Time to Have Advertising on Steemit? It May Increase Your Earnings. What Do You Think?
Advertising doesn't have to be ugly; on some websites it blends in seemlessly, and can even look stylish. I personally don't like pop-ups, pop-unders and adverts that pretend to be navigation buttons. Those websites that use such tactics do it out of their choice and for their own reasons. Those are not the kinds of ads I'd like to see on Steemit. Having got that issue out of the way, why do I feel that showing adverts is an important issue?
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://i.imgur.com/dwd2D8f.jpg)
The Background
Some years ago, I wrote articles on sites such as Hubpages and Xomba. These were not so much blogging networks as article-writing websites. The income came from adverts placed on each post page. The problem was that the income for each author was derived solely from the money generated by these click-through ads, and only on their own articles. There was no pooling of income so as to also reward writers of popular content in topics of low monetary worth.
These networks were therefore filled with articles on finance, loans, mortgages, medicines and so on; anything that had a high click-through income. In contrast, writers of personal blogs or on life issues, philosophy, science, education or any other socially valuable topic, were not so highly rewarded, even if they generated a lot of interest and discussion.
The Solution
This is where a community like Steemit is very different. Here the earnings are precisely for those interactions that other websites do not reward. However, wouldn't it be good to see those rewards increase? I propose that income from advertising be added to the reward pool and distributed across all members. Notice that Steemit does not appear to be swamped with articles on finance and healthcare; people who are interested in those topics can go to the appropriate tag stream or forum. If we avoid linking directly advertising income with individual writers and their articles, this will do two things: add fiat currency support to the Steem cryptocurrency; and at the same time maintain a balance of topics that are popular and socially valuable.
The Pros
As stated above, real income in fiat currency coming into the system, and distributed fairly, will increase everybody's average earnings. Advertising revenue could increase both our individual earnings and stabilize the value of Steem and Steem Dollars.
At some point, most of us will want to spend our Steem on goods or services outside the system, so that the pressure on Steem and on Steem Dollars is always downwards as people cash out. The upwards momentum is maintained by the energy invested in the system by the members. Having an income stream coming into the system will support the price of Steem and add to the stability of this cryptocurrency - something that few cryptos seem to have. It means that the price of Steem - the price of your investment in being a member - will thus be supported both by its social worth and by an external income stream. What could be wrong with that?
The Cons
I don't see too many problems on the down-side. Adverts do not have to be ugly, as I said at the top, they can just be in the header and footer. You and I may not like excessive advertising, but when I ask my work colleagues, few of them notice, or care; they just assume adverts are part of the online landscape.
One thing that will need managing is whether every post has adverts or only those articles by trusted writers. This does not give those authors any preferential treatment over the distribution of income, just that many advertisers only want to be associated with good content. That will also stop any incentive to target all articles to the advertisers; we can avoid the problems of sites such as Hubpages and Xomba. Those decisions would very much depend on the advertising network chosen.
So What Do You Think?
In summing up, I think showing adverts on Steemit will have a positive effect on everybody's average income and the price of Steem. Any such income must be distributed and not just awarded to those writers whose articles are generating the income. If anybody doesn't like seeing adverts, there is always Adblock, but if you think about the overall positive effect on the Steemit and chainBB community perhaps you'll switch Adblock off - just for those sites!
I think this is an important issue going forwards. Your comments are valuable, so please leave your opinions on this subject. Please resteem this post so that the discussion can take place across Steemit and chainBB forum.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://i.imgur.com/BwTXiCZ.jpg)
there are good and bad things about advertising, it brings in other money stream.
I think it is the easiest way to have money flow into the system.
I don't see Steem as being a currency of exchange like Bitcoin is becoming - in the sense that if you want to buy something on Amazon you will have to convert first - at least not for some time.
Make it a democratic decision between the author and the reader.
Authors opt in to the SteemAd network. Yes, please place tag-appropriate ads on my post or all posts of certain tags.
Signed in readers opt-in to the SteemAd across specific tags. Volunteering that the ad may be relevant.
Revenue from the ad is then split between Steem, author, and signed-in readers just like posts today.
I would like this as long as the ads can't track people
No! Absolutely not. One of the best things about steem is the complete lack of advertisement.
I thought this might split opinion.
But you can use Adblock - I don't see most averts on the net so am surprised whenever I use a work computer. It just doesn't have to be an assault.
Thanks for your comment.
The problem with online advertising isn't in the simple fact of showing someone an image and asking them to consider reviewing the offer. It is in the insidious tactics of tracking and the mind-blowing network of information sharing, selling and siloing that supports the ads.
It does bring up an interesting point. Usually we are unaware of the information we supply to advertisers and their systems, and sometimes not aware what we are volunteering. How many times have you read the entire Terms of Service and Privacy Policy? But on Steemit most information is public and we all know that. It wouldn't be hard to use this information and feed it into an analytics engine of some kind. This is one of the reasons why I choose to remain anonymous.
I would strongly oppose ads with any tracking aspect, even if based on publicly available information. I'm sure there are some interesting advertising ideas that do not depend on what amount to spying.
Interesting, thanks.
But the advertiser will track activity on the landing page - that would be difficult (impossible?) to stop. That tracking is also needed to pay the publisher, Steemit in this case. So you are kept anonymous by how you've set up your Steem account, rather than by your identity being obfuscated to a third party.
I think you should have a choice to put ads on your posts, but i dont know how much extra $$$ they would give you, good idea!
I recall reading that we can place ads on posts - can't remember the article title.
But the way the URLs are created we cannot use an ad network - also, we don't own the domain name.
The idea is good but it would be ideal if this happened it would be shared equally ... greetings
By equally you mean a flat distribution, not the current linear one.
So, the total income per day would be divided equally between all active posters on that day?
Or divided by every active account?
Thanks for your comment.
No, divided for the whole active community of the day regarding the clear post has to exist a parficipacion or if it would not be unfair
I totally agree. In my personal option I can't see Steem being around for 5/10 years because the model is unsustainable. Currently the model works because people want to buy in which then means there is a market to sell SBD/Steem for BitCoin. As soon as people stop wanting to buy in there will be no market to sell SBD/Steem.
By offering advertising, which is to be shared equally among users, in Steem this creates a sustainable business model, one where there is money being put into the system and users can then extract money.
The best way for the advertisers to pay would be with Steam or SBD. This way it is win win for us. As advertisers come in the demand for SBD/Steem increases, thus increasing the price against BitCoin.
A strong here here from me!
Yes, that's the scenario I had in mind. Thanks.
Good points all around, @rycharde. I think being bombarded with ads would be super annoying like how Facebook has become. If other advertisers could use space. But we shall see.
Thanks, as I said, that adverts can be annoying is entirely the decision of the website owners - they don't have to be and still be effective. I mean, how many articles are little more than advertorials?
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