In china whilst discussing the latest mobile phones and gadgets the term shanzhai is bandied about to describe fake or counterfeit phones with similar features to those of the mainstream manufacturers scannable fake id
The fake phone market is booming with high end mobile phones being cloned and reproduced as quickly as the big brands can get their products to the market. The fake handsets are attractively priced, often undercutting the genuine phone by hundreds of pounds, but there are obviously potential pitfalls the buyers may encounter.
On the face of it, the phones are supplied in by reputable shops in shopping malls across China, and are supplied in sleek well produced packaging which looks a as good as the genuine product, some of the phones will be have been carefully copied using logos from Sony Ericsson, Apple, and Nokia, whilst others are rebranded with a fake id similar to that of the phone they are trying to fake.
Producing cheap phones requires even cheaper components, many users will soon discover this, often the fake mobiles will have a very basic operating system with limited scope for the user to change even the most basic settings, the limited functionality also becomes apparent with a lack of support for common applications such as java. The digital camera fitted to the fake handsets will often not live up to the customers expectations or of those quoted on the box, often an alleged 5 mega pixel camera will materialise as a 1-2 mega pixel camera, a poor sensor will add to the disappointment returning small images that will not scale up when transferred to a pc.
The list of inadequacy continues, the music players on many of the fake phones only support a limited range of file extensions, mp3 is generally supported but the most common file type wma is not, leading to frustration amongst customers as music tracks have to be converted on PC before being transferred onto the phone. The same can be said for the video support the phones offer, dated technology is used to provide some function, but the standard quality of 20fps video offered by the fake phone manufacturers will be below that of the genuine product. In addition, the quality of playback will be vastly affected by the use of low power and poor quality speakers.
Other drawbacks that may be apparent on these fake or shanzhai handsets is quality of other key features, GPRS, TV reception and gaming. Of the phones tested many could receive GPRS signals, due to not having a receiver fitted, the fake phones will sometimes be able to receive TV broadcasts, but often the picture quality is very poor due to the internal phone aerial being of inferior quality.
There is widespread support in china for the manufacture of fake mobile phones, excessive cost of the large manufacturers phones is cited as the main reason for producing the fake phones at low prices. Other critics though argue the shanzhai market for everything fake is damaging Chinas reputation to effectively trade on world markets, as consumers become reluctant to source products manufactured in China, due to concerns about fake goods, and lack of warranties.
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of websites out there that are trying to ‘fake it to make it’. You have seen it before. Websites telling you how to build loads of traffic when they have about 10 uniques a day, websites telling you how to explode your RSS subscriber count who have 100 or less subscribers, websites telling you how you can make thousands and millions online who are making less than $1/day.
This was once me. When I started out I thought that was how you make money. However, I quickly learned that you cannot fake it to make it in the online world. There are many reasons for this which I am going to share with you.
My first experience trying to fake it to make it was trying to copy Darren’s problogger blog when I was on blogspot! This sounds so stupid to me now. A blogger without his own domain trying to tell others how to make loads of money by blogging! I was stupid. You will be thankful to know I have learned from my mistakes.
People can smell a liar from a mile away. More often than not it is completely obvious if you are faking it. If you are not displaying your RSS subscriber count people assume you don’t have many subscribers. If you fake it people can tell and your content will not help anyone
It is a fact that people like to buy from someone they trust. If they trust you and you recommend a product to them then they are likely to buy it. This means the more that people trust you the more money you are likely to make. By being honest you are building trust with people.
Faking it to make it is a short term thing and it will never last for the long run. When it comes to blogging you are only ever going to be successful if you stick it out for the long run. I was talking to man man Joe today about how The University Kid is for sale. This is a great site and could have gone all the way to success like many other blogs if he had just stuck with it. He is instead selling it and not staying in it for the long run. He won’t see the success he could have seen. (I am not trying to say Jason ever tried to fake it to make it, just an example of not staying in it for the long run)
Passion drives success. If you find your passion and go after it with all your heart then you are almost certain to find a way to success. If you are faking it then you will be sapped of your passion. No one is passionate about being fake, you might be able to be for a short while, but eventually your passion will fade along with your success.
If you are faking it to make it and trying to teach people how to be successful like yourself then you won’t be able to deliver on your statements. This will cause people to want refunds on products if you have sold them products and cause people to stop reading because you don’t deliver the quality content that you could if you were really successful.
If you are faking it to make it your blog or website (or life) will lack originality. You will just be rehashing things other people have said. If someone can read your rehashed material on a site where someone is genuine and real which site do you think they would prefer to read?
Recently a Christian preacher Michael Gugliemucci tried to fake it to make it by telling the world he had cancer and that he was believing God to heal him. He even wrote a hit song “healer” which inspired many. His story inspired thousands, if not hundreds of thousands and when the news came out that it was all a big lie many people were hurt and his reputation (and the church’s reputation) was ruined. By trying to fake it to make it you could very well lose your reputation with thousands of people as Michael did.
