Do Any of You Meet Up in Person?

or belong to business groups?

[ember]

I am wondering if anyone here meets in person with other Adsense publishers in your local community? Or does anyone belong to a business group with other Adsense publishers? I enjoy what I do but admit it gets a little lonely sometimes since I work out of my home, and most of my friends have no understanding of what I do. I wonder if it is too risky to meet with other publishers in person. I live in a big city so there must be others like me here.

[rj87uk]

I also keep what I do away from friends and family and say I do online marketing or website designer. I have only met a few other people that do SEO but not on a regular basis as I would like however it is still great to see them a few times a year as I only talk to most via MSN messanger or just Emails on a daily basis.

I think I may need to go to more conferences and perhaps meet more people in the same field but I never have the time...

[Play_Bach]

Mums the word. WebmasterWorld is my AdSense family (Hi everybody! ;-)

[HuskyPup]

I live in a big city so there must be others like me here.

Where?

Certainly not me since I live, almost, in the middle of nowhere, UK!

In the early days of AdSense I did have a good friend who I saw every day and we discussed AdSense, he's since moved away and has surprisingly struggled with it.

I feel the problem for many is that those of us who have been around since the early 90s have a completely different attitude and approach to AdSense/Panda/SEO/etc compared to what some would refer to as "noobs".

Honestly, I've heard young "so-called web-whatevers" talking in the pub and, in general, they haven't a clue since, understandably, they never experienced the raw, early days and that is something that cannot be taught let alone talked about...good luck:-)

[sailorjwd]

I have found a perfect place to keep secrets from folks - alone on a boat in the Bahamas. Any of you here?

[incrediBILL]

I wonder if it is too risky to meet with other publishers in person.

Discussing AdSense is fine, when they start badgering you for your site name, not fine.

Been to a lot of little webmaster gatherings and some people are open about their sites, some people aren't, just go with the flow and stand your ground if someone gets too nosy and you'll be OK.

Only discuss what you're comfortable discussing, you may grow to trust someone and share more to have someone to bounce ideas off, takes time.

[BillyS]

Someone on this forum lives about 10 miles from me. Ironically, I'm working in his town for weeks now. He asked if I wanted to meet up and I said yes. Never heard back again. Last we left it, he was going to ask other webmasters too.

[Edge]

Discussing AdSense is fine, when they start badgering you for your site name, not fine

What's the point of having a website then? People knowing about your website/business and AdSense/Advertising success are inseparable.

Ultimately folks, you can't be successful without as many people as possible knowing about you on the internet as possible.

My doors open - sticky me, meet me for a beer, coffee, food, fishing – I’ll talk, I’ll tell you where I’ve been and where I’m going – within reason and protecting my competitive plans and edge…

Sheesh...

[netmeg]

I'm not real, I'm a cartoon.

(Seriously, go look me up on twitter)

What's the point of having a website then? People knowing about your website/business and AdSense/Advertising success are inseparable.

To some degree. I'm well associated with one of my larger and more trafficked sites, because it's been around since before there was a Google, and people keep mentioning in newspapers and on TV and radio. Nothing I can do about that. But some of my other ventures I keep strictly on the down low, because in this business, familiarity doesn't breed contempt - it breeds competition, scrapers, DDOS attacks, all kinds of mayhem. Heck, in my case, I've had to take out three personal protection orders over the years. That's why I'm a cartoon.

[JCKline]

@ember, that's what Craigs List is for... :D

[nomis5]

I do talk to a couple of folks occasionaly about Adsense. But I trust them 100%. One is the guy who bought one of my sites, two others I have ongoing business relations with. I also talk to my son who also was an Adsense publisher. I talk to my partner about Adsense, but then again she takes 50% of the earnings form one site!

Why not and I've been in the business for about ... can;t remember how long but almost from the start.

Have any of you been stitched up by someone you trusted re Adsense?

[ken_b]

I've met up with locals on a few occasions over the years. Not lately though, folks seem to be busy.

[ember]

I see a couple of Adsense/publisher meet ups on meetup dot com in other parts of the country. Maybe I'll start one in my neck of the woods.

[Karma]

I've often wondered about this, not meeting up with people (I'm in the UK), but at least having 'contacts/friends' where you can bounce ideas of someone in a similar field (and ask those dumb questions you wouldn't dare ask on a forum).

I'm not convinced there really is an issue with giving out your website to those you know, seeing as your website is public anyway.

It is a lonely profession :~(

;)

[Leosghost]

there are no dumb questions :)

[Karma]

Granted, but many require letting the general masses know your website...

