Both SEMrush and Similarweb data point to consumers ... Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing.

These are the most popular websites right now - and they might just surprise you (October 2023 edition)

One year ago, billionaire Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming

Twitter takeover: 1 year later, X struggles with misinformation, advertising and usage decline

One year ago, billionaire Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X.

"We are so back," posted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In other words, ChatGPT can now browse the internet again. A week after the ChatGPT creator launched a Browse with Bing plugin, the feature was ...

ChatGPT internet browsing is back after being disabled for months

Renée DiResta, a researcher with the Stanford Internet Observatory, call this the “Age of ... according to data from Similarweb. There’s many potential reasons for this, but don’t discount that readers are perhaps finding comfort and clarity by ...

The internet cheapened news but AI could reverse that trend

We’re in a very strange moment for the internet. We all know it’s broken. That’s not news. But there’s something in the air—a vibe shift, a sense that things are about to change.

How to fix the internet

The internet was a threat that the news industry underestimated. Artificial intelligence is another disruption of similar scale. But while the internet served to cheapen the news, AI will do the opposite. Never before will the value of honest news gathering have been more obvious.

The Internet Cheapened News. AI Will Do the Opposite

Renée DiResta, a researcher with the Stanford Internet Observatory, call this the “Age of ... according to data from Similarweb. There’s many potential reasons for this, but don’t discount that readers are perhaps finding comfort and clarity ...

The Internet Cheapened News. AI Will Do the Opposite.

make a big impact on Internet governance in your community? receive training and connect with a network of key influencers in the Internet governance sphere? attend a key Internet event? gain access to a platform where you can raise your voice ...

Youth Ambassador Program

CWG-Internet is limited to Member States, with open consultation to all stakeholders. Previously, this group was established as the Dedicated Group as an integral part of WG WSIS, open only to all Member States, in accordance with Resolution 75 (WTSA ...

Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet)

SimilarWeb

similarweb

A high number of page views isn’t necessarily an indicator of high user engagement or potential revenue from your . But, that doesn’t mean page views are insignificant. Monitoring and working with this key metric may even be more valuable than you think. The trick is to look at it in the right context. website or app On Google Analytics, page views mainly help with your technical and functional analysis. We will show you a way to monitor your page views and visits in a way that caters to business management. What Is the Definition of Pageviews in Google Analytics? Let’s go to the source and ask the : Google Analytics help center “A pageview (or pageview hit, page tracking hit) is an instance of a page being loaded (or reloaded) in a browser.” Each time a user opens a page, it counts as a view. The user may leave and go back to the same page 20 times during a session, each time the site crawler records a page view. Even when the visitor reloads or refreshes a page, it’s another view. This doesn’t tell you much about a visitor’s behavior. To learn more about that, also provides unique pageviews. This shows the aggregated number of page views generated by the same user in the same session. In other words, each page the user opens in one session is counted only once, even if they reloaded and visited the page multiple times. Google Analytics How Does SimilarWeb Calculate Page Views? SimilarWeb’s marketing intelligence platform provides an additional, similar metric, in which subsequent views of the same page are included until the user is inactive for at least 30 minutes. For example, if a user opens a page and reloads it several times, or moves to another page and comes back, that’s one page visit. The user then decides to leave your site to compare your product to that of a competitor and is inactive on your website. If they return within less than half an hour, it’s still the same visit. If they stay away longer, their return counts as an additional visit. This helps get a better understanding of how visitors interact with the pages on your site or app. You can then look at the Pages/Visit metric to understand how many different pages on average the user viewed during a session or visit. Note that most businesses use first-party direct measurement tools such as Google Analytics to measure and analyze traffic to their own domains. The data provided by these tools is different from the data provided by SimilarWeb, which comes from multiple sources, including panel-based behavioral data and public data sources. Leverage Daily Page Views per Visitor for More Insight To help you understand the scope of engagement per user, monitor how many pages a person views on average in one day. You want to understand the behavior of a unique visitor. How many pages or features does one access on average? Do they visit the same page all the time, do they have several favorite pages (if so, which), or do they explore random places on your website? On the SimilarWeb platform you can set the time frame to monitor Total Visits – i.e., over weeks, months, or even years. You will then see how many pages each unique visitor viewed on average per the selected timeframe. Why You Should Look at Monthly Visitors Looking at daily highs and lows is not enough to determine business achievements, but rather the ability to sustain high numbers and steady growth will determine your success or failure. SimilarWeb lets you monitor periodic page views, such as monthly, weekly, or daily visits, which are a bit complicated to find on Google Analytics. Mobile apps, retailers, and SaaS B2B companies benefit the most from this feature. The Monthly Visitors metric helps you understand the level of activity on your site in the context of time and over long periods. The page views metric is equivalent to dividing the number of monthly visits by the number of pages per visit. By looking at the bigger picture, you can better understand trends and variations over time. This is useful for strategic planning. You can even use monthly visits in your goal setting for the year/quarter ahead. What Is a Good Number of Monthly Page Views Based on My Industry? If you enter this search query in Quora or Google, you get answers ranging from 1,000 to 100,000. What’s worse, all the answers are correct. A blog is very different from a product page on your eCommerce site. , and a navigation app is different from a news app.It also makes a difference whether you are new or established in the market, a local or international enterprise and if you’re targeting small or large businesses. eCommerce site It’s up to you to work through the jungle of data to figure out how you measure up. SimilarWeb helps with that because it focuses on competitive benchmarking and provides the most useful tools for applicable comparisons. Tracking Your Industry’s and Competitors’ Page Views You know better than any analytics software who your biggest competitors are. The platform allows you to pick a number of competitor sites, see their page visits and compare the performance across key engagement metrics. Keep tracking their stats and yours to get a clear view of your business landscape. Another option is to choose a category and benchmark yourself to the industry as a whole. Knowing where you fit in with a similar crowd helps assess your market position more accurately, lets you focus on areas that need improvement, and set long-term goals for . market growth SimilarWeb also provides you with a monthly , including information about your website page views and those of your competitors. Email Digest Next Step: Improve the Quality of Your Website Traffic We’ve shown you how analyzing page views in the right context of time and competition can be beneficial for your long-term business objectives. What you really want to investigate, though, is the quality of your traffic, in addition to its quantity. Ultimately, you want traffic that converts and visitors who buy your product, engage with your site, and return for more. lets you dig into data that helps evaluate your traffic quality. Designed to help you understand how your users think and act, and how your competition performs, SimilarWeb aims to provide data that helps you manage your business. You can set and monitor goals with a  direct connection to your business objectives. SimilarWeb PRO This blog post was written by Daniel Schneider , in collaboration with Ruth M. Trucks . Previously published at https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/compare-pageviews-with-competitors/

