What STEEMIT is and What STEEMIT Isn't!
Here's my opinion on what Steemit is and what Steemit isn't. Steem is a lot of things, but it fails in many other things as well.
I'm not a newbie anymore, I have 4-5 months of this already and I have been so active that I am proud to say I have a broader view on this platform than most.
Having said that, there are a lot of problems with this blockchain, there are a lot of things this set out to be that didn't happen and there are also a lot of other things people never planned STEEMit to do and yet those happened.
This is why today I'm going to tell you about what STEEMit is and is not.
Read below if you find that interesting...
What STEEMIT Isn't: Let's Start By The Hardest One to Swallow!
Ok, let's start out by going through the hardest things to mention.
Content Isn't King: STEEM isn't a Meritocracy!
First of all, Steemit isn't a place where content is king.
Quality content means nothing if you don't have high SP friends or a wallet you can invest with.
To get your posts rewarded highly, you must have a deal with high SP holders, and this is no secret. There are a lot of posts on the blockchain going over some well known vote circles.
Circle Jerking is something most whales do, and you can quickly find out the pattern behind their votes by doing a quick analysis on steemreports.
Then, there are other people who get high rewards on posts without these circle jerks or voting deals - and those are either bot owners or people who heavilly buy votes.
These people are different.
They get high rewards, sure, but most of those are going to go to bots.
STEEMIT Isn't a Get Rich Quick Scheme:
Trust me, I'm an internet marketer and as such I've seen lots of those.
Steem does seem like one at first sight, but then you get in and find out there are a lot of things put in place to stop people from overly exploiting the platform.
Granted there are still people who do it, but it is rare.
In fact, getting rich with STEEMit is getting increasingly harder, and prices aren't helping either.
The STEEM Blockchain isn't a scam and that is a good thing!
STEEMIT Doesn't Have Readers: Not A Place to Consume Content!
Steemit isn't a place where people go to consume content... we don't have readers here.
Everyone is a blogger.
This happens because Steem is always marketed as a way to get paid to blog, and as such people come here in search of the rewards.
Posts have comments and votes, sure, but 75% of them aren't legitimately interested people as the vast majority of them are made by bloggers who want to network, show support and as such build relations in a quest to further their own content, image, reach and get more votes.
It pains me to say it, but it's true.
This happens because we have a lot of writers, but close to no readers... no readers means bloggers have to double as readers to make the whole thing work.
This is why being active is so vital, we need to make this work.
Commenting meaningfully and curating can be a drag sometimes, but someone has to do it since no one signed up for it.
This is a marketing failure.
STEEMIT Isn't "Mooning" Without Changes
There are a lot of things stopping STEEM price from rising, but one of the biggest is that we're not prepared for mainstream adoption, we have manual sign up processes that are a joke, we have a huge problem with the registration emails, we have so many writers in relations to readers that the platform is flooded with articles which means tons of them aren't even read... and more!
In order for STEEM's price to increase, we need automatic sign ups, we need communities, we need SMTs and we need that hardfork!
Plus, of course, we need BTC's price to rise but that's another story.
What STEEMIT Is: Here's What This Platform Is!
Now that we took the "isn't" out of the way, let's focus on what this platform is and what can it do for you.
STEEMIT Is The Easiest Place to Blog:
When you blog on mainstream sites, you have to wait close to 6 months to start seeing some traffic, plus you need to have thousands upon thousands of followers or views to have a decent profit margin.
Plus, you have to rank your articles on Google to see ANY revenue, so you have to worry about SEO and technical stuff as well... and your articles only reach their peak in revenue generating when they already aged quite a bit, say 2-3 years.
There's no easier way to make money online than STEEMit, and I dare anyone to prove me otherwise.
STEEMIT Is The Best Place to Build An Audience!
Due to the fact you get rewarded for interaction here and that network is such a big thing on the blockchain, you end up creating more meaningful relations here than anywhere else.
This means you'll get an audience faster, and people who you can share your thoughts or points of view with, kinda like I'm doing right now.
With 4-5 months, 2200 followers isn't bad at all, so I can vouch for it being a great way to build an audience - try it on Facebook without paying, you'll see it's harder even though MANY MORE people use Facebook.
STEEMIT is a Good Intro to Crypto:
You don't need to be a cryptocurrency enthusiast or even know anything about crypto in order to enjoy and participate on the STEEM blockchain.
