Is the global economy trending down

I know this is highly unorthodox for normal corporate / customer communication… But I think you guys will be cool with it.

Dangerous Things is a strange business. We are trying to convince people it would be totally awesome to buy a thing in a sharp needle from some guy who named his company Dangerous Things and has operated that business out of one garage or another over the years, and then put that thing under their skin.

Marketing has always been a challenge… Not just because of what we are trying to sell… and not just because of the name of the business… But mostly because it’s not something I really understand all that well. I mean I post things here and there and maybe I try boosting things to pay for eyeballs but by and large the vast majority of new customers come from word of mouth and media coverage.

The thing is… over the last many months we haven’t really seen much change to traffic reaching the site… The same number of eyeballs on average are coming to check out just what the heck we’re doing over here calling ourselves dangerous things and selling sharp needles with stuff inside… But the actual number of purchases has been steadily going down to the point where I’m getting pretty concerned actually.

What I am curious about here is how everyone is feeling. The economy is kind of like the stock market and that it is purely an emotional and emotionally driven thing. No matter what kind of logical algorithms economists want to put onto something as clearly socially charged as the global economy, it’s driven by people’s wants and desires and hopes and yes their fears.

We’ve already discovered that the idea of buying a chip implant is driven primarily by an overall sense of hope about the future. This was made crystal clear when sales completely stopped on November 7th 2016. On a good day we would make a few sales, and on a bad day we would make maybe one sale. But pretty much we averaged at least one sale a day and that was caused for celebration. After November 7th, when Trump won the presidency, all sales stopped. Global sales stopped. Everyone collectively took a deep breath in and lost hope. We didn’t get our next sale for almost a week… then things slowly trickled in.

The business nearly did not survive that nightmare of a time. Now we are facing something similar, but a bit more nebulous. It’s been a long pandemic. There’s a war on that is affecting prices all across the board. China is going into lockdowns again because covid cases there are soaring. This a lot going on other than thinking about cool projects you could do with a microchip implant… and I think we are seeing the results of this.

What I’m curious about is how everyone is feeling in general. Are prices increasing for people? Is the cost of living going up while jobs and wages are in turmoil? Is there a sense that the future is bright or are there other concerns taking precedence right now? I really want to try to understand the general confidence a typical Dangerous Things biohacker has in the future right now, not just consider my own subjective perspective.

How can I help?

If you are wondering what the best way to help Dangerous Things right now would be, well first of all that’s amazing. Secondly, probably the most important thing for us is making new people aware of our products, what you can do with them, and the fact that this amazing community exists and can support them in their biohacking projects and endeavors.

The best way to do that I think would be for you guys to post images and videos explaining that you have a chip and where you got it and what you’re doing with it and show off basically. Showing off what you can do with your implants on social media platforms that your friends will say and other people will see and be curious enough to go check out… That’s probably the most valuable thing for us to be honest.

Paid ads

Historically, our social media posts and paid ads built around them just don’t really perform all that well and I spend a lot of time batting down stupid mark of the beast comments and other nonsense. It’s hard to quantify the value of those things but I know extremely well how expensive they are. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about quantifying the value of marketing campaigns like this to know if I’m just wasting my time and money… But considering the trend, they’re not effective and I need to stop spending that time and energy and capital on ads. I do think it’s worthwhile posting to social media. I haven’t made videos in a while and I want to get back to making more YouTube videos, that’ll be fun and hopefully educational if I can make something worthwhile.

Social media campaign giveaway

So here’s a bit of a brainstorm. What if we did a social media giveaway campaign where anyone who posts about their implants and maybe what they do with them like showing off a door opening or computer login or something cool like that, as long as the post tags Dangerous Things and offers a link to our technology primer… you’ll be entered into the drawing for each post that qualifies.

If we think this is a good idea as a community then I will construct the campaign and rules and all that and put that up on our announcements. So let me know your thoughts… Not just about the campaign but also what you’re thinking in terms of just general confidence in the future. How’s everyone feeling?

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social media campaign giveaway
it may be worth getting in contact with “chipgirlhere” and her partner chipguy as they dominate (tiktok at least) the social influence regarding implants if you wre able to sort some kind of contest with them it may drive more people to the site.

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Absolutely. We’ve talked quite a lot actually but so far a campaign has failed to materialize… but yes I can continue those efforts.

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My two cents worth…. I think word of mouth and media reports are what attracts your customers. I am quite new here and saw a video on YouTube where people were showing off your products. That caused me to look at your site, become obsessed and buy two chips and three rings (the later because I stuffed up the sizing, but I have given the two which didn’t fit away).

That in turn led me to showing off the implants and what they can do. My best mate just brought a NExT from you (it arrived today). His initial hesitation was about whether his work card could be cloned. We proved it could by using the ring. He immediately ordered a chip.

My brother will be a customer in the next week or so as he is also very keen.

I would advise against paid adverts as I doubt they will attract many buys and instead rely on word of mouth and social media.

I would also suggest maybe doing a few YouTube videos yourself using cheap programmable cards or stickers or something which show people how easy it is to clone their cards and will allow them to try it out and see if it works before injecting themselves. The biggest feedback I have had re buying your products has been people worrying about injecting and not being able to use them on their doors etc.

