"Steemit for Musicians" Open Source eBook Project -- Intro Chapter: What is Steemit and Why Should You Care? (Text)

This post is part of the open source steem marketing project “A Musician’s Guide to Steemit.” For more information, check out these: first post and second post

PENFLIP REPO: https://www.penflip.com/heymattsokol/the-musicians-guide-to-steemit/commit/f1ba009e04bf4bdb8a328476691737880780daae

The repo is already looking good:

Note - this is being posted via Steemit, not Utopian, due to an error. I left a message in Discord so hopefully it will be fixed in time for the next chapter. Also - I'm getting a head start by posting now, technically the project doesn't launch until January 2nd but I got inspired to start writing :-)

As soon as I work out the Utopian issue, I'll send messages to all the graphic designers that have expressed interest so far and we'll get some imagery going.

Here is the first draft of the introduction to the book:

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Intro to Book

What is Steem and Why Should You Care?

Are you a musician who is struggling to earn money with your music? If so you are not alone.

It’s clear that there are many people who want to earn a living off of putting out records, going on tour, getting song placements in movies, and other opportunities like that. The problem is that in the early stages of a music career, few people earn any significant money.

The world is changing. There are new ways to earn money as a musician now. In this ebook I’m going to explain one such way, an amazing online social media network called Steemit.

Steemit changed my life and it could change yours too.

At the beginning of 2017 I was at rock bottom. Living in my hometown in Connecticut in my dad’s basement, I had no money, no job, and no prospects. I couldn’t do any of the basic stuff that musicians want to do, I didn’t even have a band to rehearse with. It was brutal.

On January 4th I signed up for steemit.com. I saw that it was like Reddit, but there was money being paid for each post. That seemed amazing to me and I had to give it a try.

I was skeptical that the site would work. I’m 26 and I’ve tried so many different digital platforms for music. Inevitably it takes a ton of effort to get even the tiniest amount of traction on a new website, and earning money is the hardest thing of all.

Within my first week of Steemit, I made many posts. It added up to probably ten original posts, plus dozens of comments on other threads. In the end I earned a modest $30 from that week.

It was enough to make me serious about my Steemit account. Within a few months,, I had developed a steady routine of posting at least one new thread per day. I posted all kinds of music content, from drum beats to guitar etudes and even full band songs, recording all the parts myself. In-between the music posts I would blog about my life.

I wasn’t getting rich off of Steemit, but it was certainly helping. I could earn a steady $50+ per week by the end of the 3rd month and things were looking good.

The best part about Steemit is that you can treat it like a part time job. It’s a standalone income stream that can become one of several places where you earn money for your music.

In the future you could be earning regular income from Steemit, Patreon, Bandcamp/iTunes/Spotify music sales & royalties, and getting paid for some shows and song placements… The cool thing about Steemit though is you can START with steemit. Unlike most other places where you can earn money, Steemit is quite welcoming to beginners. There are many community groups designed to help new users get a start.

Steemit isn’t just for music. It’s a full social network with all kinds of people, from architects to writers to motivational speakers to financial analysts and far beyond. You are joining a part of the new incentivized web. It’s an area of the internet where content is fairly compensated with real money.

There are no ads on Steemit. Rather than siphoning off profits to the owners of the site and advertisers, all of the value generated by Steemit goes back to the people who make it possible: Content creators and developers.

Steemit is not like anything else I have experienced on the internet. It’s an example of what is possible with new decentralized technologies such as blockchain.

The technology behind Steemit is interesting and you will learn about it later in this ebook. At the beginning, it isn’t that important. You don’t need any technical knowledge to use Steemit. Steemit is as easy to sign up for and use as any other website.

About This Book

This book is designed to be a comprehensive guide that will take you from your first time visiting Steemit all the way to your 1,000th follower on your account. It is comprised of [x] chapters, each one outlining a different area of opportunity on the Steemit platform.

You’ll start by learning about what you should do during your first week on Steemit. This is when you explore different communities on the platform and pick one or two of them to actively engage with.

Your community on Steemit is your biggest asset. Becoming engaged within a community is the best way to get more votes and attention early in your Steemit career.

Later in the book you’ll learn how to design a sustainable long-term content strategy that builds your audience and earns you more money. The goal with Steemit is to turn it into a part time job that takes about 10 hours per week and generates at least $20 per day on average. Content is the key to these earnings.

Every day Steemit’s reward pool pays out new money to its content creators and developers. This book is meant to help you earn your fair share of that pool.

This book itself was developed via the Steemit platform. Steemit upvotes were used to reward content creators who contributed imagery, design, editing, interviews, additional text, and even marketing assistance for the project.

Steemit is completely free to use and you will never have to spend a dime to post content or withdraw your money. It’s a great way to build a new income stream that takes you one step closer to being a full time musician. Why not give it a try and see if it works for you?

Beyond the Money

More important than the money on Steemit is the community. Steemit’s design encourages real conversations with people taking time to write thoughtful posts and comments. I’ve seen more great discussions on Steemit than anywhere else I visit on the internet.

Even if your initial motivation for joining Steemit is to earn money, you will probably also enjoy the people you meet here. Most Steemians who stick around for a long time do so because of the great friends that they make.

There are a ton of different niches on this platform. Beyond the music, you could find groups to play poker with, write fiction, participate in a survival horror game, learn to homestead, and so much more.

By aligning your financial incentives (earning money) with your creative ones (making music) and social ones (meet people), you can accomplish a lot of great things in a relatively small amount of time.

On Steemit there are no guarantees, but it seems that many of the hard working musicians on this platform are able to earn some money here. In the end it comes down to getting upvotes. You can do it if you follow the steps in this guide.

It Only Works If You Follow The Guide

One last note: This guide will only work if you actually do it.

Each chapter has a few key action steps that have to be done in order to use Steemit for the best results. You’ll need to make an account, create some content, and engage with the communities on Steemit via chatrooms.

These steps aren’t optional. Many people come to Steemit and become frustrated by their results. They come so close to building an audience, but fail to get real traction and eventually stop posting. Don’t let that happen to you. Follow these steps so that you can see the best side of Steemit.

The act of making an account and posting content for two weeks will give you an idea of if Steem is right for you. This guide will walk you through that part of the process.

You can always quit… so why not at least try a little bit of Steemit first?

That’s enough of the pep talk. Let’s get into the book!

You are about to experience one of the coolest things on the internet. Good luck as you enter the Steemit ecosystem.

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Conclusion to Post

This intro is a first draft. I believe that the prose is mostly good, but I’m open to changing anything that needs fixing. Most importantly, feedback regarding the structure of this introduction (i.e. - too long or short, should I move or change any of the sections, etc) can be left in the comments and will be greatly appreciated by me!

Again, if you want to see the original post that explains this whole project - including how you can get involved and earn a bunch of steem - check it out here.

( - - this is a sndbox project - more info on sndbox - - )