Steemit has a few main problems that are preventing the site from really taking off:
- Account creation costs money or takes a few days
- Social media sites are shadowing links to Steemit content
- People are too influenced by the ability to make money
- There is no incentive to create high quality content that appeals to non-Steemit users
- Rewards are not consistent
- Some toxic community members may turn users off
- There is no real reason for users to stick around beyond interacting with the community and possibly making a little money from their posts
Out of all of these issues, it's really 1 and 7 that are the worst. The other ones are definitely an issue, but the real problem is that waiting a week for an account just so you can post your blog that nobody will read is not attractive to most people.
If there were additional use cases for the site, then that would be a different story. Yes there are dtube and dlive, but it's only a matter of time before those start getting shadowed by major social media sites as well. And without the ability to share content via social networks, then traffic will only come from Google.
But if the content is not very good to begin with, then it will be a long time before any of those pages get ranked and the site takes off. Not shitting on anyone's content, but content quality =/= post rewards.
Anyway, the real issue is the fact that it's not worth it to users to go through the trouble of waiting for an account or parting with their own money just so they can write posts. Most people don't create any content at all, let alone write. Most people are content consumers.
But with writing/making videos/streaming the only use cases with wide appeal (and with major competition that dominates their respective markets, by the way), then it's rare that people will even want to join in the first place.
The fact that the number of monthly users has remained at 60k even though the total number of accounts has gone up doesn't mean that Steemit has a bad retention rate. I think what it really means is that you have way more spammers creating bot accounts so they can make money by selling votes/resteems. Yes, you have people that make accounts and drop off, but that's with any social media site.
Okay so enough problems. What are the solutions?
- Create other sidechains like Dlive/Dtube/Utopian that will entice users to come join the party
- Add more features to Steemit that make it more closely resemble a social network and not just a stripped down Reddit clone for blog posts
I was chatting with a group of devs the other day about creating a game build on Steem. They were trying to reinvent the wheel by thinking of some unique game with all these different features that would seem appealing to people.
That's great and everything, but if people can go play Fallout: New Vegas or play our shitty Steemit game, what do you think they're going to play?
But if you could create a Steemit version of chess, for example, you could hold chess tournaments that you could advertise off site to recruit new users. You could reach out to the professional chess community and tell them about this great platform that pays users to play chess. What are they going to say, no?
Taking it further, you could create an entire "game center" type program with all kinds of games. Reach out to each community for each game and bring them in by telling them the exact same thing.
The problem is that Steemit only appeals to the writing community. Okay that's great, because normally writers are broke and desperate to make any money doing any kind of writing.
Video makers? There's people on YouTube still making mid 5 figures per month from their channels.
Streamers? Good luck competing with Twitch and YouTube. Although the payouts here are pretty good.
Developers? Competing with places like github and stackexchange? Doesn't sound particularly easy either.
I think that by creating simple applications that appeal to wider groups of people AND require minimal explanation AND have minimal barriers to account creation, you can definitely increase user acquisition/retention.
For example, here are some ideas I've come up with recently:
- Steemit poker app
- Steemit blackjack app
- Steemit --insert any gambling game here-- app
- Steemit chess/checkers/Go/whatever app
- Steemit Game Center
- Steemit gambling smart contract (for users to bet on matches between themselves on eSports)
- Steemit-based Tinder/dating application
- Add Facebook-like features to Steemit that allow for more photos, a better bio, work history, etc etc
- Add LinkedIn-like features to Steemit so people can show off their portfolios and find more work
- A Steemit job board
- A Steemit app for voice to voice communication
- An eBay like marketplace built on Steem
- An Official Steemit Digest (funded/run by the official Steemit Team) that curates and rewards top content
- A Steemit lottery with drawings 2x week where users can win 80% of the jackpot
Blah blah blah, you get the idea. It's easy to blame the Steemit team for not making any of these things happen. I don't run the company and have no idea what they do all day, but it seems like a lot of these things shouldn't be too hard to implement. I mean they have a freakin sidechain built on Steem with 100s of developers. Maybe put them to work building something?
The other option is to just wait for some enterprising individual to strike gold with the right application that has mass appeal. Possible? Yes. Will it happen faster than the official Steemit team making it happen on their own? God I hope not. But probably yes to that as well.
