How to Put a Business on Steemit - The Down and Dirty

in #steemit7 years ago

Yesterday I came across and article by @ecoknowme relating an experience with a business and the subsequent discussion with them about them joining Steemit. You can read it here https://steemit.com/steemit/@ecoknowme/stop-treating-your-revolution-like-it-s-a-blog-ecoknowme-advice-to-the-steemit-community I decided the idea was worth pursuing and that is the purpose of this article. Addressing the issues facing online and offline businesses using Steemit. Warning, there are questions here, looking for answers and this will require thinking differently.

We will take a look at online business and brick and mortar business.

There are various kinds of online businesses. There are places like Amazon that have an online storefront and deal in tangible products. eBay is an online auction platform that allows average people to sell tangible products. (Amazon does too but it's not the quite same.) There are tons of small and some large websites selling information, run by average people. You may talk to someone who had an online business in the grocery store and not even know it.

There are websites that sell services. godaddy let's you register a domain name through them. HostGator hosts your domain for you. eLance offers the service of connecting people who need a service such as a website built or an article written, with someone who can perform that service for them.

There are brick and mortar businesses with online storefronts such as Walmart, Home Depot, Target, you name it. The brick and mortar businesses tend to fall in to three main categories, a large national or regional company, a medium company, and local mom and pop. The large and medium companies for the most part have adapted to having their own website, whether it specifically deals in commerce or has only information. The mom and pops are hit or miss. If they do have a website it is very likely just an online brochure, it may be created on a free service like blogger, but likely they don't have one at all.

Chances are the only companies that would look at Steemit for their business are the smaller businesses. The large corporations would be the last ones to the party. So we will address small business, both online and off, using Steemit.

Starting with online business, or internet marketing, these business people have one or multiple websites for whatever it is they're doing. They are easier to convince that they can make money online with Steemit because they're doing it without it. There are online marketers on Steemit already. There are people here who used to make money on their Youtube videos but lost monetization and found Steemit. These people learned the hard way that you have to diversify, many lost their whole livelihood when Youtube cut them off. And you should have your content on your own platform anyway. Youtube should have only been a repository, free hosting, and a traffic generator with the ad revenue as a bonus. However, the Youtube creators fit well enough here. They were producing the content anyway and this is a way to monetize it.

So how do they use Steemit? I recently posted about Steemit's lack of organization with ideas on how to fix it here https://steemit.com/steemit/@aboutyourbiz/steemit-we-have-a-problem-wtf-is-with-this-organization-2017710t6949274z but we will address this as Steemit is now.

Web content producers want to have ownership and control of their content. They always recommend to post your content to your own website first, before you put it out for curation. When you do this here, Cheetah points it out like you've done something wrong. True internet marketers will tell you to use Youtube, Facebook, etc. to develop a following, but not to use them as a place to keep your primary content. You always want to get visitors to your website.

Web marketers need traffic. Steemit has traffic, although it is not targeted traffic, at least not until you have developed a following that knows what to expect from you. Web marketers want you to visit their website, but it appears to me so far that Steemians prefer to stay on Steemit for the most part. After all, why go comment on someone's website when you can comment on Steemit and get paid?

You could create a post that is a sales letter with a link to buy, but how well received would that be, and unlike on your own site evergreen content does not produce residual income. Whatever traffic there was is likely gone within 24 hours. This appears to be a pretty good sized problem from their perspective.

So how do you use Steemit as an online business? Are you doing it?

And what about mom and pop who may not even have a website. They may try to use Steemit as their webpage like some do weebly or PennySaver. Lets just say it and get it out of the way, tacky! Unprofessional, but they don't know how to do it themselves and when they try they have to use these kinds of tools.

Some have hired out and have a nice online brochure. They may even have been set up on a wordpress site and told they needed to blog, be on Facebook etc., but they pretty much don't, even if they started off doing it.

Consider the restaurant owners. They have a nice looking website and have been told they need to blog. The Mrs. decides she can do it she did pretty well in English in high school, so she starts off with nice stories of the history of the restaurant, how they make some of their dishes and then she runs out of things to talk about. She didn't really enjoy doing it either, but felt she should, even though she would rather cook.

How can a business like this put themselves on Steemit? How can they be sold on the idea when they don't want to blog but want to cook?

