Incentivizing proper domain use is one way to add value to the LEO token, and it can be done by other communities also.
Cover image made using SVG, with light edits made using MS Paint
TL;DR
- What We Talk about...
- ... Not So Much
- Monetizing the Token
- Optimizing Traffic
- Personal Domains
- A Possible Solution
- Another Benefit To Publishing at LeoFinance First
- What about Pre-LeoFinance Content?
- What To Do about Images
- Just My Two Sats
What We Talk about...
We talk about adding value in the sense of publishing posts or leaving comments which help people solve a problem, learn something new, or bring them a laugh. Their lives had been improved by our content, and that is adding value to the experience of the reader.
We also talk about adding value on the platform level. Periodically we see many posts about Hive Power Up Day and, since Summer 2022, Leo Power Up Day. We also see posts about how to increase search engine traffic by optimizing our content for better SEO.
We even talk about adding value directly to LEO, the native token of the LeoFinance community. Yes, we earn or buy LEO, and then stake that LEO. Some of us add liquidity to diesel pools featuring LEO. We even occasionally talk about new sources of revenue such as ads and fee distribution from the Multi-Token Bridge.
... Not So Much
Not talked about as much, but just as important as all of the above, is adding value to the LEO token by incentivizing proper actions. If we do things right, the benefits will naturally follow. If we do things wrong, then we can't be surprised when people stop showing up.
In this case, it's not about penalizing shitposting or improper downvoting or airing dirty laundry in public. It's about prioritizing our own community even as we cooperate and interact with other communities.
This is true whether your community is LeoFinance, Proof of Brain, CineTV, SportsTalkSocial, or any other which has its own token. I'll use LeoFinance here.
Monetizing the Token
@forexbrokr first raised the issue in his post titled "Is the concept of ‘valuable content’ subjective?" on 2023-January-12. His main point is that no tribe or community monetizes its content, and that's a recipe for driving the token price to 0.000:
If your community is paying you for content by printing a token, but doesn’t monetise that content, then I’m sorry.
Your token is going to zero.
(EN-AU in original)
Optimizing Traffic
Part of monetizing content is driving traffic to the domain you own. In this case, it's driving traffic to the domain owned by, well, ownership. @forexbrokr was writing about LeoFinance specifically, but it holds true for all other tribes and communities.
We could publish a post which gets 789 upvotes adding to 1000 HBD (which would be awesome!), but that doesn't help the domain if traffic is sent to safe67corvette.jack instead. Even if we do everything else right when it comes to SEO, it's done for nothing if traffic goes to domains we don't own
Personal Domains
Many of us have our own web sites. Mine is condemned, but not demolished; in my case, I'm rebuilding the foundation so I can place my own content on it.
Content I published at Hive and at LeoFinance.
As much as I want to promote my own domain, my situation would be improved if I promote leofinance.io over my own domain.
LeoFinance can give me a springboard for directing traffic to my own domain later. More importanly, LeoFinance gives me the opportunity to earn from tokenized blogging.
A Possible Solution
Just as high-profile personalities have deals to debut all new content at certain domains, I can publish new content at leofinance.io and after some time period repost at my own domain. I figure one month would be enough time for the search engines to pick up the leofinance.io domain and move it closer to Page 1 of the search engine results page.
This way I can use LeoFinance as a vehicle for commenting on the original version of the post while the version at my own domain is formatted in ways not possible at LeoFiannce. I can also encourage visitors who want to comment to do so at LeoFinance after they sign up for a Hive account.
Because I'm deferring presentation at my own domain to prioritize publishing at leofinance.io, I'm doing more to drive traffic to LeoFiannce and therefore doing more to add value to the LEO token. When the content is monetized this way, I benefit from it as well as everyone else.
If I went with my own domain first, on the other hand, I may do well. But that success comes at the expense of my fellow Hivers and Leos. If I wanted that outcome, I would have left Hive long ago.
