Dissecting more bullshit advice from Wall St. Playboys commenters

As a follow-up on my last post, This is why some guys get nowhere, I am going to spend some more time discussing bullshit online. It's about "money making" advice, and you may very well ask why you should bother. However, there are a few good lessons to be learnt, and if not that, then there is hopefully some entertainment value in it.

But before we start, let's ponder the question how you can tell that someone online is full of shit. It's not that difficult as long as you have some knowledge and experience to draw from, and aren't allergic to basic arithmetic. The absolute worst are people who know nothing, form strong opinions, and feel compelled to spread their nonsense all over the internet. I'm sure you can think of an example or two. One only hopes that those people are merely scammers, instead of morons, who take advantage of the plethora of idiots online.

Without further ado, here is another brain-dead comment taken from the post Money Changes Your Life over at Wall Street Playboys. (I think this comment is a parody, but bear with me for a moment.) Here it is:

How to make good money now – Just giving back value as sites like this have helped me out a lot.

Google take-aways in your area. Majority will have links to either hungry house or just eat (I’m U.K based) with no actual website of their own. Take note of their numbers.

Cold call all businesses and pitch a prospect of creating a website were they can take orders directly and not have to pay a commission to an affiliate. Give a charge of lets say £50 for site creation, roughly $80 and a recurring £10($15) a month for “maintenance costs.

Learn how to make a website ( using Wix or Weebly its easy to learn with a little patience) or alternatively if you’re lazy like me pay someone on Fiverr to do it for you.

Do this with 25 takeaways alone ( very easy in a town/city if you have a solid work ethic) and you’ll have £250/$360 a month going into your bank account for practically doing nothing.

Tips? Sound confident on the phone. Dress sharp when meeting them in person. Have template websites to show them to show credibility. Convince them the value of taking orders directly and having an internet presence.

This doesn’t even have to just be limited to take outs, can move to garages, flourists you name it… I’ve just found take outs to be easiest.

Good luck & see you on the other side.

Let's do a little bit of brain-storming why this is complete nonsense:

1) If take-aways don't have websites in this day and age, then they arguably don't need one; they sell cheap food to impulse buyers who normally want their food right now. Ordering online doesn't seem to quite fit the picture.

2) Setting up a website for 50 GBP with an order system and integrated payment processor is ludicrous, and 10 GBP for "maintenance"? GTFO. Well, maybe the numbers work if you live off rice in some third-world shit hole and don't need to pay any rent.

3) Oh, first pitching and selling, and then learning how to actually build a website? Yeah, bro, you got your priorities straight. Good luck finding someone to do it for five bucks for you on Fiverr.

4) Sure, 250 GBP for practically doing nothing. If you are unfortunate enough to find takers for your offer, you'll find out that you are getting peanuts for the amount of time you need to invest. Oh, and what about stuff like hosting, or hardware costs?

But ignore the content as it does not really matter. The point is that everybody can put some bullshit online, and there are apparently countless even bigger idiots out there who lack both experience and common sense, and basic basic arithmetic skills as well.

I think the comment I quoted was a parody. However, I recall people falling for much bigger nonsense. Some years ago Internet Marketers were pushing "affiliate marketing" as an income source. You only had to build a lot of niche blogs, and then watch money flow in. One of the bigger scams was "Ed Dale's" "30 Day Challenge". Even before I had a website as "Aaron Sleazy" I had some Facebook contacts who fell for that nonsense hook, line and sinker. I recall making two people very angry by asking one whether he had proof that they can make a non-trivial amount of money doing this. The other got stumped when I inquired whether "Ed Dale" has any successful niche blogs himself and what they were. You wouldn't believe the rationalizations people make. Just like with PUAs, they were happy that they found their new messiah, and they didn't appreciate critical questions.

In general, the cycle of bullshit seems rather simple: a boastful idiot assumes the role of a leader, and gullible idiots fall for it. It's a match made in heaven. This reminds me, I should probably ask around more often to finally find "that one guy" who is fat, broke, short, and ugly and yet bangs the hottest women on the planet. I'll be right back.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
(Also, if you’ve got a comment that is off-topic or only tangentially related to this article, then please post in the most recent Open Thread. Thank you.)