Steemit is an Incredible Success
Seriously guys, go do some research on professional blogging. There are a lot of people out there that won't make a dime in their first year. When someone says that Steemit is broken, what are they comparing it to?
Here are some tips for making more money on your blog (sourced from Google search).
- Affiliate Income
- eBooks
- Hosting events
- Advertising
- Subscriptions
- Audience targeting
- Promotions
- Etc
Alright, so how many of us are actually doing these things? How seriously are we actually taking this whole "making money from blogging" thing? Not much (including myself).
Anyone can start a blog, which means competition is intense. Everyone wants to make money from home and be their own boss. In an ocean of bloggers, supply is very high and demand is quite low. Why are expectations not meeting reality?
Trending
How many people click on the trending tab, see obscene rewards being paid out to "shitposts", and ragequit over it?
My content is better than that content, therefore Steemit is broken.
Yeah, that's not how it works. First of all, most of us know by now that the posts on trending are basically sponsored content. If we see a post paying out $300, only a small fraction of that is actually profit due to vote-buying services. Still, the transparency of the system causes new users to ooze with envy.
It seems like an inverse relationship: the less work users put in, the more likely they are to complain. How many bloggers here put in immense effort over a sustained amount of time and still come out of it thinking our platform is broken? The ultimate question is this: is there another blogging platform with better results than Steemit? I don't see one.
The unique ability for users to tip inflation with a cryptocurrency is revolutionary. Outside of upvotes, I haven't received any tips for my blog. This leads me to assume that if I had been writing elsewhere, I would have made zero dollars by now.
That's another thing: dollars. Other blogs are paid in fiat. Fiat is controlled by central banking. Unlike USD, we have a very good idea of what our inflation over the next year is going to be.
Steem is not a blogging cryptocurrency or a social media crypto. Steem is simply a blockchain that stores raw text and Javascript. Unlike other blogging platforms, Steemit is bound to start experiencing a network effect with all the other products being created here.
At first, we had very limited functionality: blog and speculate. Now we have @dtube and @steemmonsters and @actifit and a hundred other projects in the works; all tethered together by a single currency. The network effect is real, and it's only a matter of time before users are earning digital assets in one place and spending them in another. This creates a more closed loop that captures value for the entire platform.
I've used Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Ello, Medium, MySpace and other sites for blogging, posting regularly (usually at least once per day, for months at a time, or in some cases, like at WordPress and Blogger, for many years.) I've never made a penny from any of those sites. I tried to get AdSense to work on Blogger, but I never had enough followers, so nothing there. I've used WordPress for more than six years, even paid for a "premium" account for a year---but never made anything there, either. I've tried Ko-Fi and Patreon, and made next to nothing with those. I've self published 11 books, and sold a few online, but never very many. (Surprisingly, they sell better in person, when I've done booths and even yard sales!!!)
However, with Steemit, I've managed to make anywhere from a few cents worth of Steem up to $10 or $15 worth for an individual post! It's not "quit my job" money, but I've been writing blog posts and sharing my drawings online since 2003, and Steemit is the first platform where anything close to an economic value has been attributed to my creative work. As I mentioned above, I'm not getting rich, but it's nice to be getting SOMETHING for my efforts, instead on NOTHING! I'm happy here, and I plan on staying!
Ah, you see that? That's what I'm talking about! And if we can gain traction here and ramp up the network effect, your gains will continue to spiral up. What happens if Steem goes 10x? 100x? 1000x? All of a sudden, it does become "quit my job" money.
In my opinion, this comment has far greater value than the original post. Thank you for sharing.
That's true. But the current situation of the company makes me doubt it. I hope im wrong. I want this to suceed too!
Steemit Inc may fumble, but there are many more variables to this equation. If Bitcoin goes x10 we likely will go x10 or more. The Steem community is much more important than Steemit anyhow, and it seems like every time we get kicked the community kicks back even harder.
I agree. But how strong is the community really?
Seems pretty strong to me. This ragtag band of rebels fights a lot harder when backed into a corner. This bear market is just as much a catalyst for progress as the bull run.
nods... im curious about how it will play out
let's see.
Very well said. I haven't been on any other social media platform, but even after almost two years on Steemit I still can't quite believe I get paid for writing!
