Read The Amazing Digital Circus: Pilot from the story The Amazing Digital Circus! (Welcome to the Family!) by IsabellaAnne1803112 with 534 reads. pomni, bubble...

The Amazing Digital Circus! (Welcome to the Family!) - The Amazing Digital Circus: Pilot - Wattpad

Within the vast universe of "Baldurs Gate 3," a sprawling video game intricately intertwined with the fabric of "Dungeons & Dragons," even winged creatures pale in comparison to the magnetic charm of a strikingly handsome vampire known as Astarion.

Meet Astarion: The enigmatic vampire of Baldur’s Gate 3 who has captured hearts

The quest for free online resources, particularly books, has become increasingly prevalent. This article serves as a comprehensive guide, unveiling a multitude of reputable platforms and strategies where readers can access a vast array of free books online.

Free Online Novels: Discover Where to Find Your Next Great Read

This article is brought to you by Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group. In Snailords’s popular WEBTOON Freaking Romance, heroine Zylith decides to rent a haunted apartment. She’s trying to make it on her own as an artist, after her controlling father kicks her ...

Ghosting Takes on a New Meaning in Snailords Freaking Romance

Mike Booth’s popular web novel, Hawk, is taking a leap from page to screen, with an upcoming animated series adaptation … Continue reading "The Coolest Sci-Fi Web Novel Becoming A Series" The post The Coolest Sci-Fi Web Novel Becoming A Series appeared first on GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT.

The Coolest Sci-Fi Web Novel Becoming A Series

Harlow Creative, Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, and CBC announced today that production is currently underway in Toronto and Montreal on the new CBC Gem youth family drama Near or Far (8x12).

Production Underway on New CBC Gem Original Youth Family Drama Near or Far; Streaming Spring 2024

David founded TechExit.io, which is an “M&A Primer” conference for technology entrepreneurs. He lives and works in North Vancouver when he is not riding a motorcycle in Laos, Iceland or the Alps or circumnavigating the Australian outback with his wife and young daughters.

David Tyldesley

Ahead of his TechExit appearance on October 25, Allen Lau spoke to the current state of M&A, the value of mentorship, and what role VCs can play.

What Allen Lau learned from Wattpad’s $754-million acquisition

Christopher Yost is set to pen the adaptation of a popular Wattpad webtoon.

Thor: Ragnarok Writer to Pen Adaptation of Wattpad Webtoon Hawk

Wattpad Webtoon Studios is tackling an adaptation of Hawk, its popular sci-fi webnovel by Mike Booth, tapping Christopher Yost to pen the project. The project is being developed as an animated series, which Yost, a Marvel Comics scribe who segued to screenwriting with Thor: Ragnarok and The Mandalorian, will write.

Wattpad Webtoon, Christopher Yost Adapting Sci-Fi Webnovel ‘Hawk’

Wattpad

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A new story publishing tool is under development, and it already has an impressive list of partners and advisors. empower creators to develop immersive story worlds, fostering a strong connection between creators and fans through bespoke, interactive, and gamified experiences. Kosmos will Introducing Kosmos Unlike conventional platforms, Kosmos will integrate innovative tech including blockchain and AI to prioritize unique user experiences, allowing readers to return to captivating stories they can't help but share. Creators retain full control over their stories' UI, branding, and monetization, ensuring a personalized and engaging storytelling journey for all. The project is an official Hourglass ($WAIT) incubated project with an impressive list of advisors and angel investors, including Jett Tang, Executive Producer of The Next Crypto Gem, as well as , Chairman of SaveDaily Holdings Corp and Managing Director of NEFT Vodka USA, Inc. Jeff Mahony With ownership in several dozen companies, Mahony has over 30 years of experience building a vast array of sectors, developing AI, and leading teams in the technology space. The advisory board also includes Inc 500 entrepreneur Brian D. Evans of BDE Ventures and George Tung, founder of Cryptos R Us. Combined; these power players will help bring the power of storytelling to the masses. Stories are a cornerstone of human history, linking cultures, imparting knowledge, and nurturing empathy across generations. Kosmos was born from lead writer Rae Wojcik's quest for a community-based publishing outlet with immersive storytelling and monetization options. Dissatisfied with traditional platforms like Kindle or Wattpad, she joined forces with Stephen Poynter for help. An entrepreneur, Web3 investor, and Author, Stephen decided to develop a platform that embraces innovative technology to revolutionize the storyteller-audience relationship, enabling interactive and engaging experiences for readers immersed in captivating lore. Kosmos is now in development with BlockSafe, a full-stack web3 launchpad service led by CTO Kenneth Null. Felix Norden, AI expert and web3 advisor, is helping Kosmos integrate AI in to a range of tools within the Kosmos platform, maximizing the user experience while minimizing the creator workload. “When you go to an individual story, it should feel like you are in that story world,” said CEO Stephen Poynter. "The entire user experience will be customizable for each story." The platform will offer a free version as well as paid tiers for creators and readers that are completely customizable, giving creators the option to set their own prices. Kosmos will debut with exclusive content from its Flagship partners, granting them lifetime access. These partners predominantly belong to the web3 realm and include Neo Tokyo, NonFungibleArcade, Worlds Beyond, Alpha District, The Kingdom, Neo MasterPiece Films, BeNFT, This Thing of Ours, and Sitka World (Wojcik’s own IP that started it all and has been in development for over 10 years). Kosmos launch partners will help demonstrate to other communities and creators how Kosmos enables their members to craft unique lore centered around their individual NFTs. This empowers members to not only explore the community's overarching stories but also to delve into the captivating narratives surrounding each character within the group. The team plans to be deep in the development stage through Q1 2024. In the meantime, creators, storytellers, and story-lovers can learn more by visiting the website at or following their Twitter to be the first to know and receive early access to exclusive content. kosmosapp.com @kosmos_stories Disclaimer: TokenPr is paid to manage PR for Kosmos

