Introduction
I was listening to Ned talking on Steemspeak yesterday and he mentioned that any member of the community can engage in outreach and spreading the word about Steemit.
This is very true. For many projects in their infancy there is not a huge budget for marketing and promotion. This does not have to be a hindrance though.
Viral marketing successes have shown us that a good idea can be as effective as a million dollar marketing campaign.
With Steemit we have a strong and vibrant community. There is a lot of potential brainpower that could be tapped for promotional ideas.
Further competitions are a great way of tapping into that kind of potential Whether it is our own weekly photo challenge or the X-Prize - they really seem to help motivate people to come up with creative ideas.
Idea for the Prize
Whilst listening to Steemspeak I was also noting how I've hit 114 Mega Vests and I was about to power up to make it 115.
Then I had another thought -that 1 MegaVest won't make a huge difference to me but it could raise someone who is a new user to being a superuser level account.
I also realised I had not done anything to celebrate and thank the community after reaching my long term target of 100MV.
So what better way to celebrate than have a competition where I reward a fellow Steemian with that 1MV worth of Steem and make it about Steemit promotion ideas?
The Competition - the TLDR part
I will power up one person's account by 1MV if they come up with the best low cost idea for promoting Steemit to other people.
Rules
1. Comment with your idea below. (You will get extra points if you can actually put it into practice and show some results).
2. State what you like the most about Steemit (in case I can't decide between a few users this could act as a tie break).
3. Any level account is eligible to enter but for any high level accounts e.g. superhero or above I would suggest that you nominate another lower power user to receive the prize.
4. You have one week to come up with ideas. The deadline will be 6pm GMT next Saturday (26th November 2016).
5. Resteems and other types of sharing are appreciated but not mandatory.
6. If any other users would like to match or add to the prize fund to make things more interesting please let me know.
7. I will make the final decision about who wins but I will take community opinion into account too.
8. The rules may be changed in the event of unforseen circumstances.
9. Be sure to have fun!
Thank you for reading.
If you like my work and aren't already, please follow me and check out my blog (I mainly discuss photography but I do other topics too) - @thecryptofiend
Photo Credits: All photos are taken from my personal Thinkstock Photography account. More information can be provided on request.
(Verification for me here: http://www.aapicture.com/about-me)
Some of my other recent posts
- Let's make email great again - my alternative idea for a Steem App/Utility
- TIL - A terminally ill 14 year old girl won the right to have her body cryogenically preserved before she died
Are You New to Steemit and Finding it Confusing?
These resources may help:
- For a Quick FAQ - Try this
- To learn about Markdown (to help you post) - Try this
- Need to know Steemit Etiquette? - Try this
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- Need to talk to a human for help? - Try the chat
- Need Mentorship? - Try Steemprentice - here is a link that explains it, and here is the chat channel.
- Need a Free Image Host that works with Steemit? - Try SteemImg - it automatically produces markdown and html links for you, as well creating thumbnails and more.
- Need to Buy or Sell Steem/SD? - Try this tutorial for Blocktrades.
(Want to use this list in your own posts? - download the text file formatted in Markdown here.)
https://steemit.com/brandambassadors/@steempowertwins/vote-for-steempowertwins-as-steem-s-first-brand-ambassadors
Thanks ladies. This would be great but I don't actually work for Steemit in any official capacity so can't speak for them. I will check out your blog:)
Operation Proud Face
Simple. Free. Ubiquitous. Effective.
The simplest and most cost effective method of promoting Steem would be to utilize our profile pics on those other social networks.
Given that we Steemians, each have hundreds of acquaintances who already know, like, and trust us... because, well, we're awesome... we each should be able to leverage our social capital to soft sell Steemit.com
Unlike posting our steemit links on last generation social networks, which can be throttled to reduce reach... a Steemit branded profile pic promotes Steem every single time you interact on Facebook, Twitter and so on...
I think that there should be a standard design for a Steemit promotion profile pic:
* white background * your smiling face * @your_steemit_handle * the Steemit logoPerhaps there could Steemians who mass produce these for others in exchange for Steem.
Interesting idea:)
Edit: thinking about it more this is simple enough to be an easy thing that everyone can do. If we could have a little automated widget that you could click to generate it even better.
The concern for me would be about how soon social networks would start cracking down on this or if they could crack down on it?
I like the idea a lot though because it is a simple and easy form of advertising which deals with the idea suggested by @winstonwolfe and others where you let others find things out for themselves by creating curiosity.
If 'Operation Proud Face' wins the Xprize... the prize purse can be split between the 1 to 10 steemit users who best implement the idea. Thanks.
Personally I think this is a great, inexpensive idea. It's one of those guerrilla marketing type tactics that rather than directly stating the message attempts to invoke people to ask the 'what is that' questions or perform the search.
Not too long ago there was a billboard in town with just the phrase Use Your Noodle.com or something like that. Not saying what the product/service was in anyway, just 'daring' people to look it up or goto the site itself to find out.
In the case of Steemit, I'm a rather big fan of new non-crypto, non-tech people 'learning backwards.' For example, I tend to wait to explain the Steem -> Btc -> fiat process until they have $ in their accounts and want to actually do their first withdrawl. (Which I personally think is important for new users to do at least once, even if for a smaller amount, to know it's 'real.') This gave me more time before their 'eyes glazed' over since they were more motivated to understand things that were a bit more new/complex compared to what they were used to.
I'm going to produce a video made up of clips filmed by other Steemians. The idea is similar to another one of my video projects, "Just A Second", which is a 1-second-per-day video for each calendar year. For this project, however, instead of one second per day, it'll be one second per Steemit member.
Here is the post I created outlining this idea, as well as showing one of my videos from 2013 which shows the concept in action. :)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@winstonwolfe/i-have-an-idea-for-a-steemit-video-i-need-your-video-contributions-to-make-it-happen
Thanks for sharing. I'm going to have a really hard job deciding on this one because there are so many great ideas!
I never even knew about this competition when I wrote this post
https://steemit.com/advertising/@beanz/using-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon-to-advertise-steemit
It costs absolutely nothing to change your profile picture on social media. But since social media is what we are marketing here, I think it is on social media that we should be promoting steemit.
My idea is simple:
Every active steemit user could be promoting steemit without even trying to convince people to join. People are more inclined to explore something they find themselves than something a friend pushed them into. (Not that I would discourage people to encourage people to join).
The frequency illusion is a commonly used phenomenon in the marketing world. Just seeing steemit 3 times is 3 different places is enough to make somebody think it's everywhere and significant enough to look into.
I've changed my whatsapp, viber and other messenger apps to the photos above. I also shared the steemfest photos on facebook, and photos are the easiest thing to get onto your friends feed so I would encourage every attendee of the festival to do the same. It also cost me nothing to upload a vlog about steemfest.
If every steemit user did the same, it wouldn't be long before their friends would come asking about it like mine have.
As for what I like most about steemit. The community and the possibilties as expressed in my vlog
Great idea. I think I remember you suggesting it before.
