The Relationship Between Highly Engaging Content & High Paying Content
You pour your heart and soul into a post. You really get into some deep topics that you are sure others can relate to. So many people comment on what you're saying. Then some days go by and you see your number of comments have now ballooned to over 60. But you also look at the potential payout and it is somewhere in the ballpark of $2.
"People really seem to be engaged and giving so much feedback but it's not translating into a bigger potential payout"
I'm sure many of us have experienced this many times before. We put in the work and the financial rewards are slim but we get tons of feedback and support. This can be hard to deal with but it can also help change your perspective about the content you produce. Instead of feeling that you are a failure because your posts only received a couple of bucks, look at the fact that you are producing very thought provoking content. Having thought provoking content allows many people to open up about their life in ways that they wouldn't do otherwise. People want to be heard. People want to be understood. They want advice about certain things and maybe you can help them.
You would think that creating posts with tons of feedback would automatically correlate to receiving high payouts but honestly it doesn't always go down like that. Why? I have no idea specifically but there may be a number of factors that are at play. Here are some of my thoughts about why highly engaging content and high paying content doesn't always end in a marriage.
- Visibility (Maybe you are a new content producer and you haven't built up much of a following so not many people get to see how good your posts are)
- Wow Factor (Maybe you're not "over the top" in your presentation. In other words you don't have the flair for the dramatic but no worries because you don't necessarily need to. Maybe your content is an eye sore to some people or maybe it lacks the pizzazz of well known content creators)
- Timing (Maybe you posted at a time when your audience is asleep or at work)
- Reputation (Maybe people don't know who you are)
We all post differently. It can be a mixed bag with payouts and engagement. Me personally I find it much more satisfying to get tons of feedback on my posts even if I receive very little in payouts. This is because I like listening to what others have to say instead of me just rambling on about something. The reason for me writing about the relationship between engagement and payouts is because another Steemian I like; @valorforfreedom mentioned to me that my posts get a bunch of interaction but sometimes little in upvotes. Here are his words exactly.
I really appreciate people's thoughts and ideas about things and I want people to feel like they can talk to me about anything. I feel that the work that I am doing to be a motivator and encourager are much more valuable to me than the money I receive for doing so. But once again this is just how I feel about it.
What do you think are some reasons why highly engaging content doesn't always receive higher payouts?
It’s great to be motivated to write great content, and it’s certainly wonderful to be able to charge a lot for the work that you do, but make no mistake, people will pay what you are worth. If you provide excellent content you will get paid more.
Making great content should come first and then hopefully some compensation. This is ideal but not always the case.
The most important reason is people need to connect with people and form a community that talks at the same level as the content author. Also it helps if you payout the readers of your post.
That's exactly what I try to do. I like to reward those who engage in what I write. It's my way of giving back.
This post is really engaging and i think i feel you @humanearl. You made really fantastic points. I think one of the reasons why most posts arent earning is that they aren't well thought out. Well, not well thought out but not much energy is put into them. You can't write a one liner on Steemit and expect it to earn $100+. Put some time and energy into it. Treat the post like its going to be worth $100 after it's done and it probably will be. Wow that's a really good tip. Treat the post like its worth money and you will get it in return. You can't post garbage and expect people to give you their hard earned steem power for it. That's not a fair trade to me.
So yea, spend some time with it. Nurture it....Groom it............ Bathe it.......................Feed it........................take it out to dinner. Don't hit it and toss it to the curb. Treat your post like you would want to be treated. And I know you're thinking, "Man this sounds like a lot of work. Is it really that serious? It's just a social network. I'm just trying to make some quick bucks." Yes. It is that serious. You want to make $100 for typing something on a social network but you think its just going to fall out of the sky. It's not even that hard. Thank you Earl for being different and really have the mindset of impartation. God multiply your efforts in no time.
Thanks alot. I do my best to always provide good content. I try to really give my best. It really excites me when you and others take the time to read and comment.
So Kool @humanearl. Your posts really inspire me. You don't just talk about not letting financial rewards be your main focus, you have embodied it. You have put it to practice. Thank you for this
Another reason posts don't get more upvotes is because they lack quality content.
Sometimes it all boils down to quality content. Not many people are lucky enough to be followed by a whale and get upvoted for mediocre posts. Most of us have to work hard for it and publish quality content almost daily. Whether on Steemit or WordPress or on other platforms, quality content normally prevails at the end of the day. Once others recognize that you are a quality contributor on Steemit, you’ll definitely get more love on the platform.
Some of the users who constantly writes quality content gets a good payout for every post. Of course, you need luck to increase payouts on Steemit, in the sense that a whale discovers you. Luck plays a big factor regardless of how good you write or how talented you are. Don’t get discouraged and keep Steeming on.
