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"The ones that make me beat my head on my desk are the ones who are exposed to all the information on webmaster boards, even get one-on-one assistance from more experienced webmasters and still refuse to listen." |
There are times when I am so glad that the desk in front of my monitor is covered in a pile of print outs, note pads, books and assorted crap to a depth of at least 6 inches. My partner can never understand why I want to work at a desk that looks like mine does but then again, she has never been in the office when I have had an overwhelming urge to beat my head on the top of my desk.
I don't get the urge often but when I do, I find that the pile of paper in front of me tends to soften the blows. You may wonder why I would do such a dumb thing and I sometimes wonder myself but when the urge becomes irresistible I find it a very therapeutic thing to do.
In fact right now, I can really relate to just how good it can feel because I have just done it a few moments ago and it has now given me a headache and that has taken my mind off the thing that got me so wound up in the first place – dumb newbies.
Now let me say right now that I am not referring to all new webmasters here. Everyone comes into this industry with little understanding of how the industry works. Everyone needs time to adjust and learn and everyone is going to ask dumb questions – that is perfectly acceptable and expected in webmasters new or old.
The ones that make me beat my head on my desk are the ones who are exposed to all the information on webmaster boards, even get one-on-one assistance from more experienced webmasters and still refuse to listen.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. John was a graphic designer until the “dotcom” bomb exploded leaving him without a job. He knew that there was money to be made peddling porn, so about six months ago he appeared on a newbie board and started asking questions. Somewhere along the line another experienced webmaster and I began tutoring him.
We pointed him to the various tutorials on CozyAcademy.com and suggested that he join in the discussions on the board, we answered his questions and critiqued his sites. We stressed to him that good adult site design did not necessarily mean nice clear pics and lots of graphics because the aim of a free site was not to entertain the surfer but to present him with sponsor advertising.
Throughout the time we spent working with him we both found it very hard to get him to stop and think about the basics of site design. Each time one of us was talking to him on ICQ and we brought the conversation round to that subject he would suddenly have to go or he would just plain stop talking to us. Nor did he want to get involved with a board like
CozyCampus.com because he felt that it was too 'regimented'. Instead he stuck with a board where there were no advisors and the community consisted of newbies advising newbies.
After a while, he began to make a few sales and all communication ceased until today when he re-appeared and hit me up. His sales had stopped and he was burning a lot of bandwidth. We basically wasn't making any money, he was in real danger of going out of the industry backwards and he didn't know what he was doing wrong.
I checked one of his latest sites and he was making all the same old newbie mistakes as when he had first started. He was giving away prime real estate on his pages to things that would not make him money. His thumbs were too big and bright while his advertising was small and insignificant. He was relying on sponsor banners instead of text ads and he was giving away more images than he needed to.
We talked and once again I suggested that he get involved with a board where he would be encouraged and helped to build sites that would actually sell. I showed him some examples of free sites that were making sales, sites where the thumbs blended into the background while advertising was more noticeable, text links to sponsors were used as well as banners and prime real estate on every page was used to make money or make the page attractive to search engine spiders.
As before, as soon as the discussion turned to what would really make him money, he suddenly heard a jelly sandwich calling him from his backyard and he was gone. It was at that point that I found it necessary to start hitting my head on the desktop.
If you want some of the best advice and help you can get in this industry then head over to the tutorials at Cozy Academy, the boards at Cozy Campus and all the resources on Cozy Frog. You can find them at:
It's all free and its there to help you make money. What more could you ask for?
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