Guys , Unfortunately I Think I am about to Throw in the Towel here at Steemit... I just May Not be Cut Out For it ( Semi-Rant)
First off all ,let me preface this by saying I am not the kind of guy who whines or likes to throw a pity party for himself. I truly am not. I always put my nose to the grindstone and have worked my ass off for anything that I wanted to be successful at in Life. If I failed it was because of me and no one else to blame. Matter of fact I have NEVER liked to surround myself with complainers or 'whoa is me' type of people. PERIOD !!
That Being said....
I am beginning to see the reality of this all , and I just do not think Steemit is for me. Or more precisely I am just not cut out for Steemit, I guess.
This first in Week in May...
It will be five straight months on working here at Steemit. And folks I am literally talking about 5 straight months with a Post and Commenting and Curating EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yes even Saturdays and Sundays since Jan. 8th ( usually through the night when my family is asleep ) But I love this, and it is truly not work for me ;)
I Know My Content..
may not be Pulitzer prize winning material. But I do know relatively speaking it's pretty decent. I have been doing it for quite some time. And just always have had a knack and genuine passion for writing and finding interesting material to write about ( this is key)
But...
Anymore I have trouble clearing $1 for Rewards on a original, unique blog post. O-n- e FREAKING dollar. I have actually regressed and gone backwards from the first couple of months in January and February. Wait a second, wait just one freaking second it's not supposed to work that way, right? ...as I slap my hand on my forehead in amazement just thinking about that lol. Well it has.
And Please Don't Bother Asking...
because I know damn well that Steemit is more than just about producing Content. Even great Content.
It's a social media platform :
- It's getting to know people.
- It's going on others' blogs and interacting with them .
- And it's supporting them and encouraging them.
Check.
Check.
and Check.
Conclusion...
I am a pretty humble guy. I am not wanting to have $500 payouts and never have expected that. At all !! And it's really not the particular dollar amount ( or SBD and SP amount) . But it's actually just the progression of it all. I worked on my last blog post for a couple of hours yesterday . It was a pretty interesting , provocative, and revealing Post. Although I have not done it in months, I decided to do a Resteem for this post for 1 SBD to get a little more visibility. And guess what ?? After the cost of the Resteem , I came out with a BIG $.30 profit. Whoopeee :>)
Needless to say, If I saw some hope where I broke out of the $1-$2 range I would definitely have a different mindset than what I have now. My gosh, I was doing that the first couple months as I said earlier. And i would be beyond thrilled to see even getting $3 consistently over time for my posts. Or heck if I was earning $.75 back in February and could see now that was averaging $1.30 now. Just something where I could see a little 'forward movement' as I am not asking or expecting much. Really !
But now it's just regressed rather than progressed here for me.
And Listen ,I know it sounds arrogant and all. Trust me I am not trying to be when I say this. But my blog posts that I have put a lot of thought and time in everyday is worth more than $.35 or $.83 . ( And that's taking into account the social aspect here which I have passionately committed myself to) Sorry, it just is !! That's not a complaint rather it's just being totally honest and frank !
But apparently that seems to be the ongoing ''Rate" for good ole @robertandrew here at Steemit ;) lol ( Yes, even though it's frustrating I do have a sense of humor about it all :) )
Who knows in the end maybe that's all I'm really worth.
Peace out and I really do wish you all the very best,
Robert :)
Hey guys thank you for the Comments It means so much to me :). I have never had so many. So instead of responding to each one ( because I would be writing a couple of paragraphs to each one considering this somewhat 'deep' topic lol) I will just write this one reply.
First of all I must admit that having engagement on my Blog like this is such an inspiring thing. I rarely ever get this much. And I think having such discussion really motivates me that much more here. As it really means more than me than any dollar amount... so thankyou. I did not realize until it happened today what a big rush and thrill it is:)
Also as far as worrying about " makine income here" or "worrying about the money" like so of you said in your Comments ??
Well in all due respect, Iam not concerned about any dollar amount ( or SBD or SP amount) as I said. My point was the Regression I had seen in the last couple of months with my account payouts. That was really my concern and frustration. And yesterday it just hit me with my latest post.
But I do understand about following your Passion and letting the money take care of itself later on.
Quite honestly this is the first time I have ever experienced that with any endeavor in the last 28 years since gradutaing from College and being in the business world..I honestly y say that I love jumping on here and interacting and writing blog posts as much as I love watching my fav tv show or going to play my fav sport now...disc golf.
I never thought that would ever be possible in my Life :) And to get a little money on top of it...well that's like a Dream !!
Anyway, I guess this was more of a "vent" than a throwing in the towel.
Just to hear many of you good folks take the time to listen to me and then Coomment and acknowledge me..well that means so much to me.
And it inspires me that much more. I guess I just needed to be listened too. Which every once in awhile we all do.
So as Sir Cork said " it's back to work for me " :)
thank you good people of Steemit. You're wonderful ..and "full powered drinks" on the House for everyone !
Best Regards,
Robert
Hey @robertandrew! I (@ericwilson) created this account to help bring disc golfers together, I get notifications whenever someone mentions disc golf and that's how I found this comment! Although it isnt't disc golf related post I found out you like disc golf! I will upvote amd resteem this post as well as follow it from both my accounts to help other disc golfers find your account.
