Web 3 is fast becoming the next big thing. If you’re looking to make it as a content writer in the web 3 space, this is definitely the episode for you.
In this episode, Sterling Schuyler gives a lesson on how to Negotiating with Startups in the Web 3.0 Space
Sterling helps emerging fund managers and crypto enthusiasts with their written materials such as cold emails, website copy, quarterly reports, articles, newsletters, deal memos, and anything in between.
She is also the CEO of Added Value Agency.
She discusses;
Name: Sterling Schuyler
What She Does: Sterling is the CEO of Added Value Agency.
Company: Added Value Agency
Noteworthy: She is a copy and content writer for emerging fund managers & crypto enthusiasts
💡Finding Clients in the Web Three and Crypto Industry
Sterling shares valuable insights into how freelancers can identify potential clients in the web three and crypto industry. She recommends joining communities and projects of interest, which fosters a deeper understanding of specific niches and allows individuals to become a part of the ecosystem.
By becoming active in these communities, freelancers increase their chances of being approached for freelance opportunities within their preferred domains.
💡Identifying Green Flags for Project Leads
Sterling shares tips for evaluating potential project leads in the web three space. She suggests considering long-term value, the purpose-driven nature of the project, network chatter and media coverage, as well as the team members’ interactions on social media platforms. These factors can help determine the viability and authenticity of a project.
💡Establishing Authority in Crowded Web Three Communities
Sterling provides strategies for standing out in crowded web three communities. She recommends active participation, asking questions, and sharing relevant content and insights with the community to establish expertise and gain notice from decision-makers within the industry.
Additionally, fostering a respectful and helpful community culture is essential for nurturing meaningful connections and collaborations.
Setting Pricing for Web Three Services
Sterling provides advice on pricing web three services, emphasizing that writing for this niche is a specialized skill, and there is limited competition in the market.
She suggests starting with a 20% markup on prices charged for B2B SaaS customers due to the uniqueness of the sector and the value it brings.
Evaluating Sustainability and Product Focus in Web Three Projects
Sterling addresses concerns about the lack of sustainable growth plans and excessive focus on tokens and equity in the web three space. She advises researching the company’s social media engagement, community chatter, and genuine interactions between the company and its audience to determine the legitimacy of its product and long-term vision.
Identifying Companies with Good Budgets
Sterling and Chima explore the difficulty of identifying companies with good budgets in the Web3 and crypto space. They agree that sending rate cards to potential clients is an effective way to establish whether a company can afford a writer’s services.
Both of them emphasize the importance of being upfront about rates and discussing them openly with clients during initial conversations. Chima highlights that some companies, despite their appearance, may not have the budget to pay writers competitively, while others with well-established profiles may have substantial budgets for writing projects.
Connect with Sterling;
Sterling Schuyler 0:02
and load up my presentation here. I am curious though, do you?
Chima Mmeje 0:14
Yes, someone can see it. I guess it’s it’s everyone.
Sterling Schuyler 0:17
Can you also see my shirt? My notes?
Chima Mmeje 0:20
Um, no, just yeah. Just your presentation. Perfect. What’s the see the notes?
Sterling Schuyler 0:25
Nope. I mean, there’s nothing really scandalous or anything and um, it’s just that, uh, you know, understand.
Chima Mmeje 0:31
Just for you. Yes for you. Alright. Yeah, yeah.
Sterling Schuyler 0:36
Cool. Awesome. Well, thanks everyone for being here. I’ll just go ahead and, and dig in. So I’m here to talk about, about web three companies, what it’s like to work with them, or more specifically, what you should be looking for in terms of whether or not they’re going to be a good client. So just a bit about me. I started freelancing about four years ago, and I but I was doing anything that people would kind of pay me for in regards to marketing. So I did social media management, I did a little bit of graphic design, I helped people design their websites.
And I did writing. And after a year of doing all kinds of different things, I decided in 2019, that I really wanted to focus on being a writer, and specifically, I wanted to write for venture capitalists, as well as people working in crypto. And so that’s how I got into crypto was actually because I had a client of a venture capitalist who was investing in crypto projects, so I needed to learn more about it. And, and I, I am still very passionate about it to this day. I, I love that it can be that it’s decentralised, and that it can really empower people to take better control over their finances. I don’t I won’t get into all of my own personal views. But yeah, crypto is something I love.
And I’m really excited that I get to share some of these things with you. So just to give you an idea of what we’re going to cover, and also feel free to take screenshots if if you find that helpful. So today, I’m going to briefly explain what crypto web three NF T’s, what, what those all mean, and how people use those terms. And then we’ll talk a bit about how to identify red and green flags in in potential clients in these fields. And those the things we’ll talk about are are the team, social media, and and their communities. And then hopefully, we’ll have enough time and I can touch on compensation a little bit. I know that there’s also been some chatter about about equity compensation, and what that all means and whether you should take it so I’ll try and get through all that today. So as I said, first, crypto web three, NF Ts.