How does a mom and pop business utilize and benefit from Steemit?

Like I said, questions here looking for answers. Ideas for these people? Seems like opportunity somehow.



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Great Job! This is exactly the elaboration I was wondering about too. I feel things getting closer and you put things together nicely. As more people join the conversation, solutions will pour like coffee. Cheers @aboutyourbiz !

That would be progress! Thanks

One thing I think people might want to consider is actually taking the time to review and update SOME of their content so that it can be improved and revised for the Steemit platform. It is one thing to have a lot of content to shuffle, but it is another to be lazy. I bet people on Steemit would happily provide such services for some Steem.

Repurposing evergreen content is something internet marketers do. For example taking an old article and making it a video. But they want residual income

Hmmm, I bet someone could find a way to do it better on here.

That's why I threw it out there. If there is a way someone can find it

I think there's going to be a booming industry on the Steemit platform and there's no way it can be stopped. Steemians providing content for those business owners who just don't have time for all of this. It's inevitable. imo

Question is how it works together

My parents owned a bar and I married into a family that owns and operates one. I personally believe websites are vital to any business, small or large. It's a landing page for the basics because almost everyone does searches from their mobile device.
That being said, Steemit is not quite to the point of helping a business out. The UI is pretty terrible so housing anything but a blog isn't going to help them grow. It's different if you were trying to build an online business and accepted different forms of payment like fiat, BTC, STEEM/SBD, VIVA... Hey, they you're kind of diversifying and "with it" but crypto is still new and scary and volatile. You'd almost have to hire someone as a market watcher to adjust your prices. Streamlining is coming but we're not there yet.

It's more likely to be adapted by online marketers much sooner than brick and mortar. But Steemit would have to change as well IF it even wanted them.

But as steemit grows, businesses will at least look. I'm seeing online marketers here now.

I have mixed feelings about online marketers. I've run in those circles and quickly found out that many like to hear themselves talk. Want to know how to do XYZ? Buy my book. Improve your sales! Buy my book. I'm having a free webinar. Let me shove my free booklet down your throat and then you can purchase my program... ugh. No thanks, marketers. There really is a better way of doing business than that. Sorry! I ranted. O_o

What you say is true, no doubt. There are many who do things in ways that are everything from questionable morally, ethically to straight up give me your money now. These are the ones who give the industry a bad name. But there are just as many if not more that operate quietly and in ways that people actually want to give them money because they've been so helpful. These two groups don't generally run together. Birds of a feather?

Point? Just like any other profession, it usually boils down to the people involved. Car salesman, mechanic? But there are lots of good ones out there

Very true. I shouldn't stereotype because I do know just as many miracle marketers whose mission is to do the right thing and actually help people. Isn't that funny how the two types don't mix? That's probably natural. I don't hang out with people I have personality conflicts with. Who needs that kind of stress? ;)

I thought the same thing about mixing when I responded. You are who you hang out with.

A very thought provoking article. I wish I could say I had answers, but I'm nowhere near knowledgeable or creative enough.

We need some creative and technical minds to collaborate

@aboutyourbiz, this is sort of a timely post... about a month ago I set up a separate Steemit account for my wife's and my small independent art gallery.

It was a bit spur of the moment... and in part done because I am a supporter of Steemit developing more of an economic presence. So the "plan" so far has been to merely establish a toehold.

On a greater scale, we wanted to give added exposure to our existing artists, as well as perhaps find new artists in the community... but, beyond that, also to be part of initiatives like @steemshop, PeerHub and other projects promoting cryptos as forms of payment. Also, since the art business is super tough-- financially-- this seemed like an alternative to places like Patreon where fans of the gallery could join and upvote our content as a way to (financially) support the gallery without having to actually spend money. That's a longer term ambition, though.

I definitely think Steemit is a better option than Patreon for supporters, because it can be a win-win. My hope here was to start a conversation and maybe someone(s) who could make a difference would see and maybe join the conversation. Bit optimistic maybe, but never hurts to put it out there.

We have to start by simply putting the ideas OUT there and discussing them. And maybe nobody will see this... but at least this will be here and might show up in someone's search tomorrow, or next week, or next month... so it still matters.

Or maybe someone who saw it will see another one and connect some dots

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