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The goal of this post is to level you up and give you real insight so that you can win and make bank. Actually pay attention to this one. Take the time to read it, cos I’m not fluffin’ you around.
You know all about oil wars, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock since 1914 – and you’ve also been told that “Attention is the new oil”.
So…. what did you expect?
Sure enough: We now have platform wars.
It’s begun.
“TikTok is evil and so YOU CAN’T HAVE IT (UNLESS WE OWN IT).”
Their move to own I mean ban TikTok is astonishingly brazen. They haven’t actually pointed out a law that TikTok has broken, have they? Did I miss something?
They just know that TikTok is eating their pie, bigtime, and they can’t have that.
It’s a game of tit-for-tat, of course – because China has banned FB and the rest “Because they can”. It simply doesn’t serve their interests – for multiple reasons – to have their citizens able to communicate freely with the rest of the world, on a foreign-owned app!
The most important thing to realize is that none of this is being done in your interests, at all.
This is capitalist hardball in full swing. These are superpowers slugging it out for global dominance and they do not care AT ALL about you. None of these nation states are “The good guys”. NONE of them.
Do not fall for any of the flag waving rhetoric. These MFs have TEETH. And superweapons.
And money. Want some?
Beep Beep. Your Money Radar Just Went Crazy
The fact that the powers-that-be are willing to play such dirty hardball over control of a social media app should not only alarm you as to just how much they control you, but it should also cause a blip on your entrepreneurial radar. Just how badly they want to own it, gives you an insight into the extreme juicy potential there is in this arena.
Social media literally has the power to change the course of empires – and that means immense opportunity – not only for the Kings and Queens of the chessboard – but also for us pawns, who now have a novel way to make it to the end of the board and become powerful pieces in our own right!
And this is troubling for them. China is now making American entrepreneurs rich all of a sudden – and this is a new twist. It would be just ok for them to be making Chinese kids rich, but now that they are empowering the US kids…? That’s not ok. That cannot be allowed, because it gives China far too much influence. This must be stopped!
The superpowers’ own greed as to be the winner of the platform wars is also combined with not wanting the public to be able to break out of the matrix. This is really real. They don’t want you becoming too rich and too successful. They want it all for themselves. Don’t for one minute kid yourself into thinking there is anything whatsoever nice going on here. This is power play, pure and simple. As George Carlin famously said, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.”
★ TAKE AWAYS ★
Take Away # 1) It’s Boom Time.
It’s always boom time – for them. “The park is open 24/7/365, every decade, every goddamn century”…
But you can make some proper cash here if you position yourself well. Try not to spend it all.
The major platforms have now all understood that the way to win the platform wars is to get the audience – and the very best way to get the audience is… free candy… aka free money. So they will compete with each other extremely aggressively now in order to get all the influencers and content creators onto their platform. And the very best way they can do that – is to start making their users rich.
Just like the casino, they will make a few people rich. Not because they want them to have any money, but because it pulls a flood of new hopefuls in through the door. It’s especially helpful for them if the people they make rich are kinda dumb looking and loud mouthed, so that they will shout it from the rooftops and make people think, “If this schmuck can do it, so can I!!”
The above scenario is excellent news for you, the content creator. You have an opportunity RIGHT NOW, if you give it your absolute best shot – to make some proper money.
However, take careful note – because:
Take Away # 2) If The Boom Gets Too Big, They Will Crush It.
You MUST MUST MUST remember – they do not want to make you too rich, for too long. Because that would free you – and they do NOT want to free you. Trust me!!!!!
They want you to be a middle class slave, their favorite kind! Middle class slaves are very lucrative for them because they pay lots and lots and lots of tax and do lots and lots of SHOPPING.
They do not want you to be RICH RICH. They do not want you to have F.U. money.
If too many kids start getting too rich and too free, they will LEGISLATE against whatever is making them rich. So watch out for that – and be ready to sidestep it by having diverse traffic sources and diverse income streams.
Take Away # 3) They Don’t Want You Rich. They Want You HOOKED.
You can give someone a certain amount of money and it will not make them free.
It will make them addicted to the new money source.
Facebook made its first wave of successful fan page owners “medium rich” (I was one of them)…. but then they gradually choked the life out of those pages and bled them dry – dialing back the reach and making you chase it perpetually.