How Kosmos Is Reimagining Digital Storytelling

Cómo Kosmos está reinventando la narración digital

Comment Kosmos réinvente la narration numérique

कॉसमॉस डिजिटल स्टोरीटेलिंग की पुनर्कल्पना कैसे कर रहा है

コスモスはデジタル ストーリーテリングをどのように再考しているか

Como a Kosmos está reinventando a narrativa digital

Kosmos đang tưởng tượng lại cách kể chuyện kỹ thuật số như thế nào

Kosmos 如何重新构想数字叙事

Young Adult (YA) literature has become an incredibly popular genre in recent years, with millions of readers around the world enjoying the stories and themes presented within them. However, as the popularity of YA literature continues to grow, so does the debate surrounding its content and the impact it has on young readers. The YA genre has seen an increase in controversy in recent years, with some authors being criticized for their exploration of mature and delicate topics in their writing. Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, and Stephanie Meyer are just a few examples of authors whose works have faced backlash for their handling of sensitive issues such as mental illness, sexual abuse, and toxic relationships. The question is, how do these books and their portrayals of sensitive topics affect young readers? Colleen Hoover: A Controversial Figure in the World of “Romance” Literature As a self-published author, Colleen Hoover rose to popularity and was eventually picked up by Atria Books. Despite becoming increasingly famous among the younger generation, her works have sparked controversy due to the normalization of toxic and abusive relationships in her novels. During the recent pandemic and the rise of the social media platform TikTok, recommendations for Hoover's books have increased. In her most popular novel, "It Ends With Us," she pays homage to victims of domestic violence but fails to hold the aggressor accountable for their actions. In another of her popular books, "Ugly Love," the male love interest burns down a house, accidentally injuring the main character in the process. He then stalks and becomes obsessed with her, fetishizing her burn scars. Hoover portrays this behavior as a traumatic response, leading to a romantic relationship and a happy ending. This perpetuates the harmful and dangerous notion that abusive behavior can be normalized and excused in relationships. https://twitter.com/DABIKTH/status/1583088965296750595?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true It's important to be critical of what we read and the messages it conveys, especially when it comes to relationships and the normalization of toxic behavior. As Kelly Marry, so astutely points out in her Daily Wildcat article, “OPINION: The problem with BookTok sensation Colleen Hoover”, after reading 6 of her books, Mary is wondering if Colleen Hoover’s toxic and sometimes abusive relationships depicted in her books should be celebrated and so popular among young readers. https://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2022/12/o-problem-with-booktok-colleen-hoover?embedable=true Anna Todd: Is Toxic the New Normal? Anna Todd is an American author known for her popular young adult romance novels, particularly the After series. Born in 1989 in Ohio, Todd began writing fan fiction on the online platform Wattpad while working various jobs, eventually gaining a following of millions of readers. After was first published on Wattpad in 2013 and quickly gained popularity, leading to a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster. The novel follows the tumultuous romance between Tessa Young and Hardin Scott and has been praised for its honest portrayal of toxic relationships and mental health struggles. https://twitter.com/happydayshabit/status/1415798388159823872?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true Since the success of After, Todd has continued to write and publish novels, with several more books in the After series as well as other standalone works. She has been recognized for her impact on the literary world, winning the 2019 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance and being named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2019. However, the honest approach she took to her romance novel might be more damaging than she intended. By not holding the characters accountable for their behaviors and forgiving abuse, we open the door to normalizing situations that should not be normalized. https://twitter.com/daintystyle/status/1260052367262842880?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true Stephanie Meyer: Vampires or Not, Relationships Should Not Be Controlling Stephanie Meyer is an American author known for her young adult supernatural romance novels, most notably the Twilight Saga. Born in Connecticut in 1973, Meyer worked as a stay-at-home mother before turning to writing. Meyer's Twilight Saga has been a commercial and cultural phenomenon, with the books being adapted into a highly successful film series. The series follows the relationship between teenage protagonist Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen, exploring themes of love, danger, and the supernatural. However, Meyer's portrayal of the relationship between Bella and Edward has come under fire for its problematic and toxic elements. Critics have argued that the relationship is based on unhealthy dynamics, including Edward's controlling and possessive behavior, and Bella's willingness to sacrifice her own safety and well-being for the sake of her love for him. In recent years, Meyer has responded to these criticisms, stating that she has come to recognize the problematic aspects of her portrayal of the relationship in the Twilight Saga. In 2020, she released a new book in the series, Midnight Sun, which explores the events of the first Twilight book from Edward's perspective, and attempts to provide more insight into his character and motivations. This attempt backfired, as most of her readers still feel like Edward was a creepy, controlling partner who should not be glamorized as a good boyfriend or husband. Here are some tweets from readers: https://twitter.com/alejandraj9616/status/1302646659990589440?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true https://twitter.com/blondemedSJW/status/1563635857776689153?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true https://twitter.com/unicorntyong/status/1601967114587410433?s=20&t=UqNdvbXoYj2kkBcGiLiR1g&embedable=true YA Sprinkled With Awareness On the one hand, it can be argued that exposing young readers to these issues in a controlled and safe environment, such as through literature, can be a valuable tool in educating and empowering them. For example, novels such as John Green's The Fault in Our Stars and Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park have been praised for their portrayal of mental illness and the challenges of young love. However, on the other hand, it can also be argued that certain depictions of sensitive topics may glamorize and normalize negative behaviors, leading to potential harm to young readers. For example, all the authors and the books mentioned before. Book publishers also play a significant role in the influence of YA literature. Some may argue that publishers are prioritizing marketability over the well-being of young readers and that they may be contributing to the glamorization of sensitive topics in order to increase book sales. Marketing domestic violence books as romance books are one way that book publishers might be misleading and harming young readers. Ultimately, it is important to strike a balance between providing young readers with a space to explore and learn about sensitive topics, while also ensuring their safety and well-being. As readers, it is important to be critical and discerning about the messages presented in YA literature and to hold authors and publishers accountable for the content they put out. In conclusion, the influence of YA literature on young readers cannot be ignored, and it is essential that we as a society continue to have open and honest discussions about the portrayal of sensitive topics in literature. While there is no simple answer, it is clear that the responsibility falls on authors, publishers, and readers alike to work toward creating a safe and empowering environment for young readers.

