Famous KOL Ignas's account: How did I become famous?

Author: Ignas

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

I never thought about becoming a KOL; the term "KOL" sounds a bit cliché.

People generally have negative feelings towards influencers and the entire influencer economy. I understand the reasons behind this; the crypto world is filled with scammers who sell and dump on their fans, ultimately causing harm to them.

But not all KOLs are scammers. Money is not my motivation for posting on Twitter; I initially started posting simply because I was bored during the bear market of 2022.

Now, I'm bored again, so I asked on Twitter what to write next. The most popular idea was to share insights on becoming a KOL, how to grow an audience, and reveal some secrets about crypto KOLs and marketing. Since I already have 100,000 followers on Twitter, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some different content.

In this article, I will briefly share my story, provide tips on growing an audience, discuss popular monetization models (including pricing), and more.

First, do you want to become a KOL?

At the end of 2021, when the market crashed, I was working at a Korean CEX. Suddenly, the cryptocurrency market became unusually quiet.

For a few months, I went to the office just to scroll through Twitter; nothing interesting was happening. Worse, my boss was busy promoting the CEX, so there wasn't much real work to do.

This was my second bear market, so I knew a new bull market was on the horizon.

The bull market of 2020-2021 started with DeFi, but few people understood how it worked. Most traded on CEXs without knowing how to use MetaMask. When DeFi summer arrived, those who understood the basics of DeFi reaped significant rewards. I also started farming YFI on Curve early on, with annual interest rates reaching a terrifying 10,000%. What a wonderful time…

My plan was to continue researching to find the next opportunity as early as possible.

I initially wrote on Twitter to document personal notes to prove that I truly understood the subject. That's why my Twitter name is "DeFi Research."

Tip: If you think you truly understand a concept, try writing it down. You'll find that clearly explaining your thoughts on paper is much harder than imagining it in your head.

But I still felt bored. So, I wrote a large study on the roadmaps of 25 DeFi protocols to identify their common trends. I spent a week writing this standalone piece.

I was worried it might fail. After investing so much time into an article, you really want it to succeed.

I was lucky; the article quickly went viral. DeFi Edge, Miles Deutscher, DeFi Dad… a host of DeFi big names interacted with it, and to this day, it remains one of my top 5 posts by likes (with 244k views).

At that time, I only had 300 followers. But then, my followers rapidly increased over the next few days. With this post, my follower count grew to about 3,000, a tenfold increase!

Tip: The quality of content on Twitter is crucial. While popular posts may be accidental, sustained follower growth requires insightful and unique content, which takes time and effort. Some posts will fail, but successful posts will attract quality followers.

I continued to learn and share content about tokenomics, stablecoins, and SBT weekly, and soon grew to 10,000 followers.

Tip: Consistency is key. Once you gain momentum, you need to keep pushing. Otherwise, the Twitter algorithm will "forget" you, and your posts won't appear in others' feeds.

The first milestone has been achieved; the first 10,000 followers are the hardest. After that, you can cover a broader range of topics. Next, I will share more tips on growing your audience.

Why You Should Write on Twitter (Even If You Don't Want to Become a KOL)

Two other reasons that prompted me to start writing on Twitter are my girlfriend and Naval Ravikant. Naval completely changed my perception of "success." In his famous post "How to Get Rich (without being lucky)," he shared his own success story.

The post is great, but the book goes into more detail. You can read his book here.

Interestingly, as an experiment, I wrote a (viral) post about how I got rich through cryptocurrency, which garnered me thousands of followers.

In short, Naval teaches people to pursue wealth rather than just becoming rich. By arming yourself with specific knowledge and leveraging it through the internet, you can become wealthy, greatly expanding your career development space.

This specific knowledge is very niche and creative, obtainable through curiosity and passion. You can create software and media that work for you while you sleep through coding and media applications.

But the following part was a pleasant surprise for me:

"If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts." This ultimately allows you to leverage "specific knowledge, and eventually, you will receive the rewards you deserve."

In the attention economy, having an audience is an advantage.

Our attention is limited, while information is infinite. With so much information vying for your attention, your attention becomes more valuable and harder to capture.

For crypto projects, being able to capture your attention can mean the success or failure of the protocol, with technical features coming second.

If this isn't an attention game, then what is? Valuation is largely driven by attention, and 99% of cryptocurrency remains speculative.

Stacy interprets Delphi Digital's report: attention is everything.

