Let's Not Talk About Steemit
Guys, I love Steemit. I also love The Rolling Stones, hits from the bong, and masturbating, but if all I ever talked about was those things I would be surrounded by stoned, hippie, perverts and limit my horizons.
If Steemit is ever going to go mainstream we need to stop talking so much about Steemit. I know, like you, I love this platform and all the new developments and projects happening here. I've met so many interesting people and love supporting new projects that come online here, but like someone who only talks about themselves at a party, talking just about Steemit related things can get a little boring to new users coming to the platform.
I understand that Steemit-related initiatives help promote the platform and I'm not saying otherwise or discrediting their value, but it's not the only way. There are other ways to attract and retain large audiences to a platform that have existed long before Steemit was even a thing and we should pay more attention to those methods too.
Imagine if Facebook or Google mostly posted things about Facebook and Google. How long would you stay on those sites? I'm not saying we should stop talking about Steemit altogether just maybe we could post more about other things too.
One factor that draws people to a site and keeps them returning to it is posts in niches that interest them. Yes, of course, there are sites centered around specific niches of interest to that particular group of people, and Steemit is expanding and new communities are forming every day, but I have noticed something over the last couple months.
For the last few months (until this post) I stopped making posts or commenting on posts about Steemit itself and my rewards have not been as great as posts I make about Steemit. I may be mistaken but it appears that Steemit related posts earn more than those of other topics which tends to perpetuate the tendency to write more about Steemit.
If earning is all you care about fine, but there's more involved with a site reaching a larger audience and gaining momentum than just the potential earnings. People return to sites that are of interest to them.
Steemit is very interesting to me and others already on this site, but to the larger audience we need to reach it may not be as interesting to them as we think.
Is Steemit revolutionary, innovative, and changing the way we interact with social media? Yes, of course, it is. But to a first-time observer, it can be very intimidating and appears as if you have to already know something about posting, or crypto, or Steemit to really be a part of it.
Perhaps that is one reason why the site has a retention problem.
I've signed lots of people up to this platform, at least 50 people, but only a handful have stayed on the site. When I ask them why their answers are something along the lines of:
- I was making money at first but not as much now.
- No one seems interested in what I'm interested in
- It seems like you have to write about Steemit or crypto to make money on your posts.
- I haven't found a community that supports me.
- It seems like I have to create something for Steemit to make consistent rewards and I don't know how to do that.
There are a lot of creative people who develop lots of great projects for this platform and they are to be appreciated and supported, but people with those skills make up a small minority of internet users.
To reach a larger audience we need broader communities based on more topics and people willing to post about and support those communities. This is what will attract people to the platform and keep them here.
It also has the added benefit of reaching a larger audience by ranking on search engines for a wide variety of topics. This is beginning to happen but would happen much quicker if writers posted about more topics besides crypto or Steemit itself and if we all started rewarding those who do to incent them to do so we would grow a lot faster.
Another thing I hear a lot from new users is;
- I can't seem to easily find communities here that are interested in what I'm interested in.
My sympathies are with them and I point them to the tags in hopes of helping them find communities of like-minded people, but the way the site is designed using the tags doesn't make it very organized for them to find their niche.
I think there's a solution for that and would like to partner with people interested in helping me solve that problem. I've already started and thought it would be more fun to partner with people because that's part of the fun about Steemit, crowdsourcing projects. If you're interested let me know.
We have to admit that Steemit tends to talk about itself a lot and I for one am committed to changing that. If we continue to post Steem-centric posts we'll remain a community based mainly of Steemit users when we could be reaching ever-growing communities across the internet. We can start by posting and upvoting more posts that are about other topics.
Related Posts
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Luzcypher's Announcement For Steem Witness
@luzycypher I am one of those peeps. I Joined in May 2017 and though @snubbermike has guided me - i quickly lost interest since I was never qualified to write the crypto-text in regards to Steem and though I love the platform, I could not really get into and connect like I do on other social media sites. My goal was not to only be about generating crypto, but to be a better writer. So I flash-forward to now, as I am willing to try again with an open mind. I am currently shifting my career to fulltime writing. With this time I am using it to get to "know" people here and see if I can break through and be successful BOTH to make crypto, via taking the advice of my Steem peers and follow the Mission of the site itself as well as getting to know my fellow Stemians and make "friends". I also want a platform to test market my writing and overall quirkiness and vegan attitude- I feel this is just that as I come back diligent to make it work.
Hey @tammyp are you on the 'vegans of steem' discord yet? Run by one of my oldest friends on steem @evecab
I feel like this could really help you find an audience and people to both support and be supported by. I feel you're struggle btws, I also joined in 2017, August I think but I threw myself into steem 'whole hog' and have to be honest, I did find decent support on my blogs from curie but that has gone away as curie are all about encouraging newer authors of high quality content.
