LearnZenon Funding Proposal Draft: Feedback Requested

[LearnZenon]

Project Name:

LearnZenon

Description:

• LearnZenon team will focus on creating educational content for the new users and existing #ZNNAliens.
• Benefits of the content would be a well-informed and updated Zenon community. A community which can easily promote and expand itself with the provided resources.
• We plan to push educational tweet-threads and medium blogs on regular basis.
• LearnZenon has already provided a 1 month free demo of quality of the content that will be created for the Zenon community.

URL:

https://forum2.zenon.org/t/learnzenon-funding-proposal-draft-feedback-requested/921

Team:

Previously worked on the THORNOOB initiative ( a 3rd party creating blogs and recaps for the THORChain ecosystem ).

THORNOOB Q4 Stats: THORNOOB Q4 Stats - Google Slides

Note: This is added for reference purpose only after a request from a community member. Guarantee of same engagement can’t be given because of various factors involved.

Phases

What is your high-level roadmap?

Our current high-level objective is to create enough base material for easy-onboarding in the Zenon Network, and to keep them engaged and well-informed with the Bi-Weekly Updates.

Internal Structure:

Tools:

• We are currently migrating to Notion to:

  • Store Resources: Store any relevant document, resource or information at one place.
  • Brainstorm Content Ideas: A place where content ideas will be extracted from the available resources or from any new information.
  • Maintain a Content Calendar: A content calendar with a Target of at least 2 posts every week.

• We are also using an internal Trello Board for our graphic designer. Useful in assigning tasks, checking progress and keeping a list of done tasks.

Note: Currently using a free version of these tools.

• We also plan to use Zenon.Org’s trackable links in all our content to capture important data like “conversion rates”.

Verification of Content:

• Currently we use the Zenon Telegram channel to discuss or confirm any doubt, but we will also be taking the help of various Zenon OGs soon for this (and on other fronts).

Performance Tracking:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je_sl8YTjoU&t=0s

We can only provide CPM and CTR data from twitter analytics at the moment. Will work with Zenon.Org to capture CVR and CPA data (i.e., focus on the bottom of funnel).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMlwttUGr8M&feature=youtu.be

Twitter Analytics data for July month (no paid advertisement yet):

Processes:

After creating a list of content ideas and inserting them in the content calendar (usually covering 2 weeks), the following steps are taken:

Pre-Tweet:

1. Content Creation: Create the first content draft and put it up for review.
2. Review Content: Review and confirm the authenticity of the content and push it to “approved” once done.
3. Graphic Creation: Forward the content topic to the graphic designer for an image to go with the blog/tweet (2 days before the expected release date).
4. Promotion: Inform about the upcoming content so that the community is ready and we get the maximum engagement possible once published.

During Tweeting:

1. Graphic and Tagging: Attach the graphic image at the top and tag the relevant accounts for the highest engagement on the tweet.
2. Hashtags: Use the well-known Zenon hashtags to get more visibility. [ Common ones: #ZenonAliens #TheAliensKnow #NoM #Hyperspace #AcceleratorZ #DAO $ZNN $QSR ]
3. CTA: A call-to-action to either follow a social account or to do a particular task mentioned in the tweet thread.

Note: Use trackable links wherever possible to gather data.

Post-Tweet:

1. Promotion: Promote the content on other platforms like Zenon Telegram channels, Own Telegram Announcement Channel, Zenon Reddit, Zenon Discord and Zenon Forum (based on relevance of content).
2. Advertisement: Use twitter ads to target a wider community (but also using filters for example relevant hashtags, demographics to follow twitter guidelines etc). Also use twitter ads to “re-target” the engagers for certain posts (Eg: Bi-Weekly Recaps).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Ju0yhijE0

3. Interaction: Push the created content on relevant conversations happening in the above mentioned social channels and in the wider (but filtered) conversations. Based on relevance, direct those users to the content to get them informed and also to get more engagement. [ To be done on regular basis (preferably trending topics). Targeting at least 3 times a week ]

High-Level Outbound Interaction Overview

Note: Our expertise is in content creation. We will be looking for community members with digital marketing and graphic designing skills to assist us in data tracking and repurposing of content.

