A Simple Title: How To Generate Billions to Pay the Bills

in #steemit6 years ago (edited)

We already have advertisements here. We've had advertisements on this platform for over a year.

To everyone involved: You did it the wrong way.

NoNamesLeftToUse - Class.jpeg

Hello

My name doesn't matter.

Currently, Steemit has advertisements.

Vote sellers convince you to purchase their votes. They use lines like, "Promote your post." Some of the bidbots have variants of the word 'promotion' in their name.

A promotion is an advertisement.

Each time you purchase a vote, you are converting your content into a form of advertising. You're gunning for a higher slot on the feed. You're attempting to use money to attract attention to your product (blog post) because it is inferior to other work and not able to garner organic attention on it's own. You are advertising the moment you purchase a vote. Regardless of content, regardless of how much you spent, your posts are paid programming; advertisements.

Don't be upset.

That's how the world works. Look up those words in the dictionary if you need to.

Traditionally, advertisements are inferior to actual content. People do not watch television so they can view advertisements. People do not purchase magazines so they can read advertisements. People do not visit websites for the sole purpose of viewing advertisements.

On Steemit, you have covered the actual content, with advertisements. The top trending post is currently an advertisement, regardless of content, because the slot was purchased. It's no different than a company purchasing thirty minutes of late night television time to sell vacuums. If this place was television, you have effectively placed the content that typically receives the lowest ratings into the best time slots and the content that typically receives the highest ratings into the worst time slots. Huge mistake.

Moving on.

There are only about 20-50 attractive top slots that would be appealing to someone wanting to publish a promotion/advertisement on this platform. Not many will want to scroll much deeper than slot #50.

The moment 100 members wanted to purchase one of these high slots on the trending page all at once is the exact moment the entire advertising business model on this platform collapses in on itself. The exact moment this business model earns as much money as it possibly can, the exact moment this business model becomes as successful is it can possibly get, is the exact moment the business fails. Huge mistake.

Those purchasing slots do not get what they paid for because another member pushes them down and out of sight within seconds. This business model cannot handle more than a handful of people taking part.

Depending on a tiny handful of people is NOT how you make money.

Are we clear?

Content producers on any given platform have the power to lure millions of eyes first to actual content, then to advertisements.

People watch television so they can view a television show or movie, advertisements fill in the gaps. People buy magazines so they can read articles, advertisements are thrown into the mix and sometimes grab our attention. Websites all contain actual content, ads are arranged around the edges of this actual content.

Covering the content here with advertisements was a huge mistake. The trending page is not appealing because advertisements clutter up the feed. All promoted posts on the trending page are advertisements, regardless of content. Those taking part in this mess are driving eyes away.

Eyes are needed.

Otherwise we cannot make billions.

Actual content comes first. Content attracts eyes.

First

Remove all posts utilizing paid vote and promotional services off and away from all feeds. There's a better place for those advertisements. It's called, The Market.

Now we have a platform that caters to actual organic content and the eyes actual organic content has a habit of attracting. Doing it any other way breaks every basic rule in both content distribution and advertising.

Second

Thousands of posts with actual content are produced daily. Give each publisher two slots and the ability to select two advertisements, before publishing.

Actual content producers pick advertisements from, The Market.

Now, instead of this platform only having 20-50 potentially valuable slots for advertising, it has tens of thousands if not millions of potentially valuable slots. There are far more eyes viewing individual posts at any given second than there are eyes viewing the trending page. Those promoting now have a chance to spend money and be in several slots at once, all over the platform, at any moment, and the advertising business model cannot fall in on itself, it can only keep growing with the platform.

Now we're talking.

So let's continue.

In order to gain access to, The Market, one must pay a fee. This is advertising; advertising costs money. Since there's a growing market and potentially millions of eyes viewing actual content, it would be wise to spend some money and drop a few advertisements within this actual content, because that is how advertising works. It weasels it's way into actual content and wants to blend in with the crowd, yet stand out and hopefully get clicked.

That click would function as a vote for the content producer hosting the ad. That is one way the content producer can generate ad revenue on top of their usual votes.

