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I strongly appeal to any reader to go through to the end as the million user target might be at stake if we could not retain the newbies/minnows on Steemit...
About 5 of the users i had brought in on Steemit are no more interested, speaking to one of them few days ago and she told me Steemit is a Caucus, and if you ain’t in you end up getting shitty rewards.
This and several “Leave me alone dude response” is what i get each time i tried to talk to this people and i am very positive many of us are experiencing this.
If it was me after 3months of posting profoundly or thereabout and i made less than $50 in total i will bail as well, so i was compelled to write this.
Arguably the past few months had been the wrongest time to join steemit. So to say, if you came onboard last year and earlier this year; then you will know and enjoy what Blockchain Blogging really is.
Doing the maths: where are those hundreds of new users we have seen signing up in some posts we see week in week out? If by addition Steemit Users should be getting close to half a Million by now that’s if this users stays!
Now on Steemit, if you can not buy a vote or cajole a dolphin to upvote you; or maybe carry out a project, then you are on your own and all you get from your blogging efforts is some tiny little cents.
I have been getting complaints "like i own steemit" and been accused of not voting with full power like some Whale because some of this folks assumed that i should give them huge bucks in votes as i drag them on steemit.
What this New Steemians do not understand is that something is fundamentally wrong and no matter how much you try and reach out for help you are going to get disappointed because only few bigger fishes gives a hoot about minnows anymore except fellow minnows.
Not everyone could buy votes for every blog, not all are designed to lobby for upvotes. So if you can not do any of the things mentioned irrespective of how remarkable your work is, what are your chances of staying put on Steemit?
Many kind hearted and selfless Individuals had tried and delegated SP to help minnows grow in rewards and encourage them: but then you have selfish and cabals of Merry voters in charge of this Delegated SP as curators, and then the go on and on wasting this votes on themselves and their group negating the sole purpose of this Kind Hearted SP donors.
Peradventure this is considered as an hate article, i apologise; That is if anyone reads to this point before snapping! This days once a Steemian is not posting proof of life pictures of events, nobody reads to the end.
Could we call this Blogging?
Hopefully the next Hardfork addresses this and has something good for freshers and minnows; otherwise as we bring them in they will keep leaving after a couple of months, which to me is not healthy when we go mainstream!
If you had read this to this point, and you had lost some of the people you successfully brought in on steemit; then you might understand how it feels to build and it keeps falling down to pieces.
In case you want to dispute me; @pai-ciens , @ekason, @sammie85, @the-commentator(My very good friend which i give write-up to for encouragement and keeps Resteeming his works) and @djsholy who lost faith without posting anything...And many more if everyone decided to list their's!
Where do we get motivation to bring more people in if the ones we had brought in did not stay?
UPVOTE, RESTEEM, FOLLOW AND MAYBE DROP A COMMENT.....It's your friendly Neighbor @oluwoleolaide for Steem-Lagos-Nigeria-Africa-World!
I think people leave after some time because they think this is a Facebook clone where you make money for your comments, whereas in reality this is a blogging platform, with the difference being that you don't have to worry about the advertising or securing sponsorships. I think that's the thing that most people don't understand, and that's the reason I have never really asked any friend or family to sign up.
I don't know... maybe Steemit will be like Facebook in the future, but today, its certainly not that.
But ultimately, you have to put things into perspective. The biggest advantage for those here right now is the small size of the platform. This is blazing sunshine. There is no better time to make hay than this.
In contrast, do you know how difficult it is to stand out on Youtube? or even Twitter/Snapchat? Or hell, maybe you're a developer. Do you know how hard it is to make your app stand out on the Google/Apple App Stores? But here, you can make something, and the monetization is kinda built-in!
Sure, Steemit is difficult, but it's nothing compared to other mainstream platforms. People don't even try on those platforms, because they know they have no chance. But Steemit is advertised as a "Get Rich Quick" scheme.
I have never seen a get rich quick advert for steemit cos that makes it looks Scammish!
