Blog - Vote - Earn:
For a long time this has been the anthem for Steemit promotions across the globe. After I learned about Steemit in January from my friend @joshuaetim, I took to the internet to get more information about Steemit, the Blog-Vote-Earn slogan was plastered all over the web and that brought my first two questions: what if I am not a blogger? If I'm actually earning how much should I expect at the end of the month and what happens when I can't get these earnings?
Over the last four months I have been looking deeply at these words and the more I look at them, the more I see it as a wrong approach to Steem promotion. So when I was considering some ideas to work on with @chiama on WAFRO media it occurred to me that I have to talk about the faults and limitations from the above slogan.
If we are to fully grasp the faults in our promotion I think we'll have to answer some questions like
Is Steemit limited to blogging?
Is upvoting the true and only form of community engagement?
Do we have investors in mind with our promotions or are we just seeking people who are looking at getting some quick bucks from the internet?
The entitlement mentality: do the community owe us anything? Are we entitle to any form of earning?
There are many questions as above which we must answer for those who wish to promote the platform to the public. As we get ready for HF20 which will open the doors to a flood of new users, some of these issues have to be addressed before we head back into the field for evangelism.
Blog: Well, since anything we do on Steemit will have to be presented to the community in form of a content (text, art, photo or video), we can consider Steemit as a blogging site. But lately I have talked about Steemit as a platform where you can pitch your dreams on. Steemit (or say Steem) is beyond the traditional blogging platforms we know. To us who are already established in the system, it's easier for us to know how much Steem can do but how do you get a new user who believes he/she isn't a good blogger to know that he can do more on the platform. On Steem, you can do anything and be anything. There are those who are solely into trading, singing, building communities, charity fundraising etc. Lately I have been addicted to the best nonsense I have come across in my entire life from the blog of @nonameslefttouse. He's been so creative and consistent in writing nothing that my idea about nonsense and sense has changed a lot. I never knew that people can be creative in writing nothing, but he's done it in such a way I look forward to his creative nothing everyday. I call that style.
I was speaking with @godsnana yesterday and I asked her why she's not been active online for the last three months. She responded that she isn't a good blogger and isn't really sure of what to post.
- But you are a good Singer with the voice of an angel, why don't you sing and post your music through Dtube, dlive or dsound? I asked.
To my surprised, she responded that she never knew that it was possible to do that and if the community would encourage such.
So, you see? The idea of Steemit as a blogging site has discouraged a lot of talents from the platform. It takes others many months of trial and error to find a niche for themselves. I believe we would achieve a lot more if we remove from our promotions the idea of Steem being solely a blogging platform.
Next is the issue of upvotes. Have you seen why people run around everywhere looking for upvotes?
Ass kissing everywhere, begging and spamming everyone with links? That's because we told them in the beginning that upvotes is the only form of community engagement. I do tell my friends that upvotes isn't everything.
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Many people don't know that it is necessary to build relationships and a support base (not a follow for follow kind of relationship). Content quality means nothing to many, and when they fail to get the upvotes they resort to bidbots, voting circle, vote selling/buying etc. I do believe that we need to do a lot more in informing people that upvotes isn't the only form of community engagement.
And finally Earning!!
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Are we entitle to anything on Steemit? The short answer is no. Then why do we mention the word earning? On Steemit you are rewarded by the community for your content if the community believes in your work. On Steemit, your work has no intrinsic value. The only value your work posses is that which the community allocate to it. So people should learn to expect nothing from their post and if the community reward you for your contents then be glad for what ever you get from it.
Most of us have been posting on Facebook, YouTube and the likes for years. We are still posting till today without ever getting a single monetary value from those platforms. But these are the same people shouting and crying that Steemit isn't fair. People talk about how theii high quality posts are not getting the reward it deserves. Well, maybe it's because I post rubbish that's why I never complain that my posts are not earning as much as they deserve.
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I read about the entitlement mentality from a post by @tarazkp some months ago. I don't seem to find the post to share it here. But that post came early enough in my Steemit journey that I learned in time not to hold any expectations from my work here.
Also, it looks like most people are just here to grab as much as they can and withdraw it all out of the system. It's surprising to see people powering down almost anytime they reach an sp as little as 100-200sp. With the earning mentality we preached, it looks like we don't seek for those who would invest as little as their rewarded sp for the long term. For Steemit/Steem to progress, we must be prepared to preach the idea of investment over the thought of earnings to people. Be clear to let people know that your message isn't an investment advice but if we believe in the system, we should invest as much as we can to the progress/sustainability of the platform.
So brethren, I'll sure continue some other time on this topic. For now, since we've seen that the Blog-Vote-Earn message has failed us, we need to look for something that will be a better promotional message for Steemit.
