Hi. I'm DRutter, one of the people who has built the content of this blockchain from nothing to everything it is today. So it makes sense that I've been able to grind out half a million dollars, to recover my costs, repay my initial investment, and compensate me for my time and expertise.
My Contribution
In 3 years of full-time posting, commenting, and curating, I've put in an estimated 5000 hours of work. I'm only counting work done writing and taking photo/video - not researching, not curating - just actual work. (It's likely over 10000 hours if I were to include all my efforts for the Steem/Hive chains.)
My content is actual content. I don't repost other peoples' articles or videos with a "hey check this out" note. I don't use photos I download from the internet as my thumbnail.... in fact I've rarely used ANYTHING I didn't create myself. Everything is a product of my labour. I don't repost material for extra payouts. I don't shitpost. I take great pride in my work, format my posts well, include links to back up my points, and I don't post unless I truly believe it's high-quality, original, and something people want/need to see. My content is exclusive to Steem/Hive - I don't crosspost it elsewhere, and it's created specifically for this blockchain. I even go back and edit old posts to keep them updated. I've never paid for votes, or been paid for mine. I post on average 6 times per week, and make several thoughtful original comments (some as detailed as posts) per day.
I've done documentaries, gorgeous photo albums, scientific research papers, several hundred video productions, viral memes, on-the-ground activism reports, educational cannabis content helping others grow safe medicine at home, opinion columns on hot topics, technical analysis on cryptos and precious metals. Hell, I even reported on my own period of homelessness (due to the crazy Vancouver housing market for several weeks in late 2016). Meanwhile, my Bitcoin predictions were flawless and I helped a lot of people capitalize (though I myself do not invest, as I prefer to work for my income). I've networked, cross-promoted, and brought in my 9000 YouTube subscribers, and followers from other platforms. My content has been credited with improving and even saving lives, and has been routinely recognized as exceptional by respected manual curators like Curie.
Put simply, I'm one of the most prolific contributors of quality original content on this blockchain. I've been here almost from the start, I work full time without a break, and I churn out writing, photography and videos people enjoy and benefit from.
$100/hour
I read somewhere many years ago that if you have any sort of skill, training, expertise, education, knowledge, background, or qualifications, you should value your time at AT LEAST $100 per hour. Anything less is selling yourself short and you might as well be doing manual labour or warming an office chair.
So after having put in at least 5000 hours, it makes sense that my current balance is worth about half a million dollars. For the first time in my life, I'm making $100/hour! Twice as much as I ever made working in the health care field.
Here are the financial details:
- invested 0.2 BTC in the blockchain (then valued ~5000 USD) in early 2018
- worked 3 years full time and put in at least 5000 hours
- never spent or withdrew any funds, just re-invested everything in the blockchain
- currently have 7800 HIVE and 150 STEEM for a grand total value of... less than 1750 USD
Waaaaait.... that's not $500,000!
Everything about this post is true - except that I'm not up 500k. Some people are, but not me.
The reality: After 5000+ hours I am 3250 USD in the hole, which means my average hourly loss has been 0.65 USD.
Yes, I'm PAYING $2 for every 3 hours of my life I volunteer for this blockchain. Not only have I never received anything for any of my content here, but I've PAID to create and provide it!
Another way to say it: I lost my $5000 initial investment completely, but have been paid $1750 for my 3 years of contributions ($0.35 per hour).
Neither way of thinking about it sounds like anything other than a tragedy. And this has been going on, nonstop, for years. We tell each other "it will turn around soon", year after year. If I had put as much effort into almost anything else, it would have been more worthwhile, profitable, and successful. In my 45 years I've never tried so hard, and given so much, for so little in return. Steem/Hive has literally been the worst thing I've ever done, and that's really sad, considering what high hopes I had in the beginning. And I don't think I'm the only one who saw the potential, but has been burned over and over trying to make it happen.
"HODL! It'll turn around when Bitcoin goes up."
Will it? Each time Bitcoin moves up, HIVE moves down, and that's been happening since the start. STEEM is similar lately. They are no longer moving with the rest of the market, and when cryptos surge in the coming months, there's no guarantee our token will follow.
Besides, it's not about price of HIVE or STEEM. It's about curation on these blockchains.
A photo of a bunch of bananas in Venezuela routinely gets $10+, no matter how many times it gets posted. 6 runon sentences and a stock photo from Google will trend on the front page. Shitposts with the right tag get $5 to $20+. Spammy autogenerated posts with no original thought are paid better than mine are. I'll post several photos, a GIF, and a video clip of my garden, I'll get 50 cents. Somebody else posts a hot pepper snapshot and gets 300+ upvotes and $12. Over, and over, and over again. It's like the curators have given up looking for quality, and are simply looking for whatever is going to pay out well (maximizing their curation rewards). And there's an unwritten and misguided charity effort at play here, in the form of massive daily votes for many people from South America or Africa - even if those posts are just random photos of flowers, an insect, or a tree.
Many posters who are on the gravy train no longer bother to put even the least bit of effort. A daily post rephrasing something they read elsewhere, a borrowed photo, and $45 in rewards. Five minutes of work can yield big payouts for some people, while hours of work for others yields nothing.
Those who get rewarded for little effort are encouraged to stop trying so hard. Those who don't get rewarded, even though they put in a lot of effort and skill, are also encouraged to stop trying. The net effect of these sloppy/greedy curators is destruction of post quality across the board - exactly the OPPOSITE of the goal of curation!
