Your voice is worth something. But for how long? I've read some people bemoan the 4 week reward cutoff here, and can understand their frustrations.
Considering how much traffic some pages will get from Google, long after they were created, something should perhaps be done to reward contributors in the longer term. But it might not need to come from the platform. The community itself could decide to embrace the evils of ADVERTISING!
One solution which contributors could take into their own hands, would be to place affiliate adverts within their own content. A dedicated Steemit orientated affiliate network might even emerge in time. I've already seen some affiliate links here on Steemit, and as long as they are used in moderation, (and they are usually declared) they have so far not been met with any resistance. Affiliate links, be they in text form or using dynamic graphics, are often (and ideally) relevant to the content, so you might see an advert for camera lenses on a blog about photography, or the link could be somewhat discreetly placed within the text.
As a reader, would an advert in the middle of an article perturb you?
Or perhaps you would be happy to know that the author has a long term chance of earnings. Perhaps it all really depends on where the author draws the line between reasonable affiliation, and spam.
Flipping the table, as an author, would you be prepared to place adverts in your content, if the chance of some passive income was there? I think that's one of the issues with Steemit for people coming from a more conventional blogging and "internet marketing" background - Unless you're a "Sure-Shot" with copious fans and follow-bots, Steemit in its current incarnation does not give you stability or consistency.
As a quick example of a content creator who is making a living from carefully placed adverts, leading photography writer, Neil van Niekerk uses both graphical advertising, and contextual affiliate links in his blog, but it doesn't bother me. His content is amazing and he remains extremely popular in the photo community.
Passive Income.
Passive income is very appealing for anyone with inconsistent lifestyles, schedules or indeed, health. Imagine having some money trickle in during periods when you're ill or busy. That's the safety net of passive income, and only a long term strategy for milking value from your content can achieve this.
I'm especially interested to hear peoples thoughts on this as readers. Would you flag or mute someone who included adverts in their content? I'm sure some may be utterly disgusted by the idea of advertising being placed on Steemit. Please, don't shoot the messenger! Rather than flag me - let's discuss it below!
post about the decline in the price of STEEM, but I ended up going on a few tangents so decided to blog it here and hopefully get some feedback.Thanks for reading. This post started off as a response to @deanliu on @myfirst's
I'm very interested to hear peoples views on this subject. Please let me know in the comments!
Main vintage image is public domain.Colour images courtesy https://pixabay.com/
I've been saying it for a while and will continue: if businesses want to advertise on Steem, they better get their asses an account and start posting... preferably they need to buy some Steem Power and power up as well.
This turns the advertising dynamic on its head since it has the potential to eliminate the middle layer of the advertising structure. B2C direct interactions with payments to the business for their products, services, or thought leadership and payments to customers for their support and/or loyalty.
I wouldn't be bugged by contextual advertising. But I can't imagine the developers will leave all that content out to dry without a plan to handle upvotes of archived posts.
Even the whitepaper hints at the idea:
I think the idea is just on the back burner for now.
Excellent! I just won a free plasma TV and I didn't even have to donate any plasma to get it!
Steemit is so awesome! Thanks guys! Papa-pepper is a big winner now!
hope so, but they have better hurry up. At the moment, I think the payout distribution is like:
time 0 -- 99% -- 24 hours --- 1% ---4 weeks --- 0% ---- infinity
even the "0%" is not yet an issue (though soon will be) as the "1%" issue is more severe.
Actually, there's no need to hurry. I believe the blockchain can record upvotes of archived posts, even now. It just can't do anything with them yet. There's still a lot of time between now and when millions of registered steem users are using google to find a random post. That's when we need a solution.
That might be true. But I mean at least the dev team should let most diligent authors know that we cherish what you have done here, not by rewarding you right now, not by merely expressing that everything will be recorded, but by promising to give their works a even slightest possibility to shine again. Shift voting attention from 24h-99% to 4wks-1% is one way to deliver this message. Hope is a strong driving force.
Well very subtle advertising is ok, I've read some posts where people would provide a affiliate link, as long as It's not eye popping or too aggressive, it's ok. In fact I would encourage people to use advertising, but with caution, if you advertise in a nice way, no one will complain, but if you go a bit too aggressive on it, you'll get flagged for sure.
revisiting the idea
https://steemit.com/steem/@condra/why-i-m-in-favor-of-advertising-on-steemit-better-content-and-passive-income
I do think we will see advertising here on steemit at some point. Although i think we should be able to opt into any ad additional google style ad rewards program, but initially the program should only show adverts to people who aren't members of the site. this would be a great way to provide the long term residual income that many authors rely on to make a living.
