Like many things, it started out as a small thing, sitting in the back corner of the world.

You finish your day like any other, and after all of your responsibilities were completed for the day you began to sit back and relax. Browsing the web has become a habit now. You place a soothing cup of tea on the desk that lays before you as you sit down, starting up your computer to begin your journey through the web.

Things go as they usually do, watching videos and reading forums on various different subjects that, while interesting on the surface, are something of no real use to you. Minutes turn into hours, and before you know it the clock is begging you to go to bed. You tell yourself “just a couple more minutes” and forget about the time.

But this time, something changes. You stumble into that part of the web where subjects are all over the place. You scroll and scroll, seeing various different things and events, but stop when you see a post by someone. It's about Bitcoin. You stop scrolling.

You had heard of this so-called Bitcoin before. You're sure of that. But you realize that you don't really know what it is, apart from it being this new fangled “internet money”, as you've heard others call it.

You open a new tab with the goal of fulfilling your curiosity. You're interested in finding out what this internet money is all about, but in the back of your mind you tell yourself that you'll just search what Bitcoin is, and then head to bed. You've got a job to get to in the morning. And you've got bills to pay.

And so you being your search. You type in the words “what is Bitcoin” and press enter. You find some forums and articles on it, and decide to click on one of the articles.

You skim through it, and now your interest has been piqued. You decide to give this search a bit more time, and continue to read more on this cryptocurrency.

Hours pass, and now you're convinced that this is the future. You start looking at how to buy some Bitcoin, since all the forums where saying that this would be the currency of the future. You do some digging and find out that the process isn't as simple as you thought it would be. Besides, why would you spend your hard earned cash into a digital coin that, while intriguing, has no real value to you at the time?

So you close the tab. You're satisfied with the time you've spent researching that Bitcoin thing you kept hearing about, but decide not to buy into the hype. Remember, you've got bills to pay.

Time passes, and you witness the surge of crypto. Bitcoin hits thousands of dollars. You see the news, and realize the mistake you have made.

“I should've bought some.” You tell yourself.

“Even fifty bucks would have made me some good money.” You mumble.

These thoughts would follow you for months as the price rose. But you never bought.

“It's too expensive now.” You thought.

And so you accept the fact that you had the opportunity to invest. And you move on.

More time passes, and you begin to forget about Bitcoin. You'd occasionally remember what could've been, but always brush it to the side.

But then it booms. And this time, it really booms.

You watch from the sidelines, baffled at what you're seeing.

Those thoughts of could've, would've, should've start flooding right back into your mind. But now they're back with a vengeance.

You whip out your calculator, and begin to multiply some numbers to see what could've been. Your jaw drops. You scramble to open an account to buy some Bitcoin. But you stop yourself.

Now it's too expensive. Now I'm far too late in the game.

You step back from your computer. You let out a sigh.

You're about to make the decision to try and forget about all this crypto stuff, but before you get to make it, a thought occurs in your mind.

“What about the others?”

You start looking at other cryptocurrencies, seeing what's out there. Looking for other options.

You find some coins that look interesting, but once you dig into them you realize that the risk is far too great. You still have bills to pay, after all.

So you keep searching. And searching. When suddenly, you stumble upon something interesting.

This interest has you hooked. You begin to learn more about cryptocurrencies, as well as things relating to finances. You want to be prepared, you tell yourself. Prepared for this “big boom” that countless others keep speaking of.

And you’re oh so excited. You can already see yourself in the future, having no financial worries whatsoever. Seeing yourself driving that expensive car you’ve always dreamed of having. Living in your dream house.

You’re excited because, as far as you can tell, your future is set to be one without worries, only financial freedom.

And who doesn’t want that? Those bills keep piling up, as well as your responsibilities in life. Seeing a ticket out of there is a no brainer.

But even with all of that hope, you still have your doubts.

You don’t tell your family about your crypto investments, because you can already hear what they’re going to say about it. Most of your friends know nothing about them either, with your closest of friends being the sole exception.

Like you, they’re interested in this new technology and its future possibilities. But they voice their doubts far louder than you do yours, or so it seems.

But you're already in too deep to get out. You sometimes think about leaving this space behind, telling yourself that the stress is too much for you, that the risks are too high. But that day never comes. Instead, you shove those thoughts in the back of your mind, reminding yourself that countless others are in this with you.

“I’m not alone.” You tell yourself.

And you’re right. You know you’re right.

You’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of other people supporting cryptocurrencies. Sure, the communities within this space are split up into different groups, but you tell yourself that, at the end of the day, we’re all here for the same thing.