Check Out Your Competitors’ Page Views and Benchmark Against Them - A How-To Guide

Since Wikipedia was founded in 2001, people worldwide rely on the online encyclopedia to expand their horizons and read information on just about anything. As true as that is today, however, the site’s traffic trends tell a very different story. Over the years, its traffic has been decreasing, a pattern that swiftly accelerated in 2019. We'll look into how, and why, Wikipedia is experiencing such a decline. The Numbers Behind the Traffic Loss: Wikipedia Desktop Traffic Explored Over the past 24 months, Wikipedia has lost billions of monthly organic visitors to . What are zero-click results? It's when a user searched in Google, and found a direct answer to his or her search (often at the top of the first search results page) without needing to visit any actual site. zero-click results When looking at its desktop traffic alone we see that in January 2019, the site won 2.2 billion visits, a number that dropped dramatically to 1.9 billion by January 2020 (a decrease of -14%). While the site still has billions of monthly visitors, those visits are becoming increasingly more difficult to win as evidenced by the decline. While zero-click search results are primarily responsible for this trend, they aren’t completely to blame for the site’s traffic drop. YouTube videos rank at the top of Google’s knowledge graph, and are often also among the top organic search results, making it Wikipedia’s fiercest competitor. The Zero-Click Effect Google introduced and in 2015, which is when the decline in was first noticed. This change took away any need to click on a specific link to see the desired results; therefore, . Knowledge Graphs Direct Answers organic traffic to Wikipedia search queries began ending with “zero-click” results While this has been very convenient for searchers, as traffic to Wikipedia shows, it has been less than ideal for businesses. Out of nearly 890,000 monthly searches worldwide, only 30,000 actually become search visits to a website. Here's a quick look at a basic search of the weather forecast in Los Angeles. After Googling "weather in Los Angeles", the data above was provided by weather.com. However, it's obvious that any searcher is able to get the answer to the question without clicking through to the actual site. The impact on traffic is staggering – only 15% of weather in Los Angeles searches actually result in a click and a consequent visit to weather.com. This means that 85% of people see this weather forecast display at the top of the page, and never follow through to click on any search results. Freddie Mercury: Wikipedia’s Best Keyword Analyzed “I won’t be a rockstar. I will be a legend.” To better understand this declining trend, let's look at Wikipedia’s top 20 organic keywords. Wikipedia’s most valuable search keywords are for celebrities, movies, and TV series. The natural next step is to dive into its top-performing keyword, "Freddie Mercury", to see what traffic patterns show. Although Freddie Mercury died in 1991, long before Wikipedia was founded, his name has become the site’s top-performing keyword in 2020. A quick Google query of his name pulls up a plethora of information about him, including his Wiki page, YouTube videos, and loads of news articles. But, 71% of those searches end there, without a click to a specific site. Looking at the organic mobile traffic for the search reveals zero-click results have cost Wikipedia’s English language subdomain tens of millions of organic visits. This whopping decline has been more apparent on mobile devices when Google shows an answer. This is because on mobile the search results don't often show any other results, whereas on desktop, other results are displayed below. So, Where Has Wikipedia’s Traffic Gone? In Google was able to steal over 550 million clicks from Wikipedia in six months, and here we are five years later watching that trend accelerate at breakneck speed. 2015, While many factors are contributing to that decrease, the vast majority of Wikipedia’s traffic has been lost to Google’s zero click results, emphasizing just how much power Google has over search traffic.

How Wikipedia Lost 3 Billion Organic Search Visits To Google in 2019

You’ve probably read about how Amazon has put a stop to its paid acquisition. We’ve the topic extensively already over the past few weeks, and yet, what we’ve recently discovered sheds some light on the magnitude of this move. covered The insights we revealed from our recent analysis of Amazon’s visits and conversion rates across several leading markets suggest a new, and disruptive, normal is materializing. , and with a margin, but the Coronavirus is serving as a catalyst for growth for other retail and eCommerce sites such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Staples who seek to steal market share away from the Big that keeps getting Bigger. Amazon still dominates retail Eh? Tectonic Shifts in the Shopping Landscape? In Canada, while ‘s market share of visits and conversions declined between February and March, 4.9% and 7.3%, respectively, the share of conversions for – Amazon’s biggest competitor in the country – increased by 62% (from 3.2% to 5.2%). amazon.ca walmart.ca Other notable gainers that Amazon should be watching out for are , a popular brick-and-clicks retailer, which grew from 0.8% to 2.2% (+275%) and , whose share of conversions rose from 3.4% to 4.5% (+32%). canadiantire.ca costco.ca The graph below shows the marketplace visits vs. conversions for desktop traffic in Canada for February and March 2020. A Grooming Opportunity for Higher CVR (ConVersion Rate) One of the few positives of COVID-19 is the effect it has had on animal rescue efforts and adoptions. Americans are bringing home more pets for companionship during a time of quarantine and that presents retailers with an opportunity to capture more revenue from pet-care grooming, food, and accessories. Despite Amazon’s share of traffic in the U.S. increasing by 1.3% between February and March, its percentage of converted visits dropped 1.2%. . In comparison, petco.com and draw in around 15% of traffic share but only 4% to 5% of converted visits, suggesting their sites are considered an afterthought or a destination for price comparisons. Amazon has a best-in-class conversion rate across pet-care suppliers, converting 3x its fair amount of traffic petsmart.com The graph below depicts pet care visits vs. conversions for desktop in the U.S. for February and March 2020. Or, maybe not. With Amazon’s paid search declining substantially between February and March, Petco proved to be effective at grabbing online shoppers with an opposite strategy. Petco’s share of paid search visits increased only 3.9%, however, its share of paid search conversions more than doubled between February and March. The graph below demonstrates total visits and converted visits to petco.com on desktop in the U.S. for February and March 2020. Tesco, Sainsbury Lead Consumables During a COVID-19 Surge The United Kingdom is Amazon’s in terms of annual net sales. One of the increasingly popular shopping categories in which Amazon is losing ground in the U.K. is , which refers to consumer packaged goods, groceries, health, and beauty products. third-largest market Consumables ‘s share of consumables traffic decreased between February and March by 2.9%, mainly due to a rise in traffic across competitors, such as Morrisons. Amazon.co.uk Despite its consumables traffic share decreasing 2.4%, – the largest player in the set – converted 4.1% more traffic (1 in 3 total conversions). tesco.com Similarly, increased its share of converted visits from 1.75% in February to 2.13% in March (21% MoM growth). aldi.co.uk The graph below represents the total market share for consumables converted visits on desktop in the U.K. for February and March 2020. The Bottom Line Amazon’s main competitors within top markets are leveraging paid search to draw more traffic, and more importantly, convert traffic. Players such as Canadian Tire, U.S.-based Petco, and U.K.'s Tesco could emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic with a more substantial online presence, thanks to the changing business environment. We expect these trends to intensify in the coming months. This post is co-authored by Daniel Schneider and Jamie Drayton.

