Everywhere you Look, on just about Every Blog, Someone is Talking about Money
Oops, I guess I just talked about Money too..
What Type of Articles Exist on Steemit?
Well, there is a large variety, but I'm going to group it into a few of the common ones that I have noticed since I've been here over the past ~89 days. (Listed in no particular order)
Category 1: "News" Articles
This includes the Crypto News, Political News, Random Event News, and other various current events / news updates. These can be interesting and useful posts on Steemit, for those who are interested in the subjects that are posted about.
However, I tend to get frustrated when news posts are effectively copy/paste of one or many news articles with no original content or point of view added. But, that's just me..
Category 2: SBD "Challenges"
This is where we all see people / accounts distributing the "Liquid SBD" portion of a post to "winners" based on Upvoting / Resteeming / Commenting on a Post. Some of these posts include a useful or fun idea that gets you involved in doing something better for yourself or others (for example @steemit-health), while others have clever stories to go along with them (like @papa-pepper's Steem-Pocalypse Survival Game), and so many more that simply say they'll give you 50% of the SBD a post earns (which usually means from the 75% earnings the author gets, they will give you 50% of the 50% of the 75% of the total post earnings). This section does not include the "pay for vote" services .. that's a different subject (and isn't really a "post type"), so I will leave that stuff alone for now.
There are several "gambling" challenges going around also. This is where you send SBD to a user, then have a #.##% chance of receiving some multiplier of the SBD amount that you sent to that user. I feel like these things are all scams, because just like a casino, they are all rigged to leave the person you're sending money to with more money in the end. Either way, they're typically well-marked as "gambling", and we aren't here to censor Steemit, so .. my best advice is to just avoid these "games".
You'll also see "Color" and "Picture" Challenges. I haven't honestly paid enough attention to these because I see so many people participating that I know my odds are slim-to-none, and I don't feel like creating a blog with that kind of a theme on it.
Category 3: Photography / Art / Poetry / Fiction and Other Writers
Thankfully, we have a large community of extremely talented photographers, artists, poets, and fiction / other writers. I love visiting all of their pages and seeing what they have come up with lately and I try to support them with my vote, when I have the power available to vote (and when I feel that those were the most interesting posts I saw in a day).
Unfortunately, we have a larger community of copy paste authors who find "free" photos online and simply use them as their own. You'll see single picture posts, or multi-picture posts, but by the time you get to the bottom of the article, you notice that everything is watermarked with someone else's signature or all of the pictures are sourced from various free sites.
The same goes for artwork. There have been many plagiarists of various talented artists on Steemit (the talented artists were not actually on Steemit, but a bad actor decided to exploit that artist on here). Many of the bad actors have been caught by some of our most extremely inquisitive community members, but I wouldn't be shocked if there are others who have not been caught yet.
Poetry and Fiction writers are becoming more abundant from what I've noticed. There are some serious talents in this field also. Since this is a newer area for me, I'm not sure if there is the same proliferation of scammers in this realm, but based on past experience, I'm sure once the bad actors realize there's profit in these areas, they will follow shortly after.
Category 4: Travel - Blogs / Photography / Stories
Tons of these people are around. Some of them are living off of Steem, others of them are living off of pennies, and others are at various levels in-between. We have several professional travel bloggers who seriously know how to post-process their photos and trips in an amazing way.
I've found myself steering away from the professionals more and more lately. I think of it from the perspective of: Most of these bloggers are already established and earning thousands of dollars in perks, then earning thousands more from us everyday people. I should probably focus my minimal powers on helping more people like myself -- the everyday people -- and maybe I can encourage more everyday people to start doing the same. Lead By Example :)
Category 5: About Steemit
Well, this post is a perfect example. Although there are many people who also post tutorials and how-to's (I'm guilty of those also). You get a full range of Steemit posts, from people offering suggestions to improve the platform to people complaining about the platform, to people explaining how to use the platform in one way or another, and everything else under the sun. Most of these posts don't bother me too much, except..
I find it frustrating when people post about "How to be Successful" on Steemit. Here are the reasons why I don't like the "How to be Successful" posts:
- There is a FAQ about Steemit Posting etiquette on the Welcome page, everyone should read the welcome page immediately when they join. I know that no one likes to read the instructions manual, but for Steemit, it's actually an extremely valuable guide to truly becoming a member of the Steemit Community.
With that said, can we please stop posting the same exact content over and over just in a different way? I understand that sometimes content changes, and we need to make minor changes to keep things up-to-date, but those things don't need to be updated or repeated every day. - There is not a "One-Size-Fits-All" method to becoming successful on Steemit. I understand that everyone loves talking about themselves, and how they "made it" on Steemit, but seriously .. times change and so does what it will take to become successful. I bet if the whales repeated their same "tried and true" method that gave them their early success on today's Steemit, they would not be nearly as successful (or dare I say, not successful at all).
