RE: My Thoughts on Steem's Low Price
It's a perspective thing, I think. One of the main uses of Steemit.com as a blog is the high Google search ranking. That alone makes Steemit.com blogging valuable, more valuable than other blogging platforms.
One of my articles ranked on a Google search in the top 4, right next to a Forbes article. I had 4k views before Steemit.com disabled seeing the number of views. I only got paid $14 for the article, but it was worth having that just for the Google traffic and brand awareness I can create.
Combine such high view counts with advertising dollars, or personal marketing of things like paid services you offer, and there is a useful way to monetize a Steemit.com blog without needing upvotes.
As a blogging system, I don't view Steemit.com as a failure, I see rather that many people have unreasonably high expectations when they join Steemit.com, expecting to get paid based on the quality of their content, rather than building a community around their branded blog. And quality content should pay eventually, but 99 out of 100 people want the quick buck rather than investing into their social media. The first dozens of Steemit articles I made, I got paid nothing or a few cents.
Wow. There is a lot of good thoughts in there. I never really thought of it as a Google Ranking Improvement System. I can see your point and as part of a larger campaign, it makes sense. I look at it just as a blog, a small way to get a message out to the world in a public way. You make a great point, that people come with unreasonable high expectations, but it was sold with those expectations. Some of us do not consider self-promotion to be a important. We have have friends who brag about everything they do... even when it is not significant. And some of us have friends that just do it, and don't talk about it. Well We have always been able to "build a brand" or take any website of you tube channel and advertise ourself or create a brand. That was not new with Steemit and that was not how Steemit was sold. Steemit's Magic Mojo, was the free crypto money and the improved ranking that instant monetary feedback could provide. Steemit, is still an interesting platform or connecting, and the high google ranking might indicate there is still high quality content here. But it has been failing to deliver in my opinion.