Are your Web 3 blogs converting new readers? (or scaring them away)
how you look explaining Web 3 to your victims
When I wrote my first Web 3 for beginners blog, my friend, who‘s a total nerd, was my case study. If she could fully understand Web 3, then my blogging and tech writing challenge would be a success.
Well, I succeeded in failing.
We exchanged a few questions and I quickly saw how my writing, though simple, was still strangely disconnected from her world. I was in her exact position when I first started studying Web 3.
And that realization opened a deeper question: if we're missing this fundamental disconnect... what else are we getting wrong when creating Web 3 content for beginners? How many readers have we shooed away?
Why Web 3 Sounds Like Gibberish to Beginners
Centralization is Invisible Today
The first time I heard that Web 3 "gives users control", I thought I was listening to scammers. I had Reddit, Twitter, and a bank account. I could post, delete, and send money. What more control did I need? Right?!
Now that Reddit has banned me for no absolute reason, and a month of shamelessly begging through appeals has gotten me nowhere, I realized that on Web 2, you don’t really own anything. And suddenly, Web 3’s vision clicked.
Right now, most non-techies just don’t recognize that they’re in centralized systems, which is why decentralization looks alien on paper.
Analogies Work Only After Establishing Core Definitions
When you search Web 3 on X, you often see comparisons to Web 2, analogies, and a few definitions. They make total sense to people who are familiar with such terms, but not to people who have never read them before.
“Web 3” is first a label given to a category of apps and websites that use a decentralized ecosystem before being the future of the internet, an avenue to give users more control, the heaven and earth.
This immediately helps the newbie recognize that their Web 2 apps should be what they’re currently using. Analogies are important, but they can confuse beginners if used before the core definitions. Before explaining what Web 3 is like or what it provides, we must first say what the term literally is.
Not All Beginners Are The Same
The non-techie audience comprises the most diverse people with different interests and backgrounds. There’s always a risk of oversimplifying or overcomplicating concepts when explaining Web 3 to non-techies.
This issue can mismatch your reader’s intent with the wrong class of information. I went through a lot of Web 3 blogs, and only a few could truly walk me through understanding Web 3 as a beginner. Most of them looked and sounded the same, too, which wasn't exactly encouraging.
This is why I think it's important to separate the merely curious from money-making beginners to tailor their content according to their needs.
How to Actually Write for Web 3 Newbies: Merely Curious Vs Money-Making Beginners
If you’re introducing Web 3, its products, or projects to newcomers, you must recognize that not all beginners have the same goals. If you know your audience, you can tailor your content to fit them better.
The Merely Curious Beginners
These are the people who hear about Web 3 from a friend, in a conversation, or on X (formerly Twitter), and think, "Huh, what’s that?" Or they may be test subjects held hostage, like my friend. They’re not here to make money, they just want to understand what it is and how/if they’re missing out.
If you write your white paper, copy, blog, and start by giving them a lecture on tokenomics or decentralized finance, or begin bombarding them with ChatGPT analogies, they’ll run away.
So, start with the literal (very literal) definition:
"Web 3 is a term for apps and websites built on decentralized systems."
From here, you can further explain decentralization, build your analogies, comparisons, and they’d make sense to the total beginner.
Introducing Web 3 social apps alongside decentralized finance apps will help your readers fully understand Web 3. So, try not to focus on only DeFi apps.
The Money-Making Beginners
Then there are the people who show up because they heard you can make money on Web 3. Maybe they’re tired of high bank fees or limitations, they want to invest in crypto, or they’re intrigued by NFTs. If you start with "the history of Bitcoin," they’ll tune out.
This category of newbies may have prior knowledge of Web 3, decentralized finance, or centralized finance as a whole. So you can skip the simplistic definitions and history classes.
Start with clear, actionable steps for getting started with Web 3 applications, preferably certain money-making action points. And then expand on complicated terms as you go.
For instance, you can focus on simplifying:
- How to safely buy, save, and exchange crypto
- How to avoid scams (because there are many)
- Which DeFi apps are the most reliable
- How tokenomics and gas fees work (this automatically comprises blockchain basics)
Money-making newbies are endless because Web 3 is still expanding; more projects and products are emerging. Hence, there’ll always be noobs looking to understand how to use stuff. I find myself in this category all the time. It’s like whenever I understand one thing, something new pops up and I’m learning all over again.