Amazon Is Losing Market Share Across Several Segments to Competitors [A Numbers Game]

AI companions are more than just a passing trend; they could become a $150 billion industry by 2030, according to a recent article by Ark Invest. With the potential to revolutionize how we interact with technology and each other, AI companionship represents the next frontier in digital entertainment. Companion apps like Replika, Gatebox, HeraHaven, and SoulMachines attract millions of users every month, according to Similarweb data. But if you’re considering building an AI companion, where do you start? Specifically, which large language model (LLM) should you choose to power your app? Let me walk you through the best open-source LLMs currently available and why they might be the perfect fit for your project. Choosing the Right LLM for AI Companionship When thinking about AI companionship, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is what kind of open-source LLM to use. There are several types of LLMs, but they generally fall into three categories: base models, instruction-tuned models, and chat-tuned models. Why Chat-Tuned Models Are Essential Base models are the raw, unrefined versions of LLMs that have been trained on large datasets but lack the fine-tuning required for specific tasks. Instruction-tuned models have been refined to follow human instructions more accurately. However, when it comes to creating AI companions, chat-tuned models are the way to go. These models are specifically optimized for conversational interactions, making them better suited for the nuanced, ongoing dialogues that characterize AI companionship. Model Size: How Big Is Big Enough? Another key consideration is the size of the model. For most conversational chatbots, an 8B parameter model should suffice. These models offer a good balance between performance and resource efficiency, making them ideal for most applications. However, if you’re looking to go above and beyond—perhaps aiming to create a more sophisticated AI—you might want to explore models with up to 70B parameters. The 5 Best Open-Source LLMs for AI Companionship Here’s a list of some of the best open-source LLMs that are particularly well-suited for creating AI companions: 1. Hermes-3 Llama-3.1-8B Hermes-3 Llama-3.1-8B is a powerful model that’s been finely tuned for chat applications. It offers a good balance between capability and efficiency, making it a top choice for AI companionship. 2. Yi-1.5-9B-Chat Yi-1.5-9B-Chat is another excellent option, boasting a slightly larger parameter count, which allows for more complex and nuanced conversations. If your AI companion needs to handle a wide range of topics with ease, this model is worth considering. 3. InternLM2 5-7B Chat InternLM2 5-7B Chat is a lighter model that still packs a punch. Its smaller size makes it ideal for applications where resources are limited but conversational depth is still a priority. 4. Humanish-Roleplay-Llama-3.1-8B Humanish-Roleplay-Llama-3.1-8B is designed for roleplay scenarios, making it perfect for users who want an AI companion that can take on different personas. Whether it’s a friendly chat or a more complex interaction, this model excels at maintaining character. 5. OpenChat-3.5-1210 OpenChat-3.5-1210 is one of the larger models on this list and is optimized for deep, engaging conversations. If your AI companion needs to offer an immersive experience, this model is a strong contender. If you’re interested in seeing how these models stack up against others, you can visit the Open LLM Leaderboard for the most recent comparisons. Taking Your AI Companion to the Next Level with Fine Tuning While these models are impressive right out of the box, there’s always room for improvement. With enough prompting, you should be able to get decent results for most applications. However, if you’re looking for a more advanced approach, consider fine-tuning one of these models to better suit your specific needs. Fine-tuning allows you to tweak the model’s behavior, making it more aligned with your desired user experience. In conclusion, the potential for AI companions is vast, and the right LLM can make all the difference in creating a compelling, engaging experience. Whether you’re building the next million user app or a more niche application, these open-source models provide a strong foundation for success. So, dive in, experiment, and see what you can create with the incredible power of modern LLMs. AI companions are more than just a passing trend; they could become a $150 billion industry by 2030, according to a recent article by Ark Invest . With the potential to revolutionize how we interact with technology and each other, AI companionship represents the next frontier in digital entertainment. according to a recent article by Ark Invest Companion apps like Replika, Gatebox, HeraHaven, and SoulMachines attract millions of users every month, according to Similarweb data. But if you’re considering building an AI companion, where do you start? Specifically, which large language model (LLM) should you choose to power your app? Let me walk you through the best open-source LLMs currently available and why they might be the perfect fit for your project. Choosing the Right LLM for AI Companionship When thinking about AI companionship, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is what kind of open-source LLM to use. There are several types of LLMs, but they generally fall into three categories: base models, instruction-tuned models, and chat-tuned models. Why Chat-Tuned Models Are Essential Base models are the raw, unrefined versions of LLMs that have been trained on large datasets but lack the fine-tuning required for specific tasks. Instruction-tuned models have been refined to follow human instructions more accurately. However, when it comes to creating AI companions, chat-tuned models are the way to go. These models are specifically optimized for conversational interactions, making them better suited for the nuanced, ongoing dialogues that characterize AI companionship. Model Size: How Big Is Big Enough? Another key consideration is the size of the model. For most conversational chatbots, an 8B parameter model should suffice. These models offer a good balance between performance and resource efficiency, making them ideal for most applications. However, if you’re looking to go above and beyond—perhaps aiming to create a more sophisticated AI—you might want to explore models with up to 70B parameters. The 5 Best Open-Source LLMs for AI Companionship Here’s a list of some of the best open-source LLMs that are particularly well-suited for creating AI companions: 1. Hermes-3 Llama-3.1-8B 1. Hermes-3 Llama-3.1-8B Hermes-3 Llama-3.1-8B is a powerful model that’s been finely tuned for chat applications. It offers a good balance between capability and efficiency, making it a top choice for AI companionship. 2. Yi-1.5-9B-Chat 2. Yi-1.5-9B-Chat Yi-1.5-9B-Chat is another excellent option, boasting a slightly larger parameter count, which allows for more complex and nuanced conversations. If your AI companion needs to handle a wide range of topics with ease, this model is worth considering. 3. InternLM2 5-7B Chat 3. InternLM2 5-7B Chat InternLM2 5-7B Chat is a lighter model that still packs a punch. Its smaller size makes it ideal for applications where resources are limited but conversational depth is still a priority. 4. Humanish-Roleplay-Llama-3.1-8B 4. Humanish-Roleplay-Llama-3.1-8B Humanish-Roleplay-Llama-3.1-8B is designed for roleplay scenarios, making it perfect for users who want an AI companion that can take on different personas. Whether it’s a friendly chat or a more complex interaction, this model excels at maintaining character. 5. OpenChat-3.5-1210 5. OpenChat-3.5-1210 OpenChat-3.5-1210 is one of the larger models on this list and is optimized for deep, engaging conversations. If your AI companion needs to offer an immersive experience, this model is a strong contender. If you’re interested in seeing how these models stack up against others, you can visit the Open LLM Leaderboard for the most recent comparisons. Open LLM Leaderboard Taking Your AI Companion to the Next Level with Fine Tuning While these models are impressive right out of the box, there’s always room for improvement. With enough prompting, you should be able to get decent results for most applications. However, if you’re looking for a more advanced approach, consider fine-tuning one of these models to better suit your specific needs . Fine-tuning allows you to tweak the model’s behavior, making it more aligned with your desired user experience. consider fine-tuning one of these models to better suit your specific needs In conclusion, the potential for AI companions is vast, and the right LLM can make all the difference in creating a compelling, engaging experience. Whether you’re building the next million user app or a more niche application, these open-source models provide a strong foundation for success. So, dive in, experiment, and see what you can create with the incredible power of modern LLMs.

