Is blogging on Steemit profitable? How much should you earn to be "better" than average?
Let's start by looking at the size of the daily reward pool.
This excellent post by @penguinpablo from 8 months ago calculated that roughly 48'000 steem are added to the reward pool each day. Based on the last 3 months, I calculate that the figure is roughly 49'000 steem per day. - So we are roughly agreed on the number of steem available to be given away daily at 49'000 steem.
If we take the current price of steem (USD 2.50) this gives us around USD122'500 to be given away daily (the figure could be slightly different depending on the price of the SBD).
On a typical day, there are around 58'000 active users who post at least one blog or comment.
On an average day there are around 68'000 new blogs and around 152'000 new comments. This means that the average user is posting around 1.17 blogs and 2.62 comments on the days when he is active.
Breaking these numbers down tells us that an "average" user earns around USD 2.11 for each day he is active.
If we assume blogs earn ALL of the reward, and comments earn nothing, then each blog would earn $1.79 on average.
In practice comments do earn more than nothing. Many comments get rewarded. I don't know the exact ratio of rewards per comment compared to rewards per blog. If I assume that comments earn one-tenth of an average blog then the average reward split would be:
The average daily user
If you are an "average" user, you will be making around $2.11 per day when you are active. In some countries, that's a lot of money. In others it is well below the minimum hourly wage.
If your blogs are making more than the average of $1.64, per blog then you are already doing well on Steemit.
There's no such thing as an "average" user
Nobody writes exactly 1.17 blogs per day, or makes 2.62 comments. Are you more or less active? Depending on your answer, you can judge for yourself whether you are doing better or worse than the average.
Conclusion
At the present price of $2.50 per steem the financial rewards for blogging are pretty mediocre. There is only so much money to go around, and only a small number can justify giving up their day jobs to blog.
On the other hand, as more users join steemit, the demand for steem is likely to rise. This means that the $2.50 you earned today might be worth $100 next year. It could be worth hanging onto those steem! It may seem little at the moment, but it could grow in value.
Here's how things would look if steem was worth USD 100:
I appreciate your effort to quantify these metrics. A different spin from my deflated view lately:
As most of the Steem is held by the top 1-2%, they create a heavy outlier tier outside of the normal bell curve, which likely makes those figures difficult to see in reality across the world.
The large stakeholders keep selling hope and promises of profit and "the investment of a lifetime", but they're not spreading the wealth (like you generously do). These people elect to help their friends (same old story) and now repay themselves by passively getting interest on their SP, versus proactively developing the user base outside their friends. Yet, everyone still expects Steemit's community to thrive and undergo massive growth, which I can't see as possible when people don't share the wealth with people who are actively engaging and trying to adopt the platform. If someone doesn't have SP, they're often overlooked and called a small fish. That's conditioning people to be devalued and devalue themselves.
Ahh, Jerry's video is exciting, but he's far too biased to promote his own stake. I can't forget his earlier days where ethics were highly in question. The rich try to get richer and need adoption to keep their stake in this pyramid growing. No one is really buying Steem on the exchanges. That's my biggest concern. I'm on the fence of delegating everything and quitting Steem altogether because I'm sick and tired of the gross imbalance in wealth on the platform. I hate seeing good people struggle and give up. That energy brings me down. It's pay to play or find a whale or two to make your entire Steemit experience a success. I feel that people are increasingly becoming more interested in how to get more ROI than how to grow the community. Bots are making this too easy, which all prey off of people spending money to try to get visibility, rewards, attention, feel hope, have some pride for not having $.30 on their blog for 3 hours of work. Without this dynamic, the SP delegation and loans wouldn't be profitable, and everyone's SP bank would be flat... meaning they've have to start manually engaging the blockchain/people to grow their stake.
Hope you don't mind this venting. Perhaps you have some wisdom for me to consider at this low point of my Steemit experience.
I feel like an intruder between you guys, but I can't help to express my empathy and agreement with @steemmatt .. from my 6 month experience, steemit is a lobbistic and merciless sort of ponzi scheme. Once your account grows till a certain extent you get "pot committed" due to your invested money and time capital plus the potential future gains. Steemit presents the same neural hooks and brain triggers than the FB's like mechanism but it's worse due to the chimera/siren call of immediate and future money gain. In short time, you stop reading books or living real life and, instead, type till late night like a frantic hamster on a wheel without even realiseing it. I started to question whether this platform is worth my time and how alternatively I could better invest it. If I want to find financial speculation and subjection of the weak toward the powerful, I can look around in the real world, as surely there's abundance of that. In other words, life is too short to have it sucked like this. Forgive my being blunt but my sole red fish luxury is my sincerity.
