RE: Do I Need To Sacrifice Privacy To Be A Successful Author On Steemit? (Edit: See Really Good Discussion!)
Just today I came across a guy with a blog on blogger.com. Writing is his passion in retirement. I thought about recommending Steemit to him but decided against it. I know that it is harder than ever for a serious writer or newbies in general to get started. For a writer starting off today there are only two options for success, get noticed by curie or buy bots. Though like you said people who got in at the beginning have wealthy voting circles and so for them it works.
I've noticed that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of time I spend on a post and the money it makes. Posts that took 5 minutes always make a lot more than posts I pored hours of my heart into. This is because people are mindlessly upvoting which has to be why Steemit removed the views counter. Because it would make it obvious that no one is reading what you wrote. So putting a lot of effort into a writing post makes no sense unless you're lucky enough to get the attention of curie which will attract others whales and even some people who are interested in reading your long-winded content.
Valid points. Your example with the blogger you opted to not tell about Steemit is pretty powerful. I have similar feelings now and am glad most of my friends ignored me when I was raving about getting them to sign up last winter. At this point, I don't feel it's a healthy environment for new authors to develop. It's getting better for existing Steemians, as they learn to navigate and network better, but it's still highly incestuous in a social way.