Need a little advice from the best members out here

[20kevin20]

I have to admit that I have a ton of free time I'm literally wasting every single day.

I've been wondering for some weeks already how to get my time filled up and achieve something at the same time. It's mostly a thought linked to BTC or BitcoinTalk - be it campaign management, trade escrowing or doing some simple jobs for BTC or to become more trusted here, I just can't find a direction so I thought this is the best way to know what the best out here think.

Only a few minutes ago did I download and create some fresh new wallets willing to start offering escrow services on the forum. I hit a big wall in front of me though, which is the reputation I'm missing. I thought escrowing some transactions leads to a 3-in-1: there'd be 1 less potential scam victim every time, my time will not be wasted anymore and I may get some tip from it (or I could ask for a small percentage for my service)! But how do I do this without having a pile of trust on my back?

A few weeks ago I started a thread to offer my signature campaign service. Again - no history on my back, so I guess there isn't much hope for it to succeed. I would bump it every now and then but I feel like it just won't work. Or maybe I'm a little bit too pessimistic about it.

So now I'm wondering - what can I really do for BTC? Because every question has a dead-end to some extent: Escrow? No trust on my back. Signature Campaigns? No history/portfolio. Trading? No interest in exchanging/selling my BTC or alts. Writing articles (I writing)? No portfolio, non-perfect English and sometimes crappy payrates. I honestly feel hopeless and I have no idea where to start.

I usually think about offering services to the forum also as some kind of payback for the massive amount of knowledge, experience and fun BitcoinTalk has given me over the years. But if there is one thing I really want to succeed in, it's doing it right. Some members out here have done it for years, gained lots of experience and reputation and I know there has to be a start somewhere, but instead of starting 5 threads for all the things I can offer and have negative reactions to them all, I thought the best idea would be asking you what you recommend me to do.

Thank you to whoever takes their time to reply.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

If you offer to provide an escrow service or sig campaign management for free for a short time to prove your trustworthiness it could open a few doors to perhaps paid work in the future.

There are a number of trustworthy people who do the above so if you offer your services for free for maybe a month or two to prove yourself you might push yourself ahead of more established members in the battle for work which would give you a step towards getting paid for it in the future.

[UserU]

Hodl on a sec, you're unable to join a signature campaign even as a Hero member? Heck, I'd rather switch places with you

But honestly speaking, joining one isn't that hard if your posts are sensible and don't sound like you're forced to type whatever just to hit the quota. I'm aware that many are enforcing strict requirements but some are pretty lax.

Now back on topic. You want to earn some BTC. Nothing beats signature campaigns right off the bat, especially with an established profile like yours; all you got to do is to apply and hope you get accepted, it doesn't get easier than that. Other tasks either require monetary investment or some effort to establish a base of some sort. You kinda achieved the latter with your account so something's already done.

What I've been doing to earn BTC is listed below:
1) Websites - My main site receives payments in USD but my gambling one is strictly in Bitcoin, due to the conflict of interest. However I don't spent money to aggresively promote it so it earns BTC, albeit very slowly. Not recommended.
2) Gambling - If you've a bunch of (active) referrals and have already sold your house to attain highroller status to gain access to rakeback or some loyalty benefits, you get to enjoy some passive income. But then, that comes after ripping your balance like countless times.
3) Trading - On those online platforms, but you have to fork out several hundred to start, not to mention markets suddenly fucking you up when you least expected it. Plus, most platforms only accept fiat so those with Bitcoin deposits/ withdrawals support are hard to come by. And then comes the fiat-BTC conversion and vice versa.

So those are what I mainly rely on. There are plenty of ways, but it boils down to whether you're willing to invest whatever you have to grow them further. For instance, there are Bitcoin Interest Accounts which offer better rates than your typical FD.

[suchmoon]

So now I'm wondering - what can I really do for BTC?

What skills do you have? What do you do IRL? (not asking to dox yourself here LOL, just asking what you're good at). Can that kind of work be done remotely/anonymously?

[Lucius]

If you want to gain someone's trust then you have to start from the bottom, and this is where I totally agree with LFC_Bitcoin that best way is to offer some services for free in a certain number of services or maybe limit it to a timeframe.

I don't personally use escrow, but I know there are forum members who have been in it for years and it's certainly not easy to get into that business, but it's not impossible if you really want to. As for the campaigns managers, I have to admit that there are a lot of new faces on the scene unlike 2-3 years ago and that the competition is quite strong in this area. The problem is that there aren't enough good campaigns (I mean the ones that pay at BTC), so it's really hard to get a job.

Still, I would give you one piece of advice I know some apply in their service - don't wait for the job to come to you, but look for it yourself. As a Hero member you have some reputation on the forum, try to contact some crypto related services that might be interested to advertise via signature campaign and offer them your service.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

If you are really driven towards money or receiving a cent for each and every Service you offer to the community initially or contribute to the bitcoin in general it could be more or less never considered to be a selfless act. It is quite evident that you are going to help the people since you are receiving something in return either it might be the case of receiving trust, a few cents for offering services etc. Think of the services which you can offer it for free of cost which might be of greater help to others or might reduce the future problems which the community is going to face.

