The Internet is One. Giant. Grift.

Let’s stop pretending it’s not.

I don’t care how shiny your “six-figure funnel” is, how many free webinars you’ve attended, or how deeply you believe in the dream of passive income while sipping overpriced coffee on a white-sand beach.

You’re not delusional. You’ve just been grifted.

It Starts With the Hook

They’ll always tell you the same thing: “You’re just one step away from making money online.”

A step. A single step. Just a tiny tweak away from going viral, or unlocking some secret strategy that finally makes your $37 digital product print money while you sleep.

Funny how that one step always seems to cost $497.

Or $997.

Or, if you’re really unlucky, $1,997 with a countdown timer and three fake bonuses thrown in to justify the con.

And listen, I’m not mad at people making money. Make your bag. What I’m mad at is the fact that they’re not selling you anything real. They’re selling you a story. A fantasy. A perfectly curated illusion with great lighting and just enough relatability to make you think:

“Well damn… if they can do it, so can I.” Except they didn’t do it. Not the way they said they did, anyway.

They Don’t Practice What They Preach

Here’s the dirty little secret they won’t tell you: Most of the people selling you “how to grow on YouTube”… don’t know how to grow on YouTube.

They’re not running actual businesses. They’re not living off their digital product income. They’re not quietly killing it behind the scenes. They’re just really, really good at making it look like they are.

What they are doing is, getting affiliate commissions by recommending software they barely use.

Copy/pasting ChatGPT responses into Pinterest pins.

Selling recycled “start a newsletter” courses for $300.

Sponsoring each other’s products and pretending it’s a community, not a closed-loop money machine.

It’s smoke and mirrors, baby. Always has been.

You Are the Product

You ever wonder why you’re being told to create content constantly?
Why you’re expected to show up on every platform, engage like your life depends on it, and churn out freebies like it’s your job?

Because it is your job.

You are the content.
You are the product.
You are the monetization strategy.

The system doesn’t care if you succeed. It just needs you to stay busy — long enough for someone to sell you something while you’re out here trying to sell them something.

It’s like a never-ending MLM with better branding.

“Start a Newsletter” They Said

Let me get on my soapbox for a second.

Email newsletters are the new pyramid scheme. Yeah, I said it.

You know what I’m talking about — those people who claim email is the holy grail of marketing. “Start a newsletter!” they chant, as if the mere act of sending an email with a Canva header and a sassy CTA will unlock wealth and freedom.

Meanwhile, you’re paying $29/month for ConvertKit and sending weekly emails to 87 people — 52 of whom are your ex-co-workers and that one cousin who never unsubscribes because they’re too polite.

And what are you emailing them?

Affiliate links.
Your new $9 eBook.
The same tired motivational quotes everyone else is using.

You’re not building a community.

You’re participating in a ritual. A ritual created by people who need you to believe that this is the key to success… so they can keep selling you the shovel while you dig.

No One’s Telling the Whole Truth

Every platform is full of half-truths and missing context.

“This one Instagram reel brought in $18,000 in sales!”

Okay, sure. But how much did you spend on ads? How long was your audience warming? How many times did you re-record it because the first 11 didn’t convert?

They never say. Because that would kill the vibe.

Truth doesn’t sell.

Hype does.

And if you don’t play along?
You’re the weird one.
You’re the bitter one.
You’re the unmarketable one.

Well… hi. That’s me 🙂

Welcome.

The Business of Selling the Dream of Business

I don’t mean to be cynical for the sake of cynicism. This isn’t bitterness. This is what happens when you’ve been in this space long enough to see the cycle for what it is.

Let me break it down: You struggle financially. You search “how to make money online.” You get sucked into a content vortex full of glowing promises. You buy a cheap digital product.

It doesn’t work. So you buy another. And another.

Eventually, you decide to sell digital products yourself.

And guess what you sell? A guide on how to sell digital products.

It’s the grift loop.

You didn’t make money from the system. You made money by becoming the system.

So What Now?

You might be thinking: “If it’s all BS, why are you here?”

Because I still believe in digital products. I still believe in working for yourself. I still believe in getting out of the 9-to-5 hamster wheel.

I just think we have to stop pretending it’s all so clean.

Digital entrepreneurship isn’t a fairy tale. It’s a hustle. A messy, clumsy, beautifully unpolished hustle.

And I don’t want to sell you a polished version of my story. I want to show you the unfiltered one.

That’s why I created UnMarketable — not as a brand, not as a funnel, not as a shiny stepping stone to a mastermind group — but as a place where truth is louder than strategy.

TL;DR (Too Long; Definitely Read Anyway)

The internet is full of liars with good cameras. You don’t have to play their game. You can succeed online — but not by blindly following the loudest voices.

You are allowed to be real.

You are allowed to be skeptical.

You are allowed to build something that doesn’t require a 17-step funnel, daily TikToks, and a fake sense of urgency.

If you’re tired of the digital marketing BS, come sit with the cool kids.

We’ve got snacks. And sarcasm.