I'll give 5sbd for the best suggestion on a new promotional message for Steemit/Steem. All entries should be made as a comment to this post. One entry shall be considered per user, if you submit more than one, only your last entry will be considered. I'll accept entries made before this post payout and I'll choose one winner for 5sbd prize.
Keep your entries simple. You can use this format as a guide.
Accepted entries Vs unaccepted entries
Come post and dance: accepted
Debarment centrifugal amoeba: unaccepted
Make cucumber great again: accepted
zodiacal Transmission Neanimorphic flagitation: very very unaccepted.
I hope you get the idea, make it very simple. Let's brainstorm and catch some fun.
First of all, a big thanks to you @lordjames for the wonderful post!
Well, the idea of BLOG. VOTE. EARN is actually doing more harm than good to the ecosystem. I and many others were invited to steemit on this Slogan.
Unfortunately, only 2% of us are actually active now. The remaining 98% left because they either can't blog or earn.
My Proposed Approach:
Why don't we focus on community engagement and long-term economic value of the platform as a mantra when preaching steemit.
The resulting effects of these proposed act is that it'll redesigned the mentality of self entitlement and equally inculcate a long lasting relationship building on steemit.
That is, people will be more interesting in creating and following a niche that interests them while having a mindset of contributing 100% to build a long-term relationship and economic benefits.
I believe that meaningful promotional campaign messages can be culled out on the above stated guides. Well how about; CREATE. BUILD. GROW?
This is my input and thank you for reading through it.
REX.
Everything said is very true but many are unaware of this as they say
Truly, I'm inspired by this write-up. You've opened new ways and new opportunity for a lot of persons to pitch their dreams without necessarily blogging. I love the fact that we're looking outside the box of the usual slogan; blog-vote-earn which had limited a whole lot of people. There is a place for everyone in the steem kingdom. Thanks @lordjames. Here's My entry for the supposed new slogan for steemit :
Well-done @lordjames, I reason with you, if I may ask, is facebook giving anything? No, so why steemians always go after earning? Let see steemit as we are in facebook and be expecting nothing from them. Let see earnings as plus, try and post good contents and see if people will appreciate it.
Anyway my suggestion for steemit promotion message is:
Come, blog, and improve yourself
If you keep writing good contents everyday, am telling you, you are helping yourself, because in the process, your writing skills is improving, if you bring whatever you are doing to steemit then you keep improving on it, because the more you practice is the more you improve.
So I suggest:
Come, blog, and improve yourself
Intriguing...
Stay for the community...Hit and run doesn't make one hit the big hit durably
Steem is beyond blogging like you mention
I like to state how @jrcornel distinguished Steem and Steemit
This disparity has caused some persons to believe Steem is basically all about hustling for the rewards in upvotes which isn't
Promoters seem to popularize just the Steem blockchain ignoring the fact that other content creators aside writing is welcome.
There is more in the Steem blockchain. Dtube, dsound and lots of Steem vendors are yet to be fully utilized. We all cannot write
Steem is a golden opportunity to pitch that long found dream to the world and angel investors
Well said @mickyscofield
in fact I am also not good at writing, but through this steemit I started to learn to write. steemit has changed my world😊😊
Congratulations, I love your testimony. Do always aim to do better.
I keep trying to be the best in writing, please guidance my frend😊😊😊
@lordjames you've spoken well, the slogan don't fit it.
Rather I would have prefer it to be..
*Show your talent and skills, improve on it, work hard and earn."
We show what we are good at because steemit is very versatile that it accept all . If you are good at singing show us.
Improve on it by reaching higher keys and notes. Then work hard. Working hard here means giving steemit your best, engage in competition, socialize and interact with people.
Bear in mind nothing good comes easy.
Then finally earn.
Your hardwork will speak you.
Steemit earn-it Love-it
Show what you are made of and be fulfilled.
Just like it's been mentioned, much concentration on earning is a good distraction from bringing the best in anything. Let's make life out of what we are made of not what we want to make out of it.
It is my hope that today has a huge positive impact in whoever reads..thanks for bringing this to our notice @lordjames
At the beginning you will not get many upvotes you have to keep calm and post good quality posts
You don't have to use any kinds of bots and anything
Just do your work perfectly and one day you will be successful on this platform
Well, I do not dictate how people wishes to use their stake. I do not patronize bidbots, but thats my decision and others might not feel the same. Thanks for your input.
Steemit is not actually about posting, but the reality behind your post. How do you evaluate your post? Do you really like or admire what you write? These questions should always be on our back.
It's best you find your niche, where you are going to be best at.
I'm new on steem and find all those things that you said, true! Keep up the good work. @lordjames
Thank you do much for this post @lordjames
Yeah! you are right upvoting doesn't create a community engagement .
your writing very well
wavy🌊
Nice bro, it's very informative post. Thanks @lordjames
@edibobo to me, I would say you ain't much of a newbie. You joined December.
