Do you draw? Creating a craft project of some kind? Is music your thing? Do you have stuff in your house that has value that you don't want but find it hard to throw away? Need spare cash for Christmas?
Steemit user @dailybitcoinnews created a post today entitled 9 Ways That Anyone Can Make Steem with a really great list of different ways you are able to obtain Steem. The post has good links and details for the really neat ways people are creating to share Steem with each other. The one way that I was surprised to see of the list, was something I participate in along with a lot of other Steemit users, selling goods!
So how does garage sale items in your house get you Steem?
Two favorite ways I know are of OpenBazaar and Peerhub Marketplace. I think each venue offers it's advantages and full disclosure here, I have not sold anything on Peerhub yet but many sales on OpenBazaar, however I have literally over a 1000 more items on the OpenBazaar store than Peerhub so I want to be fair in that regard, and I am still giving Peerhub a chance.
Peerhub is a website that has been around for years, however looks like it is making a presence directly with the Steem community recently. Offering the ability to use your Steem as you would dollars or Paypal to have transactions with people on a Craigslist like marketplace.
Since I have been putting listings on the site, I have seen them add the Peerhub Store. While having a venue where they are selling their own goods alongside yours in what feels like a competition way, the front page of the site does make the distinction to what part of the site you are shopping from. Also keep in mind the drop down choice in searches as well.
OpenBazaar can be viewed through websites, things bought through mobile apps, and of course buy sell and view through the official OpenBazaar app. The reason I have so many listings more so on OpenBazaar than Peerhub is two reasons you should highly consider as users of this Steemit itself. OpenBazaar is open source. Even if you are not a geek, you understand that open source means anyone can view and edit the code to the site and nothing is hidden. Trust is built by being open.
The second reason, is decentralization. You will find if you want to obtain the dream of no censorship or the chance of censorship, you have to start using tools in your life that do not rely on just one entity. If the Peerhub website goes down or changes hands or any realistic thing that happens with websites, something like OpenBazaar, just like Bitcoin itself, can't be taken down. At the moment, Shapeshift integration within OpenBazaar is not complete, the devs have already posted that it is working, so it is just a matter of when that release comes. So until then there is the extra step of using Shapeshift when doing your transactions so you are able to get paid in Steem instead of Bitcoin.
I got the Items I want to sell, now what do I do?
List them. Because I deal mainly in comics, double stock comes up, so I have created a listing on OpenBazaar and Peerhub so you are able to see what the difference of listing looks like and what information a buyer would see. Open these two links in tabs of their own:
Oni Double Feature #1 on Peerhub
Oni Double Feature #1 on OpenBazaar (viewed through DuoSear.ch)
Take good images, try and have good descriptions, all the usual stuff that you know you like to see when you buy a product. Get on social media like here on Steemit, Twitter, Facebook, reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, so many more to list. Share you wares, if it is music or something around the house or a painting you just did, make your product have a presence so it has the chance to sell. Use proper hashtags, both #OpenBazaar and #Peerhub are one word each. If you are already on sites like eBay and Etsy, offer discounts to customers if they buy your product using Steem or Bitcoin instead of the older payment methods offered by those sites.
Good Luck!
If you have any questions, ask in the comments below. Steemit itself is a great resource. If you use Steem and Bitcoin in any way and envision it to be used in more of a currency exchange fashion, then get on OpenBazaar and Peerhub and buy something too! Support the marketplaces.
Remember, this is just 1 Way That Anyone Can Make Steem, there is a whole 9 other ways in @dailybitcoinnews blog post here. Header image is a comic sans edit of image from that post.
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