[Approved] Chill&Shill budget August

Marketing DAO Marketing DAO
1

What is $NEAR Chill&Shill?
NEAR Chill&Shill is a twitter space in the NEAR ecosystem. We aim to educate our audience about the application and capabilities of NEAR By interviewing founders of projects on NEAR, we simultaneously spread awareness about NEAR, give founders a platform to spread the word about their project, and educate our listeners about NEAR. Our Twitter Space also includes community spaces where members of the NEAR ecosystem can connect and engage with each other, creating a strong and engaged community around NEAR . Our mission is to enhance the NEAR ecosystem by promoting the growth of projects, fostering engagement within the network, bringing our listeners the information and education to further their growth in web3 space.

Vision for August
As we forge ahead, our mission remains clear - to continue attracting engaging speakers, educating and expanding our community, onboarding individuals to NEAR, fostering insightful conversations, and persistently growing our platform. In light of the current focus on NDC, governance, BOS and elections within the NEAR ecosystem, we are planning to dedicate additional spaces to these significant topics. At the same time, we aim to maintain our support for Ecosystem projects, striving for a harmonious balance between all these elements.

We’re also focused on enhancing user experience with the help of our new feedback system. We welcome any suggestions from the MDAO council and other forum members regarding our platform’s future direction and ideas for spaces, ensuring that we remain aligned with the overarching vision of NEAR. If you haven’t seen the feedback we have collected from the community and guests - please check it here.

In addition, we’re working on diversifying our content by venturing into video production. Our goal is to create captivating and informative videos that would serve as an engaging medium for community interaction and learning.

Previous Work
You can view some spaces we have hosted with various guests before:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mnEhtM0MtfqrhnwBhcqJMMI8AeOBX7LlaD7COweVt_M/edit#gid=0

Previous funding
$NEAR Chill&Shill has previously received 4 grants for a total of 64 spaces.
Proposals:
http://gov.near.org/t/approved-near-chill-shill-twitter-spaces-monthly-funding-request/28052
http://gov.near.org/t/approved-march-near-chill-shill-monthly-budget/33278
http://gov.near.org/t/approved-may-near-chill-shill-monthly-budget/34511/8
[Approved] - July Chill&Shill Monthly Funding - #7 by waxnear (not received yet)

Reports:
http://gov.near.org/t/report-near-chill-shill-monthly-funding-request/30639
[REPORT] March $NEAR Chill&Shill Monthly Budget
http://gov.near.org/t/report-may-chill-shill-budget/35188
[Report] - July Chill&Shill Budget

Initiatives:

  1. Content - Audio - Twitter Spaces

$NEAR Chill&Shill twitter spaces exclusively around the NEAR and NEAR ecosystem.
$NEAR Chill&Shill’s distribution is done through @waxnear twitter account, which is the main social media account of $NEAR Chill&Shill where we post spaces, threads, articles, and any other media content produced by $NEAR Chill&Shill.

16 spaces * 250 = 4,000
Giveaways for space visibility:
16 * $20 = $320
Total: $4320

  1. Content - Written - Threads

To complement our Twitter Spaces, we plan to produce in-depth, high-quality thread recaps. This initiative is designed to cater to our audience who may have missed the live sessions or those who simply prefer written content. It’s our way of ensuring that all valuable discussions and insights from our Twitter Spaces are accessible to everyone in our community.
Example: https://twitter.com/waxnear/status/1685059779201224704?s=20

16 threads* 80 = $1280

  1. Social Media - Promotion/Distribution - Twitter

To promote and distribute all our content we use @waxnear, which is the face of $NEAR Chill&Shill. @waxnear has been tweeting exclusively about NEAR since its creation in December 2021, Alongside our main content, we have created and posted over 5,000 pieces of short-form written content about $NEAR, including educational, community building, news, analytics, and of course high quality memes. At present schedule, there are 7-10 pieces posted daily, which results in approximately 250 a month, as well as communication and further engagement in the comments.
Link: https://twitter.com/waxnear
Funding:
$600 /month

  1. Social Media - Community Channel - Telegram

We not only create content and educate our listeners and readers, but also organize them in an actively engaged community to keep growing and learning more about NEAR blockchain together and collaborating with each other. This is also a channel of distribution for our content, but it is mainly a community environment where we post interactive games, announcements, and create activities for our members.