Freedom.

You tell yourself that these other people are just like you. People that also have bills to pay. People that want to become financially free. People who want to become worry free.

And so, you let the doubts fade into black, and let the hope wash over you.

After all, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?

You ponder on that question for a bit, before heading to bed for the night.

Perhaps the answer to that question will come to you tomorrow, or the day after.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!

-Andrew

All images used in this article provided thanks to Unsplash

We're all here for the same thing, aren't we?

All of us in the crypto community might come from different countries, backgrounds, lifestyles. But at the end of the day, we've all come together for one thing: monetary gain.

While I'm sure that most of us have stayed because of the potential tech, as well as the potential future that might arise from cryptocurrencies, the thing that caught our interest was the chance to have wealth.

Some people may say that this is a selfish reason to partake in risky investments, and I myself have felt that I made a mistake in getting into crypto. With all its ups and downs, having the idea of becoming rich in the back of your mind while your funds are dropping (or growing) can be mentally stressful.

Still, I think it's important to take this into account. While it's easy to ignore this fact and tell oneself that “you're here for the tech” or something of that note, having the knowledge of the actual reasons you're invested could allow you to make better decisions when it comes to your hard earned cash.

There's not much more to say, and the point I'd like to make in this short post is to take a step back and learn why we do the things we do. Instead of making reactionary actions, maybe we can learn to make smarter decisions that benefit us in the long run. Emotions are there for a reason, but they can get in the way if we do not understand where they are coming from.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!

-Andrew

All images used in this article provided thanks to Unsplash

Blogging is something I’ve always been fond of. Having the ability to share written pieces with the world through the internet has always been fascinating to me, and from a young age I’ve always been pulled towards this aspect of writing. And while I’ve had blogs in the past, I’ve never dedicated any real amount of time to keeping a blog. That is, until I discovered Coil.

Today, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on blogging, and how it’s become one of my favorite mediums to create in. Creativity plays a large role in this process, so we’ll be touching on the relationship between blogging (and writing for that matter) and creativity.

This article will be longer than ones I’ve written in the past, and as such it will be split into different parts to keep a cohesive structure. The parts are as follows:

- Part 1: Introduction

- Part 2: Creativity in Writing

- Part 3: Writing in the Digital Era

- Part 4: Coil Blogging and Creativity

- Part 5: Conclusion

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Part 1: Introduction

As previously mentioned, I’ve always loved the idea of having a blog. Being able to have a dedicated space on the vast expanse that is the world wide web dedicated to your own personal writings is an immensely attractive idea.

In my younger years, I started various blogs that varied in subjectivity. But I never really stuck with a single blog, and even worse I never stuck with a single platform. You had your Wordpress and Blogger, and I constantly switched platforms, always looking for the “best”.

Looking back, I probably spent half of my time looking for new platforms, checking reviews and thoughts from other users as to what the feature set was like on each of these. I’d then try one out, stick with it for a couple of weeks, and then proceed to delete it and start my search all over again. In a way I enjoyed this process, as playing around with the various different platforms opened my eyes to the vast world of blogging.

I got into blogging back when Tumblr was booming. While I cringe at the content I wrote back then, I feel that Tumblr has always been a good starting ground for aspiring bloggers. It’s a simple to use platform with a wide-reaching audience, so you’ve got a good starting point for essentially any subject you can think of.

But what attracted me the most about blogging was the sheer amount of creativity that you could find. A nearly endless sea of creative writing, just waiting to be discovered.

Part 2: Creativity in Writing

In today’s age of Youtube and Instagram, written pieces online have mostly taken a backseat when it comes to what most people consume in their daily lives. With videos and images being able to convey immense amounts of information quickly, it’s only natural that we’ve progressed to consuming these more and more.

Wether it’s words on a page (or screen), videos, or audio, all of these things have one thing in common: they give you information.

You could argue on if said information is of any importance, but at the core of all of these things, the exchange of information is at its center. When you read an article, watch a video, or listen to a podcast, information is being transferred to you in various different forms.

One could argue that the video format is the most efficient when it comes to conveying information, as you’ve got a plethora of different options to choose from. You can show things on a screen, be it an actual video or images, as well as adding audio and text overlays, etc. This gives the viewer a healthy amount of information that is hard to come by elsewhere.

Audio would probably get second place (there are exceptions, such as visually-specific guides, etc.) as the listener can essentially listen to something, while doing something else at the same time. You could listen to your favorite podcast while commuting to work, for example. This would be harder to achieve if you were to watch a video, or read something.

