Oh, I agree! Who would want to write in a place eaten by internal wars and negativity? Or at least that's what we choose to show to the outside world, repeatedly.

You also noticed right. We are too self-centric, meaning popular writings and videos (if not the majority) revolve around steem, steemit, crypto and stats. I seem to have caught this bug too. Even in posts that don't necessarily relate to steem or steemit, I can't help but mention them or make a parallel to them.

We should always keep in mind our posts are indexed by Google and organic traffic is pretty high. But if we talk to our readers as if they are "insiders" and already familiar to the platforms and the blockchain, that doesn't help bring them over.

Of course, there are the life, photography, travel popular niches.

But an established writer won't come for either of them, I think. And until there is a strong enough community targeted for their particular writing niche, I believe they'll stay on the sidelines.

There are some accomplished writers who would come if they feel the platform will help them spread their ideas more than others now or in the future. Monetary rewards may not be their first motivation.

On gifting accounts to improve signing up process (before it is streamlined at the technical level). You already mentioned people are used to have blogging accounts for free and instantly. Do you think anyone would appreciate such a gift (I mean assign a value to it)? Maybe those who wait or pay are more motivated to continue. Although, of course, a streamlined sign up process would be better.