It was 7 months ago when I first had the idea
for the @steemholidays account.
I could feel a real diverse community
developing on Steemit with more and more
business owners creating accounts to offer
their products & services in exchange for
Steem & SBD, eliminating the need for using
an exchange to turn your Steem/SBD into BTC
before spending it on a dedicated payment
website.
Now the whole process could take
place on Steemit!
@steemshop
One month prior to this I started the
@steemshop account with the intention of
encouraging the buying and selling of
products & services (physical & digital) using
the Steem or SBD in our wallets.
Again, the idea was to keep the process as
simple as possible.
However...
The idea was a good one but there were so
many potential categories it quickly became
impossible to find what you were looking for
in this one account.
Consequently I created @steemshopbuy &
@steemshopsell to simplify the situation but
even this was not enough with the growing
number of products for sale (or being
searched for) popping up all over the world.
The Tagging Problem
In order to quickly find a specific item, the
sales posts absolutely had to be tagged in the
correct way.
Tags relating to the product or service were
essential and the tag #steemshop had to be
used to ensure I saw it and resteemed it into
the @steemshop account. Sounds simple
enough right? But unfortunately this didn't
happen in the way I expected. And the
'adverts' often didn't even list the prices or
show decent photos.
People needed constant assistance
and reminders...
Ultimately I didn't have the time or
manpower to promote the tagging system and
Steemshop account regularly enough for it to
take off. Many people did advertise their
products there and still do today, but there
have only been a few sales.
After three months of trying to find the best
system we ended up with a pretty complex
Phase 1 as you can see here.
But this clearly wasn't working.
BECAUSE SIMPLICITY IS ALWAYS BEST!
Why is @steemholidays more
simple? 🌅
In the case of a specific subject like holidays
one would simply use the search engine in
the following way to find hotels/hostels/B&Bs
in their desired location.
Assuming that the hotel owners were
creating their 'adverts' using the correct
tagging system, it would be simple to find
exactly what you were looking for.
The tagging system could be more
generalised too, for example (assuming the
tagging had been done correctly) one could
try the following words...
Now all we need are the venues!
Just a few weeks ago I started chatting with
@buttcoins who owns a hotel in Guatemala
and accepts payment in Steem. He stumbled
upon my dusty old account and has since
then re-invigorated me to find the best way
to make this work together as a team.
Please don't be put off by his username! His
work is outstanding. And you can see his
latest post HERE
He is not the first person I have met on
Steemit with an establishment willing to
accept Steem/SBD and like me, he believes
this could in time grow to be a wonderful
tool for us Steemit users. An incentive even
for resort owners to sign up and learn about
crypto.
Having a clear vision for this kind of
thing is essential.
@buttcoins and myself will continue to
discuss this idea till we can see clearly how
it will work.
He is connected to a network of resorts as am
I, and together we can potentially create a
very appealing selection of venues around
the world, all posted under the
@steemholidays banner, easily findable using
the correct tagging system.
The Steemshop Connection
The idea of selling holidays for Steem ties in
nicely with the Steemshop concept and I
hope holidays will now become a big part of
what we see for sale there.
What's the next step?
We are looking for resort owners interested
in joining Steemit to advertise and accept
payment in Steem or SBD. Perhaps you might
know of people who are connected to these
kind of establishments? Please help us by
getting this article out to them. Right now we
need all the help we can get.
What do we need from the venues?
Decent photos, basic details, location & the
price.
The price would still be listed in Dollars or
the currency of their choice and the STEEM
or SBD rate would have to be agreed upon at
the moment of exchange, going directly from
one Steemit account to another.
An escrow account?
The development of an escrow account could
potentially help build confidence in using
payment the system?
However, it didn't seem to help much with
@steemshop so perhaps it will simply be up
to personal preference and intuition? One
can always check up on a person/account by
reading their posts...
Rating System
In the end a rating system will be created, so
that the resorts which are most successful at
attracting Steemit customers, permitting them
to pay in STEEM or SBD will gain the right to
use stars in their titles. For example:
Taman Petanu Eco
Neightbourhood ✮✮✮
The more stars the resort gains, the more
confidence we will have to send our payment
(or deposit) before the date of the booking.
Creating the adverts
This is the tricky bit. Teaching the hotel
owners to set up and start using a Steemit
account will take some time & a fair bit of
effort. We all know this place can be a bit
complicated at first.
So, it would have to be done for them to
ensure continuity of style and correct use of
tags.
Perhaps a small fee could be agreed for this
service or even a free night at their venue?
Speed, simplicity and the sense of
community
The thing that made McDonalds different
from every other restaurant at that time was
the speed of the transaction between buyer
and seller. And to quote the recent film, they
recognised the power in promoting the idea
that ‘McDonalds is family’.
So... as a firmly established and quickly
growing community/family of Steemit users,
it seems logical to me this is the direction in
which we are headed.
With the help of this initiative, the process of
booking holidays using your hard earned Steem
& SBD is about to get a whole lot easier!
We appreciate all suggestions at this early
stage of re-development and look forward to
hearing the thoughts of the community as we
work now towards turning this dream into a
reality.
Those of you who are interested in becoming
part of the @steemholidays team please PM
me in steemit.chat
Who is @samstonehill ?
He was a London based filmmaker until he
sold everything and set out on a barefoot
journey around the world.
Currently based in Bali he travels with his
partner & two children. With no bank
account he has been living on STEEM &
crypto for over six months.
All content created for this account is
100% original (unless otherwise stated),
produced by @samstonehill who invites
you to use & share freely as you wish.
@samstonehill is the creator of:
@steemshop account where you can buy or
sell anything you like using your steemit
wallet SEE MORE
@steemmasters which provides FREE
TUTORIALS , personal training & resteeming
services. Website HERE
Contact me directly on steemit.chat if you want
to know more about this
@steemholidays which encourages resort
owners to offer holiday packages in Steem or
SBD
@steemtv which aims to provide the best in
decentralised films, exclusive to Steemit &
DTube
The dailyquotes tag initiative designed to
encourage steemians to share their most life
changing quotes with the community on a
daily basis.
The Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins
group on Facebook which seeks to help
newcomers make the transition from
Facebook to Steemit, providing them with
detailed notes and personal assistance with
their posts... resteeming them when he can.
Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted
for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma
@someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye
@krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank
@thecryptodrive @ura-soul @pharesim
Without them our beloved Steemship
would not fly.
Learn what this means HERE and place your
vote HERE
Seems like you have mulitple accounts. Are there any issues with having multiple steemit accounts?