So for a bit of an experiment I tried out the whole "KOL" influencer marketing strategy, I responded to one of the many DM's I get, the influencer I chose was
@spond
Now I will fully admit that I went into this experiment knowing one of two things would likely happen:
1. They post and nothing comes of it
2. They just straight up scam.
@spond falls into the second category.
It was quite funny watching his tactics play out in real time, and it just goes to show how much of a cesspit CT really is and more-so how riddled the @solana network really is with what @grok describes as "Low-level small time grifters".
Fortunately for me, losing $600 means nothing, I could afford to lose it and went into the experience knowing I would almost certainly not get a return on that investment.
But this post is for the people who perhaps can't afford to lose that amount of money. For those who are brainwashed by the eco-system that in order to have success in your project you need to employ the services of KOLS.
I am relatively new to crypto, I've only been here for a couple of years, but I have seen the growing deterioration of trust in the space.
Running your own project is very tough, you have to sacrifice alot of time, money and effort in order to get a slither of success, and I understand the lure of a "KOL" being able to give you that push they need, but the truth is, the vast majority of them fall into one of the two categories I mentioned above.
This is not a post for me to cry about losing money, as I said before I frankly do not care about it. I did it as an experiment to test out what would happen.
Let this be a cautionary tale, to all of those newcomers starting their own projects. You don't need a KOL. They serve no purpose other than their own self interests.
If you have been scammed by @spond or any KOL, leave a comment below, perhaps I can use some of my resources to help fix this ever-growing problem.
When I started $MAFIA, I did so with the full intenton of Building in Public. This commitment is what has driven me to make this post. I have no doubt that @spond will block me after this, which is absolutely fine.
Be careful out here, crypto is the wild west and you MUST always do your own research.
Here is a recording of my chat with @spond
TX1:
solscan.io/tx/2HV1Lgu45kp…
TX2:
solscan.io/tx/27jNFZjkBVj…