And so, that leaves us with our tried and proven written media.

You don’t get any of the fancy bells and whistles that come with video and audio. Sure, in today’s digital age, embedding images, videos, and music, is all possible thanks to current technology. But all of these are fluff that is added to the foundation that is the written words on display. In Part 3 we’ll take a closer look at how these additions to written pieces of content can help with creativity, but for now let’s focus purely on the words, sentences, and paragraphs.

I’ve mentioned before how I’ve always loved writing. It’s easy to get into, yet hard to master. But this process of growing ones personal writing style is a journey I feel that most should at the very least try to undertake.

For me, I began writing in my early teens. Back then, my idea of good writing was what we’d now call “edgy”. It was usually short stories or poems that were written with the purpose to confuse and “inspire” the reader. When I take a look back at my earlier writings, it’s hard not to laugh. That’s not to say that it was all bad, as there are a couple of gems around there. But overall, it’s not very good. But we all gotta start somewhere, right?

But once I started blogging, my perception of what written media could do changed drastically. Instead of writing edgy think pieces on niche subjects that only I had an interest in, I could instead write about whatever was on my mind, and the odds of someone across the globe finding what I wrote interesting would be decently high.

And so I wrote, changing subjects and writing style as one changes a pair of socks every day. Instead of short stories, I changed my writings to short rambles (which I still use to this day), as these allowed me to convey what I was thinking in a quick and casual manner. These then turned into more research driven articles, with a more formal writing style.

Now, I try to merge all of them into my writing. But still, it always surprises me at how much freedom we have as writers on the internet. Writing styles are essentially endless, with each author having their own unique voice and style. Then you have subjects, which are too many to even count.

And with blogging being mostly specific to the internet, you’ll always find an audience, be it big or small.

And a lot of the time, the same people reading your posts are people who write them as well. And so a community forms, where people with similar interests band together and share content relating to subjects that they are interested in. It grows, and so does the quality of the writing among said group. At the end of day, you’re left with content that inspires others to write. Content that goes up another level as to what was expected.

We like to think that writing is boring, that reading is boring. And sure, it does take more effort to read words on a paper, since you essentially have to stop whatever you’re doing to do that. On the other hand, videos and podcasts allow you to focus on other things at the same time.

They’re all good when it comes to consuming media, I’m not saying one is better than the other. But for me, reading a good article is something special. You sit down and set time aside to read these words written by a stranger. No distractions, no multi-tasking. Just sit down and read.

This gives writers a special privilege when it comes to giving out information. In most cases, you as a writer have a good chance of having your readers full attention. Videos offer a similar advantage, although I’m many of you may use Youtube as a sort of background noise machine, as do I.

And when it comes to blogs, variety is king. You’ve got writers of all ages writing different things. Maybe it’s about their work life, or how their latest trip to Europe went. Maybe it’s about financial advice, or just short stories. If you’re looking for something specific, you’re more than likely to find it.

If you can’t find it, then guess what? You can create it.

Blogging offers users the easiest way to share content with others. Don’t have a camera or a good microphone? Or are you camera shy? Just pick up a keyboard and start typing. That, and an internet connection, is all you need to get started. So if you can’t find a blog that scratches that specific itch, the option to create it yourself is always there for you.

And there is no format to follow. Sure, you can find guidelines online on how to make the “best” blog and whatnot, but generally speaking, there is no formula. You do you. Creativity wise, the sky is the limit when it comes to blogging.

Part 3: Writing in the Digital Era

In the past, if you were to pick up a book or a newspaper, you’d find yourself staring at a wall of text. There might’ve been a couple of images sprinkled here and there. But for the most part, only text.

But now, with the rise of digital media, our options have opened up quite a bit. You can add as many images as you’d like. Heck, you can make your blog wordless, employing images alone to convey your story. Or what about a combo article where you add videos to your written piece? The possibilities are endless.

And the neat thing about all of this is that it’s all optional. Want only text? You can do that. A couple of words and an embedded video? Yep, that works too. A single word followed by you talking in the form of audio links? Yep, even that counts.

Today, the options that are given to creators are vast and wide. When it comes to blogging, you’ll find plenty of options to choose from.

Not only that, but the formatting options found within most platforms can lead to some interesting concepts as well. Maybe you build a structured story that spans multiple posts, with links leading to different options and endings. Something that could be found on paper books, sure, but its online implementation makes things much more simpler and fluid.

Really, if you’ve thought about blogging but haven’t gotten into yet, I highly suggest you do. It’s incredibly simple to start, and once you get the ball rolling, there’s no stopping you!

