Last week I did a 77 minute interview with Yaro. Yaro just let me go and tell my life story from high school to present. That always dangerous for me cause often I give out a lot of stuff or talk smack when I should just keep my mouth shut… but its all good.
During the interview I talk about the 6 year journey where I went from a lot of the business we have built over the years… Many educational experiences a long the way that many would probably consider failures.
Also a long the way I talked about how we are now contributing financially/programmaticly/technically/marketing to lots of new businesses and if someone out there is hustling and needs a investor to contact us.
Well I think I was misunderstood because I got a FLOOD of emails from people with “ideas”. They claimed they had an idea for a great website (which they wont disclose of course) but they have no money and no experience and no confidence to try it themselves.
Why in the hell would I want to invest in a idea that the founder doesn’t even believe in himself to try it… ???
I started AND failed at trying many ideas while working 9-5. I was fired from 2 jobs most people would kill to have because I worked on my own stuff all the time… These are people we are looking for.
Ideas, programmers, and marketers are A DIME A DOZEN. People who are willing to put in hard work to get through the dip are in VERY short supply.
That is also why I said we don’t care about your technical ability or experience as much as your work ethic in regards to our summer internships
And speaking of those… well that is another post 
Programing & marketing I can train or get you training.
Work ethic and confidence in yourself I cant help you with.
So what you got?
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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Progress and Completion 
How To Get People To Promote Your Stuff 
Getting Press for Your Website, Application, or Service 
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
doing it all myself is my problem, fear of failure or success is not. What I need is to start branching out. investors, programmers, marketers in short order and large quantities
point made
If I had one bit of advice, it would be to involve as little money and as few people for as long as possible.
Even if you can’t program, you can draw out your idea on paper. Flesh out your idea as completely as you can. Do searches online on how to do things. Someone has ALWAYS written a tutorial on what you want to do.
It seems like the more money and people that get involved in a project (early on anyway), the less focused and amazing it becomes…
Just some thoughts…
Hey Jeremy. You played Quake Live yet?
-Charlie
You are right.Confidence is something that one needs to develop by themselves. You cannot mentor somebody to build confidence especially when he wants to call himself an entrepreneur.
I have seen people starting off with only confidend and building businesses out of nothing. That is because they had confidence in their ideas. Rest aside everything for the only fact that confidence is yourself is what keeps you going even during failures and without failures you will not see success.
good post.. nobody is going to just give it to ya.. people waste more time looking for the easy and risk free way to do things than they do actually making stuff happen..
Ideas are just BS until you take action
People should think Joint Venture instead of doing it all.
I programmed MyStarterBlog(Windows software) but I’m not very good in the graphic department(matchstick kind of guy lol ).
So, I did a JV with Rob who created the MSB themes. But he also had a home made eBay plugin and we added it in MSB.
Now, I sell MSB and he sell his MSB eBay Plugin. While we are independent on the money side, we communicate with each other.
For example, he is doing a new version of the plugin and I had to test. Based on that, I gave him notes and also took notes for my next version of MSB,
“Why in the hell would I want to invest”
I got the idea, found someone ready to “invest” his time and we acted on it.
We created a new vertical market because others can now make MSB themes for their secondary blogs/auction sites.
I got the work ethic. Working on my sites in between projects at work helped me in becoming more focused and delivering quicker with less errors..
I agree that you need to know how to work, not necessary the work because that can be taught to almost anyone but you need to have good work ethics and know how to take charge and get stuff done.
I may not be the best worker out there but I try and that is usually better than the other person with that big fancy degree that hates to work.
The thing that I seem to have the most problem with is finding time to get all the stuff done that I really want to but when I’m at work I’m at work.
Great points Jeremy!
For myself… I DO have that ++Million Dollar++ Idea in my head, even registered the trademarks and 6+ domains (.coms,.orgs, .mobi etc) to get it off the ground and started!
That was +1 year ago though.