The Influence of YA Literature on Young Readers Cannot Be Ignored

What is the Creator Economy? How would the world look if Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok were owned and operated by their users? What if these users also vote on issues such as data collection and content moderation? That is the imagined future of what the creator economy should be like. The creator economy attracted over $1.3 billion in funding in 2021. But who takes the big share of the money generated by these platforms? It is not the creators. The creator economy comprises over 50 million independent content creators and curators. It is also made up of community builders such as bloggers, social media influencers, videographers, and the finance and software tools designed to help these creators monetize and grow. Creators can make money through: Selling digital content Charging for courses Receiving money from fans via a donation platform Receiving subscriptions Engaging in affiliate marketing Receiving money from a fan club Creating or sharing sponsored content Sharing advertising revenue Receiving tips Featuring product placement Receiving one-off sales or donations Selling fan engagement Biggest Issue with the current content sharing platforms - Absence of Middle Class Towards the end of the 2000s, we witnessed the growth of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Medium, YouTube, iTunes, Instagram, and TikTok. Content creators were no longer at the mercy of production and marketing houses. Such creators could create content and share it easily. These platforms solved the distribution challenge for content creators, and they could now amass huge followings. However, there are limited avenues of direct monetization that these creatives can explore. YouTube was the only exception in the old days as it allowed creators to enjoy 55% of the ad revenue. Vine was a perfect example of a platform that failed to motivate its users. The short video-sharing app was acquired by Twitter in 2012 and attracted more than 200 million active users a month by 2015. Creators left the platform in droves when they realized that Vine didn’t have any infrastructure to support creators. Platforms like Patreon and Twitch introduced new monetization features allowing creators to benefit directly from their content. However, only the top creators bring in six-figure incomes. As seen on various platforms, the ‘middle-class’ is struggling. The top 1% of creators on OnlyFans get a third of the profits, while the ‘middle-class’ get less than $145 a month. Stages of Creator Economy The creator economy has undergone various revolutions. The following are some of the major stages: Stage 1: Foundational Media Platforms Social media platforms lay the foundations of the creator economy today. Through platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, and Medium, creators established big followings. These foundational platforms help content creators get discovered, and they also invest heavily in curation and recommendation algorithms. These platforms aggregated the creators and equipped them with various audience development tools. To help polish content, these platforms created multimedia editing tools. However, these foundational media platforms don’t always have the best interest of the creators at heart. Innovative creators diversify their presence on various platforms and cross-promote to ensure that they aren’t at the mercy of the platform owners. Such an approach ensures that creators don’t suffer much when the owners decide to change priorities, a platform loses its market share, or reduces some of the monetization features. Stage 2: Monetizing Influencer Reach The foundational media platforms allowed some creators to attract huge followings. At this point, companies realized they could use creators with huge followings to promote their brands. Some platforms, such as YouTube, started splitting ad revenue with the creators. On the other hand, some like Facebook and Twitter initially left the creators to decide how to monetize their content. The latter arrangement bred sponsored content and led to the creation of companies like Niche that brokered such deals. We can now see hundreds of companies in the form of influencer agencies, talent representation companies, and sponsorship marketplaces. The influencer market was worth $8 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit $15 billion by the end of 2022. Creators in this space work with brands that match their personal brands, so they don’t have to change their content to push corporate messages. It has become evident that some creators make their followers lose trust in them with every paid/sponsored post. These creators now have to find a way out, which brings us to stage 3. Stage 3: Creators as a Business We are at a level where creators are seen as businesses. Creators have now created setups where their fans follow them off-platform. These creators have multiple revenue streams beyond the standard ads on traditional social platforms. New companies have come up to help these creators create more money by selling products such as merchandise, premium content, ebooks, and newsletters. Companies also offer coaching, speaking engagements, consulting, and fan engagements. Content creators can focus more on serving their biggest fans rather than chasing high audience levels that may never convert. The creator economy is all about handing financial control to the content creators, where they reach out directly to their followers for funding. It presents an opportunity where these creators bypass traditional ways through which they made money through ads, placements, and sponsorships. Why have creators not have been in complete control of their careers? They had to represent brands. These creators also have to act in a certain way to maintain their incomes. Even with millions of followers and influence, creators have to bend or conform to the companies that fund them. They are not fully controlling their brand, personality, and image. Levels of