It’s fun to be on a platform that is growing and evolving so quickly, and especially so in the case of Yours because of the revolutionary nature developing a market on a social platform.

As new users join you can see different people making different use of the platform. Some are writing blog posts like they would on Medium, some are sharing links like they would on Reddit, some are sharing their own content in other locations like they would on Facebook, and some are playing around with all different types of content.

What is fascinating about Yours is how the addition of financial costs and the chance to profit from your content will change the evolution of the content on the platform. Since earnings are displayed, you can clearly see who is earning money and creating content that others value. As a creator, you have a financial incentive to create content that has the potential to earn money, and so to create content that the community values most highly.

People are creating value for the community and themselves with lots of different types of content, so here is a quick scan of the four main categories:

Paid (Cryptocurrency) Analysis: This is the most financially successful and that makes sense based on the people in the community. Paid financial analysis is not new, but in the past was stuck in expensive newsletters. Yours allows you to get paid well if you’ve got great advice, but also allowing better discovery because it is out in open and not restricted to people who have made it through your sales funnel.

Because of the paywall, a review system, and a place for public comments it allows the best content to rise to the top and for expensive but worthless content to die off quickly.

Free Blogs: This is what my three posts have been so far and likely the most popular use case; using Yours in a fashion similar to Medium.com. On Medium, the value to a creator is reaching new people that hopefully you can convert into eventually selling them something. On Yours you can actually make money in tips and votes from creating good content that people value.

The potential for earnings with these types of posts comes mostly from tips, from a quick scan, there are few posts that receive more that 15 to 20 votes. So right now votes don't create much income, but as the community grows you could see the potential for a decent amount to be made simply from having a lot of people vote on your post.

Most other content platforms incentive virtue signaling with likes. They are financially free, but your name is attached to your vote. Yours is the opposite. Your vote is anonymous, but you actually have to pay, and you are rewarded for voting on posts that become popular.

This will lead to much better content curation. Instead of people liking posts about how vulnerable they are and avoiding reacting politically incorrect subjects like they would on Facebook, here on Yours you stay anonymous with your votes, but can see what people actual value enough to spend 10 cents on.

Selling Digital Goods: Whether it is photos, videos, or courses, there have been some cool examples of people using the paywall feature to sell digital content. Using Yours as more of a digital content marketplace than a blogging platform.

Some great example of this are:

Chuck Grimmett selling photos: https://www.yours.org/content/light-graffiti--a-how-to-guide-258e6353bb0e

Amanda Kingsmith selling quick unlisted Yoga videos: https://www.yours.org/content/yours-exclusive---3-minute-neck-stretch-from-the-comfort-of-your-desk--fa1f4a277e86

Austin Bachelor selling guides to digital drawing: https://www.yours.org/content/digital-painting-a-step-by-step-process-ea61013d8fac/

Chuck Grimmett wrote a great posts all about this use case and how to do it well: https://www.yours.org/content/how-to-sell-digital-products-on-yours-org-8abbf52199eb/

Sharing: The final common use case is sharing content. Most are more Reddit style posts, sharing news or videos that are interesting to the community. But there is also posts similar to what you would find on Facebook--sharing your own content with a short written lead up. Like with free blog posts, the costs and potential to profit on Yours create a much better system of content curation.

Derek Magill sharing the Bitpay news from yesterday: https://www.yours.org/content/30367b365674950722e65cb42e6191b1c902f402e6eb0c0dc6589d74b5b710fc

Isaac Morehouse sharing his talk on leaving behind politics to start Praxis: https://www.yours.org/content/why-i-abandoned-politics-and-became-an-entrepreneur-3ca537ceda34





I’ve really enjoyed the community and find myself coming back quite a few times every day to check out what is new on Yours . Having to pay your way to comment, share, and vote, even in small amounts scares away trolls and creates a much better forum.

It also creates a much better incentive to be an active contributor instead of passively engaging. When you are actively contributing to the community you can watch your BCH balance steadily go up.

As users, most of us are coming from a world of ad-driven and "free" social media platforms, so it is fascinating to watch the evolution of a democratically monetized social network.