I do have roughly 50% of both the tech knowledge and marketing knowledge to get it going… but for me, I ONLY want to bounce my ideas off someone who has already taken the plunge, to get an idea if they think its worth pursuing, from THIER standpoint.
I think many of your readers will agree that we come here to learn from you, even if just bits and pieces at a time.
Most do not have the financial leeway to drop everything else they have going on to invest several months into a single project in order to do it right, and having a person like yourself who has been-there and done-that, to spend even 15-30 minutes of time hearing all the ideas, and giving your trusted opinion may just be the nudge some need.
In effect, when we send those emails (Which I have not done in over a year) that ask… “Do you think this is worth my time?” – we are turning to the “Local Expert” for an opinion.
ON THE OTHER SIDE –
I’m not a friggin fool man.. .I know you dont have the time to answer all those emails!! I get 200/day myself from just over 1400 readers…. I cannot imagine the volume you see daily!
Heres to you! Thanks for the tidbits you do provide!
Mark
I completely agree (i.e. why should someone invest in you if you haven’t invested in yourself).
But, having said that, when I see how some can struggle, I’m ever so grateful that I’m a programmer. I had the idea and was able to execute because of my skills.
Jeremy, what’s your opinion on when one should look for investors, or any advice you have when looking for investors? (Maybe that’s a blog post in itself?)
I have to say I’m a bit tempted to contact you. I do feel I’m at a cross-roads: keep doing things myself (at a slow pace) or get an investor and kick things up a few notches. Problem is, I love being my own boss and one of the reasons for starting my website was to not have to answer to anyone.
Suzanne
People will only invest in you if you have the confidence in yourself and your idea. If you yourself is not confident then why would somebody even think of investing in you.
Suzanne, you are right in this aspect.
But when it comes to investing in somebody else’s idea, you have to be very careful. First of all you have to have analyze all pros and cons of the idea to find if it is worth investing.
Rightly said, probably Jeremy can write a complete post on this and help us.
Shoe,
People would never go to a bank and ask for business loan for a business they will not tell the banker about other than its online, and they are not sure if it will work or not. People need to realize that investors online are not going to just give away money because somebody asks for it!
EARN IT! Show them why they should invest in you!
Great post. It always is hilarious how much people want you to do everything for them in exchange for an idea…
“Programing & marketing I can train or get you training.”
I’ll take you up on that offer! What is your advice on where to begin learning programming? There is tons of information out there but I have no idea where to even start.
Thanks in advance!
-Graysen
it took Thomas Edison countless attempts to make the light bulb, yet he stayed committed to his goal and achieved what he set his mind to. so what am I getting at? we all have dreams, and that just that they are dreams, the difference between dreams and goals is that goals are something we believe we can achieve, these are the things we write, where’s dreams just remain dreams.
I my self am a believer that if you truly want something hard enough, with hard work and dedication anything can be achieved!
I am one of those people doing what they want and having the guts to go out on a limb to achieve it.
I am running my blog and building it up and slowly but surely creating a variety of products to sell and market.
Thanks for this bitchin post
I firmly believe that dreams are what gives rise to goals and goals are what drives a human being towards achieving their dreams.
If you have a dream and a strong urge to make it a reality, you will develop the confidence to go after it and you will succeed.
Great interview Jeremy! Get the transcript from that, research your dates, add some fluff and your autobiography is done. While my story is different, college / agency marketing environment, we have some similarities. But thanks for posting the link . . . BTW that guy has a huge following on his blog!
I listened to your interview last night… I thought it was one of the best you’ve given so far.
The bit about AuctionAds was totally inspirational – the problems with payout, servers etc and how you were able to overcome them.
Thanks so much for doing that interview. I enjoyed hearing about your eventful and inspirational history.
My idea was simply a suggestion.
Maybe someone else is interested in doing it…
A browser plugin where you right click a link anywhere on the internet and select “share link”.