Thanks @f3nix for sharing your sentiments. No intrusion! It's a public blockchain and you spoke very well on the topic from your view. It definitely gave me another perspective or two I hadn't considered yet, but could be just as valid. Keep your chin up because you're the type of intelligent and thought-provoking person Steemit needs to have for quality content.
Great comment @steemmatt. We are all here for our individual reasons. The best people are those like you who encourage and support others where support is due.
@f3nix steemit can be addictive. It’s not the only addictive platform. Loads of people live inside their social networks, and whether it is a thumbs up, a vote, a reply, a view, a follower, or some kind on monetary recognition, the more the better. To get more, people find their time is consumed by the network of their choice.
I am not sure about why you called steemit a ponzi scheme? I don’t see anyone being defrauded here. Of course when newcomers buy steem, the founders sell. I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Virtually every company ever quoted on the stock exchanges was like that, and still is.
Over time steem will become more widely held. We will have fewer whales.
Thank you for your detailed reply @swissclive. I took some time before answering, apologies for that. About the seductiveness of the platform: we know that if someone wants to be addicted to something nowadays we all are spoiled for choice. It's intrinsic to the society we live in, based on consumerism underlying the concept of continuous profit/growth, no matter if sustainable or not. But I don't want to look like a Luddite here. What I wanted to mention is that the gratification mechanism of the steemit platform is peculiar as it associates to the social gratification an instant economical one. I believe that people more clever than me could study this from a neurological perspective or else according to the principles of CBT, cognitive behavioural theory.
I mentioned a Ponzi scheme as an analogy from a social point of view more that the economical fraud per se. In a Ponzi, the pyramid consisting of few healthy people is sustained by the enlargement and exploitation of the base and so on, till the pyramid crashes but the big fish (blink) are already happy and escaped elsewhere..does it recall something? As of now in my opinion there are great people here but there are also some whales taking advantage of their being on the top of the pyramid and looting the pool unashamedly. Since you mentioned the traditional markets, in every regulated stock exchange there are authorities that intervene, let's say, in case of insider trading. Why not here? Is this - together with the highly pyramidal structure and the competitive moat - supposed to create trust and attract newcomers to this platform?
Yes the gratification is peculiar because it drives some bloggers insane that they can’t get rich quickly despite their “wonderful” blogs. “Tough” is what I say. There’s more chance of getting rich in a casino (i.e. rather unlikely)
@swissclive - if you're active on discord and don't mind, I wanted to ask a little advice on something re: blogging. My discord # is 9927 if that's possible. Thanks.
See you in discord 9927...
I'm usually for an existentialist and critic approach. My point of view was very subjective but I'm glad it made some strings resonate (notwithstanding I believe there could be room for studying the long term effects of such upvote stimuli/gratification system on the brain). Thanks for your encouraging words. I'm also happy for this exchange and will follow you closer. At this point I will join @swissclive's appeal to you of keeping steeming (rebalance is fair).
I am glad you will not leave our community @f3nix. After steem’s massive price collapse of the last few days, it is almost worthless now. Those who continue blogging are the genuine folks. Those who stop were just here for the money.
Thank you @swissclive. These collapses are good as they clean the air and this is valid for the entire crypto market, in my opinion. I'm here mostly to express myself and create value, my main drive rather than money. As you mentioned, this is the secret to not get burnt of frustrated, just doing what you like with passion :-)
@steemmatt, Many bloggers are here just for the money. At present prices it isn’t very rewarding unless you are at it 24/24. Even then, a day-job would usually pay better unless you are a “star” like @jerrybanfield or @sweetsssj (I estimate that she makes around $3000 a month. A good part of that comes from her own upvote). She could have earned it in any other investment.
On the other hand, many bloggers are here for the friends and community. An upvote of 1 cent is more than enough for them to feel there work is recognised. They don’t rely on steemit for food.
In any society you will find those who chase the money and those who are here for others.
I totally agree with your point about Jerry. My feeling is that he has addressed the ethics issues for which he was heavily criticised.
Imbalance of wealth: Yes, it exists in steemit. Inbalance of wealth is a feature of the world. Equalise and production stops. Nobody who is rich did something you or I couldn’t have done. We are just too late to the party.
