2 Bitconnect Promoters Move on to their Next "Hustle"
So yesterday I was sitting around the house cleaning up a bit and browsing Youtube. I happenned to notice a live stream webinar going on with Tanner J Fox and Dan Dasilva, two online eCommerce "Gurus".
Now typically I'm not one to be a "hater", however I was so disgusted by what I saw I just had to make this video to hopefully save some people some money. Also, as someone who offers FREE content online teaching people about business and Entrepreneurship, I don't like how our whole industry gets painted with this broad brush of being scammers based on a few bad actors like Tanner and Dan, among others.
So for any of you who aren't familiar with them Tanner J Fox and Dan Dasilva are two online business gurus who claim to make millions of Dollars per year. In Dan's case it's doing Ali Express Dropshipping and in Tanners case selling on Amazon FBA.
Both talk about building businesses up to making hundreds of thousands and millions of Dollars in just a matter of weeks, something that is very rare if not impossible. The vast majority of new businesses fail, and even successful ones don't get built overnight, it takes time, not 2 weeks.
I should also add that the types of products they are selling, and the types of businesses they are involved in are basically impossible to make the type of money they are talking about. Dropshipping from Ali Express is saturated, profit margins are small, and products are cheap. For someone to make even $50,000 per month profit would likely mean they are selling $500,000 per month in products. When you figure most of the types of products they talk about are under $20, that would mean they are doing about 20,000 sales per month. It's just incredibly unrealistic and the numbers just don't add up.
Getting back to Tanner, I found a fascinating article by a gentlement named Phil Covington who actually took Tanners course and briefly worked with Tanner on his Facebook group about Amazon selling. To give some credit where credit is due, Phil actually does credit Tanners course with helping him get started, although as he's come to learn more about Tanner he's basically discovered that Tanner just took a course himself and is pretty good at parroting back talking points and making it seem like he himself sells on Amazon. You can view Phil's entire article here....
http://www.philcovington.com/index.php/tanner-j-foxs-amazon-products-a-guru-exposed/
Long story short, after finding the California business registration for Tanner, and finding the Amazon account associated with it, the kid has sold something like 4 or 5 products over his entire Amazon history. All the products are very low bar products that don't make much money. They are the types of saturated products every first time Amazon seller runs to after taking their first course, and on top of all that by looking at the BSR scores and reviews, its safe to say at most Tanner MAYBE and that is a big MAYBE, makes $700 per month, not the $30,000 per month he claims to. I should add that $700 is even being very generous. To date Tanners Amazon account has 4 tee shirts listed on it.
After being somewhat called out on this in the past Tanner first claimed this is an account he setup for a teenage kid next door and not his real account. Seriously? Your setting up registred businesses for teenagers to sell vibrating dick rings? That just doesn't make sense. After that excuse fell flat Tanner then said his Amazon account got hacked and he decided it was too much trouble to get it back. Again, seriously? You have a business bringing in $30,000 per month, you've spent time effort and money building up a successful Amazon business and it gets hacked and rather than very easily contacting Amazon support and proving your the real owner of the account and getting it back in all of two minutes, you decide fuck it, I'll just start fresh? Again makes no sense. I should add Tanner used the "I was hacked" excuse regarding his Bitconnect account as well.
Long story short, I'm not picking fun at Tanner for being bad at Amazon selling. Amazon selling is a challenging thing. Heck there's nothing wrong with selling the amount of product on Amazon he was selling, that's better than the vast majority of Amazon sellers do. That said, just be honest and upfront with what your doing. Most people online are beginners and would be just as happy to learn from someone making $700 per month as they would from someone making $30,000 per month, that's nothing to be ashamed of. But guess what, selling $700 per month doesn't sell multi-thousand Dollar courses nearly as well as saying your doing $30,000 per month.
