Beware the Phone Call
June 23, 2006 Posted by Tyler CruzSorry guys, it’s been a week since my last post. I’ve been very preoccupied with many things, and I’ve also been busy procrastinating 🙂
Today’s topics are:
- My Response
- Replayer Roadbumps
- MrScribe.com
- PublisherForums
- ProjectAA Revealed! …Kinda
My Response
My last post garnered a response of 33 comments, a couple e-mails, and a few IMs! Most of the comments were negatively directed at me, and so I will respond to them here.
First off, this is a blog. This is my blog. This is a blog where I keep an ongoing journal on what I’m working on day-to-day, occasionally provide some personal entries, and give my comments and thoughts on things. I’m not a journalist, an editor, nor a politician. Therefore, I could CARE LESS on what you think of me or what I write about. So don’t expect a lot of replies on such matters from me.
Secondly, if you don’t like what I write about: LEAVE. Nobody is forcing you to come here and read my blog. That’s all you. If you don’t agree with what I have to say or easily cry, I’m not going to apologize and give you a hug.
Thirdly, pretty much all of the comments were either hyperbolic statements or attacks from SpaceRangers who were obviously upset. I’m not going to respond to any of that crap, it’s not worth my time.
It’s strange. So many SpaceRangers got upset. Why? Why so insecure? Perhaps they are afraid I’m right, and feel threatened and unconfident? I mean, if you don’t agree with me, a simple “I don’t agree” would suffice or else ignore it altogether and don’t reply at all. There’s no reason to be a crybaby about it and start launching personal attacks on me. This is my blog, I thought I’d be able to state my opinions without having to hold everybody’s hand.
Replayer Roadbumps
Sigh. Things with Replayer have again been…. crappy. It’s really been an up and down ride with Replayer, but I’ve been going downhill for a while now. It’s not me, it’s him. My programmer for this is just absolutely horrid in terms of communication and deadlines. The whole site was supposed to be finished about two-and-a-half months ago or so, and it’s sitting at around 65% right now.
I’ve gone through many 5-7 day periods before where I wouldn’t hear from him, but now it’s been over 2 weeks since last hearing from him and I’m beginning to get really scared. Has he finally ran away with my time and money? Is what’s done so far for me safe? Or will he illegally sell the code and such to others?
This is the dark side of hiring freelancers from outsourcing companies. In fact, it may be the last time I do so. I may have to hire from actual company sites in the future… which is a pain, as they are difficult to find, and usually expensive. But at least I won’t have problems like this in the future.. hopefully.
In fact, I’d say that 9/10 people I hire are always very late in getting work done. But hell, this is worse.. I’m terrified he’s going to run away. I’ve thrown thousands into this…
It’s a shame too because the site has such enormous potential and what’s done so far is quite good, it’s just all these problems I’m having with him. I mean hell, you’ve seen the screenshots, and it’s working. When I say it has potential, I don’t just mean it may do decently and make a few bucks; I have a whole viral-esque marketing plan and I’m confident that once/if the site is done and get past it’s early development stages, that it could be adding thousands a month to my income. I don’t say this about many of my sites.
Well, I’m getting desperate now and so I hunted down his phone number. I’m not sure whether he’s still on this number or not, but we will see tomorrow. If he is, I’m going to be sure to let him know that I need this done… beware the phone call.
Wish me luck on this guys, I really need Replayer to be finished…
MrScribe.com
I’ve received another paid plug advert, this time for the site MrScribe.com:
“MrScribe.com is a quaility content writing service, in which content is written soley by our writers. Bear in mind, an emphasis is on quality, thus you won’t find any $5 -10 articles here. Only custom written content charged per page.
We have SAMPLES, you may view all of our writers samples and choose the one whom you prefer and have him/her write your specific article.
Stop by and check us out, and get the content you need for your site.”
PublisherForums
I’m going to be getting to work on PublisherForums fairly soon. Unfortunately, bad timing has struck and it seems as though Terrorist #2 is away on vacation until around July 3rd or so, and Terrorist #1 won’t be able to help me for about another week. So, I’m wondering whether I want to wait for these two, or go an alternate route and hire a guy I found. He’s cheap and his work is half decent, which is fairly good by my standards. However, I’m not sure whether I want to have PublisherForums only ‘half decent’.
PublisherForums is my webmaster forums. It’s going to focus on web publishers and monetizing sites, buying and selling, and entrepreneur discussion. It will have a professional yet friendly tone, and will use Sitepoint as a role model. It will differ from Sitepoint in that it will have more of a focus on the entrepreneurial side and monetizing sites, although I plan to still have room for other areas such as design discussion and hosting.
I have big plans for PublisherForums, and plan on advertising it here, telling my network of webmaster friends about it, doing a bit of paid advertising, and doing a bit of a joint coadvertising with Mook Jon (each plugging each other’s webmaster forums, as his is a lot more casual and shoot-the-breeze while mine is more professional).
On a side note, it seems that three new webmaster forums will be opening within a week or two of each other. Mine, Lee Dodd’s, and Mook Jon’s. If we were smart we’d all come together and make one big one, but we’re not smart 😀
I’m not sure yet but I may start PublisherForums by populating it with forums, allowing people to register and post before we have a logo and skin, simply because I can’t wait 🙂 I’ve already installed the vBulletin on the site.