The 5 Best Open-Source LLMs for AI Companionship

Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating a Web Project

একটি ওয়েব প্রকল্প তৈরি করার আগে নিজেকে জিজ্ঞাসা করার জন্য পাঁচটি প্রশ্ন

Fünf Fragen, die Sie sich vor dem Erstellen eines Webprojekts stellen sollten

Cinco preguntas que debe hacerse antes de crear un proyecto web

Cinq questions à se poser avant de créer un projet Web

वेब प्रोजेक्ट बनाने से पहले खुद से पूछने वाले पांच सवाल

Web プロジェクトを作成する前に自問すべき 5 つの質問

웹 프로젝트를 만들기 전에 스스로에게 물어봐야 할 다섯 가지 질문

Cinco perguntas a se fazer antes de criar um projeto web

Пять вопросов, которые следует задать себе перед созданием веб-проекта

Web Projesi Oluşturmadan Önce Kendinize Sormanız Gereken Beş Soru

Năm câu hỏi để tự hỏi bản thân trước khi tạo một dự án web

创建 Web 项目前要问自己的五个问题

I have been professionally involved in DeFi for 8 years (as a researcher, LP and advanced user). Today, I would like to talk about one of the major trends of 2023 - restaking. For this, I will try to go step by step, rather than giving the 1001st description of the general processes, of which there are so many in Google search results. So you have ETH, what's next? Let's imagine you have 1 ETH. Not bad. Is its price increasing? In the medium and long term - yes, but in the short term - not always: What to do? The most conservative strategy in this case is HODL, but in this case, DeFi is not yet in the picture. Liquid Staking The next step is liquid staking. To get straight to the point, Ethereum, like many other projects, is now PoS (Proof-of-Stake), which means? It means validators or other super-nodes receive rewards. Since that's the case, these rewards can be... tokenized, turning them into a separate financial instrument (derivative). This is exactly what Lido, Rocket Pool, and a number of other projects have done (today their total number has exceeded a hundred, although barely 10 are truly active): I always use Lido as an example, but only because they are the largest. If you, like me, prefer more decentralization, then Rocket Pool is the right and precise choice. The APR for stETH today is 3%-3.5% (Lido), but at the beginning of the transition era, it was over 10%: No super-knowledge is needed for liquid staking: Go to the page: stake.lido.fi;
Authorize with your wallet (Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter);
Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH. A few life hacks right away: Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources:

My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering;



Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions:

What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)?



And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3:

centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. So, you have received the long-awaited stETH, and now your yield on ETH is 3% per year or more. Is that a little? Yes, but it's in ETH, and as we remember, it can rise from $0.03 to $4500 or more. And this is our main hope. But can the yield be increased further? Yes, it can! Restaking "This is a new onchain primitive similar to rehypothecation, allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield". So, let's immediately see how this works in practice. We go to kelpdao.xyz and stake the 1 stETH we obtained earlier: And again: Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit: audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent;
Look at APY/APR: that's why you came here;
And then the operation is the same as before: input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). You can also try EtherFI, Renzo protocol and others: it depends more on current rates and your imagination. Life hack: never put 1 to 1. In the sense that if you're going up the ladder of complex derivatives, it's better to go like this: 1 ETH => split into 0.8 & 0.2: leave 0.2 in ETH, and convert 0.8 into stETH; Then divide 0.8 stETH again into 80% and 20% (any slippages, differences in rates, included rewards - keep in parentheses) and so on. Why all this complexity? Because: Protocols get hacked;
Individual pools get hacked too;
Even individual assets. And don't forget to remove unnecessary approvals through scanners or special services like cointool.app. So, we've progressed: From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH;
And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). What's next? Remember that diversification is decentralization and try to allocate 80% of 0.8 (0.64) stETH through various protocols, for example: ETHERfi;
Renzo;
Kelp;
Swell. In total, we get 0.64/4 = 0.16 for each service. But you are free to act as you wish and, by accumulating loans in AAVE, invest not a part of the whole, but the whole plus a part. Is this risky? Yes. But DeFi endures everything. Can you achieve even higher returns? Yes, but first - some more life hacks: Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability;
You can continue using the assets in DeFi, which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it);
Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage: you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. And yet, what about ETH itself: can you do something more to improve profitability? The short answer is yes, but implementing this answer is not as simple as it seems. The magical Pendle In fact, there are several services like this, including Asymetrix, but for brevity, I'll focus on Pendle specifically: especially since it has proven itself quite well in the past year (although everyone has their mishaps). And again - headfirst into practice: On the main page, select the asset you need (initially set the mode to simple: once you understand it, you can start experimenting with YT & PT), check the APR/APY, if it suits you - proceed to its staking page: Carefully and as capable as you can, read the terms and lock your assets: again, the choice of percentage is up to you, but I would recommend (if I could) starting with at least an 80/20 strategy everywhere. That's it, now you've learned how to hedge your bet on a complex derivative. It sounds strange, but it's true. Want more? Well, don't linger and follow the primary source: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy. The position will look something like this: So, from zero, we can pull out approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) in ETH, which is already quite substantial. But that's not all. Take another look at the scheme we've walked through: Conclusion Undoubtedly, the presented scheme can be both simplified and made more complex. Moreover, different services (projects) can be used at different stages. However, the main point is that the described scheme is universal in theory on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is implemented in quite specific practice. If this post sparks interest, I will continue. But for today, that's all from me and Ch33r$! I have been professionally involved in DeFi for 8 years (as a researcher, LP and advanced user). Today, I would like to talk about one of the major trends of 2023 - restaking . For this, I will try to go step by step, rather than giving the 1001st description of the general processes, of which there are so many in Google search results. restaking description So you have ETH, what's next? So you have ETH, what's next? Let's imagine you have 1 ETH. Not bad. Is its price increasing? In the medium and long term - yes , but in the short term - not always: yes but What to do? The most conservative strategy in this case is HODL , but in this case, DeFi is not yet in the picture. What to do? HODL Liquid Staking Liquid Staking The next step is liquid staking . To get straight to the point, Ethereum , like many other projects, is now PoS (Proof-of-Stake), which means? It means validators or other super-nodes receive rewards. Since that's the case, these rewards can be... tokenized , turning them into a separate financial instrument ( derivative ). This is exactly what Lido, Rocket Pool, and a number of other projects have done (today their total number has exceeded a hundred, although barely 10 are truly active): liquid staking Ethereum PoS tokenized derivative I always use Lido as an example, but only because they are the largest. If you, like me, prefer more decentralization, then Rocket Pool is the right and precise choice. The APR for stETH today is 3%-3.5% (Lido), but at the beginning of the transition era, it was over 10%: APR No super-knowledge is needed for liquid staking: Go to the page: stake.lido.fi; Authorize with your wallet (Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter); Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH. Go to the page: stake.lido.fi ; stake.lido.fi Authorize with your wallet ( Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter); Metamask Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH . stETH A few life hacks right away: Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources:

My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions:

What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3:

centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources: My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources : Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here); The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly; The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com : you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here ); pro.similarweb.com here The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com : any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly; coinmarketcap.com The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions: What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? Always carefully research the economic conditions ( DYOR ) during your first transactions: Always carefully research the economic conditions DYOR What is the base and derivative asset worth? What is the provider's fee? What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)? Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? What is the base and derivative asset worth? What is the provider's fee? What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)? Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3: centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. And always scroll through the news feed : blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3: And always scroll through the news feed centralized intermediary services; you → the person. centralized intermediary services; you → the person. So, you have received the long-awaited stETH, and now your yield on ETH is 3% per year or more. Is that a little? Yes, but it's in ETH, and as we remember, it can rise from $0.03 to $4500 or more. And this is our main hope . But can the yield be increased further? Yes, it can! hope Restaking Restaking " This is a new onchain primitive similar to rehypothecation, allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield ". So, let's immediately see how this works in practice. We go to kelpdao.xyz and stake the 1 stETH we obtained earlier: This allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield kelpdao.xyz And again: Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit: audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent; Look at APY/APR: that's why you came here; And then the operation is the same as before: input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit : audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent; Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit Look at APY/APR : that's why you came here; Look at APY/APR And then the operation is the same as before : input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). And then the operation is the same as before You can also try EtherFI , Renzo protocol and others: it depends more on current rates and your imagination. Life hack: never put 1 to 1. In the sense that if you're going up the ladder of complex derivatives, it's better to go like this: 1 ETH => split into 0.8 & 0.2 : leave 0.2 in ETH, and convert 0.8 into stETH; Then divide 0.8 stETH again into 80% and 20% (any slippages, differences in rates, included rewards - keep in parentheses) and so on. EtherFI Renzo protocol Life hack: split into 0.8 & 0.2 Why all this complexity? Because: Why all this complexity? Protocols get hacked; Individual pools get hacked too; Even individual assets. Protocols get hacked; Individual pools get hacked too; Even individual assets. And don't forget to remove unnecessary approvals through scanners or special services like cointool.app . cointool.app So, we've progressed : So, we've progressed From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH; And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH; And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). 4.28% What's next? What's next? Remember that diversification is decentralization and try to allocate 80% of 0.8 (0.64) stETH through various protocols, for example: ETHERfi; Renzo; Kelp; Swell. ETHERfi; Renzo; Kelp; Swell. In total, we get 0.64/4 = 0.16 for each service. But you are free to act as you wish and, by accumulating loans in AAVE, invest not a part of the whole, but the whole plus a part. Is this risky? Yes. But DeFi endures everything . DeFi endures everything Can you achieve even higher returns? Yes, but first - some more life hacks: Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability; You can continue using the assets in DeFi, which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it); Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage: you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops ) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability; Don't forget about bonuses airdrops You can continue using the assets in DeFi , which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it); You can continue using the assets in DeFi Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage : you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage And yet, what about ETH itself: can you do something more to improve profitability? The short answer is yes, but implementing this answer is not as simple as it seems. The magical Pendle The magical Pendle In fact, there are several services like this, including Asymetrix, but for brevity, I'll focus on Pendle specifically: especially since it has proven itself quite well in the past year (although everyone has their mishaps). And again - headfirst into practice: On the main page, select the asset you need (initially set the mode to simple: once you understand it, you can start experimenting with YT & PT), check the APR/APY, if it suits you - proceed to its staking page: Carefully and as capable as you can, read the terms and lock your assets: again, the choice of percentage is up to you, but I would recommend (if I could) starting with at least an 80/20 strategy everywhere. That's it, now you've learned how to hedge your bet on a complex derivative. It sounds strange, but it's true. Want more? Well, don't linger and follow the primary source: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy . The position will look something like this: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy So, from zero, we can pull out approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) in ETH, which is already quite substantial. But that's not all. Take another look at the scheme we've walked through: approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) Conclusion Conclusion Undoubtedly, the presented scheme can be both simplified and made more complex. Moreover, different services (projects) can be used at different stages. However, the main point is that the described scheme is universal in theory on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is implemented in quite specific practice. If this post sparks interest, I will continue. But for today, that's all from me and Ch33r$! Ch33r$!