It's my honest belief that nobody really needs a course to get started doing anything, and especially nobody needs to buy courses from liars. Is there some value in a course? While all that information is online for free, it can be helpful having someone organize and package it all for you to save on time. It also can be helpful learning a particular persons method as we all have our own methods. That said if you feel the need for a course there's Udemy courses for $20 or less, there's unlimited Skillshare courses for $15 a month, and there's ton of free resources online via blogs, Youtube, Reddit, etc. Please try all those things and exhaust all options before spending $3,000 learning a bullshit method from some bullshit artists.
Husteling is a very profitable business. They know how to shill scams.
A lot of what people online post regarding to how much they make with selling stuff and services is financial freedom is mostly lies. If it was that great why would not everyone be doing it? They say not many know such a way to earn money exists or not too many people have figured it out yet.
I think only silly people would believe the lies and fall into paying some sort of subscription. Thanks.
You can tell that Tanner Fox guy just comes up with random numbers in his vids
If I was him I would focus on the personal branding thing because that's something he's actually been very successful at. He's a known name online, despite being on some non-sense he has a big following, he's grown a 100k youtube channel which is no easy feat, that's something he actually has something to teach about, but not the Amazon stuff.
yea true or at least if he's going to talk about it be honest about it
True to that, I would bother Amazon support if that's me, 30k a month is a lot for me. Been also watching about this drop shipping on Amazon videos, interesting but I don't think it's something for me when I got curious what other things people do to earn online.
Here's my thoughts on dropshipping. The whole Ali Express dropshipping isn't a great idea. Shipping times are too long, product quality is spotty, and your whole business relies on things you don't control ie if the supplier raises prices or stops stocking an item your business is done.
I think dropshipping can be done successfully if you find a domestic supplier with a unique product and actually develope a relationship with them and come to a dropshipping agreement. You add to their bottom line, you have better lines of communication, faster shipping time.
This whole Ali Express dropshipping I imagine can make a few bucks but it's just not a great idea when you can go about it in a way where your building a business and not just doing a short term hustle. These businesses typically face very high rates of chargebacks, margins aren't that great, customers don't have accurate tracking, packages take forever to arrive.
If your looking for a hustle if you have any graphic design skills or think of funny design ideas amazon merch can be profitable. Free to join and very passive. I'm not a huge seller but that makes a couple hundred per month and is actually a lot of fun.
Affiliate marketing is a ton of work and takes a very long time to get going but if your doing it about a topic you enjoy and are passionate about it can be enjoyable and can also be very profitable, but again takes a long time to build up.
The print on demand business as a whole is decent, a bit full but if you go about it and can market can make a few pesos.
Amazon Kindle Publishign is something I used to do, I hear its kind of died out but if you enjoy to write a great option. You can also sell some stuff around the house on eBay to build up an account see if ecommerce is a good fit for you and then try to find a product to sell long term.
Starting a youtube channel and/or blogging can be fun and profitable as well
Thanks @rulesforrebels. Was about to ask, but yay! You already included it in your answer. I'm eyeing on second to the last which is Amazon Kindle publishing since I'm thinking I could write something related to my YT channel which is language lessons. How was your experienced with it when you uses to do it? If it's ok to ask.
It's been a while since I've done anything on Kindle Publishing. Years ago I had one eBook doing $300 a month for a few month until that fad died out. I think to this day I still get $30-$50 monthly comming in even though I havn't even logged in in years. Some people say it's died off a bit but I imagine there's still an opportunity to make money on there. Let me know how you do, I always enjoyed that would consider getting back into it if the pay was worthwhile
Wow for $300 a month back then. Will let you know how it is if I got into it as it seems it's always taking the back seat though I would love kids books in my native language. Thank you. 🙂
Ugh, more scams. Since you aren't one of these Amazon FBA scam artists, I was hoping you could help me.
My Amazon FBA product is losing money and I think it is time to call it quits. I have a product with 2 variations and my supplier cheated me by putting variation 1 products inside many variation 2 boxes. Customers were complaining and getting refunds. Eventually, my defect rate reached 9-10% and Amazon closed my listing for my variation 2 product. I don't know what to do.
