Supply and Demand, Steemit-Style

I won’t pretend to be an expert on how Steemit works, nor do I have a guess about how big it might get, how long it will last, whether it will implode, peter out, continue to grow, whatever. I will let others theorize about that. Today my commentary is about Steemit as a microcosm of the free market, and how “fairness” and “equality” are never things you should expect from free trade. (That’s not a criticism of freedom; that’s just how it is, and how it has to be—and it will still always be way better than any coercively controlled system.)

As more and more people jump on the Steemit bandwagon (and there have been a lot of anarchists doing so recently), it is inevitable that some people will end up complaining about the outcome being “unfair.” After all, there is a huge disparity, from author to author, and from article to article, how much content creators get paid—if they get paid at all. If you happen to be on the losing end of that you may be inclined to grumble, maybe even opine that something nefarious must be going on.

“I put in a lot of work to make my article really good, and got almost nothing for it!”

Welcome to the market. Almost anyone who has run a business, providing goods or services to the general public, knows that the “goodness” of your product doesn’t automatically mean big profits—or any profits. Sometimes predicting what will sell gets so complicated that it starts to feel like chaos theory. The smallest thing can make the biggest difference, in either direction. You can either bellyache about how that’s not “fair” (whatever that means), or you can try to improve your bottom line by focusing on supply and demand. Here are a few pointers:

ON THE “SUPPLY” SIDE:

1 - Be aware of the content monsoon.

Keep in mind that a lot of anarchists are currently cranking out material on Steemit, which means that you immediately have a lot of competition. If ten thousand anarchists each wrote and posted a spectacular article today, most of them would get little or nothing as a result of it. So it might help to be patient and wait a bit until there's a lull in the tidal wave, so your drop in the ocean—which may be a stellar “drop”—is more likely to get noticed.

2 - Find a way to stand out.

Just because there is a big supply of articles saying that freedom is good and authoritarianism sucks doesn’t mean that there might not be a much smaller supply of articles on some particular topic, or articles that have some interesting slant or approach. It is at least as important for your content to be unusual in some way as it is for it to be good. Again, almost anyone who has sold a product knows this. If you make the twentieth brand of cookie on the store shelf, and there is nothing distinctive about yours, don’t expect to become a cookie tycoon (even if yours is slightly better than all the others).

3 - If you want to sell more stuff, make a variety of products.

Rather than hoping that one awesome article will make you a bazillionaire, try to regularly produce quality stuff, in different categories on different topics. Diversify. Even if none of them individually are massive hits, they can still add up to a significant payout. (The down side is that it requires more work. Darn market!)

ON THE “DEMAND” SIDE

4 - Be famous.

Okay, this piece of “advice” might be mostly worthless. However, when it comes to music, books, movies, and other creative endeavors, what people are willing to pay often has far more to do with who made the thing, than with the actual quality of the thing. If Stephen King published an absolutely crappy book tomorrow, millions of people would buy it. As an example on a much, much smaller scale, if I published two articles on Steemit today, one under my name and one under a fake name, the one under my name would likely get a better response (even if the other one was a better article). Because at least some people know my name, and have liked stuff I did before.

No, it’s not “fair,” but it’s still reality. A bunch of people complained when Jeff Berwick made a pile of money off of his first Steemit post, which pretty much just said “Hi!” (That was only a slight exaggeration.) Those people who presumed to declare that that article wasn’t really “worth” that much don’t seem to understand what “value” means, or where it comes from. Is it really “worth” a million dollars for some celebrity to say, “I use this brand of shampoo”? In some abstract, arbitrary sense, no. But in the economic world, it absolutely is. That’s why famous people get huge piles of money just for endorsing stuff: because the manufacturers know that a certain number of people will buy stuff just because someone they admire said to. Is that rational? Probably not. Is it “fair” that no one will pay you a million dollars to say you like their shampoo? No. But again, that’s life.

