JANUARY 10, 2023

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

Today’s click: Ready to rise to these challenges?

full tilt

Our Creator Coin Experiment

I have a confession to make.

We built the $TILT coin Web3 model on rented land.

Yes, me, Joe Pulizzi, the one who speaks at conferences all over the world telling content creators and brands not to build their audiences solely on social media or other “rented” platforms.

In 2020, I learned about the power of the token – a creator with scarce assets can build and at the same time give property rights to their audience or community.

I saw Web3 as the ultimate in community-building. I wondered:

Could both the creator’s business AND its fan base be financially rewarded as the community grew?
Are social tokens just a rewards program or could they be the engine of a content business model?

In March 2021, we launched $TILT coin. Thousands of subscribers actively shared this newsletter and received $TILT coin for their efforts. Our community used it to buy merchandise, access courses, and join exclusive groups on our Discord channel.

In less than a year, we had over 1,500 token holders. Our token price, which started at a few pennies, rose up to $50 USD value per token.

Our “lease” worked well for 18 months. We became the No. 1 social token by coin supply and support volume on the Rally.io network for a year running, thanks to The Tilt community, who supported the experiment.

Then, the landlord faced problems it couldn’t fix. And now, in January 2023, we let everyone in the TILT community know that $TILT coin was to be no more.

Why did we build on rented land? We saw $TILT coin as an opportunity to dip our toes into Web3 – after all, we couldn’t very well talk about it to our audience of creators if we didn’t have some stake in the game.

But as early adopters, we didn’t believe we could go it alone. We believed we needed a third-party platform. But that meant Rally.io had the direct relationship with the coin holders. We didn’t have a way to communicate directly with them. Any changes made to the platform were out of our control. (Yes, it was really Web 2.0.)

We thought that concession would be OK. After all, we had the email addresses of our newsletter subscribers – and they had been given $TILT coin for subscribing as well as referring. So we accepted that we wouldn’t know who purchased $TILT coin outside our reward system and couldn’t quantify the coins held by any token holder.

Our bet on Rally.io ultimately didn’t work. But the experiment taught us a lot.

First, I will forever be thankful for the opportunity. $TILT coin had over 2.3K coin holders. Almost 1.5K of these holders are active on our Discord channel. Even though the $TILT token is no more, the TILT community, built through the token, will go on.

Second, I’m still extremely bullish on Web3. My belief in the creation of shared assets remains the same. The blockchain is the way to make that happen. For the next project, we will control the contract on the blockchain, so this rented land situation won’t ever happen again.

My sincere thanks to everyone for going with me on this ride.

– Joe Pulizzi

Read Joe’s full article and his letter on what $TILT coin holders should do next.

The Tilt is partnering with Rogue Mogul to bring you the chance to win a FREE all-access ticket to Creator Economy Expo in May (along with one-night hotel stay in Cleveland)!

Be sure to enter today. Winner will be drawn January 25, 2023, at midnight EST.

we stan Emmalynn Cortes Ellendt

Entrepreneur: Emmalynn Cortes Ellendt

Biz: Emma’s Edition and podcast

Tilts: Help people to create in style and help creators grow their brand

Scene: Blog, podcast, Instagram (51K), Facebook (1.9K), LinkedIn (1.6K), Twitter (1.1K), YouTube (366), Pinterest (171)

Snack Bites:

Before she became a full-time content entrepreneur, Emma spent six years in the aerospace industry.
Emma got her first brand deal about three years after she started blogging.
In 2023, Emma plans to rebrand her podcast as The Creative Edition so it better aligns with her primary brand (Emma’s Edition).

Why We Stan: Emma has learned the power of negotiation that a creator has. She didn’t even accept the first offer for her first deal, ending up doubling the first price quoted ($800) to $1.5K plus a $100 gift card.

– Ann Gynn

To learn more about Emma, check out the longer story.

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email [email protected].

things to know

Money

Master on Web3: Mastercard will host a new incubator program to help artists connect through fans using Web3 tools. They’ll learn how to mint NFTs, represent themselves in virtual worlds, and establish a community. (Tech Crunch)
Tilt Take: Building a community using Web3 tools is a powerful opportunity all creators should consider.
Top of the top: 1440, SmartAsset, Adobe, Impact, and Startup Jobs top the newsletter sponsor list in 2022. They make the top five of the top 100 list based on ads run in over 250 newsletters. (Who Sponsors Stuff; h/t Inbox Reads)
Tilt Take: Helpful list for newsletter creators interested in the sponsorship or advertising revenue stream.

Audiences

Reality augmented: Snap sees the use of AR by creators to engage audiences growing. For example, Snapchatters engaged with its Crying Lens more than 9.7B times. (A.list)
Tilt Take: Always think of how new tech and features can help you strengthen or grow your connection with your audience.
Poll subscribers: A poll of her newsletter audience likes and dislikes led her to cut her email lengths drastically, rework subject lines, previews, and email banner text, and A/B test colors and banners. The results? A 30% increase in click-through rates. (Shruti Deshpande)
Tilt Take: Ask your audience for feedback and then use it!

Tech and Tools

Next up: Searchers with a query that will lead to a new query may see a new feature – popular next steps. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Tilt Take: Creators of content that leads to a “next step” should consider amping up its SEO for that content.
ChatGPT bings: Microsoft plans to update its Bing search engine with results from OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. It will answer search queries with complete sentences rather than listing links. (Search Engine Journal; h/t Growth Marketer)
Tilt Take: Bing needs all the help it can get. But we’re wondering how well the results will be attributed to the original creators.

And Finally

Get thee to LinkedIn: Building a personal professional brand with your content works better on LinkedIn than on Twitter. A tweet’s half-life is 15 to 18 minutes and it’s only 280 characters. LinkedIn posts engage audiences for 24 to 48 hours after publishing. (Marketing Brew’s Future Social)
Tilt Take: Consider the life of your content when choosing which platforms to focus your distribution and promotion on.
Phase 3: Phase one – the traditional economy (working for a larger organization). Phase two – the gig economy (independent work tied to a larger organization). Phase three – the creator economy (individuals do not have to work with larger organization). (Venture Beat)
Tilt Take: We like this simple take to explain the economy evolution.

the business of content

Joe discusses what NOT to do with your Web3 project. (Content Inc. podcast)
Joe and Robert discuss the big Apple “leak” this week. (This Old Marketing podcast)
Squarespace empowers entrepreneurs to share their stories and content by creating an impactful, stylish, and easy-to-manage online presence. Enhance your content business. Try it out with your free trial.*
Don’t forget to pay 2022 fourth quarter estimated U.S. tax by this deadline. (Small Business Trends)
What do venture capitalists think about 2023 and say to startups this year? (Geek Weekly)

*The Tilt receives a small commission if readers (at no additional cost) make a purchase using this link.

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the tilt team

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Pam Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony.

Joe Makes a Confession – January 10, 2023