Oh, and also the metaverse. So crypto as I mentioned, it’s usually about finance. About currency, you’ll see a lot of people on crypto Twitter or tech internet or a bunch of bros whatever. They some people will talk about it as an investment vehicle. Things about you know, like buying Dogecoin and holding on to it so that it just skyrockets in price. And then you can sell it similar to stocks, if that’s something you’re familiar with. There are also a lot of people in the crypto world who treat crypto as a as a currency and want to see it replace cash as for day to day use for transactions.
Some of you might be may have already talked to some companies who say that they’ll pay you in crypto. I’m not telling you to accept crypto or not. I just know that that’s the thing that some people have been asked. So web three. Some people say that web three is a rebranding of crypto, which I can understand. But web three is a bit broader than that. Web three. Most people agree The Web three is about is going to be the next version of the internet, and that it will be more focused on ownership. And so what I mean by that is things like, take Facebook, for example, if you upload a photo to your Facebook, Facebook has the right to use your image. That’s part of the user agreement.
And so there are a lot of companies trying to develop, develop new platforms, where, for example, you could publish your own writing. And instead of instead of medium, paying you, for example, the platform will like the readers will directly pay you, which is kind of a cool concept, I think. And then web three also includes in this overarching idea of ownership. That’s also some somewhere that NF TS come in. And so, and if T stands for non fungible token, something that’s fungible, is easily, like, traded for something of equal value, for example, $1 is fungible, like this dollar was the same value as this dollar.
But, but the Mona Lisa is not fungible, it is a unique piece of art, a unique document, something like that. So a lot of NFT projects that you’ll you’ve probably come across are, are these like 2000 or 888. image collections that are almost treated like like trading cards, as an example. They’re treated as collectibles, because they consider themselves to be one of a kind, and not fungible. But fungible, or NF T’s can also be things like, like concert tickets, there are some companies that are doing event tickets as NF Ts. And then if you are a holder of that ticket, and you attend this concert, maybe you will also get access to exclusive content from the band, or it means that you’ll have access to the band.
So things like that they can be used in different ways other than just profile pictures. And then the last thing I wanted to mention, in terms of all these different terms that we might be talking about, is the metaverse and this is another very, very broad term that kind of describes where all of these different things will interact. It’ll be a space where maybe you bought an NFT that is a video game skin, or like a piece of clothing. And you can wear that into a club in this part of the metaverse. Or maybe you can use this piece of clothing in that game in the metaverse and you pay for it all with crypto. It’s a very, very broad term.
So with all of these different types of projects out there, it’s highly recommended that you come to this with a lot of scepticism, I know someone had commented on one of the posts on LinkedIn saying that they are very, very sceptical of anything and everything involved with web three, that’s a good thing, you should be sceptical, you should want to do a lot of research into any of these projects that approach you whether it’s through your DMS or through email or in person, you should want to do the research to make sure that these are good companies and and clients that aren’t going to make you do a bunch of work and then ghost you and then not pay you. So if you are here, and you are sceptical or if you’re only a little bit sceptical, I’m so happy you’re here. And I hope that this can help you do your research. So that you can hopefully be see a little silver lining around around the cloud.
So how do you find good clients? Like the million dollar question? So it’s a little bit different than, say, finding web two clients primarily because anything around web three or crypto or NF TS is going to put a lot of emphasis on community So I mean, you can find projects and companies to work for on like LinkedIn or on Twitter. Both of those are very, very popular social media networks right now, that that these types of companies will be using. But what I highly recommend is that you either join communities have projects that you like, or join communities for people already working in this field.
I know some of you may have already reached out to me about things like this, I’d be happy to connect with you on telegram and add you to a couple of the groups that I very much trust, and that I have found work from. And I’ll give you all that information at the end. But I also want to take a small step back and talk a little bit more about communities. Web, all of these things are very, very broad. There, you can get quite lost. With anyone who’s going to approach you saying I have this web three project, I have an NFT project. And so what I recommend is that you take some time to find projects or find industries within these umbrellas that actually interests you. For example, you might not feel comfortable writing about crypto exchanges, or banking or regulation.
But you might feel comfortable or interested in fashion and fts. Or maybe you’re more interested in gaming and the player earn aspect. Or maybe you are interested in decentralised finance, and working to build a new token, whatever it is that you think you’re interested in, I recommend that you do your research, spend some time on the internet, find projects that are of interest to you and join their communities join their telegram or their discord. Sign up for their newsletter, and see what they’re writing, see how they’re interacting with their communities, what type of content they’re putting out exclusively for their own communities, and see if it’s even something you want to continue pursuing.