How it should be
If I was actually up 500k in 3 years, that would be about $100 an hour (not counting light work such as edits and curation), a reasonable rate of pay. It would make up for the $5000 I initially put in and have held in the blockchain for 3 years (when I really could have used those funds elsewhere). I'd be able to buy a new PC, after wearing mine out creating and posting here full-time. My video card is almost burned out from all the video files I process. I've filled several hard drives. I'm using a 12-year-old banged up camera for my photography and videogaphy. It would be really nice to be able to have some proper equipment!
And I'd love to be able to pay some of my bills, so I don't starve while creating the content, and so I have somewhere to live. If there's anything left over after paying the bills and keeping my equipment running, I could spend the rest going places and doing things to supercharge my content. There are many people who travel the world and post about it to earn money and keep their lifestyle going. That's not my thing, but I do like the idea of being paid well enough that I can put some of my income into further upgrading my content, in a positive upward spiral. And while I'd have settled for breaking even, I haven't even come close.
I hope this is a problem the Hive community is serious about solving, because I don't think we have a future unless we do. Hive must be a platform about real content, not a platform about itself, or a platform of trending shitposts and stock photos from google, or about clicking arrows to "make money".
If this blockchain not only can't reward content-creators, but is actually systematically taking from them, it will continue to shrivel as it has for 3 full years now. Sadly, those with the power to change things are the few who are making a living here, and they want things to stay the same.
And no, I'm not doing this for upvotes. At least, not here. Go upvote some of my REAL content! And not just once. Do it for as long as you want this blockchain to thrive.
You get what you pay for. Pay your content-creators.
DRutter
Well.............
.... Keep up the good work, I guess!
What else can you do, other than join the hundreds of thousands (majority) who has already left?
For the years I've followed you I couldn't figure how you got to $500k.
I stuck with the Quality content route but in a part time basis.
I stuck to my 'Day' job but write for myself and my friends here regardless of the antics.
In the end I admire your persistence and your perseverance in your activism work that will benefiting others .
Thanks, I always appreciate your contributions and it's good hearing from you on whatever topic comes up.
Sorry about the clickbait title this time. I didn't think anyone would read another post titled "it's impossible to earn anything here" :P
Yes I often wonder why I keep staying here as I am down on my investment over two years ago. I feel the frustration you have.
When HIVE went to $1 it seemed we were about to get back on track. But since then it has only lost value, every week, even when Bitcoin and the other cryptos go up. ESPECIALLY when they go up, in fact. So I'm not confident anymore that HIVE will follow Bitcoin during this bull market.
If I was reaching people with my message here, paying to post wouldn't be so bad. But paying to post, and not being seen, that's just pathetic.
Yes very little confidence in HIVE value now unfortunately.
Yeah man sometimes you get dealt a shit hand. I’ve had lots of posts I worked hours on get squat for rewards. Some of the things I’ve tried to do don’t get well received while others that are kind of stupid get praise and awards. It’s the challenge of human nature and peoples choices. The best we can do is be consistent and hope that someday it works out in the end. Not sure what else to think about it.
And getting paid 100$ per hour is a little obscene. Not sure what kind of shit that’s about but that’s over 200k a year. Shoot for something a little more reasonable, I think. That way you’re not going to get bummed out.
"Some of the things I’ve tried to do don’t get well received while others that are kind of stupid get praise and awards."
Yeah, there's little correlation between effort and payout, I figured that out in the first few weeks. But that's not at all what I'm talking about in this post.
"And getting paid 100$ per hour is a little obscene."
No, most professionals make that much or more. But I'm not looking to make that much. Like I said, I'd be happy to break even, but I'm PAYING to work here. That's my point.
No. Most professionals don't make that much. Most people don’t make $200K a year.
By the way, as my post says, I locked away 5k to achieve that hypothetical rate of pay. Most professionals pay nothing to get a job (in fact, some get signing bonuses).
And I never claimed 200k per year. I said 500k for 3 years would have been great.
If we imagine I had 5k sitting around I didn't need or want to invest elsewhere, then there was no cost other than the 5k. In that case, 500k minus the initial 5k would be 495k in 3 years. I have used several grand in PCs, video cards, hard drives, cameras, and other hardware. Replacement cost several grand, say another 5k. So I'd have 490k after paying basic costs and working full time for 3 years.
Just over 160k per year. That would be pretty amazing, a dream job. Even in Canadian dollars that would be as much as my college buddy, who went into programming, and works for a big company in Vancouver. I could even buy really nice hardware (not just replace the old low-end stuff I generally have access to). I could pay a mortgage, feed my wife and son, and start paying for proper health care, track down what happened to me 4 years ago, and see if there's a way I can beat whatever it is. Be able to walk further again, see better, sleep properly, not be in constant pain, not be twitching all over uncontrollably.... man, the idea brings tears to my eyes. It's been so long since I wasn't in constant agony. I can only imagine how my channel would be able to take off.
But like I said in the post, I'd settle for breaking even (not losing money to post here), though I'm a long way from achieving that.
I get what you are saying. For the most part, the vast majority of the people here are losing money.
I also noted the @freedom "bots" tend to vote on people who exclusively cash out. But hey, that's none of our business.
Sometimes, I ask myself why I bother powering up.
You're the only person mentioning 200k per year, or any annual salary at all.
Please refer to my post.
Most still don't. And by your "per skill set" definition, a $45 "shitpost" is still underpaid.
99% of content creators get paid nothing for the thousands of hours that they put into what they do. Try e spend years of Facebook or Instagram for zero rewards.
I'm happy here to earn a couple of dollars a day and learn new things and have fun. I do think that better rewards will follow but we need more users and more visabilty for that to happen. I will keep producing and keep trying to bring in more people until that happens but it will be apps like appics or splinterlands that add the real value and numbers to the chain.
We need external money to increase the token price and with an increase in token price, more people will want to join and earn. Its a vicious circle and if the price keeps dropping it will get harder to bring in more people.