A couple days ago, I had this bright idea to start a secondary Threads account for 2 reasons:
- It was a topic I liked writing about and wouldn’t mind getting paid for it specifically
- The growth and income could be a bit of a case study for The Blueprint and my community
So yesterday morning, I got around to setting things up.
I picked out a name, found out the usernames and dot com domain name was available, and set up an Instagram so I could set up Threads.
And let me tell you…
When there are signs, there are signs…
After I set up IG, I went to create my Threads profile and before I could blink…
Instantly suspended.
I didn’t even get to upload a profile picture, let alone post any content, and found myself looking at a suspension appeal page within 2 minutes of trying to start this thing.
Turns out this is a regular occurrence lately?
Anyway, I kept checking back on the account periodically because they said it might take an hour to go through the review process.
Lo and behold, about an hour later the account was reinstated!
I went ahead and posted an initial post that I could pin to essentially share the vision of what I wanted to help people accomplish, then scheduled 3 more posts to go out later.
After that fiasco calmed down, I wrote my regular daily email, sent out a couple posts, and went about my day.
Then something weird happened…
About mid-afternoon, it was as if my brain got a ping to check the FTC website for that particular industry…
I’ve always done my best to stay compliant with all the niches I’ve sold in, so this was pretty normal for me but the way it came to mind so aggressively was interesting.
Come to find out, there was a big change that happened in the industry about 8 months ago due to some bad actors ruining things for everyone.
And now anyone monetizing that particular industry is required to either have a license or a sizable surety bond in order to do business.
Technically, I could still run the account and word things in a particular way to stay compliant…
But the second I start charging for information or services?
I’m instantly held liable for every word I write or say and the FTC is monitoring the industry pretty aggressively even to this day.
To make things even crazier…
I was also pinged to check out someone I followed in the industry who I knew wasn’t one of the several named businesses is the lawsuits I came across…
And their Instagram account was banned in the US quite literally by the FCC, not just Instagram.
On one hand, I’m somewhat disturbed by the raw power of “Big Gov” when they decide to do something…
But on the other hand, it really does protect dum-dums and heavily emotional buyers who pay for things without using logic, reasoning, or research…
In any case, that little micro-project I was going to work on is on hold until I get licensed and acquire surety bonds in every state I want to work in…
Which, if I’m being real here, probably won’t happen anytime soon.
At the end of the day, the lesson here is…
It’s not a terrible idea to check the FTC if you’re trying to break into a new industry BEFORE buying a domain name and setting everything up.
You live and you (re)learn, I guess.
Fortunately, there are roughly a billion other niches out there to build in that don’t require licenses or anything like that.
I may try to do this again in another niche, but for the time being it’s back to the original mission.
Any questions? Let me know.
Talk soon,
-Gabe
P.S. I don’t know why I didn’t say the industry until now, but here we are:
I’ve been wanting to get into the credit repair industry because I went from having late payments, closed accounts, and a terrible score in 2018…
…to now having no missed payments on file, 27 accounts in good standing, getting a brand new SUV in 2023, and my life is overall better because of what I learned about credit over the last 6 years.
However, the FTC now categorizes any business or entity that takes payment in exchange for a promise in boost of credit score (along with other related offers) as a Credit Repair Organization which is a licensed practice.
Again, sure I could post free info in a specific way but the plan was to get paid, so that’s why I’m ditching the project indefinitely.