Bitcoin Forum

After holding the meeting a few days ago, the guys we talked to have been on our nerves. We aren't surprised tho cause we saw it coming. They come with different questions at different tines, phone calls and all, and there's no way we would refuse to continue tutoring them. It's not like I don't have the time but.... Something like this, isn't it worth being paid for? I mean, we informed them for free, and we gained nothing (just went back to our houses) and even after then, they still come with different challenges.
Some of them who were there when we announced the meeting  date, they didn't come but still come back individually to request explanations. So I ask, is it wrong to monetize a bitcoin/cryptocurrency seminar/meeting? Cause we've gotten nothing for as long as we've worked.

Personally, i wouldn't have a problem monetizing this... If somebody asks a question on this forum i usually try to answer it for free (like your free meetups), however, if they ask help privately, i usually ask for a reasonable compensation for my time (like the persons asking you explanations in private)...

Well, they ask questions both online and offline. And considering the fact it wasn't monetized from the onset, I just can't find it being monetized anymore. Tho I'm doing this for bitcoin too, the stress isn't easy.

Well, some of these people will be choosing beggars (and they'll react as such), however, it should still be possible to give those people a choice... I don't think it's unfair to tell people that want extensive private advise tailored to their specific situation at a time that's convenient for them  that you simply do not have the time to help everybody for free, so that you'll be offering private tutoring at a nominal fee. If they don't like this, they're welcome to join one of your future (pre-planned), free public meetups, but that any elaborate question outside of these meetups will be billed.

Offcourse, if you're going to bill somebody, you'll have to have something to offer: don't bill them for simple (stupid) questions you can answer in a couple of seconds, make sure you have in-depth knowledge about the subject they want to discuss and plan some time exclusively for them.
BTW: make sure you're being payed BEFORE giving advice. I used to help people out that offered bounties after their problem was solved, it was VERY rare to actually get payed. Usually, those people dissapear after they've been helped, and i'd rather help somebody that was clear about not paying upfront than somebody that offers payment but dissapears afterwards.

Yep, I hear where you’re coming from , definitely an awkward situation. I suppose you’ll just have to put it down to experience and bite the bullet this time !
A good way to get out of it is too explain that the most important part of bitcoin is DYOR! Tell them to do it themselves and then give them a specific time and/or place that any queries can be explained to them.
For future tutorials / talks if you doing it for free, explain that you are giving up your time etc and then you can monetise all future correspondence.
As long as it’s explained at the beginning, you shouldn’t encounter this problem again.
Hope this helps and good luck

After the experience, it may be better to state the rules, costs, and boundaries clear from the beginning, in relation to extended assessment over time. I figure you did not do this on this occasion beforehand, and thought on helping them out post meeting as a friendly thing to do, but if it conflicts with your personal time, or the amount of time you can freely provide, then you should probably start setting those boundaries now, and lead them on to either self-learning resources (books, web sites, forums such as this one) or private tuition and/or extended sessions if you consider. Simply stating that you have limited time, and that to attend them properly you have to set things aside that you need to make up for, seems like a comprehensible argument.

There's really nothing wrong with it in my opinion. Organizing a seminar/meeting is going to need a crap ton of time and effort regardless of size that I'd be damned if I don't earn a reasonable amount of money for managing one regardless how passionate I am with Bitcoin. Just price things reasonably, and completely make sure that you're actually putting out good content, and it should be completely fine. Make sure that the attendants leave the seminar/meeting with knowledge that's worth a lot more than they paid for.

Some seminars and meetings are of great value, because in order to prepare something, you need a lot of time and effort. Moreover, even in order to gather people, to organize everything - you need some money. Therefore, it is normal when invitees pay some amount of money.

