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I walked into the primal house the other day in beautiful Uvita, and @paul keating asked me… “If you were in my shoes (growth @ Primal), what would you do to grow Primal and Nostr?” I’ve been thinking about this the last couple days…🤔 Here’s what I got: First off, I feel like the biggest unlock for nostr is recruiting creators with existing audiences on other platforms to come over to nostr. One creator with a massive following could lead to thousands of new nostr users… We’ve seen this happen many times over… Now play that out across hundreds of creators with large audiences - this could have a massive impact. With that being said… 🤔 What’s the best way to recruit creators to the network at scale? 🤔 What’s an absolute no brainer offer to a large creator, something that they couldn’t say no to…? 🤔 Would “recruiting” creators even work? Should all growth here just be organic and natural…? While I was thinking this through, I had to remind myself of a hurdle that we’d need to overcome to make this work: Creators DON’T want another platform. Most are already overwhelmed with the number of apps they need to post on and keep up with… 99.9% aren’t actively looking for “another social media” So… 🧠💭 Here’s the plan 💭🧠 1️⃣ Target a group of top creators on X to recruit to Primal.  We’ll start with Health & Wellness creators since it feels pretty tangential to the existing (primarily bitcoin-focused) network. ChatGPT deep research estimates there are 200,000 health & wellness influencers with over 50,000 followers on X. 2️⃣ Take that list and create nostr accounts for each.  Start auto-populating their accounts with their existing tweets.  Essentially, bridge the X accounts - whenver they post on X it auto-posts to Nostr.

Now, the most critical step is ensuring that these accounts have a way to receive zaps - even before they’re “claimed”.  Sats would accumulate in their wallet until the user “claims” their account. The more zaps they receive, the larger the incentive is to come over to nostr and actually claim their account (more on this soon)… This would tap into into the existing nostr network to “vote with their sats” on who they want to see come over to the network… It crowdsources the growth engine of the network. 📝Side notes/tangential ideas: - Maybe Primal marks these accounts as “unclaimed/unverified” so it’s transparent - After a certain number of days “Unclaimed” wallets get their sats sent back to the sender…? - I’m not technical so idk how any of this would work… just dreaming up over here. Now, let’s talk about setup and execution: 3️⃣ Cold Outbound system setup Build out an email list of all of these creators in step 1. Use a tool like TweetScraper or other email scraping tools. Set up a cold email outreach system using Instantly AI… Spin up a handful of domains and email inboxes - should be able to send 1000s of emails daily. For some extra touch points set up Drippi AI for Twitter DM outreach out scale. Now here’s where it get’s interesting… 4️⃣ The NO BRAINER pitch. Message each creator with a short no brainer pitch… Remember, 99% of creators don’t want another platform to post to… This no brainer pitch is meant to get their foot in the door. We’re not selling the full nostr vision (just yet)… For now, we’re literally just going for the primal app download. The pitch? You have free BTC waiting for you, an audience that’s already growing, and it requires 0 effort to maintain since your account will auto-post from X. Follow up with their updated stats every 14 days. “You gained 197 followers and were zapped 21,538 sats these past 14 days… come claim your account and wallet” This could be done at scale - sending thousands of these emails daily to targeted high profile creators. 5️⃣ is it even worth it…? I had a conversation with @npub1zga0...ppvc and he mentioned that it seems like all marketing efforts to grow primal/nostr are irrelevant and the only thing that moves the needle are big events… Things like: - Twitter banned in Brazil - Telegram CEO arrest - Ross Ulbricht joins nostr (soon 👀) Macro events will likely always be the needle movers… But imagine 100,000 creators already warmed up when the next big wave happens? Lmk what you think 👇🏽 Hoping this sparks other ideas and conversations image

Replies (32)

↩ replying to kyle
@Mike Rama this 👆will use nostr for auth, and then from there will build in native zap.stream streaming and then who knows. Forums, anything but once you have users and its all built on top of nostr, it removes the friction to publishing content versus existing content creation, so not only is it on nostr, creators will share more than they would otherwise. Something ive been thinking a lot about lately!
I have made a python script that makes an account with a custodial lightning wallet, a custom name and profile pic... So big part of that is possible! I have found a way to sync X posts to Nostr but haven't made it yet. The part that I think is hard will be to convince them the email they see is not yet another spam/scam/phishing email... "Come here there is a wallet in your name waiting for you to claim...!" I've heard that one before! 😅 "But this time is for real..!" It's going to be a hard sell but there's always a way... 😜
Since big creators already have their community on other platforms, why not bringing micro and small creators here? Here, they could do what other platforms don’t allow them to, monetize their content. Yes, they will not bring more usage/people at the beginning, but they’ll be part of a more organic grow of nostr and on the long run this could become more beneficial to the protocol.