Steem on!
*edit I see you like curating videos... Do you do that on dlive.io? It is both a streaming service and video platform.. If you wanted to know more swing by the @dlive24hour (also my project) discord server at https://discord.me/dlive24hour.
Anything I could say has probably already been said several times over in the comments here so will just say, keep at it, you have lots of friends here that are here for you when you need us! #thealliance :)
Glad to hear that! I read this post earlier today but was in a rush and was just getting round to commenting but decided I would read the others first and then of course I came across your comment. I just want to say I understand. I’ve been there, hell even tho I’m over $2 on my latest post for someone who Will be celebrating 1 year on steemit I have seen ups and downs and regressions. Even now my earnings are fairly low on average even tho I know I am even on a bunch of people’s autovoters and apparently on a curation trail (which has also changed my earnings). It can be disheartening even when you don’t focus on money (which like you, I am not here for), but to see so many make so much and most are due to bot purchases. I thoroughly enjoy coming across your comments on my posts and get to yours as often as I can, but I would miss those if you left.
We all need to rant and it’s great that you did. If this place doesn’t work out there will always be a great social media type of site coming built on EOS to look forward to as well 😉
So glad you're not throwing in the towel @robertandrew! I tagged you as one of the people I appreciate most here on Steemit yesterday, and the same day I hear you're quitting! It broke my heart! Hope you get the payouts you deserve soon. ❤
Hey!
Chin up!
It took me almost a year, August 2017 here, to be able to make $1
When Steem is low, I am still getting less than $1
And I dont post shits, IMO, and my I have more than 1000 followers 🤣
I have my own recipe sites, Youtube account, Twitter and IG. I post everywhere with no rewards but my happy heart obv. So I dont see why I should stop posting here just because I dont make $$. I just love sharing my cookings and bakings 🤣
Engagement is shit sprinkled with rainbow dust, I hear ya. I keep visiting people that dont visit me. Sometime thats okay, I follow them because I do like their postings.
But stay, Robert! I stop hoping for big SP people to see me, instead engaging with the noobs because I dont want them to give up at all. If all these sameboat people like I do, stop being active on Steemit, it would make it lonelier for people like us, I think 😉
Sending positive vibes to you, my friend 🤗
Love your positive attitude.
Thank you! I AM loveable 🤣✌🤣✌
Just went on your page and started following you. Hope to learn some great recipes from you.
Ramadan Mubarak 🌷🌷🌷
Ramadan Mubarak! 💓
Well said the WITNESS everyone should VOTE FOR @thekitchenfairy 🤗
Indeed well said @thekitchenfairy. 💖💗💕💓
💓💓💓💓
I heart you Mr. CAFFEINE 🧚♂️🧚♀️🧚♂️🧚♀️ (these are faeries, I wonder if they would show as faeries as well on your end, as they showed up as gende signs on my husband's screen 🤣)
Just in case! They look like this
Do you post your videos on @dlive?
Dlive and dtube dont work for me. I'm so bummed. And yes, I have fast internet, in case you are wondering.
Oh no!!!!! I used to have trouble dtube... Never issues with dlive (only when they have updates)
I hope you can get that figured out... Im all in on dlive.
I was able to attend the DLive meet up this past weekend and met Kent the founder!
This is a tough platform for sure, and I am sure your own feelings are repeated 100's of time throughout accounts on here. It's frustrating for me to keep finding what are excellent quality posts, informative, interesting, loads of pictures and writing - still getting very little.
I know you comment a great deal - mainly because I find quite often you have been to posts and commented before I have. It helps for sure to get yourself about, commenting works but quite often I think the social side of discord helps get your name around and make sure people remember you. But of course it's who you know as well, because you can have more then 100 upvotes and still get very little - or one big vote from a whale if you can find a friendly one.
And of course the discouragement is you look around and see people getting 100's of dollar reward posts, but honestly everyone getting what seems like big rewards for posts is doing the exact same thing I do on every single one of my posts - bid bot the hell out of them. I've done it since the Bid Bot's came out, and in reality that was how my $0.2 posts started turning to $2, and then every time I got rewards they got fed back into posts using everything I gained back into the bid bot's and slowly it all built up. In fact a few weeks back I feel asleep after creating a post without hitting a single bot on it, woke up and it had reached $4 - I was amazed, I couldn't believe I really had so many people who would upvote my mediocre content. Then I bid bot the hell out of it lol.
The other thing about this hobby of mine is it's REALLY expensive, and I go Snowboarding! But between all the bid botting and paying out for Steem Power delegations to increase my upvote - I have to keep buying extra Steem to fund my decadence. It's costing me 8 Steem a week per 1000 Steem Power delegation to increase my upvote a bit, they go up and down as I keep forgetting to renew them and it's a right pain to get a new lease when you drop one. Of course my own Steem Power has value, and if I cashed it all out I would effectively have made something out of this even after what I have bought in - although knowing my luck the value will drop out before I ever think of trying to cash out!
