The holidays are here. This is a special time for everyone - from those celebrating Christmas, to those celebrating Festivus. It’s a time to reunite with family and friends, exchange gifts, and eat way too much. But there’s more to the holidays than just the typical stuff - for us at least.

Is there anything that can make one really appreciate the value of making a living online quite like the holiday season? I don’t think so. It is this time of year that really makes me glad I’ve chosen this career path. For example…

Getting Your Shopping Done While Everyone Else is at Work

While enjoying a delicious Qdoba lunch last week near the outlet malls I was flabbergasted to see the number of people frantically scurrying about to buy their last minute Christmas presents. The problem isn’t that they were all shopping at the last minute … it’s that they were all shopping on their lunch breaks.

Working from home means your lunch break is when you’re hungry - not when corporate decides you should be hungry. Thus leaving the rest of your day open for the everyday stuff you have to get done, including Christmas shopping.

Spending an Extra Day With Your Family Doesn’t Require “Vacation Time”

If you want to stay an extra day at the parents’ house for the holidays you have to worry about putting in for paid time off. Every day is paid time off for you if you choose. If you’re building your online business correctly then you can afford to take any day off and not have it really affect your business. Okay, so sure you probably don’t want to take a solid week off (which is different from the full-time job), but it’s the freedom of being able to take a day or two here and there whenever the hell you want that makes working from home so cool.

If You Can’t Afford to Take a Day Off, Just Take Your Work With You

For those of you who have just launched a new site, or who are just a little tight on money this time of year - you can still enjoy those extra couple of days with your family. Just bring your laptop. Simple as that.

So I hope all of my great readers take this time to really enjoy what matters in life - family and friends. Yea our businesses are important, but if making your living online doesn’t give you the freedom to do the things in life that you enjoy - what’s the point of it?

Have a happy and safe holiday!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Wikipedia is a slimy marketer, PR, or SEO-type’s wet dream. “An authoritative website with hundreds of thousands of natural backlinks that can be edited publicly!?” I hear you exclaim in giddy delight. At least that’s what you would have said … a couple years ago when Wikipedia was still new, exciting, and ripe for exploit.

Over the past couple of years, however, spammers have learned to steer clear of Wikipedia. Its army of zealous editors are insurmountable. Their judging eyes are constantly scanning every inch of content on the site, and they will happily obliterate any addition they feel is inappropriate. Which is fine. Just culling the flock.

Because while 99% of spammers fail to get their content on Wikipedia, there are a lot of people doing it everyday with success. But it requires a different approach. Here are a couple of rules I go by when I’m trying to get some sexy Wikipedia links.

Dont’ Volume Spam Wikipedia

SEO-types are used to dealing with algorithms. This is different in dealing with actual people in that an algorithm has a set of rules and criteria that it follows when judging the behavior of an SEO. If the SEO works within those strict rules his efforts will pay out. However, Wikipedia is powered by people (editors). Although they too have rules, they are able to judge the behavior of each SEO individually. They’re much better at determining intent in a way only a human can.

So that’s all nice to know, but what does it mean?

Well first off, it means that the answer to winning on Wikipedia is NOT volume spamming. We’re used to doing this as it works in almost every other situation. We craft the perfect message (or in this case, get the perfect link) and blast it out in the highest volume possible hoping that a few will stick.

While you might get one or two links into Wikipedia using this method, it is hella fail. You need to approach Wikipedia with a much more micro mentality, attempting to get just your best links on the most relevant articles on the site. Volume spamming fails in Wikipedia.

Factor in Editor Cynicism

Wikipedia editors spend 10% of their days adding useful, relevant content to pages and the other 90% weeding out spam. When some Randy comes in and starts messing around with the pages they frequent, they will automatically assume you’re a spammer - which means you have to start out by selling them on the notion that you’re NOT a spammer.

Maybe before you ever add a link to a page you contribute to that page’s discussion. Get on the editor’s good side. Comment on his recent edits and maybe even add some of your own.

It’s really not rocket science - it all comes down to building some trust. That’s the whole secret behind marketing in a web 2.0 world. Build trust. Once they trust you they will be much more willing to let your changes stick.

Contribute Content, Not Just Links

This was just touched on a wee bit in the previous heading, but I just want to reiterate it. Wikipedia keeps a log of everything you change about a page. If that log shows you (Mr. Randy Joe) landing on a page, shoving in a single link, and running off to do the same on another dozen pages, then it’s pretty clear you’re a spammer.

