Some Insights Why Your "Quality" Content Ins't Making You Money

I never browse the Trending Page, but the other night I was about 6 liters of beer in and had some time before bed and took a look at the posts that were Trending. I quickly realized that many of the authors of these posts weren't any more talented from a literary standpoint than some of the posts that I curate in the #Payitforward contest or various other "Minnow Help" communities that hang around in.

The biggest difference was that these posts had a target audience that believed that there was a perceived value in reading these posts. I'm going to use a post I read by Jerry Banfield. I want to point out that I have highest level of respect for Jerry and I think he does an admirable job advocating and promoting Steem as a platform. That being said, his post was just "preaching to the choir" or "free ice politics" if you will. His post was titled something like "Why I Think Steem Will Surpass Bitcoin" or some shit like that.

Yes, I said shit because it is not only unlikely to happen, there is very little reason to believe it will happen despite his 1500 word dissertation. The key thing about the post is that it was making a ton of money. Not just vote bot money, but REAL upvote money. Good for him. He has found a topic that everybody wants to discuss and, to be honest, he is telling everyone what they want to hear. People are eating it up like candy. It's like a Haejin post talking about Dope Coin going to the Moon or some ridiculous shit. Every Bong pilot on Steemit wants to believe it so they upvote the post. Literally the posts have absolutely NO VALUE to me personally, but others don't see it this way.

So, why do they get such great upvotes? There are several reasons, but the most important is that they have branded themselves as someone whose opinion/advice is valuable to a huge number of people. The second most important thing is that they have presented their posts as having something valuable for their audience.

The Raw, Hard Truth that You Don't Want to Hear

Most people don't give a damn about your posts! - I can hear it now. "Your so mean and insensitive." - "You don't care about the little guy." Well, if you believe that, then you haven't been following my posts or your stupid and I wish you wouldn't follow my posts. I DO care which is why I'm trying to help you understand that your photo of your sister's dog with it's new haircut has ZERO value to anyone except you and few other people on this Earth. Yes, it's cute, but I'm not giving up my valuable upvote for your picture of a dog.

Let me give you the real reasons that most people are here on Steemit. I say "most" because there are many people that are just messing around with the platform for fun and others that truly believe that they are saving the world from poverty, global warming, big pharma, or whatever the cause du jour is today.

Here is a basic lesson about human nature gifted to us from a pretty smart guy named Maslow. As you can read from the pyramid graphic I borrowed from some guy on the internet who wouldn't claim it or source it (source - https://medium.com/@CLHedgeFund/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-99b0946e7788), people take care of the basic needs in life first.

Most Steemians didn't come to the platform to spend their upvotes or investment (most people have invested so little it's comedy to call it "investment") on your pictures of flowers, story of Grandma's knee surgery, or European Beer Tour (in my case). They come to Steemit because some idiot told them they could make money upvoting crap and posting even worse crap. The truth is that they won't make money no matter how many dummy accounts they create.

You're SO NEGATIVE! - Not so fast. I love the platform and I love the posts about your Grandma's knee surgery if it is entertaining or interesting to me, but I'm not a whale and I don't have a Curie trail following me. If you want to make decent returns on your posts, then you need to find an audience for your posts or you NEED to change your posts to suit the audience that exists.

It really is that simple. It isn't that the platform is "flawed" or "the have's always outperform the have not's" or any of that whiny defeatist leftist crap. If you want to make money on Steemit, then you have to find an audience that truly values your posts and that potential audience isn't as big as you would like to think it is.

Your FB and Instagram food posts won't make you a freaking dime in Steemit regularly. You're going to have to be creative and work (like I did on this post that I'm 2 hours into after actually thinking about it all day before I started writing). Yes. It's work. Maybe not building houses kind of work, but it takes time.

I actually spent way too much time discussing an issue with an "artist" that thought people should be finding her on Steemit and upvoting her art because she worked so hard on it. Excuse me? Why the fuck am I supposed to find YOU to PAY you with my upvotes to LOOK at your art? What am I getting? Some people have lost their fucking minds on this site. If you want to get paid, you have to provide VALUE to the people you want upvotes from.

Strategy Basics Recap

I'm finished with my overall rant. Some questions that you need to think hard about and answer.

