We’re still in the process of reorganizing the blog. That said, we have already made another major change. We’ve shut down the Ask Us Anything Section. Why? The questions have become redundant and blog traffic has increased… Materially. While most would view this as a positive… it is certainly not. We want the quality of both questions and comments to be high, while limiting the number of useless questions from average people. If we keep the quality high, other writers can promote their blogs/businesses in the comments section and we can continue to solve problems.
Below is a detailed walk through on how to improve communication on the blog. Note, direct and to the point communication is not good for building friendships/relationships with women. This is entirely related to obtaining more value from this blog. We do not want to invest more than a few hours a week, so lets improve the efficiency.
Questions on the Blog
To reiterate, we shut down the ask us anything section since we have answered most of the questions in the past. This means that the reader was too lazy to dig up the information. There are only ~150 posts and it would take less than 15 minutes to track down the information you need on the blog. We are happy to answer intelligent questions, not redundant ones. Finally, to make your life easier we are going to create a more organized archives (again this is a process) and update the FAQ to replace the ask us anything section.
How to ask smart *career* questions: Some of our readers make $100K a year in the oil sands and others are already millionaires. There is no point in comparing these two groups of readers. Instead, the more important question to ask is “how do you get value from this blog?” The answer is to outline your situation is 2-3 sentences… Max.
Example of a Dumb Question: “Hi, should I start my career as an accountant?”
Example of a Smart Question: “Hi, I currently have $10K in student debt and my best job offer is to become an accountant for now. I want to work in Investment Banking. Should I take the position or wait it out and try to break into a front office Wall Street Role?”
The first question is a waste of time and we won’t answer them going forward. First of all, accounting is not a career since it does not generate revenue and second, the person did not bother to offer context. The second question is significantly better because it offers context in an extremely concise manner. For the second question, we would tell the reader to take the position *for now*, ask to be placed into transactional services (most related to Investment Banking) and continue interviewing on the side.
Notice, if it is your best option, you have to take it. This blog is about maximizing your options and potential not about useless discussions surrounding “prestige”.
How to ask smart *dating* questions: Similar to the career layout, we don’t have an interest in answering questions that are uninformed or laced with complaints. If you are going to ask a question you need to have a baseline of experience in the field.
Example of a Dumb Question: “How do I approach a girl at a bar?”
Example of a Smart Question: “I am comfortable approaching girls in bars and during the day but seem to have a hard time getting an actual date. I have no problem getting a phone number but they just don’t have an interest in meeting me later. I am well dressed and in shape but can’t seem to get a date lined up via text message.”
Similar to the career questions, we won’t answer the first question going forward. The implied message from the first question is this: the person hasn’t even tried yet. If you can’t get yourself to say hello to an attractive girl you’re just another loser who needs to be motivated to do something. Anyone who needs to be motivated is by definition a loser because he didn’t want it in the first place. Are you going to die when you say hello to her? No. So go do it.
If this is someone you know, cut them off entirely and tell them to go waste $2,000 a day at a motivational speaking seminar. They are probably dumb enough to pay for the continuity program as well!
The second question? Much, much, much better. He actually wants to get a date. He has made progress with a few girls but is still having trouble converting to the actual date. Also the question says he is using text messages. Now we have a solution.
– Don’t text, use pictures/snap chat or 2) call
We solved part of the issue. If the person comes back? We would ask: “How did you pre-sell the date?” If he goes blank… it means that he never gave the girl a reason to look for his picture message/phone call in the future. Pre-selling a date means you find one common interest and use that as a spring board for meeting up later.
How to ask smart *personal finance* questions: As many of you are well aware, personal finance advice on the internet is non-sense. It primarily focuses on saving $5-10 on meaningless items… at the expense of your time. We will have no such questions on this blog. If you want to try and save $5 on your cell-phone plan or $50 on your next flight, you can leave this section of the web and read frugality blogs instead.
Example of a Dumb Question: Should I live with roommates or alone?
Example of a Smart Question: I have an industry background and want to work in X industry for investment banking/private equity. I have a few scholarships to X, XX and XXX schools and also no scholarships to XXX and XXX schools. If my goal is to break into banking/private equity which school should I choose?