I just went to check out your latest and I've voted + followed you, but honestly if think that you need to join some discord communities and your experience may well be a lot more positive. Steem is seriously all about networking and there is no chance for anyone on here to earn just from the quality of their content unless it is exceptional long form work. If you find like minded content creators there will be more engagement on your blogs 100% guarantee it, as long as you engage on similar authors blogs they will reciprocate. I hope @evecab will swing by when she sees my tag in this comment :)
I hope all this helps hun. Best of luck finding your feet :)
Thank you Rowan =) I just replied also, and couldn't agree with you more. Communities & networking are key on Steemit =) Thanks for recommending VoS =)
You are welcome Eve :)
I totally agree with this comment. Discord is where all the action is with Steemit communities It's like the backstage pass to Steemit.
hey @tammyp, you should come join our vegan discord channel to meet fellow vegans on Steemit =). we're a rather large community actually, so I'm sure you'll find new friends there. This is the link to join:
Thanks so much !! I’m excited and will definetly come and show my love ❤️❤️❤️🥦🥦🥦
Good attitude and approach. This platform and the community behind it has taught me a lot and helped me improve my writing. The rewards are not the only rewards that's for sure.
There are some links at the bottom of this post you may find helpful as many others have. Look forward to reading some of your posts and welcome back.
If you are into writing, have a look at @freewritehouse and network there a bit. @mariannewest is a great person to start with. They have even set up a publishing house and launched their first book. Could be a good fit for you?
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thank you for mentioning the @freewritehouse and thank you for the compliment. Just and FYI - a lot of the writers in the recently published book are freewriters, but I had nothing to do with the makings of the book 😄
I'm just a content creator. I write about stuff that I'm interested in, and I hope that some of my followers will be interested in some of the same things. I don't think I've ever written a post about steem or steemit, to me it's a vehicle, not a destination.
I would like to see more hobby related posts on steem, but perhaps there already is and I just don't see most of them.
I think there are. I've seen communities here based on art, crafts, needlepoint, origami, ect. Just have to find them.
Whhaaaaat... you dare to suggest we abandon the golden rule...
But seriously I know what you mean. There is a lot of platform reflection going on and it seems to be well rewarded.
I agree we need more breadth! Personally I aim for a 1-7 ratio of steem to non-steem posts. I actually have a category for each day of the week (Sundays is posts about steem) but I rarely stick to it.
Although in defence of posts about steem - at least it shows people are into talking about what our society and economy should look like - it's better than the trend towards political disengagement and retreatism in mainstream society!
That's a good way to approach it. One day a week for Steemit posts and other topics the rest of the week.
Ha ha, what an opening 🤣
Been saying this for a fckn age @luzcypher... and living as I say by posting mainly creative works. I even recently started creating short films to add extra value to poetry readings that I put up on dtube. Guess what... Dtube ignored all but 1 of the 5 I've done and continued to vote videos about steem... Or steem community announcements.... Or just traditional style vlogs. I agree with you that the steem centric content on here is not going to interest new users. Also, I've had people deride these opinions before by saying, "you're just pissed that your content isn't making what you want"... Fckn A. Of course I am, I've been posting stuff that I should have been submitting to literary entities (mags and online journals) where it would get me more notice in mainstream literary circles.
Lol, but it's not just about me! A tonne of talented creative writers have left steem, most probably because they're not as stubborn (or maybe stupid) as me. I can see from this article that you've felt exactly the same effect as you've started writing about alternative growing/agriculture. I've also felt the 'write about steem' effect as a few articles I wrote about a month ago that were all about steem did better than my other works, while the one I wrote about the problems that steem has got fck all.
Laughable really that it seems this 'censorship resistant' platform is organically incentivising people to write generic 'follow the company line' articles about something that new comers have little interest in. We will disappear up our own asses if we continue like this!
Ha ha, rant over 😉
I commend you for supporting and posting about different topics. Steemit is an amazing platform and there are many talented developers building great projects. We need them and should encourage them. But we need tp reach more people with different interests to expand our base.
There's a lot of circle jerking going on here. I'm just saying we could jerk off to a lot more than just Steemit. Hahahahah! I'm committed to this platform and to support lots of topics and communities including Steem-related stuff. Just think we should start branching out more.
Music, art, gardening, photography, travel, food, are all topics that are doing well here and we need more.
What do you like to post about? Never mind Just checked your blog out. You have a new follower.
Absolutely agree m8. For me, I feel like the devs and projects 100% get the support they deserve and that is right and good! But the focus by the top dogs and circle-jerkers on only rewarding steem related content (or themselves) is a problem and causes damage to the platform in regards to driving new users away and simply narrowing the field of content which will attract a wider audience. The truth is, however much they might want to deny it until they're blue in the face, that they need to widen their horizons as it is them who hold the largest investment... but the price of steem is still most reliably boosted by massive influxes of new users. So if they took more time and effort to cultivate a wider support of content and for new users then this would increase the overall price I think. Obvs also an increasing price of BTC is a reliable steem price booster as well. Anyway, you've covered all this in your article extremely effectively, I hope that it has the effect of reaching some eyes that need to see this message.
