Don't sweat the small stuff - Why earning low rewards today shouldn't be a big deal
I recently did an interview with @terrybrock where I talked about my experience since I first joined Steemit, and my advise for new users on how to be successful. I talked about what it was like starting out as a new user with no followers (earning practically no rewards), and how I went from a 'nobody' on the platform, to one of the more well known users.
If you haven't watched the video yet, I highly recommend you check it out:
Steemit Success Series- @timcliff on Who To Target With Your Content
There have been a lot of thoughts spinning around in my head since the interview, and the recent spike in SBD prices to over $10 has reminded me of something that I should have talked more about in the interview. To me, this is really key for every user to keep in mind - and probably one of the most important things that we can teach new users to improve their experience.
Most users are looking at their rewards in the wrong way
The tokens that we earn today (through our blogging, commenting, and curating) have real value. That is part of what makes the Steem platform so amazing. Anybody can join, post content (about whatever they want) and earn rewards for the value they produce. Where else on the internet is this possible?
There is a lot of discussion about the rewards on the platform, and how we should not make rewards the main focus. While I totally agree that the Steem platform is SO MUCH MORE than just earning rewards, let's face it - most of us that are here do want to earn some money.
The three biggest complaints that I hear from new users are:
- The platform is unfair (other users are earning more, and they clearly don't deserve it).
- It is way to difficult to get noticed and earn significant rewards without putting in a ton of effort.
- My upvotes are worth practically nothing. After I upvote something, it only rewards the user a penny.
When users are so focused on rewards, it is easy to look at the small amount that they are earning and think it is not worth it.
Everyone seems to be focused on how much their rewards are worth today though. A 0.02 may not seem like a lot today (and it is not), but that 0.02 upvote may actually be worth a lot of money some day. (Seriously.)
The average user needs to be more informed about the investment side of Steem.
Any user can take 50% of their earnings and cash them out after 7 days. The other 50% can be left in the platform, or cashed out over a period of 13 weeks. When they cash out their rewards, where does that money come from though? It comes from an investor. Someone on the other side of the exchange (wherever the tokens are being sold) is buying those tokens. They are giving the user "real money" in exchange for the tokens. But why? Because they are expecting them to go up in value. Think about that. They aren't giving users free money out of the goodness of their hearts. They are paying for these tokens at the value they are being sold at, because they think/hope/expect that some day - they will be worth more.
I just went around to all of my friends accounts today and collected up all of the "loose change" SBD rewards that had collected in their accounts. Most of the accounts had around $0.10-$2.00 worth of SBD. While that may not seem like a lot - SBD is currently trading for over $10. It made for some very interesting conversations. Hey, remember that small amount of SBD that you left sitting in your account? It had actually gone way up in value. I just cashed it out for you. It was worth 19 bucks. It's really too bad you hadn't been more active on Steemit recently.. If you had just earned a few more dollars, you might have had over a hundred bucks.
Lots of little rewards can add up, and if those little rewards each go up in value - they can be worth a lot!
While SBD going from $1 to $10 was a pretty big surprise, STEEM going from $1 to $10 is something we should all start to consider a possibility. @steemitblog recently wrote an article comparing STEEM to Ethereum and it is pretty clear that the Steem blockchain blows Ethereum out of the water in many ways. ETH is currently sitting at $455.02 a token with a marketcap of $43,780,733,655. STEEM is sitting at $1.81 per token, with a marketcap of $445,703,080. Why couldn't STEEM be worth more? Why couldn't STEEM be worth a lot more?
With the plan to launch SMTs in early 2018, STEEM is going to be getting a lot more media exposure. It is not outside the realm of possibility that we could become one of the top 5 tokens. If that happens, STEEM tokens are going to be worth a lot more.
Users should really be asking themselves the question - do you want to be cashing out your rewards today, or would it be better to invest the money back into the platform? One of the easiest things to do with SBD rewards is to go to the internal market and use the SBD to buy STEEM. If the STEEM goes up in value, the same rewards will be worth more.