Because when these companies may need a content writer or a copywriter, or any other type of freelancer, which they always do, they will often reach out to their community. First, it’s unlikely that you’ll find job postings. So that would be my biggest recommendation for finding clients that are a good fit for you is for you to find projects that you actually enjoy and that you would actually want to work for. So Red flag number one is the team or a lack thereof. Um, one of the bedrocks of all of this of crypto and web three is the sense of pseudonymity of being sort of anonymous on the internet, not using your real identity. And so a lot of projects do emphasise privacy, which, there’s nothing entirely wrong with that.
But when it comes to building a company, or building a project, something where you’re going to ask people to pay you for something, or where you’re promising to compensate a writer like yourself, you want to know that you’re working with a real person, someone who you know, you can build some trust with, it’s very difficult to build trust with a jpg. So for example, this is a project that was sent to me recently, Tiger warriors are project Zewde. They have these images of them that are the NF T’s themselves.
And they also don’t seem to use full names. Which again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But it makes it really hard to build trust with this avatar. And then the only way that you can connect with any of these people is on Telegram, which on one hand seems like a cool thing, like, oh, I can message this person, one on one. But the fact that you can’t look them up on LinkedIn, you don’t know how they’re interacting with the rest of the internet. You know, it’s it’s just it’s hard to trust something like this and, and the fact that they aren’t sharing more information, I would say is, is a red flag for this project. So, I also want to highlight a project that does use avatars and not the real names.
This is a project called cryptocarbon which is a very a well respected and trusted NFT project in the community or, you know, in the crypto and web three, industry, these, the founding members, or anyone who who works with this project, for the most part, they don’t use their their real names. And they don’t share a lot of photos of themselves. However, there’s a lot of trust, again, around this project, because of, well, because they’ve gotten a lot of press, there are a lot of people who have interacted with this project.
But because of I would say this second aspect, which is their social media activity. And not saying that Twitter is the end all be all of verifying whether or not something is is a scam or not. But it is probably the most popular social media platform out there right now for NFT and crypto projects. So I usually like to look at their their Twitter accounts, and see who’s interacting with them, and who do they interact with? And what kind of things are they saying, I would say, any type of social media engagement, as I’m sure many of you are already familiar with, as some sort of marketing, freelancer, engagement should always be genuine, it should always feel human and feel real and personal, to some extent.
And that’s something that you should be looking for with these social media projects. So on the left, you can see that one of the founders I mean, these aren’t super descript, you know, posts, but they do feel human, they feel genuine. When you look at, if you were to just scroll through their, their tweets and replies, you’ll see that, that Nick’s in interacts with people like a human. Whereas planets, or Zewde are the tiger warriors, I couldn’t find I couldn’t really figure out easily who is involved with the project.
So I looked at the the project’s main account. And it’s a lot of self promotion, not a lot of interaction with other accounts in a way that feels really genuine and human. Again, there’s nothing entirely wrong about that a lot of a lot of corporate accounts, a lot of brand accounts, work in to self promote. But again, it’s really hard to find information about people who who work for the company and see how they, how they interact, and whether or not they’re genuine in their own approaches. So the third red flag that I want to talk about is community. or more, almost any project that you that will come that you’ll come across will have a discord, or a telegram channel.
And, and, again, I highly recommend that you join them regardless, or just at least camp out for a bit to see how the project interacts with their community. How does the community feel about the founders? Things like that? So when you look at the community and their different discussions, some things you might want to consider are or things you’d want to look for. Are Are there moderators in the group? Is anyone making sure that that people are being treated kindly and fairly? Is there anyone making sure that there isn’t any spam coming into the group things like that?
Or, for example, as a new person, if you had questions, if you ask a question, will a moderator answer or will someone help you find the information you’re looking for? Her another question, are people just meaning are people just sharing memes, images, GIFs, whatever, instead of having genuine discussion. And then, what we’re looking at right now, if you if you’re not familiar with this platform, this is a screenshot from telegram and there aren’t in telegram there aren’t channels like there are in discord which I’ll show you in a second.
It’s just one big long conversation but here you can see it’s just it’s a lot of price speculation, a lot of talk about the project that isn’t very substantial, I would say. So this is discord. And in if you’re looking at a discord community, I would say some things you want to look for our channel called intros or introductions are welcome. And then also a channel about rules about something that establishes whether or not you can self promote, or you know, whether or not you’re allowed to berate other members, which hopefully you’re not. But the so what we’re looking at here is a discord channel for a project that I think is very cool.
