I've been writing in (and about) Web3 since 2021, and have published short stories, poetry and literary journals across multiple blockchains - ETH, Polygon, Tezos.
I led a panel on writing in Web3 at NFT NYC 2023, and the foundational ideas and issues we discussed then are still relevant. But a year later, the Web3 writing space - from the perspective of getting paid for the time an author invests in writing - has changed significantly.
Some of the projects that earned me the most income in previous years (such as Readl) have gone under, like BookCoin did before. But new projects and platforms have emerged - and several of these are exciting enough for me to invest some time in.
t2
The first of these is t2 - whose catch-line is "Where writers find their niche."
I've been publishing there since December 2023, earning "time points" as well as over $700 in USDC from the various prizes won in Season 1 and Season 2 of their "Friends Who Write" contest.
They've got a good, clean UX for both writing and reading, "Territories" aligned to various niches/subjects and a leaderboard for both readers and writers (see example below).
Their "time points" approach is interesting, since it rewards both readers and writers for the value of the time spent writing and reading each article. Currently, those "TP" don't have a value attached, but I have a feeling that in the future, that will change. For me, t2 has been the Web3 equivalent of Medium - and I highly recommend writers of long-form content (essays, articles, short fiction, etc.) to consider joining t2 and publishing/cross-posting there.
Warpcast
You can get paid in various ways on Warpcast, which now allows for longer posts of 1024 characters - with the first 320 visible above the "show more" option. And since readers who like what you write can tip with $DEGEN or gift you Warps, it's possible to earn some money for this kind of writing.
If t2 and Paragraph are Web3 answers to Medium, Warpcast is the Web3 answer to Twitter / X - and I personally believe that any author serious about a future of writing in Web3 should start building on Warpcast as soon as possible.
I had a Warpcast account early on, but was focused on some big IRL projects this year and didn't put much attention towards it - but in the first three weeks of June, I've earned about $69 in "tips" for my various posts / comments / pictures / memes.
If you don't already have a Warpcast account, you can join with this link and get a sign-up gift of 50 Warps (the platform's native currency).
Paragraph
This is the latest of the platforms that I'm exploring - like t2, it's a Web3 alternative to Medium - unlike t2, it's already got a solid integration with the Base ecosystem, which is one of the big reasons that I'm starting to publish here.
It's too early for me to comment on the earnings potential through this platform - but the number of people I see using it to write tells me that it's going to be an important player in the Web3 writing ecosystem - and so I've decided to invest the time to get started on it as part of the "Farcaster Writing Hackathon" that I participated in this week.
An example of how you can get paid - I minted one of Danica Swanson's articles for about $3 USD (paid in Warps thanks to Paragraph's integration with Warpcast) - and checking OpenSea, I noticed that 20 other people had done the same. That's $60 USD earned on one long-form article for Danica, which highlights the potential for writers to earn money on Paragraph. It should be noted that works out to about 5.5 cents per word, which is on par with the entry-level rate for freelance writing for IRL / Web2 publications in the US.
Paragraph also has an interesting referral program which rewards those who share the work of their peers and promote the platform - so if you're not already publishing or cross-posting there, I highly recommend signing up and getting started!
More to Come...
So, that's my roll-up of the latest platforms where Web3 writers can currently earn money for their writing - there are a lot more ways to do that as well, and I'll share my experience with those in Part Two.
Thanks for reading this, and best of luck with your writing!
