A Story of Artistic Social Media Irritation:
Apologies in advance for my bad formatting, I'm new to Markdown Styling(or whatever the term is for it). Any tips in the comments are appreciated.
My name is Kevin. I'm a jack-of-all-trades creative who has spent the past ten years making music, poetry, and telling stories.
Until a few years ago, I was fully focused on the craft of my work, without doing anything to learn the business side of it. I wanted to be the type of artist whose work inspires people, and I have spent thousands of hours on my creative skills to do this.
I've made five albums of original music, over forty short films, written hundreds of poems, and I recently published my first novel. Much of this I have pulled down in order to re-release it this year in a concerted effort to make the final push to becoming a self-sustaining artist(and I hope it works...)
The Problem: The marketing side of art has always been a struggle for me. I have felt utterly dejected spending hundreds of hours on social media content and profiles without receiving any return for my work from those companies.
After creating 40 videos for YouTube last year, my content was demonetized for an arbitrary reason. No surprise, I couldn't reach a rational human being to dispute the claim, and the amount of money they took from my account was so small, it wasn't even worth fighting it.
Then earlier this year, as I was scheduling 40+ YouTube videos for re-release alongside my novel and an album I just finished, YouTube changed their monetization policy and my 180 subscribers suddenly weren't enough to validate me as a worthwhile creator on YouTube.
The Irritation: This is how my Social Media existence has panned out over the past five years:
Facebook: Hundreds of hours creating content, over $50 spent on marketing: $0 received
YouTube: Hundreds of hours creating content, over $500 spent on marketing: $0 received
The frustration of these massive companies not respecting the very content which makes their platforms valuable has been a nagging problem of mine.
So much so, that I decided to delete my Facebook several years ago, and I have stalled my engagement on YouTube.
At one point I considered completely changing gears to go back to school and become a lawyer for the purpose of launching a class action lawsuit for the unethical copyright practices of one of these companies. I'm glad I didn't. I don't think it's the best use of my skills.
The Resolution: Steemit, the possible solution to my social media blues.
About a month ago, I was playing a gig at the Boulder Film Festival and someone I met there told me about Steemit.
I immediately thought it was an interesting idea and I've spent the last month researching this platform.
I'm cautiously optimistic about Steemit. I think it could completely change the way social media operates and I'm excited to be a part of the experiment.
I'll need to spend a bunch of time on some type of social media platform to promote my content coming out this year, so I can either yell into the sound and fury of Facebook and YouTube like everyone else without much hope for any return, or I can put my effort into Steemit and (at the very least) connect with some forward-thinking people interested in seeing the current social media situation solved.
This will be the first post of many I make on Steemit, and I'm excited to get started.
I'm hoping this platform allows me to make connections with a great forward-thinking community that values good work.
Send me a message, comment, or follow me :)
-Kevin
P.S. The reason my username is TheDreamFlow, is because that's the name of the creative collective I'm starting in order to promote my own work and eventually bring other artists into the fold. https://thedreamflow.com/
I'll be writing much of the content on The Dream Flow's feed, but I will also be including a great group of creatives I work with. Each post will include the name of the author of the content, but for a while it will just be my work.
Hello welcome to steem Kevin
Thanks @cigarguy glad to be here :)
Hi :D welcome to Steemit. Have a good time... Need help?
If you wish to join the biggest challenge ever on Steemit, feel free to check my post
https://steemit.com/steemschools/@whack.science/steem-schools-ultimate-challenge-or-5000-sbd-prize-or-biggest-challenge-on-steemit
If you need help, join our Discord channel
https://discord.gg/5RJMdDh
Have a great day! Much love, Luka.
Thanks Luka!
No problem :) See you there! This is unique chance! Grab it!
Will do :)
Welcome to Steemit @thedreamflow!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?
Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit be truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman
Thanks @introbot!
Welcome @thedreamflow
Thanks @mmo-mmo glad to be here
Welcome kevin
Your #introduceyourself blog is very nice.
Thats what its All about on this platform and this blockchain. Blogging is it, blog on and you Will be succesfull! 🤛 and You Will earn money. 💴💸💰be carefull with all your passwords !! Never give that up!
For very good safety tips visit https://steemit.com/steem/@verhp11/safety-first-first-aid-kit-for-steemians-who-are-just-beginning-this-great-journey from Our fellow steemy @verhp11
I blog every day and love it!❤️
Helpfull is the Steemify App , its Free in the Appstore go cheque it out. And good luck steeming and I Will See you around🍀
Greetings from Brittandjosie - Holland
Thanks for the tip Brittandjosie :)
Nice Post, I am also new to Steemit and want to connect with new like-minded people. I have started a campaign so we both can get more followers.
Follow/Follow campaign is a fun way to gain more followers on Steemit. This is a cool idea to get more followers - comment on the post (https://steemit.com/follow/@sagarraj1/follow-follow-campaign) and I will follow you on Steemit if you follow me.
Thanks @Sagarraj1, I'm not interested in follows for follows just because I want to build my follower base with people who are actually interested in my work, but I upvoted your comment and I hope you stay in touch :)
Welcome to the platform thedreamflow! Explore and enjoy it :)
Thanks @lopezdacruz really excited to be getting started :)
Welcome to steemit @thedreamflow. Join @minnowsupport project for more help. Checkout @helpie and @qurator projects.
Send SBD/STEEM to @treeplanter to plant trees and get an get an upvote in exchange of your donation (Min 0.01 SDB)
Upvote this comment to keep helping more new steemians
Send SBD/STEEM to @tuanis in exchange of an upvote and support this project, follow for random votes.
@tuanis just joined @minnowsupport and thanks so much for introducing me to @treeplanter I love that steemit account :)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by thedreamflow from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Hey Kevin! Looking forward to seeing what kind of art you have to share with us! May we point you in the direction of checking out @slothicorn, it is an art initiative right here on Steem that might prove to be a lot of what you are working toward!
You've been featured in The Fresh Five!
It's a daily post designed to help introduce brand new Steemians to the community.
We're all here to help you find new friends and answer any questions you might have.
Here is the link, come say hello:
https://steemit.com/fresh5/@thefreshfive/the-fresh-five-for-wednesday-3-21-18-new-steemians-to-get-to-know
We have a new competition at the moment too where you can win a Steem Power Delegation by helping us find other new Steemians like yourself!. Here are the details:
https://steemit.com/fresh5/@mikepm74/fresh-five-curation-for-delegation-issue-1-with-our-first-three-delegation-rewards
Welcome to Steem!
Thanks @thefreshfive I appreciate the intro :)
It's been a journey for so many, to have their voices heard and their art seen. Hopefully Steemit will be the antidote for that.
Welcome to the community!
Thanks @bananamemos glad to be here :)
Welcome to Steemit, and thanks for the upvote on one of my recent posts. I appreciate it! I thought I'd check out what you have going on here and am pleased to see someone else who values writing and poetry. Although I don't do a lot of writing I try my best to encourage others by lending my support and attention to quality work.
I think you came to the right place to have your work appreciated with hopefully some lucrative rewards for the reward pool. I know how difficult it can be for new Steemians and it is often discouraging for some of us who post and receive little to no acknowledgement. I wish you the best!!