Long before I published my first book I was writing poetry. The act of putting my thoughts and emotions down on paper served as both an outlet and an escape for me.
When I was feeling depressed about my crappy job, yet another rejection slip from a publisher, or still living with my parents writing a poem gave me a sense of accomplishment. Admittedly, for those first few years most of what I wrote was pretty cringe-worthy but I enjoyed it enough to keep trying. After years of practice I eventually got better.
By the time I began offering my bespoke poetry service in 1998 I had been at it for almost a decade. I thought maybe it was time to try to sell some. I used a free WordPress site and a still relatively new thing called the internet to market a personalized poetry service
I didn't know it back in 1998 but there’s this thing called first mover advantage. Little did I know taking that action, at that particular point in time, would one day land me on the first page of Google search results when anyone on Earth searched the term “Personalized Poetry”. I’ve written nearly three hundred of these poems over the past twenty years.
“Do not wait for your customers to ask when you will start accepting cryptocurrencies. There are many advantages that your business can gain by adding this payment method.” ― Olawale Daniel
Thanks to Google every few months a new personalized poetry order magically lands in my inbox. Poetry has been the one constant in my life through weddings, divorce, moves, job changes, everything.
I don’t know why I never thought of it before but today something dawned on me. I feel the same way about blogging and the Hive community as I feel about writing poetry.
Then I thought, Why not accept Hive as a payment type for the bespoke poems?
So this morning I clicked the edit button on my Personalized Poetry page and made it official. I’m now accepting Hive and it feels like a very good fit!
If you own an online business that offers goods/services or even a side gig please consider experimenting by accepting Hive as payment. If you do make a post about it, please tag it with #nowacceptinghive and also share it on Twitter with the $hive cashtag.
Always remember, there's this thing called first mover advantage. ; )
With Gratitude,
Eric Vance Walton
(Gifs sourced from Giphy.com)
I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
Alarm Clock Dawn, one of the first full length novels published on the blockchain, and the book that started it all for me can be found HERE. Or Click Here to read it for free on the Steemit blockchain
My book on meditation, The Perfect Pause, is priced at $12.99 (paperback) and $4.99 (eBook). Buy the paperback and receive the eBook for free!
That is awesome! Congrats on the move. How much back and forth happens with the customer when they commission you for a poem? Do they always love it on first read or do you have to go back and fix things? This is all very interesting to me.
Thank you my friend. I swear I don't know how it took me so long to think of this. I hope it will create organic moments that I can help educate people about Hive and crypto in general.
The length of the process really varies but I've never had them accept the first draft of a poem. Some clients have been happy with a second draft. One client in particular who sticks in my memory (for obvious reasons) required over twenty revisions. I normally will do no more than five but this was a verse that was going to be etched on his child's headstone who passed away so I couldn't say no.
It's always such an interesting process. It's always easier if the client has a clear vision about what they want, if they're indecisive I know it's going to be an interesting journey.
How COOL! Great you took this step; We simply need more of this. People who sell whatever they sell in fiat, also adding crypto payments to the mix. Payment providers are not stepping the game, therefore they are not the marketing channel. But they will, when enough payments will go through crypto. I wish I had something to sell, but have nothing more than my brains and some mediocre writing skills I use for my own HIVE publications and comments like this one :)
Thanks @edje! It's so easy for lower volume small businesses to do this but without a payment processor on board it would be tough for medium to large size businesses. Some payment providers offer point of sale options for crypto but not here in the US. The Nano team is making huge headway with this outside of America. I really do think Nano is positioned to take on the credit card companies. Hive, with its three second transaction speed is probably fast enough for small businesses and I think they should focus on this niche. I appreciate your support and the comment!
nano: have to read up on it.
