forum is packed full of tactics and techniques that you can implement to build a business. Tim Gorman is the article marketing expert there. And it’s also full of all sorts of “experiments” in regards to… well, some of it is a bit on the “grey side”, so I won’t to into details here. All I’ll say is that I never quit after I joined a couple of years ago, and there’s a good reason for that.
You also get private label products every month, and Scot likes to give away resale rights products on a regular basis to members. You’ll also get access to a lot of other useful tools, including premium credits every month for Jim Morris’ NicheBot Keyword Research System (that link will get you a 14 day trial for only $1). Be sure to check out the sales letter for more details about this incredible membership (and Jim and Scot are both extremely helpful and mega-patient! They love to teach.).
If you’d like a no cost, no obligation sample of one of the monthly products, you can click on this link for information.
Oh, and did I mention the forum? Again, no trolls hanging around to give you bad advice — and like the other two membership site forums, with an experienced, ethical marketer in charge to lend an authoritative voice, misleading advice doesn’t stand a chance of survival.
So there’s your forum solution (as well as the solution to other issues you might be facing). As always, you get what you pay for. You can go the free route and deal with the bad advice, trolls, and tons of useless garbage — or you can value your time, make your investment, and get the help you need quickly. I hope to see you soon in one of these paid forums (and if you do join, please leave a comment and let me know. I won’t approve it, but I would like to send you an email and offer my assistance should the need arise).
Thanks for listening,
Tom
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