However, if that log shows an interested user logging in, adding a few paragraphs of relevant content, and then dropping a worthwhile link at the end, then you start to look like an actual contributor. Actual contributors usually have an easier time with their links sticking than spammers.

Check Back Often (but not too often)

Your links WILL vanish. When I was running a StarCraft fan site I had about 50 links on Wikipedia for roughly 2 years. When StarCraft 2 was announced there was a surge of editing traffic to the pages I had links on for so long. Before I knew it I was down to 15 links on those pages for that site.

Why the sudden drop? A couple reasons…

First off, people were just excited about the new game and were actively editing the pages again. Different people have different ideas of what links constitute spam and what links add value. I’m sure a lot of new editors just didn’t think my links were adding value, especially since the bulk of them probably weren’t familiar with my site before seeing them.

Secondly, there were a ton of new competing StarCraft sites being launched. Competitors who are trying to get Wikipedia links will often bump yours off. I personally never remove ANY links from Wikipedia as it makes you look like even more of a spammer than just adding links. But a lot of people do.

So the point is, your links will vanish - and all you can do is check back often, and readd them if necessary. Now don’t check back weekly spamming the same link. But monthly maybe, sure. And if the same link is constantly being deleted, just stop adding it. There are tons of Wikipedia pages out there, don’t get blocked or banned by stubbornly submitting the same link over and over.

Wikipedia is a great source of both link juice and very relevent traffic. At the peak of my Wikipedia marketing efforts I had one site getting about 1,200 unique visitors per month from Wikipedia alone. These visitors were often better than SE traffic browsing up to 3 pv/v.

But you have to tread lightly. Strong arm won’t work with Wikipedia. Follow the rules, and you might get a link or two to stick.

Popularity: 9% [?]

vBulletin has always been the standard for forum software for anyone looking to launch a community around their blog or website. The features built into vBulletin far outweigh any negatives that come along with the product.

However with every piece of software, there are problems. For vBulletin, the two major shortcomings are 1) Very few design options(table-based) and 2) poor URL structure. vBulletin is addressing both with the upcoming release of vBulletin 4.0 (I believe it is slated for Q2 ‘09 release).

The goal of the vBulletin 4 series is to develop a modern, scalable application platform that will allow your communities to thrive.

Key features and improvements that will be included in the first vBulletin 4 release are:

• Cross-content search system providing a single interface to search across forum posts, blog entries and comments and other supported products
• Improved search performance
• A fresh design and layout making use of semantic markup and CSS styling
• An enhanced style and template system to enhance your ability to change the layout
• Controls to assist with the placement of advertising elements
• SEO features, including friendly URLs
• A centralized attachment system, allowing the sharing of attachments across products

In short, this spells doom (that’s D-O-O-M) for vBSEO, a product that built its business around the laziness of the vBulletin team by offering a plugin which converts vB’s default URL structure into search engine friendly URLs.

The good news is that now Joe Consumer doesn’t have to cough up an extra $250 just for a simple URL rewrite function that should have been included in the software for the past 5 years (at least).

I’m sure vBSEO will find a way to charge their customers for something. Some sort of unique value add that makes their website SUPER rankable - or some garbage like that. I personally have always thought vBSEO was a ripoff. Although I think search engine friendly URLs are a plus, they’re not the primary ranking factor.

But it doesn’t matter anyway. Search engine friendly URLs are coming in vBulletin 4.0.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Mason of Freelance Folder just put up an interesting post on the oft-discussed topic of the different types of payment processes practiced by freelancers. He asks his readers to reply answering a few questions about how they handle payments, but I feel there is enough meat there to warrant an independent post here. So I’d like to take a minute to just talk about how I personally handle my client payment process.

What payment methods do you accept?

I prefer Paypal, but I will take check or money order as well. I quite honestly don’t care how money winds up in my account as long as it winds up in my account. And since I never do a drop of work (outside of initial consultation - which is always free) until I get my first payment, I don’t care how long it takes for that first payment to come. With Paypal it’s instant, and while that’s nice, it doesn’t really affect me if I get to get paid instantly via Paypal or if I have to wait a week for a check. If the client chooses to pay via check, I just put his project on hold and move on to another client who has already paid until the first client’s check comes in.

