Is this thing on? I started using Steemit 7 years ago. And, although I'd been creating multimedia content for the internet since the late 1990s, the Steem blockchain offered my first opportunity to monetize my online presence. Steemit, and the communities which organically built themselves and evolved because it, helped me to connect with people around the globe in a much positive way which I hadn't experienced since the days of Telnet and the early AOL chatrooms. I made friends. I gained new outlets for my creative endeavors. I even got my family out of a financial bind once by cashing out a large portion of the Steem I had accrued that first year blogging and hosting podcasts.

I didn't exactly abandon Steemit intentionally a few years ago. As a matter of fact, for a while I kept up by crossposting the same exact content to multiple platforms daily, including Steemit and Hive, dare I admit it. I was also introduced to some new centralized apps which allowed me to easily monetize by livestreaming and posting. It became difficult to manage too many platforms at a time, coupled with a tremendously high conflict and custody battle I've become embroiled with more recently. As it happens, a little over a year ago I put almost every aspect of my creative career path on the proverbial back-burner to take on a day job while using all of my free time to focus on my overall health and wellness - no small task.

I did, in fact, begin utilizing a couple of Chinese apps to create and monetize, TikTok is not the only one (I won't mention the other as it is not currently banned and I'm not sure how the US government's insane overreach will effect it, no it's not Red Note).

Then I recalled Steemit was purchased by Justin Sun, a Chinese born crypto entrepreneur. I noticed the price of SBD recently spiked. I wondered if this had anything to do with the Bytedance Diaspora taking place, then I thought Web3 and platforms like Steemit are built on technology which is still too new and cumbersome for mass consumption. And, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, both Steemit and Hive hold a special place in my heart and I would be upset to see either disappear from my reach the way TikTok did.

I have been working on getting back to some semblance of fulltime content creation the way I once did and enjoyed to much. I'm debating which apps and platforms I keep in rotation and where to trim the fat. Meta is certainly a balancing act as I dislike using it altogether and it remains a great advertising platform for some of the businesses and events I'm involved with.

And now I've come up against a hiccup where I may find myself having to relocate my professional equipment and creative suite after having been close to settled and comfortable for a year. I'll save that story for another post soon. I've learned it's best to spread blog posts out in order to remain constant and consistently active.