I keep seeing questions and posts about onboarding new HIVE users. Surprisingly, and I never thought I'd say this, but it seems non-crypto people seem to hang out longer than people in the crypto space. I can't prove it and my assumption is based on a few of the newer users I've recently chatted with. I'd love to see some statistics of "normie" HIVE users compared to "crypto" Hive users. I suppose the stats would change dramatically for people that use LeoFinance because they're already crypto-centric users looking for more crypto info. What about the rest of the Hive dApps though?
On non-finance platforms like Peakd, I'm getting the impression that non-crypto people tend to hang out longer and make a much bigger effort and even seem to post better content. Now don't get mad at me crypto peeps. This isn't everyone and my statement isn't meant as a dig. It's just something I've noticed about non-crypto users.
I think there are two reasons for this.
Non-crypto people aren't looking for a quick way to earn rewards. They're just looking for a platform to showcase their content. Rewards aren't of interest to them at first. (Again this isn't a slam on all you sensitive types who complain about user rewards, just an observation on my
part.)These people are focused on growing an audience and sharing quality content. They also know that you don't just post a couple memes and a knock knock joke and start planning your retirement. Building an audience takes time and in time your rewards will grow. Bloggers tend to understand this more than the rest of us because it's their business.
In my experience it seems a lot of crypto people come and go and are guilty of reason 2. They post a couple jokes, maybe a cute story and a few memes, nobody notices and they think, "scammed again, I'm outta here." Hive isn't a get rich quick scheme and it takes time to build your following and begin earning decent rewards.
It seems to me, in this case, rewards actually work AGAINST the platform. Rewards aren't earned easily, and many people give up without putting in a real effort.
We also need a higher user base for engagement. It really starts to become a chicken and egg scenario. Not enough users equates to low engagement and a struggle for rewards. Without engagement it's difficult to get users!
So how do we get non-crypto people to use our platform?
They hang out longer and rewards are secondary to them. They also understand that blogging can be hard and getting noticed can be even harder. They already have the desire to put in the effort and succeed. How do we win them over to HIVE?
Platform and community are two things of "value" to non-crypto people. We have decent platforms and we have great communities. We need to start selling this as a feature. Especially the community aspect of it.
Engagement is important. Thoughtful comments from the community certainly help.
We already know this though. Those are the basics. Community, rewards, and engagement will retain new users.
When this question popped up during a HIVE chat the other day, I had a thought pop into my head.
NON-crypto people find crypto intimidating. Wallets, exchanges, price fluctuations it's a lot to take in. So we have that going against us.
On top of that, many people don't like putting their eggs in one basket. HIVE sort of does that. We rely on the blockchain and also on dApps like Peakd and LeoFinance to interface with the content we create. As much as we boast decentralization, we're sort of stuck with these centralized interfaces. This is also intimidating to a lot of people. (Yes, I'm using the term "centralized" loosely in this case.) The blockchain is decentralized, but the way we showcase our content is very centralized for most of us.
Many professional bloggers want to host their own blog. They want to be able to control the look and feel of their pages. They also want to advertise. Successful blogs generate advertising revenue! Hosting a blog on Peakd or several other dApps takes that revenue away from you. Sure, you're earning rewards, but after 7 days, those posts are worthless to you. Outside of SEO there is no such thing as an "Evergreen" post for us Hive bloggers. Earn what you can in 7 days, after that, you might earn the occasional tip. The only passive income we see will come from APR rates from our HBD & HP holdings.
We Need A WordPress Style Blog To Interface with HIVE!
It came to me the other day. We need a WordPress style blog dApp. We need a simple way for people to host their own blog and interface with the Hive blockchain. Something that's as easy to install as WordPress that they can control the way it looks, they can control their advertisements, and they can control comments etc.
I'm not a wonderful coder, but I honestly feel this could be a real game changer for onboarding new users. I don't think we have this yet and it's something that would add a whole new dimension to our blockchain.
We all know a killer app can be a game changer for any cryptocurrency. I've also seen WordPress plugins that allow users to post to HIVE and collect rewards. I think a self hosted WordPress style blog interface could be a huge game changer for HIVE though. What do you think? Is this something we need? Is it overkill?
Personally I'd love to have this on bitcoindood.com. Since Hive, I rarely blog there. If my blog was plugged directly into HIVE and allowed me to control my blog look and the side content like advertising, I know I'd utilize it much more and probably for several other projects too.