Last night I posted my first post to @SteemPress-io. If you don't know what I am talking about, you can see their announcement as delegation recipients here.
Now, 1,000,000 Steem Power is a lot of power to wield and the two guys behind the platform 
I have never met either of them in person yet, chatting over the last six months or so has given me enough faith in them to give my backing and support. This is not a shill, they are both good people and for me, that means something. As brilliant as they may be though...
They are not the brilliance behind @SteemPress-io
I honestly hadn't thought too much about SteemPress as they were developing it and I saw some of the mock-ups. It wasn't until last night that a couple of things dawned on me when I finally decided to give it a go. Before that though, there were a couple of reasons I really wanted to try it.
- I already draft and flesh-out on WordPress so this might make workflow easier
- It supports and encourages my kind of content providers; writers/bloggers
- It connects a very large non-Steem platform to the blockchain
- And of course,
A costly move for me. My blog is hosted on wordpress.com and to upgrade to a Business Account, took 204€ that I really didn't want to spend at this time. With all that is going on in my life at the moment it was a bit of a decision however, last night I made the call. The reason is simple, the future.
As said, I hadn't really thought that much about what Steempress-io does and the potential ramifications of it until I realised I would have to invest more into Wordpress to get access. Yes, there are cheaper options out there than hosting on wordpress.com but, I don't have the time or energy right now to get into changing over but this cost is a Key Benefit of SteemPress.
There is an off-site economic hurdle to posting on SteemPress that other apps don't have. This doesn't sound like a benefit but, it is a massive one in my opinion since there is no guarantee of votes (there is a percentage that is currently randomized though) and, the guys are going to do their best to limit abuse.
What this means is:
- There is less likely spam content coming through
- Incentive not to abuse, get blacklisted and lose the initial investment
- Lower quality will be discovered, go unsupported and loss of investment
Finally, we hope this delegation can help us onboard many new bloggers and creators of the 76 000 000 WordPress websites out there by providing a low barrier of entry to the Steem ecosystem where they can participate from the comfort of their own blogs. @SteemPress-io76 million WordPress powered websites is not the real thing to pay attention to yet, this is:
entry to the Steem ecosystem where they can participate from the comfort of their own blogs.Any of those websites who are currently on a Business Plan have the immediate ability to post straight to the Blockchain and both introduce a new audience to them and of course, monetize their site which may not currently be monetized at all by doing nothing more than they currently do now.
This has three major benefits:
- The quality of content is likely of a higher standard
- Some will buy some Steem and start engaging more widely
- Steem itself will fall into the eyes of WordPress
They are a massive site and if people start upgrading and installing SteemPress plugins, that is going to also get their attention. If we look a little further into the future and consider the potential role of SMTs, WordPress could offer immediate monetization functionality to all of its customers with a fee of course. For WordPress it has massive potential, ease of monetization and massive potential for their user base, and for Steem through SMTs, ubiquity without anyone needing to see Steem at all.
I can't predict the future but, if this one SteemPress app goes well, this is the potential key to near instantaneous mass adoption through a 'traditional' partnership with WordPress and, it takes nothing directly away from either party, at least in the beginning. If anything, it allows WordPress to offer something that their competitors will likely struggle to implement into their own systems.
Perhaps the founders of SteemPress-io are brilliant
For me personally though, I have struggled to find a foothold in the other apps. I am not into memes, nor am I into streaming, video or gaming. I am a writer/blogger, which is still strange to say aloud. SteemPress gives me an opportunity to still do what I love to do and be incentivized to put quality content on to the blockchain via their delegation.
This is one of the niches I was talking about the other day and has the potential to be a positive force to increase the visibility of good content. Of course, the beauty of it is that I had to not only make a significant upfront investment, I have to also consistently deliver.
This is where I feel the most at home. And it is only my second day. For the other already established bloggers and content providers out there on WordPress, they would be insane not to install the SteemPress plugin and give Steem a go.
I am getting more excited about the future of these types of apps, partnerships, SMTs and the massive diversity that will flood onto the Steem blockchain. It is an app like this that simplifies the entire process and in time, it will be an app like this that onboards millions.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]