Marketing Bitcoin

[Katrina Elisse Caudle]

Haha! First post out of the Newbie forum! I'm free!

So, a friend introduced me to bitcoin a few days ago and I've been madly reading for the past few days, searching on Bitmit and the forums to understand the current state of the bitcoin world. My background is in the arts, marketing, and organizing events and I'm really excited to see how to play with this new tool.

Because it's where my industry lies, I was thinking of starting a bitcoin marketing project in which I target specific industries to spread the idea of accepting bitcoin to them and making it really easy for them to get started. I'm setting up a website and looking for some projects to develop.

So my question is - what kind of industries do you think would be most likely to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon?

So far I've seen mining, development of new bitcoin technology, gambling, currency exchanges, trading bitcoins and shares in bitcoin companies, Silk Road, and camsites as some of the industries that originated from or are already tapped into it. Wordpress & Reddit accepting bitcoins is a big deal for more widespread acceptance of the currency and that makes bloggers a good target. Food purchase/delivery would be amazing. I personally think running an alternate reality game with bitcoin would be fantastic fun. Someone on the boards mentioned Deviantart as a possible target to get accepting bitcoins. Wikipedia is being a huge grouch about the whole thing...

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[Stephen Gornick]

what kind of industries do you think would be most likely to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon?

When people wager on SatoshiDICE or any of the other bitcoin online gambling sites, some lose, some win, and some win big.  They would rather not cash out their winnings involving a bank transfer.  What they want to do is spend their coins.

So, what ways are there to convert a few thousand dollars of bitcoins to something of value to the online gambler who has received good fortune?

That's a segment that has been completely overlooked so far.

I personally think there will be a decent amount of business for the first travel operator who offers all-inclusive vacation travel where the payment is made (in advance of course) using bitcoins.

I personally think running an alternate reality game with bitcoin would be fantastic fun.

Participative games involving compensation (in bitcoins, of course) seem to be a natural.   An example:
 - http://sc2btcopen.appspot.com

There has also been geocaching using bitcoins as a fun method of getting a wider number of people familiar with bitcoin.  I wouldn't be surprised for a marketing agency to develop some geocaching game with a retail tie-in some day where the bitcoins are earned.

It is a green field out there right now.   There must be hundreds of things Bitcoin enables that previously nobody ever thought of doing.

[dscotese]

I'm working on a pretty simple idea and looking for insights on what details it should include. Here are the basics I have so far:

• The site collects at most, a bitcoin address, an email address, and a short input (I was thinking 140 characters, so it's like a tweet)
• One kind of input is a proposal for a contest.  No need to enter an email or a bitcoin address.
• Another kind of input is an entry in a proposed contest.  No need to enter a bitcoin address.
• Anyone with bitcoin can bet on an entry in a contest, becoming a bettor.
• Anyone with bitcoin can purchase a share of future revenue from a contest without choosing an entry, becoming an investor.
• When a number of entries have bets (I was thinking seven), that list of seven is sent to each of the seven email addresses with an invitation to vote.  If they don't respond by a deadline (I was thinking a day), there is a default vote that will be used.
• Once the deadline arrives, the votes are processed to sort the seven entries into order according to their creators.  Then:
  
  • The winnings described below are paid out at 90%, and the other 10% is used as described further down.
  • All bitcoin bet on 7th place is divided among those who bet on the other 6 places proportionally to their bets
  • All bitcoin bet on 6th place is likewise divided among those who bet on the other 5.
  • Likewise, all bitcoin bet on 5th place is divided among the other 4.
  • ...and so on, with all bitcoin bet on 1st place going straight back to the bettors.
  • Of the 10% left over one half (5% of the total bet) is split evenly among the individual entries, so that if you provide an answer good enough to inspire a bet (along with a bitcoin address), you will earn bitcoin.  Spread the love!
  • The last 5% of the total bet for a contest is divided among the investors.

If you're interested in earning some bitcoin by helping with this idea, please PM me with your ideas about how you can help.

Katrina, if you'd like me to make this its own topic, let me know.  Your title caught my eye because one of the main reasons I thought up this idea was to give bitcoin holders a reason to spread their bitcoin to other people - that reason being their ability to entertain or educate with small bits of text.

[Narydu]

Tourism and International Students.

