Are you an expat wanting to make more money? Almost every expat in Southeast Asia has probably had to sit through a YouTube ad starting off with this douche-y chap asking that very question. Let’s get right down to business. That ad and everything else about James Hopkins is a massive scam.
Let’s start off with the obvious. If this guy was such a massive success in online marketing, why is he trying to grift money off you? If I was making $6,000 or more a month, I wouldn’t bother selling my coaching services in what would amount to a fairly risky job switch.
Hopkins clearly isn’t doing this because he cares. I mean he wouldn’t be gouging the shit out of you if this was about helping the average expat. How much does the James Hopkins scam…errr…”program” cost? Well, he doesn’t even have the courage to tell you. Instead, you need to schedule a discovery call where he can try to hard sell you on his nonsense and drop a four-figure total on you.
It is important to point out that nothing legitimate hides their price like this only to put you in a high-pressure sales situation. It is actually a common trick used by timeshare salespeople. You don’t have the capabilities to do your own research or take a moment to collect your thoughts.
Related: The truth about The Social Man and Christian Hudson scam
Those who can’t, teach
We need to double back to the fact that this character isn’t even doing the thing that made him so wildly successful. How do we know James Hopkins is a massive scam? Because dude is now resorting to teaching in order to make a living. After all, those who can’t, teach.
The art of selling nothing
The James Hopkins scam is built like every other dodgy program out there. It prays on people who want to make money but aren’t well informed. They see a guy like this pop up with drone footage of a rented villa and think, “hey, he might have the answers.”
Here’s the thing. He may have some answers, but they are all ones available for free online. Just do a Google or YouTube search for some of the stuff Hopkins says he’ll teach you. But put the word “free” in front of it. Everything in his courses are readily available for nothing. If you really want to take it up a notch, you can even find classes on marketing taught by actual professionals. Some of these are free and others paid, but these people can actually prove their success.
Even if you learn how to make social media ads from Hopkins, you are still stuck with trying to find customers. The marketing aspect is just one part of what you need to do. Even with these skills, you have to do sales. And that is awful in and of itself. Chances are, you would already be in sales if you were good at it.
There is other stuff offered as part of Hopkins’ program, but none of it provides any real value. Do you really need 1-on-1 coaching from someone who is just repackaging free information from elsewhere? And crap like the private community costs nothing for him to make. It has less value than the napkins McDonald’s throws in your bag.
James Hopkins is a massive scam: the final nail in the coffin
James Hopkins has insulated the scam by getting his shills and burner accounts to post fake reviews on sites like Trust Pilot. I mean look at this. All but one of these reviews are written by “satisfied” clients who only have one review to their name. That’s shady yet it gets worse if you dig deeper.
Many of the reviews read a lot alike and share the same few themes. Everyone was skeptical, put in the work and managed to achieve amazing success. Not one out of the 100+ people who left a review had a bad experience after buying this program. That’s literally unheard of. Jesus Christ could come back to the earth reincarnated and he wouldn’t get this many positive reviews.
But wait, there’s more.
Reddit is full of threads where his army of burner accounts shouts down any accusations that James Hopkins is running a scam. It is kind of hilarious. Here is one where a bunch of pro-James Hopkins people (most of whom may have actually been Hopkins) created a massive number of fake accounts in an hour just to shout down the claims.
Here’s another one featuring an old reddit account purchased by Hopkins but using his IP. At the end of the day, successful programs don’t do this because the result should speak for themselves. Of course, there can’t be any results if all your fans are fake and your program doesn’t actually work.
Save your money and do something good
Look, being a teacher abroad sucks. The kids are awful, and the pay is lousy. But don’t take what money you do make and throw it away on this James Hopkins scam. If you really want to get into online marketing, here are some FREE resources you can check out:
How to start your own online marketing business
A look at everything a digital marketer does between now and getting rich
Everything you need to know about Google Ads
This is a good overview of jumping into Facebook Ads for clients with videos
How to run Facebook Ads for clients (Warning: content tries to sell you something at the end)
Here’s how you manage Facebook ads for multiple clients (Includes a pitch for a product)
Unbounce has a ton of free workshops for digital marketers
Skills digital marketers need to succeed (Includes a pitch for services)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is an endless supply of free resources available online to help you get started. If you have any interest in being a freelance digital marketer, don’t give your money to a tool like James Hopkins that is running a scam. Find the info, do the work and make it happen yourself.
Also read: Who is downloading Mafia City and these other shitty games with YouTube ads?
