Follow-up on the #Zapvertising experiment!

11 days ago I made a Zapvertising post to promote my Bitcoin novel "Walking Banks" here on Nostr.

Here’s a little update on how it went and if it was worth it:

Short answer: Yes... but not quite in the way I expected.

From a commercial or distribution angle, frankly speaking, it was a disappointment.

I zapped 28.000 Sats. The results 11 days later are: 2 book sales that I can trace back to this experiment, no audiobook sales, and no Sats earned on Fountain streaming. Wavlake stats tells me that 4 people streamed the full audiobook by now so some little interest was there but nobody used sats on Fountain to support it. And just to be clear, I was not expecting big earnings and I am absolutely fine with it. As mentioned in earlier posts, both the audiobook and ebook are free to read or stream for those interested.

But I was honestly hoping that the audiobook/book finds more interest and that the concept might reach further, especially since the book hides a real Bitcoin seed phrase that leads to a wallet with 800,000 sats in it. So in that regard I must admit, these total numbers are disappointing and might reflect that the book and story is not as interesting to people as I had hoped it would be.

However, in terms of reach and response? That’s where it worked.

72 reposts from a pretty diverse bunch of nostriches which is much more than I imagined. Even more important for me: every single comment was kind, encouraging, and genuinely supportive. That meant a lot to me. So thanks to everyone who commented or reposted!

So what I’ve learned about Zapvertising so far:

I'll probably try another round but with a tighter focus. Reposts are great, but it makes a difference whether the reposter has 5 or 5,000 followers. Might look into targeting more precisely, or using a Zapvertising service to dial in the reach.

Still experimenting. Still learning. Still zapping.

And if you’re curious, the treasure is still out there...