Happy New 2021 all!

As is becoming customary, it's time to give you an update on what the last year was for Publish0x in terms of growth and development, what the current state of the project is, and what you can expect in the year(s) to come.

In this post I'll go over:

• Publish0x Growth in 2020 saw us grow between 2.5x and 10x!
• Why Dozens of Crypto Project Teams are Blogging on Publish0x (and Why You Should Too)!
• Q4 Update and an Overview of the Biggest Changes in 2020.
• Publish0x in 2021 - new token integration(s), new contests, new events, and other cool new things that you can look forward to from Publish0x in 2021.
• PS. If you're interested, our update for 2019 can be read here.

-- Publish0x Growth in 2020 - our Growth Year over Year --

This is what what Year over Year growth in 2020 felt like to us! And this is why:

1. [10x Growth] Number of Tips Tipped to Posts.

• In late July 2020 we've marked the occasion when 5 Million tips were given out.
• But to go back even further, on December 13th, 2019 we've celebrated 1 Millionth tip that was given out since Publish0x started back in late 2018.
• Over 1 Million tips were given out in December 2020 alone… and we are now celebrating 10 Million tips that were tipped to posts - an insane (almost) 10x growth Year over Year!

Here's a tweet from a recent past - we've grown significantly since!

2. [6.5x Growth] An 6.5x Increase in User Numbers!

The number of users using Publish0x is increasing at a very high rate.

• End of December 2019, we've had 31k registered accounts.
• Between February and March 2019, we celebrated 50k, then 60k, and finally 70k registered accounts.
• In May, we've celebrated 100k accounts registered on Publish0x - and that number is now at over 208,000 registered accounts, which is (well over) 6x year over year growth!

I'm sending a big THANK YOU to all of the users who are tipping and sharing great posts published on Publish0x!

3. [Over 5x Growth] Traffic Growth - What Google Analytics Tells Us.

In the image above, the dark blue line is showing traffic to Publish0x.com in 2020, and an orange line is showing traffic levels during 2019 - the difference is staggering and obvious.

Google Analytics reports a (well over) 5x growth in traffic year over year! This is an 5x increase across all important metrics - from pageviews, users, and new users, to sessions. We've also seen a big increase in the number of pages viewed during a session, and in session duration, as well as a decrease in bounce rate.

4. [3x Growth] Publish0x on Social Media!

Our social media channels have followed the overall site growth.

• Publish0x Telegram Group had 1,200 members a year ago, and now numbers 3,400+ members! Join Publish0x Telegram group here.
• We've had just over 2,000 followers on Twitter back in March 2019. That number is now at over 7,000 followers. Follow @Publish0x on Twitter from here.
• We also run an active-ish Facebook page with 1,847 likes atm. Like Publish0x on Facebook from here.
• To my surprise, Publish0x is fairly popular on Instagram too, although we've barely made any effort. Join over 1,000 others and follow Publish0x on Instagram here.
• A social media channel which we've neglected as well is Youtube. There are a few videos up which you can check - including one from our founder, Dan! Join over 1,300 others and subscribe to Publish0x on Youtube.

5. [2.5x Growth] Number of Articles Published Show Significant Growth.

But, that's not all. Authors are more active too. I've noticed an marked increase in both the quantity, but also in quality of posts being published; though this is not to say that lesser quality posts aren't published too.

Here are the differences in 2019 vs 2020 in terms of posts published on Publish0x:

• By the end of 2019, there were 29,500 posts published on Publish0x. Today, that number is standing at over 107,000 posts published!
• In 2019, there were about 100 posts published per day. Today, that number is closer to 250 - 300 posts published each day!
• In 2020 vs 2019, we've seen a roughly 2.5x increase in the number (and quality) of posts published on Publish0x!

I'm sending a big THANK YOU  to all of the authors who are publishing great stuff on Publish0x!

6. Just like last year... An Unfortunate Side Effect of [Growth]: Fraudsters Impersonating Publish0x and Our Team Members.

We have grown enough so, that scammers have found it worthwhile to try and impersonate our brand, hoping to use it as leverage and cheat our users out of their crypto. These unscrupulous characters are trying to defraud our users, on our Telegram group, via email and on our Facebook page.

This year, there were even impersonators of both Alexander and myself on Telegram. These scammers were trying to defraud funds from Publish0x users. Note that the fraudster below completely copied my Telegram profile @igort0x - and used a letter " O ", instead of a number " 0 " - so his username is igortOx instead igort0x. Clever, but scammers will do anything to make a quick buck.

ATTENTION: As is unfortunately the norm in the crypto space, there are now fake Publish0x accounts impersonating us on various social media platforms and chat apps. These accounts are used to defraud our users and are most active on Facebook, via email and Telegram.

