❓Answering Common Questions: Where's my payout going?!?! It's Going Down!! 👇
What's Happening? Is something wrong?!?!
Keep calm...nothing is wrong. While I understand the concern..it's really quite normal.
Ok, so now that you've calmed down a bit (I hope) lets cover a bit of what is going on with your post payouts. When we're done, you'll start letting things like this just roll off you without any stress.
Q: Am I being flagged or something?
This is always the first thought people have when they see their post payouts going down. While it's possible (you can find out if this is the case in THIS POST, 99.99% of the time flags have nothing to do with it.
Q: Sooo...what's going on then? Why are my payouts going down?
Let's first back up just a little bit. You see, each day there is new Steem being printed and placed into a reward pool for post and comment authors. (This is where the so-called money comes from.) This fixed amount is then given away and who proportionally gets what is determined by votes. Those with more Steem Power thus has more effect.
Effect of Steem and Bitcoin price compared to the US Dollar
The BIGGEST reason is because the price of Steem fell about 20% in the last day or so (along with most crypto.) It's already bounced back about half of that!
So why does any of this matter?
You see, what you are ACTUALLY receiving is STEEM...NOT DOLLARS! That dollar amount you are seeing is based off the current price of Steem, relative to Bitcoin, relative to the US dollar. So if the price of Steem goes down, or the price of Bitcoin goes down...that Steem that was distributed to you is worth less. Even though you technically have the SAME AMOUNT OF STEEM.
So don't panic, this really is normal. Just as often your payouts go UP when the Steem (and Bitcoin) price rises. However, nobody really thinks anything of this outside of GOODY!! These ups and downs balance out over time.
Q: Wait a minute..you just said the price has gone back up somewhat..yet I'm not seeing my payout rise.
Our payouts don't look at the instantaneous price of Steem, instead it uses a 3.5 day AVERAGE price. So this means that the more recent gains represent a small portion of this 3.5 day average. The recent gains just aren't strongly reflecting yet since it's been a short period of time.
As long as the Steem price stays here (or ideally keeps going up) you'll slowly see your post payouts rise again too.
Q: Is there anything else that makes my payout change?
Like I mentioned above...votes really aren't giving money directly...instead it's distributing portions of the daily reward pool. After you post earned some money however, people STILL KEEP VOTING. So those votes that allotted you the earnings, become smaller compared to ALL the votes cast. While this usually isn't as drastic an effect of say a 20% dip in Steem price, you will likely see this happen.
Remember that ALL of my guide posts are eligible to be added as entries to the Steem Center Wiki or Operation Translation.
Click here to find out how these can earn you Steem!!
Feel free to ask me anything. I'm here to Help!
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Money Down the Drain
Don't Panic
Oh yeah I forgot about the 3 day average. Does it really go with the flow of bitcoin? That is very interesting this is the first time ive heard that but it makes sense.The whole post thing going down thing is kind of a bummer but not really this is a great place anyways. Just the chance of getting content out to a new audience is rad.
There isn't a direct exchange between Steem and the US dollar. So we have to use Bitcoin to make that happen. Essentially there is the rate between Steem and Bitcoin (currently showing 0.00073461 BTC on coinmarketcap.com) and then the current rate of Btc to USD (currently showing at $2573.51 per btc).
So if BTC value drops while the Steem/BTC stays the same...well still feel some of the effects on our payouts. However, I look forward to the day that Steem can be directly traded to the US dollar!
The dips happen..the upside for it though is that for those looking..it can be a good time to buy the steem up. :)
Totally!! It's all just bonus to me! :D
How is that true though? I understand its not actually linked to USD but how is it linked to BTC completely? Isnt ethereum and LTC a way to cash out to fiat also? Wouldn't it go with their prices also?
Thank you @sykochia for the informative post. I have been witnessing the same cowering downward trend to my posts as well over the last week. Its an up and down game here in the crypto world, but I still feel lucky as hell to have found this great place.
PS: I really like how you split up your pages using the cool graphic line, I might have to borrow that idea from you on some of my posts is that ok?
Oh definitely, this place is awesome! Making any money from paying nothing rocks.
Yeah, feel free to use the page dividers on your posts! I like sharing most of my formatting secrets. 😀
Great explanation about this fact. Thank you very much. In fact, many friends are constantly asking for this situation. Have a nice day!
I agree
Another fantastic article for new comers to better understand the economy they are now a part of.
I still always check for downvotes though 😉
Thank you! You Are always real helpful. Do you know if steemdollar.com is useful for deciding whether to choose 50/50 or 100% sp payout?
Umm, to a degree. The more that steem dollars are valued more than $1 usd, the more you want to do 50/50.
This is because steemit is paying this portion out as if it were worth a dollar, versus the $1.50 to $2 it's been around lately.
So you actually make more by getting paid in steem dollars and selling them. You can then just buy more steem than you would've gotten had you chosen 100% power up.😀
Does this mean conversely when/if Steem dollars drop down below a dollar it would make sense to switch to 100% power up?
Exactly😀
if there was a "sticky post" option of steemit...this would be it (or one of a few)
upvoted, resteemed, and followed
Wanted to write about this but you did 1000 times better as I could! :D Upped and re-steemed for more visibility. They are a lot of newbies wondering whats happening :)
That explains why my posts that were at $0.02 are now at $0.01 :D
Thank you for this explanation. It makes sense. Now I can get on to reading some of your other fantastic posts. The information you provide is so helpful to us new to Steemit
Helpful information Thanks for the help. Also for the other links