I find that a lot of corporate clients especially prefer to pay with check as that’s how they typically handle all of their accounting. And it’s best not to do battle with corporate accounting departments.

Do you send an invoice, a receipt, or both?

I invoice all of my clients over a certain price range. With budget work I tend to avoid as much paperwork as possible since every hour added to the project starts to really cut into my pay. With larger projects I’ll do the whole invoice thing, follow up letter, etc.

I find it’s best to be ready to prepare an invoice when requested. Have an invoice template handy. I got my invoice template from Google Docs, and made a few additions (such as a statement of work).

When do you require payment from the client?

Depending on the size of the project I require either 50% or 30% up front. I then require the final payment when the design is finished but before the final files are delivered. Never hand over *anything* without that final payment. For example, I just recently had a client that got all the way to the coding process with me, but when it came time to pay the final installment he just vanished. We’re talking about a client who just invested $400 in a design and coding downpayment then disappeared.

But since he never got the final files I can turnaround and sell his design to recoup the loss I incurred.

Do you charge late fees, and if so, how much?

I don’t charge late fees, but I do tell my clients that if they don’t pay after 2 weeks of the project being completed then I sell the work.

Any other thoughts or advice?

My biggest suggestion when dealing with client payments is to never work without pay. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a $200 job or a $2,000 job - if the client hasn’t given you a downpayment, don’t do a lick of work. There are a lot of people out there just looking for free mockup work that they can give to a budget designer to get him to steal. They’ll promise to pay you hundreds or thousands - then when you start and show them the first mockup they mysteriously vanish.

It happens a lot, especially to new freelancers. But to experienced ones as well. Two weeks ago I was starting a project with a design agency I’ve never worked with before. It was one of those “trial” things - real budget work. He was offering me $200 to redo a header for one of his clients. When I asked for 50% he said “No problem, but this client wants it fast so could you go ahead and start?”. I replied with “I’ll work on some ideas” just to let him know I was interested in the project, but in reality I didn’t do a damn thing. He emailed me everyday for about a week asking for my mockup, and I kept responding with “I need 50%”. To which he replied “I’m having Paypal problems. I’ll definitely pay you but I need you to get this project done asap! You’re passing up an opportunity to work with a design agency making thousands!” So I blocked him and haven’t talked to him since.

There’s a lot of people out there looking for free work. Learn to identify and avoid them.

Popularity: 9% [?]

There has been a lot going on in the community this week, so I figured it’d be a good time to throw out a little link love.

Scott Jangro posted an insightful little piece on truth in affiliate marketing.

Zentact was featured on TechCrunch and is a product I’m really interested in. I was able to get into the beta (thx again Arrington) and will be giving it a real test run next week. If anybody wants an invite to the beta - as I have unlimited - just post a comment below.

Aaron Wall’s SEOBook is the defacto for SEO reading. His blog is the perfect complement to it. Read them both. His most recent genius is his keyword research flow chart.

Web marketing is very similar to boxing. You punch, sweat, bleed, and occasionally bite - but in the end, everybody gets their cut.

Khalid talks a bit about his progress towards becoming a domain leaser.

Neil chimes in on the recession with some fantastically inspirational words. Okay, so it’s not quite a feel-good post, but it’s a good insight.

Popularity: 11% [?]

This is a pretty simple post in what might become a series (depending on the response).

As a freelance designer I work from my home (as I’m sure many of my readers do as well, even though many aren’t designers). As I’d like to make a good impression on all of my current and potential clients, I don’t invite them into my house when we have to get together to discuss a project. It’s just unprofessional.

So I’m often meeting clients for lunch. Over the years I’ve learned a few things about lunch meetings, some I’m sure you’ve heard, others I’m sure you haven’t. Just thought I’d take a few moments to share some of my secrets on how to avoid looking like a jackass during lunch meetings.

You Can Eat - But Eat Light

I don’t agree with all of the commentary I’ve seen suggesting that when on a lunch meeting you shouldn’t eat at all. I’ve been on both sides of the table. I can tell you that if I’m a buyer, I like it when the vendor I’m working with isn’t all business. Idle chit chat is nice, but nothing says informal meeting quite like shoving a sandwich into your face.

But don’t overdo it. You don’t want to look like a jackass, after all. A couple foods to avoid would be …

• ALL PASTA
• Soup (if you’re one of those loud soup suckers)
• Anything “Grande” or “Supersized” (have some shame)
• Nothing which has a name you can’t pronounce (just get the damn chicken)

Some safe foods would be … chicken. Just get the damn chicken.