Snapchat too gave out the free candy, giving $1M per day to the creator fund in the early days (note how they’ve choked it off now).
It was all part of the plan. And this is now a standard part of the playbook. Give the first wave a big pile of free candy and the rest will pile in.
And then – once they’ve got you – they will gradually dial up the fees and dial down the reach – to make you chase it harder.
Lo and behold, look at this. Quadrupling their fees, coming up. Together with the standard meaningless fluff about better serving customers. No it isn’t, it’s designed to extract more revenue!
Anticipate that the party it will not last – but right now it’s party time, so make the most of the party while you can!
Just remember to be strategic, always – and to know the game so that you can play to win.
A crucial part of knowing the game is understanding that NONE of this is being done because they are nice and because they want to see you win. They do not give a flying F about you. They will turn the lights out on your little following in a HEARTBEAT if it no longer serves their purpose to have you on their platform.
And what is their purpose? To own you and put you to work building their platform, with no easy way out. They want to be the only game in town, and have you working 24/7 like a slave to continue to fund your new lifestyle and your new burn rate.
Well, look at you. You’re a bright, hungry, good-looking young entrepreneur. Come right in to my office! Here – have a cigar…
Take Away # 4) Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss.
You think you are well off, because you now have 10x the paper coming in you used to have. You think your New Boss is your Liberator From Oppression – and you love them!
And you think you are an entrepreneur now, because they told ya so – and that sounds good.
You think you have a “freedom lifestyle”.
Nope.
You are just the new boss’s b*tch and he got you hooked with that initial wave of cash!
And just like the casino, he knows you are gonna come back to that table you won at, again and again and again.
Listen to the lyrics!!! And don’t get fooled again.
You’re building their platform for them. And they want you by the balls. They already got you – try deGoogling your life and you will see what I mean!
You think making a couple of million dollars online is gonna free you? It’s nice, but no, it will not. Ask me how I know!!!
First – the algorithm is an extremely hungry beast. You need to be making fresh content CONTINUALLY otherwise you lose your engagement, which means you lose your cashflow.
Not only this, but you now NEED that cash. Because your new money just bought you a new burn rate. Yes it did.
A high burn rate is extremely addicting and hard to break out of. Once you get used to spending that much money, changing gear back to low spending is very difficult.
Building up an income on any other platform is also DIFFICULT, compared to the easier money you are already getting on the first platform.
Put the above factors together and you will suddenly find yourself FORCED to continue working for the new boss round the clock in order to finance your bigger, expanded life. That big house has big bills. So does that expensive car. And all the other high maintenance things you now acquired. Ask me how I know this too, I ended up selling the house to pay the debt that started piling up when they dialed back the reach! All this despite working flat out. Lesson learned the hard way, don’t make the mistakes I made.
And so, hooked you shall be, unless you….
Take Away # 5) Diversify – And Learn To Go Viral Reliably On More Than One Platform.
Most social media entrepreneurs don’t diversify enough and once they get traction on one platform, they tend to stick with that platform. Understandable, because that platform is now paying the bills – but it creates a single point of failure, which is a weakness and a dependency.
Despite how well they think they are doing, it doesn’t end well unless they have a solid exit strategy.
Pick any random social media entrepreneur who has done fairly well – and take a look at their social graph. You will see that most social media entrepreneurs are only strong on one platform.
It’s not always the same platform – it might be TikTok, Instagram, FB, Youtube… etc. But it’s that big win on that one platform that is the only thing putting air in the balloon.
There are a few reasons for this. Each platform has its own skill set and set of “chops” needed to blow it up – as well as a mountain of work put in – and while there are some universal factors that apply cross-platform, the real hacks needed to win on any given platform are usually specific to that platform.
So, learning to blow it up on more than one platform is a vital skill set – because this essentially gives you freedom of movement.
Wasn’t that the point of all this? Yes, it is.
Take Away # 6) There Are Now Multiple Games In Town
It’s going to be interesting and potentially very profitable times, because the platforms all want you working for them – and they now know they have to outcompete each other. The internet is a maturing ecosystem and there is no real possibility for them to be the only game in town any more. Entrepreneurs now have the freedom to go where they are treated best.