- By advertising so much on Steemit that you can be "successful", you're implying that this platform is primarily meant to be a vehicle for people to "earn a living". This idea is absolutely misleading and unfair to everyone who came to the platform thinking it could be a full-time job able to support a family. PLEASE STOP.
Sure, it's possible that a VERY SMALL PORTION of individuals could earn a large amount of money on Steemit, but that just simply isn't the case for 99% of the user base.
The Platform Naturally Discourages this behavior based on the fact that the only way to be successful on here is to build influence. The only way to build influence is to build Steem Power. The only way to build Steem Power is to NOT Power Down. And the Only way to Earn Money is to Power Down. Can you see how contrarian the idea of using Steemit for Income is now?
So I come back to my initial question...
Is Steemit All About Money?
I would like to think that it isn't only about money. Yes, there is money involved. And yes, it is a motivating factor of many users on the platform. However, the purpose was to build somewhat of a Utopian community where people are able to support each other regardless of economical background or social status.
Supporting each other does not have to ONLY come from monetary means. Education is also a huge method for support. Which is why Interesting and Original Content is so important to have on Steemit. We can support each other in MANY ways. How about we try to focus on methods to support each other, other than money, and let that part work itself out on its own? Trust in the Platform.
What do you think?
Image Sources (regardless of requirements to provide attribution)
Img 1, Img 2, Img 3, Img 4, Img 5
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Yes! First and foremost. And then there are social interactions where folks share interesting information. Then there are robots. Then folks jaded by robots and money hungry folks.
After all; this is a pay to socialize platform...
I hate the truth but it is what it is
Thank you for your honest feedback! I'm truly interested to know how everyone feels about the platform so thank you for your input.
I am curious how many people came here for the money, and how many came here for the community. I'm sure there are people who came for the money and stayed for the community, but one or the other had to come first and that's where I'd like to start.
If money wasn't meant to be a part of the Steemit platform, it wouldn't be on here at all, so it had to be on everyone's mind at some point.
I hope we get some more interaction through comments! :)
You have no idea how happy it makes me when my post earn more than .50cents... 😁😜 Give me my money!!!
Just kidding. I love the people I meet. I love to share my island. And I love getting appreciated. Give me all your money!!!
Aloha @evolved08gsr
Unfortunately many on this platform seem to think it really is all just about money. People speak about ROI and see this as either an investment-vehicle or a great opportunity to get free internet money for posting 100 memes a day.
Yes please!
Yeah, I understand using Steem as an investment. That's fine to me because I feel that investments are "long-term" for the most part, and I believe that using Steem as an investment supports the original overall idea of Steemit.
Haha, so true. Can we please make the memes stop?! :)
Thanks for your comment!
Amazing ur post😉
Good luck @evolved08gsr👍👍👍👍
Hi @samer484. Thanks for visiting my post, commenting and voting! Good luck to you as well :)
Thanks so much my frind @evolved08gsr
I'm trying to do something different. Online training repository. I am just re-sharing some materials I have available, and there is a lot of that. If find something interesting, something it will help you with your project or carrier I will be glad to help. I would also like to hear from potential followers what kind of knowledge interest you the most.
https://steemit.com/@kazzz
Thanks for your comment, @kazzz, but it's unrelated to my post. Be careful not to spam this type of message to other people. Many others would quickly flag your comment.
This is a friendly warning for you..
Thanks @evolved08gsr for your feedback, Spaming wan not my intention, I guess I am just saying that an education utility can be another dimension of steemit and in my case dTube built on top of it. Is it about money? I guess on some level it is for everyone here, but I like to think that getting some change each time someone upvote you is just nice addition to what you are doing.
An education utility would be cool. I think there is a project on here trying to do something like that. It is restrictive though because they are charging a fairly high fee to be part of the classes they offer. I understand that nothing in life is free, but the audience and income level here is not yet mature enough for their idea just yet (in my opinion).
Yeah, that's pretty much where I stand as well. The money side is nice, but if that's your primary objective for being on here, you're going to wind up being greatly disappointed in the results (for most people). There are always exceptions to the rule, of course!
Thanks for the redeeming and relevant comment :) I knew you weren't a robot based on your blog / posts / etc, so I gave you the benefit of doubt. And I'm glad I did.
Good luck with your project!
If people are here for honest earning it can be very challenging but if the idea is to enjoy sharing, and any amount of money earned is secondary...then time flys while the pennies add up.
I still prefer original contents with original pictures regardless how short or misspelled it might be. Nothing (IMHO) beats orinality.
I agree. Originality is Key!