The first question is a waste of time. If the person has a brain he can answer this question before he even asked it. If the person does not have money in the bank, the answer is to live with roommates. If the person has a high income, then he should live alone to improve his social life. Pretty simple.
The second question is much better because it is a financial/career decision that the reader is juggling. The person has options. In this case we would simply dig up information on the industry and find out which banks recruit at which schools to give him the bare minimum MBA to break into the space. Once you are on the job, your performance matters over a piece of paper so the research is needed before taking on debt which can be a life altering decision.
Concluding Remarks on Questions: Here are the key takeaways to asking smarter questions: 1) ask them in 2-3 sentences maximum, 2) if you don’t have options you don’t have questions, 3) if you don’t have any experience you cannot have a meaningful question and 4) if you need motivation from us or anyone… this blog is not for you. You already lost.
Comments on the Blog
We have a few trolls posting dumb questions and comments on the blog. It is far easier to delete them and move on in the future. In fact? We answered most them. We let them stand because it feeds the SEO and the blog has grown enough at this point (we’re not that dumb – wink wink). Positively, we want the comments to be filled with smart people and we’re more than happy to let them promote their blog through their username. With that said lets take a look at how to leave better comments.
Expansion Comment: In our post on frugality being a feminine quality, there was one person who actually understood the post:
“That’s why only 1% of the population are self made multimillionaires.
Frugality wants you to be content with yourself and spend more time trying to get more out of your current situation AKA Frugality wants you to trade your potential for your current self.
Frugality wants you to know that good enough is good enough. But good enough is never good enough when you’re running a business. You have to constantly evolve or else competitors will beat you by copying your product and making them better. You have to constantly pay attention to details or else your employees will slack off and deliver shit to your customers.
Frugality is like trying to be a body builder but only eating very little to save up — LOL good luck!” – Recent Graduate
This is probably the best comment on the blog since its inception. If people continue to leave comments like this (that clarify or expand upon a post), we can guarantee other readers will click over and read his blog.
Argument Comments: This shouldn’t come as a surprise, we like these comments. The one catch is that we have to respect the person’s opinion in the first place. If someone leaves an argument against the post but makes $100-150K per year, we’re just going to… Smile and nod. A great example of this? Our negative post on real estate being a good investment
“What about multi-family complexes, duplexes etc.?”
A commenter clearly understands that most wealthy people own property. Yes this includes many of our writers. The real point of the article is to tell people in their 20s (majority of our readership) to avoid massive debt at such a young age! When you are in your 30s there are *some* real estate investments that can be profitable… But. Our readership is not ready for that post at this time.
Clarifying Comments: No one can write 4,000+ words where readers won’t have any questions at all. The key is to pin-point the confusing piece of the article.
“In your previous tweet you said happiness is in the thoughts not belongings. When does one truly get happy following your advice?” – happyadvice
This comment is fine. You can see the real issue is that the person still associates hard work with unhappiness. This is a major theme of the blog. Hard work is not hard work when you enjoy it. The person asking this question has a negative association with money. We are happy to clarify these questions in an extremely blunt and direct manner. Why? We don’t want any mis-communication.
The funny part about this writing style? If you talk directly to people and give them the answer they *need* not the answer they *want* they assume you are unhappy! This is the world we live in. Before assuming that the person you are talking to is unhappy you should ask yourself “Is this advice improving my life?” Then you’ll realize that it is better to be punched in the face with the truth than kissed with a lie.
Promotional Comments: Of course we love the success stories. We get emails all of the time and it is great to know that an article or comment has changed the way a person thinks. The funny thing is that most people ask us to keep their information private because they don’t want anyone to know they read the blog! Hilarious.
Concluding Remarks on Comments: In an ideal world, the comments will be full of people who are trying to achieve something and we won’t have the masses posting up useless information. Going forward we will keep a closer eye on the questions and comments since we want to keep the growth of this blog at a manageable level. Here are the key points to leaving solid comments: 1) expand to help people understand the message – or drive traffic to your biz/blog, 2) post a clear argument against the article that is backed in truth not feelings or emotion, 3) let us help you by pin pointing areas that need clarification and 4) everyone loves success stories.
