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Currently, crypto capitalization is a worthy competitor to venture capital. It is impossible to issue tokens and organize support alone, so you need to seek help from specialists. To successfully conduct an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), you need to thoroughly understand the basics of this process. To conduct an ICO of a company, you need to decide what to do yourself and what aspects to delegate.
What is ICO
Initial Coin Offering – initial coin offering. This is something in between crowdfunding and IPO (Initial Public Offering - an initial public offering from the world of securities).
As part of an ICO, companies usually raise money for the development of a particular technology, as well as for brand promotion to increase its awareness.
Ethereum can be considered the first successful ICO in history. It was carried out back in 2014. The company managed to attract 35,591 bitcoins. At the same time, more than 60,000,000 units of Ethereum were transferred to users. Today, each coin costs more than $800, the benefits for investors are obvious. And for the company it is also clear.
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History of the format: what is ICO
These files appeared in the very first Windows distributions. Over time, they have changed noticeably.
Icons introduced in Windows 1.0 were 32x32 pixels in size and monochrome. Support for 16 colors was introduced in Windows 3.0.
Win32 introduced support for up to 16.7 million colors (Truecolor) and 256x256 pixels in size. Windows 95 also had a new Device Independent Bitmap (DIB) engine. However, only 256 colors were used for icons in this version of the OS. It was possible to enable 65535 (Highcolor) colors by changing the Shell command line icon value in the registry or by purchasing the Microsoft Plus add-on! for Windows 95.
The Shell setting allowed larger icons to be used instead of 32x32 in the ICO file. What did this mean? A single file could store an image of any size from 1x1 to 256x256 pixels (including non-square sizes) with 2 (rarely used), 16, 256, 65535 or 16.7 million colors. However, in practice, the “shell” still could not display icons in a wide range of colors. The Windows taskbar notification area was limited to 16 default shades before the release of Windows Me. This meant that regardless of the settings, the icons were displayed in the same way on the screen.
Where to begin
The first thing to do is to think through and formulate the idea correctly.
Moreover, this can be done immediately on specialized forums, where the project team or its representative will subsequently be able to look for investors.
All ICOs are somehow related to blockchain technology. Accordingly, the idea must be completely within the framework of this concept.
If you look closely at those ICOs that have already taken place and brought some success to their team, they were either talking about some kind of innovative technology, or about a project that made it possible to significantly speed up transactions and reduce transaction costs on the blockchain network.
It is important not only to come up with something interesting and unique, but also to properly format the idea so that it can be gradually launched on the relevant forums and checked the reaction of users.
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Competitor analysis
Sometimes you don't need to invent anything to achieve success.
Just look at how competitors implement this.
Almost every day new ICOs appear and websites are launched.
It is recommended to carefully analyze them and select something interesting from there that could be implemented in your own project.
Another important point is the uniqueness of the proposed technology. It is quite possible that one of our competitors has already implemented something similar. In this case, the task becomes somewhat more complicated, since a similar project is already on the market. It is necessary to find vulnerabilities in competitors and try to describe as much as possible the advantages of the technology that the team offers, but taking into account amendments.
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Why invest in tokens at the ICO stage
The process of entering an ICO has a number of features, but each investor pursues his own goals when investing money. Typically people expect the following:
If you plan to send the idea to a Western user, then it’s a little more complicated:
Based on the information received, the person will already conclude whether it is worth getting involved with your idea or whether it is better to choose competitors. In order for ICO platforms to become available to more experienced investors, they need to be placed on specialized websites. Some trackers charge a service from 1 to 3 thousand dollars.
Development and publication of a Bounty campaign
Carrying out a bounty campaign allows you to attract even more users. There will always be people who want to earn extra money by reposting and any other dissemination of information. It is advisable to publish the conditions in a separate BitcoinTalk thread so that people can familiarize themselves with the offer without unnecessary searching. As a result , this step allows you to attract maximum public attention.
Posting news in specialized media and advertising
How to make millions of interested investors know about the project? Conduct an advertising campaign with all the attendant features. This task is carried out by PR managers who know exactly what needs to be done to reach a new level in popularity.