I love that steemit throws all previous social media sites to the side with the financial incentives. My idea is that we pick a day and everyone blasts steemit through the 'old' social media sites (FB, G+, Twitter, whatever you do). We explain that you GET PAID to post and upvote. I have brought people into steemit that I have never met, like @apolymask and then he brought over @rustysmetals (and who knows how many more).
I like this because we have a great community here, and we can easily plan ONE day to blast steemit out to the universe - for FREE! There will be so much steemit talk going on that people will be bound to see it at least from one of us. Word of mouth is still as strong as it has every been, maybe even stronger! Then we can watch for the new people (25 rep) who will start posting shortly thereafter and comment and upvote their stuff. Make them feel welcome.
Great idea. I think it would need to be done in the right way as there is the issue of sites like FB shadow blocking content. It has been suggested that using url shorteners may get round that - I don't know enough about how they block content to know if it will.
I've heard using the url shortener and an image link works to get around the shadowbanning.
Yes me too but I am not sure if that is based on actual evidence or speculation. It depends on how the blocking/banning works.
I heard it as 2nd hand evidence, they had done it successfully. But that's still different than seeing it myself. I had seen some users even pay fb for steemit campaigns. I'll need to test it myself when i get a little time. I do suspect using fb will be difficult and they'd probably notice what worked for us and close those holes as time went on
@thecryptofiend
I saw this post last month for getting some analytics from shortened urls
https://steemit.com/howto/@future24/tutorial-how-to-shorten-and-track-your-steemit-links-english-german
EDIT: Saw you're experience on this url shortner. Definitely valid concerns. Thanks for letting us know how it went, even with it not being something you think is good to use. Sure there is some other option out there. :)
I suspect you are right. I posted my links today using a shortener - it would be useful to have some analysis tools to monitor if it make a difference - I will need to see if I can find some.
Thanks - I remember seeing that. Will try it out.
Edit:
Ok I tried that URL shortener but I won't be using it. The way it uses redirection means that is could potentially get flagged as being a malicious site and also means that the link does not generate a thumbnail or title which relates to the actual article. The analytics are nice but not worth the risks in this case and I would not recommend using it in it's current form.
Am liking this idea more after letting it percolate in my head a bit. We could have some targets to get everyone to share and like each other's posts on Facebook etc. to get them trending? Is that possible am not clear on how trending works on these other platforms.
To make a long story short: education.
More practically, for a couple of weeks, I am releasing educational material on steemit, and so is @justtryme90 for a few months, see here.
In addition, I am about to release educational material under the form of single self-consistent posts, whose link will be shared with students. In the future, I guess this could serve as a good advertisement for te platform, and potential attract new users.
Note that there are also others releasing educational material on Steemit (I noticed some python and c++ articles at some point in the past). Maybe could all of this be collected under the @steemstem banner (see here). Organization may be the key for visibility here.
These were my two cents :)
Good ideas. Having professional learning materials is certainly one way to attract new people:) I will check out Steemstem.
We are at the moment really thinking hard about what to as for promoting science and technology on steemit. Don't hesitate to pass by the chat.
Sure. Which channel? Also have you seen the project Pevo presentation from Steemfest (link) - I completely forgot about this project until I saw this again today and it looks really exciting.
I discussed already long long ago with @pharesim about pevo, giving the good things we have developed in particle physics with respect to a better diffusion of science.
OK cool:)
#steemSTEM :)
OK cool will head on over when I have a moment:)
It would be easier if I could see all the posts on a tag, not just the Trending.
For my quantum mechanics posts, you have the #qm-lessons tag, while for the chemistry lessons, you have the #chemistry-lesson tag :)
For the rest, I agree it is harder to find.
Search and discovery is a problem that needs to be tackled and I understand it is on the platform roadmap for Dan and Ned.
Video testimonials.
I think the easiest way and fastest way for us to market the platform would be through short videos submitted individually where we each express what Steemit is and why we like it. We could create a community incentive, like you've done here, so that users get involved. If we made it a month long event where the goal is to post your video on your own social media sites, we could start a trend across multiple platforms that should get noticed.
Personally I'm going to do this with my next Steemit Open Mic entry and post it to numerous social media sites. I've expressed the reasons why I like Steemit many times on blog posts but I think doing so more personally via a video interview would be more engaging.
Steemit is a community run by each other and that's what I like most about it. Of course there are devs working behind the scenes but ultimately it's up to us to make it thrive, and this call for promotion is just more evidence of how important community involvement is here. With Facebook censoring alternate news outlets soon, Steemit can replace that. With it already being a blogging platform with incentives for rewards, it can replace Reddit. With developers like @picokernel working on photo threads, it could replace Instagram. The list goes on. There's virtually limitless possibilities when it comes to the Steem blockchain, assuming we can continue scaling upwards. This place gives people the opportunity to show their full potential and in fact begs them to do so.
I will add my testimonial video and links as a reply to this comment once I've submitted it all. I think it's important for us to do our individual part and an incentive for video testimonials would definitely be a step in the right direction. After seeing videos from users like @beanz and @andrarchy following their experiences at @steemfest, I was inspired to do the same in regards to using Steemit for the last 5 months.
Short 3 minutes videos aimed at our own individual social networks will spread the word like wild fire.
(If my idea wins, I would like to nominate the @thirstyrecords account to receive the reward.)
Thanks for a great response mate. I think it is a great idea. As long as I don't have to appear on camera lol (I have a face that is suitable only for radio). Also love the uncensored news/content idea @sykochica - has already suggested that.
haha! I don't think you necessarily have to have your face in the video, you could do a video with a voice over and some screenshots of what you do on the platform. The beauty of this idea is that anyone can get involved. With the creative mindsets that we have here, I'm sure we'd see a lot of different and unique submissions. If we hosted some sort of competition for the most creative Steemit testimonial video, I'm sure everyone could get involved.
Yeah, the uncensored content/news thing is already happening so I don't think we need to promote that. Or, we could add it in our testimonials ;)
OK. Cool:)
I could've done it better but in the video I give a shoutout to Steemit and its creators. I think something more along the lines of "how Steemit has worked you" would be better, but this was off the top and from a very tired man. Whether or not this idea wins your prize, I still think it's something worth creating an incentive for. I'm willing to work with you and others to make a steemit testimonial challenge happen
https://steemit.com/openmic/@senseiteekay/soul-searching-original-music-steemit-open-mic
Yes I think it is a great idea. Also you know you and thirstyrecords always have my support:)
Even if you don't win we should definitely take this forward and work together on it - the potential value from doing this is much greater than that the tiny 1MV for this. Let's wait until this is finished and we can look at plans for doing this.
I'm actually thinking of putting together a group to look at marketing ideas on an ongoing basis. Would you be interested in this?
I will put the video aside so I can give it a proper watch when I have a moment. Today has been a bit of a crazy day outside of Steemit!
Thanks :)
I'm definitely interested! I think it's something we all need to get involved in if we want to see the platform grow. We've all spent a lot of time marketing ourselves to audiences here on Steemit and now it's time for us to market Steemit and return the favor.