Part 4: Coil Blogging and Creativity

This all brings us back to Coil. On here, there’s a little interesting feature that I feel like helps writers give it their all. And that little thing is called monetization.

Coil’s payout rate is $0.36 an hour. This sounds small, but let’s think about this for a second. What this means is that, if a single reader spends an hour reading your post, you’ll get around a third of a dollar. Multiply that by any number of readers, and this number can grow quite high.

But why am I talking about money in an article related to writing and creativity?

I’m a firm believer that money should never be the reason to do something. But it can definitely incentivize you. And with the way Coil implements its payment system, that incentive is one that helps boost the quality and creativity of the content on the platform.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you want to start creating something. You turn to Youtube. They’ve got a large audience. And hey, maybe you can make some money on the side. You start making videos, but realize that to reach a wider audience, you have to grow your channel. And then you realize that by doing this, you have the chance of making real bank. But there’s a catch.

You have to be advertiser friendly. What this means differs between different advertising companies, but generally you’re going to want to make content that they approve of, and that is aimed towards their targeted demographic.

And so, you change your videos. You make them longer, to keep the user hooked and to get more ads spliced in there.

With Coil, things are a bit different. Sure, the payout is dependent on how long your user stays and reads your article, but the moment they leave, the money stops.

So if you really do want to make money off of blogging on Coil, you have to get creative. You have to write good content, content that people will actually enjoy. And so, your content is catered towards the actual audience, and not the advertisers that try to sell things to you.

This can create great articles, as writers are incentivized to write good content that readers actually want to see. Here, success is dependent on the quality, not the quantity. As such, writers that want to make money on the side will need to come up with creative writing, ideas that inspire others. This in turn creates a cycle, with quality pieces inspiring other quality pieces. Those other articles then go on to inspire others.

It’s the beautiful circle of countless stories from countless people, all across the globe. Sharing experiences, giving inspiration.

Part 5: Conclusion

To summarize, blogging gives us the ability to share our experiences. As we improve our writing, we may stumble upon added bonuses. In Coil’s case, that bonus is monetary. Stick with it, improve your craft, and others will see the quality that you offer.

I truly believe that blogging is making a comeback, and I’m more than happy with this. With more content being put out there, there will be more inspiration for others to draw from. And those that always wanted to get into blogging, now is the perfect time. Especially given the current global pandemic, with some of us having an excess amount of free time, might as well put that time towards a passion that we may hold.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

-Andrew

All images used in this article provided thanks to Unsplash

If you're reading this, then chances are you're into cryptocurrencies. And if that's the case, it's safe to assume that you, the reader, are an investor of sorts.

Now, what if I told you that, in the near future, you'd be able to combine both cryptocurrencies with the stock market?

Sounds far fetched, and yet at the same time this pairing seems like such an obvious one, doesn't it?

Sologenic merges these two worlds into one, and today I'd like to look at the massive importance of this upcoming platform.

Locked into Cryptocurrencies

Personally, I've always wanted to invest into the stock market. From seeing shows and films surrounding the gains and mayhem that's associated with stocks, it always seemed like an atrractive place to put your money into.

But for me, it always seemed like such a hassle to get started. As someone who never had any real experience when it came to investing, the task of getting into stocks seemed daunting at the time, and that sentiment still holds true to this day.

Generally speaking, if someone wants to buy stocks, their options are limited as well as intimidating-looking. In recent years this has gotten better, with apps like Robinhood allowing the average joe to invest into well-known stocks. While this bypasses the need for a broker, things could still be simpler. And Sologenic provides users the option to trade stocks with cryptocurrencies, giving those of us already invested in the crypto space an easy route into the stock market.

Cryptocurrencies, while not “simplicistic” by any means, are still easy to come by. And when you take into account the hundreds (if not thousands) of exchanges online, the process of acquiring your favorite coins has become far easier compared to a couple of years ago.

The intimidation when it comes to getting stocks that I mentioned earlier played a role in me getting into crypto, since these were easier to purchase and allowed me to be “invested” in something, which was the goal at the time. As such, my initial interest in crypto wasn't the technology, or the possible future gains, but rather the simple fact of being invested in something.

As time has gone by, I still believe that this “feeling” of being invested has kept me here with a stronger foothold. But the dream of owning stocks still persists, and now with Sologenic this dream can become a reality.

What is Sologenic?

Taken from their website, here's an excerpt from the story behind Sologenic:

The Sologenic team consists of a mix of 30+ experts, blockchain advocates, and professionals looking to help bring SOLO to people all around the world. With skills and experience in several areas, including software development, tech, marketing, and law, their shared goal is to modernize the current financial system.

