A Beginner’s Guide to Crypto Blogging

Extend your reach to earn while you learn

Dear reader,

I’ve been spending more time on Medium recently as I aim to claim triple digit clout and activate yet another earning stream from my writing. During this period of time, I’ve found it quite refreshing to read some content in niches that I don’t usually frequent.

I’ve also come across many disgruntled authors who have been left dejected after attaining that elusive goal of 100 followers on the platform. Let’s take a moment to spare a thought for those unfortunate writers who have been ruled out of the Medium Partner Program based upon their country of residence. To be fair, they should have read the small print first but oh well…

Being the helpful chap that I am, I offered these folk several alternatives to monetise their writing; I introduced them to the weird and wacky world of crypto blogging. In typical fashion, my honest and genuine efforts to help other people on the internet go largely unnoticed or are simply brushed off as a scam, oh well…

So with that in mind, I thought it would be useful to give some more insight into these platforms, what I think about them and even offer a few tips for good reads in the space.

All About Yours Truly

I started my voyage into crypto blogging towards the end of April 2022. My intention was to use these platforms as a method of:

• Interacting with likeminded people

• Building an online writing portfolio

• Earning a bit of passive income for my efforts

It’s been a fun few months since I first introduced JaseDMF and offered some advice for identifying your perfect career. In case you weren’t clued in, my name is Jason and the DMF stands for Digital Media Freelancer.

Since then, I’ve earned the respect of almost 400 followers across various platforms (at least that’s how I like to think about it). Follower count is not something that I’m all too bothered about, I’d much rather opt for slow organic growth with a committed and engaged community.

I write mostly about cryptocurrencies and personal development, as these are two topics that spark my interest and keep me on my toes. They’re entirely different fields of thought, so hopping between the two niches offers my brain a way to exit one niche temporarily and find refuge in the other without burning out. Some writers like to narrow down to one niche, others want to be play it super broad. Crypto and personal development seems to suit me just fine.

Publish0x

This is where it all began for me. It’s very easy to get started on the platform and they have an excellent backend for editing your writing. I can see why PVMihalache calls it home.

What’s most interesting about Publish0x is their sliding tip scale. As a reader of the website, you are allocated daily crypto tips that can be shared with the authors of your choice. That’s right, you get rewarded in crypto just to read articles — it’s that simple! Writers and readers are paid in $AMPL and $ETH.

The team at Publish0x also organise regular competitions and have an active Telegram group. Currently, there is talk of a mobile companion app to be launched soon.

Ease of signup: 4/5

• It’s fairly straightforward, although becoming an author requires an extra level of authentication from the website owners.

Quality: Quite good

• I won’t lie, the vast majority of the content is crypto-related and considering the free tips on offer, a lot of the readership is also highly crypto-minded. This leads to certain authors posting hurried low-level content in hope of earning free money.

Read.cash

A few weeks after my debut on Publish0x, I launched my blog on Read.cash. This is a website that is run by anonymous developers and is funded by donations from early stage Bitcoin Cash investors. Unlike Publish0x, where the crypto is held for you until you decide to withdraw, Read.cash provides you with your very own $BCH wallet when you create an account.

The platform enables readers to support their favourite authors by sending $BCH tips but also enables other interesting features like sponsorships and post promotions. The highlight of the platform has to be The Random Rewarder (aka Rusty), an AI bot that reads every article and pays handsomely (sometimes). There are also cases of wealthy readers tipping authors large sums directly into their $BCH wallets.

If you’d like to learn more about this platform, I suggest reading these two linked articles where I explain all about their wealthy artificial intelligence bot and where to spend your Bitcoin Cash.

Ease of signup: 5/5

• Make an account and you’re good to go. You also get a Bitcoin Cash wallet, which is handy for stacking sats and supporting other writers.

Quality: Mediocre

• There are a few good writers on the platform, but I think it’s fair to say that a large portion of the writers are writing purely for the AI bot’s attention. This leads once again to writers with hurried content syndrome.