Why are you willing to offer the escrow? You are willing to gain trustworthiness or to receive few dollars for holding them. Why are you willing to do some jobs for btc? Gonna receive btc in return. People like satoshi, gavin, sirius, Hal and many others have spent their countless hours in working towards the betterment of bitcoin and they have never received anything in return for their great work all these years.

So now I'm wondering - what can I really do for BTC?

So are you willing to spend quite a bit of unpaid time for Bitcoin? If so, why don't you try learning some programming languages and help the developers in testing the code? Well, you don't even need any bit of reputation to help the devs in testing the code! There are over 350 pull requests pending in github which needs proper testing for them to get merged to the main branch. Why don't you learn about the progress and help the devs with your unpaid time?

There are other possibilities as well if you are not willing to learn programming and help the devs. If you do know any other language apart from English, why don't you spend your unpaid time in translating Core and bitcoin.org websites? A shitcoin announcement is almost present in all the global languages because they offer shitty tokens in return but the one which started all these (bitcoin) has very few translations to local languages. I am quite sure, you won't receive any money or trust for carrying out these unpaid work but if you are really willing to help bitcoin these might be some of the ways to do so.

Because every question has a dead-end to some extent:
...snip...
I honestly feel hopeless and I have no idea where to start.

Because every question has a dead-end to some extent; you are willing to receive bitcoin in return for your work or contribution and not really willing to spend your unpaid time for developing the community!


Bitcoin : Currency of the people, by the people, for the people

[marlboroza]

A few weeks ago I started a thread to offer my signature campaign service. Again - no history on my back, so I guess there isn't much hope for it to succeed. I would bump it every now and then but I feel like it just won't work. Or maybe I'm a little bit too pessimistic about it.

You could change topic title to something like "...new management service - available..." and change certain things (for example, I would remove "I am doing it for forum" part and some parts where you mentioned that participants will receive payment on time, that you will watch them and all other things you are already supposed to do as CM). Also, what's that with bold and then small letters? It is hard to read your offer. I would say be very simple and don't make unnecessary paragraphs. And then: patience. Wait, wait and wait, keep bumping that topic every day and eventually someone might contact you.

As for other things and regarding reputation and trust, no one is really born with one, you just have to earn them. You can also sell things and accept BTC, actually, you can do whatever you want and whatever you are doing in "real life" and accept BTC. There are no limits, you know...
Why is this in meta anyway?

[Csmiami]

There´s this little old thread with various imputs from different people from the forum, some of them are reputable escrow members.

It's an old thread, but I don't think the general guidelines have changed much over the years.

As malboroza says, this should go on Meta; beginners and help or Service discusison would fit better

[20kevin20]

If you offer to provide an escrow service or sig campaign management for free for a short time to prove your trustworthiness it could open a few doors to perhaps paid work in the future.
There are a number of trustworthy people who do the above so if you offer your services for free for maybe a month or two to prove yourself you might push yourself ahead of more established members in the battle for work which would give you a step towards getting paid for it in the future.

I thought about it (you can see that in my OP), but I believed I'd hit the "you do not have any history of trading on here" wall. Thanks - will certainly make use of your suggestion.

~

I did not say I am unable to join a signature campaign; in fact, I think it's quite obvious that I already am part of one. I'm willing to do something other than being part of sig campaigns. Trading and gambling are not on my cards; they both involve me risking my BTC and that is not what I'm willing to do; otherwise, I'd just start trading with members on here and gain some trust from it.

What skills do you have? What do you do IRL? (not asking to dox yourself here LOL, just asking what you're good at). Can that kind of work be done remotely/anonymously?

I unfortunately really don't have a skill that I can work it remotely/anonymously besides writing and doing some Bitcoin-related things I've mentioned (hence I have considered so far only what I've posted in the OP).

~

Thanks, will keep this in mind. Sometimes things seem way more complicated than they truly are. Will possibly give free escrowing a try.

~

At this point it's not necessarily getting paid in BTC, although this is a period I was planning to invest everything in it and now I have $0 income (besides the sig campaign) thanks to the lockdown.

As I said in the OP, free escrowing is an option I've thought about so it's not me going all-in for the money. The thing is, when working I like knowing there's communication with my customers/readers to some extent: receiving comments on articles, having to communicate with campaign participants, keeping in touch with the parties involved in an escrow.

By "what can I really do for BTC?" I was more referring to doing a job and getting paid in BTC for it, because that's the ideal situation but starting off from 0 is obviously an option and the one I'm +80% aiming for.

As for other things and regarding reputation and trust, no one is really born with one, you just have to earn them. You can also sell things and accept BTC, actually, you can do whatever you want and whatever you are doing in "real life" and accept BTC. There are no limits, you know...

Thank you, will keep in mind everything you've said. I honestly think the thread looks crap too (I have a stupid habit of writing walls of text) but had no idea how to improve it

Why is this in meta anyway?

I honestly have absolutely no idea where this thread's place is.

