The Case for Crypto and Blockchain Copywriting: An Emerging Niche with Vast Potential
Blockchain has come to stay. Period.
For one moment, let’s shift our focus from the latest pump-and-dump scheme of your favorite meme coin or the bearish sentiment on the larger crypto market for now: What is the underlying technology that fuels cryptocurrencies as one use case but provides so much more usability and untapped potential? You’re right; it’s the blockchain.
A distributed and immutable ledger might sound nerdy and tedious to the average user, but it will shift the (creator) economy we are used to over the next few years.
- Think of getting paid for your content/products directly by the audience/customer enjoying it rather than handing over up to 40% of your earnings as platform fees.
- Think of ad revenues shared with you as a consumer directly instead of filling the pockets of all-mighty middlemen (think Brave Browser vs. Google Ads)
- Think of an immutable land title register, eliminating the use of inefficient and unsafe paper archives and cutting out potential corruption.
- Store and share files without having to trust a single entity
The global blockchain technology market, which accounted for an overall value of around USD 4.8bn in 2021, is expected to reach a market valuation of about USD 69bn
in 2030. Statista even sees the market size going over USD 1.2tn
Another source claims a projected CAGR of 85.9% from 2022 to 2030.
It’s fair to say this industry niche has growth potential, but how can you profit as the average-joe copy and content writer?
Which types of content would be needed?
Written content is king. As long as search engines only can compile text to determine whether a website is a good fit for the user’s search intent, written content will remain the be-all-end-all type of content that companies are ready to pay good cash for.
Blog Posts/Case Studies
The first would be the classic long-form blog post, whether it’s about educating the audience about the features of an upcoming crypto project or a dedicated guide on how to make the best use of a specific functionality: Long-form content has the power to establish your customer as a thought leader in his field while improving SEO metrics.
Website Copy
Crypto and blockchain projects must show their features and benefits to prospective customers and potential investors, so a polished website copy is a must. Tap into this need by writing compelling copy that lures people in and converts the interested folks to customers and users.
Founder Stories/About Us Pages
Here’s your chance to shine and let your inner fiction writer get out and play. You can elevate your customer and build up his credibility by crafting a thought-through founder’s story. Maybe by showcasing the pivoting moment that led to the underlying idea of the crypto/blockchain and what fuels the passion of the founders, so the team gets more relatable and, thus, trustworthy.
White Papers
This is arguably the blockchain writing masterclass: A white paper is essentially the developer’s application for investments by Venture Capitalists or individuals through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO.) By laying out the technology used, the use case and purpose of the project, as well as the problems solved, it is the first and foremost question a developer is asked when talking about his project: “Can you send over your whitepaper?” Needless to say, a developer in the middle of launching his product is more than busy and won’t have the time to craft this critical piece of writing carefully, so this is your chance to shine and provide real value (read: earn real money) by putting your skills to use.
Hard and Soft Skills to Excel in Crypto Writing
For someone to deliver value as a crypto copywriter, they must have profound knowledge and a deep understanding of the underlying technology and economics. In addition, one needs to convert the learning and research into compelling and engaging words, all while breaking down complex ideas into laypeople’s terms.
Decrypt’s online courses provide a great example of this skill:
“If Bitcoin is the gold of the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum is the oil that machines are powered on.” – Source
As with other copywriting fields, industry knowledge and excellent writing skills will be the tools to excel. As crypto and blockchain are not that widely adopted and understood, breaking down tech into relatable and understandable terms is a must-have skill.
What are some limiting factors that could slow down wide adoption?
As with every industry, not everything is sunshine and rainbow in the blockchain world. The issues listed below have the power to slow down the adoption of blockchain technology, but instead of seeing them as turn-offs, you might use those as welcome writing angles to focus your next blog post on.
- Lack of awareness: As of July 2022, there are only 83.4mn registered blockchain wallets. As this number roughly accounts for 1& of the world’s population, we’re far from talking about broad adoption.
- Hacks and Scams: The wild west, as some folks describe crypto, is prone to be hunted by scammers, hackers, and all sorts of people who only want your best: Your hard-earned money. As scams and perceived insecurity keep many people from engaging with crypto in the first place, there is a lot of work to do to make the technology safer to use and explain security best practices for blockchain beginners.
- Regulation issues: As recently issued in the famous White House Paper, Uncle Sam is putting crypto on its radar. Although it doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, as stable regulation mechanisms are one of the prerequisites of actual market adoption for the broad masses, it still can shake the boat for a while and wipe out some projects.
Crypto Writing job opportunities
There are already job boards focusing on the blockchain and crypto space. And if you’re scared of not finding suitable jobs in your region, most platforms have extra filters to only show remote jobs.
- Dynamite Jobs, a big remote job finding platform, even has a dedicated section for Crypto/Blockchain/Web3 jobs. You can refine your search by ruling out the tech jobs by going for the “Marketing” category, where you’ll find copywriting, content writing, and community management jobs.
- Web3.career seems like a rather techy platform, and most job offerings are indeed for engineers. Still, they have a dedicated set of copywriting jobs via the retrievable search filters “non-tech” and “copywriting.”
- Another platform is cryptocurrencyjobs.com, where you can explicitly search for copywriting or content writing jobs.
Final Thoughts
The crypto and blockchain industry is emerging as we speak. For talented writers with a knack for tech, it’s an excellent opportunity to seize before the majority gets aboard. Companies are always looking for thought-through and well-researched content that has the power to:
- Reel in investor money
- Establish them as a thought leader in the field
- Educate and persuade the audience regarding the features and benefits of their products.
So, what are you waiting for?
First published on 09/20/2022 at publish0x*, where you can earn crypto by reading and writing content.
*If you sign up to publish0x via this referral link, I’ll get a small provision at no extra costs for you.