I think that it's fine to monetize any meeting, Bitcoin included. If you are wealthy, and you're doing it like volunteering, surely you would not collect money. But if you are a person who wants to do something good but also kind of needs money, it's fine. In that case, you have various options:
1. Set a fixed entrance fee.
2. Set a 'pay what you wish' fee.
3. Find a sponsor of the event, so that you get paid but participants don't need to pay.

options are.
at the meetup. you set the agenda. make it a broad laymans overview. ensuring you make it known you want a 'quick basics q&a session' rather than a  lengthy tutoring service.

and then if they have deeper questions beyond a 'elevator pitch' 30second explanation. then you can either:
direct them to this forum and tell them to search for the answers for free
tell them about 1-to-1 tutoring and its hourly costs

in other businesses/models. they hold a free open meetup. of the broad overview. and then promote other dates for technical seminar, economic seminar. which are paid to enter

emphasising the difference between the quality of a meetup (coffee and chit chat) vs professional teaching session.

but one main thing about montising things.
just be sure to know what your talking about and that it is accurate. otherwise if people feel like you have fooled them or told them something wrong. you can end up spending more time dealing with complaints than anything else.
bitcoins very own 'core' team make it very well presented that they do coding an technical discussions voluntarily for the very purpose of not becoming personally liable for bugs/issues they cause.

In my opinion no because knowledge is expensive and this is clearly seen in our education structure of the world. I believe you guys spent ample time and resources getting to know more about this industry so if you are to offer people such knowledge on a regular basis then i think you have every right to monetize it. There are cases where you get to teach someone a quick thing about crypto and i would not encourage you to monetize that but if it becomes regular like going to school then you need to be paid.

I'd rather accept donations considering they paid fees already.
As far as I can tell, teachers don't charge students consultation or question fees after class lectures. The students already paid to learn from you/teachers. So, they need to be continously guided until they understand what they paid for.

You should probably just ask for donations if you think you're spending alot of your time on them.  I'd prefer anonymous donations from them so they don't feel pressured.

Do whatever you want. If you feel you should be compensated then put that out there.
I don't know what sort of meetup you hosted or what the idea behind it was. If you are bringing complete newbies into the space though, you should expect follow up questions. Were you planning to host these meetups on a continual basis? If yes, you should tell them to send their questions and you will address them at the next meetup. This helps create boundaries and sets expectations for when they should expect answers. The meetups themselves could then be centered around answering group questions - these could be pooled or asked in a discord channel or something similar and anyone could then brainstorm/research the answers.

Now some people just want to be spoon fed everything so for them you could promote yourself as a paid tutor/guide. Set a fee and if they are willing to pay it then there you go, if not, then you can explain it's a service you provide for a fee. I've attended a local meetup that's been running for years, and they also do another one strictly for newbies. The one I attend has a 5$ fee, that covers a delicious meal and coffee though so it's not exactly the same thing. They are just trying to grow the crypto space.

It really comes down to what your plan for these meetups was, and how you want to execute it.

It's okay to monetize anything as long as its indeed a valuable thing that leaves the buyers happy in the long run. Many seminars, trainings, meetings, courses are so low quality to the point where they do more harm then good by giving people poor advises that set them on a wrong course, and charge money on top of that. If you are confident that the knowledge that you share won't make people lose money in crypto, it's okay to charge people for it.

I would if I were you. You are allotting your time, resources, knowledge and expertise to train them, and that's alone IMO is already a justified reason on asking a small fee. Kind of like a small crash course that some institutions are offering nowadays on different parts of the world. Knowledge is indelible and valuable, and it's not something that one can stumble upon and grasp so easily without having someone to learn from or some resources to use.

I'm pretty sure they'll think of it as something not worth their time but just own it. Show them and make them feel that you know what you're talking about and you're worthy of being compensated into helping them learn new things.

i think you must be strict with the rules that the date must be followed and if they did not attend the Seminar or meeting even what is their reason then it is reasonable to ask for Professional fee and that is what we do for living,our time is very precious that is why we are making a specific date and time so we will only spend our allotted time to be on their front answering various questions.
but when the time is up and they will come asking for same question you already discussed?then ask for Fees but of course be reasonable in price.

Why do you think this is wrong? You spend your time, resources, you share knowledge. In my opinion, you are a real tutorial, so this should be rewarded. You just need to do monetization right to make everyone comfortable

Well, I don't see it wrong if you want to monetize bitcoin as an exchange for your services. I believe it exist for it to be used as an exchange as an alternative. As long as you follow guidelines provided by your country regarding fares, taxes, and other services I think there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to monetize your efforts that is fine but you need to put some boundaries, there are people like that in all industries and the people that give seminars soon realize the problem you are facing, so you need to learn how to not waste your time after the seminar or they are going to consume all your time, this is especially true for those that did not assist, tell them you will send them a notice when there is a new seminar and then cut them off, you cannot explain this kind of thing one by one or it is going to take you forever.

