The sponsorship model for advertising on Steemit
Introduction
There has been a lot of talk about incorporating advertising into Steemit.
It is no longer the proverbial "elephant in the room" which people even refuse to discuss (which seemed to be the case initially). Nowadays a lot of users are coming around to the idea.
I personally think this would be a valuable addition if it is done tastefully and in the right kind of way.
That means it should not get in the way of user's enjoyment of the site by getting in the way or making it harder to use. It should not take over the site and give people the feeling that it is too intrusive.
If these things can be done then we will all benefit.
Sponsorship
One method of advertising that is used a lot both on and offline but I haven't seen discussed much is the use of Sponsorship. This is a multibillion dollar business annually and it is used by many companies.
(US Sponsorship Spending and Ranking 2015 vs 2014: Source: IEG report on Sponsorship)
(Top 20 categories for Sponsorship Spending in the US: Source: IEG report on Sponsorship)
What makes sponsorship so popular and effective?
In my opinion it is because it is not as blatantly intrusive as other forms of advertising and does not seem to annoy people as much.
You don't have to actively click to get rid of popups and the like and it does not get in your way. This lack of annoyance factor reduces the negative sentiments that other forms of advertising may create.
(NB : You can download a report on sponsorship statistics by IEG (one of the leading companies that looks at this field) here - note you will need to register for access. They also have a lot of other useful resources about sponsorship including graphs, statistics and reports.)
One way it could work
Companies would sponsor a blogger by powering up the blogger's account by a certain amount of SP (determined by Steemit or the network and based on the current Steemit price) - let's say a minimum of 20,000.
The blogger can accept or reject this sponsorship.
Whilst there would be a lower limit to prevent the system being spammed with logos at a low cost, there would be no upper limit on sponsorship.
If authors accepted then the sponsor's badge would be displayed on their homepage and at the top of all their posts for a certain period of time - e.g. 3 or 6 months.
Each blog would have a maximum limit of sponsors - e.g. 3. This would prevent spamming of blogs with too many badges.
The time limit would prevent bloggers from getting permanently locked into a deal with a particular sponsor and would also allow competition between companies to acquire the best content creators.
Example for illustration
For example I post a lot about photography and I use Nikon equipment.
Let's say Nikon decide they want to sponsor me.
They contact me and agree to power up my blog with 20,000 SP (the level will depend on the Steem price) and if I accept they get their logo displayed in all my posts for a set period of time (e.g. 6 months).
They benefit by having their logo seen by all my readers. I benefit because I get more Steem Power, which makes me and my posts more prominent as well as increasing my stake in Steemit.
Also the logo is potentially seen by people who I vote for checking my home page.
The greater voting power given to me by the sponsor's power up should make my votes more prominent with other users and hence make them more likely to follow me back.
Enhancing Sponsorhip further with offers, discounts and even Steem/SBD purchasing
It could be taken a step further with custom "offer" badges so that those who read my blog can click on a 10% off badge for all purchases of Nikon equipment.
People see what I'm doing with my camera and want to try it themselves. What better time to sell them a product and sweeten the deal with a discount?
They click on the button straight from the post and buy their own camera or lens AND get a discount too.
The reader wins because they save money and the advertiser wins because they entice the reader into an immediate sale (which may have gone to them but could have been sniped by a competitor if they went to a regular retailer).
The longer the time between the reader deciding to buy something and actually making the purchase is, the greater the risk to the company that this will happen.
Also the knowledge that Steemit readers get discounts on purchases could be a further means of attracting new people in.
Further down the line the purchases could even be made in Steem or SBD.
How to engage Sponsors more effectively with statistics
The current homepages on Steemit only show basic numbers of followers.
This is not really useful to an advertiser on it's own.
A further idea suggested by @craig-grant a few weeks ago that could help with this a lot would be a detailed breakdown of follower activity for all users. This would show the number of followers who are active in 24 hours/7 days etc. Much like is shown on SteemD.
(Source: SteemD)
It would give an idea of active user engagement with a particular account.
This would allow advertisers/sponsors to make informed choices about who to sponsor.
What about Promotion?
We have a form of advertising in a sense via the promotion feature.
Whilst I like this feature it does have it's problems. So far it has not really engaged advertisers much and has remained the preserve of authors looking to get more visibility for their posts.
The problems with promotion:
- It is kept to a separate section which people must actively click on - who actively clicks to seek out advertising online?
- It does not show who promoted the content - so it is no use for someone sponsoring for advertising purposes unless it directly deals with their product.
- It is on a per post basis.
- Promotion activity and use is in decline with fewer and fewer people using it
- Tweaking it to make it more prominent and increase activity may actively put off some users.
Conclusion
I think Sponsorship could be another way to bring utility and advertising to the Steemit platform. It has the added advantage of being less intrusive and annoying than other forms of advertising.
It should help to increase the demand for Steemit and with the addition of features such as discounted buying with Steem integration it could also be used to build out active utility for Steem/SBD as a currency.
Imagine being able to buy your next camera with SBD/Steem!
It may seem far fetched now but once we get advertisers actively engaging with the platform it is a a much smaller step for them to start accepting SBD/Steem for their actual products.
As always please let me know what you think. These are just ideas and as always there may be major problems which I have missed or which need further tweaking.
