Blog - Vote - Earn:

For a long time this has been the anthem for Steemit promotions across the globe. After I learned about Steemit in January from my friend @joshuaetim, I took to the internet to get more information about Steemit, the Blog-Vote-Earn slogan was plastered all over the web and that brought my first two questions: what if I am not a blogger? If I'm actually earning how much should I expect at the end of the month and what happens when I can't get these earnings?

Over the last four months I have been looking deeply at these words and the more I look at them, the more I see it as a wrong approach to Steem promotion. So when I was considering some ideas to work on with @chiama on WAFRO media it occurred to me that I have to talk about the faults and limitations from the above slogan.

If we are to fully grasp the faults in our promotion I think we'll have to answer some questions like

• Is Steemit limited to blogging?

• Is upvoting the true and only form of community engagement?

• Do we have investors in mind with our promotions or are we just seeking people who are looking at getting some quick bucks from the internet?

• The entitlement mentality: do the community owe us anything? Are we entitle to any form of earning?

There are many questions as above which we must answer for those who wish to promote the platform to the public. As we get ready for HF20 which will open the doors to a flood of new users, some of these issues have to be addressed before we head back into the field for evangelism.

Blog: Well, since anything we do on Steemit will have to be presented to the community in form of a content (text, art, photo or video), we can consider Steemit as a blogging site. But lately I have talked about Steemit as a platform where you can pitch your dreams on. Steemit (or say Steem) is beyond the traditional blogging platforms we know. To us who are already established in the system, it's easier for us to know how much Steem can do but how do you get a new user who believes he/she isn't a good blogger to know that he can do more on the platform. On Steem, you can do anything and be anything. There are those who are solely into trading, singing, building communities, charity fundraising etc. Lately I have been addicted to the best nonsense I have come across in my entire life from the blog of @nonameslefttouse. He's been so creative and consistent in writing nothing that my idea about nonsense and sense has changed a lot. I never knew that people can be creative in writing nothing, but he's done it in such a way I look forward to his creative nothing everyday. I call that style.

I was speaking with @godsnana yesterday and I asked her why she's not been active online for the last three months. She responded that she isn't a good blogger and isn't really sure of what to post.

• But you are a good Singer with the voice of an angel, why don't you sing and post your music through Dtube, dlive or dsound? I asked.

To my surprised, she responded that she never knew that it was possible to do that and if the community would encourage such.

So, you see? The idea of Steemit as a blogging site has discouraged a lot of talents from the platform. It takes others many months of trial and error to find a niche for themselves. I believe we would achieve a lot more if we remove from our promotions the idea of Steem being solely a blogging platform.

Next is the issue of upvotes. Have you seen why people run around everywhere looking for upvotes?
Ass kissing everywhere, begging and spamming everyone with links? That's because we told them in the beginning that upvotes is the only form of community engagement. I do tell my friends that upvotes isn't everything.

Source

Many people don't know that it is necessary to build relationships and a support base (not a follow for follow kind of relationship). Content quality means nothing to many, and when they fail to get the upvotes they resort to bidbots, voting circle, vote selling/buying etc. I do believe that we need to do a lot more in informing people that upvotes isn't the only form of community engagement.

And finally Earning!!

Source

Are we entitle to anything on Steemit? The short answer is no. Then why do we mention the word earning? On Steemit you are rewarded by the community for your content if the community believes in your work. On Steemit, your work has no intrinsic value. The only value your work posses is that which the community allocate to it. So people should learn to expect nothing from their post and if the community reward you for your contents then be glad for what ever you get from it.

Most of us have been posting on Facebook, YouTube and the likes for years. We are still posting till today without ever getting a single monetary value from those platforms. But these are the same people shouting and crying that Steemit isn't fair. People talk about how theii high quality posts are not getting the reward it deserves. Well, maybe it's because I post rubbish that's why I never complain that my posts are not earning as much as they deserve.

Source

I read about the entitlement mentality from a post by @tarazkp some months ago. I don't seem to find the post to share it here. But that post came early enough in my Steemit journey that I learned in time not to hold any expectations from my work here.

Also, it looks like most people are just here to grab as much as they can and withdraw it all out of the system. It's surprising to see people powering down almost anytime they reach an sp as little as 100-200sp. With the earning mentality we preached, it looks like we don't seek for those who would invest as little as their rewarded sp for the long term. For Steemit/Steem to progress, we must be prepared to preach the idea of investment over the thought of earnings to people. Be clear to let people know that your message isn't an investment advice but if we believe in the system, we should invest as much as we can to the progress/sustainability of the platform.

So brethren, I'll sure continue some other time on this topic. For now, since we've seen that the Blog-Vote-Earn message has failed us, we need to look for something that will be a better promotional message for Steemit.

I'll give 5sbd for the best suggestion on a new promotional message for Steemit/Steem. All entries should be made as a comment to this post. One entry shall be considered per user, if you submit more than one, only your last entry will be considered. I'll accept entries made before this post payout and I'll choose one winner for 5sbd prize.

Keep your entries simple. You can use this format as a guide.

Accepted entries Vs unaccepted entries

• Come post and dance: accepted

• Debarment centrifugal amoeba: unaccepted

• Make cucumber great again: accepted

zodiacal Transmission Neanimorphic flagitation: very very unaccepted.

I hope you get the idea, make it very simple. Let's brainstorm and catch some fun.