Don’t Instantly Whip Out the Laptop Please (Unless You’re Asked To)

Unless your client says something along the lines of “Lets get right to business” - take a few moments to chit chat. Talk about the weather. Talk about the restaurant decor. Talk about how bad the Lions are. Something to break the ice, lighten the mood, and connect on a personal level with your client.

Not only are you most likely to land the initial project, but if you connect personally with your client he’s more likely to remember you for future projects. He’s also more likely to give you some slack in work requirements or salary negotiations.

There’s a time to slam the 19″ widescreen laptop on the table, and there’s a time for some idle chit chat.

The Napkin Goes in Your Lap

Come on. This isn’t McDonald’s. Put the napkin in your lap, even if you have no intention of needing it.

Use the Bathroom Before You Go to the Meeting

It’s a perfectly natural thing, but nobody wants a mental image of you straining on the can shortly after you abruptly excused yourself due to the fact that you ate one too many spoonfuls of refried beans. In fact, steer clear of the refried beans altogether.

Lastly, and Most Importantly

Make sure there are no food crumbs or water from your glass on your hand when you give the final handshake. You don’t want your client to be wiping his hands on his jacket because you left some sort of nasty residue as he’s leaving your meeting. You want him to be thinking happy thoughts, not frantically searching for the nearest CVS so he can buy some travel hand sanitizer.

Follow these simple rules, and you will greatly decrease your chances of looking like a lunch meeting jackass. I can’t help you with your awkward stutter though. Gotta figure that one out on your own.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Most of you have heard by now of the new Google Searchwiki feature. As it stands now, it’s basically a way for users to organize their own personal search results, seemingly aimed at taking the place of bookmarking (I guess). The actual value to an individual user to be able to sort and comment on their own search results is questionable, but there’s a bigger question surrounding Searchwiki.

Will the preferences of individuals in Searchwiki affect the real results?

The answer: “maybe”. The real answer: “definitely”.

Arrington just posted a talk with Marissa Mayer where she reveals the following:

Mayer also talked about Google’s use of user data created by actions on Wiki search to improve search results on Google in general. For now that data is not being used to change overall search results, she said. But in the future it’s likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d be likely to make a change.

Now since Searchwiki was announced people have been clamoring about the fact that if Google uses data collected by Searchwiki to modify the organic results, the system *will* be gamed. But we also all like to think that Google knows what it’s doing. It knows how to combat cheaters.

But I’m not so sure. I mean to me, the introduction of Searchwiki shows Google’s inability to combat cheaters. I refuse to believe that Searchwiki has any real value to individual users, and that its ultimate goal is to improve the general search results. Which means Google is outsourcing its algorithm to the masses.

The bolded quote above makes it seem as if Google is only going to modify search results if the Searchwiki shows a significant and widespread trend. That’s good. But I really don’t see it stopping there. This looks like Google’s solution for a broken, link-based algorithm. I think before long it will have a much more widespread application.

But how little or small the effect of Searchwiki will be on natural search results is irrelevant. The bottom line is that if Searchwiki has any affect on the SERPs, it *will* be gamed.

The problem here is the fact that Google is trusting “people” to show them trends. On the internet a “person” is defined as either a unique human user, or a bot who acts exactly like a unique human user. Yea I know Google will have software in place to stop the obvious gaming (some IP just registered 10k accounts and voted off a website in Searchwiki … probably a bot!). But what about the smarter bots? Ones that come across completely natural? They exist, believe it or not. And before long, they might be affecting your rankings and subsequently, your income.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you’re an old-school reader of NBB, you may remember a contest I had last year giving away a copy of World of Warcraft to our 1337th commenter. Yea, I know, nerdy as hell. But the point is that I’m a fan of not only WoW - but of online gaming in general.

And as a diehard online gamer, I’ve been able to experience first-hand the real money-making potential of the MMO Black Market. I’m not talking about weird furry porn or real estate squatters in Second Life. What I’m referring to is account, currency, and virtual item marketplaces which have developed around actual MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Everquest, and others.

This is big business. A billion dollar business (despite the IGE calamity). And the beautiful part is - most of you are already playing these games, so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up how to turn your hobby into a bit of a revenue stream. Here’s how you can take your chunk of the change.

