You are a creative one, a designer, writer, musician, whatever. You don’t have to know the minutiae of how blockchain works. You need a home for your content, one that respects your efforts and protects your creations in a way copyright laws no longer can, by making a lasting copy on a blockchain, so that no one can build upon your work without you profiting from it.

Just a couple of days ago, I thought of Web3 as some new, obscure part of the internet, hidden behind cryptic claims about decentralization and lots and lots of technical expressions that seemed slightly scary. I still learned all I could in a day, went onchain the next day, and 24 h later, it feels like home.

A note to Web3 folks who already know all that I’m about to say: if you have people in your life who you’d love to see onchain, but who are still reluctant and confused with tech jargon, you might wish to share this guide with them.

I am writing this with my friends in mind, amazing content creators who think Web3 is something distant and unwelcoming. I know you have such friends, too. Help me spread the word.

If you've been interested in Web3, but don't know where to start, this is for you. I am definitely not an expert, but I can help you make that first step and understand what you’re doing without using any of the tech lingo you can see when you start researching online.

Know that I am writing this guide without AI help, and that I’m about to mention stuff that ChatGPT doesn’t know yet, because things change quickly over here.

I'll present info in digestible bits, in the same order as I encountered them while entering this realm.

It is a good idea to set up a crypto wallet anyway, even if you aren't interested in Web3 at all, so don’t think of it as a waste of time.

Web3-friendly wallets work as browser extensions, so I added mine to Chrome. No tech knowledge is needed. Just choose a wallet (I see platforms recommending MetaMask, but it has received some poor reviews recently, so I chose to go with Exodus, which I used in the past and know is reliable) and follow the steps.

Different blockchains require different wallets, so you get to choose between Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and some others. Making this choice is actually easy, even if you don't know anything yet, and you can have all of them. I needed an Ethereum wallet for the Web3 platform I liked the most (it is Paragraph, obviously - I’ll write about it in a bit), so that’s what I've chosen. All of them are supported on Exodus.

You’ll need to fund the wallet with a symbolic amount. You won't have any significant expenses, but you’ll want to have a few bucks ready for eventual (negligible) gas fees. That's really nothing, and you'll make slightly larger amounts as soon as you become active in Web3. These are all tiny amounts at the beginning. I signed up with a dollar's worth of Ethereum, and I made another $1 by publishing my first post and having it read by a couple of people. Literally a couple.

Note that it is probably impossible to buy ETH for $1. I already had the wallet, had made some transactions in the past, and a fraction of what I had at that moment stayed there. The bottom line is: fund your crypto wallet with the minimum sum possible.

Again, you don't have to think a lot. Choose a platform based on what you do in real life and the type of content you create. If you are a designer or a gamer, you'll probably have more options than I had, but you should be able to spot a good one quickly.

I am a writer, so I looked for one that is best for writers. I don’t know if I've chosen the best one, but so far, I am happy with my choice. It is Paragraph.

I initially narrowed down my choices to four platforms, without visiting any: BULB, Sigle, Mirror, and Paragraph. The first one is based on the Solana blockchain, the second on Bitcoin (not directly, but in some complicated way), and the last two are on Ethereum. (You only need this info to help you choose and set up your wallet.) Then I read an article about Paragraph acquiring Mirror and got the impression that they are big. Next, I visited its homepage and wished to make it my online home.

Paragraph is beautiful, clean, and intuitive. It also has a massive growth potential, based on what I read about it recently.

Now that people are discovering and moving to Substack, I see people leaving Substack for Paragraph.

The interface is simple, and you'll instantly know what to do. It looks very much like Substack and Medium, but it is upgraded with Web3 features that you're going to love. The appearance of publications is a writer’s dream. Just look at this page, the beautiful typography, the absence of distractions, ads, cookies, and promoted content.

It has users who have been around for a couple of years and new ones. It is not crowded, and your content will be seen. You can also share it on Web2 platforms. People outside of Web3 will see it as a regular blog and will be able to view your content and enjoy it. They just won’t be able to interact with it in a way people in Web3 can.

And then, there’s Web3 and a ton of new possibilities.

I already mentioned you’ll need a wallet. In Web3, your wallet is your ID. You need it to sign up, enter this realm, and unlock the features that change the game.

If you’ve read or are about to read an older article on how to start on Paragraph, specifically, (or if you ask ChatGPT to guide you based on obsolete info it has) I need to tell you that everything is much simpler today. Stuff I love the most was only introduced like two weeks ago. You’ll make everything work quickly, and then you can focus on content creation, as that’s the main point here.

I’ll list the most important features and perks that I noticed immediately on Paragraph. They are similar on other platforms, although probably not identical. Paragraph has a few perks on its own that are recently introduced and new on the entire Web3 world, but now I’ll just list and explain what I find worth highlighting.

1. Your wallet is your ID. You need it to sign up and sign in. You can also add your email as a sign in option, but your wallet is your primary and necessary means of entering Web3.

2. No intermediaries. You’ll never need a service like PayPal, Stripe, or similar. Whatever you make you can withdraw directly to your wallet and do whatever you want with it.

3. Your content gets coined instantly. When you hit publish, it not only goes to a server, but also to a blockchain (Ethereum in this case), and blockchains are forever. You can also make collectibles out of your content pieces, and there are still more possibilities than I am currently aware of.

4. It is easy for others to support your work with small donations. It pays of to grow audience here.

5. Your content instantly get assigned certain value, and you get a share of it. I am not completely sure how it works, but here’s how I see it, in general. When we, creators, produce value - publish content, promote it elsewhere, or interact with others’ content, that raises the value of the platform itself, and we get a share of the value we produce. This is the fairest content value compensation system I’ve seen in my life. It’s revolutionary. I’m in awe, and definitely motivated to keep writing.

6. Your content is yours forever. Even if a particular platform cease to exist, you can take it and move it to another easily, in the same way that you can take your crypto from Exodus to MetaMask or an USB drive. What is yours remains yours forever.

7. Paragraph has a feature that goes above and beyond commenting, linking, and reposting. You can “remix” other people’s content, enter the discussion by adding you thoughts, and publish that on your publication. When you do that, the value of the original and new content coins is combined and both creators profit from it. I'm yet to explore that.

I’ll be adding more info soon. Would love to see your feedback and suggestions.

Take care.