Some healthy skepticism

[SteftheComposer]

Hi guys,

After years of trying to make money online unsuccessfully, I have lots of questions. It seems like there's a lot of money to be had with all these money-making schemes, but in my experience, it seems like the scammers and frauds are the ones making all the money. Seriously, if it was as easy to make money online as these guys all over YouTube, social media, the TV news, etc. make it sound, don't you think by now most everybody would be working from home with all this passive income being sent to their bank accounts every month? Here's what I mean:

YOUTUBE

Videos that say, "Make $1000 a day!!", "I made $150,000 in my first month!!", "Get free traffic for your product!!", etc............ how many tens of thousands of videos are there on YouTube like this?

1. If what you're suggesting is true, why are you sharing it with everyone? Wouldn't you be shooting yourself in the foot by revealing all this information since you're just building competition for yourself when everyone starts doing this?
2. If you're making all this money from affiliate stuff, selling other people's products, drop shipping, etc, why do you keep asking everyone to "hit that like button and subscribe to your channel" since you're obviously making a LOT more money doing the other thing? Your video only has 20,000 views. I think you get $1 for every thousand views with the ads at the beginning of the vids. You've made $20 from this video you've posted, but you're suggesting this nifty idea to make thousands of dollars per month. Why does it matter whether people hit the like button and subscribe to your channel? In fact, going back to point #1, why are you even sharing this information with everyone since they'll compete with you now?
3. Why do you guys always seem to have a product of your very own that you're selling completely separate from the money-making idea you posted a video about? You're selling books, PDFs, courses, and membership fees to your website in the video description below the vid - is THAT really how you're making your money? Are you posting these videos to draw people in just so they buy your item?
4. Why do you NEVER show us this money-making scheme in your video live in action? If you suggest we go to XYZ website to do ZYX, why can't you show us a live example of this method where we can see for ourselves that it's legit?

* Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other related social media platforms basically follow the same patterns as YouTube.

ANY TYPE OF MARKETING

It doesn't matter if it's affiliate marketing, drop shipping, or otherwise.

1. If what you're suggesting works, how am I as a newbie going to be able to compete with the tens of thousands of other people who are already doing this and have been for years? They've got connections - I don't. They've got a huge mailing list - I don't. They've been all over the internet selling to people around the world - I haven't. What am I really going to be able to do when I'm up against all that competition? I'm just lost in a sea of white noise - who's going to notice ME?
2. How legal is this stuff? Are there sites I can access to see how legal what you're doing is? I've heard of people getting sued and fined for doing stuff that many newbies thought was legal, but the whole thing was actually not legal. How do I avoid the unlawful?
3. When you say, "You have to work hard and be disciplined - and then you'll succeed!" for you to make it in business, why are you leaving out the most important thing... LUCK? It's all about LUCK when it comes to how people make it big in the business world. Hard work and discipline is only PART of what goes on - you have to be VERY LUCKY (in the right place at the right time) if you're truly going to make it - and I challenge ANYONE to disprove my premise.

SALES IN GENERAL

1. Do you really have to coax and sweet-talk people in order to buy something? It almost seems like an economy in the Western World is based in how many people were hoodwinked into buying stuff that they don't really need. Is that what makes the world go round? If so, I don't think this any world I belong in.
2. They say the rich get richer and the poor get poorer... is one of the reasons because sales reps from companies take advantage of poor people? Those who are poor don't want to be, but that's usually where the frauds and the scammers who sell junk will make their money since those people are desperate and thus believe what their being told by the con men sales reps. Again, is this how our economy works?
3. Psychology and propaganda are obviously involved in selling. Should those of us trying to sell a product learn more about these two fields? And I ask again, is this how the economy works where such unethical tactics are utilized daily?


I'll have more examples as time goes on, but for now, I think that'll do. Everyone can hopefully see where I'm going with all this.

Thanks
Stef

 

[Graybeard]

They say the rich get richer and the poor get poorer... is one of the reasons because sales reps from companies take advantage of poor people?

I am a top feeder. I bought ENDP stock today: they declared CH11 Bankruptcy, result of the Opioid Trials and excessive punitive judgements. They are still worth $8 billion and offered to sell the company to their creditors for $6 billion. I bought and sold ENDP in the $5 to $4 /share range last year before the SHTF. Today I paid $0.295 /share --bought 100 shares on spec. The stock is up 10% post market trade tonight. Good luck to the winners. Chump change --crap shoot.

No little guy got cheated today

Stock holders are unsecured creditors in a bankruptcy --but reputation management in the markets may result in some of that equity being paid off in the bankruptcy $1 /share? Triple my investment.

