What Are You Doing To Make Steemit A Success? Are You Doing Your Part Or Just Complaining About The Whales?
There has been a ton of negativity and complaining on here of late. It is amazing how quickly perceptions can change. I am sure a great deal of that is due to the drop in the price of STEEM. However, what I am witnessing is borderline pathetic.
Before going any further, I acknowledge there are some problems with some of the apps on this blockchain. Steemit has its share of things that need correcting as does Zappl. For those who are unaware, this is very common in the software development world. Rarely does something come out that does not require continual updating and patching. To expect a product that is flawless at this point is an unrealistic expectation.
I also hear a lot of clamoring about how this system is unfair and the whales are ruining it for everyone. Naturally, this revolves around money and the fact that people feel their posts are underpaid while the whales get overpaid for posting "good night". Again, I acknowledge there is validity in that complaint since I believe many of my posts are underpaid. 😁 Nevertheless, that is what the situation is at this moment.
Let me ask you a question: Do you know what the whales went through to get to the point they are at?
Many like to mention that whales were able to load up when STEEM was 6 cents. While that is true, my response is would you have bought? When the price of any asset is dropping like a brick, how many "load up" on it? Certainly we witnessed a 40%-50% reduction in the price of STEEM over the last few months yet I do not see too many posting how they are powering up.
My point is we do not know what actions someone takes to get where they are. The whales were fortunate to get in at a time when things were just starting. However, to become whales, they had to take advantage of the opportunity. It is a lot easier to look at things in hindsight and say, they were lucky. Well, I will state this: A year ago things were a lot less certain with the steem blockchain and STEEM overall. Those who bought in at 6 cents were really taking a risk. It is similar to now. When STEEM is $5 people will be saying that those who bought at $.85 were "lucky".
So, my overall question is this: What are you doing to make Steemit a great place?
What actions are you taking on a daily basis to improve what is going on here? Are you inviting people to come on here to see what it is like? Do you post articles every day even if they are not getting a ton of upvotes? How many comments are you leaving? Are you upvoting newer people are just remaining in your circle of friends (something whales are accused of doing yet are we doing the same thing)?
Personally, I am super bullish on the entire steem blockchain. This truly has the potential to revolutionize the social media world. In my 2+ months on here, I made more than I did on any other social media platform including blogger where I had a site for years. I believe this to be to true for most on here.
Therefore, I am perfectly willing to do my part to try and advance this forward. Would I like to get the attention of a bunch of whales and have them upvote my stuff? Certainly. Am I going to expect that? Not at all. My role is to participate in whatever ways I can. Posting and commenting are two of the main ways for us to get content on here. There are many posts which have only a couple comments. How about, instead of complaining about what the whales are doing and how unfair the system is, leaving 20 comments a day on other people's articles (quality comments..not the good post, thanks junk)? Why not write an extra post a day on your blog? Each of these actions, while small and, seemingly, non-impacting, can garner huge results over the course of 6 months.
This is a social site...get socializing. Have "conversations" in the comment section. Upvote people you do not know. Follow those who interest you and earnestly comment on their stuff. Let them know you exist. You will be surprised to find that people will actually respond. Sure, some will never give you the time of day. So what? Go onto the next article while following that author.
If this was a baseball game, we are on the second pitch to the first hitter. There is still a long way to go. At present, there are 20K or 30K active users on here. That number will grow over time. You have the opportunity to be in at 6 cents. Put in the effort to grow your reputation, garner followers, and power up through your efforts. Down the road, in 6 or 9 months, there will be people arriving on steemit who will look at you the same way you do a whale. They will see an account with many thousands of dollars in it and wish they could have joined in 2017. Of course, this will only be the case if you start the process now.
So step on up...it is time to get busy.
If you found this post informative, please give it an upvote....and a resteem is always appreciated.
Images from https://pixabay.com
Very well written and I agree with everything from respecting how most whales became whales and their right to do what they want with their hard earned rewards (and the same for the few whales who have actually invested huge sums at even higher prices) to what each and every minnow can do by working together. I too used blogger for years, and to think of all the work invested in that, something that paid me zero (but gave me great experience), and that I might complain about earning "so little" here would be, simply put, ingratitude on my part as well as extreme shortsightedness and self-defeatism since I would essentially be turning my back on this revolutionary, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like you say, we need to be positive and move Steemit forward by getting involved and working together, each of us doing our own small part. Upvoted and resteemed.
@cryptographic and @taskmaster4450 I totally agree with what you are saying here. The efforts we do today will be reflected in the next 6 months to an year, and the more quality we do, the best they will be for us individually and the entire steem blockchain. We need to focus efforts on how each of us can continue contributing with the improvement and growth of the technology. And stop looking at downsides, that are normal in every industry and more in technology were improvements and changes are so fast. Upvoted this comment and the post, and will resteem now. @gold84
You really summarized it well.
