Help Me - Promoting STEEM leaves me Stuck for Words
Trying to on-board content consumers to STEEM is not an easy task. A while back I published a Business Plan for my online Brand and STEEM and I have been pressing ahead with the soft launch.
STEEM is complicated. Cryptocurrency is scary for most. The soft launch, now going an a month, so far has included a few banners on my posts for the likes of Steemmonsters and Actifit and a mention that to engage on the comments they now need a STEEM account. Its also included a very short mention in the weekly email newsletter that the blog is powered with STEEM so they can now earn while they learn. I have had a few clicks but no signs yet that people signed up. This is okay because I have not yet done the hard launch and I don't expected much until I do.
Gearing up to a harder launch I need to explain to my users what STEEM is. This is the hard part. The part I need your help with.
Before you read any further let me tell you about my users. They are all learners of Excel and Power BI. They have actively sought out content on this topic and have signed up to receive a weekly newsletter on the topic. Many have gone on to purchase premium content from me. They are not content creators, nor do I want them to think they are. The majority work in Finance & Accounting, however, most know nothing about crypto or STEEM. I want to keep my users on my site as much as possible and tell them as little as they need to know about STEEM. What I do tell them needs to be simple and short.
My objective is to get my users to sign up for a STEEM account, partake in the learning activities on the blog posts so they can be rewarded with upvotes. STEEM they earn can then be used against the price of my premium content.
Here is a sample of what they see
With that in mind, I have put together this list of FAQs to publish on my site and I need your help with the copy. Is it to much? Is it to little? Is it deceiving? How would you word it? What would you add? What would you remove? I really need your help folks. I have looked at this over and over and I am not very happy with it, but I'm not sure what to write. Yes, i am stuck for words. Please do post your help in the comments below.
Help me!
Learn and Earn with The Excel Club - Getting Started with STEEM
Why is the Excel Club using STEEM?
The Excel Club values you as a follower and learned of Excel. There are many awesome Excel blogs out there where you can brush up on your Excel, PowerBI and DAX knowledge. But we want you to learn with us and stay with us. By using STEEM we can give you more value than just new knowledge and new skills. We want to reward you for your attention and for your learning.
The Excel Club has chosen STEEM to reward you for your loyalty and engagement on our blog. Think of it like a rewards card with your supermarket. With a loyalty card, you can swap your points against the cost of your purchase. But with a loyalty card, you are very often tied to using your points within the one shop. Not with STEEM. STEEM has a real monetary value. You can use your STEEM tokens against the price of our paid course, you can cash it in for real money, or you can spend it with many of the other merchants now accepting STEEM as a payment.
What is STEEM?
STEEM is a blockchain and cryptocurrency.
As a blockchain, STEEM enable content creators, such as The Excel Club, publish and store posts in a decentralized way. It enables content consumers, like you, earn rewards for engaging with the content and it also allows content consumers reward content creators, like The Excel Club.
As a cryptocurrency STEEM has a monetary value and can be traded for cash, goods, services and other cryptocurrencies.
How are Rewards Given?
Rewards are given by way of upvotes on the posts and the comments. The value of an upvote depends on how much the voter has vested in STEEM. The more they have vested, the higher their vote worth.
The Excel Club will be rewarding comments on our blog posts with upvotes.
Likewise, you can reward The Excel Club blog post with upvotes too. If your vote has any value, you will get up to 25% back in curation rewards.
How can I use my STEEM reward with The Excel Club?
STEEM can be used against the price of our paid courses. Contact us for more details
Where does the money for rewards come from?
Simply put, the value behind the rewards comes from Investors.
Is STEEM free to use?
STEEM is a freemium model. That means you can do a limited amount with a free account. The more you grow your STEEM account, the more you can do.
How can I get a STEEM account?
Purchase an instant account for $3.50 with this link
Sign up with this link for a free account (you could be waiting up to 2-3 weeks)
Where else can I use my STEEM account?
There are so many apps now using STEEM. Below is just a list of The Excel Clubs favorite STEEM based apps
Actifit – Earn STEEM rewards for tracking and logging your fitness activities
Steemmonsters – A decentralized, digital collectible trading card game built on the STEEM blockchain
Share2Steem – share The Excel Club blogs or any other content on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch or Medium and you can earn more STEEM rewards as share2steem will cross post to the STEEM blockchain.
Partiko – Read and engage with STEEM content on the fly with this awesome android app.
You can check out a wider range of APPs using STEEM here
I would like to reward The Excel Club with STEEM, how can I do this?
Upvote our blog posts. As your account on STEEM grows, so will the value of your vote. You can fast track your growth by buying STEEM or by leasing STEEM. Any STEEM you buy you can sell at a later stage. You do not use up STEEM voting our blog posts.
You can send STEEM directly to @theexcelclub via your STEEM wallet.
Please note the following headings that I would use as a part of your Getting Started Post
Please notice that I combined/added some information from How to get a Steem account and Is Steem free to use.
I think the other questions are topics that might overwhelm your users at this time. I would suggest considering sending scheduled emails to your users after they sign up with the information that I removed from this post.
That is just my two cents. I also have some thoughts about changing some of the wording but I felt that would be hard to communicate in the comments section
thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Feel free to hit me up on discord with changing the wording. I am open to all suggestions and all help
I agree definitely pare it down to a very quick 3 paragraph intro, with max 3 sentences a paragraph.
You need to crystal clear m ake a distinction between the token and blockchain.
