Internet Marketers, Stop Paying the Alternative Stupid Tax
Before we get to internet marketing, let's talk about the "Stupid Tax". According to the Urban Dictionary, it's:
The cost associated with engaging in any state sanctioned form of long odds gambling, i.e. playing the lottery.
Why "Stupid Tax"? As I wrote back in July:
I once calculated that winning the lottery is about like picking the right 1-foot stretch of I-80 between Lincoln, Nebraska and Evanston, Wyoming. Imagine all those hundreds of miles packed with people, each staking claim to their 1-foot of road. The winner is picked, and everybody else"¦well, I hope they enjoyed the scenery.
So the lottery is a way for states to raise money from people who don't get that they're not going to win. What's really stupid about it is that the people who play the lottery (and gamble in general) are mostly those who can't afford the risk. Which means more cost to the state in services to the poor.
But I digress.
Every once in a while, I see an ad on TV that makes me think, "are you serious?" For example, there's the one where a guy's showing off a "quadracorn" (a 4-horned unicorn) in his garage. It's an ad for a new slot machine at a casino across the river in Iowa. New slot machine = more fun? Doesn't make sense to me.
- Put coin in.
- Pull arm.
- Watch money go down drain.
- Have more fun looking at different pictures! Yee-haw!
Okay, so maybe it really is more fun to the kind of person who enjoys paying the stupid tax. What do I know.
In the United States, we have a tax called the Alternative Minimum Tax that's designed to ensure that people with lots of income don't get away with paying nothing by exploiting too many tax loopholes. I guess new slot machines are the Alternative Stupid Tax.
Great post about how to recognize and avoid the internet business scammers, Antony. I have given a lot of thought to the gist of what you are saying, and once I came across this verse in Proverbs 13:23 "[there is] much food is in the tillage of the p...The Alternative Stupid Tax on Internet Marketers
We have an Alternative Stupid Tax in internet marketing too. It's called the eBook. Not every eBook, of course. Just the next $37 eBook that promises to teach you how to make $10,000 a day eating Cheetos in your underwear. Or it could be the software that promises that with 3 clicks, you'll be raking in $2,514.87 a day in ClickBank commissions on autopilot.
If you paid the Stupid Tax the first time you fell for something like this, don't feel too bad. It happens to a lot of people.
If you paid the Alternative Stupid Tax the 20th time you fell for something like this, there's a problem.
Let's talk about the 3-click ClickBank fortune machine type Alternative Stupid Tax for a minute.
If someone had invented a way to rake in thousands of dollars a day on autopilot, how much do you think they'd sell the idea for? $37/month? Uh, no. $1,000/month? Uh, no. $25,000/month. Still no.
They'd be using it themselves to make thousands a day.
On the other hand, if someone had invented a credible sounding way to make people believe that with 3 clicks, they might have a chance to make thousands of dollars a day on ClickBank, how much would they sell that for? Whatever price the market would pay would be plenty.
The sales pitch might sound like this:
You might wonder why, if this system makes so much money, I'm willing to sell it for such a low price. The reason is that the system works better if more people are involved. In other words, I'll make more (and so will you) if there are 10,000 people involved than if I try to keep it all to myself.
"Credible sounding." If you don't think about it too hard.
Even if there is such a system, where everyone makes more if more people are doing it (I'm not saying that's impossible), would they sell access to it for $100/month?
No way! They'd outsource the work to 10,000 low-wage workers in India or the Philippines and keep most of the money for themselves. If the system makes multiple times as much in one day as they'd have to pay each worker in a month, they wouldn't sell access to the system. They'd hire the workers, hire people to manage them, and rake in the money while eating Cheetos in their underwear.
If it really doesn't rake in thousands a day with only 3 clicks, or only 20 minutes work, they'd sell it on the cheap to anyone willing to pay the Alternative Stupid Tax.
Friends Don't Let Friends Pay the Alternative Stupid Tax
Stop paying the tax yourself. And don't just do it silently. Speak out now and then. If you see somebody peddling lies to the hopeful, call their bluff. Share this post with someone who needs it.
Making money requires one or more of:
- Hard work
- Innovation
- Risk
- Connections
- Patience
- Luck
- ...
Yeah, I included "luck" in the list. But if you'll read the article it links to, you'll see that I'm not talking about random chance. Sure, everyone once in a long while, somebody'll get rich by random chance. Every once in a while, somebody on I-80 between Lincoln and Evanston will win the lottery.
But it's not something you can count on. Not by a long shot. If that's what you're counting on...I don't know why you're reading this blog, because you're not going to like much of what I write.
Put your time and efforts into activities with the highest probability of an acceptable level of success. And encourage others to do the same.
Wouldn't it be great if we could abolish the Alternative Stupid Tax in internet marketing?
November 1st, 2011 at 10:41 am
Anton, there isn't a chance in hades that the vast majority of internet marketer wannabes will take this to heart. The very essence of internet marketing has become "try to make money by doing nothing" (like you say, by "eating Cheetos in your underwear"). This is not just an accident. It is by design. Internet marketers are constantly looking for the quick fix, the quick score, and they are doing it by exploiting the very stupidity (OK, "irrationality") you are talking about. Without this "irrationality" component there is very little substance to IM - at least not enough to entice a "rational" person not to chuck it and do something a bit more honest.
I know you know this, because you want to do IM "ethically", but it surprises me that you still think it is possible. Isn't it a bit like looking for a legitimate justification for playing slot machines (therapeutic, adding to the state coffers, supporting native sponsors of casinos, etc.)? But as I'm sure you would agree, there are better ways to do those things without exploiting desperate people.
November 1st, 2011 at 10:57 am
Rick, you're right that very few are going to take this to heart. That's why "friends don't let friends pay the Alternative Stupid Tax" is so important. A lot of people need to be saved from the illusion that's being used to squeeze their wallets dry.
Your comment underscores another reason why we need to disabuse people of this illusion. You say 'Without this “irrationality†component there is very little substance to IM'. If by "IM", you mean the "learn to make money in IM" industry, then yeah, there's little substance to a lot of it.
But if by "IM", you mean "doing business primarily via the internet", then there's no reason why a business run that way can't have just as much substance as any other. All the people who are doing business without substance are giving those with substance a bad name, making their jobs harder.
So yeah, I think it's possible to do IM ethically. But I'm not talking about running a business that produces little or no value. I'm talking about producing value and using the internet as a tool to market it.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Great post about how to recognize and avoid the internet business scammers, Antony. I have given a lot of thought to the gist of what you are saying, and once I came across this verse in Proverbs 13:23 "[there is] much food is in the tillage of the poor: but [it] is destroyed for want of judgment." It can be frustrating to know that all that stands between you and a decent income is "judgment," but encouraging, too. Thanks for the reminders about Hard Work, Innovation, Risk, Connections, Patience, and yes, Luck, too.