And don't forget the TOS :p

[CMidd]

All the time. I'm a member of a Few Meet-ups "meetup.com" focused on SEO, SEM, and Affiliate Marking that meet monthly. I actually run a meet-up around niche marketing.

Every once in a will someone "probably a new person" will try and duplicate "but a person who has to duplicate will not last long"

But without those connection I doubt i would be where i am today.

Being able to share tips about software, systems, affiliate programs, earnings, problems, networks, etc is great.

Unlike this site which seem to more rigged and politically correct these meet-ups can help you learn what really helps instead of generic recommendations advice.

I mean imagine trying to tell someone how to fix their car over a internet forum and the person is to scared to tell you what make and model his car is LMAO. You can only give Generic Advice LMAO

In Person you can also "people online who you don't know will steal, but people you meet in person each month, exchange business card, probably wont". matter of fact I have shared tons of secrets, and people share secret with me. We even share software and tools we that we built.

Each month someone presents and gives Tips, Trick. Last Month topic was Back links and Panda LMAO

i found one of my best earning sources from the meetups.

We also gather to test programs and networks "Even buying stuff from each other affiliate offers to validate that networks where giving credits "and shocked at some of the outcome".

and yea we have engage in click each other ads "testing purposes not earning, and not adsense"

We are not the types that take a networks Word when it come to money LMAO We have seen a lot of bad networks, affiliate programs etc over the years and we do our due diligences.

Unlike this group we know what each other is doing, we are open, we don't censor, and we are willing to share.

We even Joint ventured on a few site concepts "didn't work but we learned a lot from it"


If you have Meetp.com for you area i would def consider hosting one. As a tip, keep newbies out, don't make it a place for get rich quicks wanna to come waste you time with a million basic questions. use technique term for the name so only people who know will come Adsense RPM Increase meetup, etc"

[ember]

@cmidd, great info. How many people are in your groups? Are you in a large city? What if I start a group and no one comes? It will be like the parties I give ;o)

[CMidd]

our SEO group is like 20 people
Affiliate marking 6 People
SEM is around 15
Other group/mastermind is like 8 people "combined from Affiliate Marketing"


I'm in the the Washington DC, US. Big city and full of It Professional.

It doesn't hurt to atleast try. You don't need a ton of people. If you get 5 webmasters you'll be great.

try Meetup.com or Just post in the Craigslist Gigs section.

Trust me, learning from other mistakes is worth it alone "something you rarely see on forums". People will clearly tell you what sucks, what doesn't work, how they F-ed up.

"Learning from your mistake is great, but learning from others mistake is even better" Bill Gates

Sharing best practices is great, it become 5 people working learning and sharing vs 1 person on there own. Before a test trying to send out a email to the group "Hey guys anyone try X" and get a honest response.

Just 2 day ago a read a post on RDF asked if it worth it, and got a great response.

We also chat by Email Aim, etc so we don't have to be in person. Sometime we even do Skype meetups.

Plus people will see thing you haven't cause your focus on the Technical, ranking, earning side..

One person literally gave me $100,000 worth of advice in one meetup in a 4 minute conversation. A simple, Change your domain name to X and use tag line "X" pushed a site i had to number one and made it more visitor friendly and helped me brand my site. "yep just like from the Social Media movie "Drop the "The" LMAO"

I never really thought about it, i was to busy doing SEO, building back links, writing content, optimizing page speed, testing adsense locations and other BS. A Simple change in domain name Branded my site, and a simple catchy tag line put what my site was "and wasn't" and people repeat it all the time. I create a niche saying in my niche that points back to my site and now my site is a house hold name in my niche LMAO. <-- can't get that from this site where you're scared to even mention your site, keywords or niche LOL.


hey if you find enough Trust worthy folks on this forum Set up virtual a meet up group/mastermind.

[Lexur]

In Spain there's a lot of meetings everywhere for entrepreneurs but, as they are advertised online and in social networks, the public is mostly IT related. It's a trend.
I'm a fan of one of those meetings (called "Iniciador"). Every first thursday of the month an entrepreneur share his experience (with powerpoints and so on) and answer some questions. Then everyone has thirty seconds to intoduce himself and we go all together to have a beer or five ;-)
I contacted there with interesting people and some colleagues who live a few meters from me and are doing exactly the same work I'm doing over the years in the same town and we never heard about before each other.

