Comment-petition: reduce risk, build your blog

This came up just before and has come up several other times earlier so I think it is worth a short post. Build your blog.

There are people who make a good amount of return from commenting, I know as i am one of the people who consistently reward comments. There is a high incentive for some people (especially from countries with low costs of living) to get complacent and only earn from comments. This is very risky.

Yes, it takes time to post and build up a blog and most likely, the return isn't going to be as good as a lot of half decent comments on blogs that reward them but, things will likely change as competition arrives. There will never be an easier time in the future than now to build a blog and subsequent following as onboarding happens, price increases and even more competition arrives. The new ones in will also want a slice of the comment pie as they will quickly recognise that building a blog is very hard, takes time and comes with no guarantees.

What this means is that the blogs like my own who do reward comments are going to be inundated with comments looking for rewards. At the moment, I am trying to get to as many as I can and reward as many as I can but, there is a limit to how far I am willing to spread the value and, on what I am willing to spread it to. What this means is that likely in the future, comments themselves will be more highly rewarded but, fewer comments by percentage will get rewarded and this will be based on quality of comment.

I already see this happening in myself as people jump on my posts hoping for/expecting reward without necessarily offering very much to the conversation. However, it is a natural evolution of content that in time, quality will take precedence and the average will be just that, average. With my own posts alone, I read and comment upon about 100 comments a day.

Every day ~2 full votes go toward comments. This might not be a lot per comment but, if my vote was worth 100 dollars, and I did the same, that would be 1-2 dollars each. But, that is obviously going to attract more commentors but there is no way I can read, comment on or reward 1000 comments per day. This means that I will have to be much more discerning with my time but, I might be rewarding 50 comments 4 dollars each. Will your comments consistently be in the top 5%? Combine this with the price of Steem and again, risk.

If you think about it from a sporting perspective, the players who play in the premier leagues may not be that much better than those who play in a division down but, their salaries are massively different. This means that the competition in the lower divisions can be much more aggressive than that at the top as there are more players vying for a low number of positions. This is why people are self-voting ( I generally dislike this) their comments for visibility, especially on large whale accounts. They are using their stake to put themselves in the eye of a whale and close out the minnows. Comment competition and their stake gives them an edge over those without. I would like to see more whales flagging this behaviour when it doesn't add value or is obvious ball-rubbing/attention-seeking behaviour but, that is me.

My point with this is that in time, the comment sections are going to become increasingly crowded and even if spam can be filtered, there are going to be better comments flowing in. Some people are trying to grab attention with pictures, signatures and flashing gifs which for me, is a turn off and i have to restrain myself from flagging. In my opinion, it is not attractive, it is off-putting and distracting and often reeks of desperation. Harsh? Not really.

This is why it is a good idea to at least put in a solid effort to build a blog, gain some followers with decent content and perhaps as the flood gates of users opens, some run off will also support your blog too. That is my hope for my own position anyway as i know that in time, there are going to be some very, very good authors and accounts coming in.

This all takes a lot of work and I find that I am commenting less on other people's blogs even though I read an upvote them as I have to increasingly spend time on my own. This is natural but, it is also what I have been working toward anyway, to become a node.

I am currently in a position where I don't have to chase followers and those I would have to chase to grow (whales) I am unwilling to hijack their comment sections, memo their wallets or DM them links to get their attention. My growth now depends on quality of content, community interaction and word of mouth. For me to attract any large voters, I essentially need the larger voters who vote upon me now to read what I write, appreciate what I offer them and the community and, recommend me on to their peers. It is difficult as word of mouth is not something that is easy to spread at Steemit due to the UI. It is also hard as there are less large voters in the pool with sensitive eyes. Competition.

Competition isn't always healthy but it is always going to be present at all levels, whether a whale or a redfish. Someone asked how they can reduce their future risks here and on Steemit it is the same as everywhere else in the world, diversification and this requires investment into many areas by definition. Some will return rewards now, some later, some will collapse. If you are relying on comments for your income, you are taking a narrow, high risk pathway.

Hopefully, this offers a few things to think about at least. I will be back in a few hours... I have to clean the house.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]