It's okay if you run out of time, I basically said all I need to say here anyways :D
Press releases well written with a grabbing title can have amazing results with no out of pocket expenses. It's much easier and effective to have someone else promote you than for you to promote yourself.
Interesting it is not something I am very familiar with. Do you have any personal experience of this? Is it the press release itself that matters or the source that is putting it out?
Years ago as a musician, our band would submit press releases regularly and often they would get published and would draw much more people than a paid ad. This was done on a local level but there is no limit on how many sources you can send to. Editors of all forms of media are always looking for items of interest to fill in their space or quota. The key is to make the process effortless to the editor by having a well written release. As an example, Wall Street Journal, Forbes or Marketwatch could all use the monetary slant of Steemit.
Once you establish a relationship with an editor it doesn't matter your status as they can count on you for supplying them with well written content. There are rules to writing press releases that are available online. It's always good to accompany the release with a good quality relevant image.
Cool thanks for the information:)
I have a simple and good idea
Let's take the exemple of Forfaty(check the page on FB like they are doing short videos and include the picture of their games (steem) or something like that. I am sure that short funny videos are the best way to make people search and ask what is steemit and how it works.
Sketch Videos are the best way to attract a large number of people!
Exemple: you're in a club and then you go quickly outside to check something; a girl comes after you and asks what's happened and you tell her you have a big WHALE vote! HAHA :)
Thanks I will check it out.
We can make (also) a contest of funny videos that promote Steemit in a creative way.
Yes humour is definitely a good way to get people's attention:)
How about a fiat currency gateway removing the need for "non-crypto" users to get into bitcoin... Steemit can draw many people into crypto, but it would be easier if they didn't have to learn about exchanges and all that when they first get started.
Being able to send money from a bank account to a gateway site for steem power seems to me like it would make things a lot easier for new steemians, who don't know about crypto yet.
I know all this can be done via bitcoin, but bitcoin is slow and unstable. Regular people love the stability of the dollar. If Steemit wants more users a US $ gateway needs to be made.
I found this from The Morning Task Manager.
Isn't one of the main reasons for using a crypto currency rather than a fiat currency the fact that a crypto currency spend, purchase, donation, whatever cannot be reversed while fiat currencies and gateways like credit cards and paypal can all be reversed at the whim of the spender?
So somehow your fiat currency gateway will have to provide some sort of irreversible spend, and that might be complicated by rules and regulations of the fiat currency provider.
I hope you can find a way to set up a fiat currency gateway. I would be tempted to use it.
Like a bank wire?
I'm probably mistaken, but I am under the impression that in some cases bank wires can be reversed. I'm certainly not well versed in what transactions can or cannot be reversed. And, what's worse, I would be interested in buying so little steem at a time that the cost of the wire transfer would exceed the cost of the steem -- a real disincentive.
I guess not a bank wire, bank deposit, take your cash and deposit in their account at their bank... no reversing that
I think you are mistaken. They can't be reversed. What is called reversal is not actual reversal which is described in my other response.
Fiat currency gateways already exist for bitcoins. There are usually terms and conditions that prevent them being reversed. It (reversal) is not something that the end user can do anyway - it has to be done through the bank. Further when you reverse a transaction through your credit card company or bank that is not AN actual reversal of the transaction. The credit card company pays you back and then tries to recover funds from the recipient. It is not a true reversal. I don't think this is a problem for a fiat gateway - regulatory/legal issues are the real problem.
That would be a killer feature for sure. A lot of people have been asking for it and not just for Steemit. That is one of the main feature requests we have been making for nearly every crypto I have been involved with in the last 3 years. I think the main hurdle is regulatory issues relating to AML laws and also the different unique laws as they pertain to specific nations.
If someone could figure out a way of doing it, it would be massive and big news in the cryptocurrency community at the very least.
I suspect it is only a matter of time before it happens though.
Thanks for the link.
Build a site like localbitcoins.... only altcoins... The users are responsible for claiming and covering their own income tax. If records are kept of identification and trades it would at least be legal for Canada, and likely other countries too.
Why not try to get localbitcoins to accept Steem? I have already asked our local equivalent which is called Bittylicious but they are not interested at present because they don't see enough demand. I suspect that may be one of the issues that we may come up against. It has to be worth it for whoever starts doing it and right now they might not see it as a good business proposition.
Virtual Steemland / Steemfest
Presenting Steem(it) ideas in a 3D virtual world while sharing posts related to Steemfest to show personal experiences as a was to express potential personal experiences to others.
Also Steem_Land on twitter automatically tweets many steemit posts that is growing in followers and interactions. This lead to some direction of steemland.com which is still open to paths of exploration and creation.
Steemit's aspect that allow for more FREEDOM.
Shared on twitter, and again
Also to add I hope that this 3-D virtual environment may be a place for users to further explore ideas and possibilities together as well.
Keep up the great work @thecryptofiend! :)
Thanks. How many people are actually using Steem Land? I think this is a big area of potential for the future with new VR solutions coming online.
None currently. A dozen or so visited initially. Rebuilding / reopening Steemland this week with the idea of a virtual Steemfest utilizing Posts and pictures from steemfest experiences and ideas to start SteemLand in some direction.
OK:)
My idea ( I've always thought this ) is to pay a famous writer to come here and post. A kind of writer where their posts go viral. Just imagine a TMZ writer posting something juicy over here and directing some of the traffic over here. I'll try to look into this myself.
I think in the early days we did have some writers like that posting here but they disappeared as soon as the rewards fell. If you can do it now I would be very impressed:)
I can get say Milo from Briebart . There should be someone out there to try this all out with their huge audience.
Interesting choice. The controversy might be good advertising in itself:)
Before starting a marketing operation, answer these two questions:
1.What is the target market?
2.What product?
Currently, Steemit is in beta, designed by and for developers geared to a Blockchain, steem, anarcho-crypto ideology. It's a small community, very small, maybe 50% active members. This crypto-sphere controls, through their votes, bots and their SP, what subject and what person will be hot or trending. The others pick up crumbs.
For other social media, you sign, you like and edit. That's it.
For Steemit an outsider, a non-crypto, he must be accepted, and then learning many rules.
Vote: who, when,%?
Flag: why?
ReSteem: to whom?
Follow: who, why?
What is Reputation? How to improve its reputation?
Submit a post: Format the text and include an image, not very easy for a beginner.
What is steem, steem power, steem dollar? Then the entire process of bitcoin exchange, traders and fiat, etc.
Lots of learning for some "rewards"
In short, what market? Crypto? The value of the steem is not interesting in the short / medium term. For non-crypto, platform too complex and not user-friendly enough.
Which product? Steemit is rather an ideological platform and not a mass social network.
Steemit has been in downfall for 3 months. It lost many good authors. Some problems need to be corrected before a marketing campaign.
