This started out as a comment on a great post by @surfyogi but turns out it works better as a post:
https://steemit.com/steem/@surfyogi/i-like-the-future-of-steem-obvious-reasons-this-is-going-to-blow-up
This post made me think, I am really into exponential ideas and how they will impact everything. (check out Peter Diamandis, Kevin Kelly)
I have been fascinated by the concept of Steemit.com and I am excited about it because it is the first time I'm seeing an exponential idea in action before most other people (on the planet that is) and am able to be part of it at a relatively early stage.
Most people will get on Steemit.com because of STEEM.
But only looking at it as another cryptocurrency is seriously underestimating what is going to drive Steemit.com's growth.
I think Steemit.com, and STEEM as a currency, has a huge first mover advantage: blogs.
To start with: have a look at this counter http://www.worldometers.info/blogs/
it shows the number of blogs written TODAY.
Already at over 2 million just today. How many people do you think will EVER see a single penny from that?
The mantra with blogging was:
Content gets traffic, traffic gets ad-clicks and then ad-clicks get money (pennies unless you have a million + per month hits.
The promise of normal blogging to earn money turned out to be hollow, yes it can be very lucrative BUT you have to be able to build a whole on-line marketing and maybe product generation machine behind it.
That is a job in itself, aside from the writing which is hard enough!
@surfyogi 's # 5 is very interesting:
" Replaces or reduces need for advertising.
I don't need to tell anyone that advertising on the open web almost hobbles web traffic, and mobile apps are probably worse, because there is much less of a sandbox. Security is constantly challenged by mobile
apps, and advertising on the web makes most sites unenjoyable. And don't forget bloggers are dying out there right now, because Google returns text answers before the link results. That has cut down on ad
traffic a great deal. When writers can write without having to sell the most newspapers compared to colleges, then they find their niche, and can write without oppressive environment coloring the process."
The incentive for many people to display ads is going away fast, it is just not worth it anymore! The people who are able to monetize blogs directly are those who have massive amounts of traffic.
The whole ad process is broken and probably has a pervasive influence on the quality and content of blogs.
If you are constantly writing with sponsors and ad SEO in mind your are probably gagging yourself and putting artificial constraints around it!
Do you know how refreshing it is to not have a million ads and extra links around the article I'm reading!???
Users of Steemit.com however simply don't have to bother with all that anymore!
They don't need to have icky ads plastered over their website (ads that pay only pennies per month anyway).
Steemit shortens the writing-to-money cycle to
Content gets traffic, most traffic gets upvotes, upvotes are STEEM POWER + Steem Backed Dollars.
(As I understand it 50% converts to Steem Backed Dollars which is convertible to STEEM and then money (increasingly so) 50% converts to INFLUENCE (or STEEM if you power down).
But it is not over there!
For your READER your content now much more valuable than simple entertainment or enlightenment!
It is also a potential way for your reader to make money and influence, simply for liking and up-voting you!
So the INCENTIVE for the reader to take action (curate and maybe promote and re-steem your content) is much higher.
So that can snowball: content gets some Steemit traffic, traffic gets upvotes, upvotes attract more upvotes because of curation rewards, more upvotes is more visibility, more visibility is more traffic.
Several ways there are compounding factors that can create exponential growth for authors too!
SEO wise, because Steemit.com ranks better than an individual blog on google, the opportunity for organic traffic is much higher, which can also start this cycle.
Added to this, is the network effect of Steemit.com itself: the more people join the more useful it becomes, the more people are then enticed to join.
From wikipedia.
(I explained this network effect in another post on exponential functions:
https://steemit.com/steem/@the-traveller/why-you-still-are-massively-underestimating-steemit-com-exponential-functions-you-probably-don-t-really-understand-them )
Going back to @surfyogi 's article especially his #4 hit me as another mind-blowing feature, I am not so familiar with crypto-currency so did not realize THIS:
"4) Steem does not charge a fee for transactions. That's going to kill all the other altcoin (there are hundreds), in many ways. Not ETH, but most of the others, have no game like this.
They pale in comparison; just pure hype in comparison. “
So all in all:
The first mover advantage steemit.com has is that it is a complete system for bloggers and normal people who want to make money straight off their ideas without hassle:
no bother with gaming that day’s SEO, no bother with ad-sense and buying ads.
STEEM + Steemit.com provides a low drag micropayment system that goes DIRECT from reader to author and not only that,
it is a place where an audience will SEE what you are blogging about and has an INCENTIVE to curate your content because THEY will benefit with REAL money and INFLUENCE.
Oh this could be big... I personally don't even care about STEEM and its price.
I would hope actually it takes another nosedive so I can buy A LOT of it and convert to STEEM POWER.
Great post my friend and I agree, Steemit could very well be the start of a trend to have advertise free content with the ability for users to earn on their own terms. Maybe in the end we will see companies host products on their own blogs and we for once choose to look at it vs being force fed it constantly. Great article, RESTEEMing it for you on Steemit Blogger Central now.
https://www.facebook.com/steemitbc
https://twitter.com/steemitbc
Yo Bro.. I don't want to be over the top, but there is a true potential here, I hold it dear and will spend my time working to make it valuable for everyone.
Found you through Quora. Thanks for nice and informative article.
Thanks for the reply! Just saw it! In the mean time I still believe Steemit has great potential but there are some bumps in the road so far.
There are loads of bots that are autovoting, this is a problem that needs to be structurally dealt with.
Also the promise of steemit to reward quality content has not been fulfilled yet. The rewards for putting out consistently good articles are too unpredictable to make this a rewarding activity.
So far I had been enjoying the interaction with commenters but that has reduced a bit too. So my attitude now is a bit more wait and see... great potential does not mean it will also be realised. But I'd encourage you to experiment and see what happens. You can get lucky at times!