I have just opened a paid forum posting service as one of my (too) many online projects. We have already “hit” some clients and hired a team of editors to keep the content writing up. So far, so good.

I did have a nice ‘chat’ with a guy on adminfusion who was a bit shocked at the “high” price we have on our services. It’s 0.30 USD/post in the higher plans and he was totally put off by this. My short response was something like “please then go to the very cheap paid forum posting services and then come back here to tell me how much paid posting sucks”.

It would be a nice idea to elaborate on this though.

There are MANY services, and a lot of low quality posting.

When I started the service I already knew this is a very hard niche. There are some well known sites that do this and I kinda look small as compared to them. What gives me hope though is the fact MOST people who used paid forum posting were displeased with the quality of the posts. Here is what they complained about:

• the posts were made too fast .. imagine running a non active forum and having 400 posts made in 2 days .. then again nothing.
• the posts were in the general chat or the welcome forums. Of course it’s difficult having to reply to specialized topics about webmaster business, finances, cars etc. It’s easier to stick a “hello”, “welcome here” or “how cool” message in the offtopics. I am still certain people don’t pay for this crap.
• the posts were short and bland .. starting good topics and making interesting replies it’s a bit hard. Many editors take the short easy road and don’t care about quality. Well, in the end QUALITY matters.

Knowing all these problems from so many reviews made by ex-clients, helped me set a business strategy. Our paid forum posting service will not fall into the trap of low quality. Here is some of the things I was able to “force” on my editors, and these also justify the price that’s a bit higher as compared to others:

• we have good editors who post in a month’s time .. they don’t “spam”, they have a limit of 3 posts/day .. nothing more
• I forbid my teams to touch the “welcome” and “general chat” categories. I did have clients who replied to my email message and asked us to please also post something there so the forums would look more “normal”. After getting the “green light” from our clients, we started posting there, few messages, some excellent topics and quality content, even if on the offtopics.
• the posts ARE NOT oneliners. My team has a 30+ words/post policy to respect. Most of the time we get to 50+ or even 100+ words on a thread/post since we just type fast and are inspired. Of course my client won’t have to pay for the additional work, it’s something we do since we really want them to receive the best content possible.
• writing in the specialized categories takes more effort (sometimes we do a bit of a research in the forum’s topic so that we know at least something about what we have to discuss there).

This would be one of the reasons our clients pay 0.30 USD/message and not 0.20 or 0.10 as in other caases. Great quality takes effort and should be paid more than low quality spammy posts.

Another good reason would be that we pay our editors 0.20 USD/ post.

We cannot have such an excellent team of content writers and pay them 5 cents / post. NONE of these highly specialized people who work for such low payment. If we want to be able to provide our clients with the quality we promise, we also need to pay our editors well and offer bonuses for every 5 finished jobs.

Such a service NEEDS PROMOTION. Paid promotion. In under 3 weeks we have invested almost 60 USD in advertising. It’s not a huge sum, but for a very new project it’s already something. We were able to make up for this money already and are on a good “plus”, but this is not the end. As the service will grow, we’ll have to finance it more, advertise even more serious and invest a lot of money.

So, next time you think a paid forum posting should be very cheap try to also see what this would mean:

• low quality messages
• bad editors who’d work for a very small payment
• no investments into the service

And if you still are not convinced, try us for a 20% off. It’s December. All our posting plans are just 80% now. 

I have to admit I am NOT a “team” person. Whenever I had a task I’d ask to work alone. The funniest moment was, 10 years ago I think at the International House in Timisoara (a place we went to learn some better English) .. We were 11 in the “class” I think and we had to work in pairs. Knowing how bad it is to have someone on my team (they always dragged me down and I had to work for them too) I asked with the nicest voice: “Tina, can I be a pair?”

It was funny, but I think this is what I am .. a “pair” person, who’s making the “pair” all by herself.

As I mentioned before .. I am not a team person. I was always pretty fast when having to work on something. I found out that, if I worked on a team, my results would be worse: we’d fool around (well, we’re not always that interested in learning/working), I would lose pretious time trying to explain my partners the solution and most of the time, totally ..ssed on their stupidity, I’d have to do all the task by myself.

No, I am not Einstein, but I do seem to have a higher IQ. And this makes working with me impossible on an equal level.

This would be the main reason I don’t believe in equality in a business.

I discussed months ago this issue with my boyfriend and we kinda agreed: there are some excellent teams working nicely, but most of the time partnerships end in “divorce” after some time. Why cannot people be that compatible?

• they have different speeds and capacities to solve a task. Just like me, in my schooldays, some might solve a problem faster, some might solve it slower or might never find a solution. This SHOWS and, in time, can become a problem;
• some are working hard, others are hardly working .. again .. at the beginning this might not be such an issue, but as time goes by, the one doing all the job will rebel.
• money changes a lot .. all the things mentioned above become more serious when money is involved. When high revenue starts rolling, people start thinking more about how to maximize their own profits and get rid of the slow working ones.
• people are people .. as in marriage, a business relationship means a lot of compromises, many potential fights … It’s hard to work in a team since you have to work with other people. They won’t always agree with you and living as a “couple” is hard.

I know this might not be what you’d expect from a “business related” blog entry. Maybe you’d like me to praise the team work and tell you how wonderful a community is. Well a community is superb (this would explain why I own 14 forums right now). I am addicted to interaction, to people and all kinds of projects. But I don’t see them as an equality position. I am a leader or have a leader.

Knowing the hierarchy really helps me work better. I know my tasks and can achieve my goals as an employee or as the only leader.

What do you think?

I am sorry dear reader, but time has come for us to set some things straight and hope that you’ll understand at least now, that the myth of getting rich overnight is just this: a myth.

You’d tell me there have been many cases of people who turned from “zero to hero” because of a twist of fate. People who woke up one day to find themselves horribly rich, just because they had luck or made a genius decision.

We have the lotteries we flood weekly in the hope we’d be able to change our lives. People invest money so that they might win the “jackpot”. The luck one has is built up from all the money invested by him and the others who chase this dream. One might get rich, or one might invest money for many many years. Maybe a trust fund or just a good investment with all the money put into that lottery would be better. But people want overnight success.

Online there are such stories too. We have the “kids” behind Google who became rich after selling the business. We have more recently YouTube that’s been sold for some unholy price, we even have that inspired student who created the million dollar homepage. They weren’t that lucky (as in a lottery ticket), they were inspired. They had that moment of true inspiration when they decided to do this or that. They created something new, something totally off any given limits at that time and they succeed.

Copycats are now all over the place. But the true success is achieved with something unique …

Should we now just call our quits? Just because some of us are not that inspired nor that lucky? Should we really care about getting rich overnight and the fact it’s not that easy? That it’s impossible for most of us?

We could do this, or we could start seeing business as it is: a steady effort into getting somewhere. We could try earning more each day, by working hard and having a good plan, by being well organized and consistent in our work.

Most of the “getting rich overnight” schemes are scams. I’d say all, but I fear you’d accuse me of being too hard on this reality. Let’s say that a HUGE percentage (99,9%) are total scams, planned for people to get rich overnigh (the problem is that these people who’d earn a lot are not you and me, but the people who devised them).

Most of the “how to get rich overnight” books are just platitudes sold to stupid people who still believe in Alladin’s Magic Lamp … People buy them and think they’ll discover the secret.

The secret is here and still we fail to see it: you can be a successful businessman by having blind luck or a “strike” of genius or (most common for many) by working hard, being dedicated, focused and consistent.

That we can do.