Restaking Step-by-step

ধাপে ধাপে রিস্ট্যাকিং

Umstecken Schritt für Schritt

Retomando paso a paso

Reprise étape par étape

चरण-दर-चरण रीस्टेकिंग

再ステーキングの手順

단계별 재취업

Refazendo passo a passo

Перестановка шаг за шагом

Adım Adım Yeniden Stake Etme

Đặt lại từng bước

重新抵押步骤

Why Chainwire is the Best Crypto PR Distribution Tool for Web3 Marketing Professionals

কেন চেইনওয়্যার ওয়েব3 মার্কেটিং পেশাদারদের জন্য সেরা ক্রিপ্টো পিআর ডিস্ট্রিবিউশন টুল

Warum Chainwire das beste Krypto-PR-Verteilungstool für Web3-Marketingprofis ist

Por qué Chainwire es la mejor herramienta de distribución de relaciones públicas criptográficas para los profesionales del marketing Web3

Pourquoi Chainwire est le meilleur outil de distribution Crypto PR pour les professionnels du marketing Web3

वेब3 मार्केटिंग पेशेवरों के लिए चेनवायर सर्वश्रेष्ठ क्रिप्टो पीआर वितरण उपकरण क्यों है

Chainwire が Web3 マーケティング専門家にとって最高の暗号 PR 配信ツールである理由

Chainwire가 Web3 마케팅 전문가를 위한 최고의 암호화 PR 배포 도구인 이유

Por que Chainwire é a melhor ferramenta de distribuição de criptografia para profissionais de marketing Web3

Почему Chainwire — лучший инструмент распространения крипто-PR для специалистов по маркетингу Web3

Chainwire Neden Web3 Pazarlama Uzmanları için En İyi Kripto PR Dağıtım Aracıdır?

Tại sao Chainwire là Công cụ phân phối PR tiền điện tử tốt nhất dành cho các chuyên gia tiếp thị Web3

为什么 Chainwire 是 Web3 营销专业人士的最佳加密 PR 分发工具

Painkillers, Vitamins, or Dopamine - Which One is Your Startup, and What Strategy Should You Choose?

ব্যথানাশক, ভিটামিন, বা ডোপামিন - কোনটি আপনার স্টার্টআপ, এবং আপনার কোন কৌশল বেছে নেওয়া উচিত?

Schmerzmittel, Vitamine oder Dopamin – was ist für Ihr Startup geeignet und welche Strategie sollten Sie wählen?

Analgésicos, vitaminas o dopamina: ¿cuál es su startup y qué estrategia debería elegir?

Analgésiques, vitamines ou dopamine : laquelle est votre startup et quelle stratégie devriez-vous choisir ?

दर्द निवारक, विटामिन या डोपामाइन - आपका स्टार्टअप कौन सा है और आपको कौन सी रणनीति चुननी चाहिए?

鎮痛剤、ビタミン、ドーパミン - あなたのスタートアップはどれですか? また、どのような戦略を選択すべきですか?

진통제, 비타민 또는 도파민 - 귀하의 스타트업은 무엇이며 어떤 전략을 선택해야 합니까?

Analgésicos, vitaminas ou dopamina – qual é a sua startup e qual estratégia você deve escolher?

Обезболивающие, витамины или дофамин — какой ваш стартап и какую стратегию выбрать?

Ağrı Kesiciler, Vitaminler veya Dopamin – Hangisi Girişiminiz ve Hangi Stratejiyi Seçmelisiniz?

Thuốc giảm đau, Vitamin hoặc Dopamine - Bạn nên khởi nghiệp bằng loại nào và bạn nên chọn chiến lược nào?

