Steemit review as a content creator
Right, so for the past two months I've been trying out this social network called "Steemit". For those of you that have never heard of it Steemit is a social news service which runs a blogging and social networking website on top of a blockchain database, known as Steem. The service produces STEEM and Steem Dollars which are tradeable tokens users obtain for posting, discovering, and commenting on interesting content.
The general concept is similar to other blogging websites or social news websites like Reddit, but the text content is saved in a blockchain. Using a blockchain enables rewarding comments and posts with secure tokens of value.
I'm going to be reviewing this site from the perspective of a content creator since that is why someone recommended I try the site in the face of youtube demonetization and censorship on other sites.
So onboarding to Steemit is pretty easy, like any other site you create a log in and a password. The password is unique and you will probably want to save it, it is also used to access some other features of steemit like chat, dtube,(their version of youtube) and dsound,(their version of soundcloud).
From there you can write you're blog in a WYSIWYG editor. Not quite as full featured and robust as Wordpress or Medium's but it will get the job done. A lot of time is spent looking at the markdown styling guide or manually writing in links with parenthesis and brackets rather than simply highlighting text then right clicking, or clicking a link button.
Every once in a while that editor might eat your post so you'll want to have it saved somewhere else before submitting. Images can be uploaded, youtube videos can be embedded but only youtube videos. If your story has videos from another source, or social media links those cannot be embedded.
Once you've completed your post and title you'll want to pick five relevant tags for it.
These tags are important because they are a way to fight what is Steems biggest problem. Discovery and curation.
At the beginning don't expect anyone to even see your posts. I'm not sure if anyone on Steemit will actually read this one.
It wasn't until @maxabit picked up some of my posts I started to get a couple of followers, views and votes. Which amounted to $.50 cent. For a review of a $5000 laptop.
Ultimately if your work takes time and investment, as well as you spending the time to focus on keywords and analytics I couldn't recommend Steemit as a platform. Sure you could bring in fans from somewhere else but that would require getting THEM onboard with buying Steem to use as currency to vote. That's because the "worth" of ones vote is tied to how much Steem they have so ultimately you're at the mercy of whether a whale is online and liked your post before you start earning anything substantial at all.
There’s lots of old posts about there being a “gold rush” but that time is over and I’d doubt there’s 100 people on the site at peak hours.
Some have called Steem a ponzi scheme that exists to perpetuate itself then to collapse in value. I'm not reviewing steem as an investment today but Steemit as a site.
Out of 230 articles roughly 5 had any noteworthy returns, none of which offset the cost to write them. They also have a shelf life as long as a tweet.
As for Dsound you'll either figure any exposure is better than no exposure or skip the whole affair and stick to your bandcamp/soundcloud. Even with the adpocalypse I wouldn't call Steemit competitive with youtube.
Ultimately right now, 2017 I'm going to have to give Steemit a "D" for content creators. There's a lot more you could accomplish on your own site in less time, other platforms are more robust with stronger monetization, stronger tools, more resources for those new to the community.
Steemit is kind of like gambling with your content. There's definitely people there winning big. But don't expect it to pay your bills.
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I think part of the problem with steemit is precisely the steem currency thing, because it leads to people getting greedy. And thus, instead of content creators, we have huge numbers of people whoring around for upvotes and followers, and trying to find ways to game the system to make money.
It's very frustrating; the general quality of the content here is appallingly low, and very few articles are worth even glancing at.
I use this sort of social media primarily to share content, partly just for the fun, and partly to promote myself and my website a bit. I'm not sure whether steemit is really much good for that. As you say, initially one gets no views on anything. If I'm going to spend hours crafting an article, it might be better to just post it on a site like Medium (where quality is much higher).
On the other hand, if I hang in there for a while, and not get too desperately obsessed with the money thing, and follow only people actually worth following, then in the longer run I may find steemit worth some time and effort.
On any social media the goal should really be to build up actual worthwhile, meaningful contacts and relationships, and not just a mad rush to get "followers" (none of whom will actually be genuinely interested in what you have to offer, because they too just want more and followers, as if it is some sort of goal in itself). I suspect that with time and effort one can do that here too.
yeah I didn't mean to sound greedy, it's not that I'm trying to get rich quick, it's the bill collectors. Plus I like to do game and tech reviews, those are my niches besides shitposting, internet drama and politics, and even if I finesse a laptop by getting it, doing the review and returning it, getting NOTHING for that doesn't feel great.
If I could review games gear, tech and laptops all day while making music for free without worrying about things like internet and lights getting shut off(which is a few hours impending) I'd love it. I feel like Steemit is a much more social game than someone like me who just likes to keep their head down and working is used to.
and yeah I've been doubleposting here, my site and medium just so these things aren't complete wastes. Then there's that robot that claims you're plagiarizing and everytime I'm like "no that's me too".
Not to worry, I have taken a look at your blog and I can see you post real content. Which is why I promptly followed you too. :-)
I was just whining in a general sort of way.
All those people going crazy to gain ever more followers are almost certainly just wasting their time. Very few people will make money here in a direct sort of way. I think it is best to use steemit as just one more social platform on which one can spread one's brand a bit.