PP Blog Still $47 Short: [SEPTEMBER DONATION RE-POST]: The Challenges Are Unprecedented — And The PP Blog Continues To Serve Its Readers
Dear Readers,
UPDATED 8:13 P.M. EDT (SEP.16. , U.S.A.) As noted on Sept. 15, the PP Blog is $255 $205 $155 $105 ($47) short for September. The matter is pressing now, so this post has been republished.
The past few weeks have been something that approaches crazy. The PP Blog is doing some of its most important work to date — and there is plenty more to do.
The need this month again is on the order of $550. Our readers sustained us again last month, but once again it came down to the 11th hour. As always, every story you’ve read this month was made possible by our small universe of contributors.
Our mission is to keep you reliably informed and to provide content that provides both the backstory and analysis. Ponzi schemes and online fraud are a world scourge. These moments in history are unprecedented and create economic and security challenges never before seen in the history of mankind.
Please contribute if you’re able.
I’ll go $100, now, I double dog dare 4 people to match it.
@Gregg
Since you probably fixed the 4 others, then I can put in the remaining $50 (before anyone else use the same logic as me).
Promises, promises. Have these 4 or 5 people actually sent in the 100 dollars?? Do not fall back on supporting this site just because you think someone else is doing it for you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
Quick note: There have been four donations totaling $120, with $100 from a reliable contributor on the way. As things stand right now, I am $330 short.
Patrick
Non-editors note: Triple dog dare is more powerful…. :)
What if I can find some external income sources for you, after awhile? Something that reminds a little of a “job” or a role as an “external consultant” for companies, or something similar?
It will be a different role than you have here, producing something for specific clients partly outside your core field of interests.
I don’t have any on my list now, but I had one “possible client” that could need some external help in a case, but not from me (because of some “conflict of interest” between different roles). Their possible need was to GET information about something, much like an overview, and some possible other needs about how to handle that information. And it’s there the possible payment comes in, if they need additional assistance other than the initial information.
The type of clients will be businesses, usually businesses that has been involved in something they don’t realise themselves, something that looks perfectly OK from their viewpoint, but where they have a need to see other viewpoints, and possible needs for assistance in how to handle it.
I’m not familiar with that market myself. I have only identified a WILLINGNESS to pay, if they are interested in the service in the first place. And that can be important, it’s much easier when you have connections that expects to pay for something than if they expect to get it for free. :)
It won’t generate much money from the start, but it will generate experience, skills and a few connections (someone who has you on some kind of list, “people we can ask”).
The “potential client” in my previous post was “Quality Austria”, an ISO certification bureau. Their potential problem is that their certification is used in marketing by one of their clients, in a misleading way. Their client is Lyoness, a combination of a pyramid scheme and cashback card solution, where the pyramid scheme is the most central part of the business.
The story can be found on BehindMLM (search there).
In this case it can be used for training, e.g. in how to analyse material from different viewpoints to see if there is any specific needs, how to analyse a clients needs, analyse methods for how to present something, and so on and so forth.
Usually we will need to start from that starting point, get some training and build up some experience and insights, before we start to make money on something. Part of it is also about “Am I the right person here?” and “Am I able to offer the solution they really need or want?”, and similar questions.
So in short, I will usually be able to identify potential clients with potential needs, with potential willingness to pay for a service if they’re interested in it in the first place. I’m also able to identify lots of other stuff about methods and some “principles” in business. But it’s a long way from there to the point where we actually are able to make money on something.
Hi Patrick,
If you need money for your site, I was recently introduced to a great money making opportunity. For just posting an ad a day directing people to this great penny auction website, I can show you how you can create a revenue stream to not only support this site, but also create financial freedo……hold on, I’m receiving a call from my sponsor.
Ahem, um, thanks for your time Patrick, I’ve gotta go…..
All joking aside, best of luck with your efforts, I just recently found your site and have enjoyed the reading. Wish I could help with more than just a laugh….
I appreciate your sense of humor and am glad you found the site and have enjoyed the reading, Brad.
Of course, a person now on his fifth, post-ban identity in the past few days started prowling this thread a half-hour or so after your post. He took the theme of your joke and loaded up a couple of new spitballs — or perhaps he saw them as arrows to the heart.
There was no intellectual honesty in his would-be posts at all — and yet I get the sense that he sees himself as one of the few people who “get it.”
Patrick
Quick note: Am $280 short — and the 11th Hour is near.
On a side note, the individual referenced in the post above is now on his eighth post-ban identity. He’d like my readers to know he’s offended both by my appearance and my writing. Plus, he’d like my readers to know he’s offended by K. Chang.
Along those lines, another person has started up — this time through the Contact form.
