Why Are We Here?
Like most of us here, I have spent time learning about and investing in cryptocurrencies because I believe they are a good way to make money. I certainly like and agree with what they are doing - decentralizing currency, taking power away from governments, disrupting age old fields with new and revolutionary technology, etc - but the primary reason I am getting involved with it to the level that I have is because I believe them to be good, long-term financial investments.
That seems to be the case for the vast majority of cryptocurrency investors - they believe in the technology and invest because they believe it will make money. Investing can be in the form of purchasing the currency on an exchange or mining the currency. Mining in particular is necessary to make the currency and underlying blockchain technology function, but I have never heard of anyone say they are mining only because they want to help grow the technology - they mine because they make money doing it, and helping to support the revolutionary technology behind it is an added benefit.
In It For The Money
Similarly I have never heard of anyone accusing a miner of being “only in it for the money”. That seems actually quite silly because that’s why most everyone is in it! If mining wasn’t profitable then few people, if anyone, would do it and the entire technology would likely die out. The ability to make money mining a cryptocurrency is perhaps one of the most important parts of the technology’s success.
The same applies not just to cryptocurrencies - take taxi services like Lyft and Uber. No one accuses Uber drivers of being “just out to make money”. Of course they’re out to make money - the great thing is that they are providing a very useful service in the process.
That doesn’t seem to always be the case here on SteemIt, however. In my first month here I have often seen people being disparaged for upvoting their own posts or comments, or talking about how they are trying to make money on SteemIt. If that mindset prevails, I think it will be a big deterrent to the success of this great platform.
Mining For the Win
Posting and voting on SteemIt is no different than mining any other cryptocurrency. The more people that mine Bitcoin, the better its chances for success, and the more people that post and vote on SteemIt, the better off the Steem platform will be as well. People mine Bitcoin and other currencies because it’s profitable for them, and people post and vote on SteemIt for the same reason.
The creators of SteemIt know that - that’s why the tag line of the SteemIt.com website is:
Money Talks - Your voice is worth something. Join the community that pays you to post and curate high quality content.The unique, and great, thing about Steem is that instead of using computing power to mine it - posting good quality content is used instead. But it’s still mining, and it’s still incentivized by making money.
If some people are not interested in making money but still want to use the Steem platform, then that’s great! Some people will also use Bitcoin only to make purchases and transfer money around the world. But the system is kept running by the miners, and as a reward for their efforts they are paid - and that’s just how it should be.
Rock the Self-Vote
So all that being said, if a stigma is attached to mining Steem via things like self-upvoting, or talking about how you're trying to make money, then it will reduce the number of miners (a.k.a. posters) and overall hurt the platform. If people start to be openly disparaged for trying to make money on SteemIt (as I was with one comment on my last post, for example) then the very people who make this platform run will leave for other platforms instead.
If you’re worried about people posting a bunch of junk just to up vote themselves - don’t be. There’s not much money to be made that way and while it might happen a little bit now it will die out over time. There is MUCH more money to be made posting good content that other people like and upvoting your posts is a really good, albeit small, way to help get your content out there and seen by more people.
Let's Celebrate
Just like the tag line on the SteemIt home page says, we should openly discuss and celebrate making money on SteemIt. We should encourage people to up vote their own posts and to invest money in Steem so their vote is worth more. We should let everyone know that they too can make money mining Steem with no technical expertise is required! It’s the simplest cryptocurrency in the world to mine and anyone with an internet connection and something to share can do it!
So who’s here to make some money?!? Let me know in the comments section - and be sure to give yourself an upvote because you deserve it!
I want to see everyone who comments here to upvote their own comment - like I said at the end (if you read that far!) - you deserve it!
Agreed! thanks for sharing
I think Steem has potential to be more than just about making money though. Steem Inc's marketing so far falls short of talking about bigger goals. Like freeing publishers from ads. Freeing consumers from click bait. A uncensored distributed platform where no ones voice can be censored or account closed. Where people are reward for their contribution to culture and society regardless of weather advertisers feel their content is a good 'fit'. If Steem is going to go main stream it needs to be seen as more than a make money online scheme.
