@chitty, doesn't the value that you can add to a post increase beyond $.20 when you votes on more popular posts that have already gotten a lot of votes from whales and dolphins?
If you don't know this already, you can check out your stats here :
https://steemstats.com/#/
Find a post you want to up vote and vote on it. Then put the author's username into SteemStats.com and click on the button that looks like horizontal lines inside a circle to see the impact of different voters. You can see how much you increase the post value when it is already trending v.s. new.
Am I correct that you have a bigger impact on posts that already have made a lot of money, or am I miss understanding how this works?
Also, I think the bigger issue for getting people to purchase Steem is to show that doing so has real business value. Just investing in it in the hopes of the value increasing or to gain more influence here alone isn't enough. I've written a post that's at the top of my blog that explains this issue as well as how I think whales (and dolphins) can help to show there is real business value in investing in Steem Power.
The amount of value you
I could give anything from 15 cents to 2 dollars maybe, but my point is that the amount needed to have my SP is not proportional the influence I have... if more perks are added to large SP holders then more people will buy and power up.
Sure, I totally get what you are saying. Essentially your argument is that the cost of SP is to high. However, I'm not sure that's really true for businesses. Many businesses pay $10k-$50k a month for advertising via FB and doing other media buying. They can spend that same money here to get SP and they would get a reasonable amount of influence that they could use to promote posts that help build their brand and sales through this platform and the best part for them is they don't lose the money they spend as an immediate expense. They are buying equity that also gives them advertising benefit. This explains my thinking on this in more detail:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@nathanbrown/top-4-ways-whales-can-increase-market-capitalization-of-steem-by-local-currency-expert-and-online-marketer-consultant
Do you agree with my analysis, or do you still think SP is too expensive relative to the influence it gives overall (compared to your personal experience)?
Good post,
I also wrote a post about the viability of selling votes, I think that for a marketing company its easier and cheaper to buy votes from 1 big whale than to invest 500k on steem power. I say 500k because anything less than that wont get your post into the trending page.
Buying votes makes sense to me as well. As for needing $500k, I don't think that is necessary. Having enough to vote up your comments on active posts can help a lot I think to gain attention. Also, a post that hit the front page from one $500k up vote would die quickly with down vot if people thought the product or company involved sucks. On the flip side $50k might get enough attention to then get more votes that get you on the trending page for a company or product that the community thinks is cool.
This is precisely why ads aren't needed and would be detrimental. If businesses want influence here, they should pay for Steem and contribute in some manner like everyone else.
Advertising is a free ride. Steem can disintermediate the advertising industry.
I agree, but why do you say advertising is a free ride?
Also, the inflation you talk about isn't an issue in the way you think it is. People holding SP don't lose value. It is more like a stock split. They still have the same vested stake a year later, they just have more SP that represents that same vested stake.