For older users and neophytes I would suggest the following terminology changes.
Steem Tokens (which is the currency) and Steem Network... (yes I know it's a blockchain but it is also a social network)
And that you are using your voting dividends to pay or reward others.
Not their principle.
And all you are doing is getting their appetite wet.
Then give them a step by step sign up for a steemit account video on another page, finishing with you upvoting one of your tutorials....
By the way you need a more appealing header and footer on your site with some memorable grabber (it will increase your stickiness), even Sourceforge and W3Schools, have appealing logos and color schemes.
And for a training site I would not put ads. for SteemMontsters, it's not your target audience. You would be better to put a poker site (not that I recommend that) because people looking for Excell tutoring are doing analysis and alot of Adults with money do analysis and play poker you'd get a way better ROI...
BTW I owned and ran VNS Inc, StatuesColumns.com, ezAutoCare.com, PopUpShop.com, AdultDecor.com, StatuesAndColumns.com, Arkahdia Arts, LowPrice4u.com for 16 years and consulted to 100s of other firms.
I presently work as a Business Operations Consultant.
So you just got some consulting work Pro-Bono ....
For simplicity, Steem is like the frequent flyer points you earn for your favourite airline. The more you fly, the more points you earn.. The more you have, the more respect the airline treats you with ... At any time, you can cash them out for a flight.
Similarly, for Steem, the more you participate (writing post, commenting on posts), the more you will earn. The more you earn, the more respect the community has for you ... At any time, you can cash them out for money.
Once they are a steemian, then, they can find out the nitty gritty about cryptocurrency, blockchain and all the other intricacies that go along with them.
I like that comparison...frequent flyer points, thanks
We’re preparing onboarding for social projects at the moment and will use exactly this analogy. It’s much easier to understand than money from nowhere or value from investors
Posted using Partiko iOS
I think the main topic here is 'what's in it for me?' as a subscriber and do I need to change anything from what I'm currently doing?
The main idea I see here is - pay for your subscription (premium content) using rewards you earn from your comments (which is the main channel I see your users earning their rewards).
And this is when I imagine they look nto signing up with STEEM.
This is the section I mainly focused on:
I suggest to remove the word posts and just retain the comments. Posts can come later when they experience getting rewards from their comments.
I think providing this information is too much at an early stage (when they're just signing up). This can come later. For me, it's enough to read this for me to sign-up:
For this one below, I'll just remove it. If they like what you post, they'll intuitively upvote your posts. Or you can ask them to upvote your posts once they've signed up.
these are all really good suggestions, thank you so much . You are so right "what's in it for me?" is the question I need to try and answer
I do a lot of error checking and revision work and have some writing experience. My specialty is in teaching things in a more relatable and easy to grasp way. Here are some notes I made reading through your write-up.
"Learned". Change this word to a synonym. Using this word as a noun is less intuitive to the reader.
"By using STEEM". Change this to "By using the STEEM blockchain". This clarifies you are not requesting people to switch over to trusting Steem as an alternative currency/crypto to what they are used to, but mainly to use the blockchain as a helpful platform to interact, and gain secondary rewards. Add similar words if you want.
In describing the uses for steem, I would add something such as, you can save and invest to increase your rewards. Obviously there is a long list of possible uses. I think it is important for people to know they can benefit even by enrolling and doing almost nothing with it to stack their rewards for rainy day fund.
"STEEM enable content". Change "enable" to "enables" or "allows". Plural form.
Missing word "to". "such as The Excel Club, --publish and store". Also same missing word "to earn", and "to reward".
awesome, writing has never been my strong point. I don't try to pretend I know how to do it right. But it is great to have someone that does know how do it. My gig is numbers, how I have made it online blogging for the last number of years beats me. Thank you so much for this valuable comments
Hi @Paulag,
some Steemians have idetified top priorities to set up a marketing strategy for Steem. Maybe this could help you somewhat. The top-priorities they identified are:
I get the feeling, you're jumping directly onto the third point "sneak users" in. Maybe it would be better to clarify what is your value proposition for yor users first:
Secondly, why do they need a Steem account?
Clarifying these questions would probably help you with the wording. Cause, I have the feeling, you don't have a wording problem.
And final comment: Keep it short. "Sneak them in" and explain details later. First thing should be the value proposition and nothing else - at least these are my thoughts.
Good luck and I'll let you know as soon as we've started to address our first customers.
the truth is I am trying to sneak them in. Keep it short and explain the detail later is where I think I am trying to go. I dont want them to engage and be active on steem, just on my blog ( yes thats selfish but business is business)
You can always refer to my post of yesterday :)
I do explain there why I do love steem and what it did mean for my blogging experience!
Cheers,
Peter
Actually it seems like the word cryptocurrency always scare people off as sometimes i discuss with people about steemit and cryptocurrency, they always tend to give up or get scared easily about it
Im at the verge of giving up trying to explain it lol
As far as explaining Steem, in a fast way, that gets people excited to know more .... I like this very short slide show put together by CoinGecko.
https://assets.coingecko.com/steem-reports/Steem-Report-2018-by-CoinGecko.pdf
yes I like that too, but there is way to much information in that to sneak users into the steem platform lol
Many have shared some great ideas so far! One thought I had as I read it is instead of sending users to buy new accounts or waiting fro Steemit, why don’t you use Resource Credits to claim accounts for them. Maybe if they acquire a course, they get a free account fron you!
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When I do the hard launch I will be offering free accounts with the credits I have