#steem

The Myth Says: "There's No Market On Steem For Content That Isn't About Crypto and Steem"

NoNamesLeftToUse@nonameslefttouse (77)2513d

As a content producer here, you are a magazine.

^{Communities, tribes, tags. Those are the magazine racks and shelves where you reside.}

^{Steem is the roof over your head, the floor below your feet, and all the walls around you.}

NoNamesLeftToUse - Myth cover.png

The Arts and Entertainment Section

^{That's where you'll normally find me.}

But how can this be if supposedly there's no market for me when I'm done doing the things I want you to see?

Since I started being a magazine here within the confines of the massive content department store known as Steem, I've been subjected to one of the biggest myths of all time:

There ain't no market for that shit here!

Like the parrots over in the pet department,

^{people say things like:}

There's no money to be made in fiction here.
There's no money to be made in the arts here.
There's no money to be made...
There's no money to be made...
There's no money to be made...
Unless you write about Steem or Crypto.

False!

^{They've been wrong for three years!}

Yes, it's true, the Steem and crypto content pays but that is not the only market in existence here.

In three years, I've seen a lot of people come and go. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make: chasing the money.

People hear of this amazing opportunity and the potential. One can self-publish and earn money! ^{Isn't this exciting!}

Many are amateurs, which is fine, because everyone has to start somewhere. They always wanted to publish short stories or write a novel but didn't even know where to begin. Suddenly, everything they need to get the ball rolling is right there in front of them so they jump right in.

Here for a month. Published fifteen poorly formatted short stories and a few chapters. Curie found one, the rest were ignored or overlooked.

This place is broken!

Whales this, circle jerks that, only Steem and crypto matters, can't beat them, join them.

So they put the money first, drop what they're passionate about, and dive headfirst into foreign territory to begin producing Steem and crypto related content, assuming that's the only winning lottery ticket in town.

They've now effectively decreased their chances of ever earning anything. For every one successful Steem or Crypto related publication, there are hundreds of unsuccessful posts. The market is over-saturated. The people who enjoy and curate that content can only consume so much in a day and can't get to everyone. Just because it's at the top, that doesn't mean you'll be at the top.

Many fail to realize those content producers doing well with Steem and crypto content spent a lot of time creating their own market.

Just because the shelves are full, that does not guarantee consumers will buy all the magazines.

One cannot create a market for something like fiction,

^{if they refuse to place fiction on the shelves.}

If fiction was the top performing product, that would not be enough to guarantee success to all those writing fiction.

Sure, you've placed your story on the shelf that gets the most traffic, but you still need to establish your own consumer base.

John likes action and suspense and is one of the biggest supporters of fiction around these parts. You write about rainbows and unicorns so John does not support your work. Mary likes rainbows and unicorns but hasn't discovered you yet.

When you hear veterans of this platform mention grinding, putting in the time and work it takes to grow a genuine and organic following, the fruits of your labor is a growing consumer base. ^{Along comes Mary.}

For nearly everyone who decides to place their product on those shelves, regardless of which shelf they're on, establishing their consumer base is thee biggest challenge they'll have to face, and it never ends. ^{The consumer base should never stop growing.}

Can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. Can't sell tires at the tire shop if you don't stock tires. Can't find readers who enjoy fiction if you don't publish fiction.

Let's revisit the mystical myth again.

^{"There's no market on Steem for content that isn't about crypto and Steem"}

There is demand for content that isn't about crypto and Steem.

Two tribes I truly admire are CreativeCoin and SteemLeo. CreativeCoin is for arts and entertainment, including creative writing like fiction. SteemLeo is where you'll find your crypto content. If there's no market for arts and entertainment, why is the 'creativecoin' tag sitting so high above the 'steemleo' tag in the list of popular tags?

For me, personally, that's all I need to debunk that myth. There is demand, the market exists, but an individual's consumer base cannot be established overnight.

If the market doesn't exist,

^{create it.}

How much demand existed for Splinterlands before Splinterlands existed?

Some shelves are empty so of course the consumer won't be visiting those. You can't be angry with the consumer though if they don't feel like staring into a void, waiting for something to magically appear and begin tickling their fancy.

Doing something nobody else is doing means, eventually, you'll have the entire market to yourself. For instance, if you were the only humorist this platform had to offer, you'd stand out like a boner at a feminist rally.

That's why so many fail when they drop their dreams and enter the nightmare of chasing money. It still takes a long time to catch up to the rest of the pack and even more time to surpass them.

Variety is more important now than ever before.

^{#allcontentmatters}

People and investors, under our current business model, they get paid to be entertained now. ^{Billions of people consume content and support content every single day.}

Providing the consumer with a wide variety of content opens many doors.

From the humourous shit post to the well written essay about quantum physics. The talking head vlogs. The life blogs. Arts and entertainment, music. The hundreds if not thousands of other examples of content I did not list. They all bring value to the platform and potentially more value if the consumer decides to purchase tokens so they can then reap the rewards of being a contributing member of this society by curating the content they enjoy.