With skilled people behind the project, one can be sure that the future of SOLO is in good hands. And for those of you who are fans of XRP, the entire project is built on top of the XRP Ledger. So not only are they planning to revolutionize the financial system by essentially merging stocks and crypto, but they're basing the entire system on a tried and proven network ledger that gives them reliability, security, and fast transaction speeds.

But how does it all work?

Well, if you'd like the “full picture” then I'd suggest you visit their website, as this is where you'll get all the info you'll need directly from Sologenic themselves.

But to give a brief explanation, here's the gist of it all:

Essentially, Sologenic will use the XRPL as a way to tokenize various different assets, such as stocks found on the stock market. Thanks to the speed found with XRP, these tokenized assets can be traded in near real-time, allowing users to trade stocks that are paired with cryptocurrencies. From what I can tell, these tokenized assets can be traded against either XRP or SOLO, the latter being Sologenic's own cryptocurrency coin. With all of this working together, we'd essentially get an entire platform where stocks and crypto are merged into one, giving you a wide range of options on things to invest in.

Now, before you get too excited, the option to trade stocks isn't live as of me writing this. Here's a screenshot of their roadmap, which can be found on their website:

As you can see, we still have a ways to go in terms of actual trading. But still, I feel it necessary to write about this project, as it's caught my attention from the beginning. And my enthusiasm surrounding it has only grown as time has passed.

My Own Thoughts on Sologenic

Personally, I find this entire thing very exciting. The thought of having a platform where I could trade cryptocurrencies and stocks would be a dream come true. Having these two worlds collide seems like such an obvious move, and I'm surprised it hasn't been done earlier. There's also other things to look at, such as the card that Sologenic offers. While I've personally not used it, the concept of having a card loaded with your crypto that you can use in your everyday purchases sounds very intriguing.

Not only that, but just imagine what kind of growth this type of platform would get when the general public finds out about it. How would people react to finding out that there's a place where you can invest in pretty much any assets on the stock market, as well as cryptocurrencies? I'd imagine people would flock to it in a heartbeat, given how easy it would be for users to enter into either the crypto market or stock market, or even both.

I'm rambling, but I really do believe that platforms such as Sologenic are going to be the future when it comes to financial investments. Ease of use, quick transactions, and plenty of options. With all of this coming soon, the future of investments keeps getting brighter.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Some images in this article are courtesy from Uphold

The following content is exclusive to Coil Subscribers

I wanted to try something different in today’s article. Specifically, I’d like to discuss the search for motivation in a world struck by a pandemic.

Motivation, in simple terms, is that extra push we get to do the things we want to do. This can range from motivation to finish that book you’ve been meaning to write, motivation to tidy up your home, etc.

Once you look around, it seems that we rely heavily on motivation to get things done. And to a certain extent this holds true, but I’d like to talk about my own experiences with motivation, or rather a lack thereof.

Starting something. It’s a struggle.

I’m sure this doesn’t apply to everyone, but have you ever wanted to do something and never end up doing it?

Some call it procrastination, where one puts these “wants” in the background, even though we want to do them.

I’m not talking about the responsibilities that we carry in our daily lives, since these usually need to be attended wether or not we actually want to do them.

No, instead, I’m talking about the things that one could call hobbies. The things we aspire to do but never actually get around to doing them. It’s as if the mere thought of doing the thing is enough for us, and so we put that dream aside until our egos are hungry for more validation. At that point, we take that same thought we tucked away, and begin to fantasize of starting and completing it. We then feel satisfied once more, and the cycle continues.

For me personally, it’s starting something that becomes a struggle. I’ll come up with ideas I deem great and noteworthy, and begin planning out a sort of “roadmap” as to how to get there. While I’m thinking of this, I feel a sense of accomplishment, as if I had actually done something important.

But in reality, all I’ve done is think about the things I want to do. Action is never taken to achieve said goals. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, I feel like I might be missing various opportunities by not taking action.

As such, I’ve started to push myself whenever motivation finds it’s way to me.

Taking advantage.

There’s a saying out there that basically says motivation is fleeting, and that discipline is where it’s at.

I’m sure we can all agree with that statement, since it makes sense once you think about it.

But discipline is a hard thing to grow, and is something I’m constantly working on to improve it. Since it’s something hard to come by, I’ve settled on a middle ground of sorts, a place that sits between motivation and discipline.