Good points but I think you are wrong. You don't need to understand all these factors to use Steemit.
hey, as a non-crypto, using steemit is definitely a learning process. now, i myself am interested in spending time learning about this, but many people aren't. i've introduced a couple of friends to the platform, they made accounts and all, but haven't been using due to issues with understanding the whole thing. while to the community it all makes sense, to the regular people it doesn't.
i think this could be resolved by perhaps having one official educational account, that goes through lessons step by step, with cute consistent animation and the works.
the way things are now, not even the financial incentive is that appealing.
my idea, in terms of marketing: how would you promote steemit if there wasn't financial/crypto part involved? eventually, once the dust settles, everyone learns how to use the system, steem price is stable, voting makes sense, etc, this will become an integral, invisible part of the platform. so what then? what will be left underneath, what kind of a network? if there is a long term vision of this, than it should be used in the marketing now. that way, you attract people to what is crucial and interesting by itself, and then you include the money part. because attraction to the platform via money appeal doesn't seem to be working, but only bringing in anxiety.
so what is steemit to be? right now, there is a divide between author/reading streams. maybe users should be able to chose whether they will be an author (creator) or the reader (consumer). both could earn rewards, but through a different system. ui/ux could be different for both, and then there could exist some sort of front page where anyone who should come by to the site can be engaged without having to know anything about how steemit works. if they like it, they can subscribe to certain authors, and start making some rewards by voting. people are ready to do things for tokens and stars and hearts, let alone money. but they have to be introduced slowly to this. once a subscriber, following fav authors, etc, user could become interested in contributing. then he would enter another stage, learning about the system itself, setting up author account, start participating in internal structure of the community, make money. but he would have to go through at least some kind of interview before being allowed to post content for consumers in order to determine in the very beginning is this content valuable. or if they are a well appreciated reader (curator) they can become editors. so in a way - divide steemit into two different fronts - for the general reader and the content creators network. in that way, everyone in the content part is working for the front page, where there could be ads that bring in additional revenue. no ads in the content sector. general readers could even have the opportunity to hire content creators of steemit for other jobs if they like what they do. steemit could also acquire some additional revenue by taking a percentage in these transactions. so in a way, it could function as a content creating game, where everyone can have their own role and level up, develop careers in that role.
etc etc this could be further developed.
Great ideas. I think the division of curating vs posting is certainly interesting as a concept.
Good ideas, I agree
In my opinion the best way to spread an idea is word of mouth, literally one person telling another. It is how I found out about this, FB and MySpace. When people with similar interests start talking ideas spread like wild fire.
Good point. Word of mouth is always going to be important.
I totally agree on this. However it feels like we've somewhat hit a wall on this though (just my perception) right now. Some is the "to good to be true" appearance, some the semi difficult ux/ui (which soon shouldn't be a major issue) and some being seen as a money earner for people which either get discouraged without early payouts (which I'm not saying all should) or lack of socializing.
In the end the draw here is the community (imo) that people need to feel integrated into. I think there is a required change in mindset many either adapt to (ie marketing/ networking effort, adding value, formatting) or leave. Since the normal "info sharing" doesnt work here.
I'm by no means against the idea of word of mouth campaign, just what I've seen. If a post isn't purely around something they're passionate about they purely look at it as $/hr for their work. However the new short form (news, today i learned, funny) posts can help on this front. A few dollar payout goes a long way early on imo.
If something isn't viewed as easier than their current social media, there needs to be an argument to put in the work/ time to ramp up. The $ helps that only so far, especially with steem price where it is.
I did try to help on the on boarding process with various ambassador toolkit posts with explanations of key topics (so they can be used to answer frequent questions/concerns), short power point slide set and post templates, if those can be helpful.
Great points. I have run into this issue too. People act like you are trying to sell them a timeshare scheme or they just don't get it or a combination. I think it works in very selected circumstances but in many ways it is too early for that work in all but selected circumstances where you are dealing with like minded individuals or people who are already in crypto.
My idea is as such..... Make available some good old shirts, sweaters, coffee mugs, and little sorts of things like pens and/or pencils. Award these to people by random pick, in exchange for steem, steemdollars, and bitcoin. Sell them very cheap just to cover expenses and shipping. I would include shipping in the price. As a consumer just the fact of seeing shipping price and having to add it is a turn off. This may seem like a little detail but lets be honest we are all human and small things or details can sway our choice very easily. Honestly you start getting these things floating around the world people will be checking it out. Slogan on the product must be something people are gonna like when it hits them. It has to make them feel like its not o scheme. Some stickers would be nice too. What I like most about steemit is the community. It seems to be filled with alot of individuals who are uplifting not so much drama (i hate even saying the word). It inspires people to do their best not just spew bs about how they got a bad haircut. To understand the benefits of steemit your a little more well groomed of a person. I like the idea too that it gives back to its users. Not so much money hungry and greed that the world is so accustomed to these days. I'm also going to add a small list of improvements i would like to see. Maybe a little more power to the beginning user. Not as in the form of steem power but maybe for the first week make it so they have the power of someone with a slightly higher steem power. This would give the newbie a chance to raise up a little bit. I would hate to see someone discouraged because they cant get any big whales to hit on a post and think they will never make anything. Maybe limit the amount of active accounts from a particular ip address to say between 5 and 10. Something more to calm down the unmanned accounts. Most of all though I suggest the clothing and goods advertisement. I can tell all my friends about it some people i dont talk long with and dont have time to sit down and show them the hole process would take it more serious if I was wearing a steemit hooded sweatshirt. Also that cashier at that coffee shop may say hey what is that. Making them desire to know more instead of me bringing up the idea. That i think is key don't push steemit on people make them want it all by themselves. A little sticker on a light post is gonna draw curiosity more than word of mouth. I guess thats all!!!
That's a good idea but it would require a large budget. People are not going to buy Steemit items unless they are already on Steemit - these sort of things are usually given away free. All those things cost money as does shipping. I think the idea of getting people curious is a good one and has been suggested by @winstonwolfe previously with his idea for "What is Steemit?" meme. I am still thinking about that one and possible ways of implementing it.
Crowdsource an original music composition using steemit, then get this guy (or someone else) to use steemit to communicate with musicians and produce a virtual orchestra/band/choir performance?
Interesting concept. Do you have any more details on how to create the composition via Steemit? Also how would you propose getting Eric Whitacre involved? Thanks for the video link BTW I had not see it before.
I'm not really going for the prize, but since you're looking for recruiting ideas, I should mention... here's another idea that I had a while ago.
https://steemit.com/blog/@remlaps/tag-proposal-for-steemit-recruiting
Basically, a hashtag like "introduceyourself" - "recruiting-help" or something like that - that whales could monitor to create sign-up incentives so people could encourage their own friends to join in a targeted way.
Thank you I will have a look:)
I don't know anything about composing music, but the musicians here could organize under a particular hash tag and communicate with each other to figure it out. That way they could get rewarded for their work. It's unfortunate that steemit doesn't have video or graphics yet, so it would still be dependent on external media sites. My son uses "noteflight.com" for composing, and I believe that has some sort of collaborative capability. I guess they'd have to use something like youtube or souncloud for multimedia and a site like noteflight or some sort of image sharing site for exchanging scores.
