The Interledger Community 🌱: Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization

Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization — Final Grant Report

Rashon Massey — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 14:06:39 +0000

Project Update

I DID IT! I can't express how excited I am to share this final grant report because this journey really pushed me to becoming a greater content creator, business owner and advocate for web monetization.

The goal of this grant was to build an entirely new web monetized website on Wordpress, before distributing free Coil trial memberships to my existing MICOPEIA.com customers, as a value proposition for those interested in taking my herbalism workshops and courses. My initial proposal had some lofty ambitions of being able to build an entirely new website THEN figure out a membership service plugin component. Honestly, because of my past experiences with Wordpress, I thought it would be a breeze...but it wasn't.

...and somewhere in those moments of tech frustration that would ebb and flow from June-July this year, I realized something: the goal of my grant is to successfully be an example to other small business owners that web monetization can be a powerful and EASY tool to adopt; however, who am I to expect that every small business owner is proficient enough to build a whole new website BEFORE offering their own value proposition to onboard folks to engage with their Coil-exclusive content?!

I legit realized: "Rashon, this is not practical and/or realistic...AT ALL!"

So I went back to the drawing board to honor the work I'd already been doing on my website and business, to align my efforts alongside the growth of web monetization. I suddenly realized - "I need to make this all make sense for other small business owners, with a specific focus on fellow owners building their stores and communities on Shopify."

This was a major wake up and shifting moment in my journey.

Doing this, I was able to reach out to some developers during the last 45 days of my grant funding, and together, we were able to figure out how to create a courses section RIGHT ON MY OWN EXISTING WEBSITE/STORE/SHOPIFY! This is HUGE because now, my customers/community members don't have to go to an entirely new website and space to access my educational content; rather, everything is ALL IN HOUSE! Now, customers can purchase a workshop and/or course (the first course is available for FREE), and then, I am able to create sections of my courses for BONUS CONTENT that is web monetized!

Some perks of this shift also include the fact that all of the videos through my courses are self-hosted which means that I don't have to upload them on YouTube, keeping them exclusive to my space. Also - this journey forced me to build new friendships and strengthen older alliances.

In researching how to make Shopify compatible with web monetization, I was able to make friends with tech grantees from the XRPL Grant program who are working to facilitate micropayments with Shopify through their grant. Im hoping between linking that team with the developers behind my courses, we'll be able to figure out how to create built in gated sections to my courses that are only accessible by Coil subscription! I also found out that XUMM wallet creator Wietse Wind has hopes to integrate the ILP within the XUMM wallet, and has been trying to work with Shopify on integrating XUMM within the platform. So...we are very close to the cusp of game-changing innovation between web monetization and Shopify...which is MAJOR!

In the meantime, to keep this experiment with a value proposition alive, my dear buddy and amazing soul Adam from gFam (and fellow GFTW grantee) came through with a whole superhero cape on. Now - I will be hosting the bonus web monetized content, in addition to even more exclusive content, on gFam Learn! A new space dedicated for gFam users to share lessons and tutorials, I can make content Coil-exclusive, simply linking my MICOPEIA.com courses directly to my gFam Learn lessons! This means that I can still distribute those free Coil trials to my customers/community members, in order for them to access my bonus content!

Progress on objectives

"To successfully introduce my existing community to web monetization while being an example for other small businesses to look towards, the leading objective in this proposal is to build an entirely new web monetized Wordpress website to host my educational wellness workshops and courses. Then, as a value proposition for customers, offer complimentary free 1-month trial subscriptions to Coil with every purchase they make, thereby introducing them and potentially onboarding them to web monetization via a content creator/small business owner they already know and support."

Amazing things happen when you get out of your own way, and I love going back and reading my initial intentions with this round of grant funding. Sure, things didn't execute exactly how I had planned, but they certainly have worked out much better than I had dreamed of.

I haven't really done a proper announcement that the first FREE course is now available on my website and so far, in the first 24 hours, close to 20 people have already completed it! When I share the news about Coil, bonus content and how they can get free trials...I think we may break the internet.

Throughout October, I will be promoting the new courses section, the MICOPEIA x gFam content partnership (which is web monetization promotion) and distributing those Coil trials.

