Hello fellow Steemians, my name is Daniel Imbellino and I'm new to the Steemit platform. Despite getting started on here a few weeks ago, I've been yet to give a formal introduction to the community here, and figured now would be a good time to do it. My last few weeks on this platform have been a real eye opener as to how the Steemit platform works, as well as what I can expect from my efforts here.
For starters, I operate a media organization on the web comprised mainly of IT and gaming based media, including Strategic Social Networking and Gamers Bay, which I'll talk more about shortly here.
A Little About Me:
I'm a college educated IT specialist who started out in the tech support world, later moving into the digital media realm back in early 2012. I've been an active journalist and news publisher since late 2012, having written well over 750 articles across the web over the years, and my media organization actively works to promote the work of thousands of bloggers, journalists, and other news sources across the web as well. All of my media was co-founded and is co-owned by internet entrepreneur Sigmund Joseph Solares.
Some of My Work on Web:
This is an IT based media organization that was originally founded on Google+ back in 2012. Today, Strategic holds one of the oldest communities on the Google+ platform, and its a brand I worked to grow to the over 161,000+ members it holds today. Strategic's community is mainly centered around subjects such as social media, networking, web publishing, and SEO, among others.
Gamers Bay:
This is a gaming based media organization that was also born on Google+ back in February of 2013. The Gamers Bay brand has close to 40,000 members and followers across all major social platforms today. The brand operates 2 core gaming communities on Google+, and has an active social presence across most major social platforms. We've also produced close to 500 videos on Gamers Bay's channel on YouTube! Joining me here is Gamers Bay manager Michael Haney of Zorch Central:
Gamers Bay Community Google+
Gamers Bay's Official Brand Page G+
Gamers Bay on YouTube!
Gamers Bay on Twitter!
Gamers Bay on Medium!
Gamers Bay on Facebook!
The Gamers Video Archive
(GVA is a co-brand of Gamers Bay and a separate community we built just for gaming videos)
This was originally an IT based news website, and it was the first place I ever published my work to. I actually coded the entire site by hand with nothing more than HTML and CSS. The site has since been put on hold for the last year and a half as I shifted gears to work on other projects.
Besides the site's focus on IT based technologies, we also published hundreds of online games there, from over 100 developers starting back in 2013. Due to the changing technological nature of the modern web, we've decided to discontinue the online games feature in the near future. It was an amazing experience though! Moving forward, we're planning to reboot the site with an updated user interface and new focus in the near future, there's a lot of work to be done there!
Today, the media I've grown across the web now numbers in the 750,000+ followers/members mark total. Despite my many achievements on the web, I have to admit I've fallen on hard times, and managing to keep all I've created afloat is a task much easier said than done. Finding sources of sustainable revenue is even tougher. Other issues such as health problems have also put a damper on my efforts in more recent times. But I will keep working to build the dream regardless!
Both myself and my brands are embracing Steemit as part of a new initiative to find sustainable growth and revenue to help maintain what we worked so hard to build over the years. We do plan on eventually setting up accounts here for Gamers Bay and Strategic individually to be managed by our staff in the near future.
No doubt, I and others put tens of thousands of hours of hard work into building things like Strategic Social Networking and Gamers Bay, and we've realized that without some sustainable form of revenue, we're aren't going to last.
I realize now that in order to make things work I have to be willing to try new things such as Steemit, and we're currently working to implement Patreon accounts for for several of our brands as well. We other initiatives we're considering as well, such as social media marketing/brand building and management services.
All being said, its been an interesting last few weeks on Steemit, in which I witnessed a lot of positives and negatives to making use of this platform. The community here is quite friendly it seems, but the platform also has issues with spammers I see. I also wasn't to thrilled when I found out someone had scraped one of my articles off of Strategic's publication on Medium and reposted it here. Nonetheless, I'm going to try and look past the negatives and more towards the positives moving forward.
Sincerely, Daniel Imbellino
Feel free to connect with me on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DanielImbellino