I would also suggest a link on your main website to the forum (if one is there I haven’t seen it). The community on the forum is exceptional and made me very comfortable getting my implants. It also demonstrated uses I hadn’t thought of and reassured me that your products are high quality and reliable.

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Frankly, With all the chaos in the world right now and the constant barrage of bad news it is hard to look towards to future and see anything but cloudy grey skies. I do my best to keep away from the news and maintain a positive attitude towards the future but it gets harder by the day.

I do think a Social media giveaway would be a good idea. And I know a guy that occasionally posts videos to youtube and says that has been the best free advertising he ever got so those are definitely worth while and don’t cost you anything but time.

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I’m planning to hit circlecon with @init6 and @darthdomo help them run the biohacking village

I’ve got some fun ideas… maybe

I was kind of thinking something like a giveaway at the event, maybe one of the ways to qualify for the giveaway (and install at location) would be to share some kind of dangerous things plug on their social media?

Could make an interview out if it for pr also before during and after install… to help sell the “wow that wasn’t as bad as I thought”

We used to giveaway a lot of firearms services and write it all off as marketing, I assume the same can be done here but I’m no tax guy

It has felt slow; and I’ve been concerned because this is one of few communities I feel a good bond with… if there’s a way to help I will… even if most of the time I don’t feel like I contribute much

As much as I hate the shill… maybe reach out to some YouTubers… I know I reached out to LTT and they said that Linus was interested in getting one but hasn’t gotten around to it

I mention YouTubers with established audience because it seems it’s hard for DT to get their voice out there advertising wise

@DeviantOllam has a decent following on YouTube of like minded individuals…
and is a fellow implantee… perhaps he wouldn’t mind a shoutout or something… this would definitely not be a shill

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@DeviantOllam has a decent following on YouTube of like minded individuals…
and is a fellow implantee… perhaps he wouldn’t mind a shoutout or something… this would definitely not be a shill

It was one of his vids which brought me here. Great idea

It put it on my radar years ago
@DeviantOllam presented himself as down to earth and sane enough that it definitely made me reconsider the notion that biohacking wasn’t this wild and dangerous thing

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Just posted a video to Instagram and tagged DangerousThings Hope it helps :slight_smile:

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So a bunch of questions and I am probably the last person to say anything about implants. But I do have a number of other DT products…

As far as the global economy… I don’t follow the news much, and what I do hear has usually been filtered by either an algorithm or one of my colleagues (many of whom now appear to be right wing. I am not.)… But prices are definitely going up in the small town I live in. My wages are not going up (other than the usual, annual 1 to 2%). Many of our job postings are now being filled in India which is definitely not helping me feel like I can guarantee long term stability in my job (after 20 years I am now wondering if I will make it to retirement).

Personally I first heard of Dangerous Things when The not so civil engineer mentioned the RFID diagnostics card in one of his videos. I stumbled across Dangerous Things again when I was looking for more RFID info. The forum is a great resource, as are many of the help articles and videos that you have posted.

I don’t think most online ad campaigns are worthwhile. They either advertise things I don’t want, or they advertise things I have shown an interest in, but they never steer me to a site or cause me to make a purchase.

Two things really make me think of Dangerous Things as an exceptional company. The forum (this is a great community, and partly that is because of the company, and especially), your customer service (which is among the best I have ever dealt with).

How you drive traffic I have no idea though. Serendipity is not going to be the answer, but maybe a giveaway, or encouraging people to post relevant posts would help. I don’t know if any of the community projects might help drive traffic (proof that the forum/community is great).

I posted on twitter (who knows how many of my followers will be interested) about the raspberry pi zero 2 w Proxmark3 image and mentioned DT a couple of times. Who knows if it will help, but it can’t hurt.

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I’m no economist but I know at least in my small town prices are definitely rising at a rate that is nowhere near congruent with raises and even current wages.
I am fortunate enough to still live with my parents so although I pay no utilities/rent/grocery bills but I’m all but blind to the inflation.
Even living in the middle of nowhere the housing market is absolutely fucked. Houses that once sold for 30-40k are going for 100-200k. Land costs are at an all time high for the area.
And when I say I live in the middle of nowhere I mean it, my county in TN has the highest level of poverty in the state. I am 25mins away from your nearest Walmart and the best restaurant in my town is a gas station. Even their prices have gotten to an unreasonable point (at no fault of their own, food distributors are upping their prices as well).

As much as I want to have a bright outlook on the future in general it’s hard. Things have gone down hill in our society in a lot of ways since I was born, which is crazy because I’ll be the first to admit I’m pretty much still a child :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: But even with that I have hope, things like this community give me hope. Business owners like Amal. Seeing people at times come together for a greater cause than themselves. I still have hope, in humanity maybe not to it’s core but as a people.

Anyway sorry this turned kind of rantish and sappy lol
Definitely think the social media thing is a good idea, and agree on the chipgirlhere/chipguyhere help.