It’s called Midnight breeze. And what I think is really cool and unique and reassuring about this channel is that you can see, there’s one called security alerts. And that helps all the members of this community, not fall into traps. I mean, it’s not perfect, of course, but the fact that there’s someone associated with the project, that is keeping an eye out for all the scams for that actors, and letting the community know, hey, you know, don’t click this link, or, Hey, we’ve heard about this possible, that actor we’re looking into it. So I would say that is something that indicates that this project, and this company, cares about the community, and it’s brand.
I also wanted to share some screenshots of other types of communities that I would recommend you join, which again, I can talk more about this later, or share this information with you later. But these are some conversations from communities, specifically for people working in web three, which I highly recommend that you join, because you’ll have people who, if it’s a good community, they will answer your questions, they will ask questions about what everyone thinks in terms of, you know, how do people what are everyone’s strategies for contacting influencers? Or how is everyone you know, pulling their analytics or things like that.
And then just engaging with each other, celebrating each other? Sharing job opportunities, or, you know, educational opportunities, things like that. So, I highly recommend that you reach out to me after this. And I’d be happy to add you to some of these to some of these telegram groups so that you can join a community of people that are already that I would say are already trustworthy, or good actors in the space. So some tips for identifying green flags, obviously, there’s no perfect formula for finding the best or the worst clients. But these are some some questions I asked myself, when I’m looking at projects and things that I would also recommend that you ask yourself.
As I mentioned before, I highly recommend that you look into projects that you will find interesting things that speak to you. Because you know, when you’re passionate about what your client does, that will help you, of course, do the work, whether it’s writing or graphic design, marketing. So, one of the first things I look at is the long term value, do I think that this product will survive? Do I think that this is an important product? Now do I think it’s an important product in five years? Because for example, with a lot of NF T projects, you will see these kind of, you know, short term, quick turnarounds to make a lot of money, I would not consider that a viable company.
The second thing that I asked myself is whether or not they’re purpose driven, or just what is their purpose in general, what drives them to be in web three, or crypto as I mentioned earlier, I’m very passionate about the financial freedom that crypto has the potential to offer. And so that’s something I value in potential clients, if they’re just trying to be a quick money grab. That doesn’t speak to me, that doesn’t interest me. And so the next thing would be network chatter. What is what are people saying about them on social media? What news outlets have featured it or interviewed the founders? Something else that I will also sometimes consider when I’m looking at projects or people is who in my network already follows them or is connected with them? Because that can also offer some social proof, so to speak.
And then the last thing or one of the last things really is the is the people the team members is when someone reaches out to me As I look at their telegram profile, or their discord profile, or LinkedIn or Twitter or whatever I see, I look at, who are they interacting with? What are they saying about their own project? What do they say about other projects or about the industry as a whole? So, those are just some some tips that I recommend for starting, at least when it comes to analysing your own potential project leads. So, compensation, another million dollar question, how much do I charge for my services? Whatever it is that you’re charging, now, you should charge more.
First of all, I’m sure. The second. The second thing is that when you’re writing for web three, and crypto and NFT projects, this is a specialty. There are not a lot of people are writing about it. And there certainly aren’t a lot of people writing about it Well, so what I recommend is that you spend, again, spend a lot of time researching and getting to know this industry and understanding where the community is at, because it’s just a different type of marketing style than anything that b2b SAS has really done. And so again, there’s, there’s no real perfect formula for figuring out your price. But what I would offer, as a suggestion of a starting place is whatever it is that you would charge for a b2b SaaS, customer, add 20% That just seems like a good starting point.
And because like I said, this is a specialty, there are not a lot of writers in this space right now and having a really good grasp of this space will set you aeons miles lightyears apart from any other, any other writer out there for this space. And just a really quick note about equity compensation, sometimes projects might say to you, you know that they, they’ll offer you all these tokens or, you know, it’s all gonna go up in value, or you can have a piece of the company, which is cool. But, you know, that kind of stuff doesn’t put food on the table for the next two weeks. So I would be very, very, very sceptical when it comes to token offerings, or equity. And, by the way, if anyone is just if all they talk about is their token, and how their token how you know, the tokens gonna go to the moon, and Meow, meow, meow, Elon Musk, whatever, whatever it is that they’re pushing about their token and not actually talking about the value of their product.
That is a burning red flag, do not accept that project. But as I mentioned, equity, it’s a bit more complicated. It’s not a simple thing of just like having ownership of the company, if you are offered equity by a or tokens by a potential lead. And it’s a project that you’re very excited about, and you think that maybe you do, maybe it’s a good idea, feel free to reach out to me, I am not a specialist at all on this type of stuff. However, I have seen enough of it that I’d be happy to either verify that it’s not a good idea, or also put you in contact with someone who might be able to give you a better idea of whether or not it’s a worthwhile offer. Because again, having equity is a really cool thing.
