Responding to Steemit Critics: Why I Am Really OK with Creating Content for a Site that Only Rewards for a Week

I am going to preface this post with the statement that I am a content creator-- NOT a crypto trader, developer, investor or blockchainiac.

I write stuff. And publish it on the web... hoping to inform, entertain, educate, share and generally interact with an audience.

I have been doing this for almost 20 years-- often for free, sometimes for rewards,

A Common Criticism from my Fellow Content Creators

One of the common criticisms leveled against Steemit from fellow content creators is this issue that whereas Steemit rewards, it only "counts" for the first seven days... then we get paid, and the content is essentially "dead" at that point.

I grant you that it's a marked difference from other content sites where you publish and (ostensibly) keep earning to infinity... whether through accumulating page views, Google Adsense views or maybe Amazon or other affiliate links.

Many argue that the Steemit format discourages the creation of "evergreen" content... because "why bother" to create something that's relevant forever if you're only going to be rewarded for it for one week?

It's a legitimate question.

Why I'm OK With the Way Steemit Rewards

One of the things I've noticed since I started blogging on Steemit six months ago, is that I have become a much more "active" writer. The short term rewards system actually helps me stay on my toes... and I'm OK with that. In fact, more than "OK," happy.

Gone are the days of thinking about "articles" that I would publish and then spend the next six years (hoping to) collect royalties from. Instead, I am writing and creating practically every day.

Gone, also, are the days of relentless boring marketing and "spreading the word" about an article... trying to find new ways to announce the same thing, 47 times. With Steemit, I "announce once" and then we're pretty much done.

Of course, the other fact of life is that even though I have published 1000's of articles-- many of which are still "active"-- the vast majority of them got most of their traffic in their first week. So crying about no long term rewards is often somewhat of a non-issue... a lament that refers to something that often doesn't happen, anyway. 

Yes, there are a few articles that are still being found by Google and Bing, but it's generally only to the extent of maybe 5-10 new pageviews a week. 

My "home runs" that still get 20-50 page views per day after years in publication can actually be counted on one hand!

Short Term Rewards-- Long Term Benefits

One of the nice things about Steemit is that Google really likes the "no advertising" format, so work we publish here tends to rank well in searches.

Another thing to know about Google is that the search algorithms tend to favor new, fresh or "updated" content.

Even though we can't edit our older posts on Steemit, when they DO get found by Google, it's not an unreasonable assumption that a fair number of people would check "other articles" by a given author. As a result of which your current articles will be seen... and potentially receive a bit of reward.

Of course, that assumes someone to be a Steemit member... but that also has its own benefits. For now, those benefits are indirect-- an increase in community membership. Later on though, more and more of the people who find our articles through search will be existing members... and they will be able to upvote CURRENT content, even if they arrived through a link to an older post.

In a sense, I have come to look at my posts here a bit like "having a birthday." You get a lot of attention on and around the day itself... and anything outside that is really just a bonus.

In closing, my point here is that having Steemit posts offer rewards over a longer term would probably only add about 10% to people's overall rewards... which (at least for me) is more than made up for by NOT having to worry about "editing posts for freshness" from now till the year 2032!

How about YOU? Are you a long-time content creator from other parts of the web? If so, has it bothered you that Steemit rewards are for the first seven days ONLY, and that's it? Do you really think it would make much difference to your content if the payout period were longer... or indefinite? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published at 20170812 23:31 PDT