Is Steemit Rigged? How Do You Make Money On Steemit?
I have a tremendous amount of followers online, and I could really be a big pied piper for Steemit, but I have one serious question - is Steemit rigged? A few weeks ago I joined Steemit and as a 'test' posted some of my very best content. Some of this content was posted exclusively to my Steemit blog, and other posts were very popular content I had already published on my regular blog. I have also tried posting some video content to DTube, including stunning video from my recent trip to Switzerland.
I have had virtually no earnings, and have been scratching my head wondering why. After all, this was some of my very best content that has done well elsewhere. I have been reading a number of articles and reviews online that suggest that the only way to make money on Steemit is to get up votes from a select few whales that have significant financial influence on the network (early adopters). These articles then go on to say that these whales vote back and forth for their own content with other large influencers. They conclude that If you are not part of this clique, you stand very little chance of making much money. What gives some amount of credence to this criticism is that I seem to see many of the same bloggers with the highest earning posts day in and day out.
I love the Steem cryptocurrency, and I really love the idea of alternatives to Facebook and YouTube. I am a published author of more than thirty books and host a national radio show. I have not been able to break through $12 of earnings on any one of my 20 posts. I really like the idea of the voting system, and the earnings for both content creation and content curation. If, however, the the game is locked, and only the top players are going to have a chance at making any money, I am not so sure that this is for me.
I have even tried paid promotion for several of my posts, still no luck. What am I missing folks?
I welcome your honest thoughts and opinions.
I agree wholeheartedly. I feel the same and I've only started yesterday. My art gets great reviews on other websites and I've barely have acknowledgement here. I think if newbies feel this way, they should all band together, follow each other, engage with each other...create our own little clique and build ourselves up with the respect we deserve. I'll begin by following you and engage in your post(s) This is my link. @mongoosely
Awesome idea! Count me in, I just gave you a follow and will engage with you from now on starting now.
I agree. That’s what we’re trying to do with our @newbieresteemday initiative. We all started out with a low reputation score, and supported each other. Many of us now have a reputation of 50-60, but we’re actively supporting newcomers (or basically everyone) by providing help, curating, organising games/contests to help people to grow their network and their wallet, resteeming their posts to get them out there, giving out ‘Newbie Nickles (= small guarenteed upvote for contest entries) and a lot more.
Some examples:
Minnow Mondays
Dear Dawn Mentoring sessions
Bingo Game
Newbieresteemdays
... just to give you an idea.
Feel free to drop by at our Discord channel to find out what we have going on, and to meet more people.
https://discord.gg/h9WfHrE
Good idea dear
It isn't that it is rigged on purpose, but it is setup to where visibility is a problem for new users and the motives for upvoting new-users are few and far between. Votes hold value and at this point, it is difficult to determine what value minnows bring to the table.
New-users certainly have a challenge. I would recommend using the voting bots for visibility. Welcome Aboard.
How about quality content for a value?
I appreciate your honesty, but I see quite some dolphins and even whales post content that is of way lower quality than a lot of posts from minnows and red fish.
That’s exactly what’s wrong with this platform. Somewhere along the way, it became all about money, where SteemIt was actually created to be all about content.
I’m afraid this will eventually lead to the death of the platform...
thank you, nice one
Hi Whatsup,
How to get access to the voting bots?
I am having hard time getting exposure too.
Thanks,
I like @booster and appreciator the best. You can go to their blog page to find out a bit about them. Make sure you understand how they work, it isn't always a win.
One thing that was confusing is that I sent them three separate amounts to promote this blog post. After each of the first two payments, I received significant votes but nothing after the third payment? I even followed up with them asking why nothing from the third payment and gave them an alternate URL to promote if they were unable to provide any more promotion for this article - no response thus far.
Thank you @Whatsup for following up with me. I will look at it closer.