But you know the more the merrier? right?
The more users the more the chances of investors trooping in.
well yeah its not an explicit "Get Rich Quick" ad, but "website that pays posters and curators" is pretty close to that. After seeing that, most people think their single photo with a single line of text that they used to post on facebook/twitter will make them money, when it obviously will not.
And yeah, more investors would certainly be good.
But in this case we are talking about good informative and some thought provoking post not copied from somewhere....
Am sure you have come across a few each day right? and this guys gets nothing to motivate their inner skills the more....☹
Well said. However, I've been hearing similar critiques since I joined Steemit near the beginning. The imbalance of Steem Power has always been Steemit's biggest issue. In various ways, I have spent the last year and a half trying to help us climb out of that hole. People who are here now need a long term view and need to be willing to work hard and build. The situation has gotten MUCH better than it used to be, but this remains a work in progress. Hopefully, that progress continues.
Wow, never knew these has been the song on steemit, i was thinking it was a recent song. You have personally encouraged a lot of people on steemit. Yes the work is in progress and i really hope more people join the few of you making a great effort.
Thank you. You are appreciated.
Heavens knows that thousands are looking up to you like me and i can categorically say that you and several selfless had made some of us stayed long during those trying days.
It will get better speedily if there are many more like you around @donkeypong......i doff my hat sire!
@donkeypong sir. You are very right
Wow, am glad i stumbbled on this post. These has been my thought since a long time now. I understand steemit is not a get rich quick skim. But here we are, like it or not, 95% of the people who joined steemit, join cos they believe they can make something. A very close friend was able to gather 500 plus people in a group to sign up for steemit. Today not more than 30 are active.
There is a truth, you dont belong to a click, you barely get 50cent. Now, they tag it quality post to get good reward. What is really a quality post, long post with picture, live or what. Not everyone does same thing.
The bitter truth is more than 80% of the new accounts in the last 2-3 months are not active anymore. I dont have a solution to this, but i am certain if it continues like this, it will get worse.
Maybe, i dont get it, maybe steemit will do better without the minnows or new account.
I am not far from the thoughts of quiting either.
I have been doing something lately, i suff steemit chat channel and curate at least one low reward post on every channel. But what dose my vote count. How many post can o really curate.
I really hope, there is more motivation to new account if we want them to stay.
I have this feeling that there are people here we tap from the same thinking bank and thats you😊...
If you notice, @steem-lagos resteem such posts so when i have enough time i can upvote with my $0.20 from @oluwoleolaide just to keep some of this guys in the loop.
Hopefully it gets much better than this in all STEEMINGNESS!
You are right about this my friend. I have seen so many people misuse the SP delegated to them to rape the reward pool.
I wish every SP Delegator could check the activities of their Delegatees.
Hmmmm.....still dont get this miss delegated sp. I would say the curators are not doing badly. Except there is something i fail to see. I stand to be corrected though.
Very true brother, another controversial topic on its own....
Seems like a topic i would be interested in....lol
Make we just free that one for now...its a shitty situation tbh
God bless you brother!!! I don't even intend on asking more people to come on here for the main time sha. It's pretty difficult for newbies...I mean I'm on the receiving end of this also but I hope we see a change sha. This post has said it all! Wole for Lagos dem!!🙌🏾
AMEN bro!
I keep following that story series you do and each time i read and i see the number of upvotes compared to reward i feel sad cos i wish i could do something.....Bajinatu kan fun e padi me
Loool! Osheeey ma nigga! We go survive
@Oluwoleolaide... You have very good point here but you must also understand that the task of making money is no child's play. Anyone coming into Steemit must and should have a long time view than having get rich quick mindset. The way Steemit is fashioned, to me, is very okay. You compete for attention!
