[CLOSED] Wild User Interviews Podcast September 2023

[satojandro]

Hello friends,

tldr

• Link to previous proposal (June/July 2023)
• Link to Report for previous proposal
• Wuipod is available on Youtube and on all major podcasting platforms.
• Current proposal: 6 episodes x US$1,000ea = total US$6,000

Anniversary

Wuipod just reached a new milestone: two year anniversary since it was launched under the Silicon Craftsmen Guild back in 2021. Since then, there’s been many lessons and the podcast has evolved and grown in different ways. Thrilled to be able to continue doing what I love and to be able to co-create value for the ecosystem in such unique ways.

Addressing September KPIs

Acknowledging that MDAO has released updated KPIs and areas of focus for the month of September, I encourage everyone to go read our last report where we share how each pod for that period has been contributing to these goals. For this proposal, in general:

Increasing numbers of active Developers

• Wuipod is fighting tooth and nail to reclaim and establish NEAR as the Builder’s Blockchain. By having long form conversations with top tier developers and builders where we get to go deep, we are unlocking a ton of insights and lessons that are valuable to builders at any stage. Fostering a sense of community and belonging - this is where ambitious people go to feel at home.

Increasing numbers of active Users and Transactions (On-chain onboarding, On-chain engagement, On-chain participation in ecosystem dApps)

Wuipod has been a pioneering on several fronts.

• Two Shard Dog Links: Wuipod & Proof of Spice have close to 1000 claims and are enabling us to engage audience and easily onboard new people (free wallet creation, custom onboarding flow that redirects to Youtube or prompts user to share on Twitter, etc.
• Additionally, my personal shard.dog/avb has also been 'time-stamping who is building on NEAR for the month of X’ since March 2023. A unique collection of NFTs to show off builder prowess and loyalty during the bear. Net promoter of Shard Dog in ways that have inspired many others to also adopt the tech.
• Both Wuipod and AVB are among the most active accounts in NEAR Social. Both have been setup with Wormhole so that all twitter posts with the hashtag #BOS automatically posts on NEAR social, providing a constant stream on unique content that often includes images, etc.

Increasing numbers of Tools, dApps on BOS

• Wuipod is a proud community partner of BOS HACKS - hackathon aimed at training and increasing number of BOS Components.

Increasing the number of people educated about NDC governance, BOS and active projects in the ecosystem

Wuipod has been providing a valuable platform for candidates to elevate their profile, share their vision and goals.

• We’ve been actively promoting these NDC candidates and podcasts
• We have scheduled two more candidates as guests and will be fast-tracking the recording and release time to be within the Election Period.
• Proactively invited Marieke to join the conversation

Proposal

We are requesting a budget of $1,000 per podcast, reflecting a slight increase from our previous proposal to accommodate enhanced production quality and content optimization. The breakdown of the budget per podcast is as follows:

1. Sourcing and Scheduling Guests: Active management of guest acquisition and scheduling to ensure high-quality interviews and diverse perspectives.
2. Researching Guests and Topic, Notes + Agenda: Up to 2 hours dedicated to conducting in-depth research on guests and their projects, preparing detailed notes and agendas for engaging conversations.
3. Recording Podcast: Up to 2 hours for recording each podcast episode, allowing ample time for in-depth discussions and capturing valuable insights.
4. Editing Podcast: Approximately 4 to 6 hours dedicated to post-production editing, ensuring seamless audio quality, removing any unnecessary segments, and enhancing the overall listening experience.
5. Distribution: direct messaging relevant parties for amplification, maximizing the reach and visibility of each podcast episode.
6. Promotion (Clips): We have engaged freelancers to create engaging clips from the podcast episodes. This includes both promoting the current episodes as well as covering the backlog of previous episodes that have already been funded.

It is also worth mentioning that we are recording several of these podcasts in person while attending Coinfest in Bali, visiting Paras HQ in Jakarta, and attending NEAR APAC in Vietnam. All of these travel expenses are incurred by me personally.

6 podcasts x US$1000ea = Total Requested US$6,000

Content

The proposed eight podcasts include:

1. Ep. 51 - Web3 isn’t a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card for Making a Sh*t Game w. Hugo & Jon, @ PlayEmber (Released 29/08/23)

• Showcasing project building on NEAR.
• Masterclass in Product, making data-driven decisions, mobile gaming as an industry.
• PlayEmber is the third largest project by daily txs, web2 to web3 onboarding Case Study

2. Ep. 52 - Life Happens When People are Bored Together w. Mike Purvis (Estimated Release 06/09)

• Early NEAR Core, current Cosmos contributor.
• Incredible technical insights on everything from building products to communities.
• He’s been one of the most cited people in former podcasts, as a mentor to many builders on NEAR, etc.

3. Ep. 53 - Riqi, Paras/Arkana/Akoma (Recorded 04/09)

• Showcasing Paras news projects - Arkana (100k users!) and Akoma (advocating to have them deployed on NEAR)

4. Ep. 54 - Kendall, Proximity (Scheduled recording - 06/09)

• Podcast requested and scheduled after reading his Ignas Defi interview. Among other things, we will be covering Data Storage on NEAR from EVMs and Cosmos chains (MEGA HOT. NEXT BIG THING AFTER BOS).

5. Ep 55 - Cameron Dennis, Banyan Collecting (Scheduled recording - 07/09)

• Excited to cover all things BOS
• Cameron is running for NDC, will be releasing this podcast as part of his candidacy.

Additionally we are also planning to record in person with David Weinstein and the Meteor Wallet Team in NEAR APAC (plus anyone else we get the chance to catch!).