As to getting Whitacre involved. If he's using steemit for his communication with the musicians and vocalists, that's how he'd get paid. Someone would have to convince him that the cutting-edge nature of the project, the potential for another viral video, and the rewards he'd earn from steemit would be worth his time.
The role for steemit's non-musicians would be to watch the project's progress and help to guide the direction with plenty of up-votes.
OK but it sounds like this whole project in itself would be a big logistical issue. It might be a bit early for something like this.
To be fair that isn't really a fleshed out idea though. I could say it would be great to get any celebrity on Steemit but without some kind of plan to do it or some kind of access to them it doesn't really help.
I would love to get some great film directors like Ridley Scott on but I don't know how I could do it as I don't know him.
It would be a big logistical issue. Just like an open source software release, which is basically what I'm suggesting, just for music instead of software. But it would demonstrate steemit's potential, not as a technology, but as a global community.
I don't actually see Whitacre as being critical to success. It would be nice to have him because he's already done something similar, but what's important is to highlight the community, not the celebrity. You're right, it might be too early, or launching a project like this might attract the talent it needs. There's no way to tell without trying it.
Announce the purpose and let the people organize themselves and prepare to be amazed (or disappointed. ; -).
Yes that makes more sense:)
I believe in collective intelligence, my 100 best friends have an idea to win this contest.
@chrisaiki, I am one of your 100 best friend !
Thanks I will give it a read. Is late here so will probably be tomorrow now.
@chrisaiki, I am one of your 100 best friend !
Thank you,
Micro-volunteering is also an excellent mean to promote Steemit. I started micro-volunteering task on Steemit few weeks ago.
Exemples :
Developing micro-volunteering requires only some attention ! All non-profits could use it.
The micro volunteering idea may have potential but the way you have put it in your links makes it sound very scam like. The solar coach thing in particular sounds like a pyramid scheme or numerous other scams.
A pyramid scheme is a process to earn money, the aim of the solar coach is to promote solar energy, using MLM technics. I agree that it need a better presentation. I know that sometimes interesting new ideas look like scams, I read posts about steemit that pretend it is a scam and a pyramid scheme,too. It takes times to know who are the people and what are there objectives. Do you think that the steemit reputation system is inefficient ? Thank you for taking the time to read the solar coach and my other proposals.
Yes that is why it would be better if you could present it in a different way:)
OK I've had a look but I don't really see a viable new idea. This is just the word of mouth idea formalised as I see it. I also think your projections for bringing people in are unrealistic.
Why would ten of your friends respond? Even if they see your post (which is not guaranteed) there is no way of knowing they will respond or care.
Also I can foresee this potentially annoying people too. As it stands I don't see any real idea here - perhaps I am misunderstanding something as your post isn't very clear. Further the way you describe things sounds too much like a pyramid scheme.
After three months, I think that Steemit has a great potentiel. I am sure that at least 50 out of my 500+ LinkedIn contacts would love it too. Why not ? there are many potential for new development. I need to write a better post to explain to them all the interests of Steemit. I understand that you don't like Multi Level Maketing and I agree that it can be annoying. On the opposite if you do not inform your friends about the innovations you like, then I do not see the interest to network. The exponential law has some impressive property and I read a lot about the importance of the rate of inflation for steem. Participating to a contest and a pyramid scheme are two completly diferent things. Did you had a bad experience with a pyramid scheme ? Putting the word of mouth in order is a powerfull marketing technic used by multimillion companies. Sorry for my poor English, we are 450 million European potential users with a poor English. I understand it must be annoying too, I don't like to read poor French either. I am sure that this exchange of opinions will initiate excellent marketing solutions. :)
Your English is fine. I think sometimes with ideas it can be hard to convey them in online form. I have not had any bad experiences with pyramid schemes but the problem is one of perception and association.
Referral System
Create a Personal secure referral link to send to friends, post it on blogs, social networks, forums and earn some Steem Power!
Create a referral system or some other Affiliate Programme, that would give a special prize of Steem Power to the user who pointed the new Steemian that on his/her turn would receive 25% or 50% more Steem Power to begin the account
It seems very simple and effective
Steem up friends
Yes I think that has been in the works for a while.
Well....mine isn't a low cost idea, but still worth sharing. I did a post about it months ago. Basically a grass roots marketing tour that stops at major colleges around the U.S. I did this type of work for video games years ago and its extremely effective in building excitement and a following within a college campus.
College kids are the best word of mouth marketers you can have, plus given their demographic they are the future of social media so this is who we want to reach. Can be as simple as having a booth in the dining hall or a team of steemers running around campus telling people about steem and giving out some free swag.
I have heard of this sort of thing before. I do know it works but like you said it is not cheap! Perhaps we will have the funds to do this at some point:) People could do it on their own but it might actually look more like a scam if it isn't someone directly associated with Steemit.
Yes, exactly. Not a low cost initiative. One thing I think steemit will have to do at some point is "steemit groups" Such a vast majority of social media interaction is people participating in a specific group/topic. Though we have "tags" I believe further structure with this will be beneficial for a larger audience. Sometimes to get bigger you have to go small and focused.
This has been more successful for me than anything else I've tried. I think even if you weren't there, talking about SteemFest in Amsterdam gets peoples attention. https://steemit.com/steemfest/@richardcrill/steemfest-has-made-it-much-easier-to-convince-people-that-crypto-is-cool
I love this community and this makes it easy to talk about how cool it is!
Great. I will check out your link. Steemfest was not cheap though so we can't have those kind of festivals too often (they would also lose their effectiveness I think if we did).
I agree. Just talking about it helps to get people interested though. I love the new coindesk article for that reason.
Steemit Verified Accounts.
As I've said before, if there are any columnists and authors writing content about cryptocurrency they would be in Steemit too, if not to blog, to test and evaluate at least. To atract them Steemit could offer verified accounts to these authors set their usernames as used in other channels. To checkthe accounts, a simple email with the domain of the their sites/blogs/profiles or a post or button publication on it.
Yes I think this has come up a few times before. I'm not sure if it will happen though due to the nature of Steemit as being a decentralised cryptocurrency based platform.
Cowoking spaces accepting Steem partneship program.
I think many content creators uses coworking spaces worldwide so Steemit could sponsor or propose a program, including promoting and supporting those who accept and promote Steem also.
OK thanks. You have a lot of ideas:) Perhaps you should put them together in a post?
Hi, I decided to start drawing a mascot for Steemit promotion, when you have a time look my post: Here is a Blockchain Cat idea because everyone knows who rules the internet are cats Thanks!
Will do. I think there is already a mascot though I've seen it somewhere.
As sugested I listed my brainstorm ideas in a post here: Steemit X Prize participation, my brainstorm ideas for promoting and marketing. Thanks and congratulations to the winners! See you soon in the next Steemit X Prize edition :-)
Thanks I will have a look:)
Yes :) I'll comment here as soon as I post all togheter, using your tag ideasfactory also.
What about a call for content people had been censored on (obviously within reason and copyright) within other platforms? Let the rather open speech side be highlighted.