Money isn't easily come by. For steemit.com to be of value, then it must be difficult to conquer. If it was designed in such a way that people would just sign up and write alphabets and get away with huge sum, then it will be of no value and wld have sized to exist
@eurogee
I really dont understand why people see quiting as because newbies wants to get rich quick. There is a difference between motivation and getting rich quick. If you earn $50 on a post, that is not getting rich quick. Facebook dont expect you to get original post, they dont expect you do quality post, they dont expect you take picture all the time. But steemit took out the fun by rewarding only quality post, rewarding long post with picture. Rewarding only original post. Now they made it seem like is work and you need to earn from it. So is natural when after taking time to put up a post, that person dont earn(Which simply means a like or your post is appreciated), to quit.
Yes it is not a get rich quick scheme but have see noticed a lot of people bailing?
If that keeps happening when are we gonna get to the Million user landmark?
Long time plan should involve sustainability don't you think?
i waited for almost 2 and a half month to get a full $ and then i was blazing, but newbies now couldn't wait that long cos everyone keeps using Boosters....and then bail out in the end.
you read my mind.
was waiting for the right day to write this
Love this have seen so many projects being carried out to bring people into steemit.
but there is no sustenance on there path
more focus is placed on bringing people in and less on sustenance
Hopefully something will be done to address this brother.....
Very true mahn!
Very thoughtful comments to be sure! As someone very new to this community I have a lot to learn & the advice and of people such as yourself is invaluable. THX for the great post!
welcome brother and Steem-On!
Merci beaucoup mon ami!
Here in the Philippines I need to have proofs for me to get someone join what I am up to...I hope I could get proof of earnings so that I could persuade someone to join steemit and stay. I feel you my friend @oluwodeolaide ...I am just in here for two months, I hope I could stay.
I will always be right behind you never allow you give up dear friend...
my dear, I feel their pains, because I have been there and still struggling in the race. Still steeming on!
Love your courage and faith sis, Steem-On
Some of us 'newbies' are fortunate n have d luxury of old timers to encourage us to keep going, 100s doesn't have that priviledge...this gat to be address or more newbies gonna leave
Exactly my points big bro...
I wonder why people are so quick to give up here, do they expect everything in life to be easy, things worth having take time and effort. You made excellent points here...
Do people give up on facebook or social media, no. That is because no one is concious of how many post he can like , so he gives as many likes as he can. But steemit made it about when you get votes, it means you have quality stuff. Is natural to feel one is not adding any value when you do not get upvotes and the next option will be to quit.
I hope you stay put friend....
See you in 6months!
To start with,I always always make sure to let any newbie I know not to have high expectations and explain what has been working for me.
I'm still a minnow myself, but anyone who wants to blow overnight can only do that by filling a need here.
I believe at a point it will stop being about the money, but about loving what one does, making friends, helping fellow minnows and taking part in giveaways contests.
Those are my thoughts sha
When you say over night did you read the 3months part?
If we intend to compete with Facebook and the likes then we sure could do better...
I don't agree. How much can you make on Facebook and the likes? Answer...zero. Here at least you have the posibility of making something.
If we invite someone to this platform we have to make it clear that this is just a posibility.
Really?
You sure know some make money from Facebook from Ads and stuff but that is not the point....
In terms of users is what we are focusing on, so whether you agree or not lets see if you can stay put like me after 3months.
PS- i joined in March and i started making one full $ by the 3rd months, i bet not many could hold on and post something good twice per day for almost 5 months!
The point is that people should be made aware that making money in steemit from posting is hard.
For me the main attraction I have to the steem platform is that it's censorship resistant, making money is a bonus.
Also you can build your own business using the steem blockchain and even create your own coin using the same network...that is where the real oportunity is.
Wrong!
It is not hard, few months ago any good post earns something attractive!
My thoughts exactly... Yes, we are a community united by and helping each other to achieve a common goal (earning the eSteem), but the money is only a bonus compared to the experiences shared, ideas explored, knowledge gained, and connections made in the process
It is like you were reading my mind. I have tried to make good post and still endup with few cents on it. What keeps me going is the upvotes i get from some few good people when i comment on their post.
Yes bro because i have friends who waited till after months and still no improvement before they left!