This info is not intended to be a price prediction, and it does not constitute investment advise. What it is intended to do is to point out that the rewards we earn today can be viewed in a much different light if we take a step back and look at what they could be worth several years down the line. Those few pennies that you earn today, really could be worth a lot.
Back in 2010, some guy bought two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Assuming the pizza was about $20 USD, that puts the price of one BTC at $0.002 USD at the time. Today, BTC is sitting at around $15,000, and those same 10,000 BTC are worth about $150,000,000 USD. One penny worth of BTC from 2010 is now worth $150. Think about that for a second..
Closing Thoughts
While it is fun to think of STEEM tokens one day being worth $15,000 or more (and of course it is certainly possible), we do still have a ways to go. There are a lot of big improvements that need to be made, and our platform and community need to scale. My personal hope is that we can make 2018 the year that we get to $10 STEEM though, and I do think we can make that happen.
One thing that is important to keep in mind, is the token is not going to get to $10 (or $15,000) on its own. It is important that as members of the community, we take an active role in getting it there.
As yourself the question - what can you do to help increase the value of STEEM? Can you encourage local merchants to start accepting STEEM as a form of payment? Can you convince someone who will add a lot of value to join? Can you create an article that will start getting picked up by Google, and bring a lot more eye-balls to the site?
There are lots of ways to make the platform more valuable, and everybody has different talents and skills to offer. You might even have some way of adding value to the platform that nobody else can. I'm pretty confident that if we all work together to make this place as amazing as it can be - we really will reach the moon.
I (and maybe everyone too) have learned a lesson with SBD: HODL it as much as possible and wait for the next (abnormal) pump. SBD peaked at $22 last May, and here we are 6 months later with another massive pump. It's fair to say nobody could have anticipated another surge like that until today, thanks to those Korean exchanges. Who knows what could happen in another 6 months, or less!
And that's not all! I've been paying close attention to its price on Bittrex for a few months, and very often it got a weekly pump. For example, it would surge to $2-3 in the space of a few minutes! If you're lucky to have placed a sell order (which I did a couple of times), then you would get a nice little quick weekly profit!!!
As for STEEM, having it stored in Steem Power is the best incentive to hold it for the long term. After all, we NEED Steep Power to transact and increase our stake/influence. DASH and Ethereum were cheap last year, below $10, but once they got their recognition, they skyrocketed. Everyone who missed on those look back and slap themselves: Why oh why didn't I get some?
I think STEEM is the perfect opportunity, I can't wait to see its value in one year. It too is bound for a glorious moment. Almost every coin and altcoin had their 10x surges (whether by a pump or by slower growth). STEEM is no different. Get it now while it's still cheap. And finally, investors seek price stability. STEEM price remained relatively stable despite all the market volatility since this summer. Major coins got up and stayed up, shitcoins got pumped and dumped into oblivion, yet STEEM is still here unbudged! THIS is a good sign for the future. Things can only go up from this point on.
STEEM/USDT pair in most exchanges will provide more stability and more trading opportunity. LTC, DASH, XMR, and most top coins have USDT pair in top exchanges. For example, one did put a buy order in BTC, BTC fell 25% and STEEM fell 10% against BTC, therefore, it fell against USDT by 32.5%. It is hard to trade inter-day with STEEM against BTC. Hopefully, STEEM will be added to top exchanges and traded against USD sooner than later.
This is motivational.
Let's do this together, let's talk about it, let's show the world what is being done on blockchain already, on what scale, with what speed and how secure these wallets are.
It's game time.
