Menu

• Dictionary
• Hot Shots

Directory

• Sponsors
• Billing Options
• Content Providers
• Web Hosting
• Traffic Counters
• Website Designers
• Resource Sites

I'm not sure what causes us to do it but so many of us accept what we see and read about online at face value. Perhaps it's the power of the printed word to influence us that makes us believe what we're reading on the screen ... perhaps it's our own subconscious desires hopes and desires that influence us to believe what we're reading ... or it could be something quite different. Whatever it is, when we see something on our monitor we often tend to accept it as the truth.

But is it really the truth? Do those words that we're reading on a webmaster board really contain the truth that we need to succeed? They might sound like the personal experiences of the person who is writing them but is that really what they are?

Before the Internet came along we relied on newspapers, books and word of mouth for the information that we needed to achieve our goals. Back then the written word could be trusted because it was expensive to produce and that prevented too many clueless people from producing written work that was worthless. And we could filter the word-of-mouth information we were receiving through our personal observations of whoever it was that was talking to us.

Their body language, their tone of voice and even their appearance could add or detract from their message and quite often, unless they were very accomplished con artists, we could tell if they were telling lies or pretending to be something that they were not.

Today though there are no such filters on our computer monitors ... there is no way to look into the eyes of someone who is giving advice on a message board to assess their character. There's no way to assess their body language to see if they're telling the truth or not.

Instead, in many cases, we just have to hope like hell that they really do know what they're talking about because if they don't ... and we take their advice ... then we're screwed.

And that's a very unfortunately situation to be in because there are many people out there who want to have the recognition that goes with someone who has expert status. They want that recognition ... that status ... even though they may have absolutely no personal experience and may in fact be totally clueless. They care little about any damage that they might do ... all they want is that expert status

Regurgitating the work of others is simple ... having real experience to share with you takes time and a lot of hard work.

So it's important to look closely at anyone who is giving out advice on webmaster boards ... and that advice goes for boards here in adult and over there in mainstream. It even applies to places like Sphinn where the system can be gamed and clueless idiots can look like highly experienced experts.

And that whole situation applies not only to the advice that you might see being given on those boards but to just how successful people may seem to be.

Just about every one of us likes to be seen as being successful ... being a playa ... being someone that has made it here in Internet land. For those of us who have been working hard and yet don't think that we've 'made it' seeing those success stories can be demoralizing and can even be so hard to take that we give up and leave the industry.

What's the point of doing all this hard work ... we'll never be as successful as they are!

But what is the reality here? Are those people who talk about buying lots of cool toys and spending endless nights at the club really that successful? Undoubtedly some of them are but there are also quite a few who might have all the appearances of achieving success and enjoying a wonderful lifestyle who are still working out of the equivalent of their parent's basement.

As one person in this industry that I know and respect put it yesterday 'The web world has definitely oversold itself. Too many people working hard for peanuts and hiding the fact.'

They're making a lot of noise in all the right places but the reality is a whole lot different to the image that they're pushing so hard. In fact some of them are working so hard to build an image of success that they have no time left to actually achieve real success.

So my advice to you is to always question the advice that you see being given on message boards. Does the person who is giving that advice really know, from first-hand experience, what they're talking about ... or is it just another one of those people who want to be seen as a playa?

And is that person who looks and sounds like a real success story ... something that you feel you're not ... really as successful and wealthy as they would have you believe? Are they really the playa that they want you to believe they are or are you far more successful than them?