~

Thanks. Moving the thread as soon as I post this reply. Will read the thread you've linked

[Findingnemo]

First of all, I appreciate that you didn't try to farm trust here, you are actually looking to prove yourself but what some members doing is they trade intentionally with DT members to get positive trust so they can pretend that they are also reputed members here.

Everyone has to start from the beginning, I can see some users are really launching their signature campaigns even if they have no history which might be from their personal contacts outside the forum members or with their merit reputation here.

Since you already posted your signature campaign service thread, what should you have to do is wait for it, someone will find you until that keep bumping your thread.
You can also get advice from veterans via PM or in this thread.

[UserU]

I did not say I am unable to join a signature campaign; in fact, I think it's quite obvious that I already am part of one. I'm willing to do something other than being part of sig campaigns. Trading and gambling are not on my cards; they both involve me risking my BTC and that is not what I'm willing to do; otherwise, I'd just start trading with members on here and gain some trust from it.

Ah, my bad. I disabled sigs which was why I couldn't view anybody's.

[Upgrade00]

Underselling yourself is an option, it would only attract campaigns that are desperate to save a buck or two. Those that want their projects handled professionally would invariably go for more established members in the campaign management and escrow service fields.
The first step is knowing the service you offer, if you hope to attract offers to yourself, you have to be personally ready to take on the service you're offering when the offer does come.

You can also engage in aggressive marketing; regularly bumping your service and if possible reaching out to potential clients, this could land you a job or a recommendation.

[Csmiami]

The first step is knowing the service you offer, if you hope to attract offers to yourself, you have to be personally ready to take on the service you're offering when the offer does come.

On top of that, don't bite more than what you can chew.

Around the time I wrote the thread I redirected you, I opent a lending service. It din't go "bad", but trolling a scammer turned out to be a pretty bad idea that let me with an inactive flag and 2 neutral trusts.
You will have some people that are real assholes and only want to take advantage of you, using you as some kind of "to be trusted" while they scam the rest of the forum. In the end, the most important thing is you deciding what is right at each time.

[suchmoon]

I unfortunately really don't have a skill that I can work it remotely/anonymously besides writing and doing some Bitcoin-related things I've mentioned (hence I have considered so far only what I've posted in the OP).

Looks like a learning opportunity then. I think that's what I would do if I had free time - learn something new. Find something that you are interested in, something that's reasonably unique or uniquely suitable for you, and go at it.

I would avoid crowded "jobs" like campaign management or escrow. I mean how much can you really expect to make there. And if it's easy for you to do so then it's probably easy for others too, so it's a race to the bottom.

[LbtalkL]

Everything started from scratch I guess you can do it, try offering FREE service first to get some client and put it on your portfolio, Do it one at a time, Focus on one field, Either Campaign manager, Escrow service or anything that you like and comfortable. But I guess in that field there is some giant wall but I am not discouraging you, just keep trying. Just take your time and think about what you really want to do.

[sujonali1819]

Firstly choose anything what you think easy for you. Because you know yourself more than us. So find something on which you have much confidence.  Then start to learn how people do it previously. Even try to check previous post history  of them. So that you can grave some useful information. And go ahead.

Anyway, honestly there are lots of experienced person who are giving there these services from long. So if you start to give some unique service that will make you more attractive.

[The Cryptovator]

Whatever your current target to earn some more extra btc isn't very easy especially during this COVID-19 epidemic. For escrow service you must need to gain enough trust. For management service you need more experience but there is little chance to get campaign I you may offer free and wait with patience. If I am not wrong some of companies just hold/paused their advertise on forum (I talked with couple of brand previously for campaign and they are waiting for when epidemic situation will be normal).

If you have sone extra capital then most likely lending business would be perfect for you with collateral. Don't lent any amount without collateral at the beginning if you really want to start lending business.

On the other hand, you may learn some easy work like design and could sell on different freelancing platforms including this forum. It would easy to learn since you have enough free time. You have to work hard if you want to earn some extra.

[20kevin20]

Thanks to all of you for the suggestions. I've kept all your messages in mind and will take my time to think very well which path I'm going to take.

I'll merit all who've usefully replied on-topic so far and have under 1000 Merits on their account; my apologies to the rest but you will be merited once I get my sMerits bag filled up a bit I sincerely appreciate all your answers!

[libert19]

I enjoyed your post and it's neat write up, you seem to be underestimating your writing skills  

You may give a try to content campaign of Digital Gold (click, bounty in my signature). Good luck.

Pay rates are good and they always pay on time, plus it's stable coin.

[Henri Cartier]

In free times, we can do many things. If you like shopping then you can do online shopping where they offer some cash backs in Bitcoin. Some of the company's that offer cash backs are Lolli, Pei, etc.

Also, you can become an Affiliate marketer and earn bitcoins online. Some company's offer free bitcoins if you direct your followers and friends to do business with them.

As you are free, it is the right time to read and increase your knowledge. You can earn while you are learning. Coinbase is offering free tokens when you are learning about Crypto on their Earn while you learning about the Crypto program.