How much of your success in this industry do you owe to GFY?
 

I'm genuinely curious.

LOL You're such a noob bro....

http://www.headlessthumbs.com/iconsss/1orglaugh.php

absolutely zero.

what success? aint see anything yet

none

Other boards, alot. Netpond, CONDOM and YNOT
edit: not directly, but from getting to know people

the networking aspect is priceless but other than that not much

:winkwink: :winkwink:

Honestly, I met everyone I do business with from GFY in one way or another.

Thats where I'm going with this.

This place only haults my success.

Less time on the boards = More time to make money

With a VERY few exceptions, me too.

damn....

Zero. Cruising the boards is great for research, but posting to threads wastes alot of my time. I make money by being directly in touch with my prospects, not by socializing on the boards. But they are great for staying in touch and are a perfect place for us industry types to network.

without GFY I wouldn't be doing what i'm doing - and i'm doing good with that

none

8char

Two years ago I could say the same, but I think shows and just general word of mouth trump all. "I know a guy who knows a guy that could help you out."

GFY is a good place to start meeting people, but you really need to go far beyond that, I think anyway.

Well said.

When I was referred to GFY by a friend I was running a small camsite and only processing with paypal for fucks sake. I had no idea what an affiliate program even was.


For people who are just starting out, (noobs like me Headless :winkwink: ), boards like this are invaluable.

imho

I do good business on gfy alone. It's one of the top #3 boards

000000000000000000000000000000000000

I was a struggling newbie webmaster until I was fortunate enough to meet Headless on GFY and then do an interview on the air and gain massive exposure. My affiliate program rocketed right after doing the show and I'm doing quite well. If you are ever so fortunate to have Headless ask you to be on his show, be sure to give a great interview or your name will be mud in this industry.....Hold on, my ICQ is going crazy....ok....they told me it's too late for you. Sorry dude.



j/k
It wasn't THAT bad :)

That wasnt an interview yesterday, it was me making an obscene phone call.

Weird isnt it? But we are doing some pretty big deals that would have never happened without GFY as a meeting place.

The thing is... I dont have anything to promote to webmasters and I dont need any more sponsors :) I do big business with 3-4 companies that I learned about or met through the board.

i would respond with 0.. but considering 80% of my work gets done by people from GFY or based on advice / leads from GFY i owe a lot to this place.

When i need a design done i conbsult gfy
when i need some server maintenance...
when i need processing.. etc etc


I see this place as a toolkit.

i was in this biz for 5 years before i even came here.

entertaining-yes
profitable-no

What is this success you speak of? ;)

I think GFY is like most anything else in life, with both postive and negative aspects.

Most people here use GFY as A) A friendly place to network and meet cool people B) to blow off some steam and just have a little fun or C) spend every dying minute on to feed their GFY addiction.

I have done business with well over 250 GFYers or people that heard about me through other GFYers and that only made up about 5% of my total business. I have met and done business with a handful of true ballers but most of the people I've done business with from here are simply looking for handouts. I once offered 500 free business cards and my ICQ blew up like It was a Palestinian with a plan.

So to answer your question; GFY has contributed roughly 5% to my success.

*notice the lack of drama and no bad or evil words towards Jim.

What percentage of your business is mainstream though?

Honestly, almost all of it now.

We used to shoot content and had a couple sites and a magazine but it wasn't done right so we lost our asses. We also sold printing on the side to help pay off our adult stuff but it became our full time gig after we figured out we were making a shitload of money on it.

Our big mainstream break was when we got the contract to do a lot of work for 20th Century Fox with the movies (The Girl Next Door and The Day After Tomorrow). After that, we just took off in mainstream with contracts for Newline Cinema and Records, Def Jam, Lions Gate films, and more.

GFY has been good to me but the margin wasn't there since I charged them a fraction of what my retail customers paid and most the design work I did was for free.

none.... zero...I owe it all to me and the work I put in every day and to people who linked my site when I first started like 5 i's....back before GFY.

Theres good money in printing.
Right after I got out of the army I worked on narrow web presses.

100%
this is where i found another webmaster who showed me how to succeed this biz back in 2001.

A solid 50%.

I think GFY is more important than some people will admit.

There is alot of great info, and the networking aspect is tremendous.

64% ----

I agree wholeheartedly.

I'm gonna state the obvious anyway:

Information and networking are KEY to this, and all other industries.

I don't wanna sound trite here, but until some fucking college offers "Adult Webmaster" classes, it's places like GFY that people will come to.

Nice! I own a Diddy Web. :thumbsup

Fucker hauls mucho ass but doesn't make me any money unless we run bulk.

I was first a rolltender, then an assistant pressman on a big fucking Harris.

Bout half a block long LOL.


I worked on a couple of Hantschos and Heidelbergs too.

I owe a lot to YNOT, it opened a ton of doors for me back in the day.

So you've been dogging me this whole time always knowing damn well how much bullshit a printer puts up with. :winkwink:

Sounds like you have a lot of experience in the print world. The greatest thing about Florida is that we're a non-union state so my pressmen make on the average $20 an hour. I'm sure you made a hell of a lot more than that being a press man on a Heidelberg. :thumbsup

Sadly it was R.R. Donelley and they are non union, I capped at around 22 per hour.

that all depends on what you know and how you learned it. I did not use GFY or any other webmaster board when I started, I accomplished everything by doing what I think works and testing and by making allot of mistakes.

I am sure there are allot of people on GFY who think this is the only place to be and that there is nothing beyond GFY. There is a whole world outside of GFY that knows nothing about GFY and still doing awsome.

Damn! I know the pressmen up in NY are demanding nearly $60 an hour. That's why you hardly ever see printing coming out of NYC. :2 cents:

Man, 22 bucks an hour is a REAL decent living in Indiana.

When you factor in cost of living differences between here and New York, it's prolly got the buying power of $60.

My entire family lives in Dunkirk and I grew up in Elkhart and South Bend (went to Concord H.S.). I'm quite familiar with the Hoosier lifestyle. :thumbsup

I'm in the Bloomington area, pricier than some areas but worth it.

100%. I don't know how I'd ever got started in this biz without knowing GFY was supporting my every move. :winkwink:



















The truth? Nada. But it's amusing here.

Almost the same - 6 years for us.

As for GFY, I'm only here for a singular purpose...which will become apparent very shortly (if things work according to plan, that is).