You mean like Gab.ai is doing? (FWIW, I'm on the waiting list.)
Great idea - I'm inclined that way myself - but it comes with a side effect. The people who have been censored, from what I've seen on social media et. al, have some ideas that (to put it politely) are questionable.
You can see an example of what kind of folks are most interested in a censorship-resistant platform by looking at the vids on the front page of BitTube:
https://www.bittube.co/
As you can see, those folks would likely be downvoted and/or flagged if they brought their content here.
It's a tricky thing, reaching out to censored people. Some of them, perhaps many of them, have been censored because their opinions are abhorrent to normal folks. Those people flooding in, would be a test of our tolerance.
I totally agree it would be a mixed bag and tricky on what they'd bring. I'll look into those links though, see what's been done elsewhere.
Great idea. Indeed the controversy would be great advertising. Obviously we would need to be careful with anything illegal that might be detrimental to the image of the platform but that leaves a lot of leeway. Could you flesh this out a bit more with examples possibly?
I'll think on it...I would think leaving it broad is better, just to not pigeon hole the content. Outside hate speech or copyright infringement reasons for censoring elsewhere, I'd figure there'd have to be stuff still available. It'll be interesting to try to search for 'censored' content, lol
Only other route I could think would be highlighting a 'cause/charity' or something that would provide a direct impact, but it'd be hard to achieve that with mostly newbie votes.
I'll mull it over though
Thanks. It doesn't have to be too specific just examples. I think if we come up with some really good ideas we could form some sort of informal group to get working on implementing these things to move them forwards. I believe in addition to yourself there are probably others with knowledge of marketing and how to put these sort of things into practice. Ned was saying on Steemspeak that right now their number 1 priority is building the social part of the platform and advertising is in their later plans. That makes it even more important that we as a community work on spreading the word.
Rather than opening up to all censored (on other sites) material, what about selecting specific ones that are controversial (yet not a whole can of worms liked hate speech/copyright issues) and open them up to discussion here. Then use these controversial topic headlines to pass around and try to draw people into those targeted discussions. They would ideally be motivated to sign up here so they can comment.
Honestly I'd love to see more content consumers/ commentors come on board (and ideally get some rewards for that. )
@thecryptofiend
Something I'd have to think a bit on honestly. I don't really care for first that come to mind (trump, globalization/ anti nationalism, mideast issues) since i don't really see those going well. And more positive ones like how to better the local or world community wouldn't take hold well (i think. )
Sure I'll find something one i get some research time. On my phone right now
But that was exactly what i was referring to. I think that project can be helpful for on boarding new people, especially commentors (which i see being a huge benefit to the site)
Yes that is part of the initiative that @donkeypong and others were working on - if you look in the comments of the discussions in #til etc you will see that the comments are getting up-voted too.
I think the lack of discussion and commenting has been the biggest change since the peak. I think part of this is the falling price of Steemit combined with the perception that comments don't get rewarded.
Starting up vibrant discussions on controversial topics would be a great way to increase engagement. Even better if those topics of discussion were able to get prominence in google search results. That way people would get introduced to Steemit without even realising what it is.
Are there any specific topics that spring immediately to mind and would fit into this definition?
Imo the big hurdle right now is tapping into people's motivation/passion. The generic user (again imo) has a certain learning curve to fight through that most are adverse to having to deal with. So right now I focus more on things that will get these prospective users to get through this, whether it be something they are angry about (which we saw work in the latest election), feel they are impactfully helping with or a way they directly benefit (like via a payout or lottery type reward.)
I will say that the bulk of what is currently in development (medium like editor, private messaging, busy.org, pushing steemit content to external sites with the upvote button such as beyondbitcoin.io, etc.) will help immensely on this front...so please don't take this as a knock on the site, just a fact of where we currently are.
To me our current focus is facebook, reddit, maybe youtube users which have already gotten used to a system. Having many of the shadowbans in place on these other sites makes it difficult to directly get in touch with those users in a low cost way.
I think the paid to blog aspect is somewhat of the impediment we run into, with many people being uncomfortable or viewing it as 'too good to be true' situation. Focusing on the community or anti-censorship side of where my mind has been going lately. This could also include a call for 'whats your personal value' posts or show me something culturally unique (like a lion outside a burger king.)
Now I'm just babbling, I'll think this all over and get something more concise in the next day or two. :)
Great points. There is a whole week so take your time. The intention of having the competition is just starting the process of thinking about things.
I don't have anything to yet... (maybe never.... :P ) but just wanted to say good idea/initiative, let's see what people think of. I reblogged the post. Peace.
Thanks mate. Even if you don't have an idea yourself you can give your valuable opinion on other people's ideas:)
Funding selected projects from arts, media and communications students.
To attract young content creators interested in cryptocurrency Steem could select and suport projects from students of arts, media and communications colleges. The projects ideas could be posted on Steemit with a specific tag and the winners receive Steem and/or services and tools needed.
Offer fan itens with Steem prices to sell.
To attract fans and enthusiasts Steemit could offer itens like memorabilia, jerseys, souvenirs, etc, with Steem prices only. The itens could be offered in an auction system, stimulating competition and identifying the most wanted products.
Suggesting a new category "SHOP" to buy and sell using Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars. https://steemit.com/trending/shop
How would this be different from Peerhub?
ReSteemed.
I have a couple of ideas:
using https://bitly.com/ to shorten and disguise the URL to prevent Facebook's shadow blocking of everything Steemit (not 100% certain it will work, but it's worth a try).
Putting the Steemit links on every profile I have - including Twitter, Facebook, my Blog and on my Amazon page.
Yes I have been trying that too. We will need to see if it works.
Yes that would help a lot. I think people are time constrained so tend to either forget that they can or just don't have time. Somebody else suggested that maybe we have a day where we all as a community just make a push on other social media - might make an impact in addition to the individual shares.
There's also Thunderclap - combined with that idea of everyone clubbing together to make one solid push at the same time may make a dent.
I think I have heard of that before. Will need to check it out again.
Hello @thecryptofiend, this is my contribution to your challenge https://steemit.com/ideasfactory/@charles-d/steem-viral-or-steem-city-few-ideas-for-steemit-x-prize
Hope you will find it interesting :)
Thanks I will take a look when I have a moment:)
Offer exclusive itens to buy with Steem.
If there are any columnists and authors writing content about cryptocurrency they would be in Steemit too, if not to blog, to test and evaluate at least. To attract them Steemit could create and offer personalized itens like portraits, 3d printed action figures, illustrated t-shirts, favorite foods, etc, with Steem prices only.
That would be great but it requires some kind of exclusivity deal between Steemit and a retailer/manufacturer.
The product could be made by an artist or artisan. A painted portrait or cartoon of the target columnist for example. The same for t-shirts or 3D printed objects, wich requires a 3D modeling professional.
Cool. Do you have someone in mind? A community based initiative would be great.
I think could be famous book authors like Dan Tapscott and Melanie Swan or even bloggers like Amelia Tomasicchio... It drives me to another idea: Steemit Verified Accounts...
