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I'm convinced Web3 publishing is the wave of the future, but that doesn't mean I'm convinced of every single promise Web3 gurus make. Some have staked their futures on non-fungibles (NFTs) while others are bullish on hard-earned rewards. Still others are convinced that dapps are the future of everything. Personally, I see value in all three.
It's not whether NFTs, rewards, or dapps will dominate the future of Web3. I'd prefer not to worry about that. Let the chips fall where they may. Instead, I'm more interested in exploring what Web3 offers today.
Carpe diem, mo-fo!
With that in mind, here are five Web3 publishing platforms that I think are pretty cool right now. You'll notice that Publish0x, which I like, is not on this list. Read to the bottom and I'll tell you why.
I want to go on the record as saying that these are not necessarily the only Web3 publishing platforms that are worth trying. But these are the ones I'd recommend for writers. If you make videos, you might try Odysee, 3Speak, or DTube. There may be other platforms you can try if you're a musician or podcaster, or if you're a photographer or digital artist. The following five platforms are my recommendations for writers.
Mirror - Mirror calls itself the "home for web3 publishing." I'm not going to argue with that, but I will say it's just one platform of several that are worth looking at if you're a writer. Mirror is a great publishing platform for writers because of its design simplicity and decentralized features. Built on Ethereum, it allows writers to showcase their best work with a block-based composing system. Writers can sell their entries as NFTs and collect payments over the Optimism network, which means lower gas fees for collectors and no fees for writers. Posts are stored on Arweave, a decentralized database. Mirror's wallet subscriptions means fans don't have to divulge their email addresses while writers can still benefit from having subscribers. Collaborators can split royalties between multiple wallet addresses. Mirror also allows writers the ability to embed NFTs into their posts. And Mirror's Subscribe-to-Mint feature steps up the NFT game a bit. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but Mirror is fairly simple to learn for the writer willing to put in the work. Follow me on Mirror.
Paragraph - Paragraph is the platform I use to write my newsletter. Currently, it's considered a Substack alternative, but I have inside knowledge that Paragraph is moving toward a Patreon-like solution. That will mean the ability for subscribers to pay with crypto or with fiat money and with a tiered subscription system. Until that arrives, Paragraph is already doing great things on the Polygon blockchain. Writers can start a newsletter and divide subscribers into multiple communities. Each post can be a collectible NFT, and writers can gate premium content behind a subscription paywall. Paragraph can also be used to create token-gated content through an imported token created elsewhere or through a minting feature on Paragraph. The platform has several integrations worth noting. These include Coinvise, Unlock, and Farcaster. Writers can choose whether to save posts on Arweave whereas on Mirror it is automatic. Writers can also choose whether to send posts to newsletter subscribers or simply publish them as blog posts. Furthermore, writers can implement recurring crypto payments for subscriptions and create a referral program. Paragraph facilitates verified accounts through NF.TD. Additionally, like Mirror, Paragraph allows writers to embed NFTs within their posts. Paragraph is an excellent Web3 newsletter platform that I believe is soon to get even better. Subscribe to my Paragraph newsletter.
Hive.blog - The important thing to understand about Hive is that it is both a protocol and a platform. Hive is a blockchain. As such, anyone can build on top of it. Hive.blog is a platform that allows anyone to create a blog and write to that blog as often as they wish. While the blockchain does have NFT platforms built on top of it, Hive.blog is not an NFT platform. Rather, Hive bloggers earn rewards from upvotes by other users, but their content can also be downvoted. This creates an entirely different culture from Mirror and Paragraph, platforms that force writers to develop sales skills to attract NFT collectors and/or subscribers. On Hive, you just have to be able to elicit upvotes from other users and that requires two things: An ability to write great blog posts and networking. I can't stress the networking part enough. There are no Facebook-like algorithms that send people your way to see your posts. You have to spend some time promoting your posts yourself, and I've found the best way to do that is to follow other users and vote on, share, and comment on their posts. It's a slow process to attract a following, but it's a worthwhile process. Hive is also organized into communities, many of them not related to crypto or Web3 topics, which serve as great ways to find people interested in the topics you write about. On Hive (@hiveio), there are other ways to monetize. You can curate content produced by other users. Commenting draws upvotes and can be excellent earning opportunities in and of themselves. You can also create dapps for others to use and set up a witness node. All of these monetization methods go beyond writing. If you want to earn on Hive.blog, I'd recommend starting with writing your own blog, and it can be about anything under the sun. Follow me on Hive.
Readl - Readl has a very simple proposition. They allow writers to sell articles, books, and other literary products as NFTs. That opens up a wide range of opportunities for writers. Of course, the literary NFT market right now is very small, but I think it has a lot of potential in being able to move e-books beyond the lock that Amazon has on them. Readl is not the only place to publish e-books in Web3, but I like it because it allows writers the ability to publish e-books as gated content in the ePub format, which is the established frontrunner in e-book formats. It's free to publish and the platform takes a measly 2 percent of sales. The cool thing about NFT books, however, is that collectors can resell them on a secondary market, which could lead to subsequent income for the writer. Other Web3 book publishing platforms to try include Book.io and Creatokia, but I have not used either platform for book publishing. Therefore, I can't recommend them (as of right now). On the other hand, both Mark Cuban and New York Times bestselling author Joseph Nassise have published at Book.io. If you're into collecting book NFTs, you can collect my latest book for 2 MATIC, and I'll add that now is the best time to buy since MATIC's price is way down.