Making attempts to appeal to 100% of the world population's desire to be entertained trumps focusing only on the halls and pathways of crypto and Steem. Everything is welcome and all of it can potentially create buy pressure for a lot of different tokens that exist here now and into the future.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist's assistant with a fancy calculator to be able to figure out why a store like Walmart and the variety found there earns far more money than the condom dispenser located inside the men's room of that not so fancy tavern you frequent after work.

Advertisements are also a thing here now and many can agree, the ads help pay the bills and can potentially increase the value of these tokens.

Having plenty of eyes around, all shapes, sizes and colors — that's what you need in order for those ads to do their thing and benefit everyone.

Anyway.

There's money to be made in all content and it doesn't even have to be about that content, that content simply needs to exist.

That is all.

Have a nice day.

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Credits:

All art and images seen here were produced digitally, by me.

NoNamesLeftToUse Outro.png

^{^{All content within this blog is 100% organic ACTUAL CONTENT and contains no paid vote additives!}}

_{"There's no business like show business."}

Comments · 12

@creatr(71)· 2511d
Thanks for the much needed pep-talk. :)

- "a somewhat burned-out writer"

😄😇😄
@artisticscreech(65)· 2512d
Damn, there was some fire in this post. I like it.

This is the truth though. I like to think a lot of my writing at times but when the edible haze fades, I realize that I am essentially a desk chair philosopher with a counter-culture/"druggie" spin. There is nothing wrong with that but it is never going to more than a niche market. However, I did manage to find that niche and build a cozy little blog there and it seems to be growing beyond all my expectations.

This shit takes effort. Some people are lucky and find an audience right away and some of us have to grind and sweat to make this work. Anyone who chases what is popular in an attempt to earn is just trying to take an easier path when there is none.
@steevc(80)· 2513d
I'm trying to not post too much about Steem/crypto and am not giving big votes to posts about it as I want to encourage more creative content. There is a lot of it here, but much of it makes cents. If a few whales could be more patrons of the arts it would help. Some of them are getting votes from the new (or some older) curation services and that's great. The market for posts about crypto is probably much smaller than the one for comics. We each get to use our vote as we think best.
@shimozurdo(68)· 2513d
Wow! So inspiring, thanks for sharing it, I needed it
@trayan(71)· 2513d
That's fine... There is no money after all :) We're 'bout the networKING :D

your topic is worth doing it!!!
@galenkp(84)· 2513d
It took me 6 months to finally look at steem as anything but a waste of my time. Finally @tarazkp nagged enough and I got onto the platform. That was over 2 years ago and I've posted 1.5 times a day on average since. So...

I post for myself and enjoy what I write about generally. The variety of things I post about mirror what's in my head, my day or week, or my past sometimes I guess too. My posts reflect my interests in real life also I guess. I de-monetised it in my mind a long time ago which is probably why I'm still here and know that most do not read my posts and so...I post for myself. If I get sick of it, like I did with Facebook, I'll stop and curate only probably. For now though it works and I'm hopeful that it lasts into the future.

I have a few people who interact and that, plus the enjoyment of writing and posting, is the focus. The other stuff is secondary.

Posted using Partiko Android
@tarazkp(86)· 2513d
It is a lie that Steem/crypto content gets the votes any differently than other content. Sure, while some get highly rewarded, the majority of crypto/steem stuff gets close or spot on nothing as there is a mountain of it out there. There is no way I can compete with technical content or market content, so I had to create my own space between by mashing life and Steem, creative and photographic and all the other things blended in. If it was so easy to earn writing Steem content, everyone would be ~~doing~~ earning from it.

Make your place, earn your place.
@whatsup(76)· 2513d
I think when people write about what they are truly interested in it shows.

I also think every one should upvote what they like, ignore what they don't like unless they think it is harmful and then downvote it.

I'm tired of everyone deciding what everyone else should or shouldn't write about. :)
@enjoywithtroy(71)· 2513d
Being organic and diversifying your content has helped her to provide a better magazine. I've always tried to do my own thing and not follow the crowd. You offer wise words thanks for sharing
@abitcoinskeptic(75)· 2513d
I try to limit my posting on Steem to once every week or two. I can make more money an hour flipping burgers than dancing for the whales. If I could only do both.

Someone needs to stream their menial job on 3speak or whatever it is.

I'd upvote, especially if it was a job like toll booth or parking lot attendant, the kind of jobs where people get flashed by perverts. Or a street cleaner who has to be careful not to throw away people's ~~boxes~~ homes.
@derangedvisions(81)· 2513d
So true. So many people come here and try to be like everyone else and don’t do anything to stand out from the crowd.
@davedickeyyall(79)· 2513d
Very rarely do I even read a post if it's about crypto or STEEM.. I'm more interested in the people.. entertaining them.. keeping them smoking..