Marketing Marketing Marketing

[robrigo]

Hey RG- thanks for taking the bull by the horns on this! I like your actionable plan to get the ball rolling. I have a bit of feedback.

While I think it's OK for us to call Bitshares a "DEX" when referring to it, I don't think using acronyms in the actual marketing materials we generate is the most effective way to proceed here. I think we should spell it out. "Distributed Exchange" or "Peer-to-peer Exchange" might be better. From what I've seen, it's hard to get the average joe caring about decentralization for the sake of decentralization. We can talk about this more next Wednesday.

To those interested- I'm going to PM you an agenda document we started drafting up in the last meeting. I think it would be helpful to define an agenda ahead of time so we can stay focused on topic for the next meeting. If anyone else wants the agenda, please message me. I'm avoiding publishing the link publicly here so a troll can't delete it.

Xanoxt- on the topic of a Bitshares wikipedia page, this is something I started with KenCode a long time ago. I think I actually lost the most recent draft but here's a draft that I could find:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bZYNgzxXQXl-kIXaxQJjBlbX75qM7eOr0eWOeRAABVo/edit?usp=sharing

There's a lot of info there on the history of Bitshares as explained on these forums by Stan and others. It needs a lot of love, much of the information there was pre-Graphene. if anyone would like to collaborate on this again I'd be happy to help pick up the pieces. Message me privately for edit access. The Wikipedia admins are a tough crowd... they kept telling me the draft sounded too much like marketing lingo. And because I haven't touched the wikipedia draft in a long time, they just deleted it entirely. That draft on Wikipedia was actually adapted to explain the changes introduced by Graphene too. Oh well!

[Xanoxt]

Okay, if you want the facts, the fact is that we are currently THE BIGGEST and FASTEST Decentralized Exchange.

Also, we are the first blockchain to have decentralized governance. During & after the Beyond Bitcoin Mumble, I've did some digging, and here are the findings.

Dash claims to be the first such system, and they are partially correct. Their idea about that was posted in April 2015, and implemented in August.

Bitshares 2.0 that automated the current worker system was launched in October 2015, however first person to be employed by the blockchain was this guy, and here is an explanation about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrif9uThwSY

I can add links to other documents that were mentioned above, if that is necessary.

I'd also like to get people together to do research and gathering of source documents, that we can use to write a wikipedia article about Bitshares, since there is none. And while a few pages mention bitshares, it is either in passing, or in slightly negative light. A good approach would be to rectify the situation. While it isn't marketing per se, more of a PR thing, we are sorely lacking in that department as well.

[Ben Mason]

Problem that it solves: The Only Exchange Where You Control Your Private Keys

not true, and I'd be very careful with the wording here. world's first, the only yadayada... those things backfire very fast.

NXT / Counterparty / Omni are some examples of a DEX where you hold your own keys.

Agree with this remark. Let's try to stay away from lying.

Sure, there's no need to lie...the truth is ample. Where do other DEX's fail where bitshares succeeds? It's no good controlling your private keys if transactions can be censored. Are other DEX's as resilient as bitshares?

[valtr]

Could translation to other langages help in marketing?
There is  dead topic https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,18711.0/all.html
I can still login into Transifex, but there is no new project.

[nmywn]

I think  many crypto traders need a tool to  secure their profits without risk. CNY/USD is an answer and survived damn long downtrend and major swings without failure. Build trust on that. Advertise  as store of value (you will not earn, but not loose either).

[yvv]

Problem that it solves: The Only Exchange Where You Control Your Private Keys

not true, and I'd be very careful with the wording here. world's first, the only yadayada... those things backfire very fast.

NXT / Counterparty / Omni are some examples of a DEX where you hold your own keys.

Agree with this remark. Let's try to stay away from lying.

[fav]

Problem that it solves: The Only Exchange Where You Control Your Private Keys

not true, and I'd be very careful with the wording here. world's first, the only yadayada... those things backfire very fast.

NXT / Counterparty / Omni are some examples of a DEX where you hold your own keys.

[virtualgrowth]

Problem that it solves: The Only Exchange Where You Control Your Private Keys

1. Build a landing page that we can A/B Test (Possible template: https://www.trading212.com)
2. Run Ads on Coinmarketcap and other websites where cryptotraders hangout
3. Run trading contests of $500 per week for the best market maker and/or other activities we want to promote on the exchange.

