This is what I've been trying to figure out - What can WE do, as a community, to increase the value of Steem? If that value is defined by the value of Steemit, then our focus should be on increasing the value - or even just the "perceived" value - of Steemit.

Perhaps investments could come by allowing members here to sell their items (art, photographs, etc..), and their services (writing, tech services, etc..,) - and by "allowing" I mean the community not downvoting sales posts (selling with overall community blessings).

If enough members sell here, and drive traffic to those sales posts and start making sales (primarily to buyers comfortable with using Bitcoin, as that is what they would be using to buy Steem to make the purchase), would that increase the value of Steem?

So then we could start creating posts with "Selling" as the category tag.
And reputation, verification would become more important as well.