I very much agree..
looking at the steem price it is also a question of what a working community with this many engaged members should be worth...
I believe it should be ways above the current marketcap...
The speculation angle is insane as well. A few of my posts have been getting upvoted up to $10 lately, aka 30 coins. If Steem was $10 and SBD was $10, all of a sudden that 30 coin post is worth well over $1000.
Even though SBD is totally unsustainable at $10 we know that it can happen for a short period of time... which is absolutely mind-blowing to me. In my mind, these numbers should be impossible, yet here they are. These kinds of payouts were literally happening to people in my position one year ago (when I arrived).
Well stated.
Your premise is "Steemit is at least better than its competition". Not exactly reaching for the stars, but ok.
Even then, is Steemit better than its competition? I wouldn't be the one to measure that, since I've never used its competition. But I know one thing about Steemit: It's costly and difficult to get started here. To me, that's a huge drawback. Charging new users to make their first post? Very sad indeed. And they just announced that the site is broke and needs to start advertising to us. On traditional blogs, the users have ads up, and they make an income from it. On Steemit, the website has the ads up on your blog, and you are the target of that advertising. If you fall for it, Steemit gets paid.
I don't need to have used Steemit's competition to know that it's possible to do much better.
Crypto isn't a "good" solution.
It is a "good enough" solution.
Good things come to those who wait.
Patience is a virtue and all that.
Nobody here thinks we've done everything we can do.
Everyone wants a better platform.
Luckily, unlike a centralized service like Facebook, we don't have to sit around to make this place the best it can be. Hundreds of developers are trying to create useful applications. Steemit will eventually fade into obscurity in the face of all the other products being built here.
I think patience for good things is a virtue. Patience for everything is silly.
Your long term futuristic vision is cool, and perhaps even right. But that's not today, and today is what counts. People need somewhere to blog and to vlog and to dispense their news and showcase their creations. Content-creators are looking for somewhere to do their thing. If I were Steemit (or anyone like them) I would be getting my basic site backbone in order and providing somewhere for all that valuable content to exist. Whoever manages to provide for the content-creators will prosper. Content is what adds value here. Without continued influx of fresh unique high quality content, the site is an empty shell of code (and advertising).
Agree.
This is only true about Steemit itself, and does not apply to the underlying asset (Steem) or any of the other possible front-ends, games, and other digital assets.
Steem as a pure cryptocurrency with no social media element still has lot of value by itself. The power for anyone with coins to distribute 90% of the inflation generated is pretty awesome. Steem is the hardest cryptocurrency to steal (that I know of) and the easiest one to control the keys directly. Putting tunnel-vision on Steemit.com is an oversight.
Congratulations @edicted!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
haha
Great perspective that I think is overwhelmingly not considered enough! Even more interesting is the amount the reward pool pays out per average active user! While obviously weighted to those with large stakes, in total the per user amounts are more than Facebook’s average net revenue per active user according to their last two earnings reports!
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Good insights... One discouraging thing I've noticed is that all my posts I actually put lots and lots of energy/time into, longer reading info....I rarely get paid more for that, my pics that are just that a picture and only tags, get way more recognition. So, for now, I will continue to posts from my heart and see where it takes me.. and perhaps switch up content that steemians would prefer I suppose...
Yeah, that can be really frustrating: to put in all that extra work with zero recognition. It happens to me all the time. My advice: keep on truckin'. Payouts are a lottery and quality content will get you more tickets. Consistency is important.
I believe Steem will add new proof-of-brain activities in the coming years that will be far less subjective than blogging. When these activities arrive, it will be much more obvious what constitutes quality content and what does not. This should allow newbies to arrive and forge a reputation sooner than they would if they were simply trying to blog.
Very good article. Well, if Steem is broken, what to say of Facebook and Twitter?
It is broken. Steem should be worth more :)
I'm not experienced enough to really qualify to comment, but I think you're correct re income for blogging (having never done it before).
That being said, affiliate marketing (as an income not related to blogging), can be profitable.
I have 10 sites up an running (not very good ones!lol), for different things...
After 2 months or so, I've made not very much - but it is passive income, and it is growing (very bloody slowly!).
It's not something I'm really interested in, tbh - more of an experiment - but I can see the potential for good earnings, for people that were into that side of things.