I don't quite get your reply In relations to my comment?
The relationship is that many like you who doesnt have some Group to upvote them are despire and they left!!!
Yah
Baba This is the real truth. God bless you.
Amen dear brother/sister😊
lol..brother o
🤣😂😀😀😎
Habla, blah blah blah blah blah, Español for my bunghole...
Sincerely speaking you are absolutely right, I wonder what we call this? COMMUNITY? .......NO!!!, when I came into STEEMIT, I almost got sucked, I was highly disappointed after my introductory post.
Do you care to know?
If there is a user who he's not writing something good, I think if absolutely this a community, such person should be call to notice
But steemit of when I joined is now a matter of cabalism which does not suppose to be...... If those people who dedicated SP for curators hadn't done that, what would they be saying too
You call our attention to something that is very important.
We don't need to blame the government if our so call curators keep doing this, please if you cannot be transparent, don't be effective with non-rewarding doings.
What do you want the people to remember you as?
If you are with a given a task, do it properly
@oluwoleolaide sir you made my day....... You are one in a million worthy steemian
Here is some brilliant mind who gets my point, thumbs up man...
I will not bring Someone in and watch them Bail out and go ahead to grab somebody else in brother!
exactly, starting up is so hard unless you've been on the platform since its begining. i think something should be done in this regards.
Something is been done, but the ratio is just low....that is why we- you and i should encourage the newbies we bring in and support them-never let them go cos it gets better after a while.
definitly, should keep on trying
I understand how tough it is to keep this new guys here.
The problem is,many of them come expecting quick bucks as we promised them in our pitch.
They expect to earn as quick and easy as it sounds.
It is okay if they drop out!
Steemit is not for everyone,at least we tried to show them a better way.
Steemit is the same as anything else in life,you get paid for the value you bring to the table, period.
I will continue spreading Steemit no matter the drop out rate!
Sometimes you cannot change some things.It is the way it is supposed to be.
Some Join ,Some Don't So what , Next ,Another one is waiting.
This is the philosophy we use in Network Marketing which i am a proud distributor.
You speak well like a good promoter...
When you have brought in enough and they never stayed, you will have another perception!
PS- If you are only interested in Bringing people onboard but never care about sustaining them then where is your Objective to Grow Steemit?
I am a promoter, i am embarking on bringing my country people Ugandans on board.
I will be starting with my former university soon.
I will also be responsible to train and lead them on how Steemit works.
Among the many i bring,some will remain and some will drop off obviously.
I learned this truth in Network Marketing.
Then you should focus more on retaining cos their is no medal for bringing in 100 and 80 left angrily after months of despair!
Keeping active accounts should be the focus, not just bringing people in who will leave in a couple of months. We not saying all must stay, but at least let a certain percentage remain.
Bless you mate...
God bless you really good. Thank you for putting up this post. Am glad someone else is thinking and seeing what have been on my mind for a long time now
I understand sir,its all a collective effort of all Steemians.
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.
- Mahatma Gandhi
As a new minnow I see alot of the truth you speak, but I disagree with the major logic error in thinking that this platform is simply an easy tool to make money.... Yes, the reward system is what first drew me to explore this collection of blogs. I see that many users, old and new alike, only desire to milk the proverbial cash cow which in the case of minnows leads to a great sense of discouragement when all the energy and effort invested offers little return amd they fall off the map....
but from what I've seen the main value of Steemit is that it is a social media platform set apart from all others. The beauty of the system is the expression and sharing of a depth of thought, intelligence, and creativity not seen on facebook/twitter/ instagram. It is the feedback process that coaxes users to focus on the quality of their posts and encourages readers (minnows especially) to offer insightful and constructive critique that they would not otherwise think about sharing. I havent even posted an introduction yet and I'm already doin that very same thing. Because I am taking the time to be actively reading content that is uniquely original and sharing my honest thoughts about it just two days after signing up I had the oppurtunity to impact the life of a completely random stranger in such a profound way that would never have happened through Any of the other social media platforms..