Noise.cash

Read.cash works very well with Noise.cash. Many of the users are present on both platforms. This is partly due to the fact that both platforms reward users in Bitcoin Cash but it’s also interesting to note that the website is developed by the same anonymous group behind Read.cash.

Noise can be best described as a minimalistic version of Twitter, with monetisation perks. Users who behave themselves and don’t engage in spamming are usually rewarded with free tips to distribute amongst other users. This is similar to the sliding scale function on Publish0x, although Noise users can choose the amount they want to share here.

Ease of signup: 5/5

• Pretty much identical to the Read.cash procedure.

Quality: Subpar

• Someone has to place lowest and Noise.cash takes the wooden spoon. This is to be expected given the low barrier to entry and wide distribution of free tips. This is a subjective review however, so it’s possible that my feed is populated with more gibberish than that of other writers.

!!! Breaking news !!!

The team at Noise.cash have just launched a new platform called Noise.app. This platform has private messaging, works on an invite-only basis and requires follow-follow to comment on another user’s post. Hopefully this is the remedy to Noise.cash’s spam problems. It’s early days as plenty of features are yet to be implemented, including eventual monetisation, so keep your eyes on this one!

Hive

Where to begin? This is by far the most complex of the platforms that I’ve joined so far but it also has very engaged communities.

What you need to understand about Hive is that unlike the other platforms mentioned so far, there is no single company or team running the website. In fact, there are multiple websites running Hive, each one allowing you access to the same data.

With Hive, users sign in to a Hive-enabled website with their private encryption key. This acts as a gateway to all their data which is stored on the Hive blockchain. As all the websites query the same blockchain data, it doesn’t matter which site you’re signed onto, the user’s content, finances, followers, images, etc. will all be the same.

This allows for a proper web3 experience and true censorship resistance. In its current offering it comes at a rather high barrier to entry for non-technical people. Once you get up to speed though, it’s a fun ecosystem to participate in. There are a variety of interesting communities and competitions to explore.

It’s worthwhile to note that as a fully-fledged web3 blockchain, Hive offers much more than blogging alone. Users can play games, watch videos, trade NFTs and tokens, etc. The ecosystem is supported by two cryptocurrencies: $HIVE and the $HBD stablecoin.

Ease of signup: 2/5

• The Hive signup procedure is quite a hassle and involves multiple encryption keys. While there are plenty of benefits to their multikey security system, the reality of the fact is that this is a turnoff for the non-technical people. Given its decentralised nature, there are numerous places to sign up. I recommend Ecency, which is free. I also highly recommend blocking an hour of quiet time when setting up the account as there are several steps to go through.

Quality: Good

• The content on offer here is by far the most diverse of all the platforms covered so far. The quality is good for 3 reasons:

  1. The complicated signup deters those spammers looking for low-hanging fruit

  2. Users must earn the right to post regularly by unlocking resource credits

  3. As the content is permanently stored online, users are incentivised to think twice before posting

Other Web3 Platforms to Keep an Eye On

There are lots of things in the works at the moment, far too many to cover in a single blog post. With Twitter offering crypto tips nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly complex to define what exactly a crypto blogging platform is. Some let users collect content as NFTs, others provide private messaging. Some require emails, others just need a web3 wallet. Each site has it’s own spin and several blockchains are launching their own social media experiments.

Here are some of the ones I’ve been taking a look at recently and I might just hop into one or two of them in the not too distant future:

• Mirror

• Lens Protocol

• GM

• Nuance

• Paragraph

Maximise Your Reach

One more thing to mention before we meet some crypto bloggers is exclusivity (or lack thereof).