If you're a dev and want to get involved in projects that are built on the Steem blockchain, PM me on Discord at yallapapi#1970 and I'll invite you to a small group of developers that are doing just that.
Hey @yallapapi, I'm definitely interested in some of those ideas you have. Right now, I'm learning the Steem API and am hoping to start development on a Steem game center. I'd love to connect with anyone else interested.
PM me on discord
@danvillani please check out my blog too
Well ananyzed, @yallapapi! I'm motivated by your punchy points. For that alone you have my undivided attention -- and my vote -- 100% all the way!
Plus, I need to have a one-on-one with you. Thing is, I'm not a dev, but I'm a game concept creator. I have a couple of 'em piled up in boardgame formats; and I'm looking forth to converting 'em to digital (online) formats like playing Chess online. Speaking of which, it might interest you to know that I have in store a game of Chess played by 4 people! Yep!!
Well, let me not bore you with long speech. Bottom line: let's plan on synergizing our different aspects of creativity into something worthwhile, meaningful -- and money-ful!
Enough said. Hit me back ASAP!
this is a very comprehensive summary
@steembay
please upvote me i will follow you and upvote all your blog
Thanks for your upvote, but you should only upvote my articles in case you like them. :)
Ok brother I will
Sir, the popularity of steemit is growing very rapidly, i think this image will sonn become such a marketplace or even further, what do you think steemit will able to overtake the popularity from bigest social media websites like facebook, telegram twitter etc.
Not if so many Steemians keep upvoting themselves only ... :)
Yes, you are right sir, it is very important to vote for all peoples, for their own growth, for steemians growth & for the growth of most essential steemit social site, which has created a big earning platform for us.
Steembay is not an external website, which I would argue is what we need so that people don't have to do any thinking to understand how it works.
People just want to click and buy stuff, a la Amazon. Not make posts and comments with special codes. Maybe it could be some new kind of paradigm shift for online shopping but for mass adoption I think it's better to stay on the safe side and copy things that are already working.
bingo, best not to try to reinvent the wheel, just put the thing on the STEEM blockchain!
Did you ever use steembay? It's very easy, and I guess it will be rather successful.
And yes, I think it was a really good decision to "reinvent the wheel" by creating STEEM/STEEMIT instead of copying facebook - that's exactly why I am here and not using facebook. :)
it would be smart to make a steembook app
So good i like it
Hey @yallapapa and @muratkbesiroglu, thanks for your careful analysis and passion that you demonstrate for Steemit and its community. I have a major problem that's more specific to my own interaction with this platform, and I believe it affects many more users like me. I am a filmmaker and my main means of communication is videos. To cut a long story short: DTUBE IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY, NOT EVEN REMOTELY WELL ENOUGH TO COMPETE WITH YOUTUBE OR OTHER VIDEO PLATFORM.
I believe that an improvement can be done in that direction...
u right
Right..
I agree with all those points. These are my views as a rookie. The platform is nice, but not user friendly (the interface, the payment system, it's all confusing for newcomers). People come here expecting to make money, they don't come here to connect with friends like on facebook. If this platform didn't have this monetary appeal, it would be dead already.
But I believe it has potential.
The opportunity is dimishing unfortanately
Hello Sir I am new on the steemit so how can i improve myself please give me some advise please...
Uhmmm learn to help yourself
Savage haha
me to help me ?
Lets make a big community
Please Help me to grow : https://steemit.com/mgsc/@technicalsandesh/china-s-top-10-cryptocurrency-according-to-their-government
Very helpful post, continue posting content like this ...
I love your perspective. Practical and not at all idealistic with lofty dreams. The same can be said about bitcoin now reminiscent to the internet back in the 80s. It was a weird stuff and only weird people use it, until it isnt.
I'm here not because of what ican do with steemit now but what it's going to be in 10 years. I would be 34 by then, still young as fuck.
Steemit is the best study for a decentralized blockchain product used by regular people. There are lessons here to be learned by other projects and even Bitcoin and Ethereum itself.
Issue No.1 is highly misunderstood because the alternative would have been a transaction fee for every single action done by a user. There is no central data server that operates the steem blockchain, and we gotta incentivize people to to run their computers to power the backend of the blockchain.
But of course my angle may be skewed because the regular Joe don't give a shit about how it all works as long as it does.
