Author: Leon Abboud
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Original title: Gaining Followers but Not Money? 5 Growth Traps Crypto KOLs Must Avoid
My journey as a content creator began 8 years ago. Along the way, I have made almost every possible mistake in trying to grow and monetize my brand. Here are the 5 most critical mistakes to be wary of, hoping to help you avoid these costly lessons.
Mistake 1: Treating the Brand as a Hobby, Not a Business
Most creators remain in financial difficulty for a long time because they position themselves as "creators." When you see yourself only as a creator, you focus on optimizing clicks, likes, views, and various metrics thrown at you by algorithms.
Top personal brand creators see themselves as a business. You are a company, just a one-person company, and that company is named after you.
Once you make this mindset shift, everything changes. The creator's mindset is: "What content should I post tomorrow?" The business mindset is: "What process can turn strangers into customers?"
You stop asking "how to get more engagement" and start asking the key questions that truly drive growth:
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What am I selling?
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Who is my target customer?
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What user experience path have I designed?
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How do I publish content to make users more willing to approach me and eventually purchase?
This shift in thinking can turn scattered content into a long-term money-making machine.
Creators who pursue exposure will eventually fall into the "engagement treadmill"—an endless cycle. You can only keep running until you are eventually exhausted. Escape this trap, or it will consume you.
Mistake 2: No Clear Niche
If you try to speak to everyone, you will eventually find that you resonate with no one.
It's like standing on a chair in a train station and shouting, "Hey, everyone, pay attention!" No one will turn around. But if you shout a specific name, like "Mike," the person with that name will immediately turn to look at you.
This is what a good niche can do for you—it can precisely attract specific people in your target area.
A strong niche needs to have the following traits: profitability, appeal, and sufficient content creation material.
Many people are unsure of what their niche is and don't know how to find it. For me, I like to ask myself this question:
"What is something I am naturally passionate about, willing to go all out to be the best in the world at, and that people are willing to pay for?"
The intersection of these three elements is your niche. It must be something you are truly interested in and passionate about; something you are willing to invest time, energy, and effort into mastering; and something people are willing to pay for.
For example, real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins, prediction markets, etc., are all good niches. There are many people in these fields who want to understand industry trends and use this knowledge to enhance personal growth or career development.
This is the definition of an excellent niche.
A simple self-test question: "Can I create a long-running newsletter around this niche?" If the answer is yes, then your niche is viable. If the answer is no, you may have just chosen a direction you "feel" is right, not a real niche.
Most creators fail because they want everyone to like them. They pursue as many views and exposure as possible. But in reality, successful brands are not built on popularity but on clear positioning.
Mistake 3: Using Cheap Branding Materials That Lower Account Image
People browse thousands of personal homepages every day, and you have less than half a second to convey value.
If your avatar is blurry, outdated, AI-generated, or from some "dead" NFT project (like one you minted in 2021), you will immediately lose appeal and status.
Remember, your status is not fixed; it can quickly decline because of these details.
Your personal homepage is not a decoration but your "storefront sign." It should enhance your sense of value, not drag it down.
A clear avatar, a clear banner image, and a clear bio—these are all essential. If you don't want to use your own photo, choose a community or identity that truly reflects your values and comes with it a sense of status.
There are now hundreds of active NFT communities offering high-quality profile pictures (PFPs) at various price points. You don't need to own a CryptoPunk to appear wealthy or professional. You need materials that enhance your brand image, not content that lowers your sense of value.
Also, don't use hashtags in your bio, and avoid overly broad terms. Your bio should clearly state three things: who you are, what you do, and why people should respect you, that's it.
Mistake 4: Creating Content Without Building a Monetization Funnel
This is a mistake I made for a long time in my creator career. I created content purely for the sake of creation, never developing a strategy for monetizing the content.
What was the result? I accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers, but when I tried to monetize, I found the income was minimal. The reason is simple—from the beginning, I did not build the right ecosystem for my content.
It's like building a house. You need to lay a solid foundation first to build a tall and stable structure. For any business, this "foundation" is monetization capability.
Most creators publish content without any backend structure. They rely on the virality of the content, hoping that one day a sponsor will fall from the sky and save everything. But this is not building a business; it's gambling on an uncertain "lottery game."
A real brand needs a clear "funnel structure":
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Top-of-funnel traffic content;
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A "lead magnet" to attract potential customers;
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Mid-funnel paid products;
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High-end core products;
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And long-term assets that generate sustained income.
With such a structure, every piece of content you create will have a clear purpose and meaning.
Without these, you may gain followers but not make money. And in this industry, this is the worst combination. You may become "famous but poor," eventually burning out from feeling like all your efforts are in vain.
Mistake 5: Stopping Learning and Growing After Choosing a Niche
Choosing your niche is just the starting point. To become the top expert and best creator in your field, you must always stay at the forefront of industry development.
Your field is developing at lightning speed, with constant changes. There are always new hotspots, new announcements, and new trending topics emerging.
You need to become the "go-to expert" in this field, and the way to achieve this is through continuous learning. This means you need to constantly absorb content, read relevant books, listen to podcasts, etc.
My personal habit is to read one marketing book per month, which keeps me at the forefront of marketing knowledge. You need to become the "encyclopedia" of the industry.
People will follow the smartest people in the industry, not those who fall behind the times. Users enjoy reading in-depth content and gaining knowledge from it.
The speed at which you learn and document determines the speed at which you grow.
Once you stop learning about your field, you also stop growing along with it.
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