When browsing Steem, I regularly come across the congenital whingers who lament that they have not yet had even a solitary thousand dollar payday.
Neither have I, as yet.
To those who are regularly & sincerely posting original, high quality content on Steemit:
Forget about making money off Steemit.
For now.
If there's no money to be made on Steemit now, why am I myself on Steemit?
Why did I, like other Steemians, painstakingly research this article?
Here's why:
- @mallorcaman asked us to share stories about how we joined @steemit.
- To keep myself sold on why @goldmatters encouraged me to board the Steemit train.
- To document reasons to believe.
Kindly indulge me & don't TL;DR this article. Please read through the whole article. No skimming.
Patience is key to wealth creation
There is time-tested wisdom is exercising patience in investing.
Do I have faith?
Do I believe?
In the founders?
In the leaders, the whales?
Am I patient?
Am I willing to persevere?
Not only belief & faith, am I willing to stick it out?
Patience, more than intelligence, may be critical in investing. It is the secret sauce of successful investors.
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
T.S. Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'
How will you respond to the Shadow?
Everyone who holds Steem Power is a buy and hold investor in Steemit.
Those on the platform, while it is in still in beta, are angel investors, with @ned & @dan being the archangels. Ned Scott & Dan Larimer have magnanimously invited anyone to join Steemit on the ground floor. Larry Page & Sergey Brin did not open Google to the public till its IPO. Peter Thiel & Mark Zuckerberg did not let the public in till the Facebook IPO.
At least than 2 years old, Steem, the social network, is still in beta.
Let's compare apples with apples, i.e. Steemit as a social network contrasted with some iconic social networks.
Facebook started making money eight years after its founding.
Is Instagram making any money, after six years even though it has the weight of Facebook behind it?
After 12 years, is YouTube making money for Google?
From day one, Steemit has been profitable to its investors, the holders of Steem Power.
Increasing the value of your investment
Unless an angel investor is involved in managing a start-up, he does not have much direct influence on how his investment fares. He is dependent on the start-up's management team.
Unlike a passive angel investor in Silicon Valley, Steemit provides an opportunity to nurture, increase & multiply the value of your investment in Steemit.
Turbo-charge your Steem Power
At this stage of Steemit's life-cycle Steem Power is the investor's capital. One way to mplify Steem Power is by proactively advocating Steemit & Steem & cross posting your Steemit content, on other non-Steemit social media platforms. Kindly review the ideas shared below.
Please also share & comment on your own advocacy & cross posting efforts.
Advocacy
Advocacy, at its core, is advertising. While the repetitive Coke ad may work, a repetitive blog post may not.
What is the difference between persistence & nagging?
Blogger
Google "monetized' Blogger for itself & "incentivised" blog writers & then the whole of the internet through AdSense.
AdSense is Google serving advertising on your website, blog, page, app or content & then paying you some money. The key advantage of AdSense is that the content creator is compensated till the end of the content or the end of AdSense, whichever is earlier. AdSense's model does not gave any curation rewards. This contrasts with Steemit's one month cut-off for rewards for posts.
A way to increase the life of your Steemit content is to
also post it on an AdSense enabled blog or website,
while cross referencing the Steemit post.
Here's an example of a Blogger advocacy post, Steemit's Steem is a blockchain based social media platform where anyone can earn rewards.
Medium
Based on his experience with Blogger & Twitter, Evan Williams established Medium, arguably the most content creator friendly platform on the internet. Just as WordPress does, Ev Williams provided writers with a beautiful interface. When you write on Medium you're in the company of the Barack Obama White House, Astro Teller & the Economist.
Medium is still exploring ways to compensate authours. There is no compensation for curators. These are some examples of Medium advocacy posts:
Steemit’s Steem
Direct-to-authour compensation
Beyond Rewarding Content Creators
Blockchain undergirded publishing
Cross posting
Cross posting original Steemit content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Google+ is worth the manual labour that you may have to put in. Of course, you could automate posts on social media. What posting automation you use depends on the community that you are attempting to build. Most internet users, smell robot posting from a mile off.
* Reach: increase the reach of your original Steemit post.
* Content: provide fresh content for your followers on other
social media platforms.
* Build community: your community is the heart of your social
network. When you share your Steemit post, your fresh, original
Steemit content on other social networks, you are contributing
to building your communities on those social networks.
While everyone is on Facebook, how useful is cross posting Steemit posts on Facebook?
- Groups: The Steemit Facebook groups may get you a few upvotes. Though I post on these groups, a Steemit post on these groups is like preaching to the choir. Posting, a related Steemit post, on a topic specific Facebook group would indicate to the members of the group that you are attempting to add value to them & the group.
- Personal: Post on your personal Facebook page, as you feel your friends would accept it. Some will want to see everything that you post, others will feel spammed. I've posted just one Steemit advocacy post & and another topical post on my personal account.
As LinkedIn is a professional business, network, sharing a post on how to make Mumbai cutting chai may be out of place. Like Facebook, judge for yourself what is appropriate for LinkedIn. Here's an example of a Steemit post shared in a LinkedIn group, Change is possible
The 140 characters on Twitter provide an ample opportunity to share all Steemit content, without restriction. People get their news from Twitter; so why not Steemit in their feed?
An example of a Steemit post shared on Twitter: Who we could be
Google+
Google+ is the network that pundits love to hate.
On Google+, Check out appropriate Google+ communities for the topics that you post about, you will be pleasantly surprised. Then, of course share your Steemit content in those communities.
While Google+ may not be Google itself, Google is SEO & Google+ is Google's property.
See also, Dubai: Dhows & Disney
YouTube
The world's dominant video platform is also a significant social network & search engine, at least in the English-speaking world.
Though like me, you may have not broadcast any Steemit specific videos, you can still curate the beautiful videos made by the Steemit community. Watch @heiditravels on her Crypto Tips YouTube channel intoduce the Steemit Hardfork 17.
Like authours who read aloud their books as audiobooks, many bloggers are now reading out their blog posts on YouTube. YouTube provides an excellent interface to provide a link back to the blog post, as well as, even providing a teaser text preview of the original blog content.
Other Platforms
While, I have not used the Chinese web or YouTube, Pinterest,
Instagram & Snapchat specifically for Steemit, these could provide
opportunities for both advocacy & post promotion.
I've seen many Steemit advocacy videos on YouTube.
Your call on Steemit
Are you a buy & hold investor or a day trader?
Long investment or quick profit?
Further reading
Steem, Steemit
The Steemit Test
Why Dad Loved 'Isn't It A Lovely Day?'
Does downvoting a post help build Steemit? Take the survey
A call out
Fun
Why Dad Loved 'Isn't It A Lovely Day?'
Why Mum loved "Tea for Two"
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How To
How to navigate the minefield of social media
How to succeed on Steemit: Guaranteed
How to start a home business with no money
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Gold Is Money
An Open Internet?