User retention has been one of the biggest issues on Steemit for a while now. The community itself found ways to respond to this by forming curation groups like Hive account@curie and Hive account@robinhoodwhale , Hive account@projectnewbie (who meets and greets on top of curation) and the Steeemprentice Mentoring Group. I've personally seen so many success stories of users who I could honestly tell were rather dejected a while back and seem elated and engaged now.

Before I get too into things here, I'd love for any user, Steemprentice Member or not, to take this very short poll I put together. What I'm looking for here is the trend of active users views/feelings of being here compared to a month ago (which is when Steemprentice and Hive account@projectnewbie started.)

Take the Steemit User Poll

My concern is that too many users are falling through the cracks as we have a limit of what rather brute force solutions can do. Brand new users have no way to know that these 4 community groups are there when they first sign in. In my opinion Hive account@projectnewbie is on the front lines for greeting and informing new users on Steemit, and we all know how daunting this place can be for many without a little hand holding. I don't mean this as a knock on the site in any way, but rather just something that hasn't gotten to the front of the development pipeline for a more permanent solution.

Personally I see really low hanging fruit to help ease new user shock and awe is to include Hive account@thecryptofiend's The Missing Beginner FAQ, the official Steemit 101 ebook or some kind of other beginner oriented FAQ or walkthrough in the menu tab itself, right under 'About.' Resources for new people need to be right in their face at the beginning, we can't expect them to just happen to find one or a community member to reach out and be informative. Having a guide or FAQ front and center can do wonders for user retention as well as relay information on how to contact groups that are there to welcome and help them along the way. There are small gotcha's that we all have experienced (leaving an extra space after your fifth tag for example, which throws a posting error) that we really shouldn't require newbies to fight through on their own.

Another low hanging fruit I see for a short term solution is better support for Hive account@projectnewbie.

This group is on the front lines, actively searching through the new and introduction feeds, and reaching out to our new Steemians. Just by them leaving a comment and giving some direction is immensely useful and important. While money isn't everything, we know the effect it has for motivation, we see this already with finder fee's for both Hive account@curie and Hive account@steemcleaners (another often unsung hero.) Without whale support, neither of these projects would have nearly the positive impact that they do (because SP is needed), nor would the community be as motivated to provide links without the finder fee's. (I know there are people who do this regardless of the $, but many get the initial and ongoing motivation from it, ideally becoming independent from the money.)

I do not want this to seem like I'm taking ANYTHING away from the importance of Hive account@curie, Hive account@robinhoodwhale and Hive account@steemcleaners, but rather draw attention that there are extremely important projects that don't currently have the backing of whales but are integral to the success of Steemit (in my opinion.) Users both in Hive account@projectnewbie and Steemprentice both donate their time and effort for the good of others and the community as a whole, sacrificing the opportunity cost of posting more themselves or dedicating time outside of Steemit (many of our significant others can attest to this.) Every person has a limit of what they can give before burnout sets in. Increased funding for groups such as these allows smaller, yet crucially important jobs be 'outsourced' to other users and free's many of the mods/admins of these groups to focus on larger and more difficult user needs (like one on one mentoring or manually seeking out those needing help for example.)

Limiting Factors is Exposure

Since Hive account@projectnewbie isn't solely focused on curation and Steemprentice doesn't curate, the need to create high SP accounts isn't as imperative in my mind in these cases, but the current impediment for these two groups is community exposure. There is no way to individually find all users that are new, struggling or frustrated, and I hate to think how many have left simply because they didn't know these groups existed and we didn't find them. I view funding provided to these two groups as being used for better outreach, staffing and advertising of the non-curation services that users are offering for FREE.

When I was a frustrated minnow a while back that 'kindness' of strangers (who tossed me a few SD's at the time with an 'at a girl' type statement) is what helped keep me going at the time.

Having the curation groups has drastically improved this since then, but there are still some who either fall through the cracks or are still improving their skills, that could use that little boost. To them it's not about the money, but the appreciation and notice, so even being given 2 SD's goes a long way.

We need people who are Excited about Steemit to be our Ambassadors.

To anyone that's not been a part of cryptocurrency, they will only take Steemit seriously from someone they already know and trust. If I'd heard of this place from anyone other that Hive account@winstonwolfe (or a very few select others) I would have instantly discounted this place as 'too good to be true.' This is how I'd love to see any further funding used, is to use passionate newbies to be our grass roots marketing. The allure of coming to Steemit and making thousands of dollars is unrealistic for most people, and is a cause of the retention issue itself. In my mind, were selling a growing and caring community, where realistic compensation (for many is) currently can be around $100-$200 per week payout totals, with roughly $30 - $60 being liquid (i.e. can be cashed out.) If we don't set realistic expectations in our external marketing, we're just setting new users up to be disappointed. I want to see our public marketing have a real, human face and story. And what better way to do this than having people who are truly excited that spread the word? (I have seen a downward trend in Steemit meetup, or other Steemit marketing related posts in general for a while now.)

A Small Bonus for Many vs Livable Income for Fewer

This brings me to my final thought, on the overall direction of Steemit. Before the curation groups really hit their stride there was a SLEW of 'frustrated minnow' and leaving Steemit posts all over. Since then I truly feel that a huge number of quality authors are getting curated by these groups in particular providing about a $30/post average..which in my mind achieves the user retention goal. For someone to feel their efforts are worth it, $30 is just as meaningful (emotionally) as $300. I have recently heard good points on the flip (or practical) side of things that with the way things are now, more people are being rewarded, but the amounts aren't enough for somebody to live off of.

Personally I'm on the fence here, feeling that there needs to be a good balance struck. Being a minnow advocate with small user retention in mind, that spread of $30 across tons of users is a good thing for the site, but not necessarily life changing in the financial sense, yet very impactful on effort the users put in. I can easily view this as a success and also remember that a $30 payout today would've easily been a $150 payout a month or so ago when Steem price was high. The other side of the coin here is that I can potentially see importance for Steemit to have it's icons and success stories who ARE able to make a living off of this site in the sense of empowering and motivating others to do the same. While I'm sure everyone would love to have a full time income by Steeming, there is a limit to our resources, and there's only so much Steem in the 'daily prize pool' to go around. Especially with the share price of Steem being where it currently is. (The 'daily prize pool' is based off the current market cap, of which share price is a major factor.) I'm not mentioning this in regards of where the share price 'should' be, but rather knowing we have limited resources, how does the community feel it should focus/spread what there is to allocate.

Final Question

Does the Steemit community as a whole feel that it's more important to focus on individual motivation and emotional gratification (paying out smaller amounts to more people) or to focus on users being able to use this platform to sustain full time incomes for a smaller number of users (who ideally are a draw of new users to the site?) Or some combination in between and perhaps to what extent? [NOTE: This question is NOT in the poll. Please leave answers in the comment section below this post.]

I solely wrote to better the site itself and to get some community feedback. I know I don't have all the answers. And besides this is a perfect instance where **it's about being BETTER, not RIGHT."

And Just to Ensure Nobody Leaves without a Smile...

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