Steemit and the Fine Art of Selling AIR!

In some odd and twisted way, the saving grace of the Hardfork-20 hubbub was that it offered me — and perhaps quite a few others — the chance to get up and walk away and do something completely different.

And then come back and pose the inevitable "WTF, mate?" questions.

Or not.

I had some. Or I had some new perspectives.

Time for some fall leaves...

I Guess I Shoulda Known...

A couple of posts I read recently inspired these ramblings... somewhat.

First was @anomadsoul's post "Thoughts from a doctor's waiting room" from a couple of days ago (Hope you're feeling better, Eric!) in which he alludes to the heartbreak of watching people jump ship from Steemit at the slightest signs things aren't working (like HF.20 not going smoothly) and complaining about it, all over unproven alternative venues... that are little more than Steemit clones.

A very short while later, came across @meno's vlog which was basically a response to "a certain post" currently sitting near the top of the trending feed, with a-certain-someone selling the "secrets" to succeeding on Steemit.

At the end of those two, I was pretty much shaking my head; realizing that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And not just on Steemit. Everywhere.

Busy sandpipers in the beach...

The "Competition" Thing...

Personally, I find that checking out the competition and actually interacting on other sites is a really useful exercise. I'm less interested in partaking in the "bitch sessions."

In listening to what "refugees" from Steemit are saying elsewhere, we get a clearer and unfiltered look at the hot spots of what is going wrong here.

On Weku, for example (basically a total Steemit clone) the subtext you get from reading between the lines is that there's a group of people who feel let down that Steemit seems more like an "app development" venue than a "content creation" venue. They are bloggers and writers who are sick to death of bots and apps and SMTs... and the people who are apologists for them.

I know this music. Twenty years of doing this tells me that you can rely on pretty much all projects setting up to reward contributors for content to shoot themselves in the foot and go TU for a variety of reasons.

The most common reason for failure is underestimating the sheer depth of human greed, along with the vast numbers of people desperate to make even one-tenth of a cent from "working online."

More fall leaves... and a few snowflakes...

The Snake Oil Sellers...

Although I'm certain they don't think of themselves in such terms, latter-day Snake Oil Salesmen are a fact of the business landscape, no matter where you go.

As a metaphor, they come to a village where villagers peacefully pick apples for free, as and when they need them. But these opportunists somehow put a fence around the apple trees and suddenly charge admission to pick the previously free apples.

But that's only half the story.

Whereas such an action does allow them to make some money from the hapless villagers, the real opportunity lies in selling seminars to the villagers on "How to Profit From Putting Fences Around Free Apple Trees!" knowing full well that there aren't enough apples — by a long shot — to support all the seminar buyers... while persisting in pointing to their own success as "proof" that their system works.

As @meno pointed out in his vlog, "don't do it!"

"Lying with the facts" is a time honored — but very sketchy — business practice that has been around for many decades.

Simply put: The "secret" to making lots of money on Steemit is to persuade enough people to pay you $40 to learn the secret to making lots of money on Steemit. There actually is no secret, just the possible promise that there might be a secret.

A lot of people are basically selling you AIR, and charging good money for it. Even though air is all aronud us, and free...

Petals of a pink rose...

Well, Why Don't You Take These Crooks DOWN???

It's not my job to take anyone "down."

My job is merely to shine the light where there perhaps is darkness or fogginess as to what is going on. I simply show — in a public way — how things actually work.

If the illusionist's bag of tricks can pass the light of day, so be it — good luck to them! Most likely, though, they can't. Most likely, you're being sold smoke and mirrors with nothing to substantiate them.

And the fact that there are people making $800 for their Steemit posts has no bearing on what I will be paid for these words... nor on my expectations of what I should get paid for them. If I end up with $20 in rewards for this, it would be a small miracle!

"Yeah, but I want to make lots of money posting stuff on Steemit!!"

Cool. And I want a brand-new Mercedes for $1,000.

In other words, take a reality pill and call me in the morning when you've had a chance to think through the actual math of the whole thing.

Towards far horizons...

What's REAL... and What Isn't?

There are no "secrets" to Steemit, and I agree with @meno on that count.

I've busted my butt for almost two years, posting nearly 800 top level posts and 12,000+ comments... and I'm still pretty much "nobody," on the greater scale of things.

My Steemit friends are more likely fellow content creators than "influential people." I don't have a random million dollars lying around to buy influence with, in the form of SteemPower.

What's real here is that we have an opportunity here to get rewarded for our contributions. What's not real is the idea that somehow Steemit "owes us" any particular compensation or income.

In the meantime, I am just going to keep posting and enjoy the interaction. Not planning to "go anywhere," even though I have "toe holds" in several of the new projects. Because I am curious...

Now go out there and do your best, and have a bit of integrity!

Because that IS "real."

Thanks for reading!

Comments are welcome and invited, as always!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 181005 23:23 PDT

Posted via SteemPeak.com