Well, for what it's worth, I have you on auto-upvote. And I really appreciate how much you've supported me.
Also, I think you and I have now sufficiently established that we disagree on a couple of matters, and although I don't love arguing on the internet, I appreciate that your posts challenge my beliefs from time to time. Your followers wouldn't be there if they didn't also appreciate a little bit of controversy. So keep doing what you're doing there.
The SBD rewards are going down for everyone because of the decreasing price of STEEM--at least that's my understanding of how it works. STEEM is worth fewer dollars, so there are fewer SBD to match the price. When I started here in February, a @curie vote was worth well over $100 (I think it was even close to $200 if my memory isn't deceiving me right now?), and now it's under $70. And doesn't it also have something to do with the share of the reward pool? I think the price of STEEM is going to go back up as new features roll out, though. But who knows.
I think many of the whales are now inactive or using their SP as passive income, either through leasing or delegating to bidbots, or whatever. Doesn't seem like many are doing much in terms of manual curation or helping out the community.
That's nine tenths of why I supported you. I get nothing out of being vigorously agreed with. Nobody grows from that. You're also just a fabulously talented writer, so even when I can't stand what you're saying, I love how you say it.
My thoughts exactly!
Do you have any other means of income besides Steemit? I have a day job because obviously this ain't paying the bills for me right now and I don't think anyone except for the mega-whales on here could afford to live in LA on this alone, but I also am a devoted side hustler. I tutor a couple times a week, which is good money, and sometimes I do copy editing. I'm not writing for any publications right now, but I used to. If you decide to get into tutoring, the most lucrative side of the market is working with college applications. $100/hour or more is standard in the private school circuit.
I have aspergers, which makes me unsuitable for most jobs judging by my long history of being fired without explanation a few days or weeks in. Performance metrics were good when I did tech support but I would freeze up during evaluations.
I haven't properly published any of my writing except on Amazon, where nobody knows it exists, so there's still the possibility of making it big as a writer. I am just very intimidated by the process of finding a publisher. Often they only accept submissions for a week or two out of the year, and it's tough to remember to submit during that window.
A friend of the family is very experienced with publishing however and is looking over my oeuvre now. Hopefully something lucrative comes of that.
Ah okay, that's hard. Among my few skills in life is being a people person (edit: maybe "few" is underselling myself...). An oddly anxious people person, but I've been told it's endearing. Somehow it's possible to have both social anxiety and also be very social. Not a great mix for my own sanity, actually.
Anyway, there are plenty of positions out there being a contributing writer for online publications, which are all work-from-home. I was referred to this post a few days ago: https://steemit.com/history/@energyaddict22/calling-all-writers-usd50-usd-for-original-articles
I haven't yet spoken to the person who authored the post, but I think you'd be really great at this. $50-$100 an article is about standard in my experience, so this is a bit on the low side, but maybe you could work out a deal where you're allowed to crosspost to your own blog as well (or maybe an abbreviated version which directs to the publication?) so you could further monetize your work. I was thinking of asking for that.
It's really thoughtful that you would keep your eyes open for opportunities and let me know about them like this.
Of course! I’ll let you know if I see anything else.