I spent 100,000 sats to bring you here & the future of advertising doesn't have a middleman.

Advertising is about to change forever.If you're reading this, you just proved something fascinating about advertising on Nostr.I spent a few hard-earned sats to bring you here...But unlike traditional advertising where platforms capture most of the value, every sat spent to bring you here either went directly into your wallet as a zap, or to a content creator whose post you saw this on.No middleman.Just direct value transfer from advertiser to real people – whether that's you as the reader or the creator whose content you engage with.

This isn't just another advertising experiment – it's a glimpse into how Nostr could fundamentally reshape the attention economy.When advertising dollars flow directly to users and content creators instead of platforms, everything changes.

The Big Question...

Before we dive into what I think that future looks like, we need to ask the question...Does this actually work???Can advertising on Nostr be effective?Can it be profitable for businesses while directly rewarding users and creators?

To answer this, I designed a straightforward experiment.I'm sending out thousands of zaps with a link to this article - a brand new website with no other traffic sources.By tracking how many of those zaps convert into actual visits, we can begin to understand the effectiveness of this method of advertising.My hypothesis?Even with today's non-existent targeting capabilities and tiny user base, we'll still see results comparable to traditional advertising platforms.

The Current State of Social Media Advertising

To understand why this matters, let's look at the numbers.Facebook is projected to generate $100 billion in advertising revenue in 2024.But here's the kicker - almost none of that goes to the users whose attention is being monetized or the creators who build the engaging communities that keep people coming back.

How the Model Changes on Nostr

Now imagine if that $100 billion in advertising spend flowed differently - directly to creators and users instead of the platform.To put this in perspective: if Facebook distributed its entire $100 billion ad revenue directly to its estimated 2.5 million professional content creators, each creator would average $40,000 per year from the ad revenue alone.But the reality is even more compelling - since advertising tends to follow a power law distribution, top creators could be earning millions annually from this direct payment model.

Look, I wish the world would join Nostr simply for the ideologies... but the reality is that monetary incentives are the fastest way to adoption.I've seen this play out before...In early 2024, I watched it happen with my network of 100,000 content creators during the TikTok Shop explosion.Out of no where, early adopters of TikTok Shop (primarily small, unknown creators) started making upwards of six-figures per month on TikTok Shop...This news spread like wild fire, and the flood gates opened...Creators abandoned their established platforms en masse, rushing to where the money was flowing.

My bet is that this will be one of the biggest growth levers for Nostr.Not by convincing millions of people about the importance of censorship resistance, but by creating an ecosystem where creators simply earn more than they do anywhere else.When creators can significantly increase their current earnings, with direct Lightning payments, and without the risk of being demonetized or banned - that's when the migration happens.I have a separate analysis on this and why I believe creators will make 50x on Nostr vs. platforms like X (on a per impression basis). The problem now is just the lack of impressions and users. Nostr is just an infant, but my bet is that this model will scale.

The Experiment Design

Let's talk about this experiment - because you're part of it.I sent out thousands of zaps across Nostr, each with a link to this article (aiming for 100,000 sats).This website is brand new, with zero external links or references anywhere else on the internet.This means every single visit is coming from those zaps, giving us a clean data set to measure advertising effectiveness.

The core metric I'm measuring is cost per click (CPC).Here's the formula:Total spend (sats sent in zaps) ÷ Number of clicks to this page = Cost per click

Why is this important?Because CPC is a universal metric in digital advertising that lets us compare effectiveness across platforms.On Facebook, the average CPC ranges from $0.50 to $3.00 depending on the industry.Google Ads similarly ranges from $1-2 for most sectors.

Even with Nostr's current early-stage targeting capabilities (which are admittedly basic), my hypothesis is that we'll see competitive CPCs.And here's the exciting part - unlike traditional platforms where that cost goes to the platform, on Nostr that entire spend went directly to users as zaps.

What's Next

I'll be sharing the complete results of this experiment, including detailed cost per click analysis, on Nostr - follow me here.If you're interested in the future of advertising on Nostr, the economics of creator monetization, or how we can build better tools for this ecosystem, follow along on Nostr.

Remember - if you're reading this, you're not just observing this experiment, you're part of it.The question isn't whether advertising will come to Nostr - it's how we can build it in a way that benefits everyone in the ecosystem.