One of the pillars of crypto and web3 is the true ownership of one’s identity and digital assets. This is equally applicable when it comes to the written word, or any other type of digital media for that matter. In other words, there are no exclusivity clauses on these platforms so you are free to repurpose the content across multiple platforms in parallel. If you can build up audiences on several platforms, one piece of content can earn you multiple payouts. Make sure you let your readers know where to find your work.

Meet the Crypto Bloggers

In the short period of time that I’ve been active on these platforms, I’ve had the pleasure of encountering and interacting with several interesting characters in the web3 writing realm. Some of them have impressed me so much that I have even gone through the process of sponsoring their work once per month on Read.cash.

So without further ado, here are some crypto bloggers that I personally recommend following as they produce top-notch content and bring consistent value to their readers.

Allen Taylor

Allen (@cryptocracy) is the author of Cryptosocial, a comprehensive book dedicated to the flourishing ecosystem of web3 social media. Allen posts regular crypto news updates on several platforms and runs a popular Substack newsletter.

Allen’s links: Website |Amazon |Newsletter |Publish0x |Twitter | Hive | Read | Noise

Scott Cunningham

Whereas Allen Taylor wrote the book on crypto social, Scott Cunningham (@scottcbusiness) shot the video. Again and again and again. Scott lives and breathes crypto social and is certainly a go-to person for crypto social tutorials.

Scott’s links: Website | Publish0x | Twitter | Hive | Read | Noise

Paul Mihalache

Similar to Scott living and breathing crypto social, Paul Mihalache (@PVMihalache) is a crypto native who reports back to his followers every single day about his blockchain activities. Paul is active on so many fronts at the same time, I simply do not understand how he manages to stay on schedule. Either he has an army of lookalikes operating for him or he’s unlocked a time-delay function. Worth a follow.

Paul’s links: Amazon | Publish0x | Twitter | Hive | Read | Noise

Pantera

I’m crypto agnostic in the sense that I’m open to learning about the opportunities that all the various protocols have to offer. I’ve come to realise that most communities tend to foster their own form of tribalism and can become quite close-minded. With this stereotype in mind, I thought that @Pantera was such a voice for the Bitcoin Cash community. However, upon reading their articles I quickly came to respect the professionalism and quality of research that they put into their work. One of the most skilled and prolific crypto writers out there today.

Pantera’s links: Medium | Publish0x | Hive | Twitter | Read | Noise

Mark Laurence

I noticed Mark (@Laurenceuuu) in my feeds on several of the platforms I frequent and soon began to see parallels to my own freelancer story. Mark’s a young student who’s setting up some solid foundations for his online writing business. If you’re into writing, internet marketing and entrepreneurship then give Mark a follow.

Mark’s links: Website | Publish0x | Twitter | Hive | Read | Noise

Debesh Choudhury

Debesh (@Unity) is a smart chap, with a PhD to prove it. He’s very active on crypto social, posting pretty much every day on a variety of high-tech topics such as artificial intelligence and internet security. He’s the Founder and Director of Learning Times and also hosts Podcast Window where he interviews professionals about their careers, business and life.

Debesh’s links: LinkedIn | Publish0x | Twitter | Read | Noise | Odysee

Meesterboom

Last but certainly not least, I wanted to point the spotlight on Meesterboom. From what I can see, you’ll only find him posting on Hive, where he seems to have earned a large and engaged audience. His writing is hilarious. His portrayals of Scottish family life puts me in stitches every time. There are many bloggers out there posting about their daily lives but quite frankly the writing is usually boring as hell. Meesterboom takes this niche to a whole other level.

Visit Meesterboom on Hive

Your Move Blogger

So what are you waiting for fellow writer? I’ve shown you the platforms, I’ve given you tips for other upcoming sites and I’ve even pointed out some friendly faces in space. It’s time to take that content of yours, broaden your horizons and reach new readers!

See you on the blockchain,

JaseDMF

Original content, first published on Medium.

Let’s connect:

Twitter | Medium | Publish0x | Read.cash | Noise.cash | Hive | Vocal

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