With all of the talk lately on deciding whether to write content based solely on steemit vs. orginal content based off a multitude of topics has got me thinking. If I am going to invest the time into writing, should I be focusing on new and original content or profit by writing about steemit? The answer is simple. If you’re doing this for the money go ahead and write about steemit, but if you’re doing this because you love to write, then forget about the money and go ahead and write what you like to write about. While this topic has been heavily debated on here before, I’d like to offer a fresh perspective and alternative approaches towards the classic steemit debate.
Combine the two approaches into one
It’s possible to write original content and also to include a little discussion about steemit at the same time. As you can see from my latest post https://steemit.com/health/@fireriseace/america-s-weird-obsession-with-gross-and-unhealthy-foods I made some reference to steemit during the discussion. You can do this as much as you feel that you need to in order to relate more towards your steemit audience while at the same time making reasonable analogies towards your original content.
Alternate writing about steemit with writing what you like to write about.
This is my first steemit article after a couple of non-steemit articles. After posting a couple of times and getting few to no votes I needed a little relief. It’s a harsh feeling after you invest a lot of time and effort into your article and nobody looks at it. Those articles happened to be non-steemit based. If my theory is correct, then this article is likely to generate more views and votes. Not that I don’t enjoy writing about steemit, but if the whales are stating that they want to see more “original” content and that content isn’t likely getting rewarded, then you have to make adjustments. Why? Because people like getting rewarded from time to time for their work whether it’s in views, votes or steem dollars and I’m willing to bet that you’re no different. Ultimately, what’s important for people is that they’re heard. When an article is successful, an author feels like they got their point across.
The money factor
When it comes to money, you may state that you shouldn’t do it for the money and you may actually be right, but everything is not always as black and white. Sometimes I like to do things for the money and sometimes I like to just focus on passion. Then again, sometimes I like to do a little bit of both in different combinations. That would be the optimal win-win situation and that’s the purpose of exploring these alternate approaches to steemit to begin with. Since steemit is a huge experiment in and of itself, it’s up to you to decide which approach is correct.
Should you sometimes do things and expect a reward? The answer is yes. It’s a universal principle that hard work leads to success. Let’s say that a person who goes on steemit focuses all of their time and resources writing content that has nothing to do with steemit, but only content that was about things they are passionate about. Their posts end up getting little to no attention so they eventually lose interest in the platform and start looking elsewhere to post their stuff. If this system is to work then original content needs to be rewarded more than steemit content. Until then, we as minnows need to write about content that we like and also steemit related content in order to keep going.
Persistence is king
If you’re feeling frustrated by the platform because you’re not generating rewards. Remember, that this is a proven system. It will pay if you generate content that the community feels adds value. Maybe what you’re writing about is not interesting to people at the moment or maybe it just hasn’t been noticed by enough people yet. Regardless, I’ve seen firsthand that the system works. Sometimes, I feel like giving up, but then I remember that it actually does work. You just need to be persistent.
People really want this thing to work
The bottom line is that folks using steemit are interested in the platform itself. It’s true that you should not shy away from writing about what you like to write about, but if you also want to get people to actually read your articles, you need to write about steemit from time to time. What I’ve found is that people are more than likely to click your post if you come up with an interesting article about steemit and using steemit as the main tag.
People want steemit to work because it’s a novel system built on strong principles and offers an entertaining and rewarding platform in which to use social media. That sometimes comes with great challenges. One of those challenges is putting in work. When you put in the hours and deliver content that people are interested in, you have done your duty as a steemian. I like writing about topics that I’m interested in as much as anybody else, but there comes a time when you need to take a step back and ask yourself, can I afford to not write about steemit?