Key activities

For reference, here were the deliverables that I outlined in my initial proposal:

~~1. Completion of Writing 3 Evergreen Webinars/Courses in Wellness and Herbalism

Completion of the New MICOPEIA Web Monetized Wordpress Website
Acquiring 300, 1-month free trial subscription codes from Coil
Dedicated social media posts/ads marketed towards promoting the new workshops and courses~~
Distributing 1-month free trial Coil subscription codes to customers who make a purchase at MICOPEIA.com
Social media contests seeking followers to nominate a woman or POC to receive a MICOPEIA Care Package that includes a 1-month free trial Coil subscription to access the new web monetized website's content
Completing a 60-day post-project completion report examining how many users renewed their memberships after the 1-month trial

As far as key activities, as stated in my grant progress report, I needed a 30-day extension due to a residence move I had to make towards the beginning of the grant funded period; moreover, with those technical delays I faced after the move, I wasn't able to distribute trial codes or start the social media contests according to my proposed timeline, and now those activities are planned for October! So PLEASE - make sure you're checking me out next month because there's a bunch of conversation about web monetization that will be taking place, as I encourage folk to check out my herbal workshops and bonus content.

Sometime before the end of the year, ideally at the Interledger Summit, I'll share details and data from my post-project completion report so we can see how many of those trial members actually ended up signing up for Coil after the trial ended.

Communications and marketing

I made sure to budget for social media marketing, primarily on my two most active social media channels - TikTok and Instagram.

...and y'all...I AM TAKING OFF!

Like...WOW!

If you've been riding with MICOPEIA since the before and/or the earliest days of Coil, you remember me before I even had a TikTok (which was created during the first round of grant funding in 2020) and my MICOPEIA instagram only had a few hundred followers.

Well, I can't shout it loud enough from the mountain tops that GFTW, Coil and Interledger have changed my life...because with the social media marketing and communications for this grant period, I have gained over 8,000 new Instagram Followers and 20,000 TikTok Followers since I began pushing/boosting posts that promote the new courses! THIS IS SOOOO HUGE! I now have close to 9,000 Followers on Instagram and over 67,000 Followers on TikTok.

You can see my recent videos here on TikTok and Instagram: https://tiktok.com/@micopeia and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/micopeia/ .

What’s next?

Well, I already have 3 completed courses that I am slowly releasing, in an effort to promote Coil user retention (a la _Stick around and renew your Coil membership because a new course is coming next month), and I will be starting to distribute those Coil trials in the next few days!

I am genuinely excited about having completed this whole integrated system of content and business in a way that I can stand on any platform and teach others! My sales have taken off, community engagement is through the roof on social media and people are already taking my classes! I dreamed of this moment a few years back and never could I have imagined it would be a new community and technology that would come along to bring it to fruition...but by golly...I am so incredibly grateful and blessed.

...and y'all! The MICOPEIA community feels it too! They are so excited about this content and opportunities to learn more about investing in themselves, valuing their content and their time online. I even have requests to do a LIVE workshop so I can explain GFTW to my community and how they can get involved! So THANK YOU for truly supporting me to this amazing new level ...in LIFE!

As far as small businesses and content creators using web monetization, I genuinely know that MICOPEIA is just the first example of what's to come, and we are still at the very early stages.

I truly look forward to working more closely with gFam, Coil, GFTW and Interledger to keep advancing what we're doing AND to bring more people into our communities!

What community support would benefit your project?

The first workshop/lesson is already up. Go ahead, sign up, go through it and then get ready for the next one to be released in October. The best part? You're already a Coil subscriber so you'll be able to access the bonus content on gFam with NO issues!

I'll be adding a space to allow for participants to leave course comments and engage with other students in the workshops, AND I'll be hosting Coil-exclusive LIVE workshops on my website (hosted through a private YouTube stream)...so follow me!

Relevant links/resources

http://MICOPEIA.com
https://www.instagram.com/micopeia/
https://tiktok.com/@micopeia
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9XRHpy4fyzU4f9BHmG2QwQ
https://twitter.com/micopeia

Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization — Grant Report #1

Rashon Massey — Wed, 18 May 2022 14:39:49 +0000

Greetings Friends!

Taking some time to tap in about my Grant for the Web funded project - Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization!

This project is building off of a previous funded Grant for the Web project (2020) - Helping Minority Content Creators Monetize on the Web. That project allowed me to use funds to upgrade my own production equipment to produce better online content; moreover, the project also provided resources for me to educate and even onboard other content creators of color into the world of web monetization. By the end of the grant period, I had hosted a couple workshops dedicated to discussing web monetization, showcasing a couple fellow 2020 GftW grantees (Shout out to Pamela J. Alexander and Adam from gFam!) and delivered my most popular workshop to date about web monetization, social media marketing and building your online community (that workshop has been watched over 1,000 times)! Actually - Here is a link to my grant reports for that funded project: https://community.webmonetization.org/hmccmw

This time around, I want to educate and onboard more individuals into our exciting world of web monetization!