Patrick
Quick note: Down to $255 short now.
Patrick
Quick note: Down to $205 short now.
Patrick
Quick note: Down to $155 short now.
Patrick
Sorry about the nut jobs, PP.
Seriously, how intellectually bereft must you be that you have to blather like a fool in support of some random scammer?
It boggles my mind at how weak in mind and spirit that you must be in order to throw yourself on your sword for some yahoo that you’ve probably never even met.
Sheesh, get a grip!
Quick note: He’s up to 10 user IDs now, plus he’s hitting the contact form under an 11th identity.
Patrick
Hello M_Norway,
I appreciate your sharing of ideas this month and last. I’m afraid the “consulant” role you mentioned would not be a good one for me — at least not in that context. Please know I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
The PP Blog now has nearly 1,750 posts. Not sure if you’re aware, but the Blog’s history includes being targeted by DDoS attacks, various cyberstalkers and people who default to the lesser angels of their nature. There have been attacks against this site, a former companion site, posters on this Blog, sources of revenue.
I’m a journalist, M_Norway. I haven’t given up and I won’t give up, despite operating in a field in which I am routinely made the target of menacing and harassment.
As things stand today, I’ll probably have to publish one more donation post for October and hope a little more comes in this month. After that, I anticipate being OK for the balance of the year.
A longtime reader recently made me aware of a potential revenue source that may be a good fit for the Blog. Beyond that, I have been approached by an entity very much in line with my philosophy and believe that something good may happen in the months ahead.
Thanks, M_Norway. Your are a thoughtful and analytical person, and I very much enjoy reading your take on things.
Patrick
@admin
I’m trying to identify other solutions than the donations, because I KNOW donations won’t work very well in the long term, unless you’re producing something for specific markets where donations can act as some type of “voluntarily payment for services”.
Your MAIN audience here seems to be “other scam investigators”, basically doing a work similar to your own in different ways. And THEY probably have their OWN financial situations to take care of, where YOUR financial situation normally will have a lower priority than their own if there’s any conflicts between them.
Donations should primarily come from other audiences than that, at least if we’re talking about a long term solution. It means you probably will need to extend your “range of audiences” and/or “range of services” in the long term.
As an example, in the aftermath of Zeek’s collapse it suddenly popped up an audience asking for solutions, e.g. “What has happened?”, “What will happen?”, “What should we do or NOT do to protect our interests?”. BehindMLM was a chaos at that time because of a huge number of posts (several hundred comments per day for 3-4 days), and was NOT very able to deliver any solutions.
In that situation, someone with an organised solution would probably be able to attract readers AND donations, simply by giving people the answers they were looking for (or important parts of the answers).
That audience I have identified there is different from your current main audience. Donations from them would have been related to how able you could be to deliver solutions to their PERSONAL problems in that situation, rather than from a more general need for information.
Donations from “other scam investigators” is only a temporarily solution. You can’t expect that solution to work very well for months and years to come?
I have started to look for other solutions than that. I seriously don’t believe in the idea that we will see an increasing stream of “other scam investigators” popping up, “eager to contribute with their money on a monthly basis”. It will probably fail in the last part even if the first part works — the “increasing stream”.
As a contributor, I personally prefer to contribute with information, knowledge or skills, rather than with my own money. Contribution with money will only temporarily solve something, while a method where I can contribute with other people’s money can probably be repeated over and over again (e.g. directing people to a solution they can be willing to “pay” for).
(I’ll continue this post in a next post. I’m rather busy right now with some other work).
I personally would like to see an option to make an automated monthly donation of, say 10$, 25$, 50$, 75$ or 100$ per month.
@Lil Ol’ Radical Me
The general principle for making money is to produce and deliver something in a market, where people are willing to pay for it. “Something” means anything of value, but it can very well be about emotional value rather than “real, measurable value”.
Lyoness is what I will consider to be a pyramid scheme, but it offer a few other types of “victims” than the participants. The ISO-certifiers are one type of “victim”, i.e. their certifications have been used in a misleading way in Lyoness’ marketing. Some of the mercants are “victims”. Nelson Mandela is another type of “victim”, since Lyoness has used him as marketing tool / “credibility” (in return for donations to a school project).
I’m clearly ANALYSING different aspects of the case, and are able to identify alot more than the scam itself. I’m not primarily a “scam investigator”, I have mostly worked as a salesman, in market research and similar jobs.
If we return to thee basic principle, “produce and deliver something of value”, there’s lots of potential paying customers or clients among the “victims”. I can probably fill in lots of the missing pieces in how to do it (the basic principle).
I mean methods like this is better than monthly “subscriptions”. Most people will prefer to reduce their monthly expenses rather than increasing them.