If the project ends up being worth eras, the company ends up being worth millions of dollars, that means you get a piece of that ownership and is the backbone of the branding of a lot of these companies. I think that’s a really cool thing. But again, that’s a whole nother conversation, but I just wanted to touch on it. So I do want to share just a few more additional resources. If you want to learn more about crypto specifically, I recommend checking out crypto canal. They do a webinar at the end of every month. I think the next one is I think it’s always the last Wednesday of the month.
And they do a really great walkthrough of the terminology of the history. So if that’s something that interests you, that is that is a community that is a company that I recommend for learning your first steps of crypto. The other two QR codes are videos that I’ve done, they are walkthroughs of similar to what I just talked about. With regards to what are the elements of a good or bad web three project, and I, I go through some examples of websites and messages that I’ve received. So if you want some more solid examples, I would recommend checking out that video. And then the other one is I found pretty much all of these red flags in one NFT project that I would have loved to share with you today.
Except it doesn’t exist anymore. But if you want to see all of these red flags in action in one place, I recommend checking out that video. So that’s what I have for you today. Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, I know that some of you have already reached out, I just have not had a moment to accept and send you each a message to say thank you. But I will be doing that later this week. Again, please feel free to connect on LinkedIn. And please feel free to reach out to me on telegram so that I can help you find some of these communities if you are looking for work in the space. So I see that someone has asked a question in the q&a. Regarding Can you write about web three?
Without learning how to code? Yeah, I don’t know how to code at all. I don’t know anything about it. Yeah, I don’t know how to programme. I don’t know, all these different languages. I don’t know how to build my own blockchain. I don’t know any of that. I just read about it. Although I know there are some. I’ve come across a few writers on Twitter who are doing who are learning how to code so that they can be better writers. I think it’s very valid. I’m sure it can be very valuable. But I have not done that. Okay.
Chima Mmeje 32:00
I’m just going to dive in here with some brutal questions.
Sterling Schuyler 32:04
Yeah, let’s do it.
Chima Mmeje 32:06
And this is around my scepticism, my scepticism about web three, and the entire blockchain movements and it’s a it’s it’s the whole thing feels like a bro movement. It just feels like bro marketing, bro. Intrapreneurs. Brothers, brother, there’s a lot of energy in there. So you have all these bros that don’t have pictures of their faces. And everybody seems to have the same monkey on their Twitter. Which means that it should goes out there is no way to verify who I was working with was my money.
And that’s the thing that always gives me anxiety. Like, if you decide to work with these people, and then the agreement is that you get paid after writing for them or doing any projects for them was to say that he can just up and leave. And then your money is in the dust. It’s it’s it’s the whole anonymity are what three? Is all that’s the problem I have. So what’s a realistic advice? I heard everything you said and I was just not. Okay, interesting. Well, how do you protect yourself from someone running off with your money in that space, where anonymity seems to be like what everybody wants to protect?
Sterling Schuyler 33:33
I would say two ways. Well, primarily, I would say it would be the same way that you would protect yourself in in a non web three space, which would be either have them pay the whole invoice upfront, or make sure that you can verify their business address and get all their information as you know, as much as you can. And that’s why I, you know, I don’t really recommend working with people who aren’t going to reveal themselves to you, right, because you can’t build trust with a jpg. You can’t. Yeah, I don’t think you should trust that.
That being said, you know, I have worked with some people who use you know, illustrated profile pictures, but I’ve also met them in real life, like there has been there has always been somewhere where I have been able to confirm who they are and develop that trust and that relationship with them. So yeah, I’ve I get it don’t don’t accept projects from people who won’t tell you who they really are.
Chima Mmeje 34:36
Okay, next question. Now this is around again, okay. You might seem like I have anything against proof to blockchain where I okay, maybe I do but I’m just trying to like get some clarity. Now. You said something that really resonated with me is that a lot of them tend to focus on talking and listening to worshipping Elon Musk I don’t know why, but it seems to worship at the Elon Musk. And you don’t hear enough about the product. I hear more.
Yes, that’s the thing. And that’s the thing that really worries me. I hear more about tokens and equity and this and that, but not really about the product, or how it’s going to be useful. Or if how, what is the plan to be here five years from now? It seems like most of them, I need for the short term. I don’t know if anyone has noticed that. But a lot of them don’t seem to have a sustainable growth plan to be here five years from now. So if you’re building these guys, you’re investing your time investing resources. What okay, what what exactly is my question? of last minute, I think I’m just raising concerns about out Yes.
