How Steemit Benefits Artists and Creatives

Steemit can make a revolutionary change for artists and creatives. We have seen opportunities that crowd funding and Patreon provide for creatives and others. Steemit is now another option.

Those of us already involved with Steemit, already know that you can make earnings on this platform and some do quite well.

The topic of who does earn (well) and those who do not, is one that is often and hotly debated. @paulag has just recently researched and written about just this topic of, how posts perform on Steemit, with straight up and down statistics that present an accurate picture of the state of Steemit more than any long winded post or discussion thread ever could theorise or gossip about.

Another post and video (curtesy of @sethlinson) I highly recommend to new Steemians explains simply and in an entertaining way how the voting and rewards system works.

There are many new people to the platform who have the false expectation that they sign on, make a few posts and the money starts rolling in. Even those who have posted for a while may suffer the same delusion.

Yet, the story is really no different on other platforms where you can monetise your content, whether it be YouTube or Patreon. It takes time to build an audience. It is your audience, that after all, tips you and puts bread in your jar. Why things are more "unfair" here than on other networks I fail to see. On other networks you also have to support your fledgling profile by promoting through your own mailing list or on other social media channels. Yet, many Steemit newbies seem to expect the platform to do all of the work for them. Therefore they "reason", Steemit is a scam because other people use their early advantage or the system is not perfect and biases payments or the trending page to others.

If you put the work in, you will see the results. How long, how much? I can't say, it is no different to the real world.

But what is different, is not only can creatives earn from their post rewards, but by also interacting with others on Steemit. For myself, I am alway busy, commenting, voting and sometimes sharing other people's posts. Because of this, I see a steady, if small stream of earnings. This is the beauty of Steemit, you ALSO earn by interacting with others while helping them out. It's a win win and doesn't get much better than that.

Those that grumble about the small payouts for posts or interacting, seem not to be thinking long term. Not only are you investing in building an audience, but holding cryptocurrency is also an investment. With the amount of crypto talk that abounds on Steemit, it is a brilliant opportunity for creatives to school themselves up on this exciting future and how to invest in a system of support for their creative endeavours.

It is also possible to run a Patreon or crowdfunding like campaign on Steemit. All account wallets are publically viewable. You could therefore announce your project and the required funding. People can donate or invest in your project by directly transferring Steem/SBD to your wallet.

Just as with crowdfunding or Patreon, on Steemit you have a reputation system to maintain and encourge you to deliver on what you're promising.

I came to Steemit a year ago, August 2016, just a month after it was launched. At the time, the rewards system didn't make much sense to me, and I hadn't come to understand how crypto could be traded or used for real world payments. I had a few stop start attempts but it wasn't until a few months ago, the puzzel pieces of crypto fell into place. Bingo! I got it.

Simply by promoting my artowrk, I could be earning! What??? A wild and revolutionary concept. On other social networks YOU have to pay them to promote your artwork. On Steemit, the network pays you to promote your artwork.

That is the revolution of Steemit, and the game changer it is. In the same way that banks are struggling to stay relevant with the boom of crypto worldwide, standard media channels and social media networks will also in the near future struggle to remain relevant. After the penny literally drops from using Steemit, you quickly realise your time could be better spent, or rather paid, by putting your efforts in here, rather than elsewhere.

OK, Steemit might not be perfect, it might have some issues, but I promise you this, it may be the first, but it certainly won't be the last social media network that will pay its users for being on the platform.

Steemit is allowing us to experience and build the future.

Full Steem ahead!

Image credits:
Leading image - my own photo of Micha Colory Krebs' black light mini-golf project in Berlin.
Steemit Payouts - @paulag with her permission.

My artwork can be found on my website. LeoPlaw.com

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