Once upon a time, a blogging platform existed where users could post about things that interested them, and other users could upvote or downvote those posts based on the value they perceived them to have. It wasn’t a perfect system, but with persistence, a person could build a following of other people who liked their content and considered it worth reading.
Then along came a new type of user who recognized an opportunity lurking in the system—they could create automated upvote bots not only for themselves, but for hire. Some of these bot developers put a great deal of SP behind their bots to give them far more voting strength than the average user. Eventually, content creators who could not afford to buy votes or preferred organic upvotes by real humans got lost in the noise. Even well-backed curation teams were unable to lift their posts high enough to gain any real visibility on the platform.
All the while, rhetoric from the Steemit corporate machine continued to suggest that drawing new users remains a priority. Even now, the Steemit Facebook page says: “Steemit is a social media platform where everyone gets paid for creating and curating content.” It is definitely being marketed as a content-based platform. Yet at the “street level” of Steemit, away from the corporate offices and down here in the communities where the real shit happens, original content is being devalued and marginalized. Ever-increasingly, the only way to gain visibility for new or less-established users on the platform is to buy it.
Analyzing the Ecosystem
This “pay-to-play” system works for many. There has certainly been no push from the top to discourage it. Quite a few investors are profiting heavily from their bidbots, and this is a profit-driven ecosystem. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that the new paradigm is here to stay.
Generally speaking, Steemit users fall into one of two categories: investors and content creators. Investors are here for the crypto and could care less about the content. It can actually be a nuisance to them in some cases. They use their Steemit account for the wallet. On the other side of the coin, content creators produce the posts that generate interaction, and this interaction is monetized in the form of rewards.
Reality Check
Here’s the reality: the majority of new users join the platform to create content for rewards. But the rewards belong mostly to the investors, who don’t need new content or interaction to profit from their existing stake. Thus content is irrelevant to them, and so are the creators of it. Unless the content creators can show them a tangible way to increase revenue from the blockchain, investors will remain disinterested in their contribution.
This presents a huge conflict of interest between the two groups using the Steem blockchain: the investors, and the content creators. Unless the brains of this operation find a way to bridge the widening gap, every producer of quality content on the Steemit platform who is not willing to pay for upvotes will eventually head for more productive venues. That may be just fine and dandy with Steemit, Inc. and the investor crowd. Attracting mainstream users away from Facebook and other forms of social media may not be goal. But if it is, Steemit should be doubling down on original content creation, not chasing it away to emerging competition.
If the idea of this alone isn't enough of a reality check, just today @paulag published monthly stats that show new user signup for April is roughly half the new user signup for March. So are we heading in the right direction or not? Again, this may be just fine with Steemit, Inc. But for me, it indicates a definite downtrend.
So...What Now?
I don’t have a pat answer. I know from real life experience that evergreen content (content that has timeless appeal across platforms) has intrinsic value and can be monetized. How to make this work in the Steemit environment is a puzzle that needs solving. I have ideas about curation and even about partnering with bidbot owners. But it’s going to take teamwork. I’ve published this post in hopes of finding that team.
As co-founder of @thewritersblock, I’m well-positioned within the Steemit community to discuss curation. TWB has its own curation team which could easily be repurposed for something of this nature. We would simply need several large accounts willing to commit sizable upvotes every week to manually curated creative content. Yes, Steemit already has several curation trails. But the amount of content that needs attention easily overwhelms them, and the focus of curation is often misplaced in relation to this purpose. A different scale and scope is needed. Do enough large accounts exist with an interest in original content creation to get involved with a project like this? I don’t know. But I’d certainly like to find out.
“Monetizing your content. Partnering with someone who can display ads in your articles and generate some revenue. And market you content to the external community.” --- @mughat
Mughat said it well and gave me permission to quote him. He has the right idea if this is the direction Steemit is headed. I’ve reached out to a couple of bidbot owners to discuss sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Bear in mind, many of the people who follow evergreen content creators may not be familiar with the different bot services branded across the platform. So bidbot owners would be reaching a demographic they haven’t previously tapped. For example, I was unfamiliar with Booster until I heard about it through @jonny-clearwater ‘s blog. Booster supports Jonny with Hots and Shots, and would therefore be the first bot I’d consider were I to go that route. Advertising. Sponsorship. It works.
I hope that people with a vested interest in the future of original, evergreen content on Steemit will get behind this post and make sure the right eyes see it. We need to start a discussion, folks. We’re never going to “defeat” the bidbots or the pay-to-play system. It’s too lucrative. So we might as well learn to thrive in this environment.
I challenge every large account holder to consider the possibility of sponsoring a creative project. Let’s put ideas into action. If you’d be willing to offer a certain number of large upvotes and resteems (because views matter just as much as payout) every week, why not pair up with a worthwhile community? I offer this same challenge to bidbot owners. Booster and Jonny Clearwater are making it work. They present a very good business model of partnership and cooperation. Let’s don’t stand here fiddling while Rome burns. If you have ideas and would like to get involved with this effort to retain top-tier content creators, please let me know in the comments or DM me on Discord.
Read thoughts on this topic by another prominent Steemian here:
https://steemit.com/writing/@gmuxx/why-i-write-fiction-and-why-i-will-stop-sharing-it-here
