So, I've been a Steemian for 6 months now, and in that time:
- I have shut down one of my blogs in favor of writing on Steemit
- Published SEVERAL extensive tutorials on this platform
- Made money
- Lost money
- Learned a lot
I have spent many, many hours creating content for Steemit that has been received well, and not-so-well. It's fine, I don't expect everything I write to hit trending and earn me hundreds of dollars.
Repurposing Content I Wrote For Steemit
Once I was committed to these tutorials, I continued on with the idea that I could always wrap them into a book and self-publish it which is one of my many side hustles. Right?
I thought it was a pretty smart strategy for repurposing the content and turning into a passive income stream. So, I submitted the first book this past week which took 6 parts of my tutorial on Self-Publishing on a ZERO Budget and adapted it for a Kindle book.
It's not working out too well. So far, I've received two emails from Kindle Direct Publishing telling me how the content is "readily available on the Internet", and I need to prove that I own the copyright and publishing rights to the content.
I need an email from the domain it's published on stating such. That's rather difficult, I think. Who would I even contact at Steemit that would listen to me and go through the trouble of providing me with such?
The content, all 6 separate parts of the tutorial, has less than 500 views COMBINED over the last FIVE months. I hardly consider that "readily available". It's pretty much invisible and I can no longer earn from it.
So in an effort to shed light on my work, I decided on what I've outlined above, but it's not looking too good.
EDIT TO ADD: I was eventually able to push through the publishing of my book, so I'm pleased about that, but I'll still always second-guess putting my long-form content on Steemit until the ability to edit, delete, and earn passively are added.
Let Me Save You The Trouble
I'm writing this for the same reason I write all of my other content on Steemit...to help others. Sure, the possibility of earning on what I write is always there, but it's not the driving force...at least not for me. It's simply an added bonus.
I'd encourage you to think twice before you post content to Steemit that you may actually want to use elsewhere in the future.
Since we don't have the option to delete our posts or even edit them after a certain time period, any and everything you write here is here for posterity.
While no one may be finding and reading your content, it is simple to find with any duplicate content checker on the web.
For that reason, you will be limited by the ways you can repurpose the content outside of Steemit.
If Steemit Was Passive...
It would certainly negate the need to seek other avenues for our content to be profitable outside of its constraints.
I can still use my content in other ways, but being limited by one of my best ways to earn passive income is frustrating to say the least and not something I even considered.
Since Steemit isn't passive, I wonder what strategies are being used on the platform to remedy this?
Would the community frown upon republishing content in an effort to make it visible to a new round of readers? Are there people doing this already? Jerry Banfield?
What Are Your Thoughts?
When you think about it, Steemit is really limiting. The ONLY real incentive to be here is indeed the chance of earning immediate income on your content.
After that, you're stuck with content you have NO control over that you can't earn money from.
What are you thoughts?
Wondering why the payout is declined on this. As far as fiction goes, I'm wondering if I should be putting anything at all on steemit, now. A blurb and link would be about as far as I'd want to go, but I don't see that earning very well.
I chose not to receive payments on this post. It didn't seem appropriate since it was kind of a mild rant about not having enough opportunity and control here.
You could do blurbs with Zappl, but yeah, you'd probably just earn a few cents at best.
Steemit LOVES long-form content, but in my experience, the compensation ranges from nil to maybe $10 if you're lucky.
I can be ignored posting on my own website, you know? The main incentives for posting here to Steemit is the community (aka NOT being ignored), and the potential for compensation.
I've seen a lot of people posting books here in serialized format, and I just want those people to know they're going to experience problems when they are ready to publish outside Steemit, and since we can't delete the content here, you're locked in here. It's like it was part of the plan to trap your content here and not pay you passively for it beyond the first week it's published.
Now I'm wondering what would happen if I published on Amazon first and then posted on Steemit. Would Amazon want to remove my publication from their site?
No, but they will "price match" if your content is found cheaper somewhere else online.
Someone has to tell them about it though, so you could probably get away with it for quite sometime, and given the fact that my 5-month-old tutorials have less than 500 total views COMBINED, that's unlikely with Steemit, I'd say.
The thing to do would be to just post excerpts on Steemit with links to buy the full version of the content on Amazon I suppose.
I will definitely be re-evaluating how I use Steemit from here on out.
No more long-form content or lengthy tutorials. I'll save that stuff for my podcasts and blog posts on MY OWN website, and post from DSound or whatever to here.
Don't get me wrong, I like Steemit a lot, but having put in the work here, the results I'm getting don't match the effort and the limitations here are, well, they're crap honestly.
At least on my own website I can delete and edit as needed. I can update posts with new information so they stay relevant. The content there is alive. This is also true of Medium.com...a major Steemit competitor.
Here on Steemit, it ages very quickly and goes into oblivion. What's the point of the longevity of the blockchain when it's shadowed in darkness never to be seen again?
It only makes sense to post a general blurb and a link to where the content can actually LIVE and evolve. I actually can't believe this isn't something that is in the works and top priority to fix on this site.
It seems to me otherwise Steemit is kinda dead...at least as a home for content beyond a link.
Suddenly, I get @Zappl...at first, I thought how dumb it was and how they needed to disconnect from Steemit, but now I see....it's actually a rather ideal way to post to Steemit when I think about it. Just enough space for a blurb and a link.
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