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Nostr is a decentralized framework which prevents censorship, one of the biggest challenges is that 99.99% of the content people want to post (and do) never even enters the censorship-level conversation. If the key advantage (as I see it) is censorship resistance, nostr does not confer tangible benefit outside of fringe cases of free speech. Thus what dominates the conversation is audience reach, and accessibility, both of which nostr suffers with with lack of clients with strong algorithms and honed in UX that flagship SMs possess. Nostr is just the underlying protocol, if you want to drive real adoption, you need fresh insight into what users and/or creators are looking for at the client level, not the protocol level. Just my 2¢.
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Nostr is a decentralized framework which prevents censorship, one of the biggest challenges is that 99.99% of the content people want to post (and do) never even enters the censorship-level conversation. If the key advantage (as I see it) is censorship resistance, nostr does not confer tangible benefit outside of fringe cases of free speech. Thus what dominates the conversation is audience reach, and accessibility, both of which nostr suffers with with lack of clients with strong algorithms and honed in UX that flagship SMs possess. Nostr is just the underlying protocol, if you want to drive real adoption, you need fresh insight into what users and/or creators are looking for at the client level, not the protocol level. Just my 2¢. View quoted note →
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Brainstorming @primal growth ideas @Mike Rama explored a strategy to recruit Health & Wellness creators by bridging their X content & offering zaps. But I think the real focus should be nurturing the next generation of Nostr-only creators as legacy media fades! Every generation finds its solution from early internet to TikTok, what's next? Even if current influencers resist change, the shift will happen. Let's build for the future! #Nostr only!
Mike Rama's avatar Mike Rama
I walked into the primal house the other day in beautiful Uvita, and @paul keating asked me… “If you were in my shoes (growth @ Primal), what would you do to grow Primal and Nostr?” I’ve been thinking about this the last couple days…🤔 Here’s what I got: First off, I feel like the biggest unlock for nostr is recruiting creators with existing audiences on other platforms to come over to nostr. One creator with a massive following could lead to thousands of new nostr users… We’ve seen this happen many times over… Now play that out across hundreds of creators with large audiences - this could have a massive impact. With that being said… 🤔 What’s the best way to recruit creators to the network at scale? 🤔 What’s an absolute no brainer offer to a large creator, something that they couldn’t say no to…? 🤔 Would “recruiting” creators even work? Should all growth here just be organic and natural…? While I was thinking this through, I had to remind myself of a hurdle that we’d need to overcome to make this work: Creators DON’T want another platform. Most are already overwhelmed with the number of apps they need to post on and keep up with… 99.9% aren’t actively looking for “another social media” So… 🧠💭 Here’s the plan 💭🧠 1️⃣ Target a group of top creators on X to recruit to Primal.  We’ll start with Health & Wellness creators since it feels pretty tangential to the existing (primarily bitcoin-focused) network. ChatGPT deep research estimates there are 200,000 health & wellness influencers with over 50,000 followers on X. 2️⃣ Take that list and create nostr accounts for each.  Start auto-populating their accounts with their existing tweets.  Essentially, bridge the X accounts - whenver they post on X it auto-posts to Nostr.