In fact, my friend @foxyspirit doesn't know a thing about crypto (sorry foxy) and she still hangs out with us.
On the other hand, even if you don't know about crypto when you join, STEEMIT gets you into crypto really fast, and floods you with knowledge as well.
Even Foxy is starting to get a lot of knowledge about these things, and I'm sure she is way more excited about the future of crypto now that she's a steemian... it's a good on-ramp towards becoming an enthusiastic coiner!
In Conclusion:
Sure, people all joined STEEMIT for the rewards, and sure most of them would walk away if they couldn't get them, but that just reflects we have bloggers here, not readers, one of the bad things of the platform.
On the other hand STEEM isn't a place where quality content shines, much like you can see in the trending and hot pages.
On the other hand, it empowers everyone to do something of themselves online, and countless people can live off steem in it's entirety.
It also opened up a lot of minds to the phenomenon that is crypto, as well as showing that social and blogging platforms based on the blockchain are not only possible but rewarding.
There are good things and bad things about STEEM... but I love it!
Cheers!!
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another great post covering steemit - thanks for sharing!
it introduced me to steem reports for the first time which is a great tool...
Yeap, SteemReports is an amazing tool, glad I introduced you to it.
You're absolutely right, the networking aspect really is steemit's saving grace. Also, a true backdoor for people who don't know much about crypto.
However, I'd disagree with you when you say steemit has no readers, yeah, most people came here because they like the idea of earning money and have always fancied trying their hand at content creation, but I (don't know about others) very quickly started using it the same way I might use Reddit - with the slightest bias towards posting.
But there are very few like you here, most are biased towards posting and earning, with the slightest bias towards reading!
That's their loss in my opinion, reading my favorite authors regularly has improved my writing skill more than I could've alone. Then exploring the platform/interacting with others has accounted for well over half my account growth.
I see you're more of a commenter than a poster too
high five!
Comments are the best way to appreciate people here, I believe a good comment is a much bigger reward compared to an upvote.
High Five You Too!
Truth is we need more people like you man :D
Cheers!
This post is SO on the money (pun intended, and also not intended.. if that is the right way to indicate that I meant for both meanings to come to the fore!).
i came here interested in the idea that I could turn blogging into some income. I never thought about it being my living, but I thought that having a little skin in the game would make things more interesting and motivate me.
What I have discovered, and perhaps you didn't emphasise this in your 'what Steemit is' section, is that getting strong and immediate audience validation is enough of a reward in of itself. I'm making connections and having conversations pretty much straight away, and I can't tell you how fabulous that feels (although I suspect that you already know!) after years of blogging into the darkness of the internet. The true beauty of Steemit is that if I post something, I am going to find myself engaged with someone before a short time is up. And that is a beautiful thing, at least for me.
The flipside is that although I came here looking to make posts (blog), I have evolved into someone who loves to make comments. I love finding other people's posts and reading about whatever their passion is. I think it truly is a win-win. The fact that I can reward posts with some actual value is like handing arrows to Cupid ;-)
One of the other things about Steemit that I love is that the true value is not what is found in 'Trending'. The true value here is following the snaking network of friends and curators to the honey pots of gold. I like the fact that the friend networks are leading me to great posts, and I'm not sure that things would be the same if 'Trending' actually did try to mirror somebody's idea of 'quality' content.
Thank you for an excellent, considered post on the broader subject of what we are all doing here.
As a fellow blogger, I agree with this 100% and that's partially why I said Steem is easier than anywhere else.
You get an audience here, it may not grow to be as big as in mainstream blogging, but it definitely won't start as small either.
You get read, you get results and you get rewards from day one, when in mainstream blogging that can even take years if you pick the wrong keywords and niche.
Thanks for the meaningful comment and glad to see a fresh face around my blog.
Excellent summary, both parts. Refreshing perspective.
I live to serve :D
It's like the p90x abs workout, 'I hate it, but I love it!'
Oh gosh, this made me laugh out loud. Oh what memories....
Haha, nice!
A memory for me too, I really should get back on the mat and 'take my time, take breaks, and bring it!'
I have been thinking about the curation rewards thing but Steemit Inc. seems to be least interested in solving problems surrounding Steemit. Will let you know if I post something.
I hope the recent steemitblog update will help in some ways, perhaps not directly to curation though.
Please do, cheers!
Never saw those, didn't miss much I guess...
