Gilded Traps 💸💸💸
Have you ever fallen into the gilded trap of high-paying opportunities, only to find yourself holding the fool's gold at the end?
You don't have to say it out loud because apparently, people don't like to talk about their failures which is totally fine, but I'm wary of those who pretend to succeed in everything they do.
This topic of deceptive money-making schemes stemmed from an entirely different discussion with @soulsdetour under my recent post. She encouraged me to write more about it. I didn't plan to do it any time soon but my mind was tangled in that thread, so here I am. I will focus on a particular kind of seamless scam in this blog. If you are in a hurry to know, feel free to skip the next few paragraphs, but if you like to read stories then walk with me...
A little background for the context which some of you already know...
Despite having a high-paying degree, I chose my family over my career. It was a difficult decision for an ambitious person like me but since there were no financial restraints, it was easier to let go. My husband's job is extremely demanding but provides financial stability, if I also had gone after a 9-5 then we would be rolling in dough, but then the kids would have suffered. I know many people manage it and their kids turn out fine. Let's say, in our particular case, we would have to make other compromises too like living apart.
Long story short, I opted for online opportunities whenever I had extra time, just to feel productive. Over time, I tried different things. I switched from programming to something less intense like writing due to countless distractions and the added responsibilities of home and kids.
I signed up on every freelancing site but I quickly learned that freelancing is harder than a 9-5. I have completed numerous projects but most of the work I receive is through direct/real-life connections. One day, my brother suggested me to use LinkedIn as the platform helped him a lot to build a successful career.
He doesn't do anything on LinkedIn except keeping his profile up to date. On the other hand, the writer in me, started creating content on LinkedIn because apparently that's what most people do there nowadays.
I was so influenced by the LinkedIn Influencers. Having spent a great deal of time on Instagram and watching pointless fashion or meme content, the LI influencers seemed more productive and thoughtful. I learned something new through each post. It was my newly found paradise of knowledge on in-demand skills. Name a skill and you will find experts sharing their practical knowledge on it, all for free.
The platform has great potential but soon I lost interest in writing there. I noticed, there was a certain kind of content that received more traction. Since content creators run after views and likes, I saw people leaving their niches and choosing to create certain kind of content. What was that traffic-generating content about? Any guesses?
How to excel on LinkedIn? (:
Even here on steem, if you write a steem guide or something about your contributions like promotion, development or investment, that kind of content is more likely to get votes than your personal blogs. Imagine, everyone starts writing guides here...
That's what is happening on LinkedIn on a mass scale because such content gets more views and helps gain more followers. Now I don't demean it but when everybody starts educating then who will be the students and not to mention that LinkedIn is just a tool, not a skill. People enthusiastically start with writing about their area of expertise but when they don't get engagement they start writing about what gets more eye balls.
And then...they start selling it.
They become gurus - the online ones.
They are not limited to LinkedIn. They are everywhere. Insta gurus, marketing gurus, freelancing gurus, crypto gurus...
I'm not implying that everyone is fake, but the general trend is that, when people fail to make decent money through whatever skill they have, they become teachers, and they start selling courses and e-books and whatnot.
How I made $10k through upwork? Get this e-book and see my exact strategy.
Make $1000 overnight with my exclusive crypto advice, only $7 for an hour-long call.
How to go from zero to 1M followers? Grab my e-book now. First 50 buyers will get a 70% discount.
LinkedIn and other social platforms are filled with this kind of crap.
And then there are courses on Coursera and Udemy about hard skills like web development and graphic designing. Some are professionally detailed but no matter how good you get at a skill, it takes a lot of patience to land your first few clients or first few dollars.
Right when demotivation starts kicking in, thanks to targeted advertising, you start seeing ads of gurus teaching all the soft skills you need to land your first client and make your first $10k.
If they were so good in their field and if it was so easy to get clients, then why they don't do it themselves? They hit the pain points of beginners and start selling them whatever little knowledge they have. Because it makes more money with less effort.
A few years ago, I fell into a similar trap. I bought a couple of courses and e-books on some soft skills. Although I learned enough through practice and research for free but just to be sure that I wasn't missing out on anything, I bought some flashy courses. Don't ask me how much I regret it to date.
Some were good but mostly there was nothing new that wasn't available on the Internet for free.