Thank you for reading:
If you like my work and aren't already, please follow me and check out my blog (I mainly discuss photography but I do other topics too) - @thecryptofiend
Photo Credits: All photos that are not sourced or personally taken screenshots are stock photos from my own personal Thinkstock Photography Account.
(Verification for me here: http://www.aapicture.com/about-me)
Some of my other recent posts
- Some moody church photos to test my new lens
- Some beautiful, artistic textures for you to use in your own posts
- Snowy - some adorable cat photos (feel free to use them in your own posts)
- 5 Months on Steemit - what I have learned and tackling some misconceptions
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So...although I am not a huge fan of the advertising gig...the proposal you have laid out here is interesting...the ads would more or less be billboards, rather than obnoxious and would only occupy a small percentage of each post/page...that is something I think I could live with...now, my next question...what's stopping any of us from doing this right now?
Let's just say I am in the publishing business and I have several companies I know of that would be interested in advertising on my blog posts...couldn't I simply write a contract with them, embed a small ad on an image, and use it within my post...? I mean realistically, what's stopping any of us from getting a little more bang for our buck. It's basically what many are doing with photography...free advertising for the things they find interesting in life...they're just not getting the contract signed before providing the advertising. Anyway, just a couple of random thoughts on the subject...I do like your idea though, keep it small and refrain from converting this platform into an online marketing mess like FB.
There's nothing stopping it but why not integrate it into the platform and reduce the amount of work needed to do it on both sides?
Ads are annoying on a lot of the internet because I don't get anything out of them. Ads on steemit would directly benefit me (monetarily through increasing the value of my steem) so I am all for them.
Yes I agree.
I don't mind as long as it doesn't ruin the site, I'm all for the odd add as long as its to do with what I am reading about :)
That's why I think the sponsorship thing would work well I think. Say you like photography and the blog you are reading is sponsored by photography equipment makers. It is likely that advertising is relevant to you and also if it includes some kind of discount for you too then it would be even better.
It would be an incentive, plus if someone is already thinking about buying a new camera that could sway it
Exactly:)
Just an impulsive impression on publicity and sponsorship.
I don't really like publicity in sites , but Steemit could start by putting publicity visible only for non users coming to visit steem from Google..and possibly ask them to join to stop seeing it.
For sponsorship publicity we should use companies of new technologies and crypto actually discussed and posted in Steemit.
The income could be use to improve some features or go to null
Good idea:)
Hi there- great post! I love ideating about new ideas... a few additions. What if the "ads" were also used like an affiliate program and the author would get a percentage of the sale if someone bought something. Additionally, I see this helping out account that are already established. Is there something can attract these adverts to new users trying to grow their following? One more point I thought of as I am typing... a lot of authors are all over the place right now as far as topics. Do you see authors needing to niche more? thank you :)
Great idea - I hadn't thought of the affiliate thing.
I think for authors specialising more it is likely to come as the audience grows. We are still very early right now and I think people are still getting used to things.
That's exactly right.
So MANY sites now days do exactly the opposite. It's like crawling over broken glass to read the content.
The latest thing the crybabies have been whining about has been AdBlocking software.
Well DUH!! I wonder why?
I came to Steemit to get away from that crap.
Absolutely. Noting puts me off a site faster than those horrible adds that you have to click to get rid of. It is ruining so many websites these days.
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Thank you:)
Hmmmm weighing up the pros and cons
What are the biggest cons do you think?
The increased loading and reloading time for pages will definately notch up the frustration of the everyday user, this might lead to the site being considdered less user friendly.
However the added income from adverts could aid in streamlining the sites menouverability on the othe hand.
That depends on the type of ads. I don't think I've ever had to wait for ads to load in recent years. It's more an issue of them getting in the way and forcing you to click.
Take it you don't live in South Africa HAHA
eg youtube gives you a forced watching time of 5 sec before being able to skip.
a lot of adds also have invasive characteristics that deceives the viewer to click as part of their marketing strategy.
All and all, I have to agree with you that it does depend on the type of add.
So if carefully managed and not allowed to take over the entire page (a story that would normally be 1 - 2 pages becoming a story of 3-4 pages once add inlays are inserted) then I suppose that issue could be considered a NON-CON
No we get that here too though in England. THAT is annoying!
This could work, but probably with some changes in UI. I read somewhere before that there was an idea to offer businesses a chance to have their own account on steemit, where they could post their ads as so called advertorials, which they are doing rn on most of websites, and it is annoying as hell. They could also vote and support their brand ambassadors on steemit etc, I believe this could be a good model as well.
The most annoying thing about internet ads, for me, is that they use your behavior to tailor ads to you personally, which is both creepy and intrusive. And what I mentioned, advertorials, it's the worst feeling when you read an article only to realize it's a paid advertisement masking as content.
Are there any marketing and PR plans for steemit available for reading?
I haven't seen any plans that you can read.
I am all for this. I'm surprised the thought hadn't occurred to me before, seeing at how widespread the use of sponsorship advertising is across a broad range of topics.
Yes. A lot of big corporations spend a lot of money - many of them actually spend more on sponsorship than TV advertising if you look at the IEG stats. They have already diversified into sponsoring You-tubers and the like.
Now if I can just find some group to sponsor me. XD
Lol we all need someone to sponsor us:)