I agree, Not everything is free even if it is searchable on the internet. The knowledge we learn about cryptocurrency that built up into our minds for a couple of years using it, might be free but the techniques and self-experience on crypto are precious.

Conducting a seminar/meeting pertaining to bitcoin may have some fee's on the host that might include the event area fee. I think it is worth investing in knowledge especially if you can use it in the future and can earn some money from it.

Yes, vividly I remember backed in those days, when there wasn't enough knowledge on the internet about the technology. Several time u had to attend meets up to be groom on the technology, during  these days, we all paid some fees to partake in the trainings. Whatsoever, the fee paid to the convener is legitimate, as he or she sold out the knowledge in form of monetization. Training I have done so far where paid types and haven't regret my actions.

The venue of the seminars are always be paid for before any training can take place. Monetization of the process is for the benefits of the attendees because, the trainer will be motivated to download all to the trainees. Nothing is more motivating than monetizing a process. Sometime ago I had to collect some payment before given out some first hand information.

I am not wealthy 😕. I'm just a youth who is struggling. Hence, it should at least earn me some cents (lol).

This isn't any easy. I wish there was a sponsor (so those attending don't have to pay).

I even intend to hold another meeting but if I can't find a way afford it, I'll have to back off.

My short answer to that is yes, it is.  There are plenty of motivational speakers and lecturers who provide stuff that's much less useful than what you probably are, and you know damn well they get paid plenty.  There's no requirement for you to volunteer to spread your knowledge of crypto.  Having said that, if I were you I would keep your fees reasonable just so you have the chance of attracting a larger audience.

I agree with that, and if people are willing to pay for what you're offering....what's the problem?

It wasn't wrong. Why would it be? Conducting seminar needs time, efforts, learnings. So it is up to the lecturer if you conduct it for free or not. Since they are very much interested with your lectures and want to step forward for the new trend bitcoin, you can actually set a date and find a place. You can give them invitations which it included the reasonable target payment. Anyway, it is just a suggestion. The decision is yours.

Why would it be wrong when you gave your time and efforts tutoring others about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency? You shared your knowledge so it's okay to ask for even a small amount of fee. There's nothing free in this world. How about your expenses, transportation, food just to conduct the seminar? You'll be spending money but you don't get anything in return from the knowledge you share to other.
As long as they are learning and it's an informative seminar, it's worthy to pay. Why would you be afraid of asking a seminar fee?

When conducting an activity like this, it is always a thought in our mind to somehow get something from the hard work that we exert as a compensation though, the essence of voluntarism in conducting this seminar will not be perfect. But if we will not seek profit from the person whom we teach about cryptocurrency, I think it is okay for us to gain, why not film every seminar we made and upload it to youtube or other video streaming platforms where we could have views that will turn into profit, at the same time, we'll not just teach a group, but the whole world about the thoughts that we have in our mind.

Well,never share your phone number with many people.That's my first rule. ;D
Second rule-If you wanna tutor those people without having to talk with them,just write everything you have to share in one ebook and share that ebook for free.You can include a "frequently asked questions"(FAQ) chapter in the ebook.
There's nothing wrong to charge a fee for your seminars,but your audience will be way less than before.

There is nothing wrong with monetizing a seminar or meeting. These is what most of the experts are doing. They are offering free seminar and the next meetings will be paid but start for a small amount only.

If you are passionate with what you are doing right now then you must learn too how to make money from it. Creating a youtube channel to share some important information regarding Bitcoin will do since your mission is to share anything related to Bitcoin and crypto in general right?

Motivational speakers right now are being paid to speak in different seminars right now. You can do it too. You can browse the internet if there are some seminars and meetings that are related to crypto and you can be a speaker there. You will be paid there and at the same, you can share what you know too.