I’m not sure of what it’s called, but I like to think of it as motivation but with an extra kick in it. What I mean by this is whenever I get that oh-so-rare pure motivation to do something, I force myself to start right away. Doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I have the chance to drop it and start working on whatever it is I’m motivated for, I’ll do it.

The trick here is to stop yourself the moment you begin “daydreaming” of the thing you want to do. The moment these fantasies arise, is the moment where you stand up and just get to it.

No plan, no preconception, no preconceived goal in mind. You just go and do it.

Sure, sometimes you won’t finish, maybe you don’t get too far. But you’ve now started, and that’s a hurdle that you won’t have to worry the next time motivation comes knocking at your door.

So take advantage when you’re motivated. Don’t let it go to waste.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

The following content is exclusive to Coil subscribers

Today I'll be looking at Coil, specifically the blogging aspect of the platform. Since this article is a review, I'll be focusing on various aspects of the blogging platform, as well as any critiques I may have. These things are not factual, and are merely my own personal opinions. Design and aesthetic (and essentially everything else) will differ depending on an individuals personal preferences.

With that in mind, let's get started. The first half of this article is going to focus on the good stuff, with the latter half focusing on things that could be improved.

UI Design

The acronym UI stands for User Interface, and is essentially the focus on aesthetics when it comes to the things we use. This term is mainly applied to digital design, such as websites, application, programs, etc.

It is in this User Interface where users interact with the products they use. As an example, the phone or computer you're using to read this has an operating system. In said OS, you're usually presented with either a desktop (for computers) or some form of homescreen (for mobile devices).

It's these desktops and homescreens that present to you a User Interface, displaying various different shapes and colors to bring context and ease of use to the operation of the device. Having a well designed UI allows users to more easily distinguish the various funcitons they can do, as well as creating an aesthetically pleasing look to your screen.

And all of the various applications and programs that you use in this space have their own UI designs. Some may look similar to the “main” design that you may find on your respective devices, others may have a completely different look.

When it comes to UI, designers usually strive for a balance of appealing visuals and functionality. Straying too far to either side can create confusion and irritability.

UI Design – Profile Page

Now, let's take a look at Coil with all of this in mind. We'll first look at the user profile page. I'll be using my own profile for the screenshots that follow.

Personal preference is going to play a big part in what people find pleasing to the eye, but as someone who enjoys clean interfaces, I can confidently say that Coil has brought us what other platforms have not: simplicity.

Sure, other platforms offer clean looking profile pages, but never to the extent we see on Coil. Here, we're presented with only the most essential information:

• A simple profile picture, centered towards the top of the page.
• The name of the author.
• The authors username handle.
• A description for the profile page.
• A follow button.
• A follower count indicator.

All of this is centered on top of one another, and is placed on top of a clean background. While I'm sure many users would like the option of displaying their own background, I personally love this clean look. It's simple, straight to the point, and offers no disctractions.

Below the profile header we find a feed of articles from the author. Sitting above this feed and between the profile header, we find four controls:

We are given the option of choosing the order of the articles. As far as I can tell, the default is New with no way of changing it on the creators side of things. This default makes sense though, so I can see why this setting option isn't available.

But, as you can see, we are presented with a clean, no frills interface. No sub-menus (apart from the one “Filter By” list menu) to sift through. Instead we have simple, quick buttons to change what we see in a single click.

After this, we are given a list of articles from the profile:

The simple design philosophy can be seen here as well, with each individual article having its corresponding title, the header image, the type of post (A for text, and a chain icon for links), as well as the date the article was published. To the left of each article we have the number of votes, as well as a single arrow to give the article your own vote.

All in all, the profile page is clean, intuitive, and to the point. And with this being a blogging platform, having full focus on the content is a big, big plus.

UI Design – The Articles Themselves

Now let's take a look at the articles themselves, and how they are presented. I'll be using this article for the screenshots.

Here, things get a bit more interesting. The writer has the option of putting a header image, which will be displayed at the top of the article in Coil, as well as being used as a thumbnail when viewed outside of the article, wether that's on Coil itself or on other platforms, such as Twitter.

The header image occupies the entire top of the page, extending to both edges. This gives us a nice spot to display the image, as its both impactful and is the first thing you see when opening an article.

Below the header image, we essentially have two parts:

• To the left, we have the users profile information, as well as a follow button below it. Sitting below this we have the votes displayed, as well as sharing options.
• Centered on the page we have the article itself, with the title, text, and any images associated with it centered in the page.

This is where Coil truly shines, and is essentially a dream come true for me when it comes to blogging.