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Hi @jameslparis. I, like so many others, are also rather new here. I joined beginning of March, and don't have an established history of successful publications or sustainable followers behind me. Steemit is actually the first place I've ever blogged on. I've never seen any real value in it, or perhaps not how I could contribute value to any site.
After being unemployed for over 6 months, I started looking into crypto and especially the opportunities of making money online. Living in a country where high speed uncapped internet is really expensive, I am limited in my capability to produce high quality content on a regular basis, especially video material.
Judging from this and other posts you've shared, I can tell that you have good experience in blogging and also you seem a pretty decent writer as well. You can have a look at my profile and you'll see that I have only a few posts that resemble good quality blogging, as I am still learning as I go. One thing I want you to focus on however, is my comments and votes tabs. You'll see that I spend quite some time purposefully and transparently to other people's posts. This is like networking really, and it creates opportunity for conversation and ultimately, relationship building happens as a result. In the famous wise words of @unknowntemplar, Is getting help from a whale any different than getting a big name author et cetera to endorse your work?
While I can respect you as an author and contributor to society, as far as Steemit etiquette goes, your profile is bereft of any real attempt to encourage others to post as you seem to only comment on your own work, and this leaves a bland taste in the mouth similar to an unknown contributor in any form of content production. You will just remain the passed-by poster, as you don't engage with others but rather you just stand on the corner and play your instrument hoping that someone will throw coin at you. As an example of your inactive commenting to others, you did not respond once to any of the users which posted here: @whatsup, @greer184, @edy01, @unknowntemplar or @evernoticethat. And as a test to (hopefully) prove my point, see how many of them will comment to this comment!
Apologies if this came out offensive; it was not my intention but all of this is true, in my opinion, if you want to make it out here. Alternatively, yes you do need to be stacked big time and buy your way in.
Blessings
spot on. interaction with commenters is essential. Comments build active followers which in long term can create good results.
Thank you @mateen. It's seems to be the only way that slowly fills the cup of blessing 🏆
Thanks, and good point @cngrobler I wonder if that's a byproduct of him being new? When I complete a new post, I always engage with anyone leaving a "real" comment. If it's good and I have enough VP, I upvote it as well.
I had a friend that started out with me on Steemit and noticed that once he passed me in SP, he stopped interacting with me and now only chases Whales. It's a toe-sucking charm offensive that is very obvious to me. Everything he does is about himself and what "you" can do for him. Having not heard from him in months, I was surprised when he dumped a link to me about his latest post in Steemit Chat. Just the link, nothing else.
If you have a high number next to your name he will be all over you remarking how valuable you are. How he really loves your content. It's so plastic-sounding, but it's worked with at least one Whale who upvotes everything he does. But if there's a (25) next to your name? forget about it. I wonder when they will start noticing the slavish praise? I swear he must have copy/paste phrases at the ready. Whales can tell the difference between an authentic compliment and a self-serving one.
It is sad to hear about your experience with your 'friend' @evernoticethat. Guess that's another good thing about Steemit - it reveals your colors 😯 Equally as good are whales' ability to spot insincerity then! And that's what I probably enjoy the most about Steemit so far - the opportunity to be sincere and discover more of yourself is so big because there is something of real value at stake.
But yeah likely that @jameslparis isn't used to the new way of how Steemit works, because c'mon bro, even after I sort of challenged you to comment on the people paying some sort of attention to you, you still neglect to do so. Perhaps it's just that you are busy? Although I see you have at least responded to some other comments. Steemit is definitely more than just about making money. It's opportunities and capabilities far surpass that I believe.
This is great information, but I have a hard time finding things to comment on. I have music industry, song writing, music recording and live sound experience that I wouldn't mind sharing, especially with the young artists coming up, but it sure is a chore to find them! If anyone has any tips for how I do that I would really appreciate it! Also, for what it's worth, what social media platform DOESN'T have the Whales problem? It's a huge problem on Twitter, plagues Facebook even ranking on GOOGLE generally involves getting authority sites to link to your web site to some degree. Perhaps some sort of system where people with a certain area of expertise could be rewarded for reading and commenting on posts in such a way that the reader would not know who wrote the article, or their ranking info etc. That way each post could be judged on it's own merit rather than by the reputation of the author? Just an idea. If anyone decides to do something like this I'm in.
