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I made $100K from a dick joke

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Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#81

Post by aziaziazi »

edanm wrote: post #68
probably_wrong wrote: post #21

I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not only was it popular - it bec…

> I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the market". I mean, on some level, everything is marketing. People don't like marketing when it's fraudulent and morally suspect, which of course makes sense - I don't like tech when it's morally suspect, either! But literally every…

> something you know about because of some marketing, directly or indirectly.

That’s a broad and vague truth. Parent critics direct marketing. Also as exceptions makes the rules: the best item I ever bought was a second hand bike on the local Craigslist. Super cheap (repair included) and commuted +10000km with it. The « marketing » was the descriptive pictures and honest description, I guess.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#82

Post by aziaziazi »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #34
oaththrowaway wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just makes me more cynical about everything I see posted. Marketers ruin everything eventually

You can extend that to stories people tell and images they portray in real life.

I don’t see ruined value in fables telling though, usually the meaning and mind perspectives provides a benefit to the reader. Same with portray and most images shown in museum.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#83

Post by forty »

dakiol wrote: post #12

Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or something similar? For me, that’s the main blocker: in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale. Also, for selling online you kinda have to show in your website your “business id” (or tax id or similar)… otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m no…

In France, for very small business with only you in it (and revenue cap), you can create a micro entreprise (aka micro entrepreneur / auto entrepreneur) and it's free.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#84

Post by scrollaway »

tiffanyh wrote: post #23
dakiol wrote: post #12

Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or something similar? For me, that’s the main blocker: in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale. Also, for selling online you kinda have to show in your website your “business id” (or tax id or similar)… otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m no…

Not everyone shares your rigor to not buying from strangers. Pieter Levels is a one-person show that has started multiple businesses with just a single page & a Stripe Checkout earning millions per year and I don’t believe he’s incorporated. https://x.com/levelsio

A stripe account requires a legal entity of some sort behind it.

This can be a "physical person" (eg a freelance activity), depending on the country, but that still requires registration -- and if it's millions per year, it's usually a terrible idea to do it as a freelancer.

The money has to go somewhere. That somewhere needs to be banked. That banked entity needs to be incorporated, or treatable as a corporation.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#85

Post by bpye »

snowwrestler wrote: post #74
kgilpin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my kids’ generation (college aged) they all use Facebook Marketplace.

It’s astounding how bad FB Marketplace search is, though. For very popular things, it’s fine. For browsing and “huh, that’s interesting,” it’s fine. But if I am looking for something specific, it is an incredible failure. It’s so bad I suspect they intentionally don’t want it to work well. That is, I think they only want to optimize for low-effort social buying, not picky people who know exactly what they want. For t…

It seems to just ignore filters like “date listed” sometimes too. And people will list items at nominal prices and give the actual price in the description. Generally a poor experience.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#86

Post by j_4 »

LtdJorge wrote: post #48
purple_turtle wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale not everywhere - in Poland it is fine to run a tiny-scale business without registration https://www.biznes.gov.pl/pl/portal/00115 - among requirements, scale must be less than 75% of a minimum wage. Enough to test it. > otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m not g…

Wth? That's a great system you guys have.

On paper, yeah. Sadly the threshold is very low, and you get hit with a brutal regressive tax immediately after you pass it (obligatory lump-sum social security tax).

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#87

Post by johneth »

OJFord wrote: post #49
dakiol wrote: post #12

Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or something similar? For me, that’s the main blocker: in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is involved, even if you don’t make a single sale. Also, for selling online you kinda have to show in your website your “business id” (or tax id or similar)… otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For example, I’m no…

Certainly doesn't in the UK, are you sure that's true where you are? Here incorporating as an ltd (limited liability) costs I think £25, but you can start a business as a sole trader without any kind of fee or registration (just a de facto status requiring declaring the income on your personal tax return).

> Here incorporating as an ltd (limited liability) costs I think £25

They've increased it to (a still reasonable) £50, I assume to help fund the new legal obligations that Companies House has been given.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#88

Post by lotsofpulp »

aziaziazi wrote: post #82
lotsofpulp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can extend that to stories people tell and images they portray in real life.

I don’t see ruined value in fables telling though, usually the meaning and mind perspectives provides a benefit to the reader. Same with portray and most images shown in museum.

I am not talking about fables, I am referring to lying in order to sell one’s self, perhaps for business, or love, or networking, or even just for a laugh. Maybe even because people are lying to themselves.

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#89

Post by aziaziazi »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #88
aziaziazi wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see ruined value in fables telling though, usually the meaning and mind perspectives provides a benefit to the reader. Same with portray and most images shown in museum.

I am not talking about fables, I am referring to lying in order to sell one’s self, perhaps for business, or love, or networking, or even just for a laugh. Maybe even because people are lying to themselves.

Oh ok i didn’t read your comment that way. That makes sense. NLP is a form of self marketing I guess. "Sell" yourself ideas you want to buy on!

Re: I made $100K from a dick joke

#90

Post by stemlord »

anonu wrote: post #32
oaththrowaway wrote: post #19

I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to not pay. Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop to remove the listing s…

I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...

Honestly ebay is currently a notch better than amazon, IME
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