Currency Sales

This is by far the least efficient way to make money off of the MMO Black Market, but I thought it would only be fair to mention it. The reason is that in-game currency is easy to collect by unskilled labor and is only valuable in massive quantities. Lets say for example it takes you 4 hours to collect 1,000 Gold in WoW. You value your time at say $20/hr. It takes an unskilled laborer (most commonly outsourced overseas) 8 hours to collect 1,000 Gold. Sure you’re more efficient when compared side by side, but that laborer is getting paid $2-3/hr to farm that gold. Now that laborer (or his boss) can turn around and sell that 1,000 gold for $15 and turn an amazing profit, while you’re charging $20 for the same amount just to make ends meet.

It’s really impossible to compete with overseas labor when it comes to gold farming. That’s just the long and short of it. Now if you want to go middle-man and find a supplier who can sell you gold on the cheap and then you can turn it around for a profit, then that may be worth looking into. But with in-game currency so easy to farm up, it’s best to just avoid this market altogether.

This can also be said for powerleveling/honor grinding services. The overseas labor is just better suited for this due to their cost of living. I’d steer clear of it altogether.

Account Buying/Selling

This is where, in my opinion, the bulk of the everyday MMO marketeer’s money is to be made. In every MMORPG, the characters you create and play are bound to an account. Thus by buying or selling an account your really exchanging for the value of the characters (and play time) on the account. Since in a game like WoW it takes days and days of in-game play time to see the highest level and beast gear, these accounts have huge value.

The value of these accounts range anywhere from $100 to $1,000 and sometimes even more. The worth of the account is derived from the following:

• Level of character(s) on account - Current end level in WoW is 80
• Class of character(s) - Rogues are worth big bucks right now due to their PvP imbalance at the moment
• Quality of gear (items) on character(s) - Green < Blue < Purple < Orange
• Miscellaneous items/achievements - Epic flying mount for example

To learn the value of each account you come across you’re just going to have to take the time to dive into the market and explore a bit.

Typically an account with one level-capped character in blue gear is going to net you around $100. Full (low level) purples, maybe $2-300. Again, this all depends on the market as well as other factors outside of gear and level.

For example, a hunter level capped in blue gear is likely to get you $50-75 whereas a rogue of the same level and gear quality would get you more like $125-150.

Some Information You Need When Buying/Selling Accounts

There is some important details you need to have with every account transaction:

• Account name and password (obviously)
• Secret question answer
• Full name on account
• Account CD key
• Access to account email

If you are buying an account and the seller doesn’t have even one bit of that information, you don’t need to be doing business with them.

Word of Warning: Things to Look out for When Buying/Selling Accounts

There is currently no way to safely undergo a transaction between to people exchanging an account for cash. The developers don’t build this functionality in because they don’t think this market should exist at all and refuse to endorse it in any way. Of course, Blizzard also was firmly against name changing initially, but they eventually worked that into their services.

The only way to protect yourself is to either insist the other party divulge their information first (ie. give you the account or cash) - which leads to problems since both parties want to be on this end - OR use a middleman service. Which brings me to my next point on how to cash in on the MMO Black Market.

Account Renting

This is a brand spanking new thing (at least as far as I know) that gold farmers have only been doing for the past year or so. Basically in the hay day of IGE gold retailers would hire laborers to level their own characters and then use them to farm gold. The limitation of that is two fold. First, it takes a long time to level - about 1-2 months for the average player (yes I know some kids have done it in weeks, but the average gold farmer is not a power player). That means that before the account ever starts generating revenue the gold retailer has already invested significantly in not only that account but also the server that character is being leveled on. Which brings up point number 2: the old system allowed for no flexibility in demand.

In all MMOs there are different realms setup on servers. Each character is bound to that server. Which means that if you’re a gold retailer with 20 accounts on Server A and only 2 accounts on Server B you have no way of reacting to a huge increase in demand for gold on Server B and potentially a surplus of gold on Server A.

Which is why some gold farmers are beginning to rent accounts. They look for very well-geared accounts (typically classes that are good for farming - ie. DPS) and offer anywhere from $5 to $20/day to use those accounts. Since the farmers can drop and add accounts as demand fluxes from server to server, they’re able to respond to market demand at a significantly smaller investment.

Where you make money is in supplying these accounts. At one point I had 4 accounts earning $10/day each from SkyPvP. This is the only service that I have a confirmed income from, so it’s the only that I can really suggest. If you search for “account renting” or something similar you’ll find a lot more.

