Don’t listen to the ‘How I make $5,000 a month’ crowd. It’s a scam and you deserve better.

Just like you I’ve been intrigued about all those posts offering ways to make good money online simply by selling digital products or producing content. They usually talk about their side-hustle and how to break into the market and all the benefits of setting up your online content creation blog. However there’s a common theme with the modern-day scammers; they implore you to download their ‘free’ pdf of the ‘Simple ways to start earning ($x,xxx) a month’. After they get you to input your email address for the pdf, which is a great way of having you on a leash, they then remind you that you’re not reaching your full potential and you need to take a course which has been slashed from $97 to $27. A great deal!

Then when you try to leave they remind you of another product that is on-the-face-of-it, free. More digital hoops to jump through. Later you will open the email which contains your ‘free’ pdf only to find it is actually an invitation to become a subscriber.

In my opinion, this is a heartless and destructive assault on our basic value as individuals. I get the need to market your business and make an income but it’s so blatantly obvious that we’re viewed as a target rather than a thoughtful human. Can we not be content with our own ideas and just rely on our own brilliance to succeed? Also, hasn’t content creation reached a limit? Do we really need more content about selling and digital marketing when wisdom and joy can be found in age-old ideas?

I am advocating for the opposite of content creation, not content destruction, (although there are definitely some articles that could be erased without anyone lamenting), but valuable content consumption. Consumption of good ideas and interesting perspectives that make us think. And on top of that, this content consumption has the ability to be monetized. My ultimate goal is to pay people to read and discuss content with funds received through monetized ads. A longshot? Yes, definitely.

Already I have been playing with this idea on Upwork, hiring people and getting them to respond to content but having to pay them out of my own pocket. Some responses are absolutely brilliant and others are very lackluster. The participants gain a certain number of points depending on how well they discuss the content and can be paid after reaching a certain number. Imagine your teacher pays you for doing well on a personal response essay, shouldn’t that be the norm in a perfect world?

This is just the beginning but my goal is to link podcasts, videos, and courses (think Khan Academy), and have monetary rewards for those who really focus and try hard. We as humans have so much potential but I feel a lot of it is wasted on creating something shallow in the hopes of making a meager profit. The cultivation of the mind by wrestling with tough ideas far outweighs any potential rewards extracted from a 20-page pdf sales pitch.

For more on how these online content creators are tapping into the known hijacks of the mind check-out this article: https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3

In conclusion, I am looking for people interested in being a part of this project. If you are willing to participate in the website or have any ideas of how to make it better or have articles that should be uploaded, let me know. If you want a link to the demo website I would be happy to provide it.

Let’s make ourselves better!