Okay, so it's confession time, when I recently stumbled across Steemit, while I instantly realised the website was a genius concept & one I genuinely hope will form the foundation of the internet over the coming years, being an SEO consultant and web developer by trade I also saw a sneaky link opportunity for one of my new(ish) websites.
So with that I crafted out a post that I thought offered a lot of value and actionable tools people can use straight away to use video more within their marketing stack but the ulterior motive was to also get a backlink to a new project I have recently been working on to see if it passed any authority and at the least maybe bring a few visitors.
I'm a fairly holistic thinker when it comes to SEO and I don't just see backlinks as a signal whether follow or nofollow but equally as a way to bring traffic to your site that might stick around and provide some positive user experience and maybe just maybe some email sign ups.
Getting to the Point...
In 9 hours the post had earned $16.57.
Okay so it's hardly "Dave Chapelle" Money but hey!
Not bad for an hour and a half writing which I was doing anyway for my ulterior motive (remember)?
Even when the money is small it's easy to get excited when it's "automatic income" and passive after you have published and done some basic promotion of your new article.
It allows you to blog on a more level playing field and get good exposure for your work and as a result reap the rewards without having to then go and market your website or blog post all over the internet to make it worthwhile.
You also avoid having to deal with how the hell you are actually going to monetize your page in the first place when AdSense pays diddly-squat (the 1960s meaning).
Other social networks are reducing the visibility of your content in an aim to charge you money to get your work seen via Sponsored posts.
Steemit, on the other hand, is going against the grain and in a paradoxical fashion is ACTUALLY paying content creators for their contribution to the ecosystem.
Now I wish I understood how or why, beyond the fact I did genuinely write a decent article that was original, sharing some tips and tools that I am personally finding useful myself.
That said, I don't fully understand the subtle nuances of Steemit at this point but plan to revise this post or rather do a follow-up and update once I have a firmer grasp of the social network and how to report on my wins and track who helped my content gain more visibility.
YOU: But David, you are an internet marketer with a big following and people you can bring over...
ME: Not really! For the majority of my internet marketing career, I have shied away from personal branding and have spent more time building influence for clients and brands I have worked with than anything self-fulfilling.
Whether that is to my detriment or my benefit is subjective but I am content with that none the less. At the time of publishing this post which, if you remember is my very first on Steemit, I had 1 follower and I had followed around 40 people and upvoted a few things and posted some comments.
Over the next 12 hours, there was considerably less activity but it still gained another dollar or so before dipping toward the end as the amount becomes more accurate, I presume, and in line with the changes in Steem value which become more noticeable when you aren't gaining as much traction.
Ultimately, not a massive win BUT considering I had nearly no followers, had been signed up for about 3 hours and it was my first post I would call that a success.
So far a very interesting experiment!
Other benefits from this experiment so far are that I have some new blogging fodder for my own website where I can talk about Steemit to my existing audience and email newsletter and I have also had the chance to network with a number of interesting individuals and discover some excellent content.
I have been fascinated with different ways the blockchain technology can disrupt industries for a hot minute now and this move from objective proof of work (e.g BitCoin mining) to subjective proof of work (e.g Creating & Curating Content on Steemit) as a method of earning cryptocurrencies is very interesting.
Ethereum's smart contracts share this similarity in that they allow more practical day to day functionality to a crypto currency.
Steemit feels like blogging reborn, this time in a more organised way to be sustainable and ethical by rewarding quality over quantity and truth over 'fake news'!
We can at least hope anyway!
What do you think?
Q: Is $16 typical on your first post within the first 9 hours with 1 follower and 40 or so followings?
Q: Does anyone have similar experiences and stories to share?
Q: Can anyone offer any advice as to how you can report on your progress in terms of which users boosted your earnings or reach?
To the future!
Salut