Have you ever really thought about why you are creating content on steem? Is it because you are passionate about writing, sharing your knowledge or creating? Who are you publishing for? What type of content do you publish and has it change over time? What types of content have done well for you and what has not?
What I have found is that many users post on steem because there are earning involved. Not because they fancy themselves content creators. Some have turned out to be awesome creators, which is great to see. But many have not. This all of a sudden “I want to be a creator” buzz didn’t help steem at all. If "we can grow an all of a sudden "I want to be a curator" buzz, I think we would do better!
With other people using Alt accounts to manage their content and tribes, I have been thinking lately about my content on steem and my content journey. I have already split out my Excel content, but I'm considering splitting out things further and taking a little more control of my content. But more on that in a later post.
I came to steem as a content creator. Publishing content was not new to me at all. But the type of content I publish here on steem has very much changed over time. The interest shown in the different post types has been interesting. I have learned a lot over the few years, and so much of this learning was done here on steem
Let's take a look at my content types
Excel
When I started on steem I was posting about Excel. As a subject matter expert, this is what a publish off steem so it was the natural thing to start with. I wanted to see if and how steem could help me grow my content business. I didn’t get noticed. It was a bit of a flop.
I returned to blogging about Excel almost a year ago However, it gets posted via @theexcelclub with steempress and it's not doing to bad. The content is not what the steem audience want to read. But that does not mean it’s not valued on steem. Since the HF I have seen some nice random votes and @ocdb has paid a visit a couple of times. I do this content because I enjoy it. I’m passionate about it and I’m striving for growth. I don’t mind if the steem audience doesn’t want to learn Excel because the marketing of these posts is aimed at nonsteem users. But its putting eyes on steem every day. I run this blog to earn a living, but I don't rely on steem rewards.
Data Posts
When the Excel content didn’t get me noticed, I fliped my skills and showed the steem community what the tools could do. With the aid of the steem SQL database and Excel/PowerBI and it wasn’t long before I grabbed the attention of many steem users. I did data post for a long time, however, they are seriously time-consuming, and in the non steem world, well I get paid for the same type of work. It just doesn’t make sense to be working for free.
I kinda miss doing data posts. Always knowing what as going on and when. I do hope to bring some of this back, but when I do, it will be via @theexcelclub, so if you are not following that account yet then you should.
Steem/Community
Looking at the data so much meant I knew a lot about what was going on and how things worked around steem. This got me involved in let's say the ‘politics’ of steem and community building. From there I move into witness and posted a lot about steem and ran community posts. I still talk about steem, sure looky here 😊. But I don’t get involved in the politics half as much and I have stepped back from most community things too. The politics side got me down. If you don’t enjoy it, stop! The community stuff, well that’s kinda a time thing and well steem was turning into a ghost town
But I’m finding my passion for steem creep back in and I do hope to do more community stuff in the future. I have already started manually curating steempress users. These users are showing steem to the world and I see myself becoming more and more active within the steempress community and world.
Business/Blogging
I started blogging about my business around a year ago. I set and track targets. Talk growth, what’s worked for me and what has not. I talk about blogging, article writing, SEO. It's all real experience and I’m sure a valuable resource for some. I was hoping it would be valuable to steem users as we are all creating content. I’m sharing what I am doing to grow, doing all the testing saving you all that time in figuring it out for yourself. These posts do okay here on steem. But the reality is, they would get more eyes off steem and I need to promote them more. It's tied in with my Excel stuff so I just love to write about it.
Lifestyle
Lately, I have been more activity on lifestyle and personal posts. I have really enjoyed doing these posts because its different for me. Feels less like work. I have made many friends here on steem and enjoy reading about their lives and cultures. Just maybe they would like to read about mine. Although probably the least valuable content I am publishing on steem (but not necessarily the least rewarded) I'm enjoying doing it and didn’t think when I started on steem I would be publishing content like this. And amazingly, I get engagement!
Conclusion
The most valuable content I’m publishing on steem is probably the Business/blogging and the Excel stuff. These topics are highly searched and evergreen off steem. But from engagement, these topics are not the most popular content for the steem audience.