A website like twitter is used to collect all of your links, much like your “tweets”, where your followers can view them and visit them.
A standalone application like MSN also runs in your system tray which gives you a small popup whenever one of your “friends” shares a link. You can either click the link and check out what they’re sharing or ignore it and let the small popup fade away.
You can also click the system tray icon to bring up a page of links that your friends have shared that day or that week.
If anyone decides to make it, be sure to tell me because I’d like to try it out. I’m always sharing links with my friends and it would be that much easier.
I think its great that you are opening up opportunities for the up and comers. Sounds like a win win both for your organization and the people lucky enough to be accepted to your program. Kudos.
This is a revealing statement you aptly make-
“People who are willing to put in hard work to get through the dip are in VERY short supply.”
And it once again shows that character out-performs talent in the long run.
myarticlenetworks.com
I definitely agree. Ideas are a dime a dozen but people that are prepared to back themselves and work hard to make their idea a reality are few and far between.
Jeremy Schoemaker once again real great Mp3 to listen. You are one of TOP notch money making guy in today’s internet world. Your 6 year journey is set example for the new bloggers who would like to start their online Journey. With 6 years of hard work and dedication i am sure very few people can reach the heights where you are at this point of time.
People have so many ideas. But only thinking up great ideas will not get anyone anywhere. It’s true that hardwork is still most important, but hard to find from people these days. It’s great you are willing to train others in the field of programing & marketing and what’s even greater is you’re telling them to equip themselves first with work ethic and confidence.
Nice post. Thanks for this!
I enjoyed the interview. It was the first time I heard you talk about fighters.com I was looking forward to seeing what you did with that and it’s a shame it didn’t work out. Good to see though that you had the foresight to pull the pin on the project.
I’ve said for years that I can find grammar experts by the millions when people ridicule me for my poor grammar, but I can’t find many people to THINK, ANALYZE and develop the STRATEGY.
Glad to hear that somebody understands what I’m talking about.
Virgil
http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com
First of all I will like to congratulates Jeremy, this is a great post and definitely is the raw true, here in the world you can find a lot of people with potential tons of people with a lot of degrees, in fact I know a friend of my that he is master of administration and he is a very smart person but just for the lazy personality that he has he still working in a call center and that is so sad a tons of potential lost or throw out to the garbage. Today is my second day of work, I am not an expert on what I’m doing to tell the true but I have all my potential and my wiliness to learn and to do my job as good as I can. For extra recommendation to everybody: Whatever you are doing do it with heart, love and always fight to do it better than anyone and everything will be find.
Not sure people that have the confidence and work ethic need all that much help. They can hire programmers, marketers, etc. easy enough.
If you are talking angel investing, that is a different story, but I doubt the people already doing it need technical help.
I always have a hundred great ideas, but very little time. It just might be worthwhile listening to some of those people’s ideas. They could be worth something. I don’t mean mine, I am fine with doing my thing and getting to mine eventually. Of course they have to be willing to tell you what it is first.
It’s always enjoyable hearing of other marketer’s “upbringing” stories. Thanks for sharing!
I also agree! Learn insight of the passed failure and accomplishment from veterans are diffidently good for your business!
Thank you for mentioning that you were in cc dept 50k. I need to let my wife hear your interview.
Failure is the road to success…..No exceptions.
thanks for great interview…yaro is success blogger
“Why in the hell would I want to invest in a idea that the founder doesn’t even believe in himself to try it… ??? ”
Ha ha, well said.
Unless it’s cigarettes…
Great stuff I recorded it and I going to listen it next week. 2hours fly (Paris to spain…)
Damn! You must be doing big things flying all over the place!
People basically gotta do everything possible that they can do themselves, and THEN get the helping hand.