The value to be extracted here isnt the false fictitious fiat currency (whether that be in crypto or petro dollars), the value is in the wealth of knowledge, art, poetry, news and music, all (well, mostly) original content that simply doesnt exist otherwise, at least not to such an extent, and the incentive to constructively curate. Its a far cry from the three-second attention span of the average facebook user. The reward system is a feedback tool that helps inspire and encourage creators, a way to numerically show and quantify the reach and impact of a work in a way that no other blog or social media can.
Sorry for such a long thing here, but anyone who is focused only on the numbers behind a dollar sign misses out on the true greatness of what Steemit really is/can be
Well, your thoughts are right. But how do you feel encourage to socialize when it feels no one really cares about what you put up. Facebook did not attach any value to likes, so people dont look for figures. But steemit does, and the only way you really can feel someone looked at what you did, is the upvote (comment) which the figures are attached to. Steemit made it about the figure, hence people see steemit as were they can make figures. And when you dont get what you expecting, quiting is the next option.
Something can only be fun when you get motivated. People post on facebook instagram and other social media, because they get comment, they get likes. But when steemit made it that you cant just freely like, you have to selectively like, how is that a motivation.
We are not far from the end of 80% of new accounts suriving 3 months on steemit, that is the simple truth.
I have personally witness a group of over 300 account become dormant after 2weeks to 2months on steemit. I was part of that group and i couldnt do much to keep them encouraged. Only the few who chould afford to rent sp are hanging on.
Maybe steemit doesnt need much like we want them to stay, they just need a few.
https://steemit.com/selflove/@imtheuniverse/is-physical-beauty-more-important#@imtheuniverse/re-thespiritwithin-re-imtheuniverse-re-thespiritwithin-re-imtheuniverse-is-physical-beauty-more-important-20170902t131506585z
People care, often you'll never see or know how much of an impact you can have with mere words on a computer screen, and its easy to get discouraged when it seems all the time you spent was for nothing, but every once in a while the universe has its own way of telling you that you matter, at least to someone ;)
You have a very valid point, but when we are bringing people in on Board we told them Blog and Earn!
That fact that you gain multiple knowledge can not be take away but can you honestly say that is whats gonna make you stick around?
I dont want a Yes or a No now but am gonna follow you and in say 5 months time i will come around to see how you fairing if you are not getting encouragements for your hard gathered works.
Chances are I will go dark for a while, probally sooner than 5-6 months, but that doesnt mean that I gave up and quitted out, just that I experience a lack of creativity from time to time.
Yes, the upvotes are a great ego boost and encouragement, but that isnt why I find greatness im this platform...the insightful critiques, to me, are far more valuable than the earnings. The earnings are a measure of how well I am doing but not the true value i see in Steemit
I don't think this is a Steemit issue. 80% of people tend to give up in anything they do in life.
That's always been the number, and usually only 20% will do and the few will always out due the rest. Keep on that grind people :)
Dear stacking, i wouldn't agree with that figure because most of this guys went back to their traditional ways of making money which i do not see as giving up.
All i wanted for us is to get to the 1 million user benchmark and beyond but if users keeps running off its hard.
PS- I am extremely honored to read your comments O legendary @Stacking😎 😎
You've hit the nail on the head sir. It's only stubborn and optimist like myself that is willing to stay on. I hope this issue is addressed as a matter of urgency. I think minnows like myself should try and delay gratification, lets liken it to building the foundation of a skyscraper. You deserve a medal of honour for this post. Once again you are my hero.
Thank you for this useful post. I'm still new here, but I trying to find enough time to being active. I guess, people giving up on here too ear
Yes too early but can we do something about it?
I see your point, but I'd say that the attitude is what makes the difference on steemit, if you are not in for the long haul then perhaps steemit isn't the right place for you. I want somewhere to publish my writing ideas and hopefully get some useful interaction on my content. I accept that it will take some fair amount of time before I have the audience that I need for my purposes. It is important to realise that this isn't the place for a short term outlook. I agree that genuinely supporting minnows (myself included) is a great idea, but encouraging minnows to take the long view is better still.
