2023 has been a year with media & content creation in the spotlight. Platforms have continued to close off developers, restricting API access. Censorship & AI-generated impersonation abounds, placing an even larger importance on provenance & permanence. Creator's revenue streams have continued to be reliant on monopolies, limited by the few or usually one path for monetization provided by a platform.

In 2023, we've made great strides in empowering creators to foster new & meaningful connections with their audience, while ensuring that they're always in control and can create, distribute & monetize exactly how they want. We're just getting started, and we're excited with what's in store.

In this post, we're highlighting a few feature launches in 2023 that we're particularly proud of, and showcasing a few things planned for 2024.

Engagement & Distribution

Layer3 Quest Embeds

At Paragraph, we believe readers should not just be passive consumers of content, but instead active participants, rewarded for loyalty and engagement. This can take the form of many different things: from NFT memberships, to collectible content, to in-post engagement.

Layer3 has been incentivizing & gamifying active participation in the form of Quests - users can complete Quests to learn more about a specific protocol or product in web3 and get rewarded in the form of XP and badges.

We're excited to announce that we've added support for Layer3 quest embeds, letting readers complete quests directly within Paragraph posts.

Paragraph creators like Web3Academy are using these quest embeds to turn a one-sided conversation into something more engaging: now, Web3Academy can teach their readers about a web3 product or protocol, and get them to actually interact with the product using a Layer3 quest (while rewarding them for doing so). For example, in their recent post about Sound.xyz, they've embedded a Sound quest.

In addition, Layer3 has been running quests centered on Paragraph creators, like UFO.fm, helping grow their audience. They've driven tens of thousands of mints on Paragraph collectible posts so far.

This integration also illustrates the power of Paragraph's referral rewards - protocols & platforms like Layer3 get rewarded for all traffic they send Paragraph. They've earned over 1 ETH so far via referral rewards, simply for sending users to Paragraph; and will continue earning for as long as the user's they referred keep monetizing on Paragraph.

In 2024, we'll be experimenting with more features that aim to turn passive readers into active participants, fostering an even closer sense of community between creators and their audience.

Wallet Newsletter Delivery with XMTP

In 2023, we launched XMTP-based wallet newsletter delivery. No need to rely on getting into email inboxes - you can send new posts directly to your subscriber's wallets!

In 2024, we'll be improving UX by introducing new layers of customization, and helping onboard even more users to XMTP. We'll also be exploring 1:1 XMTP messages, letting creators engage directly with their biggest fans beyond newsletters.

Metrics & Analytics

In 2023, we've launched a new suite of metrics & analytic features that help creators determine which posts are the most engaging. Creators can now track newsletter open rates, post view counts, time spent by viewers reading posts, and even unsubscribe counts due to specific newsletters so you can fine-tune your content to your audience.

Next year we plan to expand on the metrics dashboard to add graphs of subscribers over time, user engagement journeys, monetization metrics, and more.

Automation and Workflows

In 2023, we introduced support for AI writing assistance in the editor. You can now use the power of AI to generate headlines and ideas, and if you get stuck mid-way through a paragraph, just ask the AI to finish writing it for you.

To aide in bolstering reader engagement, we also launched customizable automated emails, allowing you to schedule delayed thank yous, reminders, coupon codes, and upsells when your readers perform various actions such as subscribe, upgrade to a paid membership, and more.

Theming & Customization

In 2023, we've added a large number of homepage & post-page customizations to truly make your publication your own.

In 2024, we'll be continuing to add new controls for customization & theming, including the much-requested ability to pin posts.

Collaboration & Onboarding

In 2023, we launched several features aimed to helping creators onboard onto Paragraph, and enabling creators to work together as a group.

We launched subscriber import & post import flows, enabling creators to export data from other platforms and migrate to Paragraph seamlessly. In 2024, we'll be expanding our post import flows, making it easier for users to migrate from Mirror and Substack.

We also launched teams & roles - you can add individual writers by either wallet address or email, and give them permission to perform certain actions on your Paragraph newsletter (such as editing a post, but not publishing it). This opens up opportunities for DAOs and larger publications to have guest writers with limited access.

Creator Monetization

Referral Rewards

Our referral rewards program has already been rewarding individuals that share their favourite posts online, & platforms like Layer3 for helping grow Paragraph creators.

In 2024, we'll be greatly expanding this rewards program - we'll be doubling down on eligible reward actions, expanding partners, and displaying reward metrics more prominently across Paragraph.

We'll also be launching a recommendation network: creators can recommend other newsletters and refer their own subscribers, while getting rewarded for doing so.

Recurring Payments & NFT-backed Memberships

In 2023, we added support for recurring payments. Creators have been earning thousands of dollars a month monetizing via fiat recurring payments on Paragraph. Creators can create NFTs that correspond to a recurring membership, letting readers mint and own an on-chain collectible that can grant access to exclusive content directly from the creator.

In early 2024 we'll be adding support for crypto-recurring payments, unlocking additional & permissionless ways for creators to monetize on a recurring basis from their audience. We'll also be launching NFT membership for free subscribers, letting creators build not only a subscriber-base, but a collector-base.