Funding:
$300/month

New Initiatives
It is time to level up.
After successfully hosting more than 100 guests on our Twitter Spaces and building a vibrant community, we are now more than ready and, indeed, overdue for expansion and innovation. As part of our commitment to growth and engagement, we’re thrilled to announce two new initiatives that will propel us into the world of video content. This exciting leap allows us to venture beyond Twitter, marking our foray into platforms like YouTube and potentially others. By repurposing this engaging, informative content for our existing Twitter community, we aim to deliver a diverse and enriched content experience for all NEAR enthusiasts.

  1. Content - Video - Video podcast/interview

Aiming to provide engaging and informative NEAR content, we plan to produce one 1-hour video-podcast interview as an experiment. In addition to entertaining and educating our community, this initiative allows us to tap into the potential of this popular medium and engage with a fresh wave of users. We also see an opportunity to further extend our content reach by repurposing the video-podcast into bite-sized shorts for strategic distribution. If this proves successful, it opens the door for us to merge video-podcast and twitter spaces into one initiative, where we can conduct an interview live, stream it on twitter spaces, and later release the video version for further engagement.

Recognizing the potential of expanding into new platforms, we plan to extend our influence beyond Twitter, initially exploring YouTube, and potentially venturing into TikTok and Spotify. The repurposing of long and short format content for our Twitter also aligns with recent platform updates catering to long-form content, providing us additional avenues to reach new audiences.

This initiative’s implementation encompasses recording the podcast, performing post-production and editing work, crafting SEO-friendly supplemental texts, creating supplemental graphics and media, distributing content across social media, and generating promotional content. Through these concerted efforts, we aim to consistently deliver high-quality, engaging, and informative content to our NEAR community, while attracting new members.

Funding:
1 video podcast - $500
4 shorts - 50x4 - $200
Total: $700

  1. Content - Video - Short educational videos

In addition to the video-podcast, we propose another initiative: a series of four animated educational shorts. Each video, approximately a minute long, is designed to demystify complex NEAR concepts, transforming them into understandable, accessible information. The aim is to diversify our content offerings and cater to our audience with an array of engaging educational content. This initiative enables us to enhance the quality of content on our primary platform, Twitter, and extend our reach to other platforms, beginning with YouTube.

We intend to release these educational videos weekly, encompassing a wide range of topics. Suggested themes for this month are:

  1. An overview of the NDC Elections and I am Human onboarding process.
  2. An exploration of the NEAR ecosystem.
  3. A review of the unique technical features of NEAR Protocol.
  4. An overview BOS/NEAR Social.

The central idea behind these videos is to create simple yet engaging animations that effectively communicate the unique aspects and advantages of NEAR to a wider audience.

Examples:

Funding
4 videos * 200 = $800

Total Funding:
8000 USD

Revised Total Budget

  • Spaces: 8 sessions x $250 = $2,000
  • Giveaways: 8 giveaways x $20 = $160
  • Threads: 8 threads x $80 = $640
  • Twitter Content Creation: $600
  • Telegram Management: $300
  • Educational Videos on BOS and NDC: 4 videos x $200 = $800
  • Total: $4,500

Wallet:
chillandshill.near

Owner:
Wax

6 Likes
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$8000 dollars seems like a lot of money to ask for Near and Chill and shill, especially since the marketing DAO budget is limited. $80 per thread is a huge ask, especially when they are supposed to complement your spaces, which are already receiving $250 for each space.

