RE: Steem- Power up, promote, or cash out for content costs?
It's really about what's important to you.
Powering up gets you more influence/power within the platform that you can use to bootstrap your way to bigger future earnings.
Promoting is a quicker way toward that goal but it's flash-in-the-pan rather than long-term.
Cashing out gets you your immediate earnings.
Personally I've found that spending SBD on promotion doesn't accomplish a whole lot in the amounts a minnow like me earns, and the value of my rewards in other crypto or FRN is still small enough that it seems smarter to just reinvest it than to cash out for a few bucks. So mostly every few days I've just taken what I have sitting there and used it to power up.
Now that my total account value exceeds $100 FRN, I'll probably start splitting my earnings between powering up and trading into other crypto (Ethereum, most likely), with weight toward the former at first and slowly shifting. That way I keep building Steem Power while also taking some profits.
Love this answer. It doesn't pander and it comes across honest and true. This approach is similar to the plan I formed after posting this. Once I get powered up to a given $$$, then I may start investing back into the content with payouts. In a perfect world, that should increase views as well.
Early on in Bitcoin, I was aware but passed the opportunity. I think steem has the potential to be bigger than Bitcoin. Powering up locks up the money on top of giving you increased influence. Locked up money prevents impulse decisions to liquidate at the whims of the market. If it goes big in the long term, powered up might save me a fortune. If it all goes away- it was a fun ride in between.
We shall see. In 20 years, this post will still be a part of the internet history. The net never forgets.
Side note: Your Stomp box is out-fricken-standing!