When I first joined this platform, I was pleased it came with a system that would allow creators to make money. I didn't understand the concept of bitcoin, and, guaranteed, I still don't grasp it completely, but all those dollars popping up next to my posts looked really good. And then, time came to turn that virtual money into actual money and the pain began.
For one thing, if you earn 100 Steem dollars, that's not 100 CAD or 100 USD or even 100 Euros. Okay, that's expected. You need to convert them to your own currency. So I did, after opening countless accounts and creating a link to my own bank account. It took a while, but all was set to cash in my first real money. Well, between the wildly-fluctuating exchange rate and the crazy fees popping up all over the place, I ended up pretty much with peanuts, which, of course, now I have to pay taxes on and that will reduce my earnings to zero (or go in the negative? I'll find out when I see my tax guy).
Lesson learned, I wasn't going to cash in anything anymore. The Steemit dollars I accumulated, I turned them into Steem power. I figured that would give me the chance to feed my own content with more efficacy, but, lo and behold, this platform is so full of awful and stolen content that... what's the point? In a sea of no original content, everything else is drowning. You have to really believe in this platform to power through it, but how many people are going to read comics here, especially in a long form? It's nearly impossible to navigate from page to the next, and, let's face it, Steemians are much more interested in seeing single pieces of art, with the possible exceptions of humor stories with no actual storyline - just look at the number of upvotes or comments of single pieces, and compared them to the very few people here who publish actual stories. There's no comparison.
This is why I will leave this platform as soon as Ngiamwise is over. It's been fun, but this is not a place for me. Starting tomorrow, I will release my last page of Infected Blood and invite any reader to follow me on my own website. And then, I will phase out Ngiamwise and will wave goodbye.
No hard feelings!