Introduction
There has been a lot of talk about incorporating advertising into Steemit.
It is no longer the proverbial "elephant in the room" which people even refuse to discuss (which seemed to be the case initially). Nowadays a lot of users are coming around to the idea.
I personally think this would be a valuable addition if it is done tastefully and in the right kind of way.
That means it should not get in the way of user's enjoyment of the site by getting in the way or making it harder to use. It should not take over the site and give people the feeling that it is too intrusive.
If these things can be done then we will all benefit.
Sponsorship
One method of advertising that is used a lot both on and offline but I haven't seen discussed much is the use of Sponsorship. This is a multibillion dollar business annually and it is used by many companies.
(US Sponsorship Spending and Ranking 2015 vs 2014: Source: IEG report on Sponsorship)
(Top 20 categories for Sponsorship Spending in the US: Source: IEG report on Sponsorship)
What makes sponsorship so popular and effective?
In my opinion it is because it is not as blatantly intrusive as other forms of advertising and does not seem to annoy people as much.
You don't have to actively click to get rid of popups and the like and it does not get in your way. This lack of annoyance factor reduces the negative sentiments that other forms of advertising may create.
(NB : You can download a report on sponsorship statistics by IEG (one of the leading companies that looks at this field) here - note you will need to register for access. They also have a lot of other useful resources about sponsorship including graphs, statistics and reports.)
One way it could work
Companies would sponsor a blogger by powering up the blogger's account by a certain amount of SP (determined by Steemit or the network and based on the current Steemit price) - let's say a minimum of 20,000.
The blogger can accept or reject this sponsorship.
Whilst there would be a lower limit to prevent the system being spammed with logos at a low cost, there would be no upper limit on sponsorship.
If authors accepted then the sponsor's badge would be displayed on their homepage and at the top of all their posts for a certain period of time - e.g. 3 or 6 months.
Each blog would have a maximum limit of sponsors - e.g. 3. This would prevent spamming of blogs with too many badges.
The time limit would prevent bloggers from getting permanently locked into a deal with a particular sponsor and would also allow competition between companies to acquire the best content creators.
Example for illustration
For example I post a lot about photography and I use Nikon equipment.
Let's say Nikon decide they want to sponsor me.
They contact me and agree to power up my blog with 20,000 SP (the level will depend on the Steem price) and if I accept they get their logo displayed in all my posts for a set period of time (e.g. 6 months).
They benefit by having their logo seen by all my readers. I benefit because I get more Steem Power, which makes me and my posts more prominent as well as increasing my stake in Steemit.
Also the logo is potentially seen by people who I vote for checking my home page.
The greater voting power given to me by the sponsor's power up should make my votes more prominent with other users and hence make them more likely to follow me back.
Enhancing Sponsorhip further with offers, discounts and even Steem/SBD purchasing
It could be taken a step further with custom "offer" badges so that those who read my blog can click on a 10% off badge for all purchases of Nikon equipment.
People see what I'm doing with my camera and want to try it themselves. What better time to sell them a product and sweeten the deal with a discount?
They click on the button straight from the post and buy their own camera or lens AND get a discount too.
The reader wins because they save money and the advertiser wins because they entice the reader into an immediate sale (which may have gone to them but could have been sniped by a competitor if they went to a regular retailer).
The longer the time between the reader deciding to buy something and actually making the purchase is, the greater the risk to the company that this will happen.
Also the knowledge that Steemit readers get discounts on purchases could be a further means of attracting new people in.
Further down the line the purchases could even be made in Steem or SBD.
How to engage Sponsors more effectively with statistics
The current homepages on Steemit only show basic numbers of followers.
This is not really useful to an advertiser on it's own.
A further idea suggested by 
(Source: SteemD)
It would give an idea of active user engagement with a particular account.
This would allow advertisers/sponsors to make informed choices about who to sponsor.
What about Promotion?
We have a form of advertising in a sense via the promotion feature.
Whilst I like this feature it does have it's problems. So far it has not really engaged advertisers much and has remained the preserve of authors looking to get more visibility for their posts.
The problems with promotion:
- It is kept to a separate section which people must actively click on - who actively clicks to seek out advertising online?
- It does not show who promoted the content - so it is no use for someone sponsoring for advertising purposes unless it directly deals with their product.
- It is on a per post basis.
- Promotion activity and use is in decline with fewer and fewer people using it
- Tweaking it to make it more prominent and increase activity may actively put off some users.
Conclusion
I think Sponsorship could be another way to bring utility and advertising to the Steemit platform. It has the added advantage of being less intrusive and annoying than other forms of advertising.
It should help to increase the demand for Steemit and with the addition of features such as discounted buying with Steem integration it could also be used to build out active utility for Steem/SBD as a currency.
Imagine being able to buy your next camera with SBD/Steem!
It may seem far fetched now but once we get advertisers actively engaging with the platform it is a a much smaller step for them to start accepting SBD/Steem for their actual products.
As always please let me know what you think. These are just ideas and as always there may be major problems which I have missed or which need further tweaking.
Thank you for reading:
If you like my work and aren't already, please follow me and check out my blog (I mainly discuss photography but I do other topics too) -
Photo Credits: All photos that are not sourced or personally taken screenshots are stock photos from my own personal Thinkstock Photography Account.
(Verification for me here: http://www.aapicture.com/about-me)
Some of my other recent posts
- Some moody church photos to test my new lens
- Some beautiful, artistic textures for you to use in your own posts
- Snowy - some adorable cat photos (feel free to use them in your own posts)
- 5 Months on Steemit - what I have learned and tackling some misconceptions
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