Im working hard to learn programming/marketing so when I have an idea or proposal I can atleast work on a skeleton to present. Then a person/group can really see if its worth adding muscle to.
shitty analogy haha
I cut my “online teeth” as a traffic webmaster in the adult industry (in the online adult industry there are traffics wm’s and there are content wm’s) which imo is BY FAR the most competitive and cut-throat industry online.
I was determined to make it and in 2004 I formed a small company with a friend and began learning about traffic. I soon realized I knew nothing and was in WAY over my head.
Determination got me through the first 6 months, well that and thousands of dollars and before long I had a small network of sites that was trading close to 1 million unique hits/day.
I became OBSESSED with learning all I could about traffic. The income my websites was generating allowed me to pretty much sit around and read all day, every day for 3 years.
I built my adult network up to 200+ sites and was moving 20 million hits/day and decided it was time to combine my love of marijuana with my knowledge of the internet/traffic and launched MarijuanaReviews.com which almost overnight became the authority on honest and accurate strain information. It’s simple design and zero advertisements definitely helped.
Living in California where medical marijuana has been legal since 1996 and being a qualified medical marijuana patient myself I have had some great ideas for a while but now with Attorney General Eric Holder formally announcing there will be no more MMJ arrests by the Feds unless you are breaking BOTH Federal and State laws, it’s time to start cranking them out.
NO I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SELLING MARIJUANA SO DO NOT EMAIL ME ASKING FOR SOME!
I am talking about the under-serviced HUGE online community that exists.
There is great potential in the medical marijuana support industry and if you are not opposed to investing in it Shoe, definitely get a hold of me.
I am going at with or without investors. Obviously more $ to add to the advertising budget always helps and that is what I am asking for.
I am in NO WAY asking for $ to buy weed or for help with web design or scripts or anything like that. Just advertising $ plain and simple.
Hit me up if interested and we’ll talk more in details.
–Chubbs
It was a really nice podcast, I would like to here Yaros story some day.
It good to hear about the struggle, gives one hope. I have been reading and experimenting for about 5 years now and finally I am starting to get the connections and knowledge/experience to make some dollars, much thanks to people like you and Yaro.
Thanks for sharing
It takes time to become successful. It takes time to become confident. And it takes hard work and lots of mistakes before you get it.
I was observing people recently and found that lots of people don`t like what they do. Even worse, lots of them hate what they do for their living.
To all of you who feel your job is not right for you – DO something about it!
This might be a reason you are not successful.
You can not be confident if you don`t love what you do!
You can not work hard if you don`t love what you do!
You can not succeed if you don`t love what you do!
It will be the best investment in your life if you listen to yourself and start acting according to what you want.
Think about it.
“I started AND failed at trying many ideas while working 9-5. I was fired from 2 jobs most people would kill to have because I worked on my own stuff all the time… These are people we are looking for.”
So you want people who steal from their employers. Classy, just like you. Karma on it’s way…
I think you took it out of the context.
I undestood they are looking for people who love what they and believe in their ideas.
I don`t want either to hire people who will work on their personal stuff while working for me.
But thats why Jeremy got fired – there always is a logical consequence of events…
I think he revealed more than he intended. There are plenty of examples of people who got ahead through dishonest means. Stealing from your employer by using his resources and working on your own projects while you are being paid to do a job is a very common way. Short term win. Long term fail.
This was really good to hear. It gives me a better insight and I didn’t know you covered as much about how you marketed action ads in your old posts. Looking forward to reading all that. One of the first IM interviews I’ve listened to the whole way.
So in nutshell you need those people who are passionate about their ideas and have confidence on them as well.
Because you can learn programming and design but you will never able to learn passion about anything.
This is something which came out from the soil of your heart.
hi
This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
Helen
General Comment
Ideas come and they go. The best thing to do is just do it if you want to know how it will turn out. Taking chances aren’t bad just as long as you know what you want in the beginning. Nice post on this subject Shoe.
I definitely agree with these ideas . these kinds of things are a dime a dozen but people that are going to back themselves and work hard to make their idea a reality and put it too the max