 

[SteftheComposer]

Yes, I see I should have included the markets...

STOCKS, FOREX, BONDS, ETC.

1. Each and every one of these markets are "zero-sum" markets - this means that there are no goods or services involved. What's happening is you're making money from people who are all on the wrong side of the market direction. Thus, money in one set of hands is transferred to another set of hands. To make a living trading the markets, you have to constantly keep making money off of speculators that are new to the market game who don't know what they're doing, and they therefore blow their accounts. You, therefore, make money off of their incompetence. The big shots running the markets where they make the prices move with their multi-million dollar trades are a handful of people (the hedge funds, big banks, etc.), but the speculators who keep losing money are many. Is this ethical? Is there any real way to defeat the big shots at their own game by playing it?
2. These worthless indicators (primary for Forex platforms) do absolutely nothing. You might make a few bucks using the MACD and moving averages, but then you lose all your profits when the market makes a turn for the worse. Your total profit in the end = $0. There are some indicators that look like they showed you exactly where to buy and where to sell, but then you find out the hard way that these indicators repainted the past. People sell these useless indicators and sucker people into thinking that they're going to curb the Forex markets using this person's remarkable indicator for the low low price of $29.99! Seriously??
3. How do you make any money (on Forex for instance) with all these new laws that keep regulating what you can or can't do? You used to be able to hedge by having two trades on the same currency pair that go in opposite directions - not anymore. There are many other laws as well that are now in effect that weren't before. And, on top of that, the taxes are 37% on every dollar of profit you make in the USA. Is this worth it?

 

[SteftheComposer]

It's not a matter of me being convinced I'll lose from the start. And I already have a job, but it doesn't pay enough, and my useless college degree can only go just so far. Believe you me, I've learned that the hard way. That's why I'm here - to see if there's any hope left that I can make so much as $500 more a month.

And yes, 37% is usually what you'll pay for Forex earnings if you have no deductions, major expenses, etc.:

How FOREX Trades Are Taxed

I'm glad you agree that YouTube is for entertainment purposes. That's pretty much what I was getting at with the whole thing and why I had those questions.

Investing in new technology wasn't the same thing I was talking about. But even still, you'll be making money when other players are late to the game with all the money the feed into the stock, and then you profit by closing the trade after that. And the speculators are the ones where lots of the money made by the big shots come from since they don't know how to trade. That's what I was emphasizing.

I'm not "sure I'll lose before I start". And my gripes are legitimate since I'm not the only one who's had these things to say. Most of us don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars or even thousands of dollars to expend just to see what we need to do right, so we're at a major disadvantage since we weren't born wealthy. Like I said, a handful people who start out poor (who were in the right place at the right time) will make it, but the rest will not. You yourself admitted that less than 30% will make it.

 

[Graybeard]

That is just half truths and conspiracy theory with regard regulated markets with governmental oversite.

FOREX and Commodities Markets serve a purpose to banks and the actual commodities producers and processors. They are the real benefactors in the end game. The speculators are just that --speculators.

Cryptocurrency serves no real purpose --pure market speculation.

I have a holding in Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A.

https://www.renews.biz/79858/haliade-x-turbines-at-ocean-wind-in-public-interest/

They reached a patent use agreement with GE and now the NJ state AG is petitioning the court for a cut-out of the agreement. This will effect the stock's price. It's not a conspiracy --it's just a human event out of my control.

There is a wealth of public domain data on the Equities and Bond markets you can look at.

Is there any real way to defeat the big shots at their own game by playing it?

Not when you have convinced yourself you can only lose. This is not a binary 0|1 game.

Example: I get on demand research analyst reports from

• I/B/E/S from Refinitiv
• Trading Central
• Zacks Investment Research
• Jefferson Research
• Argus Research A6/Quantitative
• Argus Analyst
• Compustat ® Company Report S&P Global ®

A lot of the time the experts are wrong. Sometimes I am wrong. The market is ALWAYS right. Don't take it personal a call out sour grapes.

Youtube is for entertainment, seeking information on a brand --describing its product and its use.

100% of the MMO is total BS and very little of the information about affiliate marketing is truthful. There are some exceptions but usually not.

And, on top of that, the taxes are 37% on every dollar of profit you make in the USA. Is this worth it?

That is a fallacy --if you understand tax accounting. Capital gain or income? In what tax bracket?

Zero sum defined That example yesterday --and to me it's like buying a lottery ticket --235 million shares changed hands yesterday. They all were not incompetent n00bs. Mainly speculators at this point.

