Steemit - from the authors perspective

I have been using article writing in my marketing practices for as long as I can remember. I have used countless platforms in my time and I wanted to do a short piece on what I have found as a first time user on Steemit.

This post will highlight things I like as a first time user and things I don't like as a first time user.

My intent is not to bash the system or anything like that, but rather in the hopes of influencing future development while at the same time helping others with issues I first had.

Steemit - the pitfalls

1. The writing platform

   The first thing I actually noticed about using steemit is that the interface is not exactly what I have become used to as a writer.

   Steemit attempts to give writers far to much power over the formatting of their posts, and I think that actually does a disservice for those who are not fluent in article writing.

   Having used writing platforms like medium and linkedin pulse I have become accustomed to an entirely different format.

   On these platforms, one has limited options. They write text on the screen, they highlight text if they want to make it a link, they highlight text if they want to make it a header, and they highlight text if they want to change the font size.

   Images are added by clicking a button, uploading, and selecting if the image should left, right or center aligned.

   Whereas steemit is far more powerful, its also far more complicated to learn to write with.

2. The markdown styling guide

   I actually couldn't believe how bad the styling guide was, and how incredibly out of date. I actually had to go out on the internet and search and read articles about formatting because the style guide is just... dated.

   For example there is no mention in the styling guide that steemit is using a bootstrap theme and that there are many bootstrap classes that work.

   For example one can align text and images to the left and right by inserting them between <div class="pull left"> </div>

   The styling guide also does not inform people that some html tags work. For example you can add headers using html without using the markdown formatting.

3. Making connections

   This is, in my opinion, the worst of the pitfalls of Steemit.

   Steemit is actually the hardest of websites in terms of finding others to connect with. When one joins a site like twitter or medium, the first thing you are asked to do is type in interests, and then you are presented with people who frequently write about those interests to follow.

   When one joins facebook or linkedin, they are presented with an option to connect to other networks and to scan their emails for all the users who they may already know to connect with.

   Literally every writing platform or social platform I have ever used, makes it incredibly easy to follow others. When I joined medium, within 24 hours I had nearly 70 people following me.

   Steemit makes it rather difficult to find people to connect with.

   Now I suspect people will read this and say "well you have to read their stuff, follow them, leave comments, etc" but the fact is, thats true of every social network - yet still most networks make it much easier to connect with others.

   I suspect this is why my first article has had 40 votes at the time of this writing, yet less than 10 actual views.

Steemit - the advantages

1. SEO

   The biggest advantage of steemit, although its likely due to one of the very reasons I included as a pitfall, is the SEO benefit of writing here.

   Now a lot of people reading this may being thinking, but its only my second article on steemit ever so how could I possibly talk about the SEO benefits of steemit.

   Well my first article on steemit allowed me to claim 4 different search terms in Google, with a combined total of over 10 listings, even beating out a Wikipedia article.

2. Targeted Audience

   This is actually what truly brought me to this site - a targeted audience.

   The truth is the majority of people using steemit, came here with the intent earning cryptocurrency by writing articles. Whereas that is a very cool feature, its actually not what I find important.

   For me, its not about earning cryptocurrency by rather because of the feature, the audience here is absolutely perfect to share cryptocurrency projects and ideas with.

   The people here already understand more than the average people using cryptocurrency.

   Most people are still scared of it, those who are embracing it are still vastly focused on bitcoin and have no real understanding of cryptocurrency outside of bitcoin investing.

   The people on steemit are different. They know about cryptocurrency and if they didn't before coming here, they quickly learn as they earn.

   Many people on this site invest in ICO's and other blockchain and cryptocurrency based projects.

   So as a writer, a cooperative founder, and someone heavily getting into cryptocurrency, this was a logical place to begin writing article about our cryptocurrency projects.

   
   
   
   

3. It's not overly political

   I cannot actually stress this enough. I am on countless platforms and this is the ONLY writing platform where I am not seeing an overwhelming amount of politics mixed into the posts.

   I realize that politics have mixed with business for countless people with even the major corporations taking vocal political stances.

   Honestly though, when one is involved with startup companies and small businesses it becomes clear we need places like this where we can do business without fear of losing connections over being liberal or conservative.

So overall I love my experience here as a first time user, but I really hope in the future we see an easier means of new users being able to start making connections.

Equally I would really love to see some major work on the markdown styling guide.

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