Use these companies at your own risk. There is nothing stopping them from logging into your account, taking your gold, and sharding your gear. What you’ll want to do before renting an account is to mail anything not bound to that character to a different account.

Offer Middleman / Escrow Services

Now just to be perfectly fair here, I’m deep in the middle of an application that will (hopefully) make middleman services a thing of the past. But for now, and at least for the next few months this is still certainly a legitimate way to make money in the MMO Black Market.

For reasons mentioned above, buying and selling accounts is very dangerous. You’re dealing with hundreds of dollars worth of goods that can be easily stolen. And once it’s stolen, there’s not much you can do about it - since the technical owners of those goods (Blizzard) doesn’t endorse what you’re doing. They’re not likely to help you.

So people often look to a middleman service. You basically act as human escrow. The reason there is no automated service for this at the moment is that middlemen do more than just take money from one party, account login from another, then release. They have to:

• Check the username/login
• Change username/login/email
• Confirm character(s) are on the account
• Confirm character(s) are of the quality as outlined by the seller
• Receive cash from buyer
• Release to both parties

Considering half of those steps take place in-game and are near impossible to automate, you can see why middleman services have become so popular in the MMO Black Market. Of course, like I said, I’m working on it.

The Tools You Will Need

Okay so those are the three main ways to earn some hefty cash in the MMO Black Market - but where do you get started? How do you go about it?

Well first off, you gotta find a marketplace. By and large the best I’ve seen is Markee Dragon. But here are some others:

• MMOBay
• Account Bar
• Accounts Bay

If you’re thinking “All of these sites look pretty shady,” you’d be right. They are all pretty sketch. But if it weren’t so shady I doubt I could get away with calling it the MMO Black Market. But this is the best we’ve got. Unless of course someone comes along and builds something better.

I should also note that if you’re selling on Markee Dragon, you’re going to want to be TrustWho verified.

Automation (at Your Own Risk)

While a marketplace is something you absolutely need, automation is something that just helps you a wee bit. When talking about automation I’m referring to botting (ie. cheating). Bots play your character for you. This is useful when leveling as you can get 4-10 levels while you’re away from your computer at work or while you sleep. These bots can also do honor grinding.

But be warned: botting will often time lead to account bans.

Never bot on an account which you have significant investment. Botting is good for low-level single character accounts, but I wouldn’t use it on my cash cow accounts. Typically you will get 1 GM warning followed by a temporary ban. After that you’d better stop botting on that account as the next time will be a permanent ban.

Wow this post ran a lot longer than I expected. Anyway, there is in a nutshell (a tightly compacted, about to explode nutshell) of how to make money in the lucrative MMO Black Market.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or leave a comment. With a post this long I expect to do a followup or two for you guys.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I originally posted this screenshot on my personal blog a few months ago, but I just couldn’t deprive the loyal NBB readers of it. It’s the perfect example of well-targeted Adsense. Click to enlarge.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I was over at Brian Clark’s Copyblogger yesterday when I noticed an interesting post about a new “opportunity” being offered by Seth Godin. He wants an apprentice.

Straight from Brian:

If you’re selected, you’ll spend the next six months with Seth and his team. It’ll be like an MBA, except better. You’ll be learning how to change the world… and he’s going to teach you for free.

Maybe it’s just me … but doesn’t this seem a bit lame? I mean I know Seth Godin is the real deal - he’s beloved by nearly everyone on the interwebs. I subscribe to his blog and really enjoy a lot of his posts. But this “apprenticeship” is essentially a job (which doesn’t pay) where you do the grunt work on his projects. I’m sure afterwords you’ll be able to open up job interviews with a neat little “I worked with Seth Godin for a bit” - but does that really compare to an MBA (as Seth claims it does)? I’m not so sure.

I think this is more of a publicity deal than a real opportunity - as is everything Seth does I guess. By offering his “help” to some poor soul with the claim that it’s on par (if not better) than an MBA, Seth is sure to get a lot of attention. And he gets free labor out of it. Win/win, no?

All negativity aside (or at least some negativity aside … okay, next to no negativity aside), if you have the cash to blow, the time to kill, and don’t mind working on Seth’s next multi-million dollar project for absolutely nothing - feel free to check out his offer. I guess it just might be for you.

Popularity: 14% [?]