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Well, you’ve certainly convinced me that not only is it a good idea, it’s a better idea than any competitive product. I’m crazy impressed with every aspect of the Dangerous Things experience, and am more than happy to recommend you guys whenever someone’s interested, unfortunately that just doesn’t happen very often… Perhaps when I find a few more uses and ditch the cars keys I’ll catch more people’s eyes

In other words I suppose, I wish you nothing but good luck as time goes on, and I intend to continue to recommend and support your product whenever I can

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As far as confidence in the economy I’m definitely of the opinion that we’re in slow burn global recession and the oligarchs are trying to cut and run before we actually get to the point where we have to start busting out the guillotines to address frankly ludicrous concentrations of wealth and power. I think we can weather this though, and if we can come out the other side we can enjoy the bounty of skilled individuals with time on their hands and a desire to create open source and collaborative projects and products, just like we saw in 2009-2011

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The world is just showing me how fucked it is every day… and now there’s war 10 hours from here.

Not too bright of a vision of the future…

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Getting big Tech youtuber on the topic could also help!

you could send a few chips and access controllers to random big tech youtubers po boxes and hope for videos :slight_smile:

I got on the Train with the Magnet Video from Codyslab and a Vice article

you could also send cody a magnet lol

Also hitting up more Piercers could work - so that they basically have the chips on their price list and customers instantly see oh they do chip implants too

and if they then have the chips in store already it could really get more people who had no clue about chip implants to get them informed by the studio and maybe also implanted there

sorry grammar is not good up there - i may fix it later but may not. deal with it :stuck_out_tongue:

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I really want to try to understand the general confidence a typical Dangerous Things biohacker has in the future right now, not just consider my own subjective perspective.

It’s hard to predict the future, especially this year, but for me personally, I’m optimistic. Yes, the next (at least) few years will be hard (because of covid, and now more so because of the war Russia started), or at least “not that good”, but in the long term, we are as a society heading the right direction. And the war only confirmed it…I mean…no one expected that much support for Ukraine, that much unity, that much collective “fuck you Russia”. Technology, in general, is evolving, people are more and more interested in technology because it’s fun (and not only to do the work). I would bet that if you manage to “hold on” for a few more years, you’ll have plenty of customers. But hey, I’m no economist…this is more a wish than a prediction from my side…but this is how I feel :slight_smile:

Ads: you will probably not get that many customers from ads. But I think if you focus the ads not on the products (“hey, we sell implants”), but on promoting a simple video showing what you can do, or something like that, then people will be more likely to “want more information” and find a way to DT.

Giveaway: it’s cheap ads basically, so yeah, go for it :slight_smile: It will cost you some time and a small price (giving away a few NeXT chips is much cheaper than paying fu****g Facebook for views). Just make sure the rules make sense and that they won’t force you to send a bunch of stuff to someone who tries to take advantage of a hole in the rules.

Tip: I think that the world is not yet ready for all the implants you sell. I mean yeah, sure, there are people who love magnets and LEDs. I’m talking about the “usable implants”…and at least in my country there simply aren’t many people with smart homes, NFC locks,… even most apartment buildings still have some key system and don’t use electricity at all. So it is hard to find a customer here. So the tip, finally: focus on payments. I bet that every other person I know would at least consider a chip that they can pay with. It’s simply the most convenient thing, it’s something that will improve your life greatly. Find a way to sell more payment chips and people will eventually find a way to the other ones as well. By the way, I’m aware of issues with Apex…I’d just like to say that I think this is the way, this is how you get implants to the hands of most people. The day you tell me I can buy a chip that I can pay with, and I won’t have to take it out in the next 10 years, I’m gonna buy out your whole stock that day :smiley:

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With the Apex this has to be done!
I keep dreaming about a linus biohack tips video.

SwatchPay conversion is a thing isn’t it?

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This is my take - from a totally selfish point of view:

Let’s face it: DT is the go-to supplier of implants in the world. If DT goes under, there are no implants no more.

I mean sure, you’ll always be able to get pooly-performing glassies from China or whatever. But long-range flex implants that do interesting thing? Forget about it. Conversion services? Forget it. Sensing magnets? Forget it.

If DT goes, biohacking jumps back 15 years.

I can’t afford to lose DT. DT supplies services and parts that are essential to maintaining some bodily functions I now have that have become an integral part of who I am. I don’t want to go regress back to 100% human. I’m sure many here feel the same way.

Therefore, my suggestion is that someone should set a fund to help keep DT afloat. Those of you like me who need DT to service their augmented bodies and augment them some more, and have the disposable, could pitch in. I’m willing to part with, say 50 to 100 euros a month. If there’s 20 of us, that’s a salary.

Provided said fund is subject to oversight of course. I’m not talking about a slush fund that people sink money into and have no idea what it’s used for. I’m talking a fund in which every penny is accounted for and reporting is done regularly to the sponsors.

Just an idea.

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upvote that post and they might see it ^

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I’m 100 % aboard with everything you just wrote. Actually, because of the OP, I decided to YOLO my order today…not sure what I’ll get but I’m submitting that order today :smiley:

And yeah, if there ever will be a need for such fund you mentioned (I mean if it’s “DT goes under, or we set up a fund”), then you can count me in.

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