Personally I'm not so keen on affiliate marketing and sponsored posts and would avoid users who produced this type of content but there are always exceptions to the rule.
That's an excellent idea!
I think relevant advertisements are ok. I have never done it, but may in the near future. Have seen authors promite their books with links to amazon and think that's completely fine when relevant to the post. I wouldn't flag if it was irrelevant and in a short bio at the bottom of the post either.
I play fantasy sports for a living and plan on doing some blogs on football picks and recaps of my own play. Would posting affiliate links with signup bonuses for people on steemit to the fantasy sites (benefits for me as well) be poor form?
That's what I'm trying to gauge. Personally, as long as your content is excellent, and you declare an affiliate link, I've no problem with it.
The thing I like about Steemit is the lack of advertising. I think this would be the wrong way to correct the 30 day payout issue. It would be better to just fix that directly.
I agree. Keeping my fingers crossed.
My personal opinion on the subject would be that users should be able to organise and advertise on their own posts, I have no problem with that, I would have a problem with Steem or Steemit placing adverts on pages as Facebook does for example.
I think if an author sincerely likes a product that they are advertising, then I don't see a problem with it. Of course, they should disclose that they're affiliate links as well. It's only obnoxious when it's incessant and insincere.
advertising here? its just a matter of time, i guess :)
Contextual advertising is fine with me as long as it is discreet and relevant. But I do think posts should earn after the 30 day period. Otherwise we are closing the doors for a lot of talented writers who plan to earn over the long term. A good case would be the author of a book who would be incentivised to publish his work here, if they can earn over time. Thanks for bringing these up, needs to be debated!
Looks like it's happening, from third parties at least..
https://steemit.com/steem/@condra/why-i-m-in-favor-of-advertising-on-steemit-better-content-and-passive-income
Interesting topic and worthwhile to bring it up. I suspect if someone tries to hang some google adwords banners, then they might not get upvote love in the near term. Perhaps we'll see a trend where the ads are placed into a post just before the editing period is over and most of the upvoted is said and done for the first 24 hours. I posted a video to youtube and did not want the ads to run within my post so I left it turned off... which reminds me, I ought to go get that rolling.
My guess is that a small amount of adverts - like one per post would be tolerated by most. At some point, if they stop working - the broken links will start to become an issue as will image links assuming they are only cached locally.
A third party Steemit advertising initiative has been set up. The first of many perhaps.
https://steemit.com/steem/@condra/why-i-m-in-favor-of-advertising-on-steemit-better-content-and-passive-income
I saw one post recently specifically geared towards the concern that many authors are linking their own, personal websites, which the author of that post thought was not good. Obviously, everyone can form their own opinions and decide on their own preferences, but this is a good issue to discuss.
Since I can just as easily not click on a link, to me, as a reader, I don't think that I would get offended. However, if posts just turn into billboards or are full of ads, I'll definitely be less likely to read and upvote them.
I'm just glad that I can have some income from participating in the steemit community and that we now get a second payout.
Revisiting the idea here today:
https://steemit.com/steem/@condra/why-i-m-in-favor-of-advertising-on-steemit-better-content-and-passive-income
Quite honestly? I probably would stop reading a users post. One of the things I like about steemit is the lack of advertising.
I LOVE the lack of advertising on Steemit. Especially the flashy, graphical, non-targeted stuff on most sites. I'd run a mile from that kind of stuff, but if a tech reviewer for example was to post a link to the reviewed product, it wouldn't both me as long as the review felt sincere.
Now that I wouldn't mind. Referral links, commission links, and such as long as there is some original review, thought, or opinion on the subject. Even a tiny image link.
I'm with some of the others that discrete marketing doesn't bother me so long as content is good.
Discreet marketing is a nice way of putting it. Revisiting the subject here today: https://steemit.com/steem/@condra/why-i-m-in-favor-of-advertising-on-steemit-better-content-and-passive-income
https://steemit.com/hidden-gems/@dragonslayer109/daily-pick-of-hidden-gems-33 here is where I will be featuring your post today
Well, if and when promoted posts are enabled and advertisers will be able to create accounts, buy steem and make us all happy, I do hope the way they are able to post is without any of the rewards. They can get upvoted, be trending et all, but shouldn't get any author rewards.
I think that affiliate links placed in an article and declared shouldn't be a problem. It would help to address the article not earning after 4 weeks. While the platform wouldn't pay out after that time, the affiliate links would be able to continue to trickle in income.
Where I would definitely draw the line would be someone using the comments on a post to advertise. One thing to link to a related post, another to spam.
More revenge flags from red-handed spammers. I must be doing something right.