My products convert well. They are good quality but I pay too much in PPC ads and now I have a closed listing. I still have about 200 boxes in total and I have to constantly pay money to Amazon in fees. What should I do? Just dispose all of them? I am located in China and my home is in Canada.
Hey buddy, thanks for the comment. Yeah I kinda hate doing videos like this, I don't really wanna hate on people but I was so upset after seeing the livestream and seeing people who can't afford to waste it really wasting money on this stuff without a clue had to make a vid
In regards to your product you could get the variation situation straightened out and create a new listing, if this is a product that's worth going through the rebuilding process with and paying money for ads or for giving away product. Otherwise it may just be best to dispose of everything.For me I would probably have them sent back to me and self fulfill but I realize that's probably not an option for you in China unless you have someone in the USA to ship these items for you.
It's definitely frustrating getting listings shut down I used to sell a lot of parts for various items and people buy the wrong part or they don't know how to fix the item themself and they send it back and leave a bad review over something that's their own fault. I had so many great listings shut down that way and its very frustrating.
Amazon storage fees have gotten pretty bad so you may be better off just cutting your losses.
I'm actually in the process of trying to source a new product but there's very few suppliers, was thinking about reaching out to you since your over in China however for this particular product they are all made in Indonesia or Inda not china, that's odd normally china has everything
Thanks man. I already feel like I need to dispose of them and cut my losses. I've lost enough money with this. Are there any companies that will liquidate items for you?
For example, I could create a removal order for my items, send them to some company that will auction/sell them off and I get a percentage.
You bring up an interesting idea with the liquidation thing. I myself have had a lot of failed Amazon FBA products where I wind up with some inventory left. I know a couple buddies who have been in the same situation. Some have asked me hey would you wanna sell xyz product, I got 500 units left, I'm only looking to get x amount of money from it you can probably make a buck if you wanna sell it.
Could be an interesting business idea, although the challenge is most of these products have failed for a reason so the business in charge of sitting on this stuff is in a sense sitting on dead inventory. I suppose if people were willing to take pennies on the Dollar and just get something out of it as opposed to throwing it away it could be mutually beneficial for both parties. Interesting idea.
There definitely are liquidation companies out there but I think most of them like to liquidate large things so a store like Toys R Us, or even like a restaurant selling their old equipment, benches, etc. I think it would be more of a challenge to find one willing to take just a couple hundred pieces of inventory.
I'd post on Reddit, I see a lot of people doing this, I'm pretty sure you could get something for it. If you have any interest I'd be happy to reach out to my audience and I bet you someone might be interested. Feel free to hit me up if you want me to mention it and have someone get in touch with you if they are interested.
Yeah it's a good idea. For me, I think my products are pretty good but the supplier screwed up with putting the correct item in the correct box. I sent you a message on YouTube! If you end up reaching your audience, it has to be quick because I have to make a decision within the next couple days. I've already posted about this on Amazon forums and some people have contacted me. If I can't sell them soon, then I'll have to dispose them.
Thanks so much for your help!
I'll mention it on a video I do tonight. How would you like people to contact you if they are intereted? I'll leave it vague unless you want me to get into specifics and if someone contacts you and seems serious you guys can work out the details.
I'll send you the email address they can contact me with to your YouTube. Don't mention any price that I will sell to them. I can just negotiate with them.
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Hahahah, This just further confirmed what we already knew about Tanner. Even before he started talking about Crypto I was super triggered by this guy. He would just pretend to be making unreal amounts of money and would write it up on his white board like that makes it official. Then all the back pedaling about his involvement with Bitconnect. Pretty insane really.
I knew the guy was a total fraud early on. Everything was so inflated. Another crazy thing is that he had a video with his parents in it and they were answering questions about Tanner being a millionaire and if it shocked them at first...... etc.
I just wonder how he has been able to pull off some of the other pieces of the fraud. Because even if the Lambo has 4 way ownership or something it would still be pricey. The biggest thing that annoyed me with him is that he would literally stand by a car in a show room or take a picture by a car in a parking lot and was acting like he had all those cars. He always talked about having a GTR but he never showed himself in it or even with a GTR.