Contact a consulting company and develop advertising for investors. Give bonuses and discounts, limit the maximum amount of money, or come up with unique moves that will attract attention.
Creation of a personal account for investors
To track incoming transactions on the blockchain , make transfers and perform other actions, you need to create a universal account for each user. There are several things that are desirable to implement in every project:
- reception and transfer of tokens;
- basic settings;
- two-factor protection;
- uploading identification documents;
- timers.
If you have no idea how to create an office with all the amenities, then it is better to turn to specialists. In this case, costs will increase, but implementation time will significantly decrease.
Multilingual
Translating the site and all information into many languages will take the company to a whole new level. If there is no good translator on staff, then it is better to contact a trusted company. This will avoid the appearance of ridiculous errors in important texts.
For your project, it is advisable to translate into at least all major languages, including Japanese, Korean, German, French, Russian and Chinese. English is always used as the primary language.
Issue of tokens and launch of ICO
The Waves and Ethereum platforms are most often used to issue tokens. Even those who have already organized more than one project may need help in an ICO For example, Waves point out the simplicity of this procedure, but in practice people face dozens of obstacles.
As soon as the ICO begins, the constant presence of every specialist in their field is needed. 24-hour monitoring of the site and the performance of the entire system will eliminate the possibility of a successful hacker attack.
taxes are calculated , conversion into fiat currencies and cost estimates are generated. All subsequent practice consists of your activities and proper handling of money.
Creating a team
The success of any ICO is a team effort.
At first glance, it may seem that only those who proposed the idea and those who implemented it, that is, programmers, work here. However, such a team has practically no chance of success.
If the project really wants to make a statement, in addition to programmers, it is also necessary to gather those who understand marketing, including SMM, copywriters, designers and consultants.
Naturally, all team members must have fairly serious training in terms of knowledge in the field of blockchain technology. The same copywriters who are poorly versed in the topic are unlikely to create the required effect. On the contrary, they can only scare off potential investors if they see amateurism.
Most likely, members of the new team will want to receive some kind of advance. To do this, you can use your own funds or make a closed pre-sale (Pre-ICO). The second option is preferable for those who are not ready to make capital investments. However, it requires certain costs.
For pre-sale, you will need at least a presentation, or better yet, a ready-made website.
In addition, the founder of the project must have communication skills and already at this stage try to sell the product to as many investors as possible.
The fact is that the latter take a lot of risks at this stage and are unlikely to agree to part with money if they do not see specific prospects for the project.
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How to install a favicon on a website
The installation instructions are quite simple and require several steps:
- Go to the file manager on the hosting or use the Filezilla FTP client.
- Open the root directory of the site.
- Move the favicon file and replace the existing one.
And that’s all, if the favicon display was previously enabled. You can check the replacement when opening any page of the site. The icon may not change immediately - this is due to loading the image from the cache. You can see the new icon after clearing your browser cache or using a different web client.
Location of the favicon file in the site structure
How to connect a graphic ID
In many CMSs, the option to add a favicon is available in the admin panel , which greatly simplifies the process. If after adding a file to the root directory it is not displayed on the pages, then you need to connect it.
Instructions for setting the display of the site icon:
- Open editing the header.php file.
- Find the head area.
- Enter the code: .
- Save changes.
This instruction is suitable for interaction with most modern browsers, but it is recommended to add additional lines to display the icon in some cases:
- For IE: .
- For iOS: .
- For Android: .
For mobile devices, the PNG format is most often used. It is possible to add several working resolutions by changing the size specified in the code.
Company registration
You can assemble a team, analyze the market, and conduct a pre-sale without official registration.
But it will be needed later.
Therefore, when all these steps are behind us, it is necessary to pay attention to those regions where the attitude towards cryptocurrencies is the most loyal.
There are not many countries like this. These include Singapore, UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Cyprus, USA and Japan. True, the last two countries are a rather risky option. Japan already regulates the cryptocurrency market. As for the US, if coins are recognized as securities, this will create great difficulties for any company operating in this area.
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Preparation of documents for ICO
In order to attract the maximum number of investors, it is necessary to correctly draw up all the documents and white paper, which is the “face” of the company.