Interesting concept @zedessex! WHo knows maybe someone will take up that challenge! Perhaps it's something you need to pursue and grow at least on the social awareness level. But remains a good idea in my mind.
Funny enough, I have 10 years experience in Live Event Technicals (Sound, lights, visuals blah blah blah), and I acutally never thought about using this platform as a teaching hub for that. I am so intrigued with crypto of late that I have forgotten my roots..so thanks for the inspirational reminder! Albeit again, if you want to build a following, one good way is to be active with other people. Also be sure to link your posts to FB and Twitter etc. (link-button on the bottom of post-edit window). Tag me if you have made a post and I will resteem it!
@zedessex i do a lot of recording as well as writing and composing id sure like to hear your thoughts on my work when you have the time.... also new here btw
It would surprise me if there weren’t any Discord channels set up music-related communities... That should make it easier to find the posts you’re interested in...
You wrote a very detailed and helpful comment, which is also useful to the new members. Thanks!
Thanks for joining in on the discussion and making your voice heard @anikoonline! Best of luck to you!
Thank you!
Well for sure to say
I try to comment regularly but sometimes your comments gets overlooked
Even if it is good content
Please what do we do when this happens
Am also new here thanks
Well @fantomcee one way to draw attention to your comment (sneakingly) is to tag the poster, or someone else that also posted. Be sure to always look at someone's rep level (number in brackets after prof name). They will then have a notification under the "Mentions" tab (if they have the Steemplus extension installed - you should too) of their name being mentioned and they might likely go check it out. BUT, if you want to draw attention be sure you make it worth the big player's time. Don't come to a gunfight with a knife, or something like that :)
Check out @steem-plus
I’m looking forward to seeing your blog
It also seems to be the more commenting you do on posts the more your going to be successful too.
Great comment. I didn’t even think of checking how his interaction was...
Networking is one of the most important factors on SteemIt - if not the most important (except for money, of course)
Personally, I spend so much time commenting that it happens that I simply don’t have any time left to post.
I don’t know if you already heard of @abh12345’s curation and engagement league? The engagement league is all set up to reward people for engaging. It’s kind of a motivational contest to see how you’re doing when it comes to engagement, and how you’re improving every week. It’s really fun, and as I can see you think high of engagement, it might be right up your alley :0)
You can check it here:
The Curation and Engagement Leagues
I guess you can say the game is "rigged", although others would argue that they are simply playing by the rules of the game as implemented by the code.
The major issue is that Steemit's interface is very limiting and makes it very hard to discover interesting content. In order to build a feed that has interesting people, you have to find those interesting people first.
Unfortunately, "entrepreneurs" if you can call them that and whales have build bidding bots that serve to promote posts on the blockchain. That means most of the stuff you see on trending and hot is stuff that has been promoted. Unfortunately, you can promote content with completely disregard to the content itself. Thus, whoever is really to spend the most cash on bots, gets more attention. Also, this means these entities no longer organically vote, but sell their vote. They essentially contribute nothing to the blockchain, but still make money from it.
Due to the poor UI/UX design, there are really any spots to find organically voted material by regular users. There are a few developers working on systems to improve this issue, but let's just say that these updates have been repeatedly delayed.
To put Steem in a nutshell: It's a interesting social experiment but a rather poor social media experience.
greer, great comment once again... To put Steem in a nutshell: It's a interesting social experiment but a rather poor social media experience that is really bang on...
With economic background it is fascinating to see the different shareholders actions... but to get your thoughts out to the world..
it is probably more useful to spend the same amount you need for voting power on steemit on FB adds to have more impact...
I hope projects like this: https://steemit.com/steemit/@upmewhale/best-author-reward-project-for-steemians will be able to better the situation...