Yes #fitzgibbon it is so much motivational, before reading this post i decided to withdraw my SBD but i will not do it not this time.@timcliff
I really needed to read this, thanks. As a new user to steemit (aged 10 days) I have come across other new users with similar complaints that you've pointed out here regarding rewards. While some of my posts are only generating between 2 and 8 cents, it is important to understand that as a new user with next to 0 followers, there will be some hurdles to cross in order to get noticed. As for putting too much effort in, absolutely! You always have to put in 110% in everything you do. This is what will build an audience for you, and while you might only be making 8 cents a post now, as you gain more followers, you will get more exposure and thus higher rewards for your posts. Not only that, but regarding @timcliffs point about 1 pennies worth of BTC in 2010 is now worth $150, the 8 pennies I made on my last article could be $80 within the next few years. People buy because they know it'll go up. I plan to hold as long as I can and together we can all make the value of steem go up. I see new users joining every day by the dozens if not hundreds. If anything, STEEM is getting quite a bit of recognition and that alone increases the value of STEEM.
Some really good points in this article. As a new user I feel like sometimes the platform isn’t “fair” , but then I look at what successful people do on here and for the most part it’s making solid, consistent posts and finding a niche. Over time it all adds up and I’m seeing now how it’s really done! Thanks for taking the time to post such a well thought out article. Really enjoyed it. Kudos!!!
I invested in Steem when I joined in September and am happy I did. I love that my vote can pay out those that interact with me. Looking at it with the long view perspective 2 years to 3 years goes by pretty fast in life and we will all benifit from being early here and starting out with nothing even my friends that just join have started there journey in crypto and blockchain. I think Steem is the best place for people to start as you have the most to gain with the least to loose. You are already posting and sharing on other social platforms and all you get is the value of using it but no investment in the platform. I see steem as a tool to empower community and empower the individual to have a place to speak there mind and share the unique point of view. When communities come together in an open way such as Utopian.io then we see the real power of empowering others. Investing in people is investing in steem when the value of this is realized then there is no limit to where the price can go. I am proud to be a part of this forward thinking self supporting community that runs on the steem blockchain. Thank you for taking the journey with me.
Allowistic Artist
Vincent Wilhelm Vaughn Strader
Creativity flows in the waves of now #allowistic
Really appreciate both the concise points and the infectious enthusiasm with which you convey them @timcliff
"I'm pretty confident that if we all work together to make this place as amazing as it can be - we really will reach the moon."
This statement alone speaks volumes as to the profoundly symbiotic nature of Steemit. I don't use the word "profound" lightly I use it because I believe the entire platform gives a tantalising glimpse at how our entire society could be structured. Working together as opposed to working against each other, helping each other to fuel the platform and in turn help ourselves. In many ways this concept is the antithesis of the ruthless dog eat dog structure our society so often morphs into. Baby steps? yes but even the smallest of acorns can grow into the mightiest of oaks!
Of course you're right. There were many articles on the subject of prospects of tokens steem and SBD. All experienced users and heavyweights talking about what we need to think about the future. It is absolutely true. But most new users don't read this information, I think. This is due to three reasons, which you also mentioned in your article.
Since many new users are focused only on receiving awards specifically in this moment, they do not see what is happening on the platform as a whole. They just votes and left comment "nice post".
And there is another reason, perhaps, many people think that all this may soon end. On the basis of this idea, they prefer to realize the funds received immediately. I'm not a hypocrite and I admit, I'm one of them.
Only recently have I seriously started to think about how to change my attitude to the platform and to think about the long term.
First and foremost, this is not due to belief in the success of this place (although I believe). The reason is simple, I got rid of the need to immediately change the crypto to real money. I received a financial stability that allows me to make long-term decisions.
This is a very important circumstance. Because it is difficult to get people, who are in dire need of money at the moment, to put aside their needs and think carefully about the future. Unfortunately.
I needed to read this! I have been wondering why my posts were not making any real money at all when others posting in the same challenge are making great rewards on their posts. I guess it all comes down to who follows you and if your followers are active or not. I went to the dead follower's website and found out that over a third of my followers have not posted or anything in months. I guess things happen for a reason and it was a learning experience for me.
i have been on steemit from 20 days ...this is the best blog i have ever read to help the newbie....today i get to the real importance of steemit....thankyou so much @timcliff ....lets