Far too often I find myself reading on platforms that seem to treat the written content as a means to an end. They will use the article as a sort of hook, and proceed to litter the sides of the page with advertisements, lists to other articles, etc.

But here, it's the article. That's it. No cluttered sides, no ads, none of that. Just a pure focus on the content that you clicked on.

I've tried countless blogging platforms, and have always struggled with trying to create a clean and focused look to what I would write. Short of creating your own website, you can't really get this clean look anywhere else. And while some may find this aspect of Coil trivial, I personally wish other platforms that are focused on written content would take this same approach. It respects the authors content, as well as the reader reading said content.

Besides the benefit this provides to creators and readers, I imagine this type of design helps Coil as well. With the current layout they have for articles, the resizing that needs to happen between desktop and mobile devices should be extremely simple. With such a few amount of elements, and all of them being centered, resizing becomes a non-issue, and makes viewing Coil pages a wonderful experience, wether you're on a computer or mobile browser.

There's not much I can say when it comes to the UI of articles. It's just really good. I do have some suggestion on how to further improve it, but before we look at that, let's look at User Experience.

UX – User Experience

Wether you're making an application, website, or any other type of digital program, the one thing you want to make sure to get absolutely right is User Experience. This is usually abbreviated as UX.

What I mean by User Experience is pretty simple: the experience the user gets while using your product.

Let's use websites as an example.

I'm sure you've encountered a handful of websites that just didn't feel good. Sure, when you first clicked on that link and saw the website for the first time, it might've looked pretty good. It may have even caught your attention, if for a brief moment. But as soon as you start scrolling, you notice that it's not behaving like it should. Instead of a smooth, quick scroll that follows your input, you find yourself looking at a page that is scrolling in a janky or laggy fashion.

Or perhaps you try to click on the menu they present at the top of the page, and are greeted by an exagerated animation that lacks fluidity, and increases the time it takes you to click through the sub-menu.

This is bad User Experience, and is something that may seem irrevelant when developing digital products. But in reality, it is the glue that holds everything together.

The interesting thing about UX is that, if it's done well, users won't notice it. This is because good UX is designed with that very thing in mind: being invisible.

With good UX, you are giving your users a platform that just works. If you have good UX in your products, you're essentially guaranteeing that your users will continue to use your products, because they work as advertised. There are exceptions to this, such as that site you have to use to pay bills, etc. Here, you don't really have a choice as a user, and so you have to fight through the convoluted menus that they display because there is no other choice.

But when it comes to consumer products (either digital or physical), creating a good UX is essential if you want to keep your users. The cool thing about User Experience is that, if you have a good User Interface to work on top of, this becomes much easier.

Coil – User Experience

When it comes to Coil and its User Experience, all I need to say is one single word.

Perfection.

The reason why I say perfection is simply because, coupled with its good UI design, the entire act of using Coil simply just works.

Sure, some may be turned away by its simplicity, especially when looking at the text editor (more on this later), but it's because of this simplicity that we're able to get such a beautiful experience when using it.

When you want to do something on Coil, the actions you take on the website to do those things are given to you. No hassles or annoyances, it just goes straight to the point.

And really, that's all I have to say about Coil's UX. It just works, and that's what good UX is all about in the end.

The Editor

The editor that Coil offers is pretty good. In fact, when it comes to website editors and blogging, Coil's editor is easily my favorite.

However, when you first encounter the editor, things might seem a bit... empty.

Compared to your typical blog editor, the Coil editor looks very empty. When you create a new article, these are the things that you first see:

• At the very top of the page you have the Public or Subscriber Only toggle, which allows you to have the article either public to everyone, or locked to Coil Subscribers only. To the far right we also see the Publish button, which is self explanatory. Next to it (the three dots) is a submenu, giving you the option to either save the current draft, or delete it.
• Below the aforementioned toggle, we see the Add header image button. This allows writers to add a header image to their article. As previously mentioned, the header image is also used as a thumbnail for the article itself.
• The next section we see is dedicated to the article itself, giving you a Title input section for the articles title.
• After the title, you have the actual writing space. Here you can write, add images, links, etc.
• When your cursor selects an empty writing section, we see a small lock icon followed by the + symbol. We'll get to these two in a bit.

As you can see, the editor is pretty barebones. Some may find the lack of features a hindrance, but I've grown to love the simplicity it offers. Wether you're writing an article or reading one, Coil offers its users a simple, clean design.

Now, if you've never used this editor, you may be wondering where the character formatting options are? These simply pop up once you've selected any amount of text.

When it comes to character formatting you may find the selection rather limited in size. And while more options wouldn't hurt, the essentials that we see are plenty when it comes to writing a blog post.

