A year ago I wrote here on Steemit about how people were bemoaning the (then 4 week) reward cutoff point on Steemit, and how content producers might embrace other forms of revenue generation, such as advertising. Today I want to revisit the subject and get a feel for what kind of sentiment is out there on the matter.
A Tried & Tested Paradigm
Before Steemit ever came along, anyone could set up a blog and become a "content marketer", earning money from banner adverts or (more discreetly) contextual links placed in or around their content. Doing this successfully meant learning your way around web design, SEO and the various affiliate and advert networks. An arms race ensued as more websites sprang up using this model, and Google scrambled to keep spam off the top of their results pages. They did a pretty good job too, and today the best way to make money through a "content website" is by ranking well with Google. To do that, your content needs to have a certain level of freshness, originality, and your site needs to have a certain reputation. The appeal of this model of course, is passive income. Payment comes after the work is done, often in a slow, long-term trickle.
Fast Forward
The Steemit model of course changes things, removing adverts and SEO, and bringing audience and content creator together in a unique way. Fantastic as this is, most posts go unread within Steemit after a couple of hours, and we currently have no way to reward content that has long term value. Imagine, Steemit is getting thousands of organic hits every day from Google, and none of that traffic is being monetized. You may love the idea of Steemit being "ad free" as a consumer, but why would a content creator go to the effort of crafting a timeless masterpiece when it only has a window of one week (realistically a couple of hours) to earn them money.
Win Win
The inadequacy of Steemits payout time frame is a controversy that hasn't gone away. Recently it has been a point of great discussion on Steem Speak chat and people have been thrashing out ideas about ways to improve the situation. I was overjoyed to read news of @steemads, the first and likely not the last unofficial Steem advert initiative. How it all comes together, and how it is received remains to be seen, but I commend @inertia and @fyrstikken for their efforts. I imagine these "Steem ads" won't bother most Steemians because cleverly, the adverts will not appear until around the 7 day mark, by which time most traffic on a post will likely come from Google. This benefits both the blogger and the audience. Of course, there are already other ways to earn residual rewards, essentially using the traditional content website model and placing affiliate links within your text. I've already seen some high profile Steemians doing this, often in a wonderfully subtle way. I've read some rather shrill responses to the concept of advertising on Steemit and I wonder if they have even noticed that it's already here. Advertising doesn't have to be spammy, gaudy and conspicuous. It would be in nobodys interest to do it that way.
Why am I in favor of advertising on Steemit?
Incentive. This is why I think the emergence of advertising on Steemit will be a good thing. The promise of longer term reward will encourage far better content to be produced. The promise of rewards originating from outside the Steemit audience will also encourage far more diverse content. There is a reason Crypto News and Photography are so popular on Steemit. We're all geeks. In time, with the emergence of advertising, and indeed new community features, I hope to see Steemit become the content powerhouse it deserves to be - pet keeping, weddings, sailing, careers, interiors, car maintenance, etc .. This will be healthy for Steemit and will allow it to become the portal, the ecosystem, it deserves to be.
Over To You
I would really like to open up some discussion on this subject. While I'm not affiliated with any advertising initiative, I'm really excited by the prospect of residual income through advertising, especially when it can be done in a targeted, but non-obtrusive way. Please let me know your thoughts.
Specifically, I'd like to ask you, as both a consumer and a content creator:
- Are you in generally favor or against advertising/sponsorship/affiliation on Steemit?
- Would it matter to you if it was graphical or based in text?
- Should it preferably be an integral part of the STEEM blockchain, or left to third parties?
- What level of advertising would make you stop following someone?
- What would encourage or discourage you from placing some form of adverts in your own content?
- How do you think it might influence the price of STEEM?
Really good topic, and certainly one you're a lot more knowledgeable about than myself. Personally, I'm put off by any advertising that interrupts my browsing. I won't watch a video on youtube if it insists I wait and watch an ad for 5 seconds. Ditto Fstoppers style where they practically kidnap your screen while you frantically search for the hidden "x" to close the ad. On steemit, ads on days 3 - 7, no issue, but ads that interrupt the feed would be a problem, for me at least. That said, I'm more a consumer than creator - I'm sure bloggers who have any reliance on steemit income would strongly swing in the other direction.
Aye it's a tricky one. As far as looking after regular Steemit users go though, I do like the idea of the ads not appearing until the article is already 7 days old.