Ecency - Ecency is another platform built on top of the Hive blockchain. Personally, I like it better than Hive.blog. What makes it distinctive is its sleek design coupled with some awesome features. Decks, for instance allows writers to see, at a glance, different communities, accounts, and other content in side-by-side panels. Waves is a microblogging component akin to Leo Threads and D.Buzz, or Twitter. Publishing through Ecency allows writers to earn Ecency Points, in addition to HIVE, when other Ecency users upvote their content. These points can then be redeemed to boost and promote one's posts to the broader Ecency community. The cool thing about the Hive blockchain is that any content you publish through any of its several front ends (like Ecency) is published and accessible to the entire blockchain. You access all these frontends with the same Hive key pairs. Hive Keychain, Hive's MetaMask-like browser wallet, makes it super-easy. Follow me on Ecency.
Writers of all kinds can't go wrong by using these five Web3 publishing platforms. Hive gets a special mention as a decentralized writing and blogging platform with its own blockchain and several posting front ends that provide writers options and choice in where to post from. Earning potential is nearly unlimited. Hive also bears the distinction of being my highest earning platform, but much of those earnings can also be attributed to posting from Ecency.
If you've read my content for any length of time, or my books, you know that I am a fan of Publish0x. That hasn't changed. But I'm going to stop calling it a Web3 publishing platform.
It is a platform, and it is a publishing platform. But it is very firmly a Web2 platform that is mostly about crypto. There's not a darn thing wrong with that, but I do believe in calling things by what they are.
I included Publish0x in my book titled Web3 Social: How Creators Are Changing the World Wide Web (And You Can Too!) because I do believe it is a platform that offers great opportunities for writers in the cryptosphere. I also discuss it in my Cryptosocial: How Cryptocurrencies Are Changing Social Media. But Publish0x has some unique features in this space to keeps it rooted in Web2. For one thing, you must log in by email and solve their goofy CAPTCHA puzzles. You must also apply to become a writer on the platform. Joining as a reader is a necessary first step. Cashouts, which occur on a regular basis, are approved by humans. These are not necessarily bad features, but the do keep Publish0x in the Web2 realm and far from Web3 publishing like the other platforms on this list.
I'm going to unleash an idea into the world and let someone run with it. While I think Mirror, Paragraph, Hive, Readl, and Ecency are breaking new ground in writing and publishing, I do believe Web3 publishing can be made better. I have an idea for a Web3 publishing platform that can do that just, but I'm not a developer and don't have the time to learn how to code in order to bring this platform into existence. Nevertheless, my dream Web3 platform would have the following properties:
Similar to Medium - There are Web3 publishing platforms that claim to be similar to Medium, but none of them offer publishers a way to set up a publication that also facilitates the ability for writers to submit to those publications. There needs to be a Web3 version of this where writers, publishers, and editors can all collaborate on a single publication with digital wallet connections and payment splits based on their contributions.
Writing NFTs - Each piece of writing, as well as each publication, should be collectible as an NFT.
Cross-Chain - Initially, I conceived of this idea as an additional front end on the Hive blockchain. I still believe that Hive would make a great home for the platform and it could facilitate seamless curation of Hive content, providing for a more innovative revenue split for authors, publishers, editors, and curators. Beyond Hive, it could also connect to Polygon, Optimism, and other blockchains to allow authors, curators, publishers, and editors to collaborate in new ways and choose their payment options based on the blockchain. Publications could be published on multiple blockchains and be free to the public or subscription-based.
Graphical - There should also be a way to facilitate the use of graphical content through the same submission-based process as the writing, and allow for graphic artists, illustrators, photographers, video creators, and other visual artists to earn from their contributions to each publication.
Robust design features - The platform should have the ability for publishers and editors to control the format of their publications. They could purchase templates in a marketplace or create their own. They should be able to design their publication in a creative manner to give it the unique appearance and offer for free, for sale by single issue, or for sale by subscription in a platform-based marketplace.
In essence, what I'm describing is a Web3 magazine publishing platform where publishers can start their own publications, buy and sell other publications, and run their publications as businesses. They could hire editors and compensate those editors with cryptocurrencies depending on which blockchains they publish on. And writers, illustrators, musicians, video creators, and other contributors can be compensated for their contributions too.
If anyone wants to build this type of Web3 publishing platform, I'd be happy to serve as consultant and even be among the first to test drive the publication.
Thanks for reading. Collecting this post is a sign of support for my writing and allows me to continue doing what I love, and I very much appreciate that. Collect this post and I'll airdrop some Taylor tokens into your wallet.
Follow me on the following publishing platforms.
Readl (Note: Readl has no follow feature, per se, but you can collect authors' work.)
Publish0x (Note: If you join Publish0x using this link, I'll get a small portion of your tips, but my portion will come from the platform's share rather than yours, and at no expense to you.)
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Allen Taylor
I like the idea of a platform that crossposts automatically and let the writer select the type of crypto he wants to earn, or the features included. That facilitates the publishing craft a lot. Personally, I suffer the jumping between platforms (and I am just started to use Mirror and Paragraph Lol) On the other hand, I think Hive folks wouldn't like that option because of the exclusivity they ask in order to curate. Thanks for share.
There are people on Hive who are Hive maximalists. However, I think most people in the community wouldn't mind cross-chain activity as long as it remains decentralized. They are very much decentralization maximalists. What they don't want to see is a Hive dapp being token over by a centralized entity, even if it's on another blockchain.