What are the KPIs you currently have, and what KPIs will you get with the huge increase in funding? It would be good to see how much money is being spent per view here with a limited audience in the NEAR ecosystem…

4 Likes
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i think 250$ for every space is a lot , is that?

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i think 80$ is a lot for each one
50-60$ will be good.

1 Like
5

i agree with u, i think this is a huge price.

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The budget increase is only due to the new initiatives being proposed, allowing us to do additional new types of content.

No increase in budget is requested for the current Chill&Shill activities

Regarding the threads, there is a specific caveat for writing threads for spaces, where the writer would first need to spend time listening to the whole twitter space, and then spend time to write the thread, so that’s what we are going off of. Also writing that thread includes not only writing, but also sourcing media for the threads.

1 Like
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250/space is what we have been always going off of, and it encompasses a lot of different activities.

Hosting the space, research, coordination & communication & logistics (this is where most time and effort really goes), creating supplemental content, announcements, distributing giveaways, etc.

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As stated in previous reply:

Regarding the threads, there is a specific caveat for writing threads for spaces, where the writer would first need to spend time listening to the whole twitter space, and then spend time to write the thread, so that’s what we are going off of. Also writing that thread includes not only writing, but also sourcing media for the threads.

1 Like
9

I think that if you show your past and expected statistics or KPIs for the new additions like podcasts, threads, telegram channel and new short form content videos it would help us determine the impact and worth/value of spending the extra time and effort for these tasks. Also a comparison in price of similar content and kpis from other related proposals would be helpful here as well.

Perhaps since it encompasses so many different and new areas for Near Chil and Shill, the new content would work better in a separate proposal from the regular Near Chill and Shill spaces proposal and could make it easier to evaluate/fund.

10

Thank you for feedback, will try to answer every point you have raised.

There is no KPI’s yet to present for podcast and short term videos, as these are new initiatives. Podcast, if proved successful would be merged with twitter spaces, so the current numbers for twitter spaces can be taken into account for that.

For threads, the example is provided in the proposal has 150 retweets, which is a very good number for NEAR ecosystem. The success of this thread makes us believe that it is an effective form of content, and would provide significantly more reach and engagement for the NEAR projects that are already coming to our spaces.

A comparison of similar content and KPIs from other proposal as requested:

The only comparable to us initiative is NearAtNight, that have requested and been approved multiple times at $260 per space while getting around 2-3x less views.

Would be fair to note that we have also been approved multiple times at a similar price point ( $250), which we consider a very fair amount considering all the workload around organizing and hosting twitter spaces.

A similar initiative in the podcast area would be from ReadyLayerOne podcast, that have requested 10,000 (and also also have been approved multiple times) for a series of 8 podcasts, averaging $1,250 per podcast. So we believe the amount requested by us is very reasonable.

To your point about separating proposals, it would rather complicate then simplify the process, as these are different types of contents that all are being delivered to the same community, through the same mediums, by the same people. Of course we are open to do so if requested my MDAO council, and evaluate different parts of the proposal separately.

1 Like
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It’s important to note your comment is incorrect, Near at Night recieves more views on average and asks for less funding for a team of 4 talented individuals .

However my comments are not about directly compraring your performance to another proposal, but intended to evaluate your KPIs and to justify The ask you are proposing!

2 Likes
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Wax has been fundamental in a sense to the ecosystem and his continued support is noteworthy. I’ve listened to Wax before and after MDAO funding. I’ve been a listener, a speaker, and a guest.

I’m interested to see where this goes with new initiatives.

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Hi Wax,

First off, I appreciate what you are doing​:raised_hands:

For Ready Layer One - we don’t do monthly grants (however, we will have to going forward) and we only get grants as a partial support. We also do a lot of the podcasts and content for free. The 10K was for like 5 months of Ready Layer One. So we are actually getting about 2K a month. And each podcast does multiple short videos, threads, recaps and has 3 twitter accounts constantly posting.

But we do this because we want the NEAR ecosystem to succeed. We believe grants should be partial support not full support. But that’s our personal belief so we stick to that.