Sounds like a really great idea. Also being new here, I have noticed there is an enormous "off balance" of articles related to just Crypto and Photography. I am a content producer but enjoy writing about other topics including health and fitness and making money online and Entrepreneurship. It just blows my mind we do not have a Tag for Entrepreneurship and Internet Marketing ?? What's up with that ? Am I missing something ? Anyway, having subtle and tactful Ad for Posts over 7 days old I think will improve the Quality of content here. And attract bigger fish who want to concentrate on producing long lasting quality Material :)
one or two adverts i think is no problem but please not one million like youtube!!!!
No advertising. Against!
Steemit has already gone down a long and slippery slope with SP delegation, with this being abused repeatedly for profit, we now have vote selling on top of that, and from some people who want to be witnesses.
I suggest winding back the changes to the old payouts of 7 days and 30 days. Old content will have more value and life then.
People can already use third party advertisers to place ads in their Steemit posts. I've already seen it on some of the NSFW posts, for research purposes only, of course. Are you against an official Steemit advertising mechanism, as opposed to people using third party techniques, or just all/any adverts on Steemit in general?
Against all adverts! There is nothing I hate more then trying to read some content and having a spammy advert take over my whole screen. Many of the major publishing companies in the United States are having problems vetting ads that do precisely this.
https://www.wired.com/story/pop-up-mobile-ads-surge-as-sites-scramble-to-stop-them/
If advertisements are added to steemit what is to prevent someone from making malicous code that snags your wallet password and hiding it under an advert? I came to steem for content not ads!
Realistically speaking, I think we need ads. We can't sustain this growth without real revenue from mainstream adoption. You can hold your ideology only as long as you get fed. I can see that popup and forced watch ads are shit but you can use it like Quora or any blog sites. Promoting products by giving review/recommendation is a kind of advertisement.
Not all ads are bad. How we use them to their full extend without being greedy is the key. I don't see how we could stay separately from mass adoption and still expect to overturn the current digital tyrants that are Google/Youtube and Facebook. I think a compromise between what we want and what they want would be better for us as we cement our place in the social network ladder.
I'm against any advertising. That's what makes Steemit unique.
As for Steemit raising revenue, it is its own source of revenue. What is needed could be raised from the same source that pays the witnesses.
Sure, NSFW research only, I believe you. ;-)
Couldn't disagree with you more!
Have you used Twitter or Instagram lately? Every 2/3 post on the feed is advertising.
Nowadays the only guarantee is death, taxes and advertising.
Yes, if it's sustainable, maybe Steemit would be better remaining ad-free.
Great post dude. I'd be lost on this site without the insight you've given.
Google is like FB. First the investors and CEOs get paid, then employees and leftover is for advertisers and users. Thatβs what makes steemit so unique, its almost as every steemien is a business owner. There is so much opportunities, it only depends if people take advantage of it.
Now FB is trying to find a way to slow down Steemit, there is a lot they can do, but if we donβt let them and if we stick with Steemit there is not much they can do.
Great post!
Resteemed!
Cheers man!
win win situation for all steemit is great this will make it more interesting
I'm too new to the concept of steemit to provide anything particularly insightful, but as a content consumer ads don't bother me as long as I trust the integrity of the poster. As long as the content creator has my trust and interest, they're simply a non-issue for me.
Yeah, there's a huge range of approaches and some are far more invasive than others. It's definitely possible to do it in a way that won't bother people too much. I guess the worry is the slippery slope effect. We all know sites/apps whose advertising got increasingly invasive.
Definitely, and the process of natural selection usually rears its head in circumstances like that. As long as the control of the type and amount of ads are dictated by individual users as opposed to the steemit platform, I think it's a great idea.
I'm still opposed to seeing any advertizing on Steemit as a default. People can use 3rd party things like what you mentioned, but I would like to control the exact amount of ads on my posts (which would likely be zero).
Perhaps an alternative would be a tip button or some form of vote that pays out per week/month from a portion of the Steemit reward pool that would be specifically set aside for that.
We can already send tips, the UI is a bit awkward right now for that but I think it could work well:
a button that if pressed,
gets a little pop up dialog "tip amount ___ to user"
input your amount, click send.
It's not passive but I don't think it would be too difficult to add that.
thats very wise and thankful about steemit, and somehow we manage to get entrance here for the next generation level and we keep looking for ahead.
it will be really cool and will drive more and more people on the platform good idea
Advertising will give new wings to steemit to top the game
i am in its favor too would be great to implement
The idea of ads around day 7 sounds fantastic. I'm too bothered about the short lifespan of posts.