止痛药、维生素还是多巴胺——哪一个是您的初创企业，您应该选择哪种策略？

My journey in software development began several years ago after a conversation with a friend. He had recently hired a small development company to help him build an app for his commercial real estate business. As we spoke more about it, I thought about my own ideas for apps and wondered if that was something I could do. I had learned some basic HTML & CSS and built a couple of simple websites in the past, but I had no experience with anything more complex than that and started thinking about what I might need to learn to build apps myself. It was around then that I decided I was going to learn how to code. I began asking people I knew who worked in tech what programming language I should learn. One friend suggested learning JavaScript at an in-person coding boot camp in NYC, so I looked into that program, and others liked it. I noticed that a lot of them were teaching a similar web development stack – JavaScript, Node, Express, Mongo, and so on. I liked the idea of enrolling in a coding boot camp, but I thought maybe before I committed to an expensive in-person program, I should try something online – to be sure that it was not only something I could do but would be something that I’d want to continue to pursue. Coding Bootcamps After exploring a number of different online learning platforms, in the fall of 2019, I enrolled in The Web Developer Bootcamp at Udemy and devoted much of the next several months to learning the material covered in that course. I quickly found that one of the great things about online platforms like Udemy is that it can be very affordable if you time things right – because courses are frequently offered at a generous discount – so I could buy several classes on the same subject, then concentrate on the one or two that I liked the most. I bought a few more coding boot camps and JavaScript courses so I could cherry-pick through them for a fresh perspective when I was having difficulty understanding certain material – like some of the more advanced JavaScript topics. In the meantime, I worked through The Web Developer Bootcamp from start to finish, and as I got closer to completing it, I began to apply some of what I’d learned to build various front and back-end elements – e.g., forms & UI’s, RESTful routing & Express middleware, and database schemas & CRUD operations. Touring and COVID I’ve been playing music professionally for some time and had several performances scheduled around the northeast US in March 2020, so in late February of that year, I stepped away from coding to begin practicing for my shows and preparing to be on the road for a few weeks. It was around that time that reports about a new “coronavirus” that was slowly spreading around the US began appearing on the news more frequently. I was touring with another guitarist, and we played several shows between Minneapolis and Washington DC before driving to NYC for the final show on March 15th. That morning, the venue called and said they were closing down temporarily because of COVID – which, as we all learned in the coming weeks, was what was about to happen everywhere. It was tough timing for me because I was getting to a place in my music career where I was being invited to perform more frequently, and I was accumulating more bookings on the horizon than I’d had in the past – then COVID threw a wrench in the whole thing, and I found myself right back in Massachusetts in front of my computer again for the next 18 months. Building My First App During that time, I continued to apply what I’d been learning to build what would eventually become my first full-scale Node/Express/Mongo production web app, Gigpromoter. From initial concept through deployment and maintenance, I learned about every stage of building and deploying a production web application through the experience of doing it – including the development of application language and content, user interface design and layout, back-end architecture, testing, and cybersecurity implementation, and site optimization & web performance. While I was building it, I also saw how much my original concept changed and evolved – from a simple event promotion task-management tool to a comprehensive resource that could help new artists learn how to book, manage, and promote live events. I soft-launched Gigpromoter in 2022 – and between ongoing work on music and a few performances, I continued with my education in software development. Continuing my Education Because I was still curious about the experience of attending an in-person coding boot camp, I continued to go back and read the syllabi from different programs to see what they were teaching – except now I found that I knew a lot of the material I was seeing, so I decided I would keep taking online courses to learn more about some of those topics I hadn’t covered yet. As I had done previously with web development and JavaScript courses, in 2022, I bought several ReactJS courses on Udemy, then found two that I liked the most and worked through those for the next several months. I did some traveling around the western US in late 2022 to take stock of where my life was and where I was going. During that time, I decided that I would go all-in with my coding education and committed to learning the remaining material listed on those bootcamp syllabi that I had not yet studied – namely, connecting the pieces of the MERN stack, learning about automated testing and data structures & algorithms; and studying development paradigms & methodologies like Agile, Scrum & Kanban, and OOP design patterns & principles – as well as continue to develop my programming fundamentals on platforms like Leetcode and Codewars. I also found that I was seeing Typescript being talked about in a lot of the same places as JavaScript and web development, so I took a course on that as well. Being a Self-Taught Developer A quick search online will reveal that there are many ways to define what it is to be a self-taught developer, but also that many of those definitions have a few things in common – i.e., that someone has engaged in online courses, tutorials, and self-study, and gained practical experience by using what they learned online to build applications. I neither received a degree in computer science nor attended an in-person coding boot camp, but over the last four years, I took a lot of classes online, watched a ton of instructional videos at Udemy and on YouTube, took hundreds of pages of notes, worked through countless code-along exercises, and read a lot of tutorials and blogs about coding, JavaScript, and web development. Additionally, I supplemented my online study with a lot of books that really helped me out, such as A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript, The Imposter’s Handbook, and The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide. I also found that tech podcasts can be an invaluable source of knowledge, and I have learned a great deal from listening to podcasts such as JavaScript Jabber, Syntax, Coding Blocks, and CodeNewbie. I’ve learned that the disadvantages of taking courses online – mainly, not having access to a live instructor in a more formal boot camp setting or the peer network and other opportunities I’d likely gain in such an environment – have emerged as advantages in the sense that if I don’t know or understand something, then I have to rely on my own research skills and initiative to identify exactly what it is that I need to learn, and then figure out how to learn it – because as I’ve also come to understand, that’s a lot of what a developer does every day. Lessons Learned I’ve often said that if someone is going to be an artist, then nothing and no one can stop them or stand in their way – if they’re going to do it, they’ll find a way to make it happen. I’ve learned that the same can be said about becoming a software developer. Especially during this time, there are so many different ways to learn how to code and such an abundance of resources online that if someone wants to learn those skills, they have the opportunity to try many different learning paths until they find the right one. It’s taken some time to get to where I am now, but I’m happy with the path I chose – because as much as I’d still like to have the experience of doing an in-person coding bootcamp [and I still might, who knows], I can see now that the path I took gave me the space to understand all that I’ve learned on a deeper level, and that the path I chose was the best path for me. My journey in software development began several years ago after a conversation with a friend. He had recently hired a small development company to help him build an app for his commercial real estate business. As we spoke more about it, I thought about my own ideas for apps and wondered if that was something I could do. I had learned some basic HTML & CSS and built a couple of simple websites in the past, but I had no experience with anything more complex than that and started thinking about what I might need to learn to build apps myself. It was around then that I decided I was going to learn how to code. I began asking people I knew who worked in tech what programming language I should learn. One friend suggested learning JavaScript at an in-person coding boot camp in NYC, so I looked into that program, and others liked it. I noticed that a lot of them were teaching a similar web development stack – JavaScript, Node, Express, Mongo, and so on. I liked the idea of enrolling in a coding boot camp, but I thought maybe before I committed to an expensive in-person program, I should try something online – to be sure that it was not only something I could do but would be something that I’d want to continue to pursue. could Coding Bootcamps After exploring a number of different online learning platforms, in the fall of 2019, I enrolled in The Web Developer Bootcamp at Udemy and devoted much of the next several months to learning the material covered in that course. The Web Developer Bootcamp Udemy I quickly found that one of the great things about online platforms like Udemy is that it can be very affordable if you time things right – because courses are frequently offered at a generous discount – so I could buy several classes on the same subject, then concentrate on the one or two that I liked the most. Udemy I bought a few more coding boot camps and JavaScript courses so I could cherry-pick through them for a fresh perspective when I was having difficulty understanding certain material – like some of the more advanced JavaScript topics. In the meantime, I worked through The Web Developer Bootcamp from start to finish, and as I got closer to completing it, I began to apply some of what I’d learned to build various front and back-end elements – e.g., forms & UI’s, RESTful routing & Express middleware, and database schemas & CRUD operations. The Web Developer Bootcamp Touring and COVID I’ve been playing music professionally for some time and had several performances scheduled around the northeast US in March 2020, so in late February of that year, I stepped away from coding to begin practicing for my shows and preparing to be on the road for a few weeks. It was around that time that reports about a new “coronavirus” that was slowly spreading around the US began appearing on the news more frequently. I was touring with another guitarist, and we played several shows between Minneapolis and Washington DC before driving to NYC for the final show on March 15th. That morning, the venue called and said they were closing down temporarily because of COVID – which, as we all learned in the coming weeks, was what was about to happen everywhere. It was tough timing for me because I was getting to a place in my music career where I was being invited to perform more frequently, and I was accumulating more bookings on the horizon than I’d had in the past – then COVID threw a wrench in the whole thing, and I found myself right back in Massachusetts in front of my computer again for the next 18 months. Building My First App Building My First App During that time, I continued to apply what I’d been learning to build what would eventually become my first full-scale Node/Express/Mongo production web app, Gigpromoter . Gigpromoter From initial concept through deployment and maintenance, I learned about every stage of building and deploying a production web application through the experience of doing it – including the development of application language and content, user interface design and layout, back-end architecture, testing, and cybersecurity implementation, and site optimization & web performance. While I was building it, I also saw how much my original concept changed and evolved – from a simple event promotion task-management tool to a comprehensive resource that could help new artists learn how to book, manage, and promote live events. I soft-launched Gigpromoter in 2022 – and between ongoing work on music and a few performances, I continued with my education in software development. Gigpromoter Continuing my Education Continuing my Education Because I was still curious about the experience of attending an in-person coding boot camp, I continued to go back and read the syllabi from different programs to see what they were teaching – except now I found that I knew a lot of the material I was seeing, so I decided I would keep taking online courses to learn more about some of those topics I hadn’t covered yet. As I had done previously with web development and JavaScript courses, in 2022, I bought several ReactJS courses on Udemy , then found two that I liked the most and worked through those for the next several months. Udemy I did some traveling around the western US in late 2022 to take stock of where my life was and where I was going. During that time, I decided that I would go all-in with my coding education and committed to learning the remaining material listed on those bootcamp syllabi that I had not yet studied – namely, connecting the pieces of the MERN stack, learning about automated testing and data structures & algorithms; and studying development paradigms & methodologies like Agile, Scrum & Kanban, and OOP design patterns & principles – as well as continue to develop my programming fundamentals on platforms like Leetcode and Codewars . Leetcode Codewars I also found that I was seeing Typescript being talked about in a lot of the same places as JavaScript and web development, so I took a course on that as well. Being a Self-Taught Developer Being a Self-Taught Developer A quick search online will reveal that there are many ways to define what it is to be a self-taught developer, but also that many of those definitions have a few things in common – i.e., that someone has engaged in online courses, tutorials, and self-study, and gained practical experience by using what they learned online to build applications. I neither received a degree in computer science nor attended an in-person coding boot camp, but over the last four years, I took a lot of classes online, watched a ton of instructional videos at Udemy and on YouTube , took hundreds of pages of notes, worked through countless code-along exercises, and read a lot of tutorials and blogs about coding, JavaScript, and web development. Udemy YouTube Additionally, I supplemented my online study with a lot of books that really helped me out, such as A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript , The Imposter’s Handbook , and The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide . A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript The Imposter’s Handbook The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide I also found that tech podcasts can be an invaluable source of knowledge, and I have learned a great deal from listening to podcasts such as JavaScript Jabber , Syntax , Coding Blocks , and CodeNewbie . JavaScript Jabber Syntax Coding Blocks CodeNewbie I’ve learned that the disadvantages of taking courses online – mainly, not having access to a live instructor in a more formal boot camp setting or the peer network and other opportunities I’d likely gain in such an environment – have emerged as advantages in the sense that if I don’t know or understand something, then I have to rely on my own research skills and initiative to identify exactly what it is that I need to learn, and then figure out how to learn it – because as I’ve also come to understand, that’s a lot of what a developer does every day. Lessons Learned Lessons Learned I’ve often said that if someone is going to be an artist, then nothing and no one can stop them or stand in their way – if they’re going to do it, they’ll find a way to make it happen. I’ve learned that the same can be said about becoming a software developer. Especially during this time, there are so many different ways to learn how to code and such an abundance of resources online that if someone wants to learn those skills, they have the opportunity to try many different learning paths until they find the right one. It’s taken some time to get to where I am now, but I’m happy with the path I chose – because as much as I’d still like to have the experience of doing an in-person coding bootcamp [and I still might, who knows], I can see now that the path I took gave me the space to understand all that I’ve learned on a deeper level, and that the path I chose was the best path for me.

