I would like to address an often overlooked elephant in the room, whenever this discussion comes up... and perhaps it will explain at least part of this tendency for everybody to sell instead of stake.
I am going to step outside of Hive for a moment and start with 27 years of being part of "rewards for user-generated content" venues around the web. Hive is just part of this broader category/industry.
Today, I received a notification from PayPal that about $36 had been deposited as the final payment of royalties from a publication site where I started putting up articles in 2007. The site is now shutting down because it is simply not viable to pay people revenue share anymore, particularly in view of the proliferation of AI generated content.
Not only is it the final payment from this particular venue, it is also the final payment from any venue because all the others have shut down, or ceased to pay creators.
So what's my point here?
The fundamental premise under which we market and talk about Hive — and its predecessor — revolves around this idea that you can get rewarded for creating content. Put a bookmark in that statement.
One of the foundational principles of marketing is that you tend to attract exactly what you ask for. As a random example, let's say you have a shop that sells high quality upscale camping gear. But if your marketing strategy (to get people in the door) is that you're constantly giving away free tents, you're far more likely to draw a crowd looking for free stuff than a sustainable clientele looking for upscale camping gear.
Now, let's circle back to Hive. If our sales pitch for Hive is primarily centered around the idea that people can get rewarded for their content, what do you think their expectations will be once, they're here creating content?
While there definitely will be some who end up using Hive "the way we want them to", the vast majority are going to create content, see their number go up, and then withdraw the proceeds because... you know... they're getting rewarded for blogging and then they're going to go buy a pizza. Or pay their Internet bill.
Semantics matter, in terms of how your approach people, and who you end up appealing to. From my perspective, pitching high was a place to earn money for content, amounts to "going after the low hanging fruit" which — sadly —tends to rot rather quickly. Hence our crappy retention rate.
If we're looking for serious content creators, we have to start with an examination of what's important to serious content creators... as opposed to what's important to somebody cruising the web looking for a few cents as a reward for clicking buttons.
As a content creator, for example, I'm looking for stability. I want to know that the site I'm publishing to is not suddenly going to go away tomorrow because the "owners" run out of money. I want to know that my content isn't suddenly going to be hidden behind a paywall. I want to know that I'm not going to get banned or demonetized because I used the word "cat" (or something else) too many times and it arbitrarily offended somebody. I like a sense of community, the kind that comes with a place that has been around for a really long time.
One of the things I like about Hive is the angle of viewing it (and the rewards) as an opportunity to build stake/ownership in the venue that I'm using to create my content. In a sense, it's an extension of building influence.
Whenever I mention Hive to somebody else, I never use the term "make money." I view the making money part more as a fringe benefit or afterthought that comes as a result of my primary objective, which is to create content in a stable and protected space.
And having been here for over 8 years, I do use my liquid earnings too put tiny amounts into various Hive endeavors (including Holozing) that I believe have potential, rather than simply powering up. But I also don't power down and sell.
I apologize for the dissertation length comment! But this just all had to come out and be said.
This seems like a good comment doesn't it @topcomment
I fully agree about the whole thing of how you advertise dictates who you attract. Mind you, I have no idea how hive advertises beyond word of mouth.
I would guess that it's mostly Word of Mouth. The question is what is that word sound like? If most people are saying "come to Hive and make money blogging" as a sales pitch then the scenario I sort of laid out in my comment seems likely to come true.
yeah when I try to sell people on hive(generally other artists) it's on the community and how much fun the art contests over in at drawaday are.
I'm stuck to Hive. It's true I am a content creator...usually my blogs are longer than most people like to read. However, I'm stuck to Hive because of the social engagement. I'm stuck to Hive because there are people here who read my blogs and engage with me. I'm stuck because I care about those people.
There is someone on my follow list who died in 2019--@wolfhart. I leave his name there out of respect. He loved the platform. He's a person to me, not a content creator.
I think we have to focus more on the human value of this platform. It's true people are here for the coin, but some people I know are here because of the people, or at least that's a large part of the lure.
It is the emotional attachment to the community that lasts through good times and hard. The brilliant creators who designed this whole system maybe should think more about how to emphasis and enhance that emotional attachment.
That's the opinion of someone (me) who doesn't understand anything about the technical aspects of this platform.
I don't disagree but I feel like we've moved away from using the rewarding as the lure for newcomers, and one would hope that once they are here they learn things and realize that author rewards aren't guaranteed but curation rewards are a bit more so along with HP interest being absolute.
Many still don't know the difference between earning stake and compare this as adrevenue I guess as well, hence many issues occur some times when it comes to downvotes.
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