We share the same objective...
Truly it is not easy to convince someone to be committed to a long term gain! Like the 'commenters' before me have said, the problem is mostly on the 'get rich quick' mentality.
Also, some who do not have this mentality still find it difficult to get few cents on their posts. When you drop a post and it is upvoted, it means recognition and LIKES to most minnows. It is a booster to their feelings.
Like @surpassinggoogle usually advised that we should have different methods for bringing people here and make sure the monetary aspect is last! It sound 'hard' though but it is the way to go.
All bores down to Retaining the ones we brought here cos there is no point we keep bringing them and they keep leaving....
Yes boss! They truly need those 'likes' no matter how little.
Thank you for the topic!
I'm now here for 1.5 months and that's just 1/4 of your time here, others are more than a year here. What i experienced and what's also my inner conviction is that everyone who has fundamental positive attitude towards the Steemit platform and thinks long term will succeed.
I read old posts (a year or more old) and was surprised after analyzing the comments, the attitude and reputation scores. What i found out was, that people who put in a lot efforts, maybe also direct money, defended the platform are doing well now. They have reputation scores >60 or 70, the blamers, doubters were still at the 30s, 40s and so i think the system rewards like in real life people who are willing to invest their time and money without any expectation of success.
That's how it works in real life if you build a business. It's never done over night. I read from a now recognized Steemian with reputation >70 that she expect nothing, but that she currently (a year ago) investing all their time to writing well thoughtout posts.. and that could maybe lead to be successful. But i think she had also a hard time for many months until it had payed out for her.
If i look if someone joined in June 2017 and now gave up then i think it's far too early for Steemit. From my point of view it was never the intention of the founders to give everybody from the start big rewards. It is more a test and also a selection if someone can withstand and can be patient to build up his or her reputation for many months with no guarantee of success.
But a year ago the situation was very similar than now. There were doubts if the platform would exist in the near future, why the price of STEEM is declining.
You made a good point for mainstream adoption because my thoughts are not supportive for mass building of new users, because i think for many such timeframes of a year is far too much before they see better rewards. And the crux is, why should someone change from FB to Steemit if he get's initially low rewards and has just limited functionality in comparison to other platforms now? If we just look at the social platform side it lacks here.
And so it needs a bit more time, because UI works, better functionalities are are already on the horizon to pull much more users to our Steemit platform. Here are some posts regarding further development
The State of STEEM - August Expansion
Let' make Steemit better..
New website design for Steemit
That are just my thoughts.
In summary you sure agree that retaining our newbies is key for going mainstream right?
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STOPI look at steemit as a small business, most small business ventures fail, the businesses that do make it have a 2 to 3 year window of struggle and not making a profit.
The bonus for working here blogging is I was giving a small amount of currency to start, I did not invest and I've kept on posting no matter what. I remember when steem was .10 cents and I kept posting. I've gone from making 3 to 4 hundred steem pure week to make around 40 steem per week this last hardfork. I was one of the people who pushed for a fair algorithm in the reward system.
However the unknown outcome is those who gamed this system before can game this system even more now. Plus there are tons of people coming on board thinking they will get rewarded just for posting content or looking to game the system.
They don't understand that starting a business or don't want to start a business but want to steal, that this isn't just about the product, it's about the market and all that goes on within that market.
Note to all lurkers, steemit is actually a social experiment, you can observe this experiment and try to understand your part in it and benefit if you can from the process.
Here is another insight:
Thanks ma'am, i sent you a token for my 1000th Friends post😊
upvoting means giving rewards to others.. why would someone give rewards to others when they could just reward themselves and their friends who will also share their rewards.. so new user will come but retaining them would be difficult if they don't get rewarded for their efforts
Informative huh?
Lol
Very welcome dear @barca