NOTE: No one from the Publish0x.com team will ever ask you to send them crypto or to give them your password.

If someone claiming to be from Publish0x asks you to send them crypto, you can be sure that they are a not connected to us in any way, and you should report them.

Similarly, we will never ask you for your account password.

-- Dozens of Blockchain and Crypto Teams are Blogging on Publish0x. Here's Why You Should Join Too! --

Quite simply, the reason your team should start blogging on Publish0x by sharing news, updates, and posts around your project, is exposure to our ever growing audience. This is something that we don't charge for! All of our users have wallets, they love blockchain and crypto, and I'm sure that they will love you and your project too! :)

What kind of exposure can you expect form Publish0x?

We have a hidden (and not yet well optimized - meaning slow loading) page that shows how much traffic all of the posts published in certain blogs got on Publish0x.

• The "Official Blog Views" column shows how much views all of the posts published in the teams blog have gotten, lifetime. Some teams have published many posts, others just a few.
• The "Viral Views" column shows how much views posts tagged with the projects respective tags have gotten.

From this screenshot, it is obvious that these three groups of projects enjoy a lot of eyeballs on Publish0x:

• 1. Projects that in some way partner with or get integrated into Publish0x; These include Loopring, Ampleforth, BAT and Atomic Wallet. These projects always get extra interest from and increase exposure to our audience.

• 2. Projects that have a huge userbase outside of Publish0x; When projects like these join us and start blogging with us, they instantly get a lot of exposure and generate interest from Publish0x authors (as well as all users). Polkadot and Kusama joined us fairly late in 2020, and have managed to get a lot of attention just by (re)blogging their posts.

• 3. Projects that are very active on Publish0x; Banano and ChangeNow stick out as being very active on the site.

-- Writing Contests Turned out to be a Real Hit and Got a Lot of Eyes on the Projects that Decided to Co-Organize a Contest With Publish0x! Should Your Team Run One? --

Writing contests are a good way to get your project exposure to our audience, all the while our audience both learns about, writes about, and creates buzz around your project.

By running a writing contest on Publish0x:

• You will be incentivizing authors (and users) to write about...
• and to spread the word about your project...
• all the while they learn about the project and how it works.

What Kind of Exposure Can You Expect from Running a Contest on Publish0x?

We've ran only four contests in 2019. These turned to be a great hit, so in 2020 we've ramped up the number of contests and the rewards we give out to winners.

Each of the contests has it's own tag, so it's easy to track how much exposure teams that ran the contest got on Publish0x.

I've listed the amount of views that posts published in the contests have gotten on Publish0x below, Note that we also send an email about the contest to our users, we send push notifications, and create buzz on social media too, on top of this:

• Bityard Contest (December 2020): 68 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'TradeWithBityard'; these posts have received 90,240 views from our audience.
• Harvest.Finance Contest (November 2020): 69 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'DeFiFARMer'; these posts have received 102,631 views from our audience.
• DEXToken Contest (October 2020): 55 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'DEXTokenDeFined'; these posts have received 81,050 views from our audience.
• Statera Project Contest (August 2020): 52 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'MyStateraProject'; these posts have received 89,550 views from our audience.
• ChangeNOW Contest (July 2020): 58 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'ChangeNOWExplained'; these posts have received 79,058 views from our audience.
• Atomic Wallet Contest (June 2020): 81 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'AtomicWalletTutorial'; these posts have received 138,553 views from our audience.
• Another Publish0x Based Contest (May 2020): 75 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'MyPublish0xAuthor'; these posts have received 68,233 views from our audience.
• Aelf Contest (May 2020): 37 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'AelfExplained'; these posts have received 68,681 views. 
• Loopring DEX Contest (April 2020): 21 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'LRCDEX'; this was a specialized contest that had some pre-requisites before authors could participate, and posts published in this contests have received 49,853 views from our audience.
• Publish0x Based Contest (February 2020): 210 posts are tagged with the contest tag 'Publish0xTutorials' *note: many have used this tag after the contest finished, too; these post have received 448,958 views from our audience.

-- Notable Changes on Publish0x.com in 2020. --

Let me start off by sharing a few updates that were made to the site in Quarter 4 (Q4) of 2020. After that, I'll list a few of the most important updates to Publish0x.com in 2020.

1. [Q4 2020 Update] - AMPL Integrated for Tipping.

I'm sure that you're all aware that AMPL was integrated for tipping in late November, but it's a change still worth mentioning.

2. [Q4 2020 Update] - Authors - More Stats on Your Posts, Better Stats, + a Search Field Added.

