Like many people that have a passion to help others, get paid to help others via coaching, or have a deal with the person you helping. I have help others and the fact still remains there are some problems with helping others. I’m not saying there’s a problem with helping people just lazy, cheap, and get rich quick mindset people. I want to point out the problem with helping cheap, lazy, and get rich quick mindset people.
When a person ask for help and you accept to help them via free, paid, or special deal. The problem comes down to the person. The reasons I know this because I am always helping people. A few of my readers are on my email, msn, and skype contact list as well as part of my facebook friends. All range from blogging, social media marketing, SEO, and affiliate marketing via PPC and article marketing.
From all the helping and coaching I have done. I learned when people are un-helpable and deleted them from my contact list. For example I am going to use affiliate marketing and blogging. These seem to bring 2 types of people that you should not waste your time helping. People that don’t want to spend any money or people that think its going to make them rich in the first few months.
Example 1) Blogging
This one bothers me the most since I am passionate about helping people and blogging. People see bloggers like john chow making $40k a month, shoemoney getting things free on his t-shirt Friday, problogger with his book deal and large following. Then they see me with a blog growing more and more. Since I make it so easy to get in touch with me and very known to help others. They contact me asking for help.
Here’s where the problem comes in, they didn’t do any research about blogging nor did they research on what they want to blog about. So the first thing they want to do is make a blog about making money online (they don’t know how to make money online) and don’t want to spend any money to buy domain and hosting. Worst of all they think their going to make $10k a month in the first few months.
After explaining that blogging is a long term investment, it takes a lot of time to get to that point, and you need to know about the topic you are blogging about. They still want to keep the mindset they have I cut them off from my contact list. Pretty much was a waste of my time.
Example 2) Affiliate Marketing
I don’t do much affiliate marketing. (I should though) My friends/students that I give advise to, make a lot more than I do from taking my advise. The problem comes in with helping people with affiliate marketing is people thinking their going to be rich in the first few months. People like this, I just cut off from my list. It’s the people that ask for my advise, don’t do what I tell them, and wonder why they not making any money that makes me mad. lol, reminds me what I do to my poker affiliate coach. But I don’t think I am going to make money from doing nothing.
Ok, that is my rant for the day, I feel better now.
as well.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Another problem with helping people to much is that some of them will later on expect you to do everything for them within a second. Since my blog is just two weeks old I’ve managed to get around most of them.
Your post gave me an idea for a new article. A simple FAQ with the answers for most commonly asked questions. In the future when someone ask a simple question people can simple link to it.
Need to sleep for some hours now, but I will begin writing on it later today.
I know what you mean, and I understand why you need a little rant
I always try to help people where I can. I write for a lot of people, and often they are asking me to write e.g. Ezine Articles for them but have no clue about Ezine Articles. They tell me the topic to write about, and then they don’t know how to create a resource box or upload the article etc. I help them, and then they still think it’s down to me if the article doesn’t get 1000 views. So next I help them with picking more profitable keywords etc, then they just stop replying once they get what they want. It’s a little different to what you were complaining about – but I guess it would be nice if people were a little more grateful 
We all need a rant from time to time.
That said, I will always try as much as possible to help people out online if I can.
I just like to make it impossible for people to get in touch with me so I don’t have to even sweat it
Just kidding, when people ask me for help I will typically help them but I am quick to make it clear that this will hardly be an “all the time” thing.
Hey, you are copying me!!! You are ranting, and thats what my blog is about, ranting. I’m just playing. I can completely understand what you mean. I go through the same thing, maybe not as often as you do, but I see a few cases just like that.
Over on Digital Point forums people do this all the time. They come in and their first post is: “I have $25.00 and I want to invest it and make $300.00 a week. How do I do it? What website should I make? What niche should I write about?” It doesn’t work like that. Lots of hard work is involved before any income starts coming in. I have an article written about this too, it’s scheduled to be published in a few weeks.
I agree with your little rant Deneil. It can be frustrating but as the great business philosopher Jim Rohn always says: Don’t get frustrated, get fascinated.
I used to get frustrated but over time I have learned to be fascinated instead. It is a lot more fun
Mikael
Hey Deneil,
Saw your comment over at richardbonner.net, clicked thru to here, and – after reading a bunch of your posts – subscribed to the RSS feed (Blog commenting works!).
This post hit home with me, because I’ve tried to help a few ppl do stuff online too and they always bail after I’ve spent a lot of time on them…
Recently tried to help my brother by giving him instructions for an easy technique I came up with, but didn’t have time to try.
Told him how to find keywords with moderately high traffic but weak competition on Google, and he chose 4 terms to target…
Within a couple weeks, 3 out of 4 of the terms ranked:
- #3 and 4 out of about 1,750,000 results
- #1 out of about 147,000 & Top 5 out of 289,000 for related term
- and #10 out of about 31,500,000 (!)