A percentage of the fee goes towards paying the bills and keeping the platform afloat. A percentage also goes to actual content producers for hosting the ads. That is how we keep the lights on here and with more incentives to produce content here, we can attract more content producers, more consumers, more ads and of course since STEEM must be purchased to pay the fees, we create a strong demand for the token. A token in high demand is a valuable token.

"You said billions?"

Yes, billions, look:

Screenshot (507).png

That site caters to video content only. Here we have everything, content that appeals to all audiences, if we don't have it yet, someone can build it; The Market ties in with everything this blockchain can offer, not just Steemit.

Competition within, "The Market".

This is one of the most important elements.

Under the current model of advertising on Steemit, members spend money to jockey for position on the trending page.

Use this same logic within, The Market.

Higher fees for higher slots. The reasoning behind this is simple and giving the content producer the option to choose two ads from a list of many is crucial.

The lazy content producer won't look far. That's what makes those higher slots within, The Market, valuable. "Visibility."

Those wishing to promote content, whether it's Joe Blow from Mexico or Coca Cola, will need to purchase votes from passive investors, like we do now, to reach those top slots within, The Market, but now the vote sellers are not interfering with actual content.

Brainstorming

I left these comments elsewhere and will share them here, now. These are rough thoughts with a few edits.

The market can only be accessed before publishing, but the ads could also be viewed like posts in the PROMOTED tab are now. Those top slots become incredibly expensive, creating demand for STEEM because of jockeying for position like they do on this trending page now.

It's important for the creators to select (curate) their own ads. If they didn't have to choose, then jockeying for position doesn't exist and the demand for STEEM is diminished. Also, those spending more to promote would offer greater incentives to select their ad, such as a higher portion of what I'd call the Ad Reward Pool that pays out once the ad is finished and taken out of the market. (Outside money coming in to pay the fees I mentioned fuels this Ad Reward Pool. That's one way to bring in outside money that not only pays content producers but also helps pay to keep this place running. Anyone who understands the economy here can see how beneficial this outside money funneling in can be. It's needed.)

They would have to spend money again to push that same ad up if the promotion was ongoing, because they're buying 7 days worth of ad time. Then factor in the fact new ads come in, a six day old ad might not have much to offer the content producer, so they may have to run two. The competition within that market and allowing people to choose ads is what fuels most of the demand for outside money to come in at a regular and ever growing rate. The more people who sign up, the more potential eyes go the advertiser since everyone can host ads. Noobs would be lazy and select top ads, which is why those slots are the most expensive. A creator may want to run their friends promotion as well, just to be nice and help get eyes. Maybe they don't want crypto ads, maybe it's a good cause they wish to help and producing their content and including a promotion for a charity or event can be selected. Some will select ads for the sole purpose of finding the highest reward, so the ad market becomes competitive in that sense as well.

Content producers would have their viewership back because nobody wants to tune in to the commercial channel and watch ads all day like we have now. Content is the driving force, the vessel the brings eyes to ads, so yeah, put the content on the front page. We don't see ads on the cover of a magazine for a reason. (So place the ads inside of the content.)

This model makes passive investors money while they don't interfere with the actual content. Only organic votes and real eyes matter, leading to the success of the creators and that tickles down to the success of the passive investor on the sidelines.

Now, one may think within this market, people would only be again competing for twenty slots BUT if you put a limit on tags to ONE, you then create market categories where advertisers compete for top slots within several markets. So that one tiny move turns this into 10000 per day new STEEM being purchased into millions (Just throwing random numbers out there, but you get the idea). The demand over time would be so great, people wouldn't be able to sell fast enough to drop the value meaning STEEM is immune to pump and dumps and all this other shady shit in the crypto world, making it even more appealing to investors who simply want to HOLD the token. (Wishful thinking?)

If the content producer can't succeed due to too many ads and passive investors thinking they can simply create ads and make money without depending on the content producer, those advertisers and investors lose. They have to know their role and not overstep their bounds like they do today, otherwise they shoot themselves in the foot; they must be responsible and respect their roles in order to make the most money. Gaming the system would be a huge waste of money and time.

What's the point of all this?

Billions.