Phase 1 (2 months)

High level overview of main tasks:

• Creation and publishment of basic educational materials, interesting facts or progress updates.
• Creation and publishment of bi-weekly recaps.
• Organizing and pushing Zenon monthly AMA recap.
• Zenon monthly network stats report.

Completion of Phase 1 will be measured by:

• Delivery of 8 educational posts
• Delivery of 4 bi-weekly updates
• Delivery of 2 monthly AMA recaps.
• Delivery of 2 monthly network stats reports.

Note 1: For the monthly AMA recaps, we will gather the questions from the community through a twitter/telegram post → compile them → answer the ones we can and take help from Zenon OGs for the others.

Note 2: CPM and CTR data can be provided in phase 1. For the CVR and CPA data, we will need few things to happen:

• Zenon.Org to go live
• Access to Zenon.Network website data
• Syrious wallet to implement analytic tools in their wallet

Assuming this will happen in next 2 months, we should be able to provide CVR and CPA data in Phase 2.

Phase 2 (2 months)

High level overview of main tasks:

• Embedding of trackable links in all content we push.
• Creation and publishment of basic educational materials, interesting facts or progress updates.
• Creation and publishment of bi-weekly recaps.
• Organizing and pushing Zenon monthly AMA recap.
• Zenon Monthly network stats report.

Completion of Phase 2 will be measured by:

• A dashboard or excel sheet with enough data including data like “conversion rates”
• Delivery of 8 educational posts
• Delivery of 4 bi-weekly updates
• Delivery of 2 monthly AMA recaps.
• Delivery of 2 monthly network stats reports.

Funding

Total Requested Funding = $4500 per month (i.e. 2250 ZNN per month)
Project Duration = 2 months

Note: We are seeking a long-term collaboration with the Zenon Network. It’s only that right now we have shared our vision for the next 4 months.
Further, we have divided it into 2 phases of 2 months each. The reasons are:

• We want the community to evaluate our work for these two months first and then hire us for the future months.

• We will bring a more updated plan for the phase 2 that would aim to resolve any/all shortcomings of the 1st phase along with a more detailed analysis of our work’s worth!

This process will continue to take place even after these two months as we will keep sharing an enhanced proposal at regular intervals showing our long-term commitment!

How did you calculate your budget?

Budget Reference:

THORNOOB was offered $10K per month in Q4 2021. In previous quarter it was reduced to $5K per month considering the market situation.

THORChain team liked our initiative and the content we pushed. Budget was valued based on the quality and consistency of content.

We have used the same budget assessment to propose this budget to Zenon Network. Though we will also use “conversion rate” metrics here to gather, track and present more data to the pillars.

$ZNN price during proposal submission: $2

Project and Payment Milestones:

Phase 1 Funding Request: 100% (4500 ZNN)

• Duration: 2 months

Phase 2 Funding Request: To be asked after successful completion of Phase 1.

• Duration: 2 months

[cryptocheshire]

I strongly advise OP to revise the proposal or to Pillars to reject it and here’s why:

4500 ZNN to get paid for a few tweets with recycled content and no relevant tracking or success metrics whatsoever.

This looks like another attempt to get paid for non-original content without any commitment to deliverables that actually matter: traffic + conversions. The excuse being that you cant track those things because you depend on Zenon.Org and tracking withing the syrius wallet has not been added yet by other community members - why not wait until that is the case or work on it yourselves before asking to get paid just to disseminate content?

You show that you’re only interested in getting paid rather than actually delivering value by asking for a big payday all at once without presenting a plan on how you will find out how your content will actually drive traffic to zenon in the first place.

CPM and CTR are useless without tangible conversion metrics.

If you were serious about delivering value you would structure your proposal in smaller batches where the next one is unlocked only once you are able to show how your content provably creates traffic in terms of wZNN buys, wallet downloads etc.