How do you know a company that has a great product, and a sustainable model, because I think that’s something that is very important to a lot of people, nobody wants to, even if you’re getting paid, nobody wants to put in the efforts to work with a company that isn’t going to be here two years from now, again, still comes back to them, bro culture, fast culture, fast profits, and then sell all or get out one of those one of some of the stuff that happens. So how do you tell that these guys have a great product? And they’re not just talking to their art or something?
Sterling Schuyler 36:24
They usually are. But I would say ask them these, first of all, if, if
Chima Mmeje 36:32
they are they have they always have prepared answers. I’m talking about where you’re doing your research. How do you find out when you’re doing research?
Sterling Schuyler 36:42
I see. I think that part of that goes back to like the social media engagement, that kind of network chatter of seeing like, who is anyone actually interested in this product? Are people talking about it? Who aren’t associated? With the brand? You know, is it can you prove a link between somebody who’s cheerleading the product and the company? And then again, going back into the community? Because I’ve seen some communities? Where the chatter is like, where’s this product?
You told us? It would be here two months ago, and sometimes the devs come back, the developers come back and say, we’re working on it, we understand your concern, sometimes, there will be genuine engagement there. And sometimes it’s like, shut up, we’re awesome. Yeah, me, me, I’ll go to the moon. It’s like, okay, then that’s, that’s not it. That’s not it. And so again, that’s why I would recommend joining the communities, hopefully, you’ll find some genuine engagement between the company and, and the community, who ideally are going to be the customers, and the people who are buying whatever they’re selling.
Chima Mmeje 38:01
Alright, that leads me to my final question the community, they tend to be very saturated. So it is half of the people in the UK limited view authority and moderators. They just, they are basically generally not generally that b2b sales marketers in there, most of the space is dominated by b2b sales. manita. So how do you stand out? What can you how do you go into this community? You’re joining this community for the first time?
What steps can you take to establish authority when you join this community? And then to get noticed, so that the people who are decision makers of these companies are also in the community? Have you in the, in the back of their mind that oh, if I ever need someone that does this, or that does that I’m going to reach out to this person? I think that’s something that communities can offer. But how do you make that happen? In those discord, Telegram charities? Yes.
Sterling Schuyler 38:50
Yeah. Because they can get really crowded with a lot of noise. Yes, I would recommend, not just can’t first of all, not just camping out in the communities, make sure you’re actively participating in interacting with people. And the second would be asking questions. If you’re in and this is another, I would say, green or red flag kind of thing. If you’re in a community where you ask a question, people should be, should answer you in a reasonably refreshed like friendly and respectful tone.
Because we’ve all been there every, you know, no one’s been in web three for 20 years. Like, no one’s an expert, everybody is still learning. And that should be the energy that comes into these communities is that everybody should want to help you learn about this technology, and everyone should be asking each other questions. And if you are treated in a hostile way, or if people make you feel stupid in the group, that’s not a good group to be in. It’s not a good community.
It’s probably not going to be a great product if people are not willing to answer your questions. So those two so The first few things of making sure you interact with people and ask questions. And then a third thing would be, you know, sometimes people will share events, or webinars or papers or whatever is start consuming some of this content, start reading some of these newsletters or attending other webinars to learn specifically about these technologies, and what people are excited about right now.
And then also share what you learned, potentially, like if someone for example, if someone shares, like a one on one webinar, and then you join their community, or you enjoy or like you watch the webinar, share it in another community and say, Hey, I attended this, this was great, this is what I learned, because then you’re signalling to everyone else in the group that you are actively participating in communities and in your own education. So those would be a few recommendations.
Chima Mmeje 41:01
Alright, that’s it. I think. I think Adam was asked the question. Yes. I don’t know. Can you hear us, you can ask your question. Okay. We’ll wait for her standing there. Francis asked three questions. So if you want to take that.
Sterling Schuyler 41:28
Okay, so yeah, equity compensation, turn them down. And they zoom out without considering an actual pay? Yeah, I would agree, Francis, that was a good choice to, to walk away. Because I have found that companies will offer equity or they’ll offer payment. And more often than not, I have taken 100, my son of 100% of my pay in cash and money. And they’ve been okay with that.
No, no, I have not. I’ve taken equity and like a couple opportunities where it was like, they had nothing else. I’m not gonna get into that. But basically, if the company is okay with offering you actual payment versus equity. I think that’s a good sign. But yeah, is there is still only offer you equity or only offer you payment and crypto. No, that’s that’s not a good. That’s a good sign. Yeah. Alright,
Chima Mmeje 42:32
Toby, can you hear us you can ask your question if you’re if you can hear us. afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Toby. Thank you so much for the
Tobi 42:44
for me. Okay, so now there’s this that we say they call it the crypto market. As of now it’s not booming like it was before? Do you think it’s at this point affects the writers in this space? And have that effect on writers in the space
Chima Mmeje 43:06
Sterling do you understand the question
Tobi 43:07
I do. So the fact that the market is down? And how does that affect writers? Correct? Is the question or does it negatively affect writers?