Sure, lot's of people make a living off the dreamers and suckers --learn not to get suckered!

• 100% of people fail sometimes and the wise ones learn from these mistakes.
• 70% of people keep trying in business the others work a job for a salary.
• Of that 70% still in the game maybe 20% make some money.
• Of that group few earn in the 80 percentile.
• Of that group few reach real wealth --multi million dollar assets.

Been that way almost forever.

If you are sure you will lose before you start --get a job with a paycheck based on your skills and documented education --and quit bitchin'

 

[SteftheComposer]

Yeah, AI seems to be the future of everything. Hopefully it won't evolve into the Skynet computer from the Terminator franchise. Then business won't matter... nor will human existence.

 

[SteftheComposer]

I also want to add these:

PAID TRAFFIC

1. If you have a great big database of customers who are willing to buy my affiliate stuff, how do I know you're not going to sign up for that same Clickbank-like company that I'm with where you steal all my prospects for your own if you've never heard of this company before?
2. What guarantee do I have that you actually had legitimate people check out my site/link? If they have a pop-up blocker or a virus/malware software on their computer, and they thus never make it to my link because the software blocks it, does that count as a click if I purchase PPC?
3. Why is PPC valid nowadays when practically all of us never want to see those pop-up ads? We just click the "X" button so we don't have to look at it. Are there honestly still people who want to look at those ads?

PAY PER VIEW IMAGES and FILE DOWNLOADS

1. If people from the USA download my images/files, I get $1 for every 1000 downloads. If it's from Liberia, I get $0.10 per 1000 downloads. What happens if someone is on a VPN or the TOR browser? Their IP shows another country. Do you get credit only for those disguised IP locations since there's no other way to know where they're really from?

 

[Graybeard]

FOREX is not for investment. It's just trading income --and most small investors lose it all to the 2% winners --so know the odds in the game or don't play.

I would look towards good AI text and business data analysis to market --if you can endure the adoption curve --we are in the early stages right now.

I was looking at a international low cost payment solution as an affiliate --through impact yesterday. IDT owns the brand

IDT Corporation (IDT) Stock Price, News, Quote & History - Yahoo Finance

Find the latest IDT Corporation (IDT) stock quote, history, news and other vital information to help you with your stock trading and investing.

finance.yahoo.com

I look for solid businesses to deal with or disruptive businesses to associate with. I think that is where the money is not scammers and fly-by-nights. DD (Due diligence) matters.

 

[SteftheComposer]

Yes, sorry that's what I meant... CPC.

 

[Graybeard]

Actually, AI and robotics will be replacing a lot of labor including many higher paid fields

2. What guarantee do I have that you actually had legitimate people check out my site/link? If they have a pop-up blocker or a virus/malware software on their computer, and they thus never make it to my link because the software blocks it, does that count as a click if I purchase PPC?

You need to log every event and track it on your server -site or log any redirect link traffic to any affiliate programs then check the numerical variance --I never accept a remote server's counts carte blanche. Determining who is a legitimate real human viewer is very difficult today.

Ad counts seem padded often and referrals are not recorded often. Your servers are 100% Remote servers are not. So, you have to play the averages.

About 40% of internet traffic is non human. When you buy RTB/SSP network ads I have seen 5% to 70% as low quality or clickbots.
Traffic from search engines is the cleanest but the most expensive

3. Why is PPC valid nowadays when practically all of us never want to see those pop-up ads? We just click the "X" button so we don't have to look at it. Are there honestly still people who want to look at those ads?

PPC has nothing to do with pop over/unders
PPC refers to SEM (search engine marketing) Pay per Click --you mean CPM or CPC

What is Affiliate Marketing? (START HERE)

Walkthrough and guide on affiliate marketing.

www.affiliatefix.com

Search engine ads are directive --most display is creative (as in creating an impulse action).

Pop under/over and onclick triggered 'they' (traffic networks claim) are not billed when blocked --I know how many popup pages were loaded and of those fully with the files (css images video) as I set the logs for. If am being over-billed I know it. But do I really? Today's clickbots are able to download the files and delete them like a browser will when the app is shut down.

What matters is the landed cost of a referral that is counted as a referral by the program or seller --and the epc (earning per click) --all the rest is just smoke and mirrors. That is a known. Everything else is a supposition. If you have an established data sample you can look for deviation from the median --to trigger a red flag.

If you want a guarantee --buy a refrigerator

Too bad it was only 100 shares Winning is winning

These stats are true