Freelancers, we need to talk about our exposure...

Hive account@steemit is an amazing place that offers many varied experiences and opportunities.

One of those opportunities is the chance to offer all sorts of products and services in exchange for one of the steem currencies, without a middleman pocketing part of the money.

For roughly 6 months, the #steemgigs tag has been the number one way to get your freelancing posts out to the public. The last month or two have not been kind to the tag though, and it has been overrun by posts that have nothing to do with freelancing. I've written a few posts about the issue, you can go check out the new #steemgigs feed and see in 30 seconds what I'm talking about, and it only seems to get worse with time. You can read my blog and tell how much I love the idea of a tag where people can showcase their skills, and look for talented people who can help them with a project or task.

I have all the respect in the world for Hive account@surpassinggoogle, and his Hive account@steemgigs initiative, and none of the spam on a tag he created is his fault. I do, however, feel that we need a new tag to help organize freelancing posts on the blockchain. I'm not proposing anyone stop using the #steemgigs tag, I'm simply proposing an extra layer of exposure, a new angle. A fresh tag exclusively for freelancers, enforced by freelancers. The tag with be for offers & requests of products or services of any kind. It will be a true marketplace where people can exchange ideas and hard work for steem and sbd.

I've talked and talked, and now it's time to actually try and come up with a solution.

Therefore, I want to announce my intention to start using and curating the #steemlance (Steem+Freelance) tag.

The tag will be for any post that offers or requests a product or service of any kind from other steemians. Obviously that is not black and white, and there are a couple exceptions to that "rule". Curation posts (those that catalog or talk about other posts), and completed job/testimonial posts would be relevant to the tag. As long as the post's subject matter is freelancing, it would "belong" on the tag. I don't want to be "strict" with the tag, but I do want to keep it as relevant as possible, and hope other freelancers will help me do so.

If the response to this is positive, and we can get people using the tag, I have the intention of starting an account to organize/promote/support freelancers, as well as a website to showcase everyone's work. Freelancing is one of my main interests here on Steemit, and we need a better way to land clients, because the tag we have been using is getting very crowded with non-freelancing content. Again, I'm not encouraging anyone to stop using the #steemgigs community, quite the contrary. I still believe Hive account@steemgigs has the potential to disrupt fiverr, and change the way freelancers look for work.

So if you want to start getting a little extra exposure to your freelancing posts, use the #steemlance tag, and let's work together to create a community BY freelancers, FOR freelancers.