Please don’t leave steemit. Keep blogging for pleasure and forget the money side of it. I have been following you for ages because I enjoy your blogs. I don’t choose to follow many people. I would hate to see them stop.
Thanks for taking the time to reply with this and below. It added some coal to the fire.
While it's not a strategy, I hope this platform and blockchain thrives so the end justifies the means. I'm not a social media person in general, so Steemit has been a new world for me. It's been fun, I've met a lot of people, learned, and earned SP, but seemingly just have to rebalance it within my priorities a bit.
The only problem with this viewpoint is that the inequality, albeit slowly, is changing.
The top people are become less powerful. Steem power is being spread around. Each time I do a report, twice a month, the power of the Whales decreases.
https://steemit.com/steem/@taskmaster4450/steem-whales-are-losing-their-power-the-system-is-not-broken-report-through-3-15-2018
People continually attack the system without realizing the facts. If you want you can look at @arcange's reports from 6 or 9 months ago...they tell the entire story.
@taskmaster4450 - With all due respect, I do appreciate your response, although it appears to be an accusation that one of us in this chain is attacking the system without realizing facts. While those statistics are promising for what they are, may I suggest a slightly different focus off of such charts, reports, and numbers about power distribution to refocus on the crux of my initial point?
Many people with substantial Steem Power, in my opinion, use if for personal gain or passive auto-votes on buddies more often than generously using voting downstream to help the community feel appreciated and grow. No shock there for a veteran like you. You've heard it all.
However, for example, you engaged us here and added value to the discussion and community. I must assume that our comments weren't completely worthless if you felt inclined to reply. I feel that @swissclive, @f3nix, and myself also did the same good in producing thought-inducing content/discussion, but we were not rewarded by you. Was there any harm or downside in sending some encouragement or reward for sharing passionate feelings?
That's the general gap in encouraging/sharing/spirit that disappoints me most. It's not about power being spread or charts. It's how people use their power.
Many evangelists for the platform with loads of SP act more like politicians in my eyes. They talk the talk and get their earnings, but their actions in the form of voting, delegation, replying, following, resteeming, etc., show the truth. I don't run analysis, but everyone's activity is traceable, and I've done enough digging to see many leaders for their true colors. Let's hope that changes slowly over time as well.
While I appreciate being directed to reports and analysis by others, that doesn't take away from the behavior I've seen throughout almost daily use of the platform since August. There is plenty of valid sentiment from my observation, while charts and facts can address some elements.
Forgive me if I misread your comment as a backhanded way to tell us we're simply making false attacks without doing our homework.
I don't want to argue with anything you u say as it has relevent value. However all I really have to say is a .01 Cent post is worth INFINITLY more than** ANY FB post EVER!**
I am pretty tired of people complaning about rewards when its **INFINITELY **better then the most successful social media site of ALL TIME.
∞§∞Bless∞§∞
Well said @qinneaker. 1 cent on steemit is infinitely better than a thumbs-up that you get on any other social media site.
Totally agree maam,we need to give more time to steemit than to other social sites.I have my exams in between though i am giving here a lot of time.
Do what you love and the money will come, chase a dollar and watch it move away from you at the speed of light."
~Truce
The second part of this quote is a paradox to me but i think it's very true. Generally, productivity is assured on what you love. great words @truce. You should be a philosopher.
Steem has takin quite the plunge recently, but it has always been one of those crypto's that has huge ups and downs like ripple and many other cryptos. Actually if you look at the chart it is very similar to xrp,dgb,bts, and many other volitile coins.
If I get you right..mare you staying that the more the number of users increase? The more the steem available per day and this will increase the price of steem to probably $100???
Please I need clarification on that.
Going by tour data and analysis, I could say I am doing well on steemit thanks to a few persons who find the time out to curate my under valued quality posts .
I don't know when the steem price will rise or how high it will go. However in this video @jerrybanfield is extremely bullish and sees over $100 in 2018.
On the other hand, as more users join steemit, the demand for steem is likely to rise. - Agree, but then the reward pool will be distributed to them too so we can say that with each user that is joining the platform the current users will earn less Steem, but there is a chance that the Steem we earn will increase in value. I say that things are quite even :)
Watching the reports that penguinpablo also shares daily, we can see a decrease of active users in the last days, and I think it is because of the decrease in Steem's price.
I agree that as the number of users rise, the rewards will be spread thinner. What is really desired is that the price rises faster than the number of users.