You see, I am both a content creator AND small business owner. Since becoming an early supporter of Coil and Web Monetization, I have always been open and eager to explore the ways in which I could comfortably fit myself into the world of advancing the messaging for online micropayments, tipping content creators and bridging gaps between online businesses and their existing/potential customers. As a content creator advocating about the benefits of web monetization, my last funded project saw so much success that I went from not having a TikTok account before it to now having well over 50,000 followers! This is largely attributed towards my first round of funding that made it possible for me to deliver premium quality content, while offering viewers clear ways to engage with me further after watching (whether that be following a link to my web monetized storefront - https://MICOPEIA.com and/or encouraging them to follow me (@micopeia on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube) so that they can participate in my next web monetized workshop and course.

So this project keeps this locomotive going, baby!

By the end of this project, we will have an entirely new web monetized website from MICOPEIA LLC that exclusively hosts my evergreen herbalism workshops and courses. The really cool part is that customers who purchase from MICOPEIA.com will be given free 1-month trial memberships to Coil to then access my exclusive content!

You see, what I'm doing here is offering a value proposition that may potentially further the adoption and education of/around web monetization, simply by meeting and introducing individuals new to the technology on their own terms.

Progress on objectives

To successfully introduce my existing community to web monetization while being an example for other small businesses to look towards, the leading objective in this proposal is to build an entirely new web monetized Wordpress website to host my educational wellness workshops and courses. Then, as a value proposition for customers, offer complimentary free 1-month trial subscriptions to Coil with every purchase they make, thereby introducing them and potentially onboarding them to web monetization via a content creator/small business owner they already know and support.

The past 4 months of this grant period have allowed me to lay the groundwork for the launch of the new website, and while there were some minor adjustments, this project has been rather smooth and extremely exciting to work on.

Key activities

For reference, here are the deliverables that I outlined in my proposal:

Completion of Writing 3 Evergreen Webinars/Courses in Wellness and Herbalism (1 of 3 already completed at the time of writing this proposal)
Completion of the New MICOPEIA Web Monetized Wordpress Website
Purchasing 1-month free trial subscription codes from Coil (approximately 300 total)
Dedicated social media posts/ads marketed towards promoting the new web monetized website
Distributing 1-month free trial Coil subscription codes to customers who make a purchase at MICOPEIA.com
Social media contests seeking followers to nominate a woman or POC to receive a MICOPEIA Care Package that includes a 1-month free trial Coil subscription to access the new web monetized website's content
Completing a 60-day post-project completion report examining how many users renewed their memberships after the 1-month trial

Since the project began, I have both finished writing my courses and workshops, and I even developed my educational content further, to strengthen the pipeline between individuals who discover my brand via social media that also eventually become recurring customers. Seeing how many of the new and existing MICOPEIA social media followers appreciate my short 1-minute wellness hacks, tips and tricks, I decided to start building an ongoing Herb Library just to create and archive this type of content.

Not mentioned above but outlined in my proposal was the need to also grow to a new physical space to record this educational content. I honestly had built my company starting in my parents home in 2016 and grew to small studio spaces in Detroit and Colorado for production work, but to record the materials that I proposed, I needed to find a retail partner that would be open to letting me use their space and/or rent a commercial space with a kitchen; unfortunately, even though I reached out to several small businesses and even looked into commercial spaces, I found that partnering businesses weren't able to help and that the funding I requested for this purpose wasn't enough for 6-month lease options that I was offered (I truly was hoping to find a 2-3 month pop-up lease option or partnership). Being one always open to pivoting for positive change, once I saw that things weren't working out with those plans AND my parents had some health scares working, I decided to just invest further into MICOPEIA and find a much more ideal working situation.

I ended up finding a larger home to move into, dedicating two spaces within the home completely to the production efforts of my small business. In this move, I've been able to completely level up the company, my efforts as a content creator and small business owner and begin recording content for the new website!

(https://community.interledger.org/remoteimages/uploads/articles/pufqkkcbmu2owio2pyox.jpeg)

The only drawback that has come is the time delay of moving MICOPEIA into a new space. Moving took from mid -March through the entire month of April which is not something that I was anticipating, but it was exactly what was needed. The move pushed back the time that I was planning to work on the new website and record content for the website; however, not only was I able to be a good son and move closer to my parents, but I also found a home where I can dedicate taxable space for my business...and it also has 6 raised bed gardens outside allowing me to even expand into educational gardening content.

