RE: Steemit Update
Think adds for visitors only that reward authors would be very a mega boost to the platform. It could attract top content providers to the platform while allowing us to spent our adds budget right here on this platform.
Today, if you link your blog post on Twitter or FB and it ends up getting massive amounts of visits from non-users, chances are you make $0.10 or less on a massively successfully post. Not the way to attract top content providers. Now consider the, what?, $0.30 or so per click you pay for an add campaign on Amazon. Wouldn't it be cool if you could run that campaign on Steemit for a fraction of that? You could make the platform add free for authenticated users, make adds opt in for authors, draw in establihed top content providers with add revenues and allow people to spent their advertising budget with the blockchain as one and only middle man. I think adds, if done right and front end independent, could be a massive win for everyone.
For making money that is fine. For people that want to see ads that is fine. For people like myself, who quit TV because of ads, who rarely looks at you tube videos because of ads, who will click news stories off I am interested in because they want to put a cookie tracker on me, or have excessive ads, not fine. There is no opt out for advertisements. People on steemit are advertising for free all the time as I mentioned above, they get a payout from the people they work for, I do not vote on nor even open any page that has the first tag as one mentioned above.
Advertising banners and plugins get added I will do like I have in the past, find something else. I know people want to monetize all their content, I even vote on their content to help the monetization of their content.
I have yet to go out in a serious search for how to convert my steem into spendable monies. I have found a way to semi sort of buy steem, and that is to buy stemm monster cards. But I am enjoying the game. If I had to wade through a bunch of advertisements to play, I would just go back to other games I like that are add free.
Advertising money is not the end all be all of everything internet wise. If the internet needs advertisers to subsidise the internet then the internet is in big trouble and will die of natural causes, or it will be bailed out by well meaning idiots, like the american automobile industry. The american banking industry, and the american this and that industry that has been bailed out by the American tax payers ever since FDR.
If advertising is the only solution to steemit's problems then steemit will have a problem, as they currently do, retaining users. If Steemit still dreams of being something new in the world of social media then they must not repeat the problems of the current social media.
For myself, like I said, if they bring advertisements on board then odds are very likely I will leave and go elsewhere.
I think the value of the platform, first and foremost is determined by its content, and as such a huge problem standing in the way of growth for steemit lies in the fact that there is negative incitement for established top content providers to switch to the platform.
The reality is: established content providers make money from advertising and their established followers that they will lose the moment they move to steemit. Basically they start from scratch on the platform, hoping they can build a new following to make up for the old one no longer generating profits. The old following is used to adds, the potential new following, as you so rightfully point out is unlikely to even tolerate them. But I think this doesn't need to be a problem. What I think would be the solution to make these two wolds connect is actually pretty straight forward.
By doing it this way, none of the regular steemit users should even notice there are adds. Someone however who is an established content provider on an other platform however will draw visitors who aren't steemit users (yet), visitors that, coming in from FB/Twitter/etc links will get presented with advertising that would provide the content provider with hopefully a competitive revenue stream.
Note, I'm not in any way suggesting any of the revenues from advertising should go to Steemit Inc. I am suggesting the feature of allowing established top content providers to migrate without loss of advertising revenues will end up improving the monetary value of STEEM, what in turn will fix things for Steemit Inc.
Without Steemit INC or any other third party getting in between the person running the add campaign and the established top content providers, in theory steemit should have a competitive edge from the perspective of both the content provider and the person buying click throughs.
Hope I'm makeing sense here.
Good riddance! Apart from ads or paid promotion the only solution is pay-to-play. Reality is setting in and speculative money is dwindling. It's time for Steem to start earning!
There are billions of social media users out there who don't mind ads at all. Have you ever read the Steem white paper? The value proposition of Steem is to get as many of those people to come on board or to consume the content as possible.
If the Steem community rejects paid promotion, then the platform is certain to die.