IMO Steemit did a mistake by allowing free sign ups to last so long, as well as the the way they handle the whole process. But thats a whole other issue which i dont wanna talk about.
I come to realize that for all the talk about privacy, the regular Joe don't give a shit too about how companies know absolutely everything about them. Youtube, Google, Facebook, Twiter, all the other platforms make money by selling data for predominately ad purpose. Steemit was designed because they assumed people think ads are a big deal. A simple Adsense widget on this site would probably make hundreds of thousand just based on the pure traffic it is getting.
Maybe the witnesses would eventually dial the account creation fee to 0. Maybe, because that would unless a whole lot of shitstorm on a scale that will kill the blockchain. But seriously do people really complain about paying for a member fee when the earning potential is more than fucking enough to cover it?
I'm on the same boat though "minimal" is of course subjective.
Hmmm come to think of it..
Maybe a startup can offer a service to sign up accounts for people for free instantly after a KYC to be content consumers on the steem blockchain and maybe set something like 60% of their curation reward beneficiary to go the company .. so they only get a hold of their posting keys.. and if like they wanna withdraw then they'd have to go back to the company to apply and the company would charge a fee or something.
Want full control of account? Pay!!Want to "upgrade" to full access? Select the Premium Plan!!! Then this company would be incentivized to make sure that only legit people get to have an account and not vote-farming bots, Like what steemit's free sign up is enabling.The witnesses really fucked up the Dust vote threshold....
one of the best articles i have read today. i would like to concur with you when it comes to recovering someones account. i had an account with steemit before but i was not able to access it anymore because i had misplaced my password. this took me a while before opening up another account.
About the quality of content being offered in the platform, its something which should be considered but i was thinking if some people are given steempower mainly because they have high quality content will the platform offer its users a level playing field keeping in mind this is a decentralized platform which its aim it to create equality among all content creators.
Content like this is why I stay with Steemit. I don't fully understand the technicals and as far as Steemit is concerned I shouldn't have to. The end user should be able to integrate their projects without having to be technically savvy.
Wow so many good idea ! 👌👌👌
https://steemit.com/@bisht.pankaj
wat types of ideas u got
I'm not a developer but keen on creating strategies for businesses. You have some amazing ideas listed above, what is your recommendation from the top?
Steemit is a platform where you can get large groups together, so we got to think "What interests large group of people" and there can be multiple large groups with very different interests?
Easier said than done, I think your thought can be materialized if it is pursued
.
#mgsc
that so nice start development game center this is cool idea
Its important
wat is important?
Sir there can be many reasons..but for us tbe most important reason is that. ...Members having high rank are not supportive to nebie new members..if this can happen you see the change 99% proof
Hii sir ur concept is nice .....
Out of all of these issues, it's really 1 and 7 that are the worst. The other ones are definitely an issue, but the real problem is that waiting a week for an account just so you can post your blog that nobody will read is not attractive to most people.
Anyway, the real issue is the fact that it's not worth it to users to go through the trouble of waiting for an account or parting with their own money just so they can write posts. Most people don't create any content at all, let alone write. Most people are content consumers.
I agree those are two very vital points you made.
Steemit is a big project now a day
The more new Ideas become available from you all , the more it helps us as newbies to stick with Steem an wonderful platform
Yes people are influenced by making money. Delegating your steempower is more rewarded than actually vote for other people.
Honestly, everything you said is true. I have a backlog of great content that I am waiting to publish because the ROI I get from publishing vs the cost and time of publishing is not worth it at the moment. I don't feel recognized and I'm going to have to find another outlet for making money if I am going to keep the level of quality as high as I want.
It all comes down to lack of development and lack of support for the end user. I know I'm asking a lot from the crypto community, but the technology is all available. The dev's just need to work on what the end user needs.
100% agreed.
I can say that it's really good article to read. Because this article giving every info about crypto currency.
I request you plz give me info about redcoin , Linda coin, and Bitcoin.
Very very thankful
Great insights!
I really appreciate your perspective and clarity on this coupled with your passion for a solution!
It would be nice if we could fast track our friends in and make formatted post creation easier.
A really solid phone app would help too.
Very good point. The Steemit environment is definitely not friendly for newcomers.
A proper gaming environment would be a great addition to the Steemit experience.