That's why I support Polkadot's adoption of influencer marketing strategies. I believe this is the most effective way to disseminate information to native Web3 users. The problem with Polkadot is poor execution.

Since cryptocurrency is largely driven by narratives and emotions, crypto companies want to collaborate with influential people.

As Edgy said, this leverage makes it easier for individuals to gain jobs and deals, reducing reliance on a single source of income.

In short, Naval's book clarified everything for me:

• I felt bored yet curious about cryptocurrency, so I started researching, which helped me build a specific knowledge base.
• Since I couldn't code, I chose writing to grow my audience and gain influence.
• As my audience expanded, I gained multiple monetization avenues.
• For me, cryptocurrency is like a game. (When I was a teenager, I played "Lineage 2." The upgrades in the game are similar to gaining followers on Twitter. The money in cryptocurrency is like Adena in the game, and becoming a KOL is like becoming a hero in "Lineage," expanding your influence.)

Tip: What are you truly curious about? In the long run, you need to maintain motivation through curiosity.

Monetization Models

Before I share tips on gaining followers, I want to highlight an important reason for becoming a KOL: making money.

This is one of the biggest challenges for many KOLs; monetization is often harder than attracting an audience and followers.

A few months after I started writing, I quit my 9-to-5 job. It was the best feeling I ever had.

I went to a café, opened a Notion document, and listed all the popular models KOLs use to make money. My first thought was to find investment targets for venture capital firms while understanding excellent protocols in the crypto space. Long story short, I ended up with a blog, a referral role, an Instadapp ambassador position, and launched my KOL marketing agency, Pink Brains.

In addition to my salary, I had at least five sources of income (including airdrops).

Note: This Notion document was created by me, and I haven't touched it in a year. So, it's incomplete and has many typos.

Therefore, here are the most popular monetization models for crypto KOLs:

Paid Posts: Seemingly simple, but it can damage your reputation.

• A bad collaboration with a dubious crypto project can ruin your reputation, so ensure the project is reliable. Accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers rarely attract mainstream projects, while accounts with many followers can become overwhelmed, leading to extensive time spent researching projects.
• Compensation varies based on private negotiations, the KOL's reputation and influence, and their understanding of other rates. For KOLs with fewer than 20,000 followers, the starting price for a post is usually around $500, while for KOLs with hundreds of thousands of followers, it can reach $3,000-$5,000. Mainstream projects have lower reputational risks, so the fees paid are usually lower.
• Compensation also changes when the market shifts from bullish to bearish or vice versa.

Blog Sponsorships:

• Dedicated sections in blog articles. Prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the number of subscribers. A 150-word sponsored section in a blog post is expected to cost over $1,000.
• Featured blog posts: A well-known KOL I know charges $15,000 for a dedicated blog post, while generally, a blog post costs much less.
• Paid subscriptions: Unpopular because it limits the KOL's growth; you can earn more from the above two methods. For example, I earn a pre-tax income of $13,000 annually from paid subscriptions.

KOL Private Investments:

• Private investments are becoming increasingly popular among KOLs. Projects also like this model because KOLs voluntarily participate in project development without needing to pay for contributions.
• The investment amount per KOL typically ranges from $1,000 to $20,000.
• Terms like lock-up periods and valuations are better than most venture capital firms.
• You are required to post information about the project, usually a few tweets per month.
• High profit potential. Previously, it was considered almost risk-free due to short lock-up periods and low valuations. Now, the situation is somewhat different, as low liquidity and high FDV tokens are continuously being sold off.

Consultant/Ambassador Positions:

• Both have minimum requirements for the number of posts per month and are long-term. Compensation is usually paid in project tokens, while one-time paid posts on Twitter are paid in stablecoins. Compensation varies, but you can typically earn $5,000-$10,000, or even $15,000 per month.

Referrals:

• I like referral models that provide special benefits to referrers. Airdrops are suitable. Another common one is that CEXs reward referrers with a portion of the fees obtained from new users. This income is unstable.

Dumping tokens to fans:

• Buying tokens and then recommending them to your followers. This is very common, even among the "most respected" KOLs on Twitter.

KOLs have more monetization methods, such as becoming representatives of DAOs; your monetization potential depends on your creativity.

Finding a profitable model takes time. It took me 9 months to find my first blog sponsor after gaining over 40,000 followers on Twitter. I decided not to post paid posts (only published one for Pancakeswap V3) but instead founded a KOL agency.