If I excel at Steem, that doesn't mean, I should create a course and start selling it for $$$. Although, there is nothing wrong with it but my conscience doesn't allow me to charge for something that is already available for free. I know I could charge for my time but perhaps I'm so pissed at online gurus that I don't want to be one of them. It would be too easy for me to grab clients by showing my wallet and blog and unlike fake gurus, I could actually help them grow on Steem with the little influence I have. It could be a successful side-hustle. I really hope no scammer reads this brilliant idea. 😅
Lastly, I want to empahsize on the fact that I don't mean to offend the teachers in any way. It's one of the most noble profession. There are many genuine online teachers who put their blood and sweat into their work. Having said that, bad eggs are everywhere. Technology has provided us easy access to target audience and knowledge, fake gurus exploit this by repackaging already available information and sell it with minimal effort.
P.S. I still think LinkedIn has a lot of potential but I'm rethinking how to use it in steem's favour. That's why I'm silent about it for the time being.
I'm starting from the back to the front.
In Bulgaria, there has been this understanding for a long time that whoever cannot be accepted into a university with a more prestigious and nice specialty, is easily accepted into pedagogy or some other educational specialty, after which one usually becomes a teacher. That is why it is said that who cannot become anything else becomes a teacher, that is why the teacher crisis is quite deep. 😃 This is a bit off topic.
The topic of fake gurus and all kinds of hidden scammers is really my favorite. I have studied it and I have looked at it from many sides, especially where it comes from, how it is born, why people take this fishing line, enter this trap. We all forget that we are all people who are not very different from each other. We all have our problems, one or the other, there are no people with a perfect life, and no one is secretly given this guide to a good life and success in life, if we are simply talking about life coaches.
Things that can be learned are taught in universities or specialized courses, which may or may not be paid for, but it is no coincidence that educational institutions must be licensed. I say this because in recent years numerous "academies" have appeared in Bulgaria, they are also paid, but do not have a license, and they offer you miracles - financial independence, wealth, investment skills, how to find your life's mission, even how to find a rich and wonderful man. 😅 I especially love the idea of an Etsy Business Academy that some failed Etsy account came up with - revealing the hidden secrets of success on this platform. Considering the brutal competition there, it is unlikely that just some Bulgarian has discovered the hot water, not to mention that the lecturer does not even reveal who his profile is.
But personally, I am most disappointed with an American who published a book about an effective method of changing lives. A whole thick book of general stories or some boring scientific data to say on the last page: "sign up for my workshop". And that was it.
I think that's when I realized that all this How-To-nonsense is just a money making machine. And the worst thing is that these people who "teach", especially if we are talking about coaches, are supposed to be about people, but they seem to only be about money.
Some people just made a living selling these things, and as I've noted with dismay before, the entire planet is based on the principle of commerce, and only the best merchants survive. I, unfortunately, either because of my conscience or lack of skills, am not a good dealer since I can't even trade myself looking for work.😆
I agree with absolutely all the points of your post, I may have given examples from another area, but they also apply to online influencers, those who "fail to make decent money through whatever skill they have and become teachers, and start selling courses and e-books and whatnot."
I'm sure there have long been people who thought of making money from Steemit in the way you mention, there are quite a few enterprising people here!
And LinkedIn for me is a super spammy platform and I avoid it, even though I have some incomplete profile there.
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I have heard similar things about teachers in Pakistan but I think it's more to do with the induction criteria. Only the most qualified ones should be hired like in any other industry. I personally know a lot of people who were below average in academics throughout and are now serving as teachers in the same institutes because they couldn't get a job elsewhere. That says a lot about 'the system'.
I think it's in human nature to think that others are living a perfect life. We get envious of what others have achieved without even trying to know how they got to it and how much struggle went behind it or how much they compromised. That's if the bragger is telling the truth. But nowadays people are only lying on the Internet. The moment somebody puts their income on air, I smell something fishy. I earned this much $$$$ in xyz time, if you give me $, you can also do the same. What bullcrap !
Hahahah. I can't stop laughing at this. I have been there. I was so excited to read a book and after few pages, it turned out that it was another way of advertisement - it was full of self-promotion and CTAs. The book was good but this marketing tactic immediately put me in doubt and just like that a seemingly good author/guru lost his credibility.
You are right there are many entrepreneurial minds here. It was just a joke. Infact, today I saw somebody selling a steem course. Haven't checked it our further. But yeah, it's nothing new.
I don't know your experience, but I think LinkedIn is spammed by gurus and fake job postings. There are authentic professionals too but one needs to know how to navigate around the right path.
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Hafte men 20,000 banane ke tareeqe jaanne ke leiy abhi link par click karen aor apni zindagi badlen.
Link pe click kr k zindagi badalnay wala 50,000 ka course khariden. 😅
Sahil Adeem ke saath one-on-one 1 ghante baat karne ke 52k pkr 🥴🥴
Aur pehaly 20 logon k liye 70% discount.