Here the goals and objectives of the project, its prospects are usually written down, and technical explanations are given.
The more details are revealed, the higher the chances of collecting the required amount.
In practice, there have been many ICOs with good advertising, but the investor gradually learns and pays more attention to the documents, and not to advertising. Competitors can help in this process. It is enough to study their white paper to understand what is generally written in such documents and get an almost ready-made structure. The fact is that this documentation is prepared almost according to a template. But the content is, of course, completely different.
Some recommendations for preparing a white paper:
- Structure. The document must be clearly structured. Otherwise, investors will find it difficult to read and are unlikely to invest money.
- Argumentation. When preparing this document, it is necessary to provide a competent argument. The investor must make sure that he is investing in a potentially successful project.
- Maximum accessibility for the reader. Among the investors there are both very technically literate users and those who have never heard of blockchain or cryptocurrencies before, but want to invest money in this promising industry. Accordingly, all texts should be prepared in the most understandable language for a wide audience. If the investor does not understand anything from what he reads, the likelihood that he will bypass the project is high.
- Text volume. Another important point. The investor wants to receive as much information as possible, but in the most optimized text possible. Large volumes are intimidating. Therefore, if there is no need, it is not worth increasing this or that section of the whitepaper simply in order to create the appearance of its importance.
- Required editing. High-quality semantic content of a whitepaper is 80 percent of success. But if the text is illiterate in terms of Russian or English, there is a chance that investors will leave. Especially if the project is more aimed at an English-speaking audience.
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Advertising Aisio
As you know, “advertising is the engine of progress.” This is especially true when it comes to ICOs.
The fact is that investors themselves are unlikely to know that there is some team that has developed an innovative solution in the field of blockchain and is offering participation in the project.
The team should have a strong PR person or even several such employees who will present the product on various platforms, including the so-called ICO trackers.
These are sites that collect information about the initial coin offering and, if the project inspires confidence, post it and recommend it to investors.
The main goal of the PR campaign is to reach the maximum number of users and present the project in the best possible light. There are cases where Aisio's goals were achieved in less than a minute.
Some ICO experts highlight website creation as a separate stage. Yes, this is really necessary. But most likely, it should be ready immediately after the company is registered.
The resource should initially contain all information on the product, as well as the development team. As documents appear, a white paper, an offer, and so on will also appear here.
The website will play a big role in the advertising process, as it is a kind of “magnet” that collects investors.
Accordingly, the web resource must be impeccable both in terms of design and in terms of filling with useful content.
Bugs, poor page loading speed and other negative aspects must be eliminated even before the official launch of pages on the Internet.
As part of the advertising campaign, as well as subsequent project activities, it is necessary to create pages on social networks and ensure that the content there is constantly updated.
At the present stage, many projects are implementing their bounty campaigns. This is an incentive for active users to promote their brand. The fact is that it is no longer possible to cope with the active promotion stage with the help of one team, especially when the goals are ambitious.
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How to save a picture in ico format?
After we have uploaded our file there, we simply launch Photoshop and upload the desired image. And then, everything is as usual: click File -> Save As -> and select our .ICO format that has already appeared.
We save and get the result - a wonderful 16x16 icon in .ico format. Now you can put it as a favicon on your website or simply use it as an icon for some folder or file on your computer desktop.
And I’ll tell you exactly how to add a favicon to the site in the next article.
Launch of ICO
After the release of tokens, you can launch an ICO.
The success of this campaign depends entirely on how well the preparation was carried out.
There are some points that will allow you to collect investments faster. In particular, you can limit the number of coins.
This is a standard advertising technique. But there is also a logic here. Usually the project states exactly how much money it plans to raise. Therefore, further release of coins may be met with distrust by investors.
The second method is the redemption of part of the coins by the organizers. On the one hand, this will speed up the fundraising process, as it will create the appearance of demand for tokens; on the other hand, if the ICO is successful, team representatives will be able to receive additional bonuses in the form of profit from the resale of tokens on the exchange. Finally, you can use a bonus system to reward early investors.
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