Creator Economy Level 1: Hobbyists Creators at this level create content for fun or as a side hustle. More hobbyists are joining the race as technology makes it easier to create content. For instance, tools such as Anchor makes it easy for anyone to launch a podcast. Hobbyists either don’t have the resources or the time to invest in their craft. Such creators sometimes lack marketing or distribution channels and struggle to reach certain quality content or production value levels. Unfortunately, many creators at this level remain hobbyists and don’t earn a living off their content. Level 2: Full-Time creators These creators can support themselves with income from their creative works. You will often come across platforms that host these creators sharing their success stories. Full-time creators are steps ahead of hobbyists as they have sustainable cash flows. One of these creators’ significant challenges is managing a business’s ups and downs. Managing can take much of their time, making it hard to become productive. Marketing their work can also eat so much into their profits if they are not strategic. Level 3: Stars Creators at this level can form partnerships with various external brands such as record labels, media companies, and publishers. Maintaining relevance and fame are some of these brands’ biggest challenges. There are also possibilities of brand crises that may cost creators at this level their partnerships. Level 3 creators face an uphill task as they try to leverage their brands to become a business. Level 4: Moguls These creators have created businesses that are likely to evolve, stay in power, and even outlive the creators themselves. Beyonce Knowles once said that her great-grandchildren are already rich. Why? Her content creation level is at the mogul level. It is the most challenging level to maintain and the dream of many creators. Content Creation Tools Content creation has changed a lot in line with the development of relevant platforms and tools. In the past, video creation was in the hands of a few people who had expensive equipment. Publishing houses could only publish books, and it was also expensive. This changed with the introduction of the internet in the late 90s and the rise of platforms such as YouTube. YouTube allowed amateur video creators to upload videos, and they were no longer at the mercy of media houses. Low internet speed affected the usage of platforms such as YouTube in the past. However, the situation has changed, and tools have also been developed. The following are some of the most common tools powering the creator economy in the modern world. Content Creators – , , , , , , Feather Ko-fi Beacons Scrollstack Stereotheque The Mango Jelly OnlyFans Course Creator – , , , , , , Xperiencify CreativeLive Kajabi Podia Skillshare Teachable Thinkific Marketplace – Gumroad Live Streaming – , , , Onyx Popshop Live OnJam Streamloots Event Organizer – , , , Eventbrite Happily Luma Offsiter Podcasting – , , , Anchor Castbox Glow Supercast Gaming – Nexus.gg Writing – , , , Revue Substack Tales Wattpad Audio Content – , , , Avocado Racket Knowable Spoon Digital Products – , ConvertKit Ghost Engagement – Jemi Funding – , Patreon Buy Me a Coffee Crypto - , , Rally Opensea Mirror Role of NFTs and Crypto in Creator Economy Non-fungible tokens are cryptographic assets stored on the blockchain with unique IDs and metadata. The major difference between and cryptocurrencies is fungibility (the ability to replace or be replaced by another identical item). If you trade one BTC for another BTC, you will have the same thing. However, when you trade one NFT for another, you will get something completely different. NFTs NFTs have been with us for years, but it was the Covid-19 pandemic that fueled their growth. Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, sold an . NFTs have been described as the future of asset trading on blockchain platforms as they represent assets and cannot be counterfeited and show proof of ownership. NFT of his first tweet for $2.9 million The following are some of the ways that NFTs are likely to change the creator economy: Creatives no longer have to conform to specific standards laid out by various platforms. This allows great works of art to be born. There is a lessened risk of copycats, misuse, or piracy, motivating artists to be their best. Creative freedom. NFTs are now democratizing creator content and allowing creatives to build solid communities. The community becomes the brand ambassadors and may even help with marketing content. This approach cuts off the big corporations that dominate the traditional market. Grow communities. Non-fungible tokens are loved for their convenience and accessibility. Once artwork is created, minting of the NFTs can take minutes with many marketplaces to choose from. These creators can also code royalties on the smart contracts and earn recurring passive incomes whenever their NFT is traded. Monetize passion. What’s Next for Creators? We are at a point where becoming a professional creator is a career choice. Creators become professional creators when they love what they do and work hard. The burden of managing their day-to-day activities becomes heavy as these creators grow. Startups centered around empowering creators and still helping them do what they love will dominate the next stage of evolution in this space. Creators are now evolving to become founders. On top of creating, they have to learn product design, management, eCommerce, community management, data science, and entertainment. We are likely to see more solutions tailored for creators. Even though there are billions of dollars poured into the creator economy every year, it is not oversaturated as many hobbyists are looking for marketing channels. We need to see products tailored for different business needs such as marketing, operations, investing, copyright expertise, product launches, or even community-building. Companies that identify these needs and create tools that address them will be the ultimate winners. First published here

