I see it as useful if I want to offer a sale on my coffee. People who follow me or already buy my products would share my announcement and then I would reward them for it.
Discussion
When I see people boosting stuff like that, it just feels like they are selling out. But I guess that’s just my perception.
I'm a small business owner so I see things as "can this help me pay my bills?" It seems to be a potential (more) organic advertising method that rewards its consumer base rather than some big ad firm. The hype is currently obscuring that. If someone is over-boosting, they get muted. If they're curating tastefully, they get paid for it. If you share a product you love & get a kickback, well wow! Or maybe you discover one you love because a friend shared it?
But, I understand your perspective. No one wants advertising shoved in their face, especially on nostr. I think it's important to establish channels that break from the traditional models before they find a way to sneak in though, and traditional online advertising offers little effect for a truly small business. I don't know. Entrepreneurism is a survival tactic for me so my opinion is of that nature. 😂
I like what nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj said to pay the viewer not the booster. Imo zapvertizing accomplished that - you pay your potential customers to see your message and you have to be sure that’s something they potentially consider or risk getting muted. The incentives align.
With this model, the viewer gets nothing of value. If the person they follow really cared to share organically, they wouldn’t need a payment to do it. The moment they accept payment it’s not organic.
I guess the market will decide if that model makes sense. I don’t see it yet, even from entrepreneur’s perspective. I too sell digital products and I value people’s attention. I would not want my affiliates advertising my stuff to people who may not want anything to do with my products, hence careful affiliate selection. But this model has zero control over who advertises what and zero clue about their audience. Maybe it works for some types of products and audiences and not others 🤷♂️ 🤔
I imagine it being that way eventually, where a meld of things works, different methods work for different products and sellers. Zapvertising, the way I view it, could help greatly with brand recognition but very little with actual realtime sales, which is great for already known companies competing for attention. A method that offers something slightly more subversive & informative can be a pleasant experience for buyer & seller if done tastefully, and if not seller get muted. People mindlessly boosting for sats will be punished by their peers for breaking trust. As it should be. I agree that a fully organic word-of-mouth method trumps all but it's not a viable stand-alone method without a long history of building reputation.