hive as payment service: i think this somehow should be possible for webshops, not sure what time current methods require, taking the whole process of handling the payment, I can imagine the 3 seconds for HIVE is enough fast for even the large webshops (assuming less clicking and handling to handle a hive payment transaction. I'm astonished nobody in the hive eco system is creating a solution to integrate with webshops, and when some are handling this, no business is initiated. the other day I wrote a long comment to eg theycallmedan on one of his posts, but no reaction whatsover. more focus on wHIVE and all other stuff meant for traders than integrating HIVE with the existing business... sorry, my frustration on the HIVE people.
cool you took a little step in the right direction. I suppose, you really on manual activity and ok-ing the payment? just a hive to hive transfer which you will check manually? would be great if we wold have some escrow account, where buyer tx the money and after x amount of days/weeks the money is released to the seller. when goods did not arrive, the buyer notifies the escrow account which will not release the money to seller, and at the same time the escrow mediation starts which requires human involvement. a model used by many p2p webshop platforms and something we need as well around hive.
Nano has the tech, the dev team, the community, and the scarcity. I think it's a definite sleeper and should grow pretty rapidly once this defi craze fizzles. Here's their whitepaper.
Hive would be perfect for web shops. I guy I knew was trying to get this established on Steemit, he had created a eCommerce site called Peerhub that was working but, for some reason, it never took off. I haven't talked to him for years. A standalone payment system that could be easily integrated with current websites would be an absolute goldmine. I often think about how much retailers would save in a year not having to pay swipe fees for major credit cards. The retailer could pass half those savings onto the customer for paying in crypto. Some one really needs to do this. @roelandP?
Yeah, my accepting Hive won't make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things but I hope to help educate people and maybe start a ripple effect. My payment process for this is super old school. I would give someone a wallet address via email. I need to check into a system that would be more efficient.
Hahaha... But its a start! :)
I remember that name, and probably looked into it back in the days. Its not available anymore though. That's one of the huge problems I see btw. Too many techies trying something, but lacking on business sense to bring the tech to adoption. Too many of those projects around HIVE as well. Too little working together.
Thats a good one: I'll reach out to him. Hopefully he's interested.
PeerHub was hoping to be a decentralized version of eBay, I think. It was a really good idea but kind of just left to languish. I had a few books on there but never sold one thing.
I agree a lot of folks throw their energy into building things and then lose interest. This is in large part what happened to Steemit. It's like they enjoy the building process more than actually running and building the business. Maybe these people should play to their strengths and build the foundation of the business, the DApp, etc. and then auction it off to someone who has the business acumen to take it to the next level.
Roeland is a very solid guy. I know he's busy these days, if he can't help maybe he can steer you in the right direction.
I still don't know how it'll work in the decentralised world, the matching of the right skills to take an idea to something solid, a business..
A shame PeerHub didnt survive, since we need marketplaces; We is crypto space with HIVE part of it, maybe the center, when possible :) Some time ago Tradezy was created around the AUDcoin (Aussie Digital token; an ECR one). Not sure how this service is going, but they idea is that people can buy products with fiat (p2p) and crypto tokens can be earned as a reward. Tradezy shows 2018 in their footer, telling something like: We are not that active therefore we dont update out webservice... Of course, thats my interpretation. Maybe we are not even close to the tipping point required for crypto to be used other than trading and collecting around some services such as HIVE. https://www.aussiedigital.io/#ecommerceI
Roeland seems to be very busy indeed. He created an App in the early days of Corona, to support those commercial terrace owners to get customers to be seated. Not sure how this app is going, but tried to bring this to some of my friends :)
hello dear friend @ericvancewalton good morning
being the first always has an advantage and can be taken advantage of. The good thing about your case is that you were not only the first, you were able to remain in force for more than twenty years. that speaks highly of your work.
Good news that we can access your poetry with our cryptocurrency (hive).
you have done an admirable job congratulations dear friend
have a wonderful day
Thank you @jlufer! I hope it offers Hive a little more visibility and creates organic opportunities to educate people about cryptocurrency in general. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. It's getting cooler here, autumn is right on our doorstep.
