An old guy's journey to BBHF.

[Lumos]

Sometime during the DOS era I got started with offering customized IBM PC clones for good prices as my main biz and they sold well until my main venue was no longer open and I had to move on.
The timing was good though and I was able to move hundreds of miles away and start it all up again pretty easily - the demand was high.

Back around 1993 or so, as an OS/2 user I was offered to become a user of IBM.net direct internet services via dialup.
It was interesting - but since the only other 'online' users back then were members of AO-ILL or Compukeserve it was too early to spend much time on it - until my clients heard about email, then things started to roll faster.

In all the years between then and now I kept my tiny biz tiny on purpose because I found that availability and personal hands-on support made for loyal clients.

I didn't look into MMO just because I was busy enough not to need to, BUT:
Knowing that one day I'd need to cope with aging, I began check it out.

Lucky for me (sort of) a kind soul saw me floundering about at W+ and redirected my attention to BBHF.

An exciting time for me to say the least !!

All this STUFF - and having been into w*r*z since the DOS days - well, BBHF was exactly what I needed.

Of course I also fell into shiny object syndrome for a while like most folks tend to do.

Too much stuff though = too LITTLE results because it -IS- a rather harsh learning curve and by then I'd already gathered up WAY too much overly exciting stuff to EVER get good uses from it all.

Now it is 5 1/2 years since I got into BBHF;
It is also GBs of (mostly useless) guru turds and courses piled up and time for mass deletions.

After all this time I finally realized some things...:
- At my age and place in life (mostly retired) it is NOT a time to start any sort of demanding, new full time career;
- The internet is a hot MESS - made even worse by all the SAAS krap now;
- Most of those peddling IM stuff are spouting utter BS;
- Most of the truly profitable opportunities involve openly lying to folks to get their $$$;
- Most of the courses gotten from pewdemy are of such low quality as to be useless, really;
- Other genuine avenues to MMO either involve loads of work in gaining any audience and traffic, or=>
Trusting monolithic corporations (like Azon, etc...) to generously ALLOW you to make ANY profits until they decide that they will instead eat ALL of your lunch.

Previously I posted here about seeking some smallish means towards getting some smallish returns and not wanting to fight my way through fiverr or other such places.

Pretty clearly this was of zero interest to other members.

But this all came to mind since I cleaned out the original post here - so I'm sharing this instead.

[Lumos]

There was no button to delete the thread - so I've posted something else instead.

[Lumos]

I've replaced the OP with my own bit of history.

[calebtaylor]

I did read your previous post, just didn't have the suitable answer for it. I have not been able to earn any real money from MMO either based on this forum, but I did use some info in it (plus from other forums) to support my job (local SEO consultant). And for sure, I could stop wasting more money to get deceived by new offers in MMO market. Since many of your shares are quite good, you could use that skill (finding good info) to help other newbies to sort things that proper for them and make some kind of JV. Living in the US has certain advantages if you could source some talents (and newbies !) from abroad. Hope you don't give up too soon since many newbies will need you (they just don't know yet !). And for MVP, based on your experiences and skills, certainly you don't need it right now.

Your strengths are your experiences (+ some sort of scepticism) and your willingness to help people.
BTW, thank you very much for all your previous shares and looking forward to the new ones.

[Lumos]

Thanks for your kind reply Calebtaylor !!

It is worrisome to me that I had made a reply to this thread days ago and it never showed up - but=>
Your reply has...very strange.

[discomix]

Thanks for the story! In today world the so called MMO is quite a scam, and nothing comes at a snap of a finger, you do have to move your ass and work your way through lot of competition to shine!

[calebtaylor]

IMHO, there is a way to get "rather" easy money online for the US senior citizens, especially in SEO biz.
Try to apply for a US senior citizen scholarship in any higher educational institutions (preferably in healthcare or IT related courses). Once accepted as a student, usually you will be given access to create a student blog. Start creating good articles using modified PLR or even AI services (@Sikandar shared a free access in his thread). Then you can offer services to create EDU links for SEO in the MMO or SEO forums.
Be mindful (and don't be greedy) when you create your articles and SEO links. Avoid gambling, porn or scam websites, otherwise someone will report you to the admin.
Don't create several articles in a day, unless they are very good in content and relevance to your study,IMHO.
In order to increase your sales/income, you could also ask other students (who do not understand SEO) to do the same, and then you can act as their sellers.

Once you are able to reach U$ 1000 per month steadily, start sharing your story with "humility" !

[calebtaylor]

sorry, double posting.

[Lumos]

Thanks for your very thoughtful and helpful reply Calebtaylor !!

ATM this old guy has several very urgent and immediate things to attend to which went from NO big deal to VERY big stuff just recently.

Once those things can be resolved to a standstill (hopefully by around 2 weeks) I'll catch my breath again and think more about possible MMO stuff.

A tiny funny:
In 25+ years of an active business it is easy to NOT realize just how much STUFF tends to collect, no matter how neatly it is stored - BUT=>

When it all suddenly needs to be cleaned out and somehow properly disposed of...

Holy Cow - thassalotta work when a deadline is involved !!

And here I am, just taking it easy after days of working at it - this is my break time !!

[bestblackhatterZZ]

I found this thread a fascinating read, and indeed contains simple advice to many IM ers.

Thank you and all the contributors...

I would really like to see other people's comments / journeys' ,
especially the impact of AI on their daily marketing activities.