I am not sure how to go about it but I am doing my best to team up and follow those who I can. I try to pass around as many votes as I can while commenting all over the place.
To me, this is how we can develop an interactive group that votes like the whales, albeit without the same clout.
I will say that a few whales have popped in periodically on my blog which I am most grateful for so we cannot paint them all with a broad stroke. Also, I know some really work hard at making Steemit as good a place as it can be.
But your content is great. I'm a new follower of yours. Please don't consider quitting!
x
You need to work to get a result on this platform! Complain is not the way to go, the best approach is to believe and be consistent.
Very true...people expecting a quick return and the get rich schemes.
I am doing my part. Until few weeks back I even did know what a Whale was. I came to this Platform not to make money but to attempt to achieve some strange result: Transforming my Expenses into INCOME!!!. Yes you read it correctly. Because, being a Recruiter I am used to pay LinkedIn about USD 25 per CPM and to Facebook about 10 per CMP.
As I used this Site as my Publishing Platform, my posts reach thousands. Just a single blast reaches 50K in my Networks. If I am able to convince some of those thousands to come into Steemit, For sure they will upvote me, and hence my expenses go down, or I even can increase my marketing.
I guess I must be within the most 10 first people that do heavy marketing of Steemit. The First from what I see is JerryBanfield, but in LinkedIn I am the heavier than him. He has about 1857 Followers, whereas I command about 32,000. But he reaches hundred thousands via YouTube.
It would be interesting to see what kind of movement you could create on the site if you did manage to bring a few thousand active users on board. I would love to see more people actively involved on the site to move it in new directions.
Steemit need to have a counter on external visitors and to credit those users that bring outsiders. So far each page count number of views, but should be 2 records: Internal Views as well as External Views.
In my case, in every search, I am using Steemit as Platform. So all my marketings point to my posts where I can see the metrics.
Here we need to see 2 diferents scenarios: People Visiting Steemit and People seeing Ads related to steemit. At least from the Brand Point of view since I started Operations I could say that more than 1 Million People on my Networks have seen the Steemit Brand.
Thats an impressive number. What I would really like to see is how many have since joined steemit or had other interaction with the site since. We need to see what people join and how we could increase the participation from viewing to becoming active. Do the right people know about it or what it stands for and could people like yourself be targeted who have the assets and public profile to further push steemit into the mainstream?
There other users working in this direction for rather differents interests. @JerryBanfield is one of them, and I guess the Leader of the Pack in terms of Facebook and Youtube where he dominates. I dominate in the LinkedIn Network.
To give you a practical example, in my last Job Post I am searching over Ecuador. There, via Facebook my Post is being blasted over 5,000 people at USD 10 cost. Whatever I get on my Upvotes I will channel those proceedings toward more marketing, penetrating in such away that maket. The more I get, the more I penetrate Ecuador, and the more Steemit is known there.
Here you can see that I have gotten 104 Views on my post https://steemit.com/ecuador/@justinomora/2-freelancers-php-and-net-software-programmers-for-3-months-contracts-in-quito-ecuador
114 now not too shabby. More than anything that I have written. I already follow jerrybanfield since joining as he had a lot of posts that I found interesting to a new user on the site. I can see the angle that you are taking and hope that it works for you.
I am just starting. I don't have pockets as big as @JerryBanfield. But I feel I am on the right track.
Everybody start somewhere. If you don't have the right pockets make the right connections. Bring people along with you that have the same goal and motivation and hopefully combined you will have the power to make headway.
@niallon11 I see you are in Ireland. Would you, please, be willing to ReSteemed 3 jobs I have for that region? If yes, I will put the links here.
I will take a look at them anyway. If they look ok then can resteem.
https://steemit.com/ireland/@justinomora/payments-acquiring-business-platform-engineer-for-galway-ireland-permanent-contract
https://steemit.com/jobs/@justinomora/senior-research-cement-scientist-for-coleraine-norther-ireland-uk
https://steemit.com/jobs/@justinomora/cement-researcher-materials-science-for-coleraine-norther-ireland-uk
I had a look but unfortunately the post are too old and cannot be resteemed but I am following you and if anything of interest to Irish people comes up in the future I won't hesitate to pass it on.
Glad to have you hear @justinomora.
It is wonderful that you have so many followers and I do hope that you are successful in drawing many of them over. This site, from what I can garner, is about 20,000 strong in terms of active posters. You pulling on another few thousand who are active would really lift things to the next level.
Let us know what we can do to assist.
Yes, you can help. Steemit Process Registration needs to speed up. Waiting 7 days for a registration is to much. In 7 days, people will forget about their application. And worst, I have seen cases where the application never gets through.????
I am in full agreement.
Its not about a pity party, but more that some feel a sense of entitlement because they put time into their post, and expect people to read it.
I have learnt that if you interact, comment on posts and have meaningful input, those same people will follow and upvote and comment.
