A year ago I wrote here on Steemit about how people were bemoaning the (then 4 week) reward cutoff point on Steemit, and how content producers might embrace other forms of revenue generation, such as advertising. Today I want to revisit the subject and get a feel for what kind of sentiment is out there on the matter.
A Tried & Tested Paradigm
Before Steemit ever came along, anyone could set up a blog and become a "content marketer", earning money from banner adverts or (more discreetly) contextual links placed in or around their content. Doing this successfully meant learning your way around web design, SEO and the various affiliate and advert networks. An arms race ensued as more websites sprang up using this model, and Google scrambled to keep spam off the top of their results pages. They did a pretty good job too, and today the best way to make money through a "content website" is by ranking well with Google. To do that, your content needs to have a certain level of freshness, originality, and your site needs to have a certain reputation. The appeal of this model of course, is passive income. Payment comes after the work is done, often in a slow, long-term trickle.
Fast Forward
The Steemit model of course changes things, removing adverts and SEO, and bringing audience and content creator together in a unique way. Fantastic as this is, most posts go unread within Steemit after a couple of hours, and we currently have no way to reward content that has long term value. Imagine, Steemit is getting thousands of organic hits every day from Google, and none of that traffic is being monetized. You may love the idea of Steemit being "ad free" as a consumer, but why would a content creator go to the effort of crafting a timeless masterpiece when it only has a window of one week (realistically a couple of hours) to earn them money.
Win Win
The inadequacy of Steemits payout time frame is a controversy that hasn't gone away. Recently it has been a point of great discussion on Steem Speak chat and people have been thrashing out ideas about ways to improve the situation. I was overjoyed to read news of @steemads, the first and likely not the last unofficial Steem advert initiative. How it all comes together, and how it is received remains to be seen, but I commend @inertia and @fyrstikken for their efforts.
I imagine these "Steem ads" won't bother most Steemians because cleverly, the adverts will not appear until around the 7 day mark, by which time most traffic on a post will likely come from Google. This benefits both the blogger and the audience. Of course, there are already other ways to earn residual rewards, essentially using the traditional content website model and placing affiliate links within your text. I've already seen some high profile Steemians doing this, often in a wonderfully subtle way. I've read some rather shrill responses to the concept of advertising on Steemit and I wonder if they have even noticed that it's already here. Advertising doesn't have to be spammy, gaudy and conspicuous. It would be in nobodys interest to do it that way.
Why am I in favor of advertising on Steemit?
Incentive. This is why I think the emergence of advertising on Steemit will be a good thing. The promise of longer term reward will encourage far better content to be produced. The promise of rewards originating from outside the Steemit audience will also encourage far more diverse content. There is a reason Crypto News and Photography are so popular on Steemit. We're all geeks. In time, with the emergence of advertising, and indeed new community features, I hope to see Steemit become the content powerhouse it deserves to be - pet keeping, weddings, sailing, careers, interiors, car maintenance, etc .. This will be healthy for Steemit and will allow it to become the portal, the ecosystem, it deserves to be.
Over To You
I would really like to open up some discussion on this subject. While I'm not affiliated with any advertising initiative, I'm really excited by the prospect of residual income through advertising, especially when it can be done in a targeted, but non-obtrusive way. Please let me know your thoughts.
Specifically, I'd like to ask you, as both a consumer and a content creator:
- Are you in generally favor or against advertising/sponsorship/affiliation on Steemit?
- Would it matter to you if it was graphical or based in text?
- Should it preferably be an integral part of the STEEM blockchain, or left to third parties?
- What level of advertising would make you stop following someone?
- What would encourage or discourage you from placing some form of adverts in your own content?
- How do you think it might influence the price of STEEM?