7 Likes
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I echo Jared’s sentiment here.

As an active community member, there is A LOT that we do that does not receive direct funding.
This includes having an active twitter presence, engaging with community in an active and authentic way, and in general, being proactive in finding ways to five value to others before asking for something in return.

Some examples - I have now hosted several BOS twitter spaces, just to hang out with community and to address some immediate talking points in the ecosystem. Not asking money for those. My twitter is (also) among the most ‘influential’ on NEAR (whatever bogus metrics they use to calculate that), I am also not asking money to just tweet.

Overall, the budget seems excessive. Specially when taking into account attendance to Twitter spaces is greatly influenced by Giveaways (which have not been allowed by Marketing DAO guidelines since October 2022) and that most tweets are generic and self serving (‘say gm back’), great for engagement but unreasonable to charge for.

I also believe you should aim for quality over quantity. Perhaps 16 spaces is a lot, as we’ve already talked about in the past of there not being enough projects on NEAR and you will be expanding to cover other ecosystems to get a wider reach. (It should also be made clear that NEAR MDAO won’t be paying for content about other ecosystems). As the range of content expands, consider reducing the amount of spaces so the quality and workload remain feasible.

I hope the Marketing DAO is able to review this proposal and come up with a reasonable amount that fairly reflects all the contributions and value you are creating. This exercise would likely also involve taking into account the total monthly cap of the DAO ($50,000) and the relative value this proposal generates compared to others coming in, plus strategic goals and allocating money towards bounties (which Taylor has been working on for three months now, maybe one day).

3 Likes
15

The Near chill and shill Twitter space has proven to be an invaluable resource within the Near ecosystem. Personally, I am consistently engaged in this space, actively seeking new insights and updates related to the Near ecosystem. The presence of diverse guests from various Near projects during Near chill and shill sessions has enriched my learning experience significantly.

In addition to acquiring knowledge, I have had the opportunity to establish meaningful connections within the web3 community through this platform. I firmly believe that the Near chill and shill initiative offers a straightforward and effective means to onboard new users into the ecosystem.

Considering the positive impact this new initiatives is going to bring to the ecosystem , I am of the opinion that continuous support from the Near marketing DAO would be highly beneficial for the ecosystem’s growth and development.

2 Likes
16

I appreciate your input, but I must respectfully disagree with your comment as it seems to contain inaccuracies. In your statement, you mentioned that Near at night receives more views on average while requesting lesser funding. However, it’s important to note that Near at night requests around $260 per space to host 16 spaces/ month

Moreover, Near chill and shill possesses key metrics such as average tuned-in per space, likes, comments, retweets, and the diversity of guests from various Near projects. These metrics are crucial factors to consider when assessing the quality and effectiveness of a space.

I firmly believe that these specific metrics should be utilized to evaluate the space’s performance accurately and to make informed decisions regarding its support and funding.

2 Likes
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Firstly, we all need to understand that in other to efficiently manage a project or community comes with a lot of tedious responsibility, and considering what WAX has been doing for CHILL $ SHILL on Near ecosystem over the years is extremely amazing and applaudable.
I got on boarded to near through Chill&Shill and several others too.
I do not think the financial quotation is too much because it is been properly utilized.

1 Like
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Hey love what you guys are doing, we operate in similar fashion where sometimes where sometimes we go 2-3 month on one proposal, until we cover 16 spaces.

In fact, the idea to move into podcast was inspired by your work.

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Chill and shill spaces has been amazing from the onset, I got to know alot of project and also met so many amazing people.
Keep up the good work

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Thanks for extensive and critical feedback, we understand the concerns and will time to address each of the points.

We hope the information provided here will be fully considered while evaluating this proposal.

Important to note:

Despite our continuous operation over 12 months, we have only requested funding for 4 months. Out of around 120 spaces hosted, only 64 have been supported by funding.

We have hosted more unfunded spaces for the NEAR ecosystem than anyone else.

The Wax account has generated multiple millions of impressions for the NEAR Ecosystem before asking for any funding.

