CRYPTO 101: BEWARE WHO'S ADVICE YOU TAKE

I've previously mentioned the enormous influence YouTube shills have on the community, and unsurprisingly, I've gotten a few negative comments from naive fanboys who hold several of these people in high esteem. Despite being a newcomer to cryptocurrencies, I'm a very observant person by nature, and so I want to both reiterate and expand upon several points I've made in earlier blogs to help you recognize when you're dealing with someone whose YouTube videos should be watched for entertainment purposes rather than as a source of valuable information. As I've said before, I don't consider everyone covering cryptos on YouTube a shill, but it doesn't take much time or effort to see that most are second-rate salesmen more than anything, and in some cases are about as knowledgeable on the cryptospace as my great aunt Millie... Who doesn't even know what a Bitcoin is.

THEY MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS, BUT PROVIDE NO REAL REASONS TO BUY
Ask any crypto investor, and they can tell you about a coin they're sure will be big, and VERY BIG at that, in the not too distant future. Ask why though, and you'll often hear them parroting some jibberish they heard from a YouTube shill. Said individual assures those who watch his videos that "X" coin is set to explode, but offers no actual reasons as to why. He simply insists that in six months time, you'll regret not having gotten in on this coin or that ICO, and makes references the current price of Bitcoin as compared to its early days to reinforce your FOMO. Sound familiar? It should, as this is typical of the overwhelming majority of YouTube shills attracting attention right now. The fact is ladies and gents, when there's nothing tangible on which they're basing their recommendations, you're best to dismiss whatever these folks say as hype intended to pump a coin they're holding so they can dump it on the greedy and gullible. After all, this is how most of these characters make their money, which is abundantly clear when you look at the performance of the altcoins they've recommended to date. If they didn't pump them up to dump them on the less savvy individuals among their following, they'd be homeless by now.

THEY DISPENSE ADVICE DESPITE NOT KNOWING THE BASICS
Recently, I visited the YouTube page of a fairly popular YouTube shill who regularly makes videos over an hour in length. In one particular video, in addition to referring to those who haven't invested everything they have in a particular coin as "bitches", he advises those with limited funds to hit up their family and friends for more money to invest in cryptos. That old mantra bout investing only what you can afford to lose? He claims that's the mindset of weak people, and drives this point home by referencing billionaire investors such as Warren Buffet, conveniently ignoring the fact that billionaires carefully evaluate the potential ROI of an investment before getting involved. At one point in his long-winded collection of profanity and bad advice, he dismisses the importance of the technology behind an altcoin entirely, adding that the value of the particular coin on which his video focused would increase to $100 and beyond because he would "make it happen". There can be no question whatsoever that taking investment advice from someone who believes willpower can make a coin's price rise is foolish beyond words, and YouTube videos put out by someone who has no understanding of the importance of the fundamentals behind an altcoin or dismisses such things as irrelevant shouldn't be considered anything more than entertaining diversions at best in your search for legitimate cryptocurrency coverage.

THEY CLAIM TO HAVE "INSIDER" INFORMATION... YET THEIR PICKS STILL TANK
On occasion, you'll find a YouTube shill claiming to have gotten a "hot tip" from a well-placed source he can't name. My brief investigation into one such individual has shown that in each and every case, the coin he subsequently recommended tanked soon after. Yes, there was an immediate uptick in price in keeping with the usual pump, but this was followed by a rapid dump followed by an extended decline in value, which wouldn't be the case if our shill had a source who knew what the hell he or she was talking about. As opposed to my first example in which you're given no valid reason to part with your hard-earned money, this variation on the classic pump and dump is meant to instill investors with confidence by claiming the information originates from a reputable source. Of course, as this source can't be named, there's always the question of whether or not they actually exist, and again, based on my look at one of the finest examples of this type of shill, I'd be willing to bet my left testicle that they don't.

THEIR MAIN FOCUS IS SELLING YOU AN ONLINE COURSE
There's nothing wrong with making money, but when you dispense largely worthless information on YouTube for free, it won't suddenly become more valuable when you start charging people for it. Now let me be perfectly clear... I have no problem whatsoever with courses that teach charting and so forth, as charting alone is an invaluable skill that a great many investors would be greatly helped by learning prior to throwing their cash into the market. However, when someone who has been talking cryptos for all of five months starts pushing a course on viewers that will supposedly make them "crypto experts", you have to ask how much they can possibly have learned in that brief period of time to make their course a worthwhile investment. As this particular type of shill is largely focused on getting you to purchase an online course that makes up a significant portion of their income, their concern as to the accuracy of their altcoin recommendations runs a distant second at best, if it's even a concern at all. With their primary income being derived from routine pump and dump schemes in which their followers are the victims, they're careful to try and stay on the "good side" of their respective communities, and casually dismiss any criticisms of the poor performance of coins or ICOs they've promoted by noting the importance of "doing your own research". While doing your own research is undoubtedly the best advice these characters will ever give anyone, they know all too well that the market is overwhelmingly comprised of people looking to get rich quick, and they've cleverly positioned themselves to take full advantage of the greed and ignorance of these individuals. When I first got into cryptos just over a month ago now, I purchased an online course created by someone I later discovered got involved roughly five months before I had. Given that my own studies thus far have provided me with the same knowledge offered within the course and more, I'd say the money spent was a bad investment, and I'd have realized that I was dealing with an egotistical know-nothing from the start and saved myself a couple bucks had I done my due diligence. The bottom line is that you should research how long people have been in the cryptospace before giving them one iota of credibility, and never buy any course that isn't focused on teaching you things like how to chart and/or understand the fundamentals behind an altcoin. Otherwise, you might as well toss your money out the window, because what you'll receive is about as likely to generate a positive return.

TRUST YOURSELF OR GET OUT OF THE GAME
To be sure, some of these characters are quite entertaining, and if you remember to always think of them as entertainers, you'll be better off. After all, you wouldn't take medical advice from a guy who plays a doctor on television would you? Similarly, you should at a minimum take anything you hear on YouTube with a large grain of salt, and learn how to effectively research altcoins yourself. After all, it's YOUR money you're investing, and no one is going to compensate you for making a poor investment on the advice of some random guy on the internet. If any of these people knew for certain what altcoin would be the next to quintuple in price, let's me be very clear so everyone gets this... IT WOULD NOT BE IN THEIR BEST INTERESTS TO TELL YOU. The hell with selling you on an online course or doing YouTube videos at all if I know EOS is going to go to $1,000 come March of next year. I'll just quietly buy up all the EOS that I can right now, wait a while, and retire a millionaire in a few months. So please don't believe anyone out there REALLY knows anything. As I have said on multiple occasions now, the best any of us can do, whether we invest based on "gut feelings" or actual research, is offer our best guesses, and this valuable bit of information, which you would do well to never, ever forget, I offer you absolutely free.