I will keep posting regardless of what I am making in payouts. This is bigger than the money I make from inspiring people. There more to it for me than the money.
Really great post there @humanearl.
You logon to Steemit everyday and watch the trending authors get hundreds and thousands of votes resulting in payout value increasing to thousands within minutes, you take a quick gulp and wonder how in that world does this magic happen?
The daily number of low votes on my posts wayback comes from a loyal set of readers, and for that I'm really thankful. Similarly, some of the people you see on trending are people who stuck around creating value, bringing people to the platform, networking with one another and did a splendid job of retaining engagement levels and today's that's paying off for them.
Some have someways they earn without generating great content, but that is not my concern.
So i believe ***Galatians 6:9. " Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." will be evident in your life. You are reaching more lives than others think.
Thanks for the scripture. Yea I'm not discouraged at all. Like I said inspiring and encouraging people is much more rewarding to me than the money I get for doing it. Of course it's cool when you get paid for doing what you are really interested in but at this point it's not that important to me.
This post is just awesome. The reality of the whole thing. The world have a pattern of defining success. But that is not the right way. We should get pleasure from making others happy and changing lives for the better.
One reason why a lot of people dont earn is that a lot of people don't read new posts because there are a lot of new accounts posting spammy stuff. So legit posts are missed.
It'll get better, probably.
I try to skim through the new posts to see if anything catches my eye. You gotta have a picture, and you gotta have a title that gains interest.
Thank you for all your engaging posts and for how you reply too. It makes me know my input is highly valued.
I really appreciate your feedback and always taking the time to reply. For me I don't define a successful post by how much money I've made from it. For me I define success as how many people I help and inspire. I love the engagement I get from my posts.
The work you are doing is genuinely for sending and encouraging and encouraging it to be more valuable than money.
That's exactly how I feel.
A well written post @humanearl. You just stated the truth is plain sentence.Awesome.As always, you sure are a source of motivation.
I feel the reason why people don't get more payouts on the quality posts is that they don't invest in Steem Power! More Steem Power equals to bigger upvote value. Your payouts will definitely increase when you upvote your own post. I normally do that once a day. Self-upvoting is also another ethical issue and I don’t believe in upvoting oneself too much. If everyone just upvotes themselves solely, the platform will fail and Steem will not have value. One of the reasons why Steemit is great is because people upvote each other’s post and ultimately upvote quality content. It keeps the platform alive.
I'm glad to have a good chunk of Steem Power so I can give out upvotes and reward people for great content.
A very awesome post @humanearl. It's really obvious that you post quality content, and your layout is very little compared to what you post. Am glad you have a mindset of impact, that's exceptional.
For me, I feel that one of the reasons why some highly engaging post don't receive much payout is because those who make these posts don't engage often with others.
One thing Steemit differs from WordPress is that it also works like a social media platform. Hence, you have to socialize with others if you want to be noticed. Go to other posts by using the discover section. You can see all kinds of tags from #food to #travel to even #story. There are hundreds of these and you can find posts that use these tags. Even though most people tend to just engage with whales, a.k.a. the rich and powerful on Steemit, don’t just do that. Make friends with everyone regardless of how much money they have.
You’ll be surprised how far your interactions can take you. By engaging with others, you’ll find people you’re interested to network with, you may find new followers and you’re getting more eyes onto your posts. Don’t spam your links on other people’s posts. It’s rude and it gives a bad impression to others.
With that you'll get more likelihood for your post to be seen.
I try to keep my layout simple but yet intentional. I don't like the idea of throwing all kinds of shiny and attractive things in my post just for the sake of drawing attention. You are right I want to make an impact and it's a big reason why I like to read and reply to the comments on my posts. I want people to feel like they can talk to me about anything.
This is another important posts. I really understand where you are coming from.
I believe you really deserve more than you are earning.
There are so many talented individuals on Steemit which gave birth to many different initiatives that help people. There is an initiative called Operation Curation Delegation (OCDBasically helps to find underappreciated posts by individuals who don’t seem to be getting much payouts despite writing quality content. Each of those in the board nominates a post each day, and all of the curators vote for the post that they think is the best. Up to 10 posts will end up in our OCD Daily, which is a compilation post to highlight the curated posts. Furthermore, the leader of OCD who is a whale will give a good upvote to those who made it. But i think its just that the content of most of them is not well thought out. They were rushed. Most of them dont work hard to generate content.
There are other initiatives as well such as Curie, Sndbox, Utopian.io, Daily Food Photography, Color Challenge and so on. It’s a great way to know more people and increase your visibility in the platform. There are so many members in the platform so you have to stand out if you wish to increase your payouts.
OCD sounds like a cool and helpful idea.