The point is to create a business model that caters to everyone. The content producer, curator, passive investor; everyone can succeed, working together, instead of against each other.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'm taking everything we have so far, everything we've learned so far, placing each piece of the puzzle where it belongs, to create an empire, and keep the lights on.

Everyone holding tokens benefits, regardless of their role.

With content producers earning ad revenue, a 50/50 split between content creators and curators wouldn't be a bad idea. 50/50 is inline with the rest of the world:

Screenshot (504).png

At least here, the curator cut doesn't go to pad the wallets of a few billionaires, it stays with us and strengthens our economy.

Curation, under this business model, is incredibly important. If the content producer cannot succeed organically (every content producer wants to succeed organically), the ads don't get eyes. Everything needs to be balanced. The only profit from the act of promoting goes to vote sellers and content producers hosting ads, not the one promoting; advertising costs money, it doesn't make money until someone clicks an ad and purchases what's being sold. Not all promotions are for profit either, some just want to spend money to get the word out.

This business of burying the actual content, paying people to look away instead of curate content, and placing highly rewarded GARBAGE into the top slots...

Is the most dysfunctional business model I've ever seen.

You're looking for ways to bring in outside money and pay the bills.

You want a token with a rising value.

So, there's one way to do it.

I've written about the issues before starting on January 10th of 2018, here:

The Trending Tab on Steemit is Becoming Paid Programming and Should Be Labelled Accordingly

How to Cook Steemit Crack and Destroy the Neighborhood

I Don't Want to be a Sellout and a Few Other Things I Find Somewhat Humorous About This Place

Turning Rage Into The Soothing STEEM Now Blowing Out My BUTT as I Mince My Words for You, The Reader of This

October 10, 2018:

My words.

This model of promotion is a joke.  There are only a handful of top slots and if thousands of people tried to promote their posts in this fashion, all they do is end up blending back in with the crowd; making this more pointless than it ever was.  The business model is one big flop.  If it becomes successful it becomes useless at the same time.  That's not capitalism, it's stupidity.

Content producers come first.  The ads and promoted posts should be tucked nicely inside posts as banner ads.  That would give those who wish to promote their posts a much larger potential viewership, and the content producers would be able to produce content that can reach top slots organically.  There are literally thousands of posts published daily.  The ads should be inside those posts and the content producers should take center stage to attract eyes to the platform.

The content producers should have to select a maximum of two ads they'd like to include in their blog from a market.  In other words, content producers would curate ads and look for something people might want to click because the content producer would be earning a piece of the ad revenue.  That click should function like the vote button, voting for the post before the consumer takes off to visit the ad.  Those promoting would have to spend more and more to jockey for position within this market tab.  If they wanted the top slot there, with the hopes a lazy blogger wouldn't look hard, they'd have to buy STEEM and spend more to boost it to the top.  This creates a huge demand for STEEM this current model can't even come close to.

That promotion, on payday, then gets split between the promoters, content producers who hosted the ad, and if there's any profit left that goes to the one who published the promotion, (but there shouldn't be any profit left after paying fees.)

Everyone then works together.  Content producers can earn ad revenue on top of their votes, those promoting have far more potential slots and far more potential eyes on their ads, those selling votes for the ads within the market would earn less per post but far more in bulk.  There wouldn't even be enough of them, which creates more demand to buy STEEM on top of all this.  Content producers with more stake earn higher percentages of the ad reward pool, creating even more demand to buy steem and power up earnings.

Right now everyone works against each other and the promotion system is a joke.  These people could be making far more money but they don't have any experience in the entertainment industry to be able to understand their roles.  They want the most money and they currently depend on the next sucker who walks in the door.  Everything about their system means, eventually, it falls in on itself.

So?

Do you want billions in new money advertising revenue pouring into this blockchain?

Or do you just want to keep recycling the reward pool, putting selling pressure on the token, so we can hold on to these precious shit posts on the trending page, while actual content producers get chased away, along with those valuable eyes?

@NoNamesLeftToUse was here.

P.S. Please refrain from cheer leading. If something isn't clear, ask questions.

Sort:  

You are advertising the moment you purchase a vote. Regardless of content, regardless of how much you spent, your posts are paid programming; advertisements.