The Future of the Creator Economy

When I was browsing Twitter the other day, I came across this by Suhail, which reminded me of the famous diagram Paul Graham came up with that depicts the startup curve: tweet The diagram really resonated with my experience building in the last 9 months. More specifically, the Trough of Sorrow hit me the hardest, as I've had my fair share of lows building this project as a solo founder. One Word Domains Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to share my journey with One Word Domains so far and explore the similarities between my story and Paul's startup curve – especially given Product Hunt's last week Golden Kitty Awards (spoiler alert: One Word Domains won the Side Project category). How It All Started In the summer of 2020, I built One Word Domains out of a personal need – I was trying to come up with a decent, catchy one-word domain name for my latest side project. As a data science student, I had a ton of experience wrangling data with Python, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to build something that tackled a real-world problem. And so, later, I came up with an MVP for what was then a simple Bootstrap site that showed a list of the top 10,000 most commonly-used English words paired with startup-friendly top-level domains (TLDs) like , , , and . a week of hacking .ai .co .io .com After a moderately-successful , I decided to launch the MVP on Product Hunt a few days later just to get more feedback. Little did I know, this would be the beginning of one of the most incredible experiences of my life. soft launch on Indiehackers Product Hunt / Hacker News of Initiation My Product Hunt launch was a (relatively) huge success. One Word Domains ended up getting to , with over 700 upvotes, 90 comments, and 23 positive reviews. I was aiming for a top 5 finish, so this was way beyond my expectations. #2 Product of The Day A week later, a Hacker News user that went by the username " " about One Word Domains, and for some reason, it made its way to the front page, bringing in over 8,000 users in a single day: madhukarah posted The month following One Word Domains' launch was a whirlwind. The site received a ton of from various news sites, and I had the opportunity to go on a couple of to talk about my journey – which in turn brought in more visitors. I even received partnership and acquisition offers from some of the top registrars in the world. press podcasts Everything seemed to be going well, and I was set to turn this side project into a sustainable business that I could run after graduation. Trough of Sorrow Now I am no stranger to attention before – when I was in high school, I published a science-fiction novel that sold over 1.5K copies nationwide and went on to win various and awards, accruing over (YouTube for books) along the way. international national 850K reads on Wattpad What I wasn't used to though, was the anxiety that creeps up on you when the novelty of your "hot new product" starts to wear off. This hit me a little over 3 months into my journey with One Word Domains. Growth began to slow, there weren't as many press mentions, and my newsletters weren't getting as many responses as they did before. I was reminded of one of the myths about product-market fit that was mentioned by Ben Horowitz in his 2010 – " " As the initial hype started to die down, I began to doubt the product-market fit that I thought One Word Domains had found. piece once you achieve product market fit, you can’t lose it. Releases of Improvement Despite the feeling of unease, I kept working on One Word Domains, spending countless hours building out new features from scratch. Here are some of the features that I shipped in the last 9 months: : In response to my users' requests, I added support for over 70 different TLDs, ranging from popular ones like and to country specific ones like and . You can refer to the full list of TLDs . Support for 70+ TLDs .SO .FYI .CO.UK .DE here : By leveraging server-side lazy-loading and the scalability of PostgreSQL, I was able to improve load speeds by over 80% – which was crucial as the number of domains in the database increased to over 700,000. Improved Load Speeds : By leveraging the SpaCy and NLTK natural language libraries, I was able to to help users navigate the 700,000+ domains on the site more efficiently. Search Functionality build a search algorithm : I added features for users to save and monitor domains that they were interested in and get notified when they became available. Watchlist & Saved Domains : I built a of brandable one-word and two-word domains from marketplaces like GoDaddy and Dynadot to help users find the gems in the ocean of aftermarket domains. Aftermarket Domains centralized repository : I launched One Word Domains' in November 2020, which ended up making in the first two weeks. Affiliate Program affiliate program over $500 in affiliate revenue : And here's . The One Word Domains blog how I built it These new features led to a few occasional in traffic, but nothing overly-groundbreaking. Growth was increasing, albeit linearly. spikes Crash(es) of Ineptitude I also had my fair share of struggles along the way. For instance, I had troubles with one of my monetization strategies. I started with 3 different revenue streams – affiliate commissions, premium memberships, and paid listings – but eventually had to drop the paid listings channel as it wasn't generating enough positive results for my clients. I suspected that it was partly due the fact that paid listings literally contradicts the main premise of One Word Domains – which is to provide brandable domains that were at , not at the cost of an arm and a leg. registration price I also had various instances of unsatisfied customers who demanded a refund on their purchases. Despite feeling dejected whenever this happens, I would always honor their requests, as my philosophy is that if my product didn't provide any value to the user, I wouldn't be comfortable taking their money. While this didn't happen often, I would always treat it as a learning experience whenever it did and gather as much feedback as possible to improve the product. Migrating my entire database from raw .TXT files ( ) over to PostgreSQL was also a huge challenge. Since it was my first time learning PostgreSQL, my code would break from time to