Now, the most critical step is ensuring that these accounts have a way to receive zaps - even before they’re “claimed”.  Sats would accumulate in their wallet until the user “claims” their account. The more zaps they receive, the larger the incentive is to come over to nostr and actually claim their account (more on this soon)… This would tap into into the existing nostr network to “vote with their sats” on who they want to see come over to the network… It crowdsources the growth engine of the network. 📝Side notes/tangential ideas: - Maybe Primal marks these accounts as “unclaimed/unverified” so it’s transparent - After a certain number of days “Unclaimed” wallets get their sats sent back to the sender…? - I’m not technical so idk how any of this would work… just dreaming up over here. Now, let’s talk about setup and execution: 3️⃣ Cold Outbound system setup Build out an email list of all of these creators in step 1. Use a tool like TweetScraper or other email scraping tools. Set up a cold email outreach system using Instantly AI… Spin up a handful of domains and email inboxes - should be able to send 1000s of emails daily. For some extra touch points set up Drippi AI for Twitter DM outreach out scale. Now here’s where it get’s interesting… 4️⃣ The NO BRAINER pitch. Message each creator with a short no brainer pitch… Remember, 99% of creators don’t want another platform to post to… This no brainer pitch is meant to get their foot in the door. We’re not selling the full nostr vision (just yet)… For now, we’re literally just going for the primal app download. The pitch? You have free BTC waiting for you, an audience that’s already growing, and it requires 0 effort to maintain since your account will auto-post from X. Follow up with their updated stats every 14 days. “You gained 197 followers and were zapped 21,538 sats these past 14 days… come claim your account and wallet” This could be done at scale - sending thousands of these emails daily to targeted high profile creators. 5️⃣ is it even worth it…? I had a conversation with @npub1zga0...ppvc and he mentioned that it seems like all marketing efforts to grow primal/nostr are irrelevant and the only thing that moves the needle are big events… Things like: - Twitter banned in Brazil - Telegram CEO arrest - Ross Ulbricht joins nostr (soon 👀) Macro events will likely always be the needle movers… But imagine 100,000 creators already warmed up when the next big wave happens? Lmk what you think 👇🏽 Hoping this sparks other ideas and conversations image
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Coming back to this to share some thoughts. It’s exciting to see these kinds of conversations happening. Kudos to you and @paul keating and the rest of the Primal team for taking this topic seriously. I’ll start with my overall impression, and then share some bullet points below with more specific feedback. I believe the strategy you outlined leans in the right direction, but it’s also lacking in some very important ways, especially when it comes to understanding the culture on nostr. I think if you tried to do this exactly as you outlined, it would fall flat here because it’s not geared toward nostr culture. At best, it may see a little burst of enthusiasm for a short time from those who are eager to see ANY growth, and then it would fizzle out rather quickly. Every social app/platform, including nostr, has a culture that naturally emerges from its features and the content and interactions it fosters. Understanding “nostr culture” in that context is key to any creator/artist being successful with their content. Nostr doesn’t simply need more content. Nostr needs more creators/artists who will make nostr a key part of their social strategy, who will spend time here interacting BACK AND FORTH WITH other people here. That is how they will bring an existing audience from other platforms, and how they will build rapport with people on nostr who weren’t part of their existing audience. AUTHENTICITY IS KEY. I encourage you and Paul and the Primal team to put a LOT of work and thought into understanding nostr culture as you develop growth strategies. Some specific feedback: - Recruiting and incentivizing creators/artists with existing audiences makes perfect sense. - Don’t automate cross posts, ESPECIALLY without consent from the original creators. Crossposting doesn’t work as well on most platforms anyway, and it completely fails here. It’s inauthentic, and feels empty and spammy. Just don’t do it and don’t encourage it. - Content on other platforms is made to appease that particular algorithm. It won’t necessarily make sense here. Don’t cross post. - I repeat, don’t cross post. - Don’t target large creator accounts. They are established on their existing platforms, and until they get cancelled or demonetized there, they aren’t going to give nostr the attention/time necessary to succeed here. Even if they try nostr out, they end up leaving because they need to give their main platforms attention. We’ve seen this a few times, probably most recently with Ian Carroll. Big entrance. Several of his followers from TikTok/X joined nostr. After about a few weeks they disappeared, along with Ian. - Target small to medium creators/artists who are taking their craft and social activity seriously, but are stagnating on other platforms. They have a receptive audience, but they aren’t able to monetize in any meaningful way there, if at all. Incentivize them to focus most of their social media strategy on nostr. - Nostr is not great for all types of content right now, even though it could be in the future as better tools are built, and we might not know what tools need to be built until more people are using it and the need becomes clear and worth the time it would take to create them. - Zaps are simultaneously one of nostr’s most powerful features, and one of its biggest obstacles. Bitcoin is key to making nostr a truly a global platform for creators/artists, but there is no avoiding the fact that most people don’t use bitcoin as a method of payment. That number is even low among active nostr users, and it is nearly non-existent on the internet at large.
↩ replying to corndalorian
Community building is the key. Focus on building a strong and supportive community for creators on Nostr. Organize events and workshops to educate creators about the platform. Offer a tool that allows creators to easily cross post to Nostr. As a focus area....it will take a while but a strong community will go a long way. IMHO there is no one "culture" on Nostr. It depends on which corner you are looking into. Remember there is no one Nostr....there are some groups you may not be connected to at all.
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↩ replying to corndalorian
Also if a creator coaxes a subset of their audience over to Primal with the hope of that subset zapping the creator's posts then 99% of the newcomers in that subset who do end up purchasing Sats to zap posts are going to purchase them via Apple or Google's in-app purchase. And that means 30% is gone. Considering Patreon's take is 8%, this is a big issue. A small minority will figure out other ways of obtaining Sats as the months go by, but only a small minority, and Apple prevents Primal from being clear about the 30%. (Regardless even for users who do understand it, few are going to go through a 3-day full KYC on Strike and then buy a minimum of $25 worth of Sats and then figure out how to send them over—or obtain Sats via any other way that isn't as easy as the integrated wallet buy.) Primal team would have to be 100% up front with the creator about this—"Look, you're going to lose 30% off the bat..."—and it's hard to see where the conversation goes after that.