I previously mentioned the Lock and + symbol, and these only appear if you select an empty row in the editor.

The lock allows you to section off the rest of the article to Coil Subscribers, meaning that those without this subscription won't be able to see content that sits below this locked section.

The + symbol is where you'll find ways to embed media, such as photos, videos, audio file links, and normal url links.

With such a simple and straightforward editor, I feel less distracted. Back when I used other blogging platforms, I'd usually write my final draft of the article in a separate word processor, and then proceed to paste sections into the platforms editor.

But with Coil, I have no need of using an external word processor. I now write the articles in the editor, and have started to even write the drafts themselves here, cleaning up the mess as I write the article. All in one place.

Again, the lack of options may turn people away, but I find that having such a clean writing place greatly improves ones focus when writing an article.

Improvements and Suggestions

This section is going to focus on the changes I believe could further improve the Coil Blogging experience. I'll provide mockups for some of these suggestions as well, so as to have a visual aid that can accompany them.

Categories

My biggest gripe with Coil is the missing categorization. And while the current simplicity in terms of article categories is fine at the moment, I feel like a category system could greatly improve the experience.

With the option for categories, creators would have an easier time organizing different types of articles. This also gives readers easy access when it comes to choosing specific topics they may be looking for from their favorite creators.

Implementation of a category system could be simplified as well, where we would treat each category as its separate “page” on a users profile. This would mean that users would only be able to choose one category for their article.

Here's a mockup of how this could look on the profile page:

Keeping in line with Coil's clean design, the categories could exist in the top section of the profile page, below the follower count.

In the above mockup I placed some categories that would apply to my blog, specifically: Crypto, Rambles, and Reviews.

The “All” button to the left of the categories would be there by default (if the user has created categories, that is). This would also be enabled by default, meaning that clicking on a users profile brings them to this “All” section, which is essentially the same as what we have currently with Coil. Note that creators would have the option of sharing links to a specific category “page”, leading readers to the creators profile page, but with the category chosen highlighted. (The “All” button in the mockup is highlighted, so highlighting a category would mimic the same darkened effect.)

To the right side of the categories we could find a “Show More” drop-down menu, where the rest of the creators categories could be found. This means that creators can create as many categories as they want, but only the first three or four would actually appear in the profile page. The rest would appear in the “Show More” menu.

This would retain the clean look of profiles, while still bringing funcitonality to the table.

Tags

While not needed, tags could further increase user accesibility when it comes to searching for topics. Tags could be displayed at the end of the article, hidden away from the main thing but still there if users want to further explore different topics relating to the article they're reading.

Here's another mockup on how that could look like:

They would sit at the very end, going below the “Subscribe to unlock” box, as is shown above. Tags would work in the usual way we're used to, giving us more relevant search results when searching for an article.

Editor Additions

In terms of character formatting, I don't really have any suggestions. While yes, more would be nice, the current selection gets the job done nicely.

But one function I'd like to see is some way to create seperations within an article. What I mean by this is having some form of separator (usually it's just a line) that one can place in their writing, which kind of sections off different parts of the article. This is a purely visual separation, and a simple thin line should suffice.

In this very article that you're currently reading, I tried implementing this type of separation with the use of an image. It's only a black line over a white background, and using this gives a similar effect. But a built-in function that provides this out of the box would be greatly appreciated.

Other Smaller Changes

Apart from the prior suggestions, here's a quick list of smaller things that could be implemented:

• The addition of social media links on the profile page, allowing users to visit other pages that their author uses (Twitter, Cinnamon, Facebook, etc.)
• The option to have titles in articles centered.
• A grid option for images. This could be as simple as having four images in a grid, where users can click/tap on a specific one to get a closer look. This could useful when showing multiple images linked to the context of what is being read.

Conclusion

In summary, I have been happy with what Coil has offered me as a blogging platform. But we cannot forget that there is so much more to Coil. Blogging, content monetization (be it YouTube or Twitch), Cinnamon Video, and more. The Coil platform as a whole is something I would have never imagined seeing, and the future of web monetization is something I'm keeping a keen eye on. Though I only covered a small part of Coil, specifically the blogging section of it, I feel that this part of Coil deserves its own attention.

And while I gave suggestions on how to improve things, I can't be too critical as this is a growing project. And with that in mind, the product Coil offers is one of the best I've encountered in a long.

Also, I’ll be publishing a sort of part 2 to this review in the near future, where I’ll focus on the monetization aspects of Coil. Stay tuned!

Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading.

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