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I put in a fair bit of effort into setting up workshop events to promote my book Bitcoin, Hands-On! 28 “learn by doing” exercises to master the basics of managing your own Bitcoin, including wallets, transactions, and self custody (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734166339)
The first time I did this (with a group that knew me, and is predisposed towards investing) was kind of successful, in that a number of people came, and some actually started the exercises.
This time, I arranged up a public event, setting it up in Facebook, NextDoor, and EventBrite, and did what you're supposed to do to promote these types of events.
But with a different potential audience, to whom I was an unknown - almost complete crickets.
I did have one person show up, a lady who had seen an old friend buy a huge expensive monster truck, and had been told that it was all from his investment in bitcoin. So, she was interested, and curious. But absolutely ZERO base to start from, other than that story. So we more or less just talked about money, inflation, how bitcoin can solve problems, etc.
Anyway - I've come to the firm conclusion that these types of in-person events are just not going to be broadly successful - not when marketed to the general public.
So - I'm kind of wondering what to do next, in terms of promotion. I really do think there's a big gap in the market out there. There's not a set of exercises that you can do, to learn about holding bitcoin in self custody in a step-by-step, hands-on way.
Most hands-on information is put out by hardware wallet makers, who are huge advertisers, and are of course interested in their own wallet being used. And this information is not at all conducive to getting a good understanding of the basics of wallets, private keys, seed phrases, transactions, etc.
I'm just not sure how to find the people that need/want to understand self custody.
Hang in there. Here's Andreas Antonopoulous, a legend in bitcoin, explaining bitcoin to an empty room in 2013.
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Ha! Love it.
I'm no Andreas Antonopoulous, but it's definitely making me think I need to try something different...
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132 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 16 Jul
I'm sympathetic for you. I've had a similar experience. I gave up, but that's not what you should do.
You seems pretty outgoing: perhaps put your efforts into approaching businesses you frequent and talking to the about accepting bitcoin. It would be more one on one, but as merchants accept it, we bitcoiners will have more places to shop. Maybe you can ride the wave of steak and shake.
If you have kids you could try creating a kids bitcoin. I volunteered to teach a personal finance class at my daughter's homeschooled coop and pretty much just turned it into a bitcoin class.
Don't give up!
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I think the only thing I'll give up on is doing anything like an in-person workshop, especially putting a lot of work into trying to promote it.
I'll try to figure out some new ideas. One thing I'm thinking of is somehow open-sourcing it - putting it on github or something. I don't need to make a ton of money on it, I just need enough to motivate me to continue to work on it.
But of course, just putting something on github isn't much use, people also need to look for it there. 2 people so far have told me I need to post on Instagram. Hmm...
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143 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 14h
So I was an early Linux user in the mid 90s. I helped setup the local LUG (Linux User Group) in my area of the state.
In the beginning (say 1996) we were mainly focused on new user onboarding....we used to hold "install-fest" that is we would encourage people to bring their computers to the meeting and we would help them install linux. Our goal was to show normal PC users that they didn't need to pay for an OS for regular computer use. That was marginally successful, but not really.
By 1999, we had migrated into being the opposite: a social group for advanced linux users....almost completely dropping the "new user" emphasis. Now obviously if a new user actually did show up to a meeting we would all be super helpful in answering their questions, but the truth was very few people did that.
In the end we were a group of about 20 people who would meet monthly and basically help each other with our work related linux issues, eat pizza, drink beer, and generally talk about Linux.
By 2005 or so the LUG completely disbanded. We were a victim of Linux's general success. By that time it was solidly accepted that Linux was the cornerstone of the internet tech world....and well there was little need to meet in person to discuss it.
Semi-relatedly most of us in the LUG had undergone vast changes in employment situation in that 10 years.
In 1997, the average member of the group was a Jr Sys-Admin who pushing to use linux in our respective companies, but generally completely blocked by higher ups.....by 2005 we were leading the charge and had maybe job hopped a couple of times and now were in fast growing linux focused companies....so the "social support" aspect of the LUG was no longer needed....
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Maybe target people who only have paper bitcoin?
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Yeah, they're the ones that are (sometimes) kind of interested.
But also sometimes they're in the "why bother" camp.
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Or, as I just heard yesterday - if I kick the bucket, my wife needs to deal with it, and she'd have no idea how to deal with self-custody bitcoin.
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 23h
Maybe try a few more times. Also, it might be better to offer a premium private coaching session.
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @BITC0IN 23h
Charge more. for everything. your book. your learning sessions. all of it.
university computer science clubs may be a good angle.
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