I’m eager to talk to you about how I turned my side hobby in cryptocurrency into a viable side gig, but first, a quick story:
A Twitter advertisement for Brandon Gaille’s blog report recently came across my feed, the lede compelled me enough to click it. Rarely does an ad work so effectively, as it led me to reading my first Gaille article (a great report on how bloggers in various monthly income categories make their money) and subscribing/downloading a handful of his podcasts.
Well done, Brandon!
The article split bloggers into categories depending on how much they make per month: $0-$2k, $2k-$7.5k, $7.5k-$25k, and $25k+. It also displayed the percentages of how people make their money. For instance, bloggers making about $2k a month from their blog are making a much larger percentage of that money from ads, while bloggers making $25k and more are making most of their money on courses they sell.
This makes a lot of sense; if you can package all of your best content into an online course that people want to buy, it allows you to put the internet to work for you. Sure, you’ll still get ad revenue from page views, but it will be a far less percentage than you get for your online course sales. Getting from $2k to $25k takes a lot of hustle, and a lot of that income will come from paid consulting or speaking gigs.
The point is, there are many ways to make money from an online presence. I’d like to introduce you to one more which is currently used by over 1000 bloggers: SteemPress.
SteemPress is a WordPress plugin that is free to download. It plugs in to the Steem blockchain (you’ll need to get a Steem account), and allows you to seamlessly cross-post your articles from your WordPress blog [1] to your Steem blog.
Why Do I Want a Steem Blog?
The answer here is simple: Steem is a cryptocurrency that awards newly created Steem to those whose blog posts get attention and upvotes. Your 400 likes in a viral tweet may have some positive side effects, but 400 upvotes on Steem would directly earn you Steem cryptocurrency.
Steem has over one million accounts signed up, with 50-60 thousand active (daily) users. It was created in 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimir, and is valued at around $400 million dollars.
How Does it Work?
Steem has a steady inflation rate, similar to US Dollars and all other government money. The difference is this: inflation is distributed through banks in the real world, with varying rates that are determined by supply and demand. Steem inflation is hard coded into the blockchain, and distributed to those who are able to post the best content. New Steem is created constantly and delivered to content creators 7 days after they post their content to the Steem blockchain.
No, Seriously, How Does it Work?
You can look more deeply into why Steem has value, but the good news is that you don’t need to spend any money to acquire it-you can simply get a Steem account (keep your passwords safe!) and install SteemPress into your WordPress blog. Then write and post your content just as usual. You will have a comments section in your Steem blog that you’ll want to be active in, and spending time reading and commenting on other Steemians’ posts. The more active you are in the community, the sooner you’ll begin to see some real returns on the posts you make. Of course, spending zero time with the Steem community is likely to get you ignored [2].
When a Steemian upvotes your content, the blockchain looks to see how much Steem Power that person has. The more Steem Power, the more influence, and the greater the value of the upvote. Getting an upvote from a million Steem Power holder is far more valuable than a 100 Steem Power holder.
Is this like Bitcoin?
Yes and no. Bitcoin is a Proof of Work blockchain, and involves expensive machines that are used to “mine” Bitcoins, which are then sold in an open market.
Steem is a blockchain, but uses Delegated Proof of Stake to secure it instead of Proof of Work. There are 20 top witness accounts, elected by Steem users, who all run servers that keep the network running. Anyone can run a server and try to be elected as a witness. The top 20 witnesses also earn a portion of the inflation rewards that are paid out every 3 seconds (each witness produces one block per minute; 20 X 3 = 60).
Like Bitcoin, Steem can be sent to anyone with an internet connection and a Steem account. Unlike Bitcoin, Steem accounts have human readable names, like 
Steem also costs nothing to send, whereas Bitcoin, during periods of high volume, can cost many dollars to send. Steem is also sent instantly-the three second block times make Steem one of the fastest blockchains today.
What is Steem Power?
Steem can be locked up, similar to how you’d lock up money in a stock, into Steem Power. Steem Power gives you influence. When you have more Steem Power, your upvotes give people more Steem cryptocurrency, so you can promote the articles and creators you like the best. Locking Steem is a vote of confidence in the network, as it will take 13 weeks until that Steem can be powered down and sold. SteemPress bloggers who simply want to earn cryptocurrency and convert it to cash can do that without worrying about Steem Power.
What are Steem Blockchain Dollars?
Posts are paid out in a 50/50 split between Steem Power and SBDs, seven days after publishing. Steem Power takes 13 weeks to fully power down, but SBDs, like Steem, can be sent to another user or an exchange immediately.
SBDs-Steem Blockchain Dollars-were originally designed to be a stable token worth about $1, but they have floated in price since November 2017. They can be traded for Steem by clicking the “Market” option in the drop down menu.
Posts can also be paid out as a 100% Power Up. For this option, no SBDs are received, and the value of the SBDs the author would have gotten are put into Steem Power. [3] This is a good option if you want to grow your influence on Steem or earning passive income.
Did you say passive income?
I did. Here’s that link again. Steem Power is influence, and it is cheaper to rent than buy, so many Steemians have found value in renting it. A healthy marketplace has grown over on Minnowbooster, and those interested in growing their Steem following are encouraged to check it out.
I've made a video explaining how the Minnowbooster Market works.
Recap and Conclusion
SteemPress is a WordPress plugin that is free to use, that gives bloggers the opportunity to seamlessly crosspost their original content to the Steem blockchain, earning cryptocurrency. The more involved you are, the more money you can make.
You can sign up for free via steemit.com. You can also pay a small amount to create an account anonymously. Or, you can look at one of my packages that will be out soon that will help you connect your blog to Steem and begin earning cryptocurrency right away!
-Jeff
[1] If you don’t have a WordPress blog, you can still post directly onto the Steem blockchain using steemit.com or busy.org. This is how I started blogging, and I retroactively created this blog to take better control of my SEO and online presence.
[2] Unlike Twitter and Facebook, Steem is a very friendly social media environment. There are no mobs of users angrily brigading people they disagree with, making Steem a refreshingly polite social media experience.
[3] Articles posted via SteemPress currently share 15% of the reward with the 
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://steemmaker.com/this-free-plugin-turns-your-wordpress-blog-into-a-cryptocurrency-generator/