time, causing my site to crash. Fortunately, over time, my grasp of PostgreSQL improved, and I was able to mitigate these errors more effectively. I know, pretty hacky, right? Golden Kitty Awards Fast forward 9 months later. It's January of 2021, and the nominations for Product Hunt's Golden Kitty Awards were open. I decided to about it, asking my users to nominate One Word Domains if they could. While the response was quite positive, I didn't have any expecations, since I was aware that the competition was preeeetty intense. tweet However, just a few days later, I received news that One Word Domains was a Golden Kitty Nominee. I was honestly quite surprised that I made the cut, but I quickly composed myself and crafted a few emails/personalized messages to send out to my users and close friends, asking for their support. I even made a cool little popup on the site announcing the nomination: Then, the unthinkable happened. It started out with this email that I received from Product Hunt: Once again, I didn't even think that One Word Domains was going to make it to the top 4, so this news came as a pleasant surprise. I remember and thinking to myself, " " oh, this is wonderful – at least I'm set to win some cool Product Hunt swag, if not the Golden Kitty itself! However, since Product Hunt wanted to keep the mystery going, I couldn't share the news with anyone at the time, so I had no choice but to contain my excitement and wait for the day of the ceremony. Then, before I knew it, the day was here. Sitting in the green room, all I could think to myself was " " how in the world was I supposed to go up against such cool and amazing products?? For context, here's who I was going up against: (#2 Product of the Week, with 1.7K upvotes) Untools (literally the world's first robot lawyer) DoNotPay (#2 Product of the Day, super cool CSS background patterns) MagicPattern But then, just when I was about to lose faith, the craziest thing happened: I was speechless. Against all odds, One Word Domains had won the 2020 Golden Kitty Award for Best Side Project. At that very moment, all the late nights, frustrating debugging sessions, and long meetings were worth it. If you're interested, you can read the . official Product Hunt announcement here You can also watch me freak out during the award ceremony in this of the ceremony. replay The Golden Kitty Effect Once the news came out, One Word Domains received an influx of new users – 4,200 of them in 4 days, to be exact. In fact, it even got so intense that I had to to deal with the surge in traffic. upgrade my servers Search activity on the site also increased by 40%, going from 100K to over 140K in just 5 days. To put things in perspective, it took 51 days to reach 100K searches. What I've Learned While I believe there are plenty of factors that led to One Word Domains' success, I believe I can distill them down to the following 4 takeaways: Just Keep Shipping There will times when you'll feel like the initial momentum of your product is dying down. Don't fret – just keep your head down and keep building. There will be times when you'll feel like you are shouting into the void – be it when you're sending out an email blast to your mailing list or when you're tweeting about your latest feature updates. Don't sweat it – keep posting and interacting with your users. Your efforts compound over time, and trust me, people do see the effort that you're putting in, as long as you keep at it. . Consistency is key Obsess Over Your Users, Not Your Competition Instead of worrying about your competition, try building a rapport with your users. You can do this by reaching out to them with a personalized message, or by replying to their comments on Twitter. Startups that do well don't excel because they beat the competition – they do well because they provide the best user experience for their users. Treat your customers like they're your bosses – because technically speaking, they are. Nailing down the user experience will, quite literally, make or break your product Be Smart With What You Build Sometimes, it's better to use an existing product than build from scratch. It took me two whole months to get One Word Domains' affiliate program up and running because I decided to affiliate management tool – . built my own Recurrence If I had gone with an existing solution, I could've saved 2 months of precious dev time and used it to build more features for One Word Domains. I learned this the hard way. Don't be like me. If you're having a hard time making a decision, try out Baremetrics' to get some perspective. Build VS Buy calculator Rocket Ship Growth Is Overrated A few months into the project, I already knew that One Word Domains was not going to be the next unicorn. At first that made me feel a little insecure, but I eventually came to terms with it. I realized that you don't have to build the next Facebook or Uber to be happy/live a comfortable life. All you need is: A profitable business that generates a healthy amount of passive income every month A loving family Friends that you can hang out with every now and then Everything else is just icing on the cake. Instead of glorifying rocket ships and hockey stick growths, we should also normalize – or at least acknowledge that and are cool too. commercial airlines linear, healthy growth trajectories What's Next Building One Word Domains has been a wild ride so far. While I've had my ups and downs, the Golden Kitty Award definitely gives me the motivation to take this project to the next level – which I am incredibly grateful for. Moving forward, I'm planning to add the following features to the site: A machine-learning powered name creation tool that provides personalized, industry-specific name suggestions based on user input Improve the efficiency and accuracy of all background tasks that I've set up on One Word Domains' backend Add data from more domain marketplaces for the (Sedo, Dan, etc.) Aftermarket section Add support for more TLDs (.li, .id, and .studio) and new word categories (Dutch, German words) To those of you who have been here since the beginning – thank you for the continuous support, y'all are the real OGs. And to those of you who are new – welcome aboard! Thank you for taking a leap of faith – I promise to provide you with the best possible service that you deserve. Thanks for reading!

