Attempting to Grow the Platform

Hey there folks,

Having my own comic shop and being involved In the industry for so long, I wind up being in several different comic type groups on Facebook, various message boards, and google plus. Well as you know, google plus will be shutting down wothing the next few months which is forcing those groups to find new homes.

I have been trying to wrangle some of those users over to our corner of the world with little success. Steemit is just too unknown or other platforms seem more reliable or offer “better options”. My pleas have most gone ignored when I have previously brought it up, but I’m trying one last attempt to see if I can convince these guys to give it a try.

Now I’ll start by saying that these groups for the most part are financially motivated. These are part collector...part speculator and investor. So my angle in this explanation and attempt is definitely trying to highlight the positives in that regard and cater to what would probably be the main selling point.

These are also very active users who provide good content (for the most part) in this specific field. I think it would be fantastic to build up the comic community here and have people involved in all aspects. Art, investment, collecting, speculation, business, storytelling, buying & selling, and all around information.

I posted this on a few of the groups I’m in. No idea if it’ll be read as they seem to have made up their minds between Facebook and Mewe, but I gave it one last shot. I’m terrible at explaining this type of stuff. Especially when I’m trying to not push the aspect that is the main selling point for me...which is simply...all of you. Steemit does have a unique selling point which is that you can be rewarded. That’s what I tried to focus on here for these guys. If you have any good points to add, please leave them in the comments below. If the comments here are active, I’ll also post the link to this in the post on google plus in the hope that they read the comments here from smarter folks than myself.

This is the post I popped up there...

*Okay...so with Google Plus shutting down soon and the Comics group here being forced to find a new home, I thought I’d give it one last chance here to attempt to wrangle you guys my way. Lol. I’m going to try and lay it out as simple as I can because it can be slightly confusing from an outsider.

I have been writing on Steemit now since April of 2018. I post all sorts of nonsense from nerdy comic and toy stuff to stories about my dogs...and everywhere in between. Steemit is a social media blogging platform built on the Steem blockchain. Steem, is a cryptocurrency.

I know this being a speculation group that you guys are interested in making money...so I’m going to explain a bit in detail how moving over to Steemit can help achieve just that.

One of the unique aspects to Steemit is you get rewarded in the crypto Steem, for being involved. Steem can be sold and traded on a bunch of different exchanges. You can earn by posting, by commenting, and by curating other users posts. Basically, how it works is everyday, the blockchain produces new Steem, Some of which goes onto the rewards pool. By participating on the various platforms built on the chain, you can earn some of those rewards. How much you earn can depends on a bunch of different factors.

Steem is attempting to become a blockchain that has a whole world of decentralized applications that work in conjunction with one another. Currently there are a ton that you can use such as...

• @steemmonsters - is a collectible card game where you can battle friends or strangers. Sone cards are highly collectible and rare and can be bought and sold to other users through a marketplace.

• @dstors - an ecommerce platform where buying and selling can be done, all with your tasty Steem that you earn!!!

• @actifit - a step counter that encourages a healthy lifestyle. It also rewards you with upvotes for posting your daily totals to the blockchain.

• @dtube - a decentralized video platform that rewards for content.

• @fundition - a crowd funding platform that works in conjunction with the blockchain and utilizes Steem to fund projects.

• @steepshot - a photo sharing app that works on the blockchain.

These are just a few examples. There are tons more out there and others being worked on as we speak. Imagine one big ecosystem that works in conjunction with one another.

Also if you don’t want to access it through Steemit.com, you can access the platform through several sources and applications such as the Wordpress plug in...Steempress, Busy.org, eSteem, and Partiko. If you are a developer and know how to code, you can build your own dApp!!!

The system is set up so that as you earn Steem, you can do what you wish with it. You can sell it if you were so inclined to do so. There are plenty of folks that do that. I do not. What I’m currently doing is Staking it. It’s called Powering Up and it’s basically just...letting it sit. By doing this, you get a bit more say or control over how much influence you have on the platform and in terms of what your upvote is actually worth. Also worth mentioning that when you upvote someone and it earns them let’s say 0.03 cents, you aren’t personally giving them the money. The rewards pool is. You just get to determine how much. That is based on how much stake you have Powered Up. Each post stays up forever but can only earn for 7 days. You also can upvote and earn on comments left and by curating others posts.

I initially joined and started as I thought it would be a another place to advertise the biz, while earning some crypto. I ended up truly loving the community there. I’ve made some amazing friends and have learned a ton about this field since joining. I’m heavily involved and active on the platform. I just joined 300 other content creators, developers, and investors in Poland for a 5 day conference and had the time of my life.

While the community is still relatively small, those that are there are super active and engaging. I’ll say that I honestly used to check my Facebook 5 times a day before I was on Steemit. I probably check it a couple times a week now as I much prefer the real engagement that I’m receiving over on Steemit.

I’m also treating this as in investment in not only myself and my writings, but obviously financially as well. I firmly believe that Steem will do very well in the long run. The entire crypto market has been in a tailspin all year but I’m a believer of it turning around. While there is a ton of bullshit out there, There are also too many good ideas and projects that are still in their infancy. I believe Steem is one of those projects.

Now is also the time to really make strides in growing your account there. At the time of me writing this, Steem is trading at .27 cents. You earn MORE Steem while it’s cheaper. At the all time highs we saw a year ago...Steem was at $8 bucks. Let’s just say that it does reach those highs again, my 13000 Steem Power I am currently holding would be worth over $100k!

I have a buddy from there who had to cash some out last year due to being laid off. He didn’t want to but times were tough and he needed some cash to float by for a bit. He ended up selling some when it was around $4 dollars I believe...a few grand worth. He never invested a dime out of his own pocket. He just earned. That’s a pretty cool aspect to this. There are also people in places where their local currency is dogshit and can utilize this platform to earn to help them get by.

Another plus is you can be completely anonymous if you wished to be. I’m not but that option is there.

There are tons of things that I love about the platform. I’m mainly touching upon the financial aspect as this is an investing and speculating group for the most part.

I’ve touched upon some of the positives...let me dive right into some of the negatives.

• It can be confusing at first.

• As of this moment, you cannot create specific groups. That option might come down the road with the addition of communities but as of now, it’s open for all.

• It’s a slightly slow process to get an account set up. It’s getting better with new initiatives but takes a bit of time.

• It’s still early. The ground floor so to speak. Meaning that there aren’t millions of people on the platform. When the markets are booming, more come flocking to it but when there is a bear market, it’s user base is much more trimmed down.

• New accounts are slightly limited with access until they build up a bit. Be it through earning, receiving a delegation, or purchasing Steem.

As I mentioned before, the Comics community isn’t very large but it is slowly growing. I’ve got some new people into them or renewed some interest in other users that might have strayed from it. I would love to bring new active people there. It hosts a nice community of artists and I think our world of comics fits right in perfectly. I also will be making a push towards Comic artists next year to try to get them active on there.

I know I probably just confused most of you more and even if the “groups” don’t come over there, I hope I convinced a few of you to pop on over and give it a shot. If you do, let me know. Give me a follow and I’ll make sure I throw some nice support your way. I’ll introduce ya and show you the ropes.

My account can be seen here. Pop on and look it over. https://steemit.com/@blewitt

Please feel free to throw some comments or questions here and I’ll try my best to answer them. I’m not the best at explaining this stuff and lots of the folks there are much better at it.

Thanks for reading.