A successful business is created by those who can identify a problem and provide a solution to it.
Problem: My car needs fixing.
Solution: I pay my local mechanic to fix it.
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Problem: I want to learn to play guitar.
Solution: I pay a local guitar teacher to teach me.
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Problem: I'm hungry.
Solution: I buy food from my local store.
These are simple problems with simple solutions but you can apply this to almost anything. ScorumBet is a prime example of this.
Problem: I am having to pay commission on betting exchanges.
Solution: I can buy SCR and bet with 0% commission on ScorumBet.
There is a major issue relating to quality that you must consider in all of these examples, however, and ScorumBet isn't exempt.
If my car needs fixing, I may have a long list of qualified mechanics who can help me, but I will decide which to choose after considering several factors. Is the quality of workmanship high? How much do they charge? Do they have a good reputation? It's fair to say that the mechanic who rates lowest in these areas is likely to receive less interest from potential customers and, therefore, less profit.
If I want to move to a new betting exchange then it has to offer something that is, at the very least, at an equal standard to an already established exchange. ScorumBet gets a massive green tick next to its name for its 0% commission policy but there are other areas that really need to be worked on in order to attract a greater number of users.
Problem: I want to bet on sports other than football.
Solution: ScorumBet? No. It doesn't offer those markets yet.
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Problem: I want to bet on the FA Cup.
Solution: ScorumBet? No. It doesn't offer football markets on that competition yet.
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Problem: There isn't enough liquidity on this football match.
Solution: ScorumBet? No. There is even less liquidity there.
The intention of this post is not to criticise ScorumBet. I have a lot of faith in the project. However, it is clear as day that there are plenty of things that can be improved about it that would give it a much bigger chance of the huge success we're all hoping it will have further down the line.
However, I have been thinking about the blogging platform recently and how it doesn't seem to gel with the betting platform in the way I had hoped. Of course, everyone will have a different idea as to what direction the platform should take, and I can only speak about my personal hopes.
I was initially drawn to Scorum because it promised a 0% commission betting exchange. This is perfect for me. I have worked in the betting industry for several years and know all too well how much people who bet regularly on the likes of Betfair or Smarkets hate paying commission fees. Sure, for the average one-bet-per-week customer it might not mean much, but the cost of commissions add up quickly if you're placing regular bets.
Some of the busiest times for betting exchanges are big horse racing events such as Cheltenham, and use of these platforms during those times provide an insight into what customers really want. Over years of observing the behaviour of bettors throughout these periods, it has become apparent that people are willing to use an inferior betting exchange with some risky technical issues over the industry standard simply because they have to pay less commission per bet. That's a massive bonus for ScorumBet because nobody can beat 0% commission but we first have to find a way to get eyes on pages in order for people to sign up.
This is where the blogging platform should come into play. Content is certainly King when it comes to attracting traffic and there is a major shortage of top quality content on Scorum at the moment. It's something that needs to be addressed and we can start to make improvements by considering the effect of the content we put out.
Let's go back to the idea that successful content is created by people who can identify a problem and provide a solution. Let's also think about the competition we may face who are also providing a solution to our problem.
Problem: Mourinho has just been sacked by Manchester United and I want to read about it.
Solution: I will use keywords such as "Mourinho sacked" and read a high ranking professional news article about it on the BBC or Sky News.
There is an understandable temptation to create a Scorum blog post about the news of Mourinho being sacked but it offers absolutely zero value to the platform outside of probably a few upvotes for your own balance. Your article is almost certain to have been posted after the mainstream media outlets posted theirs and it will never be seen by anyone outside of current Scorum users because it is at the bottom of the pile in terms of search results.
Scorum Solution: Instead of rehashing work that can be read with ease elsewhere, a Scorum user could use this opportunity to create a thoughtful opinion piece about why Manchester United were right or wrong to sack Mourinho. You could provide a supporter's analysis or an opposition supporter's viewpoint, give detailed explanations as to what you think went wrong, what the future might hold and so on. Someone searching for something along the lines of "why was Mourinho sacked?" may just stumble upon your well written article and decide to stick around.
Of course, not everyone is interested in posting about football, but this same logic applies to all categories on the Scorum blogging platform. I have most definitely written content that wasn't up to the standard I would like. However, I have recently been trying to create posts that people could genuinely find on search engines and find value in.
Take Apex Legends as an example. I enjoy playing and talking about this game, but it would serve very little value for me to simply post about updates that people can read about in official press releases or on well established websites. Instead, I have been trying to create content that provides readers with my own opinions about things relating to content, style of play, tips, weapon rankings and so on. The hope here is that people may search for things like "what is the best Apex Legends weapon?" or "is the Apex Legends battle pass worth the money?" and stumble upon my post. If they like what I have to say they may well stay a little longer and end up becoming a writer here themselves.
For me, ScorumBet should always be the main focus of the Scorum development team. It makes the most sense to me as a bettor and I can see a bright future ahead for all of us if improvements are ongoing. However, there is a way for the blogging platform to gel with the betting platform in a way that encourages growth and potential traffic.
Problem: I want to see betting tips for the Manchester United vs Watford game.
Solution: I can read an in depth pre-match analysis and see some betting tips on Scorum before the rest of internet is saturated with it.
Those of us who post betting tips and pre-match analysis blogs should look to make them detailed and rich in content that could be found via a search engine. In an ideal world, these posts would not go live just a few hours before the game, but up to a week ahead of schedule to allow for the page to be ranked and potentially seen before other outlets have even made their posts. These posts could also be shared on social media outlets to increase exposure.
What we don't want to be doing is posting halfhearted efforts that are difficult to read and lack the substance of articles that can be found on alternative websites. We should be looking to consider every post we create as a building block that reinforces and improves the value that Scorum provides to sports fans. The better the bricks, the more chance the platform has at standing the test of time.
Let's all look to add something of value every time we post and not look for the easy option to earn a few SCR that could be worth nothing at all if we don't push this platform to where it belongs. It can be tempting to post a "win 10SCR by predicting..." post but it's not really bringing anything worthwhile to the table.
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