Chima Mmeje 43:19
Are you saying that now that the market is down? How does it affect write us? Is that your cause? Yes, that’s
Tobi 43:26
the question. Does it in any way affect writers?
Sterling Schuyler 43:32
I would say no. And that’s because it’s first of all, it’s a great time then to start learning more about great projects. There’s this saying, or whatever that this is, now is the time to build is what a lot of people in crypto are saying, because ideally, this has. Because the market is down, it means that bad actors are now or more bad actors are leaving the space. Because it’s not as easy to convince people that this is going to make money. You know, it’s harder right now to sell an NF T project.
Because there’s no fear of missing out, so to speak. That being said, it does mean that some companies will pull back on their marketing budget, which you see across pretty much every industry when markets are down because people are afraid to spend more money or whatever but good companies, companies with good budgets will still be paying people to write and to create content and to create good content
Chima Mmeje 44:49
tobi does that answer your question? Those thank you so much. Go let me see standing up Look at the q&a, I think we have to take these three questions and then that’s it.
Sterling Schuyler 45:04
Okay, um, so I’ll answer a Donna’s question first about that you’ve gone to this web three project, they don’t take SEO seriously. Should you treat yourself as an SEO web three writer? That is an excellent question. Because, yeah, a lot of people in the web three and crypto space when it comes to their type of marketing, like I said, a lot of it’s very community driven. And you would think that, you know, how do people find the community by searching for it? But that hasn’t, it’s not how the space has worked for a very long time.
It has been like what you were saying before, Chima with this kind of like, in inbreeding of Bros and their love for each other and their love for their projects. And oh, just like whole bro love fest. And so that’s probably why you’re going to come across a lot of people who are like, No, we don’t need SEO, because all of my buddies, we all we’re all in this project together, and we have our community. Um, so I would say leveraging yourself, leveraging the SEO skill set has not been super effective with a lot of web three and crypto companies.
That being said, it’s obviously still an important skill set. But it’s, I would say, for market yourself more as a web three writer as a crypto writer, and then, you know, because they’re gonna want to know what you know about the space, because right now, not a lot of people know a lot about the space. So I would say put yourself out there more as the subject matter expert or subject matter writer. And then also mention that like, Yes, I also have SEO knowledge or SEO expertise. Because at some point, you know, when it comes to mass adoption, people are going to be searching on the internet to understand what it is that these companies do. And they’re going to need an SEO plan for that.
Thank you. And so, I will go back to oppo oppo, for a client you’ve never worked with before. How do you get guarantee of payment after the project is done? You don’t you get the payment before or I would say asked for you know, 50% upfront. And then 50% When the project’s done. I mean, I have like I send out contracts to all of my clients, and they sign them. You know, sometimes they pay the remaining and sometimes they don’t and at some point, like it’s unfortunate.
And that’s, of course, why you would want to do your due diligence upfront, do the research and get that sense of like, okay, are they are they trustworthy? Or are they not? But I would say you know, web three or not, it’s really hard to guarantee someone’s going to pay you after the project is done unless you have some amazing lawyers behind you or something like that. But yeah, I would say either get all the payment upfront, or get some sort of deposit non refundable deposit or payment before the project starts. do you what do you think?
Chima Mmeje 48:38
Chima you already know what I think getting on your phones do enable I do pay after big companies like well established companies, I know that they’re not running anywhere. And um, that’s, that’s not usually the norm if I’m working with like a founder directly I’m getting paid on represent all fronts, if I’m working with like, companies are listed on the stock exchange, or just the there are going to run with my money I can do pay after for those clients.
But my rate is also going to reflect that because I’m charging them more than I will charge the founder. So definitely, as a rule of thumb, I try to get paid upwards of 100% for because, like you said, even signing the contracts, it’s hard to execute that part. One if the person is not in the US or in the same location where you are and even when they are who has money for a lawyer. That’s expensive. So they’re paid upwards 100% I don’t even know 50% I hate that because then it kind of makes you feel trapped that you’ve done the work. And now what’s gonna happen the rest of my money, do you? You didn’t project because they’ve have they have to see what you’ve written before paying you which means that they can go ahead and publish it and what can you do so definitely get paid 100% upfront insist on it.
Sterling Schuyler 49:56
Yeah, and I know that that can feel really scary sometimes. I know when I was starting out, it was hard to insist. But it also I have found that clients feel like they’re working with a professional, then, you know, you’ve give off that feeling of like, you know, no, I’m not gonna let you run away with my work, you have to pay me up front. And that I do believe that that kind of self respect and that type of courage translates to the client that they they treat you more professionally.
