Attention Bloggers!! If You Blog & Have Not Checked Out Steemit.com, This Post Is For You.
Hello again steemit community! Or perhaps this time I should say "hello non-steemit community" because for anyone who finds this page and does not know about steemit.com yet - well this post is for you ;)
Steemit.com is a fairly new website and the purpose of this post is to educate those who don't know about the true awesomeness that is steemit.com - and why you should join this website as soon as your done reading this post. The reason that I'm taking the time to write this post is because I own an online marketing company and work with businesses everyday regarding why they need to be creating content for their website. And let me tell you something... while most businesses understand the value in creating content and understand it's something that they are suppose to do the struggle is real. The struggle is real because for most businesses who's primary source of income is not their blog, they struggle to justify spending the time & effort in creating content. They struggle because a majority of the time content creation is what would be called delayed gratification.
But what I realized today is that the very cause of what makes most people/businesses hate taking the time to write content is the exact reason steemit.com is so great. But before I go any further on the wonderful aspects of this website, let me start from the top real quick in case you have no clue what this website is even about...
What is steemit.com?
The short answer is that it's a social media platform. I have most often compared it to reddit.com or maybe to a lesser degree a facebook.com or quora.com. But most similar to reddit.com it's an entertainment, social, news and networking service. Again, like reddit there are posts on pretty much every topic in the world; from news to finance, politics, music, health, travel, money, video games, relationships, parenting - you name it. Steemit pretty much has it all. What makes steemit.com different from any other website and is truly the big game changer here is it's value proposition that steemit.com empowers their users vs. their users empowering them.
Steemit.com empowers their users vs. their users empowering them - what the hell does that even mean?
If you look at any of the top visited websites in the world - you'll notice 1 similarity to them all... Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Yahoo how do they all work? Well like most websites on the internet - these websites are driven by the content created by their users. Yup they make all their money thanks to the content created by all their users. Users create the content, website sells advertising space, website makes billions in profit and oh yeah... they kick back a small % of said profits to their users as a 'thank you' for making them all that money. It's brilliant really.
What makes steemit.com different is that their users directly reward other users for the content that they create based on feedback/ratings. If you make a post that the community values at $100 well guess what, you'll get paid $100. If you make a great post on reddit.com you might get 1,000 upvotes and you'll get paid $0. You make an awesome rant on facebook, you might get 1,000 likes but you'll get paid $0. A funny joke on twitter - great it was shared 500 times and you get paid $0. Then there is Youtube... you make a great video and you get 100,000 views. You'll get paid $800 based on the fact you made Youtube thousands.
But it's not only the fact that you can get paid well for the content you create that makes steemit.com so great - its the fact you receive instant gratification for the work you put in based on people liking your content.
Instant Gratification
To go back to the beginning of my post, really what makes blogging/content creation so hard for businesses is this term called delayed gratification. What's ironic about writing this post today is that not even a week ago I wrote a long blog post on my own company's website regarding the topic of blogging; how there is delayed gratification, why it's worth the struggle of what can sometimes be months or even years before you'll see the fruits of your labors and not to give up. Now, today - I'm saying F that! Forget waiting months or even YEARS before seeing a return on your invest of time. With steemit.com you can get paid within 24 hours of a blog post and there are people on this website making some serious money.
The fact that you can make a post and instantly see the reward system - similar to 'likes' on facebook or 'upvotes' on reddit but unlike other websites the reward system is cold hard cash - makes this truly a unique experience. Try to pay your bills next month with all the likes you collected on facebook. It's actually a really scary thought for other social media platforms to realize this type of rewards system has hit the market and it won't be long before these companies (if they aren't already) are having internal meetings to discuss what they can do to 'keep up with the Joneses'.
Don't make the same mistake that I did!
The mistake was simple. I discovered steemit.com about 2 months ago - looked at it and went "meh". It's not that the idea wasn't interesting, in fact I was drawn in right away. But then I wasn't exactly sure how the system worked - like anything there was a learning curve and after signing up for the free account disregarded it and didn't come back. Weeks passed by until something brought my attention to the website again. I revisited it, took a look around and once again was like "this doesn't make sense... how did someone make $800 on this post? Is this $800 real or some stupid online monopoly money $800. No it was real and I think back now to all the content that I created on my own website that put $0 in my pocket, that I struggled to get through because it felt more like homework rather than a rewarding use of my time. Fast forward to today and I find myself writing more than I ever have. I've only been on this website for 2 days and yet I've had so much fun writing, learning how the system works and seeing a little cash roll in off my other posts.
Final Thoughts & To Do List
So if you're still with me - first of all thank you for your attention. There is probably a good chance you've read through my entire post and still aren't sold on this website - and that's perfectly fine. I'm sure even if you are slightly interested you probably have plenty of questions. Where does the money come from? How do users get paid? All I need to do is write content and I'll get paid? These are all questions that I asked when I first started.
It's pretty rare that somebody will hear about an idea the very first time and jump on board. Sure maybe one or two of you are sold but I'd still imagine the majority of you reading this piece are still thinking it's probably not worth your time... and maybe that is true. What I would challenge you to do is this. Come back to this website again tomorrow just 1 more time and take a few minutes to find a post that fits your interest. Could be business related, could be cooking related - whatever you find entertaining. Then I want you to find a subject on this website that is of interest to you that is not highly covered yet and ask yourself if there is anything you could write about on the subject. This website is so new there are still so many opportunities for new users to join the website and take over the space. We're still in early adopters territory and I assure you up until this point those who have joined the website have found it worth while. If you're not a blogger or you don't like creating content, then don't even worry about doing it. Hopefully there is enough content on this website for you to enjoy as reader and will still find this website worth a visit or two. =)
Thanks again for taking the time to read this post and I'll be happy to answer any questions below in the comment section.
THIS - IS - A - GREAT - POST! Keep up the good work mate :)
thanks! greatly appreciate the feedback!
This is a great post to share with my blogging friends, but sadly sign-ups are down, so I fear that it wouldn't be well timed. Commenting so that I have this post for later, since I haven't found a way to "save" a post yet. Thanks for sharing a nicely sharable article!
Ahh... that is a good point! Didn't think of the timing =/ but thanks for the feedback! Please do share =)
I think a re-post of this content is totally fair game after sign-ups are re-enabled.
yeah, definitely appreciate the thought and at the least will share it on my social media channels again tomorrow =) thanks again for the feedback