P.S. I see your passion in spreading the information. There is nothing wrong in getting some rewards from it :). Just continue to do it if it really is your passion.

that's what must be done, it doesn't hurt for example we want to post or upload videos or articles and what we want to write and explain about the cryptocurrency experience that we already have, and holding seminars and meetings to discuss crypto is not wrong, but this is simpler, though can be explained in detail but it's a waste of time in my opinion, so it's simple yes we can upload the video on YouTube so that people who open it can see and can learn to understand it.

If it consumes a lot of your time, you might as well monetize but you should probably consider the audience first. You can group them if you want then choose which ones are for free or for a fee . For example, if you would be giving talks to students, maybe just give them a free pass. If the audience are employed or professionals in other fields, maybe request for a reasonable fee.

I have a thread in our local board about meetups/trainings/events in country which I update from time to time - Blockchain Meet Ups/Conferences/Trainings in the Philippines (incl. Fintech) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5148202) As you can see, some of them are free and some are not.

Sincerely, I can feel your pain. It would not be that easy holding seminars, impacting knowledge requires time and sometimes energy. Moreso this is to help people get a better financial life too. But on 2 sides; considering that those people you are impacting may not be rich, it will be difficult to Bill them. But we are needed to be appreciated once a while for the effort/help delivered.

Put up a donation address, with QR code, so people can tip you at the next seminar. Remind people that you are not being paid, but if they benefit from your knowledge, they can feel free to tip you whatever amount they are comfortable with, and suggest a minimum of 0.0001 BTC maybe.. That would currently be worth a dollar.

That would be an exercise itself to show them exactly how to do that with their mobile wallet. They would probably prefer that coins are sent their way instead of paying, but eventually they will have to learn how to spend.

Even waiters get more in tips for just making sure that you are happy with your meal.

You could give it a try. I'm not sure what the uptake would be. People want something for nothing and seem to have little concept of using up another person's time and energy.

Instead of leaving yourself open to pestering you could create an email that covers most bases, links to resources and tell anyone who gets in touch after to kiss your arse.

There is nothing wrong about it, monetizing an even like that is just normal, because you are giving away your time and your service to people, for them to learn of course, and if they don't like it, having a seminar or meeting that is being monetize by you or by the event organizer, then they can just simply not go, easy as that.


And about this, you could always ignore them, you have the right to refuse to their questions, and there is nothing they can do if you don't really want to, they can't force you to answer their questions because that is pure harassment, you could call the police if they will reach that point.

Are you an influential person?Tell us what You do,what you require monetization of your help?Legal consultants charge money for assistance,but they do provide assistance.For what and who will pay You is unknown).I think It's better for you to create your own telegram channel and share useful content there with the possibility of donating.Perhaps this way You can monetize your talent and knowledge.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's your right as the founder of the seminar. However, if you plan on monetizing your seminars and consultation, give at least a notice to participants days before the change. This is just for them to prepare and at least prepare with not being abrupt.

Though doing so might discourage participants later on, unless they are that dedicated in your opinion.

Despite bitcoin being around for some time, there still large numbers of people out there that haven't heard of this innovation before, and having a crypto seminar/ meeting will always leave answered questions with the people. To avoid people always coming back with more questions to you try video record your meetings and distribute to who ever wants to know more about cryptocurrencies to give yourself some free time, if there is something they will need after watching then help them.

About monetizing your meetings,my questions is does your audience look like they are ready to pay for your knowledge from your previous meetings, if yes try it out.

Holding physical meetings and seminars is way more better than just creating a telegram channel. OP is trying to convince people to pay him for the knowledge he spreads as far as I can read and understand OP. I can understand, it might get challenging to spend most of our time in educating people but getting nothing in return.

OP can charge some fees for those seminars which would start a side-by income from all those people who are interested in gaining some knowledge. OP should personally be most knowledgeable in order to start charging people to pay for his/her seminars but yes, this might be effective way to spread the knowledge as well as gain profits simultaneously.

It isn't wrong to monetize seminars as long as you are providing good information to the attendees. Most of the people I know who do paid seminar is they treat the seminar as membership or something. They get unlimited access to Q & A's after they have attended the seminar. Time is really important nowadays, it is something that you can't turn back whatever you do so it is better to monetize and gain profit from it.

For me the answer would be easy. Time is money. Yopu gave your presentation for free even when you could have charged them then and there. Now they want some additional explanation so tell them that you're paid per hour of consulting like every other advisor.

