RE: Hacks To Become A Millionaire
I wouldn't bet the farm on Steem(it), because it doesn't appear to be spreading virally, there are only ~1500 active users who've earned $100s, and posting metrics have been declining since mid-July.
You are being paid out of a debasement (i.e. increase in the supply) of the pool of Steem tokens, which requires investors continue buying Steem tokens, and the other users don't power down. But if SP holders and investors realize the site isn't actually growing at a sufficient rate to become viable...
Btw, you were the #13 top defector from the ecosystem this past week. I was #44. You tried to sugar coat the reason you withdrew funds, ostensibly because of the politics of how you generate income from your posts. I didn't try to make any excuses for why I withdrew my earnings from the site. That isn't a criticism, but rather perhaps an observation instructive to why some people refer to this place as a "circle-jerk".
You are talented and I hope you can find a sustainable niche in art, as Leah McHenry as apparently done in music (even after she has borne 5 children!).
I wasn't intending to imply your only possible talent is in art. I agree with what @schro wrote in a comment about your communication senses being very compatible with the current desire of the Steem community for inspiring, intelligent, thoughtful, feisty, provocative messages, regardless if that is something any significant group would actually pay for.
My point is that it is easy for people to monetarily vote to tip such, when they feel it isn't being taken out of their own wallet. There seems to be this groupthink on Steem that we can force the rest of the world to change because we are so awesome, but that isn't the way marketing actually works. You have an astute sense of the reality of the world, so even if I haven't communicated my point clearly, I assume you will understand.
I don't expect Steemit to be a permanent source of income. I mean if it is, COOL! But that is why I am always focusing on building multiple sources of income just in case one platform falls away. Even without Steemit I can survive comfortably.
Thank you! I was really confused when you said that "I sugar coated my excuse" because I haven't told a lot of people why I've taken money out. Usually I power up or most of my stuff, But recently I became self employed and I have a lot of debt. I'm using some of the money Ive been making to go on a small vacation and to pay off my debt. Once that is done, I intend to start powering up more.
I believe in Steemit and I want to build up my voting power as much as I can.
I have a passion in a lot of subjects. I feel like if I only post about art and nothing else. I may get bored. So I"ve been expanding to a variety of subjects. This is probably not smart in the long term for my "Niche" But I can't help it. To be honest I'm not sure if I fully understand your comment. I don't plan to to "bet the farm" But I do want to invest in the platform.
It is very wise to pay off all debt before investing in a speculative blockchain project, especially one that locks up your money for 1 year average holding period.
I should make some disclosures so that you will be able to weigh my opinion with an understanding of my biases. If you had followed my links to Bitcointalk.org discussion, and had read many of iamnotback's (my) posts there, you would come to realize that I am intending to create a competitor to Steem, that will have some significant differences.
The problem I see with Steem's voting paradigm is that it motivates producing content which appeals site-wide, instead of to a coterie of like-minded followers. But site-wide focused content is a groupthink, meaning I think Steem will struggle to be relevant to wider diversity of audiences.
Also blogging is not something most people can do well, so why will millions of others join if the only they can read of the "we are change" (self-help, libertarian principles, anarchy proponents, why steemians are awesome, etc) groupthink blogs. The stats show that 93% of signups don't even earn $10 on Steem(it), so why would they bother to stay here. On Medium there are 20,000 people who blog weekly, and 25 million unique monthly blog readers. On Steem(it), we appear to have about 1500 serious bloggers active in the past week who've earned at least $100s. I doubt that Steemit has 2 million unique monthly readers (which is another reason to think Steemit's Alexa rank is not correct or manipulated as it estimates 6.5 million monthly readers).
But more importantly, I don't see why those serious Medium bloggers would switch to Steem(it), when they can't earn anything because their content doesn't appeal to the "we are change" mindset of the Steem groupthink.
And without growth, the monetary system of Steem will implode as it would then just be all of us extracting from the collective debasement of the money supply without any widespread viral growth to show for it, that would drive investment.
I have what I think is a better design, which solves these dilemmas. I think voting is a dysfunctional paradigm for numerous reasons. We shouldn't even be bothered with trying to discern what a vote should mean, as for example how you used downvoting as a weapon against @nameles who you felt was bad for the site. I understand the frustration with trolls and also the desire to protect the site, but that ends up as a war of attrition and no one wins if we all bind ourselves together in one groupthink and fight over who has control. Instead the solution is decentralization of groupings, so our like-minded groupings have localized control, not site-wide.
Also I think the Steem(it) name sucks. It doesn't speak to what a site like this really does and should be about, in terms of being a store of content for content producers.
I am not powering up because I must lock up my investment for 2 years (1 year weighted average price to power down). And in crypto s/w world, everything can change in a one month. The design I am contemplating, won't force anyone to power up in order to invest. Steem's design dilutes (liquid not powered up) STEEM at 50% yearly, thus it is not very attractive for medium-term speculation.
There are numerous flaws I see in Steem, although I think it has been an important experiment and I congratulate the creators on their initial success.
As in all things, best to diversify to hedge our bets. I continue to support Steem(it) and want to see where it can go, while I am also working on a competing design, so we all have options. Competition is what drives improvement.
Edit: my key point is that the groupthink of voting will discourage diversification of content and readership and thus limit Steem's upside adoption. So far, the metrics seem to support my view that Steem is topping out in a crypto-libertarian-nerd-hippie groupthink.
Apologies I confused you with @katecloud who was #19 "defector" on the prior week and her excuse:
https://steemit.com/art/@katecloud/i-cashing-in-steem-hiking-the-appalachian-trail-and-body-painting-a-maxium-model