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↩ replying to KP 🧡⚡️
There are people from many cultures on nostr, but that’s not what I mean when I say the culture of a platform/network. Regardless your cultural background, there are certain ways of doing things on X, for instance, that work or don’t work for building an audience and interacting with people. This is influenced by the features in the app as well as the algos and content policies that drive the feed and how people respond to and use them. And it’s different than the culture created by TikTok’s algorithm, policies, and features, or YouTube, IG, etc. While you do see people’s different cultural backgrounds coming through in their content and interactions, there is still an underlying common “culture” that emerges within the network itself. On nostr this may differentiate more over time as a wider variety of apps develop, but for now all the main apps people use are basically the same kind of app and content.
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↩ replying to corndalorian
“Nostr needs more creators/artists who will make nostr a key part of their social strategy” - yes. “Nostr doesn’t simply need more content” - I disagree. If I can learn from people who are simply cross posting here, it’s a win. But yes, you can feel it when it’s not content built for Nostr first. A lot to think about. Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. It’s basically what I think about all day and it’s fun to hear many opinions. These are definitely “the good ole days of Nostr”
↩ replying to Garbage nsec
That’s what “social onboarding” and warm introductions provide … a fertile opportunity for zapping “IRL friend” new comers over this initial hurdle. Yes. Minimal friction toward “now you have a wallet” is actually what Primal is doing right. Better tools for “social onboarding” will also help…
ManiMe's avatar ManiMe
Next Steps for 2025 … “Webs of Trust Onboarding and Discovery” - NostrMeetMe (web client) : release MVP “scan my QR anytime for instant and anon DM with me on Nostr”. https://nostrmeet.me/ - GrapeRank Engine (library) : release “export WoT scores to Nostr NIPs and other stuff” for consumption by clients or relays. https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs - MyGrapevine (web client) : release improved “algo dashboard and API endpoints for users to connect their own clients and relays” to GrapeRank configuration and output. https://grapevine.my/ - NostrMeetMe (web client) : release first integration with MyGrapevine, offering “follow and app recommendations for invited users”, customizable per-invite for Nostr advocates. https://nostrmeet.me/ Applying now to @OpenSats and @npub17xvf...c9as Crowdfunding via @Geyser https://geyser.fund/hero/manime 🙏 Please comment below and repost to show (these funds) your support for my projects. #onboarding #websoftrust #wot #grownostr #algos
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↩ replying to paul keating
I don’t fully disagree with your point on cross posting. If a creator makes something for IG and also posts it here themselves, that makes sense, and I don’t think that feels inauthentic at all. A great example of that is Max Demarco sharing his videos here that he’s also posted to youtube. The key is that Max is active and engages with people here in addition to wherever else he posts his content. Nostr needs more of that. What we don’t need is auto-populated or auto-crossposted content, where it’s essentially a bot posting content siphoned off from some other platform, and then the original creator never even interacts here. Even worse if the auto-posted content accepts zaps, because that feels scammy. I’m glad you give this a lot of thought. I believe Primal has so much potential, and am excited to see things continue to grow. In general, nostr/Primal needs to offer something unique that people can’t get elsewhere. Zaps are key to that. Engaging creators who will dedicate some exclusive attention and content here, I think, is the way to go. But as Billy Joel says, “You may be wrong for all i know, but you may be right.” 😂
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↩ replying to corndalorian
I'd rather spend time on Nostr than on other apps to follow people who I actually like. So that's why I'm okay with crossposting. The dream would be for them to recognize the value of Nostr and engage with the audience. Exclusive content here is key. Lyn Alden is a fantastic example. We'll be building, fafoing, & listening. Thanks for the support. and cheers to Billy!
I came to Nostr via Primal with the expectation of "uncensored" posts, which means no algorithm will steer my feed based on my likes. Content-wise, I really have no expectations. I simply need a curated RSS feed of the internet. In this sense, I am content with bots acting as "content creators" and interacting with other users in the comment section (or being notified by its Admin from time to time). I don't think I need big-names content creators or a completely original content here. As such, it would be fantastic if the Primal team created "accounts" to do the above (which we could follow) or if the app itself provided tools that allowed us to do so. #mytwocents