Admittedly, you packaged it well by pretending to adhere to @mehowbrainz guidelines but you willingly ignored the fundamental gaps we repeatedly pointed out when you asked for our feedback.

[cryptocheshire]

Also, @LearnZenon has 96 followers. Pillars are literally asked to pay >4k ZNN for tweets by a Twitter account whose only followers are a few Zenon bagholders.

[LearnZenon]

Hey @cryptocheshire ,
We do appreciate your feedback on this.

As we mentioned in our proposal, we are facing some blockers in the newly created marketing guidelines (which you also pointed out) thus we weren’t able to adhere 100% to it. This was also repeatedly brought up to you in DMs but we received no response.

• CPM and CTR data aren’t useless as it targets the top of the funnel. There will still be crypto enthusiasts who will go down the funnel but we can’t track them due to blockers mentioned.
  Please watch the videos attached in the forum to understand the importance of CPM and CTR, one video being: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMlwttUGr8M

• Another thing we have mentioned in the post is that we will target to provide bottom funnel data in Phase 2. This proposal is out to know if the pillars would be up to vote for Phase 1 funding with CPM, CTR data and the educational content we will push targeting both current ZNNAliens and the wider crypto enthusiasts.

Also, the content we created is aimed to allow even a beginner in crypto to understand and grow their knowledge. As we all know, the Zenon Network’s architecture is not that easy to grasp and the information already available is highly scattered which is a major drawback at present. LearnZenon will be the ultimate one-stop platform for the easiest access to all information on Zenon Network.

• Lastly, we can predict that your vote would be a negative when we officially post it on-chain. We do value your opinion and thus will accept it.
  But degrading approach to our efforts is not what we would prefer from a vocal #ZenonAlien. We are here for a healthy discussion and would like the same from the Zenon OGs, even if something is not happening as per their preference.

Our new initiatives: Bi-Weekly Recaps, Monthly Network Stats, Monthly AMA Recaps; are original ideas which were not in existence before. Moreover, the educational threads pushed by us are being drafted according to a theme that clarifies a certain topic for the day in an easy-to-understand manner which wasn’t done prior to this.
In addition, we also push original graphics to make more content more appealing and engaging.

This forum has some guidelines to follow: https://forum2.zenon.org/t/draft-terms-of-service-and-code-of-conduct/542
Your offensive and degrading approach to our efforts disobeys two rules:

1. Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
2. Always be Civil

We request you to not use words like “recycled content, non-original content, only interested in getting paid without actually delivering value” to slander our efforts. And would request the forum moderators to please enforce the forum rules in this thread. cc @Sigli @romeo @SugoiBTC @DrD3 @0x3639

[mehowbrainz]

@LearnZenon I do not support this initiative. I provided critical feedback privately and via guidelines, and no major changes were implemented. I understand that we collaborated at THORChain, however I cannot advise pillars to vote for a proposal which isn’t whole and is missing a ton of components to deliver value back to the network. We’re too early at Zenon to gamble away large sums of funds. I will take the time to critique all components of your proposal in order to give useful insights that could help you adjust towards a stronger approach.

Pillars: read between the lines between the value of ecosystem updates vs a sample provided here (which can be attained): https://forum2.zenon.org/t/performance-marketing-proposal-guidelines/918

It’s kinda upsetting to see you omit most of my feedback / guidelines. I felt you were racing to publish this after my feedback, and hence why I posted the guidelines as I foresaw this. I’m looking out for the best interest of the network. Hopefully you don’t take it in the wrong way and understand that I’m always here to help, willing to collaborate with any marketer to develop strong proposals. I understand that this is a draft, but my recommendation is to withdraw, and go back to the drawing board. Will be posting a detailed critique in the next few hours.

