What Is Steemit & Why You May Be Wise To Join The Party? (An Open-Invitation To Participating & Profiting In A Social Media Revolution)
- You should join Steemit. Here is why.
- 27 reasons to join Steemit
- What Is Steemit & Why You May Be Wise To Join The Party? (An Open-Invitation To Participating & Profiting In A Social Media Revolution)
- Why Join Steemit? 9 Advantages of Getting in Today!
- Why join Steemit? Better than other Social Media
What Is Steemit & Why You May Be Wise To Join The Party? (An Open-Invitation To Participating & Profiting In A Social Media Revolution)
We've all had our rounds on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. But what does the future hold for the evolution of social media, as new technologies & collaborative models adapt to a shifting economic environment...?Well, there's a few thousand people exploring that answer right now on a site called Steemit. And they may be earning their stake in what could prove the next big trend in social media.
If you're reading this now, you've either been on Steemit for a while and know what's up - OR are now being introduced by myself and/or another "Steemian" because we think you have some great value to offer and could benefit from checking out the platform
If you're already on Steemit, please feel free to share this as an introduction with people who you've known to consistently produce awesome content that would add value to the Steemit community
If you're not yet on Steemit, you may want to consider joining if you are interested in:
a) sharing your great content with a broader audience of open-minded pioneers in an emerging social media community who believe in fairly compensating the value of one's sharings & participation in curating high-quality content
b) profiting from your engagement on social media - OR if you're not interested in personally profiting from what value you create for others, might like to generate funds for donation to any cause of your choice
What Is Steemit?
Steemit is a social media / blogging platform built on blockchain technology.
It is most similar to Reddit - except that for earning "Karma Points" when a person's posts are voted on by other community members, a person is rewarded in the platform's own cryptocurrency, which can then either be invested back into Steemit OR sold on an exchange for either Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, OR any fiat currency (USD, CAD, AUD, EUR, etc).
Simply put = Steemit is a site which you earn money for what you post on the site that others find valuable.
Rewards are also given for voting on content, as compensation for helping the community curate valuable content.
No capital investment is required to get started - only signing up for an account and starting to post. (I was skeptical at first, but have earned $5000 worth of Steem Dollars that can be exchanged for cash and $5000 worth of "Steem Power" (essential stock/shares in the company).
If people are interested in cryptocurrency investing, however - they can purchase Steem on a few different exchanges - buying into the venture with money instead of with time & energy invested in creating & curating content.
Why Steemit?
The founders - Dan Larimer and Ned Scott - took a look at social media sites like Facebook, valued at over $300 billion, and Reddit, valued at $4 billion and asked the question:
Instead of earning billions in profit for shareholders while the site users created all the content for free, what if that value was distributed fairly amongst the members creating the actual content...?
If we're spending time every day posting & sharing on social media - why not get a little slice of those billion dollar valuations for the contribution you're making?
Both Dan & Ned came from the cryptocurrency community and grasped the potential of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency model to support the creation of a platform that could be the solution to those questions. And thus, Steemit was born.
As Don & Alex Tapscott have excellently communicated in their bestselling book, Blockchain Revolution - this wave of technology is a big one that's going to change many aspects of our world. A revolution is underway. Part of what is so unique & valuable about Steemit is that it makes it simple & easy for anyone to get in on and partake in this wave, without any need for technical expertise.
Cryptocurrencies & blockchain developments will be as impactful as the first rounds of Web 1.0 (The Internet) and Web 2.0 (social media) have been. Though while Bitcoin may have been attracting much attention and many new users, the industry is still a relatively complicated realm to navigate through, still relatively semi-exclusive to computer coders at this point. However, Steemit is a very practical, straightforward, accessible application of these developments that makes it easy to jump into this new wave of tech to contribute to the movement - while simply sharing great content on social media as most would be otherwise, developing blockchain literacy through the process, and earning rewards for value generated.
A Multi-Dimensional Creative Space
Given it's come from a community of pioneers in the crypto/blockchain world, it's a whole new ballgame - a whole new environment, and a whole new open-sourced culture. Yes, the financial part may be cool - though what's more fascinating is the experimentation potential for innovative ways of collaboration and exchanging of value.
As the project has grown out of the cryptocurrency/blockchain community, there is much content on Steemit related to the tech. However, being completely fresh territory and open-source - the doors are open for anyone to come in, contribute whatever they choose, and make the most of the opportunity.