Customized landing pages by target categories or specific news coverage.
Set special and visually actractive pages like food.steemit.com, photography.steemit.com or refugeecrisis.stemit.com (steemit.com/food, steemit.com/photography... as well) with aggregated Steemit posts (new, hot, trending, etc) and banners promoting Steemit. Create campaigns to promote each page for the public it would interest.
Good idea but I think that would require platform changes.
An option could be creating another url, like steemspeak.com did, perhaps using an Steemit for Wordpress plugin or something like that.
OK. So basically creating new web pages and populating them with content using the Steem blockchain? Very clever and it should be feasible, though I'm no expert.
Article recomendation exchange platform.
Similar to Outbrain and Taboola but promoting Steemit posts in Steemit blogs or even embedded in other sites or blog platforms. The publishers could be rewarded with Steem.
Interesting. Thank you.
I made a whole post as my own response to this post lol..
https://steemit.com/juststeemit/@kevinwong/just-steem-it-perfecting-the-pitch-with-minimalism
Thanks. I will check it out when I have a moment:)
The best way to get more users to join is to diversify the different resources they can use to post. (Add video editors, music programs, games using Steem as an in game currency, etc).
I agree but obviously those things take time, money and actual development. I think they will come but just not in the near future.
To follow up on the idea using content censored elsewhere as a marketing pitch as a new comment thread.
I completely agree with @nxtblg that simply opening up the flood gates by saying 'Bring your censored content here' would more than likely cause issues, whether copyright concerns, hate speech, etc. There would be little benefit to causing DMCA problems for steemit as well as drawing in people who then just would find themselves flagged on here as well.
To keep things reeled in a bit, I think we can pick a few select topics with the 'disclaimer' of what will get you flagged (such as ad hominem attacks) with the goal of not only being a draw into Steemit (for the conversation) but also being able to 'train' some of these new users how to actually argue their points of view in a civil manner. To some degree we already saw this occur here on steemit on 'feminism and related power' from @veralynn. While there were things that were flag worthy, there was also great discussion with personal, logical backing.
Some topic ideas for this:
Non-Americans view of America (there are valid perceptions and arguments available without degenerating into hateful/violent speech, and honestly something I think is beneficial for both sides.)
Flat Earth theory (such as this video on bittube)
While not necessarily censored, we can also try to strike up the discussion on things like zero point energy or other more fringe theories.
Thoughts? or better topic ideas? Imo they have to be something that invokes people to state their point of view, but still have to do so in a rather civil manner.
Thanks for your fantastic response. Give me some time to think on it. I do really like the idea though.
This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.
Experimental Crowdsourced Steem Metrics Report for 19th November 2016 by @ontofractal
Just Steem It. (Perfecting the Pitch with Minimalism) by @kevinwong
Will you become one of my 100 best friends ? by @chrisaiki
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The Morning Task Manager - Posts That Pay You! by @taskmanager
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Thank you:)
I have an idea, we could have a drive to advertise on Craigslist in the gigs or jobs section but I don't know if we are able to do that. What do you think @thecryptofiend ? the prohibited section says
But I was thinking we could give it a try. This is a "job" and we need people to "work" in Steemit.
I think it would go against their terms according to the posting. Also what jobs are you looking to fill? I think even if it wasn't against their terms it might be considered misleading as there is no formal job.
True. I was thinking I could post a "bloggers wanted" on craigslist asking people to come to steemit and join. I took a look at the community section as well as the jobs section of CL its full of ads for apps, websites and some really weird stuff, so I was thinking, why not. I think it would be a great campaign to get the word out. I would even put up some of my own steem as a bounty for others to follow suit. So yes it would be misleading for a job so not in the jobs section. More like the general community section. If you dont approve I have another idea.
I don't know enough about using Craigslist to really say. Perhaps other Steemians can comment better than me on that. I don't think it is a bad idea though - it needs some discussion from those who are more knowledgeable. Please feel free to share your other idea too:) There is no rush.
Steemit is by far the best and most evolutionary/revolutionary social media platform in existance. Even when others follow (which they are sure to do),the standard has been set.
As many here also work to refine and update the platform, it can not be surpassed... we have a great community and Steeemit is already branded the platform.
I have already begun enrolling people on the platform with one successfull participant @rmach (so far), butIhave taken it anothe step further after viewing https://steemit.com/advertising/@beanz/using-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon-to-advertise-steemit so I decided to brand each image and have my site on Steemit host my share link to my steemit blog.
This Blog currently has over 5 million views for the year from these countries Trying my best, but more to come...I see where this thing is headed):
Sorry for the length... note image branding and share link for page image.
Thanks for sharing this but I'm not seeing the idea here?
Branding our work to lead toward Steemit... promotional and marketing the platform.
OK but I don't think that is a new idea. People have been doing that already. Also please edit you original reply to remove all the countries. You don't need to tell us each one or indeed list them all with each one on a single line. It makes it a lot harder to follow the comments.
Retracted
Thanks:)
No problem... you see I am not a computer or programming expert, but I do business in many countries with exposure... just thought I would try my best. After all it is eyes you need first,then you can educate the folks when they come, but if they don't see it, they wont.
No that's fine it is just the way comments display on Steemit can make it problematic scrolling a lot. It is a good idea and there have been other similar suggestions:)
Ok this idea isn't very well thought out as I should be sleeping right now.
But how about crowdfunding a touring steemfest bus (you never know someone may be able to donate/loan one to the cause) users can turn up if it's local, add their support.
if the users wont come to us lets take steem to them.
I'm sure you lovely lot can explore this idea more while i go count some sheep.
Lol. It is certainly original and creative. I need to think about it more plus it is late for me as well.
I'm sure i'll add more to add in the morning to.
OK. I'm going to listen to the Steemitalk Podcast in bed now:)
me to lol
I have an idea that I've been exploring, to the point where I'm about to teach myself the basic scripting languages (HTML5/CSS/JS & PHP):
There's a company called ClipBucket that offers an open-source "community edition" script for a Youtube clone Site: http://clipbucket.com/
They make their living by selling upgrade plugins,plus installation services. Their script is something like the paid script that BitTube uses.
How about I set up the open-source version of ClipBucket? Since the Community Edition code is open-source, it certainly can be forked & modified to accept STEEM as a tip currency or even as the currency for something like Patreon functionality.
Now...here's the downside. If you looked at the front page of BitTube, you'll get a good idea of what kind of folks have the greatest interest in a censorship-resistant video solution. Moreso, one with a STEEM- or cryptocurrency-based compensation or tipping scheme.
It's like the dark-market phenomenon. Just like the natural demand for transactional cryptocurrency comes from dark markets selling illegal goods, the natural demand for censorship-resistant compensation comes from people pushing "dark ideas." Ideas that normies would find offensive or even disturbing: the kind of ideas that would be likely downvoted and/or flagged by normies.
It wouldn't be good strategy to invite these people in, promising "Censorship-Resistant Compensation!!", only to see that the folks invited in get downvoted, flagged, or run out on a rail.
