The biggest scam of self-media (Part 1)

This article opposes making a fortune through self-media, and explains the reasons in three points. The article's views are of reference value and are recommended for friends who are not sure whether to do self-media.

If you are still thinking about turning your life around and making money through self-media, I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible.

Let me tell you the truth about self-media. If you read this article carefully, it will subvert your understanding of self-media.

The definition of self-media here does not include well-known top internet celebrities, and they cannot be called self-media. They are all operated by larger teams and have their own brokerage companies behind them.

The route taken by top internet celebrities is completely different from that of our own media and there is no comparison.

What we are discussing today is the common self-media. We won’t mention the names. I’m not talking about you, but everyone here.

Some words may irritate some people, so everyone, just treat it as a joke.

This article is a bit long. If you read it, it will definitely subvert your "fantasy" about self-media.

1. Young people, you must think clearly about what you are pursuing?

The wind of the self-media era has blown over. If you still want to be a self-media, you must think clearly: are you using self-media to record your life, or are you relying on self-media to make money and support your family?

You can sort out the monetization paths of self-media with your toes. How big is the market size of these monetization paths?

Are there any listed companies that started out as self-media companies? I haven’t seen any.

Even those that started out as domestic self-media and have now become large-scale companies still organize activities in various places and collect various ticket fees, and their founders also give lectures in various places.

We-media don’t look at the heads of we-media. They have already made money from business to capital.

For a normal self-media person, if he does a good job and has a mature course system and can do training and in-house training, he can easily earn three to five hundred thousand yuan a year. There are not many people who can earn over one million yuan.

As for those who rely on hot topics to sell courses, for example, those who are selling AI courses now can make millions in a wave of popularity, but after making these millions, where will the sustainable income come from?

Now, the economy is in a downturn and the unemployment rate remains high. Knowledge training is definitely not a good path, and the ultimate path for self-media is to sell courses.

Therefore, if you are pursuing an annual income of less than 300,000 yuan, if you start accumulating now, you can achieve an annual income of 300,000 yuan in three to five years.

You see, people who make some money in the media have accumulated a lot of "fans" on a certain platform over a long period of time before they can realize monetization.

However, you need to constantly learn new knowledge, constantly expand the boundaries of "bragging", and constantly PUA yourself before PUAing others.

It seems that he is well-informed, but in fact, he has nothing to show for it except for accumulating "some" hardcore fans. To put it bluntly, the money earned in this way is the money that others trust.

If you cannot continuously gain the trust of new users, the business itself will not be sustainable.

To sum up, if you want to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, accumulating for a few years is feasible. If your business is not sustainable, you will most likely have to return to the workplace in the end.

If your pursuit is greater than this and you want to achieve a small freedom of wealth, then the self-media platform is not suitable for you. It would be more suitable for you to go into the workplace, entrepreneurship, and financing.

Second, the times are changing too fast , and many self-media people’s words are no longer acceptable

I know that most of my friends who follow me are people working in the workplace, and they all want to learn some practical skills and expand their thinking here.

This is called the "VUCA era" because the changes in this era are so fast. Last year's business model is no longer applicable this year.

As people who are responsible for performance results in the workplace, we should make corresponding decisions as the environment changes.

Partners doing business this year have discovered that users’ willingness to pay for software has declined. If someone still tells you how to do business from 2015 to 2020, will you choose to listen or not?

The year 2015 is known as the “first year of SaaS”. In the past five years, the development of the private economy, the development of software, and even the development of SaaS have all been on the rise.

In the rising period, as long as you can work steadily and endure the hardship of acquiring customers, the company can still live comfortably. Even if you cannot make money from the market, the company can still get a chance to get a blood transfusion from capital.

After all, the market is booming and no one wants to miss the opportunity to make money.

Therefore, the business during this period is more inclined to expand customer base, convert customers, quickly gain territory, and become a leader in the industry.

By 2022, the epidemic has been completely lifted, and the world is in turmoil. Faced with internal and external troubles, entrepreneurs are slightly pessimistic about the future.

During the epidemic, everyone was looking forward to explosive growth after the epidemic. However, it now seems that growth is still slow and the world is still in turmoil.

This year, you will suddenly find that the experience of previous years is no longer fully applicable today. Today, people are more concerned about banding together for warmth and exchanging resources.

Moreover, Internet traffic is declining and users' willingness to purchase continues to drop.

With the change of environment and users, how can we achieve new results by holding on to the existing ideas?

Therefore, the experience of self-media people two years ago is no longer of much guiding significance today. How will learning from the experience of two years ago help you?

If you want to learn the principles of "dialects that are applicable everywhere in the world", why not read the most classic books in the industry?

What you need to learn is to keep up with the trend of the times and combine the latest reflections on classic theories and guidance in the industry, or the latest thinking of entrepreneurs in their business.

If you ask me, my biggest blessing is that I have not yet left the business, have not left the front line, and am not simply studying theory.

Having been away from the experience conveyed by self-media for too long, it is really not recommended to learn too much today, as it is possible that this knowledge will become a burden to you.

3. Those who spend their energy on self-media usually don’t do well in the workplace . Those who do well in the workplace usually don’t engage in self-media.

Come, let me tell you another truth. If you observe carefully, anyone who is very successful in self-media is not doing well in the workplace, or has already left the workplace.

Those who have vested interests in the workplace generally do not invest their energy in self-media, and rarely even show up in public.

On many occasions, I would also say that I am a former Tencent employee. Why am I still working on self-media in Tencent? To put it bluntly, I am not a vested interest of the team. If the leader values ​​me, the salary is in place, the position is in place, and I am the boss's confidant, and I can get a fixed salary increase every year, will I still spend energy on self-media? Absolutely not!!!

Don't be fooled by the many titles of those who work in self-media, such as executives of large companies, vice presidents of companies, general managers of business units, and those who have managed hundreds of people in the company.

Who doesn’t know how to package? Sometimes people will question you, but they will only talk about you behind your back and never point it out to your face.

Think about it, do you make more money working in a big company or doing self-media? To be frank, most self-media people don’t make as much as those in the workplace.

Don’t listen to what the self-media people say, because most of them are marginalized, their business is not core, or they are not the core of the team.

Have you ever found that senior executives in large companies are working on self-media part-time? First: they are prohibited by the company from engaging in self-media. If they accidentally publish content, it may bring unexpected disasters to the company. It is better to keep their mouths shut. Second: they are so busy that they really have no time to engage in self-media. The amount of money they make is really outrageous. Third: it is too much money. People don’t even look down on the little money that self-media makes.

Not to mention the vice presidents of some well-known companies who have come out to engage in self-media. On the contrary, some CEOs of some companies have made public appearances, and they are not just engaging in self-media, but they also use self-media as a channel to acquire customers and endorse the company's brand.

It is hard to say whether this kind of evaluation is true or not. Some companies have closed down, some have been acquired, and of course, some are preparing to go public. However, as a professional, it is not recommended that you allocate too much energy to self-media.

Just imagine, if you don’t dare to work all-in, how can your boss dare to entrust you with important tasks? Only when you work hard first can you gain the recognition of your boss.

Of course, if your leader is not good enough, you might as well invest your energy in self-media.

Author: Zhang Mu, Operations Officer

Source: WeChat public account "Operation Officer Zhang Mu" (ID: coozhangmu)