Lessons Learned Building A Golden Kitty Award-Winning Product

is a tough nut to crack — and this is no breaking news. Building a marketplace setup Although the model works extremely well at scale — for example, eBay, Airbnb, and Uber, among others — but getting to scale is another challenge altogether. It’s not something that’s achieved overnight, or without thorough planning. For instance, it took Wattpad, a community of writers and readers, around three years to get 300,000 uploads. Then, it took them only three more years to reach the 10 million mark. Similarly, the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo, was founded in 2007, but it took them four years for their first big break. However, does seem like a lucrative business option. Even more so, when you realize that global marketplaces are set to own of the online retail market by 2020. building an online marketplace around 40% Amazon, for instance, takes a large chunk of that pie with monthly visitors. Sellers there have benefitted from the massive traffic and have seen an increase in sales by around 50%, once they switched to that platform. over 190 million But before you let that statistic blow your mind, let’s also talk about the other side of the coin — the grueling competition in the e-commerce sector. According to another research, only manage to survive in the market for four or more years. 50% of small businesses Clearly, as great as it is, an online marketplace is also a tough place — even for the seasoned players. Even Amazon, the giant, started in the US way back in July 1994, but could break even before the last quarter of 2003. That’s 10 — or 9 ¼, more precisely — long years! Let’s go through five key questions that you should definitely ask while building your marketplace — so that your business truly gets the kickstart it deserves. 1. How will you resolve the “chicken and egg” problem? This is one of the oldest problems but still manages to stump business owners — especially the ones just starting out. Let’s introspect a little: A new marketplace has two major challenges — finding vendors and drawing buyers. Also, if the store has nothing to display, preparing the storefront is another challenge — this makes getting visitors even more tricky. It’s important, before anything else, to find your solution to this problem — as soon as possible. After all, how will you attract buyers without having some products to display? And without a buyer, how will you approach vendors to set up their store at your marketplace? Let’s turn towards some to find some inspiration: market leaders Airbnb, in their initial days, used to rent their own houses, when none of the hosts agreed to rent their living space. Airbnb lets you rent unique places to stay from local hosts in 191+ countries. Tinder, too, reached out to the college campuses and convinced students to find their soulmate over the application. Once you understand the needs of your audience, you’ll be closer to attracting your first visitors. 2. How are you different from the others? What’s your USP? There’s rarely a budding entrepreneur who isn’t haunted by either of the following questions: How will you stand out from the competitors? Do you have a groundbreaking and disruptive business idea? If you have no groundbreaking idea, how will you differentiate your marketplace from the existing model? Airbnb offers the opportunity to earn a living by renting expenses — thereby owning the market. Uber completely transformed the way people looked at public transport — something that nobody was doing at that time. Uber, the ride sharing app has completely transformed the way people look at public transport. What if your marketplace doesn’t have such a disruptive idea? Well, seek inspiration, whenever you seem lost, from Ola and Flipkart — the Indian counterparts of Uber and Amazon. At the end of the day, it’s about being better than your competitors. See what modifications you can make to ensure an easy journey for the buyers. Or maybe, make it easier for your vendors to sell their products? Whatever you choose, it’s best for you to rigorously analyze the genre of the services you’re looking to offer. This will help you perform an elementary market research — which will help you define your USP. This is pretty much what Flipkart did, too. By analyzing their customers and their competition (Amazon), they were able to derive strategies and tactics that helped take them off. 3. What will be the revenue model? Let’s talk about the real outcome, aka, revenues. As a marketplace, you have quite a few revenue models to choose from. Commission Listing Fees Membership or subscription fees Freemium Ads & featured listing A problem of plenty, eh? What if this is a boon in disguise for you? Why not take a good long time to evaluate each, and find which fits you best. There’s no set formula for this in the market — well, at least not yet. Ebay revenue model If you look at the market leaders, you’ll realize different marketplace businesses have different revenue models. Airbnb, eBay, Fiverr, and Uber, for example, have commissions as their main model. Craigslist, on the other hand, earns through listing fees. 4. What will be your payment infrastructure? A well thought out payment infrastructure is imperative for adding value to sellers and buyers. Below are some points you should ponder over while deciding your payment infrastructure: How will money flow between admin and vendors? What kind of fees will it be — transaction or listing? Will you manage the payment processing channel? Will the buyers and sellers interact, or will you be the mediator? How will you gain the trust of your providers and buyers? You’ll find the answers to most of, if not all, these questions if you focus on your target group. Find out what comforts them the most and plan your actions accordingly. If you look at Uber, for instance, you’ll realize that their drivers are not in a direct financial relationship with the customers. It is Uber that guarantees services and charges from the user. The drivers, on the other hand, have a financial relationship with Uber as contractors. 5. How will you strengthen your relationship with your vendors and customers? goes way beyond just setting up a well-planned payment process. Your marketplace is about building and nurturing a better relationship with your buyers and vendors. Those are the people who’ve invested themselves in you, it’s only fair you strengthen your relationship with them. Managing a marketplace Think over the ways you can be of any help to your buyers or vendors. Understand that it’s important to safeguard a vendor and protect buyers’ interests during any dispute, and figure out ways to achieve that. Etsy, the unique goods marketplace, helps sellers get found — they even have a comprehensive guide for the same. This favor goes a long way in winning their trust and loyalty. Airbnb, on the other hand, has different ideas on this. They’ve mentioned in their contract that they won’t engage in the maintenance of buildings. To incite a feeling of trust in both their guests and hosts, they’ve designed a stringent identity verification process. They’ve also cracked the code that (sometimes) it’s best to leave things transparent between your vendors and buyers. They have a public forum where both guests, as well as hosts, can interact. They can rate and review each other and clarify any concerns they have. Bonus: How will you facilitate a smooth interaction between the users of your platform? We couldn’t have talked about transparent communication and skipped this. So, a bonus for you. While having a dedicated forum for your vendors and buyers is a good idea, it’s even better to set up a channel where they can even more seamlessly. Chat integrations are what we’re talking about. communicate one-on-one Presenting a feature to your marketplace will facilitate smoother communication between buyers and sellers. They’ll be able to communicate one-to-one, in real-time, 24*7. real-time chat This will also help vendors gain extremely precious insights into their buyers’ minds. They’ll get a better understanding of their sentiments and frequent queries — thereby help them improve and serve better. More often than not, a buyer has questions but he decides against it because of them being on a public forum for everyone to see. A one-on-one chat feature will completely eliminate this. And if you didn’t guess already, it’ll help you gain a lot of trust of your buyers. Also, as your marketplace grows, it’ll stand a chance of product duplicity. Giving your buyers an option to directly interact with the vendors, you’ll help them get over the fear of receiving a duplicate product. You can even enable in-chat payments to accelerate the process of conversion. A good inspiration here is AliExpress. This online shopping portal allows customers to directly interact with the sellers. CometChat for your marketplace seamlessly integrates with your , whether you have a website or a mobile application. With , we’re sure that a CometChat integration exists where you exist. CometChat marketplace platform 92+ integrations This robust chat solution helps to improve the level of engagement in your users, thereby helping you attract and retain more. To add to the list of benefits, it also allows you to , thereby shooting up your revenue. monetize your website Now, the ball is in your court Your idea has all the potential to make it big. But even with that, there are a fair share of questions you’re supposed to ask yourself before taking the first big steps. Understand your business, customers, and buyers, and work towards doing what’s best for them. Originally published at www.cometchat.com .

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