[explorador]

Don't personally know people from this forum but I would love to. I enjoy talking about this kind of work, but I hate when people only get the idea of "money". That's why this forum is so refreshing.

There are many webmasters here with great attitudes, not trying to sell or buy (discount) from you (or copy you). I really respect how many show interest on the matters while still they are indiferent to other people personal business. I've been on track thanks to many inspiring post that invite to work (and not to love money) while still making the projects profitable.


I'm very unknown locally and not at all related to my projects. I love to keep it that way as I see very unhealthy results once you tell others, they tell others and so on. Sudenly the fight club ends up ruined. But is not "telling" the problem, is the low respect there is around for personal projects. What's the worse thing to happen? many. Companies are greedy and often try to make THEIRS your personal projects.

Ironically I'm very happy to search for my name on the web and I'm nowhere to be found :)

[Leonard0]

PubCon Vegas used to be mentioned as a place to meet other publishers but I guess with lower earnings now not many can afford to go.

I went in 2009 and found it informative but not so easy to meet other publishers since there are many other IT types. It would help if they gave color-coded stickers to attendees to indicate their field of interest and set up hubs at the minglers (pub hubs?).

[tim222]

I once wrote to a website in the same genre as mine, asking if they sell ad space. The website owner replied that they do, but not to competitors. There's the problem with AdSense meetups - too many people are stuck in old-school business models, and feel like other publishers are in their way. Think about it - a website visitor can visit more than one website! This is not like two laundromats next to each other where a customer will choose only one. There are really no true competitors in an AdSense business model. People can click on ads at my site as well as theirs. Plus they could have earned some revenue from their "competitor."

I get the cold shoulder from others in my niche as well.

So if there was any sort of meetup, I don't think there would be any worthwhile discussion of good ideas. I think people would be there just to scope out the "competition."

The best tips and ideas seem to come from anonymous forums like this one, where we don't really know what niche the other website owners are in. We all sell "widgets."

[DaStarBuG]

I personally don't fear competition.
I am in the German health market which is very competitiv but I am working my way up slowly.
I would really like to meet other professional advertisers in person but that wont most likely happen in the near futur.
That's why I founded my newest project.

[Edge]

I get the cold shoulder from others in my niche as well.

Well, polite friendly and professional is as far as I will go with my direct competition. I have had a phone meet with most of them and will always talk or return phone calls and email.

In my opinion, the folks you want to hook up with most are the ones that are in different verticals (industry) as they will have experiences and perspectives that can give you ideas. I was recently inspired by a couple I met whom published a site on hair treatments for African Americans, which a far reach from the vertical I am in.

I don’t want to be a clone of my competition…

[HuskyPup]

I don’t want to be a clone of my competition…

No more than anyone on the high street ostensibly wants to be a clone of a store further along however the other store may have some unique industry information if they have been around for a long time...and wouldn't you prefer to be situated next to/close by a McDs if the opportunity were offered?

Probably not if one is a high-end jeweller or tailor yet money is money although two long-established high-class, bespoke tailor shops have closed down in my town this month through:

a) Lack of trade
b) Children not interested because it's boring and not exciting enough! I think that's another description for not being allowed to play games and do social networking at work maybe?

Next month I am in Germany for one of our trade's biggest global fairs and I shall be seeing many of the 1,600+ exhibitors and talking to them about real world business as well as their on-line presence. Believe me or not if you want to however in 99% of cases companies will be sending their "web-experts" to talk to me since nearly all of them have no in-house experienced people.

Can you imagine what that is like, trying to talk to many different "SEO" people in different languages about the more intricate parts of my widget industry when they do not even understand the basics of the widgets?

Most of them couldn't care less about the widgets, all they want to do is claim they work in computers/www/webdesign/insertfancytitlehere, and get away with producing something with the least energy exerted for the maximum amount of money...ok, we'd all like to do that but the reality is some of us HAVE to work otherwise the ship would sink or no widget products would be made.

The point I'm making is that some people relish learning from others and will profit from it, some will see a great and easy way for themselves to scam a load of naive people however, and I bet this is easily in the majority, most couldn't care less and so long as the monthly pay cheque is there are simply not interested in their employer's business...and for those who do run their own businesses some simply may not understand the "pros" just because they're not on the same level and may never be because they didn't, not through their own fault but unlike many here, learn from the very beginning of the www.

It's been a game of catch-up for years for many IMHO.

Ok, I'm not a normal AdSense publisher however I'm fairly sure someone else out there is in a similar situation?

<hmmm...end of a little rant I suppose?>

YMMV:-)