Greatly like the point of "Only Exchange Where You Control Your Private Keys"

Agree with major ad(s) on Coinmarketcap and others which has been mentioned by a few in the community.  That is a great way to get the "BITSHARES name" seen.

Also interested in trading contests and could possibly help with that as I do giveaways with some market data on steemit as virtualgrowth there.  Maybe I could giveaway a token and create a contest around that token.  And possibly use a worker proposal coupled with steemit posts for funds for such a project.

Lastly thanks to many who have encouraged my involvement in these crypto spaces as I explore to discover places to best express my ideas and efforts.

[SolomonSollarsNSense]

Jonny I think you are setting the right tone for the community right now. Especially when it comes to marketing. The only thing I would caution is that $2000/M is entry level pay for a marketing job out of college in Chicago and its about $500- $1000 more in cities like New Your and the Bay area.

Although someone like me (since Im invested in Bitshares) may be interested dont be surprised if there is push back from the compensation stand point from others. Especially outside the community. I think somewhere between $2500-$3000 would be better. 6 Months is perfect time frame for analyzing a marketing strategy's effectiveness.

I think the fact that you bring up budget also means your heads in the right place. Just my 2 $ense. Peace.

[JonnyB]

@rgcrypto Why don't you just create worker proposal for some basic ad spending and get the ball rolling. You 'll get my vote.

[llildur]

I think advertise on coinmarketcap is great idea, if ppl can store cryptos in the DEX with their own pivkey  could be awesome i mean some lite client like electrum for the most traded cryptos built within the DEX or some kind of multiwallet like blockpay is doing 

[Geneko]

I like your initiative. I know this is of topic, neither English is may natural language.
Anyway it crossed my mind when reading this.

Inconsivable Crypto Trader's Dream

Imagine there is trading platform like Poloniex made on top of block chain.
Block chain with bullet speed transactions, thousands per second.
It could not be hacked. It could not be seized, It could not be shutdown.
There you would have control of your private keys.

Imagine it charges negligible fees. Imagine you could upgrade to 80% cash back on such fees.
Imagine free trading bots and Api tools for such exchange at your disposal.

Now, imagine not being member of such exchange.
This is reality you currently have.

Bitshares Decentralized Exchange DEX

[rgcrypto]

Totally badass. Thanks! :-)

[fav]

make the landing page work with ?refid so that anyone would have an incentive to advertise it.

very good point. That could help generate much more traffic. Is it possible to do that on self-hosted wordpress website? (I develop on wordpress only and all my marketing "gears" for that I have is on that platform)

Code: [Select]

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Fav Referrer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    // note you placed it inside the body. Following conventions it should be in the <head> - part
  function getUrlParameter(sParam) {
    var sPageURL = decodeURIComponent(window.location.search.substring(1)),
        sURLVariables = sPageURL.split('&'),
        sParameterName,
        i;
    for (i = 0; i < sURLVariables.length; i++) {
        sParameterName = sURLVariables[i].split('=');

        if (sParameterName[0] === sParam) {
            return sParameterName[1] === undefined ? true : sParameterName[1];
        }
    }
  };

// below this is how you use jquery: When the document is fully loaded, execute the stufff
// This is done with the magical $(document).ready() function of Jquery.
  $( document ).ready(function() {

      // grabbing the url parameter from the address
      var r = getUrlParameter("r");

      // if no r param is set, or the r param is empty fill it with a default r you hardcode here:
      if(!r || r == '') {
        r = "XYZ_DEFAULT_REFERRAL_CODE_HERE";
      }

      // for each <a> on the page, loop and change (add the r var.)
      $('a').each(function() {
        $(this).attr('href', this.href+r);
      });

  });

</script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <!-- page content -->
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
    <a href="https://openledger.io?r=">Testlink</a>
  </body>
</html>
didn't have the time to test it yet, but @roelandp helped me get this together.

yourdomain.com?r=fav should add fav to all links

[rgcrypto]

make the landing page work with ?refid so that anyone would have an incentive to advertise it.

very good point. That could help generate much more traffic. Is it possible to do that on self-hosted wordpress website? (I develop on wordpress only and all my marketing "gears" for that I have is on that platform)