And as the fundamental philosophy of the site is rewarding value, there's significant incentive for users to share QUALITY content. This means both:
a) Content found on the site will continually be curated by the community to ensure it's high quality, as the systematic conditions are conducive to generating a source of excellent reading/viewing material for users
b) Anyone who is already consistently producing high-quality content can easily (re)post/share it on Steemit to access a wider readership placing value on quality material - and generate new revenue streams from their content.
c) All are free to creatively experiment producing & sharing whatever kind of content they choose - be it writing, art, videos, or anything sharable on social media - and receive direct, quick, clearly-measurable feedback in the form of votes and monetary compensation.
Collaborative writing or research projects, the development of new business ideas for blockchain application, campaigns for charitable causes... Steemit's an excellent open-platform for all these and more types of creative concepts to be built upon. The only limits are one's imagination.
Or, a person could just use it simply as a blogging platform - gaining automatic access to readers willing to reward your work and leveraging the Steem blockchain to get into and profit in the cryptocurrency game, simply for what you'd already be doing otherwise.
Who Steemit Is NOT For
If you don't have any interest in being a part of something profoundly innovative...
If you aren't interested in the possibility of earing financial rewards for the value you create and share on social media...
If you don't at all care about staying ahead of the curve of global trends and positioning yourself to take advantage of (and profit from) major cultural-economic trends shaping the future of socio-collaborative paradigms...
If you aren't at all interested in writing/creating or sharing great, high-quality content that is of value to others..
Then Steemit might not be for you. And that's fair.
Why I Share This...
Now, if you've happened to follow my writing over the last decade, you may have found me hyping up various "business opportunities" and ideologies before. Of that, I am not proud. I didn't always know how to contain my enthusiasm and discern the manipulative sales tactics from the genuine, well-intentioned sharing of real value. I've (hopefully) learned my lessons in blindly preaching to those wise enough to see through the marketing schenanigans I - in my immaturaty - was duped by.
This - with Steemit - is different.
Frankly, I'm still not 100% convinced it isn't a glorified ponzi scheme, at some level. Yes, I may be enthusiastic about it - an enthusiam which has been fed by actually extracting monetary profit from it, on top of the belief in the founders' vision. But, I've learnt enough about the emerging wave of blockchain technology and shifts in economic models underway to recognize the value this venture is bringing to the marketplace - and I would be doing a disservice by not sharing it with those whom I feel may be able to benefits themselves, their communities, clients, and families by participating in this development prospectively transforming the nature of social media.
Do I believe Steemit will be "the next big thing, as it might come across in parts of this? No.
Frankly, I have no expectations, and do have skepticism as to whether the financial model is sustainable over time. And it's highly probable that other blockchain-based, incentivized social media platforms will rise to the scene that could well out-perform Steemit.
But in the meantime, there is opportunity here. And for much greater rewards than just the financial.
And to clarify: I get zero kickbacks from introducing anybody to Steemit. There is no referral system in place. The reward is simply the fulfillment of sharing something really awesome and helping to grow a great community of people who are finding the platform to be way cool.
The Starting Point
The best way to "learn" (about) Steemit?
Jump in and get your feet wet at www.steemit.com
Once signed up, submit a story/post/article in the "introduceyourself" category by simply putting "introduceyourself" into the tag field. These posts are typically well-rewarded if done well, as incentive to stick around and increase your voting power. It's quite common to earn a few hundred bucks off a good intro alone.
From there, I'd recommend checking out my"The Top 10 Must-Read Posts To Supercharge Your Steemit Experience" - which lists a few excellent articles & sources that best sum things up and may accelerate your learning curve.
Browsing through the steemit, steemhelp, and steem categories, you'll find plenty of great posts to help you better understand the platform and keep up with developments.
And then you can browse through categories to find stories on whatever interests you most - or sort by new & trending posts.
The site still is a bit glitchy at times while the kinks get worked out (this still is only about 2 months old) - so if you hit any technical obstacles, do have patience. And if you want immediate support with anything or are interested in getting involved in team discussion, anyone is free to join the Steem Slack channel - catching up on back-end discussion threads and messaging with the active, key team players.
(Personally, I really love the idea of such transparency - anyone able to step into team conversations, ask questions, and contribute to developments. It's an opportunity most won't take - but is a confidence-booster, knowing the operation is open-source and no one is denied access to the inner development circle).
So there ya have it.
The Steemit community is steadily growing a proper base of fans and awesome contributors - and if any of this sounds interesting to you, come and play with us... :-)
Thanks for reading, I would like to hear your reason if I haven’t mentioned it yet.
- You should join Steemit. Here is why.
- 27 reasons to join Steemit
- What Is Steemit & Why You May Be Wise To Join The Party? (An Open-Invitation To Participating & Profiting In A Social Media Revolution)
- Why Join Steemit? 9 Advantages of Getting in Today!
- Why join Steemit? Better than other Social Media