Since getting things set up in the new spaces, I have been back on my TikTok game @micopeia, recording educational content for the new website and dedicating time to working on the new website!

Communications and marketing

Though there has been a delay, this project clearly has a map to introducing and onboarding individuals into our web monetization ecosystem!

A huge part of that are marketing efforts lead by my existing social media presence. Though I haven't launched the social media contests and posts specifically promoting the new website, since getting set up in the new space, I have been shouting out the fact that I am working on a new website within my most recent TikTok videos and Instagram posts. This has certainly continued to generate interest, sales and open doors to conversations with individuals eager to sign up for my forthcoming workshops! So...minor delays, but we are still cooking! You can see my recent videos here on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@micopeia and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/micopeia/ .

What’s next?

I am going to file a no-cost extension with Grant for the Web explaining further about my 1-month delay, hoping that 30-60 extra days will give me the time to finish the website, recording my initial educational materials and begin distributing the free 1-month trial memberships to Coil. I also would want that extra time because I have a planned post 1-month assessment of my proposal which looks at the retention percentage of individuals who ended up getting a Coil subscription AFTER their trial ended. So the extra days would be rad!

What community support would benefit your project?

FOLLOW ME ON TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter all @micopeia! The more engagement I receive on posts, in theory, the more those platform algorithms will share my content with potentially interested individuals.

Additional comments

BIG THANKS to the Grant for the Web community for really being awesome! From MozFest 2022 to just building new relationships with fellow grantees, this time around, I am having much more fun, and I am really excited to share this new web monetized website with my community. You can even see in the recent comments for my latest TikTok videos that people are ready to learn more about herbalism through MICOPEIA, and I think it's really going to be an onboarding game changer when I share that they can do so with me in my web monetized community...for a few bucks a month (in comparison to others offering similar courses for well over $100!).

Relevant links/resources

http://MICOPEIA.com
https://www.instagram.com/micopeia/
https://tiktok.com/@micopeia
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9XRHpy4fyzU4f9BHmG2QwQ
https://twitter.com/micopeia

Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization — MozFest 2022 Web Monetization Action Plan

Rashon Massey — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 16:04:31 +0000

Project Description

I am very excited to be attending MozFest 2022! As a participant, I am looking to connect with others to discuss the amazing benefits and potentials for both content creators and small business owners to adopt web monetization.

About my Grant for the Web funded project:
Serving as a case study and roadmap for other online small business retailers, this project seeks to use Web Monetization as a vehicle for driving the potentiality of new/existing customers of MICOPEIA.com to exclusive online content, while also opening a pathway to growing a Web Monetized online community.

MICOPEIA is an online wellness brand that relies heavily on education and community engagement in order to sell products. This project will help introduce and engage customers with Web Monetization by building an entirely new Web Monetized website using the Wordpress Coil Web Monetization plugin, to offer evergreen herbalism webinars, educational courses and exclusive content. This project will offer free trial Coil subscriptions to new users to build MICOPEIA’s unique Web Monetized community.

Web Monetized Resources at MozFest

Ways in Which I Am Web Monetizing These Resources

As a content creator and small business owner, the supplemental wellness education that I provide has become both a driver of new customers, as well as a retention tool for active customers in between their purchases. While I am building a completely new web monetized website via Wordpress and the Coil-plugin, I am currently utilizing web monetization on my website (MICOPEIA.com), YouTube channel (@micopeia) and on Cinnamon Video. In time, as a value proposition, customers of MICOPEIA.com will receive free trial memberships to Coil, allowing them access to my new web monetized website; however, for current Coil subscribers, you can visit my existing website, YouTube and Cinnamon channels to engage with the content I have been building thus far.

Copy for a Tweet About My Web Monetized Resources at MozFest

We’re sipping all of the tea & exploring herbal wellness hacks with @GrantForTheWeb grantee & small business @micopeia! This #MozFest, treat yourself to wellness while using #WebMonetization & discover educational content that may help boost your health! HTTPS://www.MICOPEIA.com

I'd Love the Community Support with this Project By ...

I'd love for you to visit my website MICOPEIA.com, and also follow me on any of the social channels listed below!

Let's Stay Connected (optional)

Follow @micopeia on TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram!