model dumbass

MODEL DUMBASS

*
note: SF, a most generous PayPal donation.  Thank you!
*

Why is everyone adapting the business model of The World’s Biggest Dumbass?  Sure, obviously this is a widespread phenomenon that clearly is part of the grand scheme of things.  As the system implodes the system become dysfunctional.  It is like the parties in Berlin as the Soviets are at the city gates.  Rather than try to escape the leadership just settled down to party like it was 1999 ( I understand that Odessa didn’t pick them to run the rat line to Argentina, as they weren’t of sufficient rank.  But why didn’t they start walking?  ).  You can understand why they did as they did but you have a hard time understanding why they ignored other choices.

*

And that is where I am trying to understand the corporate mentality.  I understand that you can get dysfunction and greed and stupidity to pay.  Wal-Mart was, once again, the leader.  Just as they returned to one stop shopping and centralized discounts ( picking up the ball dropped by Sears after they fell in love with the shopping mall stocked with Chinese made clothing model and ignored what had made them successful ) and made a mint ( you cannot blame customers for wanting to save money after over twenty years of decreasing purchasing power ), now they are the first and most successful screwing over their once loyal customer base.

*

What I cannot understand is how you can stay in business when you cannot even do the ONE friggin thing you are in business to do.  Here’s a good example, which I just experienced and hence is weighing on me and what I’m violently stewing about.  I was thinking to myself, self, you studly manly brute, you, after Christmas the personal donations went into the toilet.  Frankly, I’m surprised they lasted as long as they did.  I am always astounded when someone sends me $5, let alone the incomprehensible $20.  It really is no way to run a sustainable business.  Too few love you THAT much, and they can only be so generous for so long.

*

( I’ve been thinking on an article on if the publishing model for the last 150 years is broken.  By which I mean the mass publication, cheap enough for everyone.  Newspapers are no longer affordable, and really neither is the Internet so that doesn’t substitute.  And, magazines I think were at that juncture prior to newspapers.  Magazines, I can understand being killed by the Internet, more so than I can newspapers.  You no longer need a magazine to discover companies.  At least newspapers are still a good fit for local business.  But, finally my point-magazines are more unaffordable as they go from ad centric content back to knowledge content specifically.

*

( Since magazine distribution is a dead model, now we get our knowledge from many different blogs and websites that must all be individually supported.  The ads for those sites are failing and with the advent of Patreon and single company sponsors [ such as the video game company being pimped by the YouTube channel ] it becomes much more expensive per article for the consumer to read a magazine.  There are obviously other factors.  But I think the general trend is a return to boutique publishers, just as services are returning to that model [ for proper service verses half-assed  ].  Even goods are moving away from mass production to custom/boutique/mom & pop.  If you want a good bicycle, you don’t go to Wally, you go to Bike Dudes Bike Shop And Surfer Emporium.  You don’t rely on a big name gun manufacturer to deliver a tack driver.  That kind of thing ).

*

And the business that has kept me in business has always been the Amazon ad commission.  The Google ads might have worked up until the ‘08 implosion.  Very generous minions donated all last year while I was getting this whole self employment thing off the ground ( and for that, the biggest hugs and kisses.  But you can stop now.  You did more than enough and I love you all, but I don’t expect it anymore.  It would be unfair of me to do so anyway-I might need you again in the future.  For now, Amazon is doing well supporting me ).  Book sales, well, those ALWAYS sucked.  I get it.  You guys are not freakish slavish dedicated readers such as myself.  You want quick and done.

*

So Amazon commissions are the only way to stay in business.  I refuse to do the ads everyone else is doing.  No matter what color of lipstick you put on that pig, you are ALWAYS beholden to your advertisers and change ( or originate ) your content to appease them.  That is no way to write, especially with something as important as survivalism.  But as I’ve already written, Amazon won’t last another twenty years.  They started and continued by promising customer value above all else, which included plowing profits back into the business.  Then they continued both by picking up the slack from Wal-Mart and benefiting from a inflation rocket boosted stock market. 

*

But that won’t last too much longer, and cashing out the kind of money Bezos or Zuckerburg did to me bespeaks imminent death of the company.  I could be wrong.  But I wanted to hedge my bets.  I started looking around for other companies that offered commissions.  My first thought was Sportsman’s Guide.  A great company which I love ( just like Amazon ).  Well, they don’t themselves run a commission program.  They go through a third party company.  Sweet!  Especially since they allow you as a member to sign up with any of the other companies they cover.  I could have a whole batch of prepper crap offered which offered commission.

*

Well, guess what?  The company software was so crappy I couldn’t complete the application process.  Hey, I’m terrible with computers, but if I can go through and discover the arcane voodu flavored process of adding my blog articles to the Amazon Author page, some real pocket protector nerd crap, I can be patient enough to discover a sign up process.  Well, no.  It wouldn’t take my password, rejecting that and assigning me a new one and when I tried using that one it wouldn’t accept that.  I tried using my issued ID number instead of my e-mail, I tried all combinations of ID, mail and different password.  No dice.  I couldn’t get past the first page which only asked for two items.  I hadn’t even gotten to the credit card or bank info yet!

*

Just like Patreon screwed me by screwing up me signing up on their page.  Simply not accepting the prompted information.  Patreon and this commission company made money ONE way.  Signing up new customers.  And they won’t let you sign up?  How are they staying in business ( and for a FYI, when I went to sign up at Wal-Mart for their affiliate program, they directed me to a page with a grey screen and nothing else.  At least I can understand that.  They don’t care about Internet sales )?  When Amazon made a lot of money on impulse sales, but then larded up their pages with ads for that silly ass talking toaster or whatever the hell it is ( the one that spies on you are reports back to the NSA whatever you are saying-yeh, party like its 1984! ), what kind of business model is that?

*

Is Amazon making money from the NSA, just like Microsoft ( you can’t tell me they were giving away their last version of Windows for no reason.  If they aren’t being paid it is because they are doing the evil spying to be allowed to stay in business as they break laws )?  Not only are they hurting impulse sales, the new slow loading pages and sponsored content hiding my searches are a big reason I finally canceled Kindle Unlimited.  Why would you want to screw up KU?  Netflix must buy their content ahead of time.  It costs a lot of money.  Amazon gets all their books for free!  All they need to do is pay out a commission after they are paid first.  It is a gold mine.  Especially since there are so many authors anymore ( thanks, non-hobbyist quick buck artists! ) that the only way to make money is to put your crap on KU ( not that this works for me, but it obviously must for others ).

*

Now, yes, obviously I understand making profits this quarter and screw the next quarters viability of the company itself.  This is business as usual today.  But how do you even make THIS quarters profits?  Okay, Amazon is making more on the ads NOW, than will eventual be given to them by satisfied KU readers.  A lot will be so desperate for nearly free entertainment they will put up with the BS.  I get that part.  They must be desperate for money now, to prop up the stock price for the last bonanza cash-out.  But what about the companies that don’t even want me as a customer?  You guys need to wait until AFTER I’m a customer to screw me, not before!  Duh!

*

I want your takeaway to be this.  If for-profit companies cannot handle a BASIC infrastructure bringing in new customers, even as they alienate their old customers and lose them, do you really think you should fear any kind of Big Brother oppression which relies on anything digital?  I don’t know if all companies are hacking their competitors, if it is strictly total incompetence as PC snowflakes are hired out of college simply for being Of Color, Transgendered and suitably leftist rather than trained, or if all government and corporate entities are  being hacked by the Chinese so our economy fails faster, but the end result is that Skynet is not exactly a problem anytime soon.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2GGFMoR )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there