• We have made further improve both the look, and functionality of the post publishing process, and we've made additions to stats you have access to.
• Notice that the search field was also added on your posts page - this is to help you make it easy to find specific posts you've published.
• On top of this, visit a profile of any user, and you might notice small improvements there too. :)

3. [Q4 2020 Update] Comment Sorting!

This is a small change. One that will make the lives of our authors, and those that love to engage with others via comments, much easier. Now you can sort comments by publishing date (newest and oldest), or by best comments (those that have the most positive ratio of upvotes vs downvotes).

1. [Notable Changes] LRC, ETH, and AMPL Integrated for Tipping.

This year has seen multiple tokens integrated into Publish0x:

• Between April and November, Loopring (LRC) was an active tipping token on Publish0x. We saw great potential with LRC and genuinely loved the project... the price of LRC token at the time of integration was around 3 cent USD, while it's over 15x in value today.
• Finally, we've also integrated THE token - Ethereum (ETH), in August 2020. ETH replaced DAI as a tipping token.
• In November, we've integrated Ampleforth (AMPL), a very exciting DeFi project with unique token rebasing characteristics.

2. [Notable Changes] Multiple Quality of Life Changes.

We've made numerous smaller updates that make your stay on Publish0x feel much better. Those small updates matter a lot, and we know this. This is why we continuously work on making the platform better.

I won't go into too much details about the numerous small changes we've made in 2020, but I will list the ones I feel both you, our community, and me personally, liked best:

• Added ability to add a separate address - one per token, before requesting a withdrawal.
• Payouts page is much cleaner and explains the withdrawal process better.
• We've increased the minimum withdrawal threshold to $1 due to high ETH gas fess. At the same time, we've increased the value of tips by 30%.
• Added ability to bookmark posts.
• Made numerous updates to user profiles, author profiles, and added V1 of author and post stats.
• We've added the ability to block users you don't like. You can do so from their profile page. Once done, you don't see their stuff, they don't see yours.
• Thumbs UP / Thumbs Down button was added both under posts, and under comments.
• We've added the ability to sort comments by most popular, newest and oldest comment written.

-- Going Forward - What to Expect from Publish0x in 2021. --

As you can see above, we've started the year with a bang, and we're not stopping...

1. [Expect] A New DeFi Token in January (and later our first non-Ethereum based token?)!

A new token will be implemented this month, and will replace BAT as a tipping token. All I can say for now is that:

• The new token will be an Ethereum based token.
• The new token is a DeFi token.
• I have no doubt that you are all aware of this project already, and I am very excited to share the new as soon as we implement the token for tipping!

And what about adding a token that is not on the Ethereum Network? No promises here, but I can reveal that we are seriously considering adding a major token that is not on the Ethereum network. And it might be sooner than you think!

2. [Expect] Still in Development: Notifications Overhaul and an Ability to Send Bigger Tips to Authors.

Well, this is a bit embarrassing, but we never got to implementing an ability to send bigger tips to authors, nor have we made an complete notifications overhaul. It has been a wild year, and these are the two big areas we definitely want to focus on in 2021.

You can read details about what these updates will be in our update from last year.

3. [Expect] Ability to Feature Your Posts on Multiple Pages on Publish0x.

This has been a feature often requested by you guys. We do see good potential with this - it will be an easy and (semi) automated way to get exposure to our audience.

You will be able to feature your posts on specific slots on our homepage, as well as over multiple category pages.

4. [Expect] Ambassador Contests Still Going Strong - and they Will Continue!

Ambassador Leaderboards is an ongoing monthly competition in which we reward ambassadors who refer the most new (and active) users to Publish0x.com

You can learn more about the Ambassador Leaderboard Monthly Contest by clicking here, or participate in the latest monthly Ambassador Laderboards Contest - check current results here.

• PS. Website Widgets which you can integrate into your website to display posts from Publish0x and refer users with your link are still working well!
• PPS. Graphics Ambassadors can use can be found here.
• Your Ambassadors page can be accessed form here.

5. [Expect] More Writing Contests, More Events, and More Contests in General!

1. We already have three, and likely four writing contests lined up for you before March ends! I can't say what they will be about exactly, but I will reveal this:

• In January, when ELI5AMPL contest finishes, we will immediately host a contest related to the token that we will implement for tipping later this month.
• In February, the plan is to base a contest around a blockchain game.
• In March, one of the projects that has already ran a contest on Publish0x, may sponsor another one!

2. You can expect more meme creation contests, and other types of contests that we haven't organized thus far.

Sorry, NO spoilers!

3. And, you can expect a bunch of events where you will see bigger tips introduced, but also other, even more fun events...

Again, NO spoilers. :)

Happy New 2021! Let's all hope it turns out much better than 2020. :)

Cheers,

Igor