Don't request, your hard work will do the talking.
Steemit is show your talent, better it, work hard, and earn.And sorry to say, if you had read @lordjames post very well and digest it, then you would have known that this comment you put on is one of problems here on steemit.
Also have checked your blog and I would say you kinda have somethings to learn like tagging.
You don't use the right tags. You can't blog about food and put a tears drop tag. It doesn't go that way.
Also you should try to avoid by been visited by cheetah. It isn't a good thing.
It might get you to be flagged, and your reputation will decrease.
Try posting quality content.
Your posts speaks for you. It does the talking.
Steemjet has a lot of people too aiming for the same position you want too. So you have to put in your best. Give in all you got because you are not the only one aiming for that too.
You can asked the person who introduced you to steemit to help you out, or anyone you know that can help too. Even you can check on You-tube for videos on steemit.
@uche-nna you are such a genius. You just nailed it. @lordjames in its post said he joined in January and that can be considered as new user too to an extent
Lol..
Thanks..
Yeah, am really inspired by @lordjames story. It keeps me going, making me to see a reason why I should not give up.
Thanks sir...
I really appreciate the advise... I will do exactly as you said.
For the tagging sir please can you help out with that? Thanks
@lordjames
I read your post from beginning to end and I must say that I'm totally in awe of your constructivity in addressing a major and vital problem that will most likely kill the main purpose of this community.
When I was first introduced to steemit, they told me this is a platform like Instagram and Facebook, except that I will earn money instead of the likes I was aiming at in these other platforms. I'm a singer, so the first few weeks of joining steemit, my aim was at competing in the open mic competition, not because I loved to sing, but because I will get paid if I won. Although the fact that I can't play a musical instrument eventually limitated my participating, I already was willing to stop trying after not getting the wins I joined in to get.
Now let's be honest with ourselves. Nobody does anything without a form little of distraction which in the end turns out to be their focus or goal.
For instance, I'm a mechanical engineering student. I don't really like school per say. But I will still read books. Not because I want to have knowledge, but because I want good grades. Why do I want good grades? So that I can be employable. And when its not just good grades that will get me employment, I try to get the actual knowledge. Why do I even need a job, because I need money. So when I want to sustain the money I earn, I work hard. Maybe I need more money, I work harder at my job. Now in the process of working harder, I will probably have been able to impress my superiors, delivered better service to humanity, and even earned the respect of coworkers, but that was never my aim. I always wanted the money.
Now this analogy may not be true for everyone, you'd agree with me that this works for over 80% of people that end up on steemit. They want to earn. And they want to earn easy. They will like to see their efforts pay off, and that's what will keep them in. So it is safe to say that the Blog, Vote Earn anthem cannot be just thrown away. To be honest that's the only way to make people join the community in the first place and do things on it. Else they will rather be on Facebook and do things for fun.
It took me till January to finally make a post on steemit, and 4 more months to know I can sing everyday and post. When I started singing regularly, I withdrew every reward I earned as soon as I claimed it. I needed to flex and enjoy. It took me a few days after to figure that I could actually save this money and attempt to use it to improve what I give the community. So now I sing everyday for a purpose: To earn enough money to buy me studio equipments and cameras so as to post better content, which ofcourse will mean me earning more money. The only other way I can get these things is if I end up requesting publicly. And whether I like it or not, the fact that I sing everyday because I want to save up for my future equipments is actually a way of me investing into the community, but really, it wasn't really my plan. I don't know of you get the point I'm trying to make.
So if we're aiming at get people to actually invest on steemit. If we're aimed at having as much steemit users as the accounts are, we should be ready to device means to entice people into this community. The people that introduced us told us we get paid for the same content we put on Instagram that earns us nothing. We should on the other hand develop this concept, and be able to make people work hard without them knowing it, giving them that little distraction. We can't just stop the idea of "Blog, Vote, Earn." That is why we're hear in the first place.
Personally what I do tell my friends when asking them to join is to google about everything that they want to do on steemit. You want to post on dsound, google how to do it. You write songs and you want to make money from it, google how others have done it. Find the right tags for the post you have in mind. Everything is possible in here. You don't get money the first time, try again, do it better than before. What worked for someone may not work for you, so be innovative.
Feel free to read it in your spare time.I know you said to be simple, I've probably written enough to land me an A if it was a high school essay, lol. But I'm glad you raised this issue. And I actually now follow the writer you mentioned, @NoNameLeftToUse. He's writing is amazing. I once wrote a post on possible means to engage people in the steemit community, and I included a few of my achievements here on steemit as well.
And I will love to continue this sort of conversations with you. You obviously are a very bright mind and I will love to have you as a friend. I will like to send you my discord if thats okay by you.
Cheers @lordjames