Managing Expectations
This story is founded on one small finding, we think it relates to the bigger picture but thought we should let you know before you dedicate more time in reading further.
Introduction
In the first week of August 2019 we launched our Pomodoro Timer and began our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign. The application is far from cutting edge tech; we have a few points of difference which we hope will find a fan base but really we are on the opposite end of the spectrum to the Vitaliks (Etheruem cryptocurreny) and ArthurBs (Tezos cryptocurrency) of this world. The interesting thing we’ve found is how much more engaged and supportive the cryptocurrency circles are when compared to non-cryptocurrency circles.
We wrote two introductory stories for Vivport, one for the cryptocurrency folk and one for the general public. We found that the cryptocurrency story out performed the one for the general public by a factor of five. If you’re interested in comparing these stories or how we came to developing a Pomodoro Timer, then you can find them here:
Introducing Vivport (for the Crypto Enthusiast)
Introducing Vivport (for the Non-Crypto Readers)
SEO Strategy
Our SEO strategy is quite simple, write authentic stories on Medium with back-links to our website targeting our preferred key words (Pomodoro Timer) then distribute via the social webs.
Reddit was our preferred option to find interest groups where our content might be considered relevant.
The following Sub-Reddits were targeted:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tezos/ (15K members and usually has between 150–250 members online at any given point in time)
https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/ (350K members and usually has between 200–300 members online at any given point in time)
Both of these Sub-Reddits have a similar volumes of content being posted so new posts have equivalent opportunity to be seen near the top of the ‘Hot’ listings.
Cryptocurrency Story Results
The Tezos Sub-Reddit was a logical first choice for us as we are a block producer for that cryptocurrency and are known in those circles. From past experience we knew that any authentic post in that Sub-Reddit would result in 100 reads of the distributed Medium story within the first 24 hours.
As it turned out the moderators on the Tezos Sub-Reddit thought we were too far off topic so our post was denied publication.
Telegram was our Plan B so we posted the link in the common Tezos channel and the Tezos Bakers channel. We also released it on our Tez Baker Twitter but our account is small so the impact from Twitter was marginal.
In the first 24 hours the story received 51 reads which was down 50% on what we had expected through the Tezos Sub-Reddit but we were happy enough with the result.
The story was released on 2 Aug. 2019 and the views (not reads) can be seen in the following bar chart from Medium Stats.
General Public Story Results
The Productivity Sub-Reddit was the natural choice for a Pomodoro Timer posting as the function of the timer is to improve time management.
From reading the posts on the Sub-Reddit we had noticed that music was a recurring theme so we were comfortable that our post should be considered relevant as we were focusing on our timer’s hook into music pop-culture.
We were wrong.
We had one main post, failed. Commented on three other music related posted, failed. From our four attempts only one person was slightly interested and even they didn’t make it through to Medium.
This time round our Plan B was to ask friends with +500 LinkedIn connections to post our story. Somewhere between 15 and 20 friends from around the world helped us out. Here is a sample:
In the first 24 hours the story only received 8 reads even though it had received in the region of 1,000 LinkedIn views; obviously we were disappointed.
The story was released on 14 Aug. 2019 and the views (not reads) can be seen in the following bar chart from Medium Stats.
Summary
Cryptocurrency is still looking for its first application to break into mainstream circulation but from our very small experience it would seem that the ecosystem is well supported.
It seems that as those in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing their minds are open to conventional apps as well.
If our experience is representative of the market then there could be five times more early adopters (from the five stages of technology adoption) ready to support projects that take their interest.
Our Pomodoro app has little to do with cryptocurrency yet we found support in these circles.
If you have a startup it might be worth your time getting to know the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Disclaimer: holding BTC, ETH, XTZ, ATOM & IoTeX; block producing for XTZ, IoTeX, preparing for ETH and considering ATOM.
