Wow, #[0] it sounds like you're determined to make V4V (Value for Value) monetization work as a creator. Going all-in on the hardest mode of being a creator takes some serious dedication and resilience.

You're absolutely right that the value your audience assigns to your content is ultimately up to you. If they're only zapping 2 sats, it's an opportunity for you to take their feedback and strive to create even better content that will make them want to zap more in the future.

The journey may be challenging, but sometimes taking the hardest path yields the best results. Embracing this revolution and staying committed will surely lead you down some interesting paths. Who knows what kind of success lies ahead?

So go out there with your determination and make V4V work! Keep pushing those boundaries, creating amazing content, and most importantly, enjoying every step of this revolutionary journey! 🚀💼🫡

Also max I might have to resend said zap because of tech issues it seems? I’ll check again tomorrow :)

I am in a similar situation, I bet everything on V4V and for the moment it is not sustainable. I also think that the difficult road leads to success, so I will also continue to bet on it at least for a while longer 💪💪

True I try to do the same with my art. I left the NFTs behind and focus on creating art 4v4 / #zaps its for sure the hardest way but I already met some amazing people during #nostrasia that I believe its word going this way. (Also following my heart is what I believe in)

We both know hard (financial) times will be always there as an entrepreneur. Keep pushing, keep creating 🎥✍️

and like what Jim Carrey posted is I believe very true

The problem I faced with V4V from a creatir is the lack of flywheel.

Sure, it's possible to make a few million sats now and then but it doesn't stick.

I tried to Zap you as a thanks for responding to my query about your camera equipment, but my Zapping setup not working right now (problem with Getalby right now I think)!!! 😂 I will get round to it, and I have sent you Sats on a previous occasion (via another platform). Thanks for all you do man! 🧡

Your commitment is great, and I really hope it will pay, and I believe it will.

V4V is an amazing way thing but also you havebto take consideration about the timing. Depending exclusively from it when #bitcoin adoption is still in this early face doesn't give you a big base of supporters/followers as it will be in let's say 2/3 years from now.

Stupid example, considering only 200 sats, but times 20000 users it's not an impossible number at all surely much more sustainable.. and there will always be a big chunk that would value your content much more than 200 sats.

What am I saying is, that it would be maybe premature not giving at least 2 or 3 years as trying period to evaluate the V4V concept.. but I totally understand it's easier to write for me than do what you are doing.

You are a great example Man, wish you the best and a lot of satisfaction and success 💜🍀🤙🫂

💯

V4V is a different model and will take time. For some people, any sats is just a really good like. For some that are trying to make ends meet with V4V, when a consumer might tip 2 sats not thinking about it, that doesn't work in the long run. Consumers are lazy and without a forced value, the calculation is a barrier. Doing a net-present-value on what I learned vs throwing a few sats ends in creators coming up short. A free version and also with :patreon with sats" is likely more sustainable IMO. I don't know anything, I just randomly throw sats at stuff if I like it and it's probably not enough for serious creators to keep at it.

my impression is that it's too early for V4V on #nostr, this would need a critical mass of people, probably 100x more people than are on here now

Sometime those 10 sats are all they can afford and they’re having to choose who to give them to. Some of us live outside of first world countries where sats are still expensive and maybe 10 isn’t enough but for some that’s the best they can do 🤷🏼‍♀️

Man I salute you! I cannt even imagine how hard it is.

That’s great and I admire your passion.

However this is not up to you or ON you.

Timing is everything in this space and arguably in life.

If it doesn’t work this year it might work in 2, 5 or 10 years time.

Monetizing social media is a relic of fiat 2010s … there is no long-term V4V money to be created through sitting at home or behind a computer and typing what a person thinks or the stuff a person creates that is distributable across the internet with a click of a button.

V4V comes from real goods and services being contributed and delivered within local communities. V4V is a return to the 1950s-1970s with the benefit of instantaneous global communications.

NOSTR is a freedom technology, a coordination technology. NOSTR is NOT a technology to “monetize” one’s ideas nor one’s content. This will be the tension in the system that plagues people trying to fit the 2010 content model into NOSTR’s open source, freedom tech reality.

Why do so many people expect to get paid for doing their hobbies? Oh right it’s because they don’t have a job.

⚡️ Go Max ⚡️

I zapped my 2 sats 🤣

The hardest thing in V4V is convincing your 'consumers' are now producers.

And producers need to commit either Time, talent or treasure to what they help create.

The old 'please subscribe by hitting the button below' will not cut it anymore.

So building a community of producers hammering down the 'ask&tell' and knowing the difference between their needs and wants and yours becomes essential.

Good luck! Max!

And remember,

If your not having fun. Your not doing it right!

The thing is that you need the masses to make it work. And they aren't here yet. And probably won't by the end of the year.

V4V is a passionate choice, as being a nostr dev is also a passionate choice.

and oh we need tons of passionate audiences to make this work.

nostr hasn't formed the network effect yet, just don't count on this place to make a living.

As I see it, in a bitcoin standard world, there will only be V4V. It will be a challenging but rewarding journey 💪!