We don't see ads on the cover of a magazine for a reason. (So place the ads inside of the content.)

Content producers on any given platform have the power to lure millions of eyes first to actual content, then to advertisements.

A percentage of the fee goes towards paying the bills and keeping the platform afloat.

Curation, under this business model, is incredibly important. If the content producer cannot succeed organically (every content producer wants to succeed organically), the ads don't get eyes.

Eyes are needed.
Otherwise we cannot make billions

THANK YOU!

You're welcome.

(And if anyone else is reading, I'm stepping out for awhile, be back later.)

Give each publisher two slots and the ability to select two advertisements, before publishing.

A couple questions: 1) why two slots? 2) are you envisioning that all content producers will have to use ads, or just the producers who opt in to the market?

I think you're really onto something with this idea, btw. Maybe once @ned steps down and a new CEO comes in, this platform will become a place where real advertising can actually happen.

Limited to two because someone would fill a blog post with ads and no content. More than one because, options. That doubles your chances of earning ad revenue, plus one ad might be for profit to the host while the other is more about spreading awareness or information; things like that. If you could only select one, and it was something that wouldn't make you any money, most would choose the ones that make money, and the not for profit folks around here would never have their ads selected.

And of course it's an option. You don't have to select ads, there's simply a market full of ads there for you to select from if you want ads on your blog.

You have a lot f good ideas in this post and if we end up going in the direction of advertising this would make a lot more sense than the trending page promotion model. But having 2 slots is no guarantee people would pick ads meant to get the word out on a project. They would still only pick ads that make them money. If you're going to opt into an ad scheme why pick something that would not be profitable? Unless, of course, you happened to believe in someone's cause. But even then, why would someone click on that ad if they can profit from clicking on an ad that pays them?

Everyone hosting ads would still get a portion of that particular ad's reward pool. Those offering the most to those hosting the ad, by spending more, aren't really edging out the competition because if thousands see the offer and select it, thousands have to share the benefits. If someone spent 10 for fees and didn't spend much more jockeying for position, and only one selected that ad, that one individual hosting the ad would get the highest share of the ad rewards, much like how curation rewards work. That ad might be a not for profit witness announcement, for example. Many already promote witnesses for free.

The benefit of clicking an ad goes to the host, not the clicker, in the form of a vote for the post hosting the ad. If it's a good cause, and someone clicks, the host still gets a vote, plus whatever portion of the ad rewards they'd be entitled to. If there isn't much in the ad reward pool, the host still gets the vote.

Someone could spend 1000 to get the best spots and offer the most to those hosting, but the market and share of the ad reward pool could mean someone who's spending far less is giving more since less people see it and select it to have displayed on their posts. That competition creates diversity, instead of everyone choosing the top ad with the promise of the most rewards. A balancing act.

Giving the option to host ads from all walks of life is just a courtesy. We have the 'decline rewards' option for posts. It's rarely used, but it's used. Some folks will see the benefit of hosting ads that offer less, and the click still functions as a vote that goes to the host.

Makes sense. Thanks for the answer.

Coming up on my first year here and it's time to be more involved. You know, it takes awhile to get up to speed, find your voice and make friends. So until now, I have been avoiding the trending page and ignoring the drama, just getting glimpses of it through you, but I started reading yesterday. Okay, maybe I started that before yesterday but last night I watched Ned's livestream. Let's just say it was an eye opener in many ways.

One of the hardest parts about writing a post like this is I have to assume many actually know what's going on here. I could have added quite a few more paragraphs breaking things down for people, because there's a lot people don't know. Of course, it came to my attention early on even a short post like this was too long for some people. Some missed the point completely. They think it's about taking bidbots away when all I'm doing is creating a market for them to play in, giving content producers their viewership back along with the chance of being able to produce hot and trending content organically, and placing the promoted posts inside of the hot and trending organic posts, creating a much larger market and venue for folks to advertise on. YEAH, simple.

The most peculiar thing to me is that most people who spend time online are used to seeing ads. Sometimes, it can even take a while to notice that they are there. You are correct about your stance that advertising already exists here in the form of bidbots, and also on the posts of individuals whenever they share a link another site. Good idea, and thanks for putting things like this out there despite the discouragement that you've had.

