In the world of mobile apps and websites, finding effective ways to generate revenue is a critical aspect of success. For clients utilizing Nostr, there aren't many that have monetized themselves yet, most likely because this is all fun and they'd prefer not to ruin the users' experience with revenue-catching systems, considering that the Nostr space is relatively new and everything is still being tested, so a lot of users' experience is rough. However, that doesn't mean clients won't eventually develop and add a business model, as they must have a sustainable form of revenue to continue developing their clients and serve their users.
So now the question is, what can you do to start monetizing your client, and how do you do it in a way that doesn't push away users from it? Considering the nature of what Nostr is and how easily people can leave your client for another.
The Obvious: Ads
Hold your horses. The user has the power now, so you have to be careful with this one. Here's how you can implement ads into your client. Once a user logs in for the first time into your app, they'd be treated with a pop-up message inviting them to "Earn sats by enabling seamless ads, which contribute to the app's development." The pop-up provides three options and a fourth customizable choice:
- High: View ads every 10 posts.
- Low: View ads every 50 posts.
- Non: Opt out of seeing ads.
- Custom: Control the frequency of ads based on individual preferences.
Here are a few notes as well about who gets to see ads:
- Ads will only be displayed to users verified as genuine by the client. A note in the ad settings clarifies this, and once a user is confirmed as authentic, the message disappears. This should be done in the interest of clients and advertisers, so as to not serve ads to bots.
- I'd imagine there'd be a new note type introduced in a NIP that allows clients and advertisers to classify a note as an ad, distinguishing it from regular content. Once these ad-notes have been pushed, they could be viewed by clients or anyone interested in ad-related content.
- Advertisers with their published ad-notes would submit to clients for approval, which, when approved, includes a designated payment address for sats with details on the cost per 1,000 impressions, and once the payment is made, clients can display the ad-note to their users who have opted-in to view such content.
- To ensure better ad-to-user matching, advertisers incorporate keywords related to the client user's publicly shared interests. Advertisers can also target their ad-notes to appear on specific nPub profiles. Normal users can review a list of ad-notes shown on their profile and have the option to remove them from being displayed there. Advertisers can choose to display their ad-notes around a specific user's notes outside of their profile, with the user having no control over whether the ad is shown or not in this case. Advertisers can further select to display ad-notes to the followers of specific users, expanding their reach.
- Revenue generated from ad interactions is distributed among the client, viewers, profile holders (whose profiles feature ads among their posts and replies), and targeted profiles, providing appropriate revenue split among the involved parties.
What's cool about users being given a cut from the ad is that it would fund their zapping experience on Nostr as well, without the need for users to fund their wallets. People could now start zapping with zero cost on their end.
Subscription
How about creating one or multiple packages that provide the user with extra or expanded features and services? From prioritizing them in relay delivery, adding them to exclusive relays, providing them with CDN space (or extra of it), streaming time, post boosts, extra client customization options, early access to new features or services, early exclusive invites to other clients, post highlights that others would see in their feed, etc.
Think of whatever you can add to differently priced packages, usually three packages with the middle option being the most ideal for what would be offered vs the price. Also, you could look into providing continuous new additions to subscriptions every month or quarter, a live-service system, similar to how some games are being monetized today. On a related note, check out: Gamifty Nostr.
On an important note: Make sure that these extra features or services need to actually be paid for in order for the user to acquire them, or that their nice to have bonuses and not ones where it'll make the user feel like "they could've made this thing free, but I guess they're hungry for money", and even if you got that reaction, see if it's feasible to make a free version of it and the one behind a sub-wall would be a nicer version. This thought process also applies to the next monetization model.
Premium Features & Services
Aside from providing a subscription service, or instead of it, you could have all of those features and services to be sold separately, as a one-time purchase, or via a subscription, which would be priced a bit higher on their own in comparison to the subscription package. Some individuals would just want a single feature or service.
Affiliate Program
Here's where you'd incur marketing costs, where users would be rewarded in either payment, or with features and services or subscription packages even, where users would be incentivized to invite their other individuals, friends, family, and randoms, to join your client, and once determined they're not a bot and is someone active, it would add up to the threshold needed, of the person who invited them, so that they'd receive their rewards, and sometimes could be exclusive rewards.
Other Models
These are just the basic ways you could monetize your Nostr client, and in ways where users would be negatively impacted by them as low as possible, and in fact, might be positively affected. However, there are more ways you could monetize your client, going into B2B and/or B2C. Create events, collaborate with other Nostr clients, and cross-promote.
You could look at how other companies, not necessarily related to your client or this Nostr space, and see how they are monetizing themselves. For example, Google with its ads in search, Amazon with its store cuts, Twitter and Facebook with their Boost Post, etc.
Thanks For Reading
Looking forward to seeing how clients monetize themselves, especially the ones that implement them in a way that enhances the users' experience and does not hinder it, at least not much. Also, there's a reason why I linked the gaming article above, as it can be heavily connected to monetization models, among other things that could be linked in this post.
Share your thoughts on how to monetize Nostr clients. I'd love to read them.