[jim618]

Hi Katrina,
If you wanted a very targeted marketing campaign to start off with:

There is a very nice Wordpress Bitcoin plugin here:
http://jonls.dk/2013/03/trying-out-bitcoin-wordpress-plugin/

Being able to collect bitcoin on your Wordpress blog to pay for Wordpress services seems useful.
It also gets the Bitcoin message out there quite subtlely.

Marketing that single capability would be a good one to focus your marketing skills on before moving on to bigger campaigns.

[bitcoinpreneur]

Hi Katrina,
If you wanted a very targeted marketing campaign to start off with:

There is a very nice Wordpress Bitcoin plugin here:
http://jonls.dk/2013/03/trying-out-bitcoin-wordpress-plugin/

Being able to collect bitcoin on your Wordpress blog to pay for Wordpress services seems useful.
It also gets the Bitcoin message out there quite subtlely.

Marketing that single capability would be a good one to focus your marketing skills on before moving on to bigger campaigns.

This is exactly what I will be releasing shortly through the BitMate WordPress Plugins. The first official donation plugin went live on the WordPress repository yesterday and the Bitcoin payment plugin is just being refactored and finalised now!

[chino517]

I've always thought education would be an outstanding place for bitcoin.

Think about the number of international students that are paying via methods that schools/universities are losing money. Plus, if educational institutions were to get involved (with whom a majority of students are within the 18-25 age group) we could see a large amount of publicity/widespread adoption in the future.

Getting started at schools really wouldn't be that difficult either; it would just be as simple as creating a club at the school and slowly getting the community involved with it. The thing about college students is they're extremely social. They talk, they share, AND when they go back home they spread the information further.

I plan on starting a club at my school this next fall. I figure if i can get some funding from the school, i can give out charitable donations to local businesses in bitcoin; basically forcing them to learn about/use this wonderful currency.

*also, first post out of jail!

Chino

[lixiaolai]

every corner of world finance, crowd funding, p2p load, etc.

[Diamondstarfall]

I've always thought education would be an outstanding place for bitcoin.

Think about the number of international students that are paying via methods that schools/universities are losing money. Plus, if educational institutions were to get involved (with whom a majority of students are within the 18-25 age group) we could see a large amount of publicity/widespread adoption in the future.

Getting started at schools really wouldn't be that difficult either; it would just be as simple as creating a club at the school and slowly getting the community involved with it. The thing about college students is they're extremely social. They talk, they share, AND when they go back home they spread the information further.

I plan on starting a club at my school this next fall. I figure if i can get some funding from the school, i can give out charitable donations to local businesses in bitcoin; basically forcing them to learn about/use this wonderful currency.

*also, first post out of jail!

Chino

Draper University already has.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/draper-university-becomes-first-educational-151400163.html

[chino517]

Not trying to be offensive to Draper University, but having them accept bitcoin really doesn't do much for the community as a whole. I'm more so interested getting large institutions interested in bitcoin.

Draper is a very "new age" college; bitcoin is a "new age" currency. I understand why they are the first to adopt it, but it really doesn't spread bitcoin to many new users.

Chino

[Diamondstarfall]

Not trying to be offensive to Draper University, but having them accept bitcoin really doesn't do much for the community as a whole. I'm more so interested getting large institutions interested in bitcoin.

Draper is a very "new age" college; bitcoin is a "new age" currency. I understand why they are the first to adopt it, but it really doesn't spread bitcoin to many new users.

Chino

Non taken, I feel the same actually. However I don't think you can hate the fact that they are accepting bitcoins. This is the first step of a big thing.

[HongkongShanghaiBitCoin]

College is the perfect environment for widespread bitcoin adoption. I would like to see a bitcoin club/meetup in every major university this upcoming semester. Try to get the little things that students pay for everyday, food, laundry, books, etc. to accept bitcoins. These products are the perfect products to accept btc because they are generally small purchases that never have any need for a chargeback and don't require trust because the consumer already has to be a student on campus to purchase these things. And these on campus stores and cafeterias are usually run by students themselves so it would be easier to convince the student run business to accept bitcoins than to convince a 40 year old coffee shop owner in town.


Oh and the travel with bitcoins is a great idea too. Isn't there a place in Ecuador that does the hyuasca (sp?)therapy that accepts bitcoin?

[atomium]

I would focus on daily deals websites that include either products or trips, hotels, events, etc.

something like that would be cool

[bitcoinpreneur]

I would focus on daily deals websites that include either products or trips, hotels, events, etc.

something like that would be cool

This sounds like a great project for the right person. Can definitely see a niche there!