1. What value can you provide to people so that they will upvote your posts? If you don't know, you need to figure it out and fast if you TRULY want to make money on the platform. Remember, some people convinced us to buy "pet rocks" once. Value is often just a perception.
2. Why are you an expert on the value that you're providing? Why should I trust you? How will you convince me that you're an expert and I can trust you? Don't just tell me you were in the "investment banking business for 20 years". I've heard that about 18 quadrillion times. Usually they sold insurance.
3. Do I have a special niche or sphere that I know a lot about and enjoy discussing? Yes, this is an option to make some income. For instance, the Homesteader community on Steemit is fantastic and super supportive of each other. Are they making Haejin dough? NO, but many of them are getting good returns on their posts for talking about something they love and enjoy. Value doesn't have to involve money on Steemit, which takes us to #4.
4. Can you make money outside of Steemit based on your activities IN Steemit? This is the best question to be asking yourself because there is NOT a lot of money to be made on Steemit. Sorry, hate to burst your bubble, but none of you are retiring next year because of your Steemit accounts. I say that with 100% certainty. Here's an example - I feature BBQ videos on my blog. I have a catering company. I send my Steemit posts to my friends and clients. They see a bunch of upvotes (many of which I pay for) and think, "Wow, people really like Jerry's food." Sale done. They don't know that you only upvoted me hoping that I would do the same for you. They just see $25 or $100 dollars that I got paid to talk about BBQ. Then they write me a check for $500 to deliver lunch. Leverage your Steemit success in the "Real" world.
5. Are you buying upvotes or participating in communities that trade votes? No, why not? Oh, Jerry that is not "real" votes. BS. Nobody likes a loser. If your post has .17 on it, even people who like it are afraid to waste their upvote on it unless their upvote is .001. You need to show some interest and success for people to give you credibility. More on this in a future post.
6. Are you upvoting your own posts at 100%? No. Stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's like someone saying that they don't put money in retirement because that is their employer and the government's job. It's your #@%^^& money! If you don't believe in your own post, then why should anyone else? Also, you're killing yourself on curation rewards (yes, another future post). People ask me about this all the time. Yes, I spend 60+% of my voting power upvoting myself. "You're so greedy Jerry!" Screw you. I pay for my SP unlike most Steemians and still give away nearly 40% of it. I grow my account so that I can continue to help others. If you are truly some altruistic monk, then you should do the same. If you're a poor schmuck, you can't help anyone. See the Maslow's pyramid again for slow learners.

Things to Do For Those That Must Be Guided

Here are some basic things you should do if you didn't figure it out from my questions above.

1. Figure out what your true goal is on Steemit. Write it down. Be clear and precise. If you wrote, "I wanna be a whale." Go back to instagram and leave me alone. Precise is, "I want to build my account to 2000 SP." This is clear and achievable (and easy if you have 8K USD that you want to invest).

2. What can I post on Steemit that MOST Steemians want to read about? "Ooooh Jerry, I want to talk about Crypto. Sia Coin is going to MOON." Really? You're going to have to do better than that to gain an audience here. You need to have some special insight, information or general understanding that separates you from the pack. I write about history, travel, some Steemit tutorials and BBQ. Why? Because I'm an expert on them and SOME people like to read about them. I'm not trying to be on the Trending Page because my stuff isn't that interesting. It's okay to be honest.

3. Post about your chosen specialty everyday or 4 to 5 times a week? If you can't, then you're not likely an expert on the topic. Add a few posts on other things you like. That's okay. I have a broad-based page and so do many of my friends. Honestly, I spend more time curating #payitforward posts than I do writing my own and I have more fun doing it. lol

4. Find people that like the same things you do. Find people with SP that like the same things you do. Discuss these things and make friends.

5. Quit worrying about how much money everyone else in the world (including Steemit) is making. Focus on what YOU are making. You can't control their income, but you can impact your own income. I should have put this point at the top of the post, but if you haven't read this far I don't care about your success anyway.

6. Invest in your "Quality" articles. If you believe in the product, then advertise it. You will never know how many morons gave me crap because I spent 80 SBD to promote the payitforward contest. These idiots think they are "purists". I made my money back and promoted a great program BECAUSE I believe in it. I can only imagine Apple saying, "We don't need to promote our product because it is QUALITY." Yeah, good luck with that.

7. Last thing. Be the BEST! Yes, the best. Know your stuff. When you establish yourself as an expert and authority on a subject, people will listen to you. They will share your advice, upvote you and bring people to your page. People like a winner. Show them that you're a winner in one way or another and they will flock to you. If you don't believe me, look around and ask yourself why some of your Steemit "friends" are so popular. Usually, it is because of respect for their knowledge, expertise, willingness to share (VALUE) these things with others, etc.

Okay. It's Friday night and I want a beer. Sorry Steemit, but I'm taking a 12 hour break. All the best to you.

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