Some expect that others need to be nice to them first type of thing. But they need to lead by example.
If they interact, others will too. People are really big on community here on Steemit. But some think its about what they get rather than what they give.
Great post
Yes that is my experience also.
Too many expect everyone to come to them and bow at their feet without any effort.
To me, this is absurd but part of the entitlement world you mention.
Very true insight you have and maybe the most important I've seen in a while. It's not enough just to post blogs for people to read, but to interact within the comments. The more interaction you have with your readers the more followers you gain and the more upvotes you eventually get. One thing I try to do sometimes is post specific topics which I know will encourage a debate or interaction and this blog post from @taskmaster4450 is an example.
This post was well worth the read. It was motivational and I feel the same as you wrote.
You are right. I vote a lot of newer people when there is no plagiatism or not any color challenges. I show also on contents and I must say don't vote for a "good night" of a whale.
Yes I tend to pass on those posts also.
There is no reason to add to the mountain of insanity by duplicating it.
I wonder how many people upvote a whale's post simply in hopes that whale will return the favor (not likely to happen).
Another word for "whale" is the establishment, but people have to either buy their way or earn their way to get the reputation, the followers, etc. It requires a lot of time, a lot of posts of high quality, and then of course you have some whales or posters who brought a huge community to Steemit because they were celebrities before they met Steemit.
To me, as long as value is being added for the long term then it's all good. Content (quality content) in my opinion adds lasting value. Meaning the discussion in the post is something people might use Google to discover (which brings new people to Steemit), or if it's the new shorter post format which is the trend then maybe there are pictures, art, or a unique perspective of the poster which people value.
The same way we add value when times are good, when the price of Steem is high, we should add value when the rewards are scarce and the price of Steem is low. The bloggers will adapt to the market conditions, posts might not be as long, but if we can keep the quality high, and the topics of discussion relevant, then these posts can be revisited months or years into the future.
Personally I think that we are involved early enough in the process to be at the top few tiers when steemit is more mainstream and heavily trafficked. If people are putting in the effort and quality at this early stage then they should be in a nice position in a couple of years time when steemit has millions of active users
struggling to be noticed in the crowd.
When the SMT tokens come online I can see huge uptake on other sites capable of building on the blockchain and incorporating the tech into their uses.
Thank you for the comment @dana-edwards.
I agree we all need to add value however we can. Too many want to fast track things when it takes time to create quality content. Consistency seems to be the key (something I noticed you excel at with your regular posting of newsworthy topics).
I never really considered the price of steem when posting. That is an interesting perspective. For me, a post comes to me when it does....from something I read, witness, or feel moved to write. I guess some out there will only want to post when times are good but I am not sure it matters much. The reward pool is based upon steem, not dollars...isnt it?
Great post @taskmaster4450!
I have been getting all of my friends on Steemit, but I will soon be advertising using Google Adwords/Bing Ads/FaceBook Ads to spread some awareness about Steem.
I have been giving away Bitcoin on here to try to get my following up and I think I can leverage these giveaways to get people here. I require people to follow and up vote my Free Bitcoin posts, and I think this will be great to get many people in the door who are searching for "Free Bitcoin" or "Free Crypto".
I am also a Search Engine Optimization professional so I think I will be able rank some of these keywords on the first page, along with other similar crypto-based keywords.
I have been trying to take advantage of this cheap Steem Power as much as I have been able to lately because I am in this for the long haul and can't wait to see $10+ Steem! I also spend a lot of money on the promoted section because: A. I want more followers and B. I know it is beneficial for the stability of the platform.
I dont think you are going to have to wait too long for the $10 STEEM.
I am going to add another batch tomorrow if my money cleared....I believe it will be up towards the double digits in 6-9 months.
Agreed. I definitely want to get more before the big boost that I know is coming. Keep up the good work. Gave you a follow. Keep up the good work.
I understand perfectly well that my contribution to this platform is minimal. Therefore, I have no reason to be indignant :) Yes, I would like to receive a good reward for my work. But do I have the right to demand this? I think no
Thank you for your comment @tanata.
We all want to receive good rewards for our contributions, whatever level they are at. That said, like most things in life, it takes effort. Therefore, we can usually expect to get out what we put in.
It is up to all of us to make this place better. Thus far, the only way I found to do that is to post, comment, and upvote. If there are any other ideas, I am more than willing to try them.
There is another story of the coin that you missed. Some of the whales are selling their UPVOTES to bots to get greater profits instead of rewarding and appreciating quality content. Though it's legal but do you think it's ethical?
You can read more about the current situation here: https://steemit.com/whales/@stellabelle/money-cannot-replace-integrity-why-i-still-vote-according-to-my-inner-compass-instead-of-max-roi
And do read the post Stella mentioned in her post.
The purpose of this comment isn't to criticize anyone but to show a realistic picture what actually is happening and what will happen in the future if it continues.
Thanks.