There has been a falling off in the number of active daily users. I agree that this is caused by some bloggers who were here ONLY for the money giving up. This is caused by the fall in the combined price of steem and SBD.
Those who blog for the pleasure and for the community are still here and will keep going whatever the price.
With 68’000 daily blogs, I am still happy that I will find interesting things to read
You will find interesting things to read and even you provide yourself very valuable content to the platform and encourage others to do so. One good example is the scam examples posts competition which was something pretty unique!
Great post, followed u!
However, I think one thing to consider when calculating the rewards if Steem is priced at $100 is that there would be much more users sharing the reward pool. I guess the average rewards would stay the same but good content will be more profitable.
I agree that the best strategy for now is collecting all the steem you can get and keep powering up :D
Well said!
Looking forward to the day steemit really goes mainstream. It would be wise to gather as much steem now as possible and enjoy advantages exclusive to early adopters like bitcoin.
Hello @Swissclive
Your article is pretty much detailed.
It's true that STEEM is not doing too well at the moment, but the future looks bright. That is why i try to encourage myself and the people around me (followers, friends and newbies) to power up as much as they can. Every little penny we earn now will be worth much more in the nearest future.
I don't really make much from my blog, so i try to cover that up by making loads of comments and hoping i get rewarded for participating and sharing my thoughts.
I don't like to score myself, but i think am not doing too bad. :)
I love the way you break down and share useful information like this, you make it easy to understand. I would really want you to talk about curation trail and how busy students who find it difficult to come online can make the best out of it.
Thank You
@shuta You wrote:
I agree this would be a really interesting topic. There is good money to be made by curating well. The trick is to vote a blog which is GOING to do well. The comment might get you rewarded or it might not. But a VOTE will always get you rewarded. The higher the votes the more you earn.
Okay @swissclive
Thank you for shedding light on this!
Although my reputation shows that I've been pretty much involved in the community, i feel i still have a lot to learn. If, should it happen that you make an article regarding this I'll try not to miss it.
Curation trail are useful for people with good voting power like 500 above
I say so because i won a 500 sp last week which ended on sunday and i saw the benefit the more.
A newbie getting into a trail may not be that useful because of the small value of their voting power and the voting percentage.
Am working on my third edition of this post you read
A DETAILED GUIDE TO HELP NEWBIE FROM MY ONE MONTH DEEP EXPERIENCE AND STUDY
The third edition should cover this topic too but have being busy to get that done but hoping to finish it this weekend
Okay, thank you @inspiredgideon1
I'll be looking out for the third edition of your work.
I'll add you up on ginabot if i have to.
Happy Steeming!
Thanks
Thank you for this wonderful article. I have yet got close to the average rewards but I am trying. Your article has giving me some hope that I will do better in the future. You gave me a gift so I'll give you one. Here is my latest painting I hope you like it, I do give 5 digital paintings away each week. I hope you like it. #zeitlini
@zeitlini. Thanks for the digital painting. You have quite a skill. What is the name of the tool you use?
With steem now half the price from a few weeks ago, you are doing well if you can make $1 a day. Keep the day job!
Thank you and I will. :( O' I use Photoshop and Wacom Bamboo Stylus. And of course may hours of time. I have been using bots after my first month of no replies. I am now able to use them and I think I'm getting more response. I don't know what else to do so I've been giving 5 away to help boost my following. Any thoughts on if this is a good idea or does it seem desperate. Please let me know. Thanks you again.
I started like you with no followers, no votes and so on. Competitions and giveaways helped a lot after I started to get followers. Read this
This was such a nice article swissclive, Honest and heartfelt. I hope I have not made to many mistakes yet. I must say I was not being patient enough. Seeing so many big $$$ made with so little to no content. I know bots helped them but I should take a page from your words and continue on. Writing better posts and connecting with more nice people like yourself. Thank you for all your help. My best wishes to you. :)
I was expecting this calculation for months. Very interesting. Now we know what are our goals and what we have to do to continue.
For me, I hope to spread science and education to others. This would also improve the readers and give them something to work to. Steem is not a blockchain for memes or chitchat but could be a repository of human knowledge and interaction or a future complementary education resource. There are so many things it could help at!
We will wait and see and produce good content that is not found elsewhere, it's the only organic way of growth for now that I see.
Oh and buying Steem with money. I have matched the rewards I got through buying monthly. Followed on your way of growth.
@alexdory. A steemit dedicated to education is a great idea. How about “d-education” as a name?