I've been here since July 2017 and have tried a number of different things to increase exposure. Think of it this way, If your widget became one of Oprah's "Favorite Things" that would be a very good thing, wouldn't it? The more new users here, the harder it is to make your content stand out. I see nothing wrong with giving your blog a little push, using social media or other means.
I saw my first little uptick when I started leaving thoughtful comments which surprisingly were noticed. I think a variety of approaches will work in time. For now though Steemit has made blogging fun again for me, and that is reward in itself.
source
Thoughtful comments are absolutely noticed and I will usually follow the person back after a few of them. Those of us who engage in the community know who the other engaged users are.
It can't be rigged. I just signed up and I'm about to get over 100 votes for this post alone. Right?
@jameslparis, I totally get your frustration. I don’t have enough social media or blockchain knowledge to know whether Steemit is rigged or not, however I suspect that there is a certain amount of cyber-nepotism at work (as there is in the "real" world) rather than intentional exploitative rigging. It seems to me that anything crypto doesn’t have a guaranteed future and that no-one truly knows where Steemit and steel are going in the long term, and I still haven't quite figured out how this whole thing really works and how it will end up. Probably in the dust, like all things earthly.
As far as I am concerned, I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone, within the limitations of available time once the obligations of a full-time job, family, etc have been met, which doesn’t leave much time. However, since I joined Steemit, I have seen my reputation creep up and a few cryptopennies add up in my wallet. I have posted a few things, and have interacted with fellow Steemians, and it seems to bear fruit, albeit very slowly.
This is the first social media I have ever been involved with. I don’t have a blog and I don’t publish. I have been avoiding Facebook like the plague because I value my privacy and I’m not interested in reconnecting with people I used to attend kindergarten with. To me, that is not a valid criterion for connection and I don’t need a thousand pseudo-friends who are going to “like” what I had for breakfast.
With Steemit however, because of the variety of interests and viewpoints, I can engage in dialog with like-minded people or, if the issue is important to me in verbal fisticuffs. It is also a space where I can express my creativity in a very personal and uncensored way that doesn’t have to conform to the dictates of society. I find that very liberating. If people like what I have to say or find something good or beneficial they’ll give me an upvote and follow me, and if not, they’re just moving on. It is an alternative reality where I am building a network that I can navigate without risk. So I have let this experience develop in a very organic way without bots or reciprocal back-scratching and have no clue where it is going. Lots of SBDs would be nice, but I’ll focus on what I have to say and enjoy the challenge and the process, follow and save my upvotes for the people whose material resonates with me or to thank them for providing a springboard to self-expression. As to the outcome, I don’t feel it is entirely in my hands, but I’m OK with that.
Hope you decide to stay. You are talking about a big issue on the platform. Original quality content goes unnoticed until you have built up a reputation. It takes a long time just like anywhere else. You may want to consider buying some Steem Power, that may help.
I experienced a similar trend and had posted a few topics but then it all came to a halt. just come here to read stuff now . havent posted anything from a long time.
Steemit is not #QUOTE rigged in the traditional manner. However, it would help if you paid to have your posts promoted. That is the little secret no one seems to comprehend prior to joining Steemit. When all signs point to Rome, that is where the road will take you. You stated in your post you tried paid promotion. Who did you hire? Thanks for the empirical share.
I have paid several times to make my posts 'promoted' just as this one is.
I just used @booster and dropped in 59 SBD. That seems to have really worked. A lot of new votes coming in now, but it still seems like I am cheating by paying for votes :)
So SBD is like $118 US dollars?
59 SBD is this what it takes to get noticed....thats despicable... UU.IO (a new platform forcontent earning) for me i think.
Ive spent the last SBD I will ever spend in this waste of time Known as STEEMING SH...IT
https://steemit.com/steemit/@lifespring/transferring-steem-to-poloniex-6-days-and-still-waiting-not-impressed