So annoying for sure. Personally I think their could be some value in some courses or seminars but it seems like most of the time it is a bunch of guys like this running a lot of stuff like that and it certainly gives it a bad name.
Yeah, at times I have thought about as kind of a social experiment starting a complete nonsense Entrepreneurship channel throwing out crazy numbers, just to see what the growth is like. I feel like I have my own niche in that people appreciate some authenticity and realism, but at the same time as with anything in life flash and numbers sell which is why every infomercial, every MLM program etc uses the same strategy these guys use.
It's kind of frustrating for me that I try to be real and provide real value and I'm outshadowed by this type of stuff, and it also kind of annoys me some of my videos get the knee jerk comments about scammer, asshole, etc from people who don't even watch them but lump any Entrepreneurship style video into the category with these types.
I see more and more guys following in this guys path, sometimes it's just cringeworthy. I remember I used to watch crypto oracle and I thought he seemed like a nice kid. Then one day he comes out with a course and the next day he's doing a video standing in front of a Mercedes truck saying "do you want to live a life of freedom, do you want to be rich like me" I was like OMG I can't take any more of this shit lol
Its funny you mention the parents thign, I've noticed a lot of his videos have shifted from business stuff to more what it feels like to be a millionaire at 21, lets talk to a millionaires parents, etc. I saw that video a couple weeks back and was like oh shit now this kids got his parents in on this thing. My dad would probably smack me in the head if I tried to get him on a video like that, even if the millionaire thing was real.
I also am curious about the cars and stuff, I've heard rumors Ryan Hildreth and Tanner and a couple other guys split leases and stuff but shit even renting a lambo for a day around me is like $1200 so it would be a pretty costly thing to do even split among a couple different guys.
As far as courses and stuff goes personally they arent' for me, most I've bought I never go through, I get frustrated by a lot of the fluff, although I get people feel like for these high prices tags it has to be 50 hours of modules, though personally if I could learn that same stuff in 5 hours I'd gladly have less content but more to the point stuff. At the end of the day though there is so much free info online and also so many reasonably priced courses on something like udemy if someone does see value in having the info cataloged and organized for them there's just no reason to pay 3k for a course its crazy.
Anyhow, I better stop talking before I get annoyed and my head explodes
I hear you for sure. I am planning on getting a pretty bad ass car and it will be part of my lifestyle blogging ....etc but I think with a lot of guys it gets deceptive on a certain level if they are leasing a car 4 different ways or using the car for a little bit and then putting a new wrap on it and rotating it with another "guru".
If those guys actually did make money doing what they say they do it would be one thing but like we see from the evidence Tanner doesn't even have near the success at selling stuff online that we do.
Same thing with crypto. They try to sweep the Bitconnect thing under the rug and pretend they are some crypto expert. It is sickening.
I get pretty triggered on the stuff too but In the same token I know there are certain people that get triggered with me. Like the pool meeting, dunking, having my shirt off in pictures....etc. That would trigger a lot of people.
To be honest what I really want to focus on is living an extra ordinary life and talking about all the things I do from the cool camping adventures, playing basketball and other sports, crypto, traveling the world, driving cars real fast, being a cheap skate with the girls....lol And then hopefully I could accumulate a large following which I think I would be able to. There is a lot to talk about in crypto in my opinion right now but YouTube won't monetize me. I think they will even drag their feet even more since there was the shooter at YouTube headquarters because the chick basically got demonetized and then flipped out. I think that they are just going to not monetize tons of stuff at this point. But I would like to make these kinds of videos mixed in with my crypto stuff and traveling the world....etc. Just living an adventure.
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There is a lot of crap and back actors selling low budge information products - and I agree - if you cannot provide good training for free, you likely don't have enough skill yourself.
Those that are truly successful - get past money, partly because they have enough, but mostly because really want to accomplish something that makes a difference.
BTC and all other currency is our future &as price is going
up and i hope that it will upgrade soon.