Btw's I'm Rowan from steemfest 3 ;-) One of the frat house crew lol. To prove I'm who I say I am I'll just say: "Dude... quit with the snoring. I thought that you might have missed that as I don't think we ever talked much about our accounts, usually just tales of mischief etc.
Thanks for the follow m8
Oh yes, of course. What a blast that was. I recognize your username now. How have you been Rowan? I'm in Vietnam at the moment. Here' some pics.
https://steemit.com/travel/@luzcypher/living-on-the-beautiful-beaches-in-da-nang-vietnam
I'm OK man. Life is a struggle here in the UK but well I won't get started on the national pastime of moaning too much ;-)
Vietnam sounds like an awesome place to visit, from what I've read and watched it is more tranquil the Thailand, which I've always been curious about seeing for myself. Thailand is awesome, but it's defo 24 hour party people place ;-) I visited SE Asia years ago but didn't get as far Vietnam.
Gonna go check those pics and post out now before going out for a bike ride and hopefully film a little bit of footage around liverpool :)
Cool man. Stay in touch.
Will do m8 :)
I AGREE!! Thanks for the rant, I am glad I am not the only one fighting for artistic freedom... well an artistic platform.
Long live autistic freedom! Hahahaha!
For sure @tammyp. Ha ha, I could rant for England... if there was an olympic event in ranting I'd at least have a spot on the team 😂
Support for artistic/creative content is a long term problem on steem, which the curation guilds address to an extent but not completely. Keep fighting the good fight :) We need artists/writers and all types of creatives on steem as well as the more technically minded!
there may be other reasons to...
https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/it-has-come-to-my-attention-that-i-need-to-explain-things-a-little-more-and-this-is-better
I enjoyed reading your post @luzcypher
And totally agree with you about 'Steemit Posts'
I joined last January and had the idea of sharing my music in those communities, which worked, and still does.
It's a great community that we can all learn a lot from.
our new @spotlight.artist account for the @mspwaves show is helping to get more people interacting and @d-vine and @onemedia do an amazing job each week promoting and delivering the show on Discord! (I am a co-host when I can make it)
Discord is the hub of Steemit and where we can interact with many many users.
It's opened up a whole new world for me and thousands of others
So, with regards to wider adoption and communities, my personal input would be, to try and interact with Discord, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (being the big 4).
I've seen some unofficial social media Steemit pages, but I think we need something more official to engage the Wider Web, and share some content from Steemit users on those social sites.
That's just my 2 pennies worth mate.
Thanks again for all you do for music.
DC🎼
Discord is like the backstage of Steemit. Great communities there. I didn't know you were working with @d-vine. Very cool. I love supporting her on all the Open Mic posts. Great initiative.
I think a lot of people are intimidated by all this talk of quality content. Don't get me wrong, I love quality posts. Most people get intimidated by that and never post. In that way, we become a society that shunns regular people who just want to share their regular lives. Half the time, I won't even check in because I don't feel that I have something good enough for Steemit, something I wouldn't hesitate to post to Facebook when I had it.
I think to get adoption from regular people, we should lower our expectations.
It is like an unspoken censorship hanging from the front door of this place.
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That's an interesting perspective. I go into that kind of stuff in the related posts links at the bottom of this post you may find helpful. Most people are content consumers, not creators. It's always been that way even before the internet.
The thing is though that the creators have been the ones that usually get rewarded for creating anything and the consumers pay. Always been that way. To expect to get rewarded for consuming has never happened before. Not saying it couldn't happen but I can't think of any examples of that. Can you?
So if someone comes here who is mostly going to consume and leave comments they may, as you mentioned, have to lower their expectations. But for the creator,s they may just have to be consistent as hell before expecting any great reward. That's just how life is nd Steemit is no different.
I go into more about this in Tips To Mazximize Your Social Currency On Steemit
As far as problems go, this is a great problem for the ecosystem. Makes it seem healthy.
This is a fairly good point. However, given that Steem is largely populated by crypto enthusiasts who are discovering and learning about this brave new world of crypto... it should be expected that the majority of posts will either be crypto or steem related.
That's not to say that the mainstream social media crowd aren't trickling in, I fully believe they are - as are legacy creators from other platforms.
People will blog and vlog about their passions, and right now we're a fairly active crypto echo chamber.
Is this a bad thing? Not inherently. It might be frustrating for those who want to see rampant adoption. Is it a good thing? Well.. having an active and engaged user base is the foundation for any social media platform. It is needed.
Trends change, and so too will the types of popular content on steem.
We should endeavor to encourage people to contribute and to not be afraid of the passion that exudes from the userbase.
Making a rare exception & upvoting this steemit post. 😜🤣 agree 10000% Normally I only support real content, cos without that the platform will not survive.
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Wow, 10000%? I didn't know it could go that high. Hahahaha!
Totally agree we need more diverse content.
What I want to say about Steemit.. just joking ..
good point this is why my husband is coming back.
What's your husband's username?
@nowian.man thanks for asking
you two have a lot of the same interests