[mehowbrainz]

@LearnZenon

We request you to not use words like “recycled content, non-original content, only interested in getting paid without actually delivering value” to slander our efforts. And would request the forum moderators to please enforce the forum rules in this thread. cc @Sigli @romeo @SugoiBTC @DrD3 @0x3639

Dude that’s not slander, this is the same issue as crypto culture, it doesn’t prove that value could be delivered. Instead of blaming that you don’t have tracking capabilities yet, you should be working with community to develop those tools, or wait for Zenon.Org + attribute – or propose a goal that you can attain with your own tracking solutions (it’s not an impossible feat). It can’t be “ah well it doesn’t exist, so please pay me because I don’t have time to wait for others to develop those things”. It’s like if I asked to be paid to develop a zApp today without smart contracts being here.

[cryptocheshire]

To any Pillar reading this, please be aware that approving for proposals with this kind of mindset sets a precedent that will potentially massively discourage any legitimate applicants to submit projects that could actually be generating value for Zenon.

AZ is not a free for all and at these prices, we should all aim for the highest possible standards.

Regurgitating some non-original content tweets with an account that has no following is not remotely worth as much as a mobile app.

Respect those who put in actual work.

[cryptocheshire]

@LearnZenon

Also, the content we created is aimed to allow even a beginner in crypto to understand and grow their knowledge.

Beginners aren’t our target segment - devs are, in case you forgot.

What I understand is that it allows you to put in the least amount of work because anyone can create tweets with noob-level content. Asking to get paid for this without any conditional success metrics is an insult to anyone taking AZ seriously.

[ToKR]

Is this the same group that already had a proposal for creation of animation etc? Seems to me that there is some overlap there in terms of the learning requiring the creation of similar or identical content.
Also, 2 months? I would like to support longer term projects that will be ongoing for at least a couple of years.
More specifics would be appreciated and would also help avoid the situation where a proposal is approved but not later funded due to misunderstandings related to goals of a given project.

That said, I certainly do see a need for updating and adding to the educational info that is out there regarding Zenon. In my view waiting to get the word out until the project is more mature is also short sighted because increasing awareness might increase perceived value making AZ funds go further.

Also, I appreciate the “noob content”. Nothing turns off a potential investor faster than a feeling that they are in over their heads.

I strongly support this type of initiative but would probably vote no to the current form of this one.

[mehowbrainz]

I’m doing this with an intent to help you develop a stronger proposal, perhaps with better value for the network at such an early stage:

Goal: I do not believe that educating an existing an aware community is a strong enough goal (and also likely not prioritized atm, especially at such rates). We’re really interested in “new users”, though you don’t define which one you will focus on. Is it new developers for specific needs? Is it new delegators? Is it new liquidity providers? Every single one of these can have its own strategy. By not defining a concrete goal, you aim too broadly and your strategy won’t be targeted to anything specific. You also can’t do them all, every goal I listed in my guidelines could have its own channel-based campaign / proposal. Performance marketers look to snipe targets.

Strategy:

Your strategy is to post content on a regular basis using your Twitter handle + Medium blog, since a concrete goal isn’t defined, you actually can’t really distribute properly since you don’t know who you’re fitting the content-for. “Noobs” means nothing. All newcomers are noobs technically, whether they’re developers or investors. But as I mentioned privately to you: if you know that you’re aiming for developers for solving specific goals, you then know what content to listen-for in various channels, and strategically formulate copy in a way which creates relevance to your content (whether it’s a tweet/recap, which can then lead the traffic down a path that’ll engage them into the network. I understand that Zenon.Org + Attribute systems will be helpful for your venture, though I forecast that broad content without specific goals highlighted in the section above, won’t yield much value/conversion for the budget requested. I also don’t see a sign that you experimented with tweet-listening tooling to help you achieve your “interaction” objectives. What would you be listening-for anyways, you don’t have specific targets in mind? i.e. what hashtags/keywords would you be listening-for to identify the high-traffic threads? I was hoping that instead of rushing a draft proposal, you would take the time to research all these new notions I shared with you privately, and experiment with them to build a strong strategy…

Key Performance Indicators:

CPM and CTR don’t tell us much when it comes to performance down the line. I get it, we’ll get metrics about your Tweets, but we won’t know what happens post engagement. You also didn’t define a link-tracking strategy, which means that if you link content to a specific site from your Tweets, we won’t know which Tweet drove the most clicks to your link. Twitter only gives you insights on “Engagements” which are defined as “Total number of times a user has interacted with a Tweet. This includes all clicks anywhere on the Tweet (including hashtags, links, avatar, username, and Tweet expansion), retweets, replies, follows, and likes.” — so not only link clicks, which would skew your data.