Pretty interesting! I like the concept. Though I can only imaging the personalized poetry use cases and why people would want it.
Seems like such an intimate thing. Glad to hear you have had steady success!!
Thanks @currentxchange! It was kind of a happy accident that the personalized poetry page ended up so high on Google search. If not, I probably would have stopped offering the service after I started publishing books but I'm glad I never stopped. It helps to keep me sharp between larger projects and really is a lot of fun to do.
Very cool! I have been hoping to get around to publishing a poetry book of my own, any tips?
I have been taking the first stem by polishing my work up and publishing it on Medium, and when there's enough I would like to publish.
I think, at the very least, it will be good practice if I plan to publish any other books later!
Thanks!
Awesome! I'd suggest self publishing through Amazon. As much as I try to shy away from mega-corporations, their distribution channel just can't be beat. I've had more success with books I've published with them than any other publishers. Also, hire a professional to design your cover. Your cover is a big factor in whether or not someone will be drawn to your book. Next, have a good beta-reader group to proof your manuscript. Lastly, price the book at $0 initially and offer it privately to those who will be willing to write a review for you, then return the book to whatever price you wish to sell it for. If you can get at least 25 thorough reviews (more than that is better) before you officially launch your book on Amazon it helps validate it in the eyes of the public.
Wow, those are all wonderful tips! Thanks so much!! Took a Screenshot so I can't lose it! (Not like you can on Blockchain ha ha)
I will definitely do all of these things!
Yes I was planning to do it on Amazon initially, but the other tips I had no idea abut, so thanks a ton!
My pleasure! Good luck with your project!
Wow just look at that, excellent Google presence and accepting Hive, very well done my friend!
It tells a lot about the kind of person you are that you turned that negative energy around by writing poetry and how your writing is helping many other people, thank you for being true to what is good and kind in this world!
Crypto certainly is the future especially in this new world we've found ourselves in almost overnight!
Thank you very much Lizelle! Your post about how Hive was there for you when you needed it reminded me of how useful personalized poetry was for me before the days of cryptocurrency. I can remember several times when I was younger and struggling, a new job would land in my inbox precisely at the right moment. I really hope crypto can weather this looming economic crisis, by all indications it will serve as a hedge. My fingers are crossed. : )
Today you came with double genius, Eric! Hey, that's interesting about writing poems to order! It reminds me of the old patrons who commissioned artists to do some work and paid for it. Maybe I should seriously think about that idea because in my family and in my family circle it is me that they are looking for to write the cards, letters, speeches, poems, among others. For free, of course. LOL. As for accepting Hive as a form of payment, perfect. We are not only advertising Hive but also giving it more solidity. September promises many good things. A hug ;)
Thanks Nancy! Considering how Steemit ended up I’m glad I hadn’t thought of this earlier. You should totally try this yourself. A lot of what I’m commissioned to write ends up getting read aloud at weddings, retirements, etc. A word of advice, don’t start out asking too little for your time. When I first began I charged $25 but a good friend told me that wasn’t nearly enough considering the time it takes. I raised my prices to $125, then $150 and ended up getting more business (because so many associate price with quality). You can always add a discount if the mood strikes. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week!
Wow. Reading this just gave me goosebumps. That is a really big deal as far as anyone who understands what Hive is about can tell. I always believe in upgrades and this is definitely one. Soo excited to see how it all turns out. Nice job.
Thanks @belema. I hope more people consider doing this, it's so easy for lower volume business to just start advertising it as a payment type. It also has the potential to open them up to an entire new segment of customers (the Hive community).
I absolutely agree. It does create the much needed awareness.
@ericvancewalton, Great to know that Poetry played and still playing a Prominent Role in your life.
After going through from this post one sentence came into my mind and that is, "Don't Wait For The Change, Become That Change".
Have a wonderful time ahead and stay blessed always.
Thank you @chireerocks! Same to you my friend.
Welcome and thank you so much.