RE: SteemWorld ~ Weekly Support ~ #16
You mentioned that it cost $93 dollars a month to run your older server setup.
That's only for one server, but I'm running also a second one for SteemWorld.
If we knew exactly what the costs were (your work included) we could set up a fund so that you would not have to rely on the present inefficient and low value steem upvote method.
That's difficult to say, but I think I currently need ~ 500 USD a month. Of course, that's still way below the payout I earned before quitting my job, but I would be able to live at least. With the current market prices it's really hard to survive for much longer, but I'm doing my best. STEEM at 3.00 USD was great, at 0.80 USD it was getting dangerous, but now it's deadly.
I don't think a fund would be a solution that I would prefer, because it makes me depend on other people filling the fund. With votes it's a bit easier I guess.
With the current low price of steem. You are going to run into problems if you rely on upvotes.
Have you considered a subscription model?
How many hits does steemworld get per day/week/month?
I use it daily as I'm sure many other people do.
You could charge as little as a dollar a month per account using the service if you have the volume.
I'm pretty sure people would support steemworld as a service.
I would definitely support the services you provide.
It's about the best app around for such an overview of the steem blockchain for non technical users.
Yes, that would be a possible solution, but I'm not sure if the people would still use SteemWorld when it would cost something. Especially minnows would not like it, because they would earn even less than before.
I've currently no counter on my servers, but SimilarWeb shows 330K visits for November. In July there were about 660K.
I'm thinking about building kind of a promotion service for posts. People could make bids for being promoted for one day (or longer) and the highest bid wins. The winner would pay the bid amount and SteemWorld would then display a link with title and picture of the promoted post on the starting screen of SteemWorld for the agreed time period.
With currently ~ 11K views per day their posts would get much more attention and votes I guess. Maybe that's the solution...
I like that "promotion" idea.
I've been on steem for almost a year now. As a new user I wouldn't have paid for any kind of subscription to SteemWorld but as a steemian I might now because
I have SteemWorld open in a tab 100% of the time when I'm on steemit.
I have you on an auto vote so I can support you without missing anything.
If you do decide to go with a paid subscription, I recommend giving free month or two to new users. once they see what SteemWorld is all about they wont want to steem without it.
As per my other comment about newbies, I agree with you, they cannot afford it and it takes most of them more than 3 months to become independent.
The idea of promoting a post by bid...I like it, but maybe it should stay on your front page for 2 days, then, have a button we can click to see the last three posts you promoted (makes them feel you gave them extra value).
Those who want to show appreciation for all you offer us should then reward those bidders by upvoting and/or commenting on their post.
From what you say, you basically need to have at least $20 per day. Set the min bid for 10STEEM - to win the bid, we'll have to bid higher.
At the worst, it should seriously reduce your reliance on voting only.