You have put a great deal of effort in, and sometimes it is ups and downs especially as everything post reward follows the value of Steem - it would be a shame to give up on what you have already worked hard to build. I know I was a little late putting in my #HappyPlace post but it seems to have been a really inspiring tag and I think you will see it grow more and more if you keep at it - because it doesn't have to be a one use tag - holidays, days out - a #HappyPlace could be many places and promote so many posts.
You should of course only do what you feel is right for you, but I personally think it would be a big shame if you gave up and left - and certainly I would miss your posts - I might not see every one but I'm trying to read alot of posts - and then when sometimes my comments can take 30 to 40 minutes to do as well - it's a hard juggle!
#thealliance
The way I see it, I was gonna do what. Play a video game? Dick around on facebook? Go outside? Eat? Sleep?
Meh
Here after a year of 120-140 hour weeks (no exaggeration ,ask anybody, in any time zone, i'm around) I make 4 or 5 steem on any given post, unless it's a big deal one and even coming from me, charity founder, two time 24/7 streaming station builder, witness #64... just a few bucks on a typical post.
And you know what?
That's a hell of a lot more than I got for shitposting stolen political memes at facebook, only over there, I came home from work pissed off every day.
Over here, I come home from work, never, because the people are so damn fam, and the atmosphere is more cerebral, even at it's most toxic, and there is less toxic than people let on. It's just busy, getting cool shit done, collaboratively, creatively, consecutively, consistently. Okay, let's forget I said consistently and just go with the rest.
I think you get the point.
Anyway, I dare you to leave. You've tasted the apple now, had the first hit. You can't leave.
And you know it.
Encouragement time is over. Get back to work! :P
I feel your frustration but I hope you reconsider. Are you doing other blogging and utilizing other social media sites? I share my posts from here to twitter and FB, and if appropriate - to linkedin. Remember that Steemit has an Alexa rating which is hard to come by on your own website.
Also, for my podcast account, I publish to the website and a plugin publishes it to Steemit at the same time.
Maybe start playing with the different apps and stay for the fun. I look at it this way - I have written and posted on other platforms for a long time and made zero money.
So, everything here could be considered a bonus.
Hope you stay...
Let's have fun!!!
It can get painful when you've put the time and effort into something and it receives very little recognition, it sucks. The truth is that you can always adapt and change technique.
Don't see it as a failure buddy, consider it an experiment.
The relationships you form are more valuable and potent than the payouts and although they don't add to your SP stake in the platform directly, they apply to the overall stake you've got in life. In time you'll see the growth in yourself and the people around you, but you have to take it day by day.
None of us know exactly where this platform will be in a year or two, but a lot of us know who we will be surrounded by.
Keep your head up and carry on putting out the content you want to look back on in a years time :)
I think your comments are more than fair and understandable also. Recently only very recently have mine started going over the 1sbd mark and thats been since jun, I feel that I have worked very hard to get that, and sometimes i wonder if its worth it. But when you look at how many people have signed up for this, compared to how many are active, its apparent forget most whales and dolphins, but my opinion is if you have been doing this for five months you can't stop now you have keep going and see where it leads you too, can you honestly say that the amount of interesting people on the platform alone is not enough to keep you here let alone the possible and I say possible future rewards.
I hear you. It can be so discouraging when posts don't make much. And you've been commenting like a champ! I don't get over to your blog near enough—trying to juggle life and Steemit isn't easy. But I do think it's worth it. I've had a few bigger posts lately, and gotten some love from people willing to throw some heftier votes my way, but that's a new thing for me. A lot of it is networking, and persistence, both of which I see you doing.
However, the friendships I've made and the interaction I've had here is so much more meaningful than anything I've found with other social media. For that alone, I value this platform. Plus, even making a $1 is more than I got paid anywhere else to blog. It adds up, and when Steem goes up, so does my wallet. The trick is not letting my emotions do the crypto roller coaster.
Hope you stay. You're one of us. 💖
I find myself conflicted because I agree with everything you've said here about the causes of your frustration, and I feel it too much of the time, but I also see the potential of this platform and am more interested in the social aspect than post payouts. You have been a part of changing the world for the better. I hope you will stick around and continue to be a part of that change. Whatever you decide, I wish you good fortune. <3
@robertanddrew
I might be late to the party but you can NOT leave.
I make maybe 1.50 on most of my posts.....every once and a while I do make more but not very often. The only reason I have what I have is I was doing DTube video's before they started going after all the YouTube people.
But You have met so many people and I know I love seeing your comments and would miss you so much if you were gone.
But you are the only one to be able to make that choice.......for me, yes, need the money but the laughter and joy I get mean so much to me...... You being one of those people.
The thing is.........and I all think we do it, is we think that person is okay and read their stuff and don't always comment like we should to let the person know how much they are ...............and I can not spell the word......... how yoru comments DO lighten my day and make me smile because I know you read what you comment on.....
If you are writing stuff that makes you happy....that is all you can do.......if you are not then you need to.........write about things YOU really care about.....not saying you don't ........but then at least you have memories to look back at ........
sorry.......just idea's.........
but wish you wouldn't go hugs