We’ve also received in-bound request from Aurora and NEAR Horizon that we will try to accommodate as soon as possible.

Outro

Many thanks for all the support to date. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Also always looking for guest recommendations.

AVB

[waxnear]

Great proposal, great content, I support

[satojandro]

Thank you Sir Wax, Fellow Content Creator

[Albhion]

looking forward to join your podcast session too !!!

[Bakaka]

Thank you for your proposal

WUIPOD is one of the ecosystem’s high-quality content distribution channels. I have enjoyed listening to some of your podcasts and learned a lot from the ecosystem’s Founders, early contributors, and OGs.

Quick request;

Can we have stats on your channel’s growth? number of listeners or reach and all this data, i think dashboard analytics will help, because I didn’t see it in your report.

[satojandro]

Hi Bakaka! Glad to hear you are a listener and are finding value in the content!

Great question! Podcasting in general has suboptimal stats (fragmented distribution channels, little insights into who the users are, etc.), this is why on my reports I try to focus on additional impact metrics such as: reaction from KOLs, discussions and organic sharing on Twitter, etc.

Here are some of the numbers I do have access to:

1. Number of subscribers on Youtube has doubled since last grant. Some of this can be attributed to one of my Sharddog links directing to Youtube (converting users from the 6x following there). But also, going back to Australia and meeting people in Bali, Jakarta (Coinfest) and Ho Chi Minh (NEAR APAC), they start following then.

2. Average conversion rate for suggested videos. Massive untapped potential with shorts. While I have been creating a handful on bangers clips the main distribution channel remains twitter. I still need to extend that to Youtube (reengage existing audience) and to new platforms such as Insta and TikTok.

Another interesting stat is that well over 50% of views are from non-subscribers.

4. Twitter Analytics is also struggling a bit to index latest data. But we’ve seen SOLID growth.

I know that when making raw assessment of numbers on a screen to allocate money it may not seem super impressive. But it really does feel like we are beginning to take off. There is momentum building up, more incredible speakers than I have time to record and edit, and word spreading organically. For a small ecosystem, I am proud of the brand we are building and excited to be able to welcome the masses as they continue to join NEAR over the next few months. Something truly magical to go deep and capture the history of NEAR in real time!

Happy to jump on a call with Councils to answer any other questions.

AVB

[Bakaka]

Thank you for your response, there are no obstinate about the quality of your podcasts been a listener.

Could you please add metrics (including historical data) to the airtable you provided I tried to access it but it seems private or columns not available.

I understand that recording and editing are very difficult tasks, but user engagement is also an important measure to consider. No matter how amazing a product is, it is useless if no one uses it.

Am a little concerned about the requested budget and the user interaction/enagements of the WUIPOD, you have 102 subscribers so far and 50% of your previous enagements are from non-subscribers which is cool.

I noticed that, this is not your first, second or third funding request, am curious to know about your historical data.

[satojandro]

Hi Bakaka,

@Bakaka

I understand that recording and editing are very difficult tasks, but user engagement is also an important measure to consider. No matter how amazing a product is, it is useless if no one uses it.

The report is focused entirely on the impact and user engagement - including organic references from KOLs, driving conversations across the ecosystem, and even being a pivotal player in grassroots funding being reactivated.

It is worth noting that Wuipod has never had paid promotions or bounties (worthless and bloated metrics of low quality, low value to the ecosystem ‘subscribers’).

I had $0 of income from the NEAR ecosystem in August (no grants, no governance roles, no job) and the podcast is my only proposal for the month of September. In contrast, I would’ve already been $16,000 up just from Marketing DAO role (since Council’s now earn $4,000).

I am proud of the work that I do and the impact it has. I genuinely believe it creates a lot more value than what it costs to produce AND I’d be very curious what gets funded if Wuipod doesn’t. I have already been denied Retroactive Bounty Requests from GWG for speaking out against them.

Thanks

[so608]

Hi @satojandro thanks for the proposal. Your content is clearly high quality, a known brand in the ecosystem and in my view worth continued funding.

I agree with @Bakaka that the amount requested in high relative to the audience and growth over time. We have to balance the need for quality with value for the funding allocated. The reality is that we have more than 70+ projects under review for this period, limited funding and can’t fund everyone.

That said, I’d like to find a way forward for this proposal. Would you be open to reducing the requested amount? I’d be happy to support $6K.

[Bakaka]

I totally understand the situation and no one will obstinate about your wuipod quality have said that several times.

happy to support 6k too

I won’t comment on other things and concerns.

Please, could you edit the budget and restructure.

[so608]

Thank you for submitting a proposal to the MDAO this month.

As of the close of the MDAO review period, this proposal has not received majority support from the MDAO council. This can be due to a number of factors (outstanding questions from the team in this case), and we encourage you to reach out via Telegram with questions and consider resubmitting in the future. We are moving this proposal to closed.

As always, we appreciate your participation in the NEAR ecosystem and look forward to future collaborations.

[satojandro]

Hi Lorraine,

I’m only just seeing this messages. I am disappointed that no one tried to reach out to me via Telegram or elsewhere (Bakaka and I talk there often about many things, etc.) prior to closing this proposal.

I am willing to reduce the ask amount to $6,000 (take out two podcasts accordingly).

Having this proposal closed for September would mean I would be without any pay from NEAR ecosystem for three months, and as the backlog of podcasts produced but not covered by MDAO increase, I have some real concerns about getting that pay in the future at all.

I’m adjusting the ask amount and breakdown accordingly now. Hope you can still squeeze it in with September’s proposal to CT. Thanks,

AVB

CC - @Bakaka @Dacha