As someone that uses content as a marketing strategy, you give the audience what they want. The steem audience is still limited to steem topics. As the steem community gets to know you as a person, lifestyle blogs create engagement too. However, for the steem platform, I don’t believe this to be the strongest content.
Steem has been an interesting experiment for me. I have tried a lot of things and been surprised by the results of some and not so surprised with the results of others. What’s important to me, is that I enjoy posting. I do have a follow-up post on this to do.....as all this is leading somewhere......but as always.....it takes time to get things organized.
I have seen a lot of "Case use" type post regarding steem and the tribes and the steem engine coins. I feel that there are a few different type of content producers, content users and just viewers on steem block chain.
People with a real "Blog" need to remember who their audience is on that blog and try to not mix their alternative "Post" with the blog. Like how you keep your excelclub separate from the everyday social posting.
I find business type Blog's to be pretty limiting, and generally based on one subject, that being said however, if I want to find information about Excel that would be useful to me I will look for an Excel blog. (Which I do on occasion, we all have spreadsheets for this or that, and forget because we don't use them often, so we go to the pro's). Yes the Business blog's may be a bit dull, but they are useful, useful if they are not filled with a ton of off topic stuff.
The Entertainment Blog's, I like those I visit the art's the music, and photography post a lot. They are one type of content that I personally enjoy, and you get to meet and chat with the writer's the artist, the creators, and some times you can get help on your chosen hobby of the time.
The Everyday Poster, This content I also enjoy, but I like for it to be in its own area, I know a lot of the writers, the painters, and a few of the photographers, and other creative types in the Entertainment Blog arena will sometime clutter their Entertainment Blog's with personal stuff, it makes it hard for me on occasion to distinguish between what the content is when mixed, so keeping it separate , like a business blog is best.
Me I am an occasional "I have this to share", today type poster, I am not an entertainer, not a business blogger, not a professional blogger of any thing, just a social animal sharing, There are all kinds of blogs on steem, some I can go to and know what I am going to get, or go to and find help with a thing or two, some are like mine a big mis-mash of jumbled post, but i also like that kind of content.
So yep, people need to think about what they want, expect out of their blogging, are they a blogger, do you want to blog, or do you like me just want to share an occasional thought or item of no real import? People will still visit and view no matter how people set about their posting, it is just that some are going to get more eyes based on the over-all feel of a persons blog.
I love how you have broken down the blog types.
Using the Excel blog as an example, thats the searchable type content that steem needs, simply because people actually search for it. Traffic grows over time. On traditional media, Entertainment is more sharable/viral type content and traffic dies over time.
Expectations are an important factor in all of this. I think the personal blogs are doing well because the steem community have had a hard time, but we have stuck at it and we have moved beyond content creators to a close community.
Greetings Paula, you also do a lot for beginners on steemit, as I remember very well how you stood by us.
I post about the 3 loves in my life and have found that many here on steem share my loves. They are charity, nature and life and my recent promotion to the Dolphinhood shows that the people feel the passion of my writings.
I keep my nose out of arguments and rather focus on spreading love in kindness.
Of course I mix a lot of humor in stories and it brings a bit of release into many stressed lives. The odd "never seen before" posts also elicit a great response.
So I am just a simple guy doing things in a simple way and it works for me.
Blessings!
blessings to you too @papilloncharity and i do hope you are good. a dolphin now, well look at you, way to go dude :-)
Keeping your nose out of arguments is a good way to be, thankfully I have been able to keep out of trouble this year my self :-)
Great going staying out of trouble Lady Paula, but then you are in a more difficult field than me.
Don't think I have had any since I started here, but I have to say that there were some temptations, mostly unfairness to others, but not my circus and not my monkeys hahaha.
Thank you for the kind words my friend.
Blessings!
Mmm making me feel a bit shitty with how structured and topical your content is :) I just write about whatever tickles my fancy. Never tried poetry till steem, never tried fiction till steem, never tried just writing my thoughts till steem. Guess I will have to see if I keep feeling a tingle...
well if you have an itch, you gotta scratch it.....
Wow great post!!
I haven’t given my content much thought to be honest, I really just use steemit to share what I’m thinking and my honest opinion on observations I make! It’s become more of a release for me and many times I’m surprised at the responses I get