These are great points. I was not saying that Steem is ONLY about making money, just saying we shouldn't pretend it's not about making money and disparaging people who try to do so. As great as all of the points you make are, I don't think we would get mass adoption of the platform on those items alone.
I don't think the majority of people are as bothered by ads as us early Steem adopters are, and people in general seem to love click-bait which is why it's so popular. Also my guess is that the majority of users probably don't see censorship as an issue since they themselves probably have never been censored and don't see the danger in it.
I think they will come to Steem because they can make money - that to me is the best avenue to mass adoption.
Fair points and no one should be disparaged for enjoying the rewards of their efforts to make this community a better place. The reason it is so powerful is because its a crucible for social and market forces to work together. A funny thing has started to happen in my brain when I read a good article on a different site. I want to up vote so they are rewarded and then I get disappointed when all I can do is share it on facebook. lol
I think ultimately the best reason for people to come to Steem is because Steem has the best content. The most engaging community. And if they have something valuable to contribute they are rewarded fairly. How we get there is the ongoing challenge that makes Steem such an exciting thing to be part of.
Yes Steem needs to attract, encourage and educate present and future content creators and money is definitely an important tool to do that. However, many new users don't make more than a few dollars before they loose patience. So if we are motivating people to join just to make money then we are setting many of them up for disappointed.
This is a good conversation to have and I believe Steem's marketing can mature over time.
That's a really good point that I didn't touch on that if people come just to make money and then are unable to make much they will probably become discouraged and leave.
I think right now though, and probably for a little while ahead, it's still surprisingly easy to make money here with relatively little work if you know what you're doing.
So my point is that we should get the word out about that and educate people as you said. At a certain point in the future when there are significantly more users then making money will be much more difficult but hopefully by then the ecosystem is attracting people on its own.
Thanks for taking the time to engage on this discussion. I'm working on some ideas for Steem advocacy. Would like to get you opinion on more Steem topics. Can I contact you privately?
Sure, let me know how you want to get in touch.
Cool, I sent you my telegram number via encrypted memo.
Nice post and very true.
I think you need to differentiate between 1) being prepared to work to make money longer-term and 2) trying to make money instantly without putting the work in
If you post good content and comment/vote wisely, number 1 will work for you, while number 2 will rarely work for anyone, and certainly not in the long-term
It's strange that so many scammers can't see this - it just seems so obvious...
Cheers
There will always be people who try to make quick money without putting in work and that's ok. To make money you either need to have money or to work hard. If they have money and they invest it in Steem, then that's good for everyone. If they don't have money but they work hard, then they will be creating value for the community which is also good.
If they don't invest money and they don't work hard then they won't make much and eventually will go away. So just ignore the people who aren't providing any value and they will fade out and go somewhere else.
That's all well and good, I just hope the liberty minded ideas that started this movement will not be infiltrated and co-opted by the old establishment when we have mass adoption and the original libertarian types are a minority.
For that to happen the "old establishment" would have to buy up a serious amount of Steem which would drive the price up a lot and make us "original libertarian types" a lot of money which we could turn around and use to take it back!
I'm here to earn money, AND of course because the community has inspired me so much. At the beginning I was attracted by the opportunity to earn money, but what keeps me here is the community.
That's a good tag line: "SteemIt - come for the money, stay for the community!"
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ya, agreed on your point! It is something worth celebrating, is a reward anyway and we love that. It is hard to keep on doing something without any feedback too.
Thanks - go ahead and upvote your comment and get your reward!
haha, done :) thanks mate
I think almost 80% of us are here to make money. Although there are those who do not think money. But the place tool for promotions such as promoting tourist destinations.
Because this includes a good market, because of steemit.com users are they are adventurous
Not sure if i'm understanding you correctly, but are you saying that this is a good place to promote things like vacations to popular tourist destinations because it's a good demographic for that? If so I definitely agree with you and I think there is a way to make advertising work on SteemIt - planning to write a post about that at some point as well.
good post
totally agree with what you write
it is the capacity of adaptation that guarantees us the survival
You are completely right, there's nothing wrong with making money. There's a reason that capitalism works
Great post ,thanks for information
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