Hello beautiful people!
Today is Sunday, February 18th, and today's BuzzSteem is primarily about: DTube!
I love this platform, because I really think it has the capacity to replace YouTube one day! Everyone talks about us little guys one day being the big guys if we stick with it. Whether or not I agree with that, it still stands to reason, that creators like myself and many others, need a reason to stick around other than awesome people that we know and love that follow us! I'm talking about the almighty upvote my friends! The ever-elusive and extremely impossible to decode random upvote that a lot of daily producers receive every once in a while! Many of us who have committed to Dtube Daily have been putting out consistently high quality content, with a rather inconsistent response from the heavy hitter that was given its SP delegation in order to encourage said quality content. I have even been hearing from YouTube transplants their frustration from having a massive welcome, to only getting a big upvote every once in a while. It is terribly confusing for users, and the platform just doesn't have enough user consistency yet to rely on followers alone for upvotes.
For instance, the other day I was reading this users blog who said that he is making money now because of his sheer number of followers, but in looking at his payout, while his upvote number was high, it wasn't what was funding his payout. The first ten or so votes were upvote bots. Out of the $700 he made on the post, more than half was from upvote bots, like a good $400 or so. Then he got an upvote from DTube of around $150, a whale vote of just under a hundred, a handful of dolphin votes and then his mega stream of followers, only brought him in about 12 bucks. Now, I am not scoffing at 12 bucks being made solely on 10 cent upvotes or so, but it's a far cry from the insinuation that hundreds can be made from sheer upvotes alone. We see this with @haejin. His posts would be worth squat without @ranchorelaxo and he has one of the largest followings on Steemit. Why is this happening?
Well, I believe it's because of the massive amount of users that are dead, meaning they signed up and posted a couple of times, and maybe even clicked that follow button on your account, but they are worthless to you now because they are no longer here. It's kind of like buying votes on Facebook or Youtube. Sure you can impress your friends with your high numbers, but if your interactions are low, those likes and follows are worthless, and the same problem exists on Steemit. Of all my followers, almost 500, only about 30 consistently interact and upvote. Now perhaps the other 90% just hate my content, but it's more likely that a good chunk of that 90% are inactive. Maybe for my next post I will go through them and let you know how many I discovered to be dead.
Now, why are so many posters inactive? That's a good question with a lot of complicated answers. I think that perhaps hitting heavy on the advertising as though Steemit is a get rich quick scheme, isn't really the right way to go about things. I have seen a couple of approaches that I don't necessarily think are the best way to sell a mindset about this website. If people are coming here thinking they will make instant money, they will no doubt be disappointed when their first post only make cents. What's even worse I think though, is when your #introduceyourself post does well and you think you are well on your way, and then the next 20 posts make only cents. (This personally didn't happen to me, it's been a slow climb from the start, but I have seen it happen to others, ugh #theworst.)
So how can we make this better? Well, I think we need to encourage good content by rewarding good content. I think it's great that we have so many users and accounts that are on the hunt for good content, but those users/bots have so little SP delegation that even if they find great content, they don't necessarily have the power to give it the upvote it deserves. I am not sure how DTube delegates its rewards/upvotes, but if there isn't a direct strategy, which there doesn't seem to be, maybe there needs to be one. DTube is probably the platform most likely to blow up, because even though some people enjoy reading long blogs, most content is now consumed via visual medium. So what Dtube has to offer needs to be catchy, interesting, well-made etc. I have seen a few things on here now that hit all those sweet spots, but the upvotes for those particular videos are either inconsistent or non-existent. I myself would like to start producing some awesome high level content through the non profit, but it's hard to commit to if you know you may dump hours and hundreds of dollars into a project that will only make a few cents. While this is a community, and it shouldn't all be about money, we are unfortunately not there yet as a society. Everything still runs on money. I used to believe that my time and talents weren't worth anything, and man, as an artist you are sold this bullshit idea of "being a sellout" if you want to make a living like since your very infancy, and I had that mindset for a long time...until I met my 2nd voice teacher who told me to never again work for free, unless I was explicitly volunteering.
So my dear Steemians, come here with the mindset that this is a community, and it's fun, and it's awesome! But DONT fall into the idea that some here are pushing that "well any money is better than nothing" or "what was Facebook paying you?" or "Steemit owes you nothing." That's crap. In general this sentiment may be true, but it's just as true the other way around. We owe Steemit nothing. We owe Dtube nothing, and the platform could not survive as a social media platform that draws in new people, if it weren't for those making content interesting enough for people to want to stay. The relationship must be a symbiotic one. People help grow the platform by contributing high-quality meaningful posts and the platform helps grow the individual by ensuring their contentment and financial stability via upvote.
I don't care if I wasn't paid to post on Facebook. I also wasn't making Facebook specific content. I didn't actively promote Facebook to other people. I used Facebook for my own gains. Steemit is different. I run a daily vlog that features Steemit related stuff, Dtube related stuff, and I promote these videos on my other social medias. I inherently advertise for Steemit, and I know a lot of other users do too! It is only fair to expect some sort of fair compensation for my time. I hope that others feel that way too. Don't give away your time for nothing, it's the greatest lesson I have learned so far. In expecting those that do have the means to compensate me, to actually do so, I have more time to give my time to those who really need it, and don't have the means to compensate me (ie all the people that our non profit supports.)
Well that's my rant for the day. I am sure, as always, I will ruffle some feathers, but that's just the way I see it anyway!
I will also add that I am not ungrateful at all for the support I have gotten thus far. I appreciate every upvote and comment. I only wish that those that have the power to upvote more consistently, would do so!
Anyway, Happy Sunday and Stay Steemy my friends!
▶️ DTube
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