Time to Have Advertising on Steemit? It May Increase Your Earnings. What Do You Think?

Advertising doesn't have to be ugly; on some websites it blends in seemlessly, and can even look stylish. I personally don't like pop-ups, pop-unders and adverts that pretend to be navigation buttons. Those websites that use such tactics do it out of their choice and for their own reasons. Those are not the kinds of ads I'd like to see on Steemit. Having got that issue out of the way, why do I feel that showing adverts is an important issue?

The Background

Some years ago, I wrote articles on sites such as Hubpages and Xomba. These were not so much blogging networks as article-writing websites. The income came from adverts placed on each post page. The problem was that the income for each author was derived solely from the money generated by these click-through ads, and only on their own articles. There was no pooling of income so as to also reward writers of popular content in topics of low monetary worth.

These networks were therefore filled with articles on finance, loans, mortgages, medicines and so on; anything that had a high click-through income. In contrast, writers of personal blogs or on life issues, philosophy, science, education or any other socially valuable topic, were not so highly rewarded, even if they generated a lot of interest and discussion.

The Solution

This is where a community like Steemit is very different. Here the earnings are precisely for those interactions that other websites do not reward. However, wouldn't it be good to see those rewards increase? I propose that income from advertising be added to the reward pool and distributed across all members. Notice that Steemit does not appear to be swamped with articles on finance and healthcare; people who are interested in those topics can go to the appropriate tag stream or forum. If we avoid linking directly advertising income with individual writers and their articles, this will do two things: add fiat currency support to the Steem cryptocurrency; and at the same time maintain a balance of topics that are popular and socially valuable.

The Pros

As stated above, real income in fiat currency coming into the system, and distributed fairly, will increase everybody's average earnings. Advertising revenue could increase both our individual earnings and stabilize the value of Steem and Steem Dollars.

At some point, most of us will want to spend our Steem on goods or services outside the system, so that the pressure on Steem and on Steem Dollars is always downwards as people cash out. The upwards momentum is maintained by the energy invested in the system by the members. Having an income stream coming into the system will support the price of Steem and add to the stability of this cryptocurrency - something that few cryptos seem to have. It means that the price of Steem - the price of your investment in being a member - will thus be supported both by its social worth and by an external income stream. What could be wrong with that?

The Cons

I don't see too many problems on the down-side. Adverts do not have to be ugly, as I said at the top, they can just be in the header and footer. You and I may not like excessive advertising, but when I ask my work colleagues, few of them notice, or care; they just assume adverts are part of the online landscape.

One thing that will need managing is whether every post has adverts or only those articles by trusted writers. This does not give those authors any preferential treatment over the distribution of income, just that many advertisers only want to be associated with good content. That will also stop any incentive to target all articles to the advertisers; we can avoid the problems of sites such as Hubpages and Xomba. Those decisions would very much depend on the advertising network chosen.

So What Do You Think?

In summing up, I think showing adverts on Steemit will have a positive effect on everybody's average income and the price of Steem. Any such income must be distributed and not just awarded to those writers whose articles are generating the income. If anybody doesn't like seeing adverts, there is always Adblock, but if you think about the overall positive effect on the Steemit and chainBB community perhaps you'll switch Adblock off - just for those sites!

I think this is an important issue going forwards. Your comments are valuable, so please leave your opinions on this subject. Please resteem this post so that the discussion can take place across Steemit and chainBB forum.