Another Benefit To Publishing at LeoFinance First
If I publish my content first at LeoFinance, then the canonical domain leofinance.io will be added to the page generated by the LeoFinance content management system (CMS). Even if I reposted that content on my personal domain, I would keep leofinance.io as the canonical domain. This way search engines can rank leofinance.io higher than my own domain.
That has to be good for LeoFiannce, right?
What about Pre-LeoFinance Content?
Whenever I can, I link to earlier posts I've published. A few of these posts pre-date my first post at LeoFinance.
If I continue to link back to those posts, I am promoting a domain which is neither leofinance.io nor my own. That doesn't help us.
What am I to do? Enough time has passed that I can rewrite those posts to updated versions before I publish them at LeoFinance. These newer posts will apply SEO knowledge I had gained from my experience at LeoFinance. This way the updated posts get leofinance.io as the canonical domain and I can backlink to these posts going forward.
What To Do about Images
As I was composing this post @forexbrokr had informed me that domains used by images don't have much of an impact on post SEO and therefore traffic to the leofinance.io domain.
Many of us host images at one of the Hive domains. If we use LeoThreads to include an image in a thread, uploading that image sends it to imgur.com rather than to leofinance.io or one of the other Hive domains.
If the goal is to generate valuable content for the leofinance.io domain, and therefore the LEO token, there may be two additional ways to do that:
- Native image hosting;
- URL shortening powered by LeoFinance.
Native image hosting sounds great. It's also resource intensive. More resources means additional overhead and other expenses. If native image hosting makes sense for LeoFinance, it will be done. However, I understand if this option shouldn't be pursued.
A related workaround would be to use a LeoFinance-hosted URL shortener. I'm thinking that when the search engines pick up the leofinance.io domain for the images that it would add to LeoFinance's domain authority by some measure. So https://leofinance.io/img/2023011400372436.png redirects image to https://venndiagramsalad.bus/images/z;skj5028cn087u252=OHUz9_~Z.png.
Again, if image location isn't much of a factor for driving domain traffic, then it's not much of a concern. I was just trying to come up with a solution.
Just My Two Sats
Occasionally @forexbrokr raises the point about what can be done to add value to the LEO token. On matters like this, I defer to his experience and knowledge. I just wanted to comment on a couple of points in his post. Anyone who has actively followed me for even a short time knows how I can get with comments. That's why I published this post.
We often discuss adding value to LeoFinance. These posts and discussions usually take place at a higher level, such as engaging more and posting high-quality content. Sometimes these discussions focus on tactics such as improving SEO via evergreen content. Once in a while, we get down to brass tacks as try to figure out how to add value to the LEO token itself.
It's been said that to get more of something, we should incentivize that thing. In this case, we're talking about driving traffic to the leofinance.io domain. Combined with a new ad revenue model, additional traffic can lead to greater ad revenues. This additional revenue can lead not just to extra LEO in our wallets but also to buying excess LEO to be burned, thus controlling inflation and making the LEO token more valuable.
Improved SEO on our content helps drive traffic to LeoFinance. One way to improve SEO is to apply a new coat of paint to our older content. In my case, I have content so old it pre-dates my first post at LeoFinance. So I can rewrite the post so that it's new for LeoFinance. The new post will pick up the leofinance.io domain when search engines find it.
Rather than post content to my own (dormant) web site, I can publish it at LeoFinance first and keep it exclusive for at least 30 days. After search engines have enough time to pick up the domain, then I can post the content on my own web site (after I rebuild it).
Although image location doesn't have much impact on a page's SEO, I thought it was still good to consider ways to bring images under the leofinance.io domain. Native hosting would be great, but it depends just as much on money as it does on storage. A URL shortener hosted at leofinance.io could be used to point to images stored elsewhere; it's ownership's call whether it makes sense to have such a service here.
What else can we do to add value to the LEO token? How can other tribes and communities do likewise for their own tokens?
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