Lawyers, architects, doctors, they are all paid per hour if you have some questions why shouldn't you?
Tell them they can buy a subscription and you'll be available for them for another 30 days :D

You should never ever think about profits when monetizing he cryptocurrency seminars or meetings. People lack in knowledge and by god's grace you have acquired that knowledge which has high demand for the people who are yet unaware about few things. You should actively share the knowledge because the more knowledge you share, the more you gain so even if you do not get any profits by helping people, you get to revise a lot of your knowledge which might surely be a lot beneficial for you too.

Human brain stores a lot of knowledge inside but remembering each of that is nearly impossible if we do not revise actively. Sharing knowledge is most active reason behind revising our knowledge. I personally would never get tired of spreading knowledge to the maximum extend.

It depends on what you have packaged as part of the seminar. I have seen many corporate individuals offering seminars on the importance of crypto and how to make a profit by trading and starting local digital currencies exchange and they charge an exorbitant fee for giving these pieces of information. So it all depends. If you use facebook regularly, you must have come across individuals that organize seminars that are not free even on some platform-like edx, Coursera, udemy etc. people make videos inform of a seminar and sell it out for people who want to learn it.

You could hold such meetings for free, provided that you yourself do not spend money on renting premises and other expenses and do paid training if someone was interested in this.

Or, as an option, make some minimum entry fee to weed out extra people.

A relative of mine shares their knowledge to the public for free and charges for private consultation.

They probably wind up making more money and better use of their time.

The public free stuff acts as a shop window for the more detailed one on one things.

I've seen the odd 'crypto consultant' advertising but have no idea how well they do.

"If you are good at something, never do it for free", that saying suddenly came into my mind after I read your post. How unfortunate you are to get such bad audience. You know what, we're almost the same (aside from the fact that you got more listeners). I once became active spreading about the wonderful technology of cryptocurrency. I always approach everyone I've known and encourage them to try it too but just like you I got nothing but criticisms and face of doubts. So I understand you if you will monetize the seminars you will conduct from now on so that you can really know on who is the real interested and not :).

There is nothing wrong with monetizing bitcoin. Nothing is free. If you are holding a seminar or something like that, you better prepare everything, not only giving knowledge by speaking but giving a book or something like that so they can learn it outside the seminar.

And the information you provide can better be put into practice directly by them. Like an exchange site that supports fiat, how to buy, sell, transfer to a bank. Maybe if the seminar is held every week, you can add material about how to trade.

That your Meetup was free doesn’t mean that you will also be holding private meeting with people for free. You should let them know that only your pre-planned meetings or seminar will be free and when that day comes you can teach them a lot of things they would like to know for free, but apart from that date you shouldn’t be seeing anyone and answering questions for free.

Anyone that has a question to should pay before you meet them privately and answer questions. And of course some of them might stop calling you because they only prefer free things lol, only those that are serious enough to learn about Bitcoin will keep calling you.

This is definitely an option, and it is very common in many other industries and this could solve the problems of the OP, as soon as anyone wants to get a private consultation from him the first thing that should come out of his mouth is the price of the consultation and if the customer does not want to pay then kindly suggest them some free sources from which he can keep learning and then cut him off, this has many advantages, it will save time, you are still being helpful and it may bring a customer in the future and if done enough times it will bring you money.

That was a thing you'll have to expect when you are running for a training/seminar. You'll be expecting also that many people will come to you for queries and lots of questions coz they never understand it clearly during that time. That is why training and seminars can't just be enough for a person to learn and that is why also they will keep asking because they want to be guided by what they are doing by now. And if you are bothered to handle this situation (answering questions, calls and etc...) better not to do it again unless that was your passion or you are also been compensated.

Also worth considering is that free things are ascribed less value; you give it away for free, people will think it worthless and not value it.
A small fee to cover at least admin costs should be no problem to anyone. And those which think it not worth it?... well those are probable the kinds of people you don't want anyway.

Promoting Bitcoin to an uncommon places and people to OP who's not yet very well-known to the other people while asking for a fee is not a good idea. And also, Bitcoin is not yet too common to the other people that's why there's no need to ask for any fees yet. Just ask fees only if the people is interested to know more in private as a compensation of OP's time.