How I Found My Path as a Self-Taught Developer, and You Could Do the Same

In the , getting to know the playing field involves more than just figuring out the market size or spotting the next big thing. Knowing who you're up against is just as crucial. This insight can show you what makes your startup stand out and whether it has what it takes to lead the pack. business world So, how do you get the scoop on your competition? Here are some smart ways and helpful tools to dig up the dirt on your industry peers. SimilarWeb . This tool provides insights on website metrics like traffic volume, sources, and bounce rates, among others. While not flawless, SimilarWeb's trends and estimates often hit close to the mark, making it a go-to for initial research. By analyzing traffic visits, I can gauge potential sales, understand a company's main operating regions through traffic sources, uncover more competitors, and learn about their customer acquisition strategies. a great tool that shows you information about websites is SimilarWeb Crunchbase offers a wealth of information on companies, from their funding rounds to key personnel. Even with its free version, Crunchbase is a treasure trove for preliminary company research. Crunchbase Googling Simple online searches can yield surprising results. Typing in the company name followed by specific metrics might bring up useful data, though it's wise to approach these figures with skepticism. LinkedIn Insights Many professionals take pride in their work achievements, sometimes sharing valuable data right on their profiles. While not a consistent source, you might stumble upon significant insights when researching employees from target companies. LinkedIn Facebook Ads Library Platforms like the offer transparency into a company's active ad campaigns, revealing their marketing strategies and messaging. This window into a company's advertising efforts can provide critical insights. Facebook Ads Library Google Ad Transparency tools allow you to explore current and past ad campaigns for any given company, offering a glimpse into their marketing evolution, albeit with some patience required due to slow loading times. ads transparency Google Keyword Analysis Understanding what potential customers are searching for can shed light on a competitor's market presence and which terms are driving traffic to their sites. Tools such as , , , and are invaluable for this type of research. UberSuggest AnswerThePublic Ahrefs SEMRush Customer Feedback Product reviews on , and other platforms can offer unfiltered feedback on a competitor's offerings, providing a direct line to customer sentiment. social media ( or ), , Facebook Google Reddit TrustPilot Comprehensive Reports Lastly, Annual Reports from industry and public companies can give an in-depth look at financial health and strategic direction. These documents are key for benchmarking and trend analysis. 📚 Essential Resources General Startup Funding and Trends: Techcrunch CB Insights Connecting the Dots in Fintech Inside Axios ) AngelList FemWealth Africa-focused: TechCabal Disrupt Africa The Big Deal TechCrunch Tech Safari Startup List Africa Asia-Focused: Inc42 Mint The Ken E27 Tech in Asia Australia Focused: Cut Through Ventures SmartCompany Overnight Successes By leveraging these tools and strategies, you can conduct a thorough competitive analysis, equipping your business with the knowledge to navigate and excel in your market. or to connect. If you found this useful, you may also like to read . PS: Follow me on Twitter LinkedIn “Remember, We Live in the Age of Beta Versions: How to Anticipate Trends and Launch an Online Product”

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