@Brianphobos and I were talking about something similar when he was visiting.

Ads are everywhere here. For the most part, the ads we have now are designed to be misleading. Advertisements disguised as helpful blog posts. Fake popularity. This stuff confuses the consumer and stalls the growth of the organic consumption, effectively removing any potential to earn billions through ad revenue like Youtube, in favor of a few thousand and selling pressure on the token. They produce their promotions, sell their tiny profit. If everyone did that, content producers would be forfeiting 90% and more of the entire reward pool, so they can buy followers on a platform that's going nowhere. This is a confused bunch and those selling the votes, offering the idea as "help", are not telling everyone the truth.

It's obvious to everyone that Trending is pointless now, but Hot does a better job of showing off popular posts. Why not make that the default page? Would people still find ways to game it? The 'Promoted' page is pointless too as nobody will look at it. We need some change to improve the user experience.

It's obvious not only to us; a big name advertiser will see this as well. They know the junk on the trending page would mean less eyes on their advertisement if there was a banner ad on the trending page somewhere. That's an external ad of sorts. What I'm talking about here is creating internal ads, placing the junk promoted posts inside actual content, and those junk promoted posts that scare people away from the trending page serve as ads inside of posts. Now, when the actual content receiving high ratings organically reaches the top slots on the trending page, then a big name advertiser like Tide would want to spend thousands per week to have an ad placed to the side of the list of actual content on the trending page. For now, since these folks don't know what they're doing, depend on amateur content producers to buy votes, and want to make measly thousands instead of billions, all while putting selling pressure on the token... we can't have nice things and lose out on even more potential revenue from outside sources to help pay the bills. What these folks who think they're in charge need to do is stop allowing everyone to walk all over their UI, trashing the place, put them in their place, and learn how to run a real business.

Just listening to @pennsif's radio show. Someone said there are really only a few thousand active Steemians and that's just not enough to interest any big advertisers, especially as they are spread over the world. We reckon there are less than a hundred in the UK!

I'm wondering how vote selling would scale if Steem could actually grow to millions of users, but if people keep delegating to them it will continue. I don't have easy answers

Like I said in the post, the moment the vote selling becomes as successful as it can possibly get is the moment the business model falls in on itself. With only 20-50 top slots to "promote" in, if hundreds wanted those top slots all at the same time, it would take one day, actually less, for the whole thing to become pointless. People would promote for 10 seconds worth of visibility because someone else came along to push their posts away. Meanwhile, actual content producers are nowhere in sight, meaning they left, so it would only be a few thousand folks scrambling for top slots and nobody looking at them. One day is all it would take. It can't scale. What I'm talking about in this post allows it to scale, but also gives the actual content producers their stage back so they can succeed as well. Organic eyes viewing organic content is what's needed, but this current model chases those eyes away, and robots can't see nor judge. I've tried my best to point out this flaw for nearly one year. I didn't want it to fall apart like it has now, long before people even knew it would fall apart.

In this vein but not quite...

dclick.io

Wouldn't mind your thoughts on it... I'm personally a little curious about it.

That's missing the market competition. As you're publishing a post here, for instance, I'd want to be able to browse through this market, select/curate ads as part of the publishing process looking for latest offers and best deals, then hit post. Curating the ads is important. You wouldn't want something completely unrelated to what you're doing on your blog. You'd want something your personal following would be interested because you're getting paid if they click.

The idea of ads and the community being involved in the selection and reward of its use is great and has potential to add value to the ecosystem. I think that we should also figure out how to make these contributions being less dependent on ones stake and instead focus on the quality of the post. While that gets into the while quality is relative argument, it would at least make the distribution of the new economy more balanced. Thanks for putting your thoughts out there as many complain but offer no alternative...

Posted using Partiko iOS

Yes, many are complaining. Part of my frustration stems from the fact when I try to point out the issues, people will write my words off as simple complaints or worse; get called names like "negative" and all this other nonsense.

