Why WickedFire is a Great Forum to Learn Online Business and Marketing

Look, if you’re interested in joining a forum where everyone is polite but nobody is making serious money, try WarriorForum or DigitalPoint. Those two, for example, have very strict etiquette rules but only one “minor” problem. Simply put, lots of WarriorForum and DigitalPoint members talk the talk but few of them walk the walk.

Do you know why most people are extremely polite over there? The answer is almost obvious: it’s because a lot of them are trying to sell you something. Maybe an e-book, maybe a coaching problem, maybe some other semi-useless product.

WickedFire is different. Nobody’s there to sell you anything. Well, almost nobody and those who are just trying to sell you on something you don’t need, usually get “loved tenderly” (a commonly used WickedFire term, just like “making monies”, that represents anything but the pleasant idea the phrase conveys) by the community. This forum is what it is and there’s no other community out there that’s even remotely similar. Let’s try to look beneath the surface and determine what exactly makes WickedFire so special.

Demographic Analysis 101

Let’s put the three most important webmaster forums under the microscope, shall we? Let’s start with DigitalPoint, the largest of the three. As strange as it may sound, the fact that it’s the largest webmaster forum out there works against it. There’s just too much noise.

DigitalPoint is the forum most people who are new to the game of making money online come across first. And what does that mean? Simply put: for every good thread or post, there are literally hundreds of utterly useless ones. Even people with huge post counts can actually be complete beginners.

Three Main Types of DigitalPoint Members:

• people who have just found out that you can make money online and start asking lots and lots of ridiculous questions instead of using the “search” function
• people who make lots and lots of meaningless posts just so their signature can receive more exposure
• people who have lots of post there, have been members for a long time but still don’t quite “get it”

What about WarriorForum? Well, things stand a bit differently when it comes to that forum. The first impression you get is that it’s quite transparent: you see people who publicly post their names, who have a picture of them as an avatar and so on. You’d think that you finally found the forum of your dreams, but it’s all fluff.

Most WarriorForum members do nothing but try to sell “get rich quick” products, even if they never actually got rich. After you analyze this community a bit more thoroughly, you are left with the following impression: WarriorForum is full of people who sell each other moneymaking ebooks, even if they aren’t actually making money from things other than selling the e-books in question. This forum is more dangerous than DigitalPoint because you get a false sense of legitimacy when visiting it.

Three Main Types of WarriorForum Members:

• complete beginners who usually far for the BS they’re fed and buy all sorts of “reports” and e-books (the “prey”, if you will)
• people who have a bit of experience, try pushing their products but don’t receive a lot of attention
• the “gurus”, a handful of people who make money by taking advantage of their WarriorForum status and selling lots of stuff to newbies

Of course for both of these forums, there can be value found, but overall it can be much more difficult, especially since you’ll have to cut through the noise and the personal business objectives of those within.

And, finally, we have WickedFire. It doesn’t have as many members as the previous two and there’s a reason for that: it’s hard to “survive”. Let’s make one thing clear: if you sign up just so you can push a certain agenda, you’ll get called out before you make a single penny. Trying to scam people from WickedFire is not exactly the smartest thing you could do.

In fact, messing up on WickedFire can turn into a reputation management nightmare. There are several examples of threads which have first page Google rankings for a scammer’s name, for the name of a shady company and the list could go on and on.

Three Main Types of WickedFire Members:

• the newb (a person who happens to stumble upon the forum and there are two possibilities: that person either adapts and starts making money or gives up after asking a few stupid questions and getting the WickedFire “special treatment”)
• players (in other words people who earn a living online and share ideas/interact via WickedFire: if you’re a “newb”, you need to read between the lines and you’ll come across quite a few great posts which can help you start making some serious money)
• companies and representatives (another great thing about WickedFire is that most network owners and/or representatives are active there: while this forum doesn’t have a lot of members, the average yearly income per member is most likely far superior to what you’ll find elsewhere)

Getting Started at WickedFire

Now that it’s clear why WickedFire is the best forum you could possibly join if you’re interested in making serious money, let’s find out how to get started.

The worst thing you could do is sign up and start asking lots of question in the “Shooting the Shit” section. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. Always use the “search” function before even thinking about asking a question.

And in nine out of ten cases, you had better ask the question in the newbie section (that’s because people will be more patient with you if they at least see that you’ve chosen the appropriate section for your “newb” question). One more thing: never ever ask general things like “hello I’m new, how do I make money?”. Seriously, just don’t. Nobody will hand anything to you on a silver platter.

