It has been awhile since I made an update post on my experience with steemit and as I have so many awesome content creators fresh in my head, and have been having a new run at explaining steemit to new users I have decided today would be a great day to do another update post on my Steemit Journey so far.
I started here in November of 2016 when the price of Steem was around .22 cents I believe. At this time there was a lot of support for new users and I was managing to make $1 - $60 a post in my first few months. I watched the price of steem go all the way down to .07 cents and and was still earning at least a few bucks on posts which was turning into larger amounts of Steem Power and SBD gains. May 2017 Steem went up to over a dollar in price and I really started to see the rewards grow, not only on my posts themselves but also with my Steem/SBD/SP holdings. One the first day of 2018 the price of Steem shot to $8.80. I had been putting in a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what Bitcoin was and how it was working, along with all these other alternative coins popping up left and right. When Steem was shooting up I was able to move Steem into other coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Ripple, and more. I was also able to move Steem into Bitcoin then into dollars and pounds on a Visa Bitpay card to withdrawl actual cash and pay bills. I am able to use these funds for living expenses, doctors visits, food and travels. I can use my bitpay card at any ATM even internationally and also use my card as payment for any goods or services internationally or domestically. I travel quite a lot to the United Kingdom from the US and this has come in handy for me. I can use my Visa Bitpay card 40k feet in the air to purchase a meal.
The price of Steem has been on a steady decline since its break out of near $9 in January of this year. Currently the price sits at around $1.30 and we have seen it very close to a dollar again. Something I have noticed is that Steem like all the other alternative coins is very hedged to Bitcoin. Bitcoin had huge growth in 2017 and spiked at almost 20k. Currently the prices of bitcoin is $6350.00 getting as low this year as $5500.00?? I believe. About a month and a half ago, Steem shot up from 1.30$ to 4.30$ in just a few days kinda seperate from Bitcoin, but has fallen back down as bitcoin has dropped further. Anything can happen anytime with Bitcoin and any of the altcoins it seems. I see a lot of people refer to cryptocurrency as a volitile market and I would have to agree. Prices are very unstable in these markets, getting in early seems to be a major key and also taking profits at the correct times.
I believe very much that even though Crypto is unstable currently that we are very much just at the beginning of a massive global financial change. I think cryptocurrency will be used to pay for almost everything within the next 10 years. I could see it being 5 years. I had heard there is over a "200 trillion" dollar need for currency on this planet and crypto could very likely take majority share within this time frame. Cryptocurrency total market cap almost reached a Trillion dollars on the first day of 2018 hitting around 820 Billion and currently sits at 253 Billions dollars. With such a massive shoot so quickly there seems to have been a need for a correction of sorts prices to find a more stable footing. The things is innovation is just starting on blockchain with crypto, there is so much expansion to be had that we have mountains to climb still. It is my opinion that crypto will continue to climb for many years before finding a more stable, reliable area. So is there profits to be made, of course, profits on short holds, long holds the whole shabang well into the future. One of the best places to jump into earning cryptocurrency is clearly Steemit. No investment needed, earnings on original content and instant Steem and SBD transfers, and an ability to move those rewards, earnings, funds to spendable usable cash. Most seasoned Steemians would agree that if you are posting full time on youtube, facebook, soundcloud or basically any other online site with original content and opinions you might as well be posting on Steemit and earning money. Money that could turn into something comfy in the future.
On Steemit you can earn by posting, upvoting and commenting. You can also earn by joining community contests and initiatives in almost every catagory.
Steemit Original Content - Creators - Apps
I am a Singer-Songwriter and Musician so I joined Steemit to share my original music I have created over the years by myself and in collaboration with other artists from all over the globe. So my main outlets on Steemit, Tags and community involvement has been on a music level, although I find it easy on steemit to be able to see whats going on with other projects, I watch with interest and support many trending subjects and non trending subjects on steemit, in art, news, sports, life and more. These things can bring great inspiration to an music artists like myself who is continuously writing new material. There is something for everyone on Steemit and many places for people to engage with like minded folks and also explore new ideas. Want to get all the best information on cryptocurrency? It is my opinion Steemit can be the best place for that, especially for a novice. I have learned quite a bit about the cryptocurrency and the economy itself from Steemit.
Content Sharing Applications run on the Steem Blockchain all allowing you to earn money for your original content.
DLive is the first decentralized live streaming and video sharing platform on Steem blockchain where you can earn rewards in Steem Dollars and Steem. DLive does not take any beneficiaries or fees from the people who have earned their rewards, so everything you earn belongs to you.