I appreciate the willingness to use Zenon.Org systems when they roll out. Though I still think that your goals/strategy will change once you realize that you can attain more value/conversions if you refine proposals to be more targeted. The more you understand the sample proposal shared in my guidelines, the more you’ll see that a snipe approach likely will yield more performant metrics / value for the network.

Duration: I don’t think a duration should be defined given that some tooling isn’t available yet.

Reporting: I guess you’d be able to show a report of Tweet impressions + engagements. But that’s all for now.

Budget: The proper comparison to THORChain would’ve been: “When THORChain had a $14M market cap (2019), I was being paid $X”. Like I advised you privately and in the guidelines, for marketing proposals its best to start small until you can prove value for the cost spent. That being said, I don’t think that the network should be spending such sums on the goals you defined. Perhaps a much smaller amount yes, though you’d have to rework the goal + strategy + KPI’s in order to have a viable proposal.

Value Summary: If this proposal was submitted, it would essentially ask the network to pay for recaps/content which don’t clearly define a concrete goal, strategy for reach, impactful KPI’s — while pushing the risk to the network since no tracking systems are available/published yet.

I believe you have some homework, though with effort I think you can figure it out. I’ll be spending most of my time on Zenon.Org + Attribute from now, spent too much on advice which doesn’t seem to have been explored properly yet.

[LearnZenon]

Hey @ToKR
To answer your queries:

1. No we aren’t associated with Crypto Culture / TheAliens Academy. We are a separate team with experience on the https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs initiative.

2. We are seeking a long-term collaboration with the Zenon Network. It’s only that right now we have shared our vision for the next 4 months.
   Further, we have divided it into 2 phases of 2 months each. The reasons are:

• We want the community to evaluate our work for these two months first and then hire us for the future months.
• We will bring a more updated plan for the phase 2 that would aim to resolve any/all shortcomings of the 1st phase along with a more detailed analysis of our work’s worth!

This process will continue to take place even after these two months as we will keep sharing an enhanced proposal at regular intervals showing our long-term commitment!

3. We have attached the deliverables under Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the forum post above.
   
   

Let us know if you have any more questions. We would be happy to clear any of your other query!

[mehowbrainz]

Why did you remove the voting poll from your original post @LearnZenon? What were the votes at when you removed it?

[LearnZenon]

After internal discussion, we have to come to a decision to withdraw our proposal.

The present conditions at Zenon Network are not favourable for a marketing/educational initiative to enter:

• The proposed marketing guidelines heavily relies on Zenon.Org to go live. We can’t proceed as the deadline for it to go live is uncertain.

We are truly thankful to the members who appreciated our work during the last month. Unfortunately couple of community members didn’t find any value in our work. The rejection of 2 vocal zenon aliens turned the table upside down when we have been receiving only positive feedback on our past months’ work. Going against their will would not be the right thing as we wanted to contribute together in a cordial work environment.

Maybe conditions get better with time. Right now, we find it in our best interests to withdraw from the proposal. Thank you for your time.

[mehowbrainz]

The guidelines don’t rely on Zenon.Org going live, the sample was… a sample. Anyone can develop their own tracking strategy (I think I may have mentioned that somewhere).

You did get praise for ecosystem updates, though it wasn’t clear that it would be the only thing that would be proposed for the cost.

I provided private feedback ahead of time, hoping that you’d improve your strategy. The desire for collaboration was there. We’ve been supporting your intent to add value to the network from the start. It just seemed like you didn’t want to take objective advice to deliver strategic value that’s provable like we keep mentioning for weeks to all marketing-related proposals. It seems like the experience/deliverables was a mismatch for current needs.