ProjectAA Revealed! …Kinda
Remember ProjectAA? I haven’t said a whole lot about it, but since initial development on it is almost complete, I’ll give away some details 🙂
Unfortunately, I’m not going to actually tell you what the site is about yet… sorry 🙂 I’ll release that once the site is near-ready for launch. However, I will release what the domain is. It’s PublisherSpot.com – I plan on making it a type of sister site with PublisherForums.com, although it’s obviously not another forum 🙂
My long-time programmer is the one I hired for this, and he should be back from a little trip he made anytime now, and development should get back on track. I’ve hired him countless times and so I know for certain that the site will be 100% programmed as I want it. Deadlines… well, that’s another story.. 🙂
Anyhow, that’s all for now folks. Good luck and good earnings!
Its very annoying when coders and designers can not follow a deadline. It seems like there is a big problem with that when using freelancers ( not all, but many ), thats my experience after 2 years working with freelancers.
It takes time to build up a good relationship with trust with a coder, and fortunaly for me I have now found a team dedicated to my companies and projects. That makes it easier to sleep at night.
I hope your projects work out well Tyler, and that he is not scamming you.
Have a nice day!
//Andreas Bard
I’m going back to look at the post that generated all those comments. Three cheers on your “setting folks straight” message. That’s the only thing that keeps me far away from the gaming areas online and some of those other areas that seem to attract those “Space Rangers” who have no life, never had a job, can’t produce a thing, but can always tell people who are gaining some traction and enjoying some success what “they” should do.
Sounds like my diatribe might be directed toward young people … I am, after all, an old fart. But it’s not. The internet attracts air heads from 16 to 66.
In the Philippines, where my wife hails from, there’s a well-know phenomena called the “Crab mentality”. If there’s a basket of live crabs and some try to scramble up the sides to free themselves, the ones at the bottom will pull the potentially successful ones back in the basket. “If I can’t succeed, then You can’t succeed either”
The “Crab Mentality” seems alive and well on the Internet. Don’t give in.
“as his is a lot more casual and shoot-the-breeze while mine is more professional”
Yep, while you don’t digg the “SpaceRangers” and the “Terrorists” that you hire. Good luck with your professionalism and poker.
I’m sorry but these MySpace sites deserved a good poke in the first place. I’m not saying that all webmasters who own such sites resort to spammish tactics, but a hell of a lot of them do. When you see countless message board posts saying things like, “anyone have a big friends list for sale?,” you know that person is a SpaceRanger.
tyler, i feel your pain on things being behind schedule all the time.
and i think you should keep on writing what you feel, and doing what you’re doing. sure beats working for the man 40-50 hours a week in a dead end job.
– Brian
dave starr – quote “no life, never had a job, can’t produce a thing, but can always tell people who are gaining some traction and enjoying some success what “they” should do”
Oh we stereotype are we? Do you really think that us Space Rangers that make 500-1000$ a day have no life? And we cant product a thing (I have no idea how that would work, cas I think producing a myspace website is a “thing”), and we are all consultants too? hmmm
well thats jewish…
are you from Germany?
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Jonathan Waraas, the stuff that spews from your mouth mate, you sound like a complete fool.
Let it go boy, whats the point of continually biching.
Jonathan Waraas – How much do you earn daily excluding your myspace venture? Also, I’m curious what your average cpc is with the myspace sites.
Tyler – Of your total earnings, how much of that is generated by your poker site? And how many uniques/day do you get with your poker site?
John, grow up.
I don’t get what’s there so much to admire of a 22 year old entrepreneur making money from poker? Making his life off by the money made over poker? The “Space Rangers” that actually help the MySpace users to make their profiles unique, and nicer. These “Space Rangers” don’t beg for money to the poker players by telling them to spend as much as possible so they can make money off affiliates.
You guys that admire this “poker money earner” should grow up and think over of what this tyler cruz whatever has to say.
@guk6kk:
Space Rangers are just leeching off a fad. No work goes into the sites, therefore the money earnt from them is far from deserved.
Poker’s been around for centuries, and will be for many more to come.
@Tyler: Awesome blog dude! Good luck with the coder predicament!
guk6kk: If you have such a problem with Tyler then stop comming here, its that simple. I noticed you talking about how dumb tyler is yet you read his last blod entry. Interesting.
Jonathan Waraas: You sound like a little kid who needs his own way. Seriously, get over yourself. You post screenshots of your daily earnings with your myspace sites. Wow, big deal. How many of your myspace users are actaully interested in those financial ads I see on all your myspace sites? Probably next to none. YPN will either force you to change your ads or terminate your account sometime. Even if they don’t, what do you think will happen when YPN goes international?
BTW, I am in no way, shape, or form, against myspace sites.
Heres a nice quote I found on one of your websites:
“Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now”
So now we all believe the myspace site owners don’t work at all… ok…
While some ppl like Tyler, hires a skinner and buys a forum script and pays some ppl to post in his forums. That’s A LOT of work there.
So, if a space ranger actually produces new graphics and generators from zero, that’s not a lot of work…
The editor from KillerKiwi.net is not a lot of work right?
bah. noobs
Do you own such a myspace site, guk6kk? If so, what’s the avg cpc you get with YPN?
I don’t use YPN and if I have a myspace site or not it’s not a big deal. No one can say that MySpace site owners don’t do shit and all they do is just spam their site via myspace. that’s just ridiculous. look at this 22 year old guy. doing nothing all day and calling his workers terrorists and so on. how can anyone admire this noob?
guk6kk, whilst being immature, you also seem obsessed.
“doing nothing all day and calling his workers terrorists and so on. how can anyone admire this noob?”
Surely saying he does nothing all day, yet makes that much money is a compliment to him?
Also, the term ‘noob’ isn’t offensive to anyone except 12 year old fps players.
Tyler, you may as well turn your blog into a forum =D
Yes it is right.
nice post.