As for the "quality"... that rarely matters. Are any of the videos on Youtube's trending page exactly what you want to see? We can't say what's quality or not. It's all about ratings. High ratings doesn't always mean everyone thinks it's quality, it simply means many seem to be enjoying it. Also, popularity is a thing. More often than not, popularity is frowned upon around here. I've been accused of all kinds of wrong doings after producing content that was becoming popular. I got called names, everything from "circle jerker" and all that other nonsense people say here. All I did was do something people liked and I had no way of knowing they'd vote. I'm sure if someone else who was complaining was in my shoes, they gladly take the rewards and enjoy the attention... that's how this business works.

Check this out some time:
https://steemit.com/life/@nonameslefttouse/thoughts-on-what-good-content-truly-is-using-real-world-examples-and-a-clear-head

Stake weighted is fine when not abused. I'd settle for a UI that removes my self vote from contributing to my status in the rankings. That could easily be abused but I'd set up a system that detects alt accounts as well. But if someone wants to support my work every day, that should be fine. I've supported many for over two years because I am simply a fan of their work and I want to see them succeed. On Facebook, we do not ignore our friends and family so we can go give 'likes' to people we don't care about.

Great perspective! I think that the community will ultimately make the tweaks necessary to foster the ecosystem along the lines of all thoughts. While many will bot get exactly what is wanted or needed, we should at least see more accountability...

Posted using Partiko iOS

Advertising is how the world works.

Especially social media... >95% of Facebook's value comes from ads!

It works for me on WP... $800 month in ad revenue, now that's a significant second income! And I'm just one of millions of users (and WP get a phat cut of course) - my point is that there is a lot of money in ads!

I absolutely agree with your analysis/ critique of things being backwards here!

I faved the rest of the post to come back to later!

Posted using Partiko Android

Yeah, ads drive the entire arts and entertainment industry, social media is now part of that industry. To me, this platform looks like a magazine rack. Attractive headlines with fancy pictures grab the eyes and the promise of something interesting inside is evident on the surface. Placing the ads on the cover of these magazines means nobody knows which one to buy. Yup! They've done it backwards and not only backwards, but backwards for an incredibly long time, without even realizing it, even though a few people have been pointing it out the entire time. No owner of a magazine rack would allow anyone off the street to come in and fill the slots. Those slots get filled with material that has a proven track record. The community decides, the fans of that material, high ratings; not work that doesn't have ratings at all.

Think of a top 100 independent artist music list. If that artist in the #1 slot was terrible and only got there because they spent millions to purchase every album instead of the public spending millions, would that artist be a success? No, and if the list was consistently filled with junk, the public would stop referring to that source for new music.

That happened here. People now pay to be on a list many refuse to look at. That problem only gets worse, not better. It doesn't fix itself.

This is really basic stuff and it's baffling how these simple concepts slip through the cracks here.

I know... it is insanely insane!

But it hasn't slipped through through the cracks - @ned's been planning steemit's replacememt - 'Destiny' and thus put steemit into 'maintenance mode' and hasn't had any intention to address any of the problems for some time - I don't know for how long. I don't have access to @ned's head.

Posted using Partiko Android

I am counting this as "humor" since it is freaking hilarious that people on here don't understand the simple fact that this place would have been far more successful if anyone cared about content.

From a humorists perspective, I can certainly find ways to laugh at this mess. It's not hard to see humor in watching something so simple slip through the cracks. I care about about actual content, always have, because I've always seen the value in it, and more value in the eyes it attracts. They want a way to help solve some of the problems, there's one way, but I've a feeling this just goes way over many heads, and I base that conclusion upon what I've witnessed for over two years when it comes to how many handle their business here.

Isn't there a catch-22 in adverstising on decentalized networks? We will be deemphasizing Steemit and supporting various front-ends and dApps as a whole. Since there is no central portal, that is why it's somewhat confusing for new onboarders, and how do you coordinate advertising amoung so many sites?

Isn't there a catch-22 in adverstising on decentalized networks?

Not when it's up to individual to choose the advertisements.

how do you coordinate advertising amoung so many sites?

My guess would be in much he same way all of these sites can be seen there or here, at the same time. It's only a Market interface and some UI tweaks. In my mind anyway. Unfortunately, coding and design isn't my forte.