DTube is a decentralized streaming video platform linked to Steemit (the decentralized social media) which allows users to upload videos easily and make money (or cryptocurrency) via the upvotes or likes on their post
DSound is the place to be. DSound is a web application that allows you to upload, listen and discover music. The data is stored on top of a IPFS Network. It uses the Steem blockchain as a decentralised data which allows authors to earn rewards in Steem Dollars.
Other Apps Built on the Steem Blockchain
Other Useful Steemit Tools
Upvote automatically your favorite content. Sign up for Steem Voter and create a "Rule" choose a content creator on steemit and automatically upvote all there posts at a time of your choosing.
Although a little controversial on steemit right now, the use of Bid Bots, this Bid Bot Tracker site allows you to see and manage your Steem Power Delegations, check on the current prices of Steem and SBD and also allows you to use Bid Bots, which could be a useful tool to getting your post on the Trending page. You basically pay a Bid Bot to upvote your post a certain amount, sometimes you get all that back and other times you might get a little more or a little less.
SteemD is a tool displaying a feed with the latest actions related to any account. You can see who is voting for you in real time and commenting and also check your current voting power and other account stats.
There are quite a few Steemit Tools that you will find on steemit, these are just a couple I find myself going to a lot.
Incredible Content Creators on Steemit..
just a few......
Steemit OpenMic
Steemit OpenMic is a Weekly Music Contest created and hosted by 
Steemians can enter the contest weekly and showcase there original song, cover song, instrument work, solo or with a band and win 1 of 5 weekly prizes.
OpenMic is one of the first projects on steemit that I jumped into. I started by entering the contest after an invite from 
Common Questions When Entering Steemit Open Mic --- by @luzcypher
How To Support Musicians On Steemit And Earn Curation Rewards By Following The Open Mic Trail --- by @luzcypher
Operation We Are The Open Mic --- by @meno
Steemit Open Mic Is About Building A Community Of Musicians On Steemit Not About Winning --- by @luzcypher
Steemit Artists Music Compilation
S.A.M.C. is a steemit project I created in which myself Shavon Bonnie Legion, Netherlands producer 
Check out current Volume 5
https://steemit.com/music/@soundlegion/sound-legion-s-steemit-artists-music-compilation-volume-5-spotlight-artist-live-radio-show-w-tea-man-announcement
Blockchain Music Sites outside Steemit
Musicoin
Musicoin is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract functionality. It is a fork of Ethereum and as such provides its own blockchain running Ethereum Virtual Machine. - Wiki
Musicoin is a digital currency designed for the compensation and consumption of music. Every time a listener plays a song anywhere in the global Musicoin ecosystem, the song’s creators are paid in near real-time. The listening however, does not cost listeners anything. This article will explain how this is possible and speculate on Musicoin’s possible ramifications for music artists, fans and business people around the world. - hard data
Choon
Choon is a music streaming service and digital payments ecosystem. Like Musicoin Choon allows artists to earn cryptocurrency for every stream of their tracks. Currently a wait list, be sure to get on it if your an artist looking to get more music apart of blockchain.
Emanate
Self Governing Audio Exchange Protocol
Learn more about Emanate from creator
https://steemit.com/emanate/@prc/emanate-sharing-a-letter-to-the-team-with-you-and-announcement-of-announcement
https://player.vimeo.com/video/277000421
So my journey so far on Steemit has been quite thrilling, there has been some incredible moments. That first post where I earned $20 then $50 then $100. The first time Steem hit a dollar, then almost 9$ with Bitcoin nearing 20k. The discovery of Blockchain technology being spread out all over the place with exciting new innovations and projects for music artists like myself and beyond. High quality engagement from a motivated group of content creators spilling there lives passions out over the wires and earning life changing rewards for it has got to be a serious highlight. I am enjoying all the opportunities for collaboration and promotion of original music, I am enjoying teaching people about Steemit and also cryptocurrency as a whole. I am excited for the future and cant wait to see things really take off. I look forward to coming out of beta and also the up and coming Hardfork 20 for Steemit. It always seems after a good fork we see some good price movement up. There is motivation to invest around these times and also a lot of problems people been experiencing fixed. Its my thought we are close to a bottom price for steem right now and we could very well see it surpass last years high at some point this year. Especially if we get our SMT and HARDFORK 20 release.
Thanks for checking out my post. I hope it helped you out in some way or gave you a little extra perspective or encouragement on something. Be sure to comment your thoughts below and any extra useful sites you think are important to mention related to steemit and blockchain music.
Shavon Bonnie Legion
www.soundlegionrecords.com
Dsound Dtube Musicoin Choon