In fact, I earned more money from posting paid posts than from our KOL agency, and the workload was less. But compared to making money, I wanted to grow Pink Brains.

How to Grow Your Audience

This topic could be a standalone blog post; you can find many related posts on Twitter, like this one from Edgy here. For simplicity, I will share my personal tips:

1. Start with a focused niche, then gradually expand your influence.

• Begin by focusing on a hot area or even just one protocol, then become an authority in that field. Write guides, share updates, connect with the core community, and share your insights.
• Make sure you are genuinely passionate about it, rather than feeling like you're working on it.
• As you grow personally, expand your coverage: a hot protocol → similar protocols → DeFi → cryptocurrency → others.

1. Find what you excel at:

• You might excel at on-chain trading, meme creation, or finding airdrops. It's best to combine multiple skills to make yourself indispensable.
• For example, CC2 ventures shares airdrop guides while personally farming those airdrops.

1. Provide value first, then seek monetization.

• First, you need to offer something valuable to your audience without expecting anything in return. Write guides, share insights, and connect with like-minded individuals.
• Monetization requires patience. If you start monetizing too early through paid posts, it may hinder your long-term growth.
• For example, ELI5 of TLDR grew to 13,000 followers by commenting on popular posts.

4. Avoid using hashtags; instead, use token symbols (tickers). Too many hashtags can make your posts look like spam.

5. Choose an eye-catching avatar and stick with it. NFT avatars (like Pudgy Penguins) can attract community members and increase your follower count, but NFTs can be expensive.

6. Experiment with new content: yesterday's success may be tomorrow's failure. Stay ahead by continually reinventing yourself as crypto trends evolve.

• I've seen many influential people lose their influence because they failed to reinvent themselves.
• Being unique helps you stand out. Draw inspiration from your favorite writers, but don't copy their content.
• Mix lightweight content posts (like this one) with thematic and long posts. Lightweight content can gain views, while long posts can attract followers.

4. Tag a few experts in the topic at the end of your posts. But don't repeatedly tag the same person; it can be annoying.

5. Don't post meaningless spam. Insightful spam posts are a high-level art form that requires wisdom and expertise.

9. Use tools like Typefully to help you write posts: fix grammar, use AI for brainstorming, and track data.

• Check analytics to see which types of content resonate most with your audience, then adjust your strategy accordingly.

9. Respond to post comments, engage in discussions, and thank your followers. Building a community is a two-way street.

10. Try other platforms: you can start with Farcaster, Debank, or Lens to build your audience without fierce competition. Once you have a stable follower base, bring them to Twitter.

11. Don't look for easy shortcuts; there are no shortcuts.

• Avoid Twitter activities like liking, retweeting, and commenting. These distort your engagement metrics. After the activity ends, the algorithm will show future posts to the same users seeking rewards. If they stop engaging, your influence will diminish. Prioritize small, focused communities.
• Don't just seek attention; pursue quality. Forget vanity metrics and attract "valuable followers" with top-notch content.

Ultimately, it depends on whether you have unique insights, know how to write, and are willing to put in the effort. It took me two years to gain 100,000 followers.

Unfortunately, cultivating a follower base is now more challenging than ever. There are few newcomers to crypto Twitter, so the audience for posting and reading articles is the same.

Twitter's "recommend" feature has reduced the need to follow accounts directly.

I recommend following Alex to understand changes in the Twitter algorithm and how to adapt to grow your audience.

How to Market Yourself on Twitter

An unexpected side effect of becoming a KOL is the enhancement of sales skills. This is not just because the audience has expanded.

I receive dozens of DMs every day but can only reply to a few. Unfortunately, I can't respond to every message as it is very time-consuming, and most DMs are meaningless.

Most KOLs do this. The primary reason for not replying is the lack of mutual following: if I don't follow anyone who follows you, you'll be passed over.

That's why, even if you're not a KOL but a developer, researcher, company employee, business developer, etc., if you plan to connect with people on Twitter, you should also gain followers.

I receive many pitches daily, teaching me how to sell. Here are some tips:

• Keep it concise; long messages will be skipped.
• Introduce yourself, state your needs, and emphasize your value.
• Don't include links in the first message, especially Calendly!
• Be persistent but polite.
• No reply? Your pitch may not meet my needs; please don't take it personally.
• Nothing is worse than a Calendly link in the first message!

In summary, this is just my path; yours will be different.