November Objectives
The objective for Merchants is towards DAO set up, thus opening up more opportunity for community to contribute as there are several talented individuals in the group.
Metrics across the board have gone down significantly. This was due to Merchants analysts having taken a step back per suggestion and confusion on last months funding post. This month we have clear objectives for everyone involved to maintain consistency.
Also, I have realized the poor job of using #'s and tagging people in the Merchants tweets. Will make sure this is better moving forward to improve metrics and engagement. Follower count grew from
- Merchants Contest
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NwM-qTD2tNGt1PHL4gNsIQvR3F2LBm6EpEIzWkUKHD0/edit?usp=sharing
October Contest saw a total of 214 submissions across 4 weeks with an average accuracy of 86.7pts (13.3% off actual ending price, Numbers updated)
November Contest saw a total of 216 submissions across 4 weeks with an average accuracy of 82.8pts (17.2% off actual ending price)
TG User tang_ynsg has helped create this graphic and others for the contest and predictions.
Overall contest is going pretty smoothly and still providing good value to the members. There has been an influx of new members but fewer and fewer new members who are participating in the contest, so we might have reached the upper limit. It is nice to see a small growth but I suspect not all is organic.
Issue has arisen given the rewards of several dubious entries into the contest. I am not entirely sure how to deal with this problem, it is quite reasonable obvious which accounts are duplicates but rather hard to just call them out and ban. I have contemplated putting a waiting period on new members, having them fill out a separate questionnaire, and just banning the dubious accounts, but none of the aforementioned solutions seem good. Would like suggestions on this topic.
We also are creating a tokenized NFT as a reward for winners and participants. Going to incorporate some sort of value proposition for these NFT’s associated with guild but not sure yet. Here is what we have in store for December curtesy of 9ce (still work in progress).
- YouTube
Currently are at 22 subscribers with our last three videos receiving 22-41-22 views respectively. Seems hard to gain much traction; YouTube is not the best platform for price analysis as it is much easier to do over Twitter/TG and a few times by the time the video is filmed, edited and uploaded the market has already drastically shifted. Will try to market the channel a bit more.
- TradingView
For November we had 8 trading posts with 14 followers. TradingView is not meant to be a huge target growth area, just to set an example for quality TA and for those hard core analysts.
- Telegram
Merchants ended last month at 432 members and finished November with 596 members. Growth has been strong early in the months but has been more consistent throughout the middle of the month. Seems like there are a few moderators (@iamkemoo, @rahulgoel007) in the NEAR Official TG channel that are steering members interested in price talk to Merchants channel. I have also gone through and removed roughly 35 deleted accounts, presumably those advertisers, FUD spreaders, other coin shillers.
Going to try to build out the team for Merchants “mods/ambassadors” to cover more time zones. Aiming to get a couple people from each major region and time zone. Few large communities for NEAR seem to be India, Vietnam and Philippines. Currently I have distributed an additional 10N to Sanket to tip individuals that are helpful and contributing quality in the chat.
Merchants Challenges
The biggest challenge is rise of fake accounts to enter into the Merchants contest. I have listed some suggestions above (putting a waiting period on new members, having them fill out a separate questionnaire, and just banning the dubious accounts) but have not come to a decision on best course of action. I am spending too much time noting accounts, wallets, and TA’s for accounts. Could ultimately move competition to only give NFT/tokenized rewards and just have several designated analysts.
Merchants Guild NOV Budget
By this time next month I hope to have this on Astro DAO so each individual can make their own proposals.
Merchants Contest:
Monthly Participation: 42*2 = 84N
Monthly Rewards: 30+20+15+10+5 = 80N
Weekly Rewards: 4 * (7+5+3+2+1) = 72N
Weekly Highlights: 3 * 2 (only did two weeks) = 6N
Total: 252N * $15 = $3,780
Zucchini: Guild Lead
-Administrative duties, managing socials, running Merchants contest, interacting and engaging with the community as the face of the guild, moderating TG, managing team
300N * $15 = $4,500 to Zucchini Fries (Reducing from 350N)
Sanket: TG moderator, NEAR community liaison
- Engaged with merchants community, discussed their charts or their views on NEAR and overall market
- Kept chat engaged by bringing in new topics to discuss
- Posted All Latest Yield Opportunities whether be it farming or staking within the ecosystem.
- Shared Airdrop posts too which helped community to stay engaged n be rewarded at the same time.
55N * $15 = $825 to Sanket (Reduction from 60N)
10N * $15 = $150 given to Sanket to distribute to TG group in terms of tips
9ce: Video editor, graphics and NFT/Token artwork
40N * $15 = $600 to 9ce
FritzWagner: Hispanic Ambassador, Moderator
Fritz has been long time Merchant who has been active in the chat and does his own quality TA. He also is Guild lead for Hispanic Guild and has been great at outreach to community for Merchants.
10N * 15 = $150 to FritzWagner
Much discussion was had but not really concluded last month on the compensation for the Merchants Analysts. There was sentiment from @Dacha and @David_NEAR for a fixed $1,800 rate, while push back from @Mansa.Keita and @Yuppiefab. Ultimately I settled on $2,500 and was begrudgingly and eventually passed. In fairness and transparency, I have split the difference and settled on $2,200 for analyst payout, which I believe is fair.
Expectations for analysts moving forward:
- 4-5 quality TA on NEAR throughout the week; prioritize during major market moves
- TA to be done on TradingView, posted on TG and Twitter
- Light TG moderation and responses to questions
- 3-4 additional content pieces throughout the month. Could be articles on projects, educational content, YouTube breakdowns, price analysis on projects on NEAR, ect…
MansaKeita: Merchants analyst, 3-4hrs/day
-Weekly podcast on 4NTS Rise and Grind segment
-Daily analysis on NEAR
-Answering and engaging questions in TG chat
-Educational content on NEAR, blogs (pending)
$2,200/NEAR price of $15 = 146.7N to MansaKeita
Yuppie: Merchants analyst, 3-4hrs/day
-Weekly Videos for Merchants YouTube channel and other educational content
-Daily analysis on NEAR
-Answering and engaging questions in TG chat
$2,200/NEAR price of $15 = 146.7N to Yuppie
Total: (252N+300N+55N + 10N+40N+10N+146.7N*2)= 960.4N * $15 = $14,406
By this time next month we hope to be fully integrated with Astro DAO. My goal is to set up article/content bounties for TA contest participants/winners to claim and integrating the NFT’s along side this process. Having DAO set up will also make payouts much easier for individuals.
As always, I am eager to hear your thoughts, concerns and suggestions to what is going on at Merchants.
I applaud that!