I'm willing to go ahead on this idea alone, with the Community edition of ClipBucket initially, and pay for the hosting and/or upgrades on my own. I can chalk up the cost as a hobby expense: my little bit to help out free expression. Since I've spent some time looking into this, I know what I'm in for.
But it's a different matter if I deliberately link it up to STEEM rather than to cryptocurrency: I'd involve you guys too.
I firmly believe that this way forward is a good idea, but we should think long and hard about the downside: the "dark ideas" downside. It's a viable business model - look at what being the "cesspool of the Internet" has done for 4Chan! - but it's a dirty business model too. Just like dark markets, from the perspective of a different kind of normie.
Feel free to comment on the above.
Thanks. It's a difficult issue and something for the community to decide. The question for me comes down to whether the content is illegal.
Anything that breaks laws is not only going to create bad PR but is likely to get the authorities cracking down on it and any prominent members of the community. The involvement of payments makes it even more likely.
We have already had DMCA issues and I suspect that such a platform will attract a lot of copyright infringement. Let us see what other community members think.
Good point about the DMCA issues. One of the drawbacks of a censorship-resistant platform is that it's difficult to "censor" when you're obliged to....
Exactly and the problem is that the authorities aren't very understanding of that fact!
Come with the techno-libertarian model of technology outpacing governments, I'm afraid. :)
You impress me every day)))
Thank you that is very kind. I am just trying to do my best to help expand Steemit:)
ONE WEEK?! AHHHHH! :)
Yes so people have plenty of time:)
Awesome!
Love your continued great works for our community!
ReSteemed!
Thanks so much for your support mate:)
I have some different ideas.
1 Start building grants on Steemit, for different purposes, and with different sizes. These grants would be crowfunded, and given out by a committe, or by voting, or both.
Examples of grants would be: Arts and culture, charity,(to organisations and persons in need).
And last but not least, basic income grants.
An idea related to this is crowdfunding by voting, the idea is to have something like a competion for the best ideas to crowdfund, and instead of crowdfunding many ideas, for this method you let the crowd decide, and you build a large pool over time, by donations and posting.
2 Steemit's versions of Patreon, where content creators can build an income by recurring donations.
Related to this is to create initiatives to make people start giving donations to people generously, and hopefully it all comes back to them.
3 an idea that is already on it's way, to attract chessplayers to steemit, by creating a pool for prices by posting on the account @chessmasters, the chess version of steemsports. Two chess teams have been created for this purpose, read about mine here
What most of these ideas have in common is that they increase rewards, and appeal to artists and creative people, as well as people in need.
4 Make a simple Fiat gateway by allowing users to buy accounts from Steemit.inc (or others) that are prefilled by an amount of SBD of your own choosing. The money can then be transferred to the main account of the user, and the account could be recycled by returning the master key after the transfer, and the master key is then changed.
5 Create badges that can actually increase your earnings if you reeceive them.
These badges should be for different things, like helping other users, or providing good ideas.
I like the idea about grants. It should be developed even if it doesn't get the X-prize :)
Thank you. I hope to get going soon with a campaign about it. I also talked to one of the lead developers of Stemit.inc about most of my ideas, and he liked it a lot, especially the one about the badges, although that a bit of a hard one to solve,technically.
Badges can be solved via UI. Of course, they are attractive because they bring gamification,fun, comparison and friendly rivalry to the system.
Grants are a bigger deal in my opinion. They bring good to grantees and their beneficiaries, after all.
I was seriously considering of making a charity campaign on Steemit for the H.O.P.E. Foundation. But when the Steem price started sinking and rewards rules changed ... it would be a waste of time.
With a purposely built grants platform and with soon to be effective changes collecting funds for charities and grants becomes viable again.
Excellent thinking, let's keep talk more about this later, maybe we can collaborate to make this happen.
Certainly. It's a deal :)
Badges would be a great psychological incentive and means of gamifying Steemit.
Some fantastic ideas - allow me some time to digest them. Thanks for contributing:) Am going to check out chessmasters now.
Last night we attended a seminar held by Coinspace. Seminar requires only one place, not too big, only with a piece of wallpaper, banner, mineral water and a projector, we can make the seminar by presenting a minimum of 50-100 people. I think it would work, one area of one seminar. 1-2 presenters to introduce steemit blog directly.
Good idea. I think it could also be used as an opportunity for contacting the press and getting coverage that way. My only concern would be the association of seminars and the like with pyramid schemes and time-shares.
It's about spreading the word with your existing Social Media Network. This is a great blog and thanks for sharing. Upvoted and shared on Twitter✔ for my followers to understand a little more about STEEMIT. Cheers. Stephen
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Thanks you are a helpful bot:)
Thanks Stephen. That is very kind of you. I would also appreciate your comments on the ideas as they come in if you have time:)
No problem. You are welcome. Will keep an eye out as they come in. Stephen
Thanks look forward to it:)
Don't worry. Healthy scepticism is necessary for a thoroughly vetted process. And yes, I strongly dislike Paypal too. Hopefully one day they'll be no more!
Thanks agreed:)
Not my wheelhouse. I'll help by commenting on other people's ideas though.
Fantastic:) All help is appreciated.
Hi Cryptofiend. My idea in short is to allow investment in Steem via Paypal. I realised this was necessary after struggling for over a day to try and get the hang of buying, holding and sending bitcoins. It's still in the early stages at present but I've come up with a way around the Paypal ability to reverse transactions after the fact. At the risk of breaking Steem etiquette (I've only been actively participating for a week!) here's my third post about which goes into a little more detail. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@nikflossus/3-bringing-paypal-into-the-mix-and-making-our-own-market
OK thanks:) An interesting idea. Let's see what others think of it.
Edit: according to @ontofractal (link) it would be contrary to their rules.
Where there's a will there's a way! Here's my reply to @ontofractal: Yep I was aware of that. That's why my plan has a solution. Paypal transfers are donated to Steem rather than exchanged. A donation is then very very very likely to be made in the opposite direction, perhaps from a separate account. Remember Paypal's preferences for making their platform profitable are not our sacrosanct rules. If we thought in those terms we'd still all be stuck on Facebook. All new markets begin like this. The key issue is refining the process to minimise risk.
The problem is that Paypal have a habit of banning people for infringing any of their rules. It is based on their interpretation - you would need someone willing to take that risk with their account.
Yep I'm hearing a lot about Paypal being like that. So we'd have to work out a way to not break their rules and still get what we want. This might involve adding extra steps to the chain of transfer. Paypal don't forbid people paying into their accounts and they cannot regualate where the money they handle ends up. So we would simply implement degrees of abstraction (in this case additional transfers outside of paypal) until we are in compliance. Once the process is in place and refined it would take minimal effort. And imagine how much more capital it could bring into Steem currency. I'll go into more detail in post #4
Yes I'm not shooting it down. We will just need to be careful so as not to get blacklisted. Hopefully one day services like Paypal will be replaced by bitcoin or even Steem Dollars so we won't have to jump trough those kind of hoops!