What is Steemit?
Steemit is basically a social network that’s modeled after the popular online platform Reddit. Unlike Reddit however, Steemit pays you for the content you share. It does this by allowing users to upvote your posts with Steem, which is the system’s own unique cryptocurrency.
Can You Make Money with Steemit?
This is a complicated answer. The short answer to this question is yes, you can make money on the platform. However, there are a lot of nuances that come along with making money on Steemit, and there are a lot of alternatives that may suit your needs for making money online better than the Steemit platform.
The First Problem – System Design and Popularity
The first problem with making money on Steemit is the fact that you must be upvoted by other users on the platform to make any money. Because of this, many newcomers to the marketplace spend a substantial amount of time just trying to build an audience. Many users have stated that they have posted as many as 200 posts before making any money on just a few of them that were shared by users who have a large following. Unfortunately, this means that if you want to make money on the platform, you’re going to have to try like crazy to build an audience before you start to really earn any revenue.
While this is all good and well, if you’re going to build your own audience, you should be doing so on your own website rather than depending on another platform that could disappear tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the first time that sites allowing users to create content and earn revenue have disappeared overnight.
In fact, it’s happened several times in the past with sites such as Squidoo and many others. By having your own website, you can always be certain that your hard work will be there for years in the future.
The Second Problem – Getting Your Money
While it’s certainly possible to make money inside of Steemit, the problem arises when it comes to getting the money you’ve earned into your hands. First, half of the money that you earn from being upvoted is converted into Steem Power, which is a currency that is only usable on the site to upvote other people.
Second, the remaining money can be withdrawn as SBD or Steem Backed Dollars. This is the platform’s own block chain cryptocurrency. If you’re not familiar with cryptocurrencies, it’s okay. Basically, the way that it works is you must go to an exchange network and trade this cryptocurrency for real money that can be withdrawn to your bank account or PayPal.
Now, a couple of major problems arise when it comes to getting your money. First, since the money is in cryptocurrency form, it is only as valuable as people believe it to be. This means it is not backed by any precious metals or commodities.
So, in short, today that money may be worth $.50 and tomorrow it may be worth 1/10 of a penny. Sadly, the problem doesn’t stop there. On top of the currency not having any definitive guide to its value, you also must rely on being able to sell it for usable currency that can be deposited to your bank account. There are only a handful of exchange networks that will allow you to sell your SBD for the currency of your government. Now, if you can find a reputable exchange network and get your money, congratulations! Unfortunately, you’re probably only going to be able to get a little bit of money at a time from the network. This is because there’s only so much money guaranteed to be spent on your individual type of cryptocurrency.
Most networks have a reserve of a couple hundred dollars sitting there that can be used to purchase SBD. However, some, like the one pictured below, are simply not allowing the currency to be sold for cash at all.
Steemit Review - Can you Make Money with Steemit?
So, while you may be able to make hundreds of dollars in SBD on Steemit, you may run into problems trying to get it turned into cash so that you can use the money you’ve made.
As you can imagine, this could be a very frustrating situation to see money sitting there and wanting to use it, but being unable to get it into a form of currency that you can spend on merchandise.
Yes, there are a couple of online merchants that allow you to spend your SBD for merchandise, but it’s mainly colored pencil artwork and other similar knickknacks. So, unless your landlords willing to accept Steem for rent, you’re going to run into problems if you’re planning on using the platform to pay your bills.