The first Farcaster Writing Hackathon is coming to an end today. Huge congratulations to everyone who participated. It's been great seeing the essays dropping all week. Let's now start to consolidate them all in one place. Please reply to this cast with link(s) to what you wrote. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14QI_BqnHjk_9b-2Sb7klBOFCLm_bkddUq9EK3unrIjM/edit?usp=sharing
https://warpcast.com/adrienne/0xf3761dad https://warpcast.com/adrienne/0x3b4dd115
:)
btw I haven't officially signed up for the hackathon but finished this one before the deadline - maybe it might be useful :) https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/farcaster-hard-to-build
Thanks for permissionlessly participating 🙌
This was a great read for someone who is relatively new, 300K FID. So much has shifted within just a few months, but I appreciate the feed and experience that I'm having. It's much less spammy and the content is interesting AND varied. I most appreciate that the users are co-creating this space together. There are a bunch of great people with amazing ideas, and they are bringing them to life here. It's fun to watch. 200 $kat
Glad you found it useful!
https://warpcast.com/six/0xc0dbdeb4
A collaborative piece about the dark side of humans https://paragraph.xyz/@cheshirecat/029-farcaster-fiction-lore-writing-hackathom
trend farcasting, by an optimistic overthinker: https://warpcast.com/jordanlovesred/0xec76aa8c
I procrastinated heavy but powered through! Hope its not too late: https://paragraph.xyz/@raulonastool/the-programmable-social-feed
https://warpcast.com/yb/0x682e5aad
Wrote a lil poem https://paragraph.xyz/@0x3994537274f3ff3eefc413e0d669b05d6446d46b/ode-to-a-farcaster-login-qr-code
Thankful for the opportunity to sit down and write my thoughts on my Farcaster journey from joining with 0 crypto background to founding FCNY, the largest IRL Farcaster community. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it! https://paragraph.xyz/@fcny/serendipity-and-success-how-a-non-crypto-native-founded-fcny,-farcasters-largest-community
Here is my first contribution to the Hackathon - I published this article highlighting how three platforms are giving authors a range of ways to get paid for the time and effort they put into their work. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and to publishing more of my Hackathon material before the June 28th! https://paragraph.xyz/@degenaissancedigest/getting-paid-to-write-in-web3/?referrer=ehcarpenter.eth
Love the title of your newsletter. Thanks for mentioning my article! One correction: writers don’t get 100% of the fee paid by the minter. For a free (0 ETH) mint on Zora, the total fee is 0.000777 ETH (~$3). Of that, creators get 0.000333 ETH for each mint. If applicable, they also get a referral fee and/or first-minter fee. So writers can earn anywhere from 0.000333 ETH to 0.000555 ETH per mint. On Paragraph the fee paid by the collector for a 0 ETH mint is also 0.000777 ETH, and writers get 0.000333 ETH. So in many cases, writers' earnings from free mints won’t even meet the comparable entry-level per-word rate in web2, unfortunately. It adds up if you get a lot of mints. But so far the most mints I’ve ever gotten on a single article is about 60. I don’t know of any web3 writers who make a sustainable living through minting revenues alone, so tips really help. 5555 $DEGEN in appreciation for your work.
More info on the numbers I mentioned above: https://support.zora.co/en/articles/1368641 https://docs.paragraph.xyz/docs/advanced/referral-program#reward-fees
Also, since you're writing about getting paid and it sounds like this will be a series of articles, check out the Not A Token points system by /airstack (if you haven't already). The beauty of it is that casters get rewarded for casts they've already made, and it's low-friction to claim points and swap for degen in-app. I'm keeping a close eye on Airstack. https://docs.airstack.xyz/airstack-docs-and-faqs/not-a-token
t2 is medium, users and writers pay for network access rather than direct to individuals. is t2 still doing contests?
I don't think anyone is paying for network access on t2 - although their model is different from Paragraph's subscription-based approach. They are still running writing contests, and serving as a platform for smaller projects to do the same. Their prize pool grew from $5K in Season 1 to $13K in Season 2, and I suspect it will be bigger when Season 3 arrives in November 2024... Their "time points" also allow readers to have their attention valued (if those points DO get monetized/tokenized in the future) and one of the smaller contests currently running has a cash prize for readers specifically, which is unique and good, IMO, as they are an important part of the ecosystem! Just my two cents / $DEGEN!
"time points" is how medium works for payment to writers also. Which incentivizes article bloat also
Great name.
Thanks, brother!