On the other hand, if they see that you have tried to do something and failed, their attitude will change. WickedFire members like people who take action, so if you explain what you did and ask for their input, you will receive a lot of helpful advice. Don’t start a huge numbers of threads right from the beginning, take it one step at a time. If you start posting like there’s no tomorrow right from day one, people will take it the wrong way.

If you have something worth sharing then by all means, share. But don’t try too hard. That’s exactly the mistake most people make on WickedFire. If you try too hard, people will pick up on that and call you out. Oh and here’s something else: don’t try to come off as some kind of a “guru” because such an attitude never impresses anyone. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, just keep your mouth shut.

Networking

Once you start understanding how things work, you’ll probably make lots of friends. Be willing to help people out because if you will, they’ll return the favor at one point or another. A lot of times, people send you PMs (Private Messages) after reading one of your posts. This happens for a lot of reasons. Some people want to receive more details, some would be interested in receiving clarifications and so on. Never ignore PMs, be genuinely helpful.

Be sure to sign up for an AIM ID and add the people you want to keep in touch with. As a webmaster, you’ll need lots of favors and by keeping in touch with other successful people, you can help each other out. Don’t start bugging everyone 24/7, the last thing you should do is annoy people. Only ask a question if it’s absolutely legitimate and only ask for a favor if you’re 100% sure that it’s not something you can do yourself.

Don’t be “nosy”, there’s only so much info you can expect people to share. Did you actually think that people will hand over valuable data (keywords, CTRs, conversion rates and so on) just because you’re such a nice guy? Think again! If you had a campaign that was netting you 4 figures/day, would you be willing to hand over vital info to other people (who would turn into competitors)? Of course you wouldn’t.

Even if you have some decent activity on WickedFire, it doesn’t mean that you can get away with anything. There are certain rules which should never be broken. Outing landing pages is frowned upon these days. In the past, people weren’t as vocal against it as they are today but things have recently degenerated to a “too much is too much” point (you need to squeeze as much as you can out of a creative/profitable campaign fast nowadays, because it’s only a matter of time until an overwhelming number of people start duplicating everything you did).

A lot of people are on a “let’s call networks out” spree these days. In other words, they start a negative thread about a certain network in order to “convince” the network in question to pay attention. If you’ve tried absolutely everything but still haven’t heard from the network then sure, you have to do what needs to be done. But if the lines of communication are still open, don’t make things public. While there’s nothing wrong with starting a thread about a network as a last resort, that doesn’t mean that you have to do that whenever your payment is delayed or whenever an issue that could be handled privately arises, especially since many networks have staff at WickedFire and will call you out of you circumvent their support system and go right to trying to make them look bad.

Giving Back

There are countless examples of successful WickedFire members who give back because they’re genuinely grateful. This community has helped a many marketers make a lot of money and they didn’t forget that. You’d think that a person who earns seven figures yearly doesn’t exactly have all that much to gain by posting helpful advice on a forum but that’s just plain wrong. Giving back can work in your favor (it’s not just a matter of being grateful) and here’s an example: network owners who used to be affiliates.

A lot of people have made millions as affiliate marketers and decided to start or buy a network. Given the fact that they’ve been on the other side of the fence, they understand the issues affiliates are dealing with. There are even examples of owners who paid people out of their own pockets when things went belly-up with an advertiser. They gave back and gained one important thing: loyalty. A person who earns $30,000/month today could earn $30,000/day in a few months and if you have people’s loyalty, your bank account will thank you in the long run.

Giving back always works in your favor, so never forget where you came from. WickedFire is a great example of how people can help each other make money without there being any kind of ridiculous scheming involved. WickedFire members are not interested in selling you anything, they’re not interested in getting you to look at their signature or something like that. They’re interested in networking and making things happen. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can start working towards earning a piece of the pie.

What Will It Be?

Other forums out there do nothing more than sell the dream. If the thought of hearing people who aren’t making money talk about making money all day long sounds appealing then by all means, become a member. It is a lot easier to “survive” there but what’s the point if those communities aren’t actually of any help?

If your skin is thick and your mind open, sign up for a WickedFire account and do your thing.

Read as much as you can initially and only “open your mouth” if you’re sure that you actually have something to say or that the question you want to ask is perfectly legitimate. People will probably give you a hard time initially but if you’re able to adapt, things will start getting a lot better. Don’t try too hard, don’t pretend to be something you’re not because the chances of getting away with something like that are slim to none.

As previously mentioned, WickedFire is what it is: stop trying to define it, just sign up for an account and start making money!