Chima Mmeje 50:29
I agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Is there any other question here?
Sterling Schuyler 50:34
If there was, I think the first one that Francis had asked about the red flags that I mentioned was no info about the team. Does every real project have full details of their team on their website?
Chima Mmeje 50:49
No, absolutely. They don’t, not in web three.
Sterling Schuyler 50:53
And so that’s that’s why I showed that example of a crypto Coven is that they are all they’re all anonymous with their, with their, with their profile pictures and their names. But there have been a lot of interviews with the founders that are published. And as I mentioned, their social medias is active in a human way. But again, it you still have to trust your gut feeling. You know, I can’t promise you that this is a perfect project or that it’s not there are a lot of a lot of people who’ve been scammed by companies, web three or not.
But with that being said, I do believe the more information, the better. I have seen web three projects where it’s a mix of peoples of real photos of people, and, and just JPEGs. But then there’s always some sort of or like, on those websites, there’ll be a short bio, just two or three sentences. And I personally find that reassuring. And I have worked with projects like that. So yeah, I hope that answers your question.
Chima Mmeje 52:06
Yeah. Okay. I hope that answers your questions process. And I think the final one is, how do you identify a company with a good budgets?
Sterling Schuyler 52:18
That’s another really good question. Um, if you figure it out, let me know. But usually, in the conversation, I will ask what their I will either ask what is your budget, or I will tell them what my rate is. And for full transparency, I start my rate at 1399 euros for a project. That could be an article, it could be a couple of small articles, whatever. But I, yeah, I think numbers are important.
And so whether or not they’re comfortable with that, if I can visually see that they’re like, I don’t know about that. Or if they seem to be like, Okay, that sounds good. Like, let us know. I would say, you know, a nice website can be designed by almost anyone. So I don’t know if that’s really a good indication. I think,
Chima Mmeje 53:22
I think I think you don’t There is nothing that’s telling me to say guys need to make ourselves seem because usually, the only way is to send your produce to send your rate card over and then say yes, or they say no, that’s it. That is it. Because I’ve seen founders of small companies bootstrapped that could afford my rate and I charge a minimum of $1 per word for single project. So I’ve also seen the companies isn’t up to yesterday, reach out, and then they have they had like the shittiest budget, like, there won’t be $500 for like, 3500 words.
Sterling Schuyler 53:57
Yeah. I’ve seen people say that they want to pay like $20 for an article turned around in one hour. And it needs to be 2000 words. Least so
Chima Mmeje 54:05
that’s ridiculous. Honestly, you really can’t tell. The only way send them your rate card. They say yes. You say no. And that’s it. And then the pay off from there, you know that you’re in business already. So you can go looking for clues as Oh, okay. They have a big website. Oh, they have this? Oh, they have that? None.
I always start every conversation with my red card before you start trying to justify anything else. I’m going to show you my red card because if you can’t afford my pricing, there is nothing I’m going to tell you that is going to suddenly make you have the money. It’s really that simple selling I don’t know if you have anything else out there.
Sterling Schuyler 54:37
No, I mean that. That was pretty much it was like I tell you my numbers and we go from there.
Chima Mmeje 54:42
Yes, that’s it. I think I’m going to end the recording now. Sterling, thank you so much for this. This sounds so good. So good, because I’m not. Personally I’m not a fan of web three. I’m not a fan of blockchain. I’m not a fan of cryptocurrency. I’m not a fan of any of them. So I came in here with the most Getting mindset adjusted, where you started presenting, and just sitting on the side and just listening to everything you say.
We’d like trepidation and with curiosity, but it’s a very, it’s a very fast growing industry. And I think that’s what scares me the most. It is fast paced, fast grade, a lot of the companies or not, a lot of the companies are selling 2020 When everything we need to cover during lockdown, I’m not here anymore. None of them are starting right now will not be here in two years time. So, again, I think the whole the whole thing is to do your research.
There’s a lot of money to be made in web three and cryptocurrency actually, if you get in early, that’s always the thing, getting early, early adopters, getting early, build that network, and then putting the hard work of engaging in those groups. But I think just doing something as simple as changing your LinkedIn profile and Twitter to something like web 3.0, writer. You’ll be surprised how much impact that can have and then populate your feed with like, what’s what’s going on right now web three, how does that relate to marketing?
How can they make it better? I had someone reach out to me asking me for a quote on how companies can improve their marketing in a recession. So it’s it’s just otherworldly stuff that is going to be the authority. So yes, put in the work. And yeah, surprise what can happen if you do that? As selling thank you so much. I’m going to press the End button right now.