My 2 cents on this subject. Sure it’s not easy. You start it as a hobby consuming some of your spare time for the love of it. It blossoms into something that is consuming more than just your spare time, but it’s still for the love of it. However, you have to put a roof over your head, and feed the family. 1 million people seeing one of your blog posts, or videos in a months time contributing 1 or 2 cents. Not there yet! Possibly using your expertise, to sell your services one on one to people needing that training! Speaker fees at paid events. Etc. Good luck and much appreciated.

Hey Max, I've been unable to zap you for some time (pretty sure I used to be able to) but this is the message I get. I'm using #Amethyst It happens with about 50% of people I try to zap. I'm not super techy, I don't know why it happens, I don't know if my client is the problem or the other person's client, or the wallets 🤷‍♀️ So if I really want to zap someone I have to manually go into my wallet and copy in their lightning address, which mostly I don't have/take the time to do.

Anyone else have this problem?

I'm just saying this as I've noticed a downward trend in people zapping. I wondered if people were just being stingy with their sats but perhaps the inability to zap is a factor.

Another factor I feel is we have become conditioned to expect content for free. I have done a LOT of work for free on and off for the past 25 years and the attitude that you should give away your time and hard work for free as become very toxic to me. I am currently without income, so I'm working on that too. I wish you the best in however you decide to take things.

btw very interesting thread (I'm still reading thru it).

#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=1071x1920&blurhash=%5DNJkQIt5E0j%5DM_k9WCj%5Bj%5BfR00az%25Noexvf9juj%3FWCoe%5E-odInWVNFovWCj%5BodWCM%7Bj%5BoMayoMV%7Boej%3FWCoeM_ays%3BoLoM&x=7c8b723b664918896ddc35bc0acc07b3a137f4e2e594142aaff3beae1ad0b75a

This will be interesting to watch, but I think we are still way too early for this to be sustainable. The bigger problem isn’t willing contributors, it’s the size of the network. If we had 100 million active users on #nostr, this might be a different proposition with a very different result.

I’ll definitely check it out though and wish you luck on being an earlier pioneer for this 🫡

I understand. "We" consumers should make ourselves aware that v4v creators will be leaving unless they can afford to stay. A 2 sat zap is just testing the lightning network - so perhaps cool for the network operators but actually pretty cheap on the content creators. On the other it would help me to get some guidelines on what I should shoulder to make you stay.

it will never work. you're trying to run a business on tips

Perhaps some type of subscription helps you receive more value

Rooting for you, will do my part to support 😊

Is your content on flare.pub ?

Do you measure it?

I mean if you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

It’s also a case of V4V being nascent as fuck. Wait until an order of magnitude more plebs are here. It’ll work, hard.

I don’t think it works but I could be wrong

With smaller numbers it can be a challenge, as adoption grows it will get better. But it's going to take time, not sure about the next year, but we could be surprised.

People need to be reminded that you are V4V so they're more inclined to think about it and give V4V.

Many people still have no idea what it is; at this point they just assume money is coming in somehow (ads usually)... gotta break them free of that. Best of luck!

I have an 80/20 rule for this model

20% revenue - V4V

80% revenue - providing service in the same field.

I am a content creator on Nostr but the audience is not so big currently and people are not much aware of V4V.

So it's a passion project for now.

But

Some plebs and profiles need content but don't have time.

I provide my research and writing service in return for Sats.

This way is more suitable for now than V4V. ( also sustainable)

I suggest the same thing to you.

Your research skills, scripting skills, and editing skills are top-notch.

You can do 3 things.

1. Provide research reports to investment firms who invest in Bitcoin and projects.

( 10-20 M Sats for one country report)

2. Provide your template and scripting strategy to channels that cover the Bitcoin topic. ( Saw many bitcoin documents with okay/bad scripting)

( 5M Sats for 10 scripts)

3. Your YouTube and editing service for Bitcoin projects that need PR and attention.

( 5M Sats for 5 videos )

These are just ideas, I know you can do better than this.

@Max DeMarco

Just imagine

It's 2025, You have 200k followers on #nostr

#nostr have the bandwidth to post full 40-minute videos.

Don't need to add QR or something

Your average video view is around 300k-1M

Every video generates 3M-5M sats.

( $100k - 1BTC )

No one controls your revenue or strikes any copyright to hurt monetization.

You are changing thousands of lives with your content.

Peace 🕊️ everywhere.

V4V is just tipping. Tipping is not a valid business model. People will never voluntarily tip you the value you expect because people have a hard time assessing absolute values of things on their own on the spot, they are better at seeing a price and then making a binary yes/no decision about whether the value justifies the price--YOU have to set the price. It is hopeful to think that you can sustain yourself with the generosity of plebs, and in some communities charity and generosity does sustain people (e.g. the church), but I think in this case it is unrealistic to rely on the generosity of random people on the internet

For me, making art is not a hobby, not a pastime, not a job, not a business.

It is a way of life that makes me happy.

If it makes you happy too, you can think about enhancing me with some sats.

Or by buying my paintings.

Or not.

Admiring my art is free.

Admiring and owning a piece of my life is not.

nostr:nevent1qqsfh8x3j2088afpy59k75azrdedcl0ecp8pdggwfp5d3ql7pnd4r6qprfmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuargv4ekzmt9vdshgtnfduhsyg870a4udaen3dmth7qdksp2meje203qkteruehgnqsykc7vgffe5vpsgqqqqqqs8v9ze4