You raise many good points but you are incorrect about the only way good content gets recognized is if you have a "deal", are circle jerking or whatever.
I joined 10 months ago and as a TINY MINNOW this post that made almost $400 is TO DATE my highest paid post and was just me writing good content. Check it:
https://steemit.com/life/@chelsea88/the-life-of-an-executioner-and-my-thoughts-on-into-the-abyss
I had no SP or rigging of the system at the time. And still don't with my modest 1400SP and 100delegation.
nice post. but a think a lot have changed in 10 months. but yes u can make good posts now to but if way harder to get notes now then before. just see the trending page alot of circle jerking there. and up voting by bots.
Hello, i said that occurred when i first joined. Focus on your own blogs and people you follow then maybe you would take the focus of the bull shit on the trending page. Everyone says they dislike that page but everyone dumps a lot of attention into something they claim to not like. Wasted energy and people wonder why they can't be successful on steemit
am not in the trending anymore its just broken and sad. a was just on a different post on the same subject or on how to clean up the trending page,.so it can go back to good content.
a think is new user here goes through a couple of phases and the clue atm is to understand the trending page . sadly most people are jealousy on all the $$$ there and thinks is a easy way.
but its always going to be user tying to exporter the system.
its just a fase we are in to now and maby it will be better so in the future, post like urs can get in there more often again
The piece is good sure, but how many like those make cents? Heck, you try to replicate that and show me what happened... it was a fluke of luck that someone with a high enough SP stake noticed it, plus the 2nd biggest vote was Curie.
Exceptions always happen. And I wouldn't know how STEEM was 10 months ago, Im much younger than that.... I could tell you that you'd have a very hard time replicating that though, and taking the curie vote away from that, it would probably never happen.
Thank you so much for sharing. This is one of the most honest post in fact the most honest and straightforward post I have read on this platform. it serves the truth cold. I am almost a month here and the way I was expecting things to happen, hasn't happened yet. I hope it does
It won't in a month. Good content will. Check my reply above
What were you expecting man? Always good to know what newbies expect when they arrive.
well I was expecting the reward of my introduction post to hit at least 2dollars and even subsequent post and I haven't even gotten up to 1 dollar on a post in over one month of being here. I also expected grooming but then I know it would happen for me too just as it happened for others. I am not a quitter
Don't quit, you won't find an easier place to get noticed :)
I'm new here, posting comments first day and have already 3 followers. Platform looks good to me, but too much low quality content.
Don't look at the number of followers, look at the quality. If these followers did follow you voluntarily without requesting a follow back, it is great. Otherwise they just could be meaningless.
Sorry I don't want to discourage you, but it is utmost important to try build a healthy group of followers. Keep on placing genuine comments on other posts, this will increase the speed and learning curve here on Steem!
Comments are the way to go when you're new! Keep at it :)
I think the point that there are not enough readers is the most important one. The only way to fix this is to have more intelligence build into the feed and better capabilities to search for content. The fronted are currently „dump“ and neither can we crontol ourself what content is displayed in the feeds nor is it supported by AI technology that every modern social platform uses. Until this changes we won’t see more readers because they care a lot more about their user experience then anything else.
I think the only way to get readers is to change how steem is marketed... Steem is only marketed as a way to make money, not a hub of great content.
This attracts the greedy people or the bloggers, not the readers, readers want to have quality content and their problems solved, not see the motto "Money Talks!"
Marketing may be is one part. But most of the content isn’t great for most of the readers. Facebook, Twitter and others can tailor the feeds much more personally to filter out that garbage but as long as steem frontends don’t provide that convenience readers won’t switch because why would they? They still get all their information there...there enouth content out there.
That's a good analysis of steemit. However, I think you're overestimating the importance of technical issues with steemit on the price of steem. Steem is one of the best blockchains and just the existence of steemit and other apps puts ahead of most others. How much do you think investors know about technical issues with building apps on etherium, which I'm sure they have? Most investors buying on exchanges don't even bother digging into tech. I was actually wondering what percentage of steem held by investors excluding steemit inc is actually in steem power. Most probably don't even know they have that option if they're just holding it in an exhange. I think more articles explaining all this targeted toward investors is what will help raise the price of steem.
Well, Investors don't care about info, as you say, so writing about all of this wouldn't be their cup of tea either.
In the end, what can bring the people to Steem would be apps and SMT, and we have no word on how the development is going...