RE: Meta Blogging or Why I haven't been posting much Lately
Interesting read! It's funny to see that you're quoting yourself as the old wise man :-)
Honestly, I don't think that any of my first articles were a waste of time just because they didn't have a huge payout. Starting something new always requires some efforts, and succeeding requires taking risks. Investing time in this platform without knowing if you're going to get any return, is kind of a risk.
Even though not many may have found and upvoted your first articles (just because you didn't have any followers at this point in time), they were still a unique piece of content, hence valuable.
In social media we tend to define value exclusively depending on the opinion of others, while we completely forget our own opinion and taste. I suppose that you liked your first articles, so you shouldn't underestimate your work and call them a waste of time...:-)
Question: From your own experience, do you think that using bid bots has helped you to grow a sustainable brand and followership on Steem?
Hi @surfermarly, thanks for reading and commenting! :-)
It is partly meant to be funny, but there's also some truth to it ;-)
I agree 100%.
You're right, "waste of time" was too harsh, maybe I was trying to sound dramatic. I like your positive way of looking at it. Aside from the missing/low monetary compensation, there are many good things to take away from my early articles. I had fun writing them, gained experience, made an investment in the future, ...
I definitely am proud of my writing, but at the time, I felt entitled, undervalued and not compensated enough. Maybe rightfully so, maybe not.
I guess this came across the wrong way and I should have explained it better. I'll note it under room for improvement in writing :-D
Good Question!
Answer: I feel that promoting your articles is a must, and bid bots are an easy way to do it. IMHO, without that, the chance of getting seen is very low. So it is a necessary basis to start building a followership and growing a brand. How sustainable it is, I can't really say yet. Time will tell.
The cost of buying votes should be about even with the ROI, but also depends on Steem/SBD price fluctuation. If the better visibility attracts the right people and a faithful followership/helps to grow a sustainable brand - I hope so.
What is your opinion about that, as you have a few years more experience on this platform than me?
Thanks for your detailed reply, appreciated! :-)
Well as long as we remember that the rewards are a nice plus and no guarantee, the negative thoughts disappear magically :-)
What means compensated enough? I guess that's very subjective. Of course we'd transfer the whole rewards pool to our own wallet if we could, since we're totally convinced about our own doings. But that's not how content evaluation works.
I don't think that bid bots will help people to grow a sustainable followership, since those who find you on trending don't start following your blog because they LIKE what you do but because they think it'll be benefition to THEM to follow someone with a high visibility. You will notice that when you stop boosting your content: how many engage with you then? How many comments do these newly acquired (actually "bought") followers leave in your blog? A high number of followers doesn't say anything about their true loyalty.
I wouldn't have ever come so far in this network if I had been relying on bots :-)
Thank YOU for engaging in a dialogue, for challenging my views and reminding me to think positive! :-)
"Compensated enough" is very vague and subjective indeed ;-)
A few months ago, I compared my articles to shitposts without any value, that get bigger rewards. So not compensated enough in relation to those.
If you ask me now, it's not enough comparing the time invested to the money one could earn in a real job in the same time. But of course that's unrealistic to ask as a beginner on the platform after 3-4 months. Maybe one day it will become reality, but for now I am happy just blogging, streaming, learning. And as a wise woman once said...
;-)
Interesting to hear your opinion on bid bots. I'll have to check out your whole profile to see how you developed and made your way to success!
Well think about how it works in social media: If Miley Cyrus publishs a picture of an hamburger, it may get 1 million "likes" on Instagram. If we did the same, we probably wouldn't even get a like from our own moms (for being fast food) :-D
It's not only the content that is evaluated, it especially matters who you are and how's your standing in the network. That's what I meant with sustainability.
Oh well, many of it is not visible in the blog. Just think about the time one can spent in discord chatrooms engaging with the community. Building a brand on Steem requires more than only creating content.
If you had a look at my wallet you'd notice two things: First: I'm powering down since I will literally build a house on Steem (the piece of land was already financed through my crypto earnings) :-) And second: I have started to use smartsteem a couple of weeks ago in order to complement organic upvotes. I'm whitelisted at smartsteem.com which makes the whole process quite easy. Yet, I try to keep things balanced, not paying for top trending positions since I don't like to see the comments section of my content being full of spammy follow me then I follow you posts :-)
Steem on!