And even though “be famous” sounds like a stupid suggestion, the realistic equivalent is, if you can be patient, and reliably produce good stuff, you can start to build up a following (a sort of “micro-fame”). Hey, I’ve been babbling on about anarchism for twenty years now, so don’t you dadburn whipper-snapper upstarts be belly-achin’ if mah post gits more ’tention than the first thang you evuh posted ’bout voluntaryism! (Sorry, slipped into bitter old redneck mode there for a second.)

5 - Don’t expect quality alone to sell.

For every famous pop star that some record company manufactured, packaged, and then peddled to the world (and raked in millions), there are thousands of individuals who are far more musically talented, but who you’ve never heard of … and never will. Is that “fair”? Well, if you’re asking if it fits within some arbitrary sense of universal righteousness, no. But so what? Whining about that won’t change reality. You can either bitch about how professional athletes make more than school teachers, or you can accept that that is how supply and demand work, and move on. Opining that people should want different stuff won’t make it so. If your goal is profit, then what you think is good is irrelevant; what other people like and want is what matters. (Unless you intend to sell stuff only to yourself ... which isn't exactly the most genius business model.)

6 - People can’t like something if they never hear about it.

If making a good product was all you needed in order to make money, there would be no such thing as advertising. Yes, at some point trying to come up with stuff that is attention-grabbing can turn into obnoxious “jumping the shark” tactics (look it up). However, don’t be scared to use a certain degree of “click bait” if you actually have something worth saying, and if the “bait” is actually relevant. For example, I’m pretty sure that the video titled “When Should You Shoot a Cop?” (based on my article by the same name) would not have a total of over a million YouTube views if the title had been “An examination of ethically sound principles regarding the use of lethal force against aggressors acting in an official capacity.”

7 - Be a sell-out.

Okay, I don’t really advise that, but this list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the fact that right now it makes a huge difference what the “whales” on Steemit notice, and what they like. There is a huge variation in how much an “up-vote” from different people is worth. If your goal is to make money, it makes sense to see what kind of thing is trending and popular on Steemit, and maybe model your content accordingly. Ironically, this article may be the only example of me doing that on Steemit so far (because Steemit likes it when you talk about Steemit). Most of the time I use the stubborn, ornery bastard approach of, “I write whatever the hell I want, and if you don’t like it, you can go jump in a lake!” Hmmm, that may explain why I’ve been broke for so damn long. Anyway, make your own choices about that.

8 - Learn the little tricks.

There are a bunch of simple things that can increase or decrease an article’s popularity on Steemit. Having images in the article is a big plus. Formatting it so it looks good, and doesn’t trigger “TL;DR Syndrome,” is of course also a plus. I’ve found that posting stuff mid or late morning, especially on Saturdays (thus the timing of this posting), has worked well for me so far. Also, the first tag you choose for the article is very important. Do some research, because I’m sure there are people who know a lot more little tricks than I do. When in doubt, use trial and error to figure out what will make people read your stuff, like your stuff, and perhaps most importantly, share your stuff with others.

9 - Accept that sometimes it’s just blind luck.

Figuring out what there will be a demand for can get ridiculously complicated, to the point where it seems almost random. (The payouts for my various posts have fluctuated a lot, for reasons that are still a mystery to me.) So, for psychological reasons, I suggest not expecting anything. If you get more than zero … well, that’s better than nothing! Having the right attitude, and deciding what your priorities are, can help. For example, my main reason for being on Steemit is my main reason for doing almost everything else I do these days: to try to tear down the cult of authoritarianism. If I can accomplish that and get paid, cool! But if I’m just ranting and raving for free, I would do that too (and have for twenty years). Having that outlook, where I expect nothing and plan on getting nothing, makes the whole thing a lot less stressful and annoying. So I suggest that you write for the sake of spreading whatever worthwhile stuff you have to say. And then, if some money magically appears in front of you as a result of that, be surprised and happy.