So getting good rankings worked; he just had to do some tweaking to improve conversion (which I also told him how to do), and start churning them out like a machine – since the process is relatively fast and easy to do.
But he lost interest and moved onto something else. >:(
But the best way to get ‘revenge’ is to pick up the torch, continue with what you were trying to teach them to do, and make it a success (and then ensure they find out. heh). I did that for two similar situations, and it made me feel much better.
Anyways, great site you have here, I look forward to your future posts, and thanks for the opportunity for me to rant a little bit! lol
Deneil
I definitely know where you’re coming from, but I do like to add to the “karma tip cup”, sometimes it feels like it’s always “take take take”, but sometimes I’ve met really great people that in turn have helped me greatly.
On the ‘laziness’ aspect, I’m usually the most responsive to people that look like they’re putting a effort in, etc.
hanji
I know exactly where you are coming from with this one. I have been in this business for a long time now and people are always asking me for help. That is actually one of the reasons we created our newest MMO blog. To hopefully answer some of their questions so we can just point them there.
Another big issue I have is… over the years I have created several and hosted many websites for some local non-profit groups in my community like some elementary schools and their PTA’s, the Chamber of Commerce… and more. Now I have non-profit groups contact me at least once a month asking me if I can create a site and host it for them. Unfortunately, I have no time to do it anymore, but I always offer them free hosting… and I actually think it offends some people that I can’t volunteer to create them a site.
Hi Deneil,
your example about helping people is not just limited to blogging, it can be used for any purpose. People want help and I also try and help out where possible and I sometime achieve more than I thought. Other times, I can’t help as the person has not given me much to work from and some don’t even try.
I guess it comes down to give and take and receive situation. Thanks for sharing your thought on this.
Yeah, that’s when I laugh and tell them they must learn it themselves. I have my own work to do.
That’s kind of what I am doing for my ebook. I will be making a post on each problem like install wordpress, must have plugins, etc. That way I can explain everything without writing it in the ebook and people will have to visit my blog over and over.
I agree we all need to do a rant some time. I love helping people but some times people just really bother me the way they think.
It is good to hear that theirs other people out there helping people. It feels good to help people, I think that’s why I go out my way to help people. Keep helping others, it will payoff in its own ways.
lol, it’s good that you tell them its not going to be all the time. Helping people to a limit.
lol, I don’t go through it too often but it really bothers me when it does happen.
I learn pass on threads asking for help like that. The threads that often are made which I completely pass on posting on is the ones that say I have no money and I want to make $1,000+ a month with in the first month.
I will try my best and see if that helps.
Steve, Glad you came here and happy you like it.
Rank #10 out of 31,500,000 in a couple of weeks is amazing. You got to tell me the secret. Ok, you don’t have to but we should be contact. You have msn?
I like the way you handle things. I never thought about making sure the person/people find out about my success from what I was teaching them. I think that is the best “revenage” ever.
Thank you, I am glad you like the site. You welcome, you can voice your views on any post you like. Doing a rant here and there helps to let out the stress of internet marketing.
Hey Deneil, thanks for the welcome!
Yeah – I was pleasantly surprised that my theory panned out too; rankings wise anyway. It’s essentially a mashup of existing techniques with a twist…
As you obviously understand, I don’t want to blow its cover just yet, in case my bro decides to continue on with it or I do. It might make a good entry level ebook for something else I’m doing that’s similar, but takes a bit more effort & time, and could be a ‘pro’ version of the method…
Either way, it’s very much in the early stage of testing but looks promising. I do have msn and will use your contact page to get hold of you once I wring out this idea to see if it holds up.
BTW, My best & easiest “I told you so” was a simple website subject a friend came up with – and then bailed on after I designed the website and paid for hosting and the domain. So I kept it, used software to make the site update itself, and then just ignored it.
Being able to force it into a respectable PR rank & top 10 for a moderately popular search, enabled the site to generated well over a 3000% profit via ads and adsense.
Not a truckload of cash, but it demonstrated the viability of the website and the suggested method of rinsing & repeating the same idea every day. And of course I subtly let him find that out about a year later.
So thanks again for the welcome. I’ll be looking forward to your future posts, and hopefully have something interesting to contact you about in the near future!
Steve you are always welcome.
Keep me updated on how things are going. Anyway I can help let me know.
Hanji, I have came across some people like that as well. You help them out and down the line they end up helping you. It feels good to make friendships like that.
I am happy you did make the MMO blog. It helped me out with a few things.
At least you hosting their site for free. That’s volunteeing. They should be happy with that.
George, I know what you mean. They want you to help them with their project and give you no information about it so you can help them. Then they get mad because you can’t help them.
It will always be give and take with helping people. I guess that’s how things go.
That’s a great method Deneil and I see more and more people doing it. Explaining it briefly in the book and then linking to their own blog and since the user have already started to read about it he will most certainly visit you.
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