Engaging in the ecosystem as an individual is important and that’s exactly how Chill&Shill got started - NEAR friends hanging out on the spaces. We have hosted 20+ spaces before asking for funding, and have subsequently turned our spaces into the biggest, most attended, and oldest audio podcast show about NEAR, with the most episodes hosted, and consistent attendance by our community multiple times a week.

Although worth noting that the Wax account is the #1 KOL on NEAR by followers, and in the top engagement (by those same bogus metrics), mostly between 1-3 positions, over the past 1.5 years consistently.

To put the amount of work and the types of our guests in context, you can see most of the work done here ( note, this is missing around 20 spaces we have hosted prior to requesting our first funding): Chill&Shill Spaces - Google Sheets

While the NEAR ecosystem is quite small, there are lots and lots of spaces and the demand for spaces is quite high. Worth noting we host 2-3 spaces a week most of the time, and re-submit grants only when 16 spaces are completed. The quality of content, guest speakers, and community engagement, is great, as can be seen in our feedback forms in our latest proposal here. This information can also be discovered by attending our spaces.

I understand the concerns about workload, but through 12 months and 120+ spaces hosted, we have built an effective system to manage our spaces and perfected all the processes, which allows us to consider expanding the content to other niches. Rest assured, we are more than capable of executing on the initiatives proposed.

It is only natural that you have a lot of engagement, as you are one of the biggest NEAR content creators with amazing videos, that get a similar amount of views as our Twitter spaces. Your platform inspired us to explore the Youtube direction. We also believe it is a good initiative since we already have a community that will consume all the new video content and help it get started on various platforms.

There is some significant context to be added to the giveaways topics. We host educational NEAR audio sessions multiple times a week, and incentivize attendance. Learn&Earn is a great mechanic, leveraged by various awesome projects in NEAR, for example Ludero. Since when is a learn&earn mechanic discouraged in crypto? What is wrong about creating proper, functional, and cost-effective incentives to learn more about NEAR? The design of any system can be judged by the incentive structure within it, and ours is straightforward and effective. We have average 160 listeners per space and reward 2-4 of them on average, so most of the community comes for the knowledge and vibes.

It is also very misleading to represent our platform as a space that just posts memes and gets engagement through giveaways. While it is true that our written content is mostly entertainment focused, our focus, as reflected in this and previous proposals, are Twitter spaces, and anyone who has been there can testify to the depth of the discussion, community engagement, and overall quality and diversity of content. Moreover, by your own suggestions, we are planning to incorporate more high-quality written content - which this proposal reflects.

Chill and Shill has a strong, family-like community of NEAR enthusiasts and contributors. While our community is more active on Twitter spaces, we also have a Telegram group - Telegram: Join Group Chat.

In fact, various active NEAR contributors were either onboarded onto NEAR or increased their involvement in the chain multifold, such as @Devbose, @Eyitay00, @Curmello, and many more. You see the chill&shill community creating awesome content, participating in NDC workgroups, leading communities in other projects. Etc. Essentially Chill&Shill is a “NEAR university”, with hundreds of students over time, some of whom have attended 50+ hours and even more.

Oftentimes, our community members will join discussions and always ask deep and insightful questions, made possible by their deep knowledge and involvement in the NEAR ecosystem.

Chill&Shill is not just a Twitter space for shill giveaways. It’s a place that creates NEAR community leaders, who go on amplifying the message.

We can explain it forever, but only by attending the space and connecting with the community, can one understand what Chill&Shill is. Or even better, come as a guest - the booking is always open for anyone - Calendly - Chill Shill

To sum up, we have perfected what we have been doing, and are ready to level up our platform to more effectively spread the NEAR message, create more diverse content, and become an even bigger powerhouse for content and community on $NEAR than we already are. We are proposing new initiatives that will allow us to add additional layers to our NEAR content factory, and significantly increase our reach, and by necessity, the reach of the NEAR protocol.

1 Like