Which (hopefully) means they will not be able to shit on you quite as hard – although they will probably try to find a way!
But for now – audience building is almost certainly the #1 way for the average person to level up.
The other thing you need to do is build an email list. This is for multiple reasons a) it can make big money b) no social media platform on earth can f*** with your reach or your fan base. You have them for just as long as you continue to provide them with a good reason to stay signed up.
Remember this: It’s not really YOUR audience if someone else can take it away from you with a click….
Take Away # 7) Break Out Of Their Trap.
The key secret here is to understand that the way to freedom is to build your own platform.
I don’t mean build your own social media site, although that could work. I mean, your own brand and robust audience – in both email and multiple social media accounts.
You use their platform in order to get a leg up, but you are aware that this is only a stepping stone and that your own “empire” is required.
Get the followers and the money will follow. This is why they give ‘too much’ for free in the outset. It’s the best thing you can do, too. Go nuts with the free value, lock in a solid fan base that you can reach with one click – and then monetize.
This is deep knowledge and most will never understand it!
It’s wise to assume that a social media following is somewhat ephemeral. It’s a wave and it’s not long term. Just like the small cap crypto from 2016, give it a few years and it’s all washed up.
There are very few social media entrepreneurs who have managed to win big and break out of the trap completely: Love him or hate him, Tate is one – and he played this to PERFECTION. He KNEW that with his hyper-aggressive marketing techniques and deliberately provocative methods of courting attention (it’s #6 of The 48 Laws Of Power, and yes that is an affiliate link), that they would ban him at some point. It was just a matter of time. He predicted it! And so, being the fine chess player that he is, he already had a plan in place.
Always have a plan in place!! You should KNOW what your enemy’s next move is likely to be and you create a strategy that allows for it.
Tate created a very solid email list and so when he got nuked on multiple platforms simultaneously (getting too powerful for the powers that be!) he was able to outmaneuver them… rare level of skill! Like I said, love him or hate him, up to you, but separate your emotions from the game, LEARN and APPLY.
Take Away # 8) Become RESILIENT: Be An AFFILIATE (And Build Audiences) On Multiple Platforms.
I saved the best til last. 😉
These are going to be very, VERY, VERY good times for affiliates.
If you thought affiliate marketing was good before… you ain’t seen nothing yet. It’s going to get insane. There are going to be CRAZY gold rush fortunes being made by affiliates in the coming years and it’s going to drive huge numbers of new people into affiliate marketing.
TikTok Shop has taken all the complex logistics out of being an affiliate and made it so that basically anyone can start promoting products and making money – with unprecedented ease. This has caused massive numbers of affiliates to pile on to the top opportunities.
Previously, platforms were either a social media platform or an ecommerce platform.
The next evolution is the fusion of both.
TikTok Shop is the perfect fusion of ecommerce and social media. The sweet spot right in the middle. They nailed it, kids are getting rich and shouting it from the rooftops which is causing even more people to pile on – and the other platforms are now trying to catch up.
That’s the real reason they want to ban TikTok. It’s because TikTok outgamed them and are winning! Big Tech’s massive influence in the USA is transparent – look how they are able to pull the strings in the House. Do you think ANY of those supposed representatives of the public gives a flying F if the plug gets pulled on your little kingdom in the process?
But despite the shadowy overtones – all of this is extremely good news for the affiliate because platforms now know they have to offer the juiciest opportunity to the content creator to get you to affiliate for their program. That means higher payouts. It means they will copy each other’s tactics.
So be smart. Know the forces in play, know how the game is played, know how you are being played… and don’t get fooled again.
Hopefully I leveled you up with this. Let me know.
Alex.
“Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar
You’re gonna go far, you’re gonna fly high
You’re never gonna die
You’re gonna make it if you try
They’re gonna love you
Well I’ve always had a deep respect
And I mean that most sincere
The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh by the way, which one’s pink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy
We call it ‘riding the gravy train’
We’re just knocked out
We heard about the sell out
You gotta get an album out
You owe it to the people
We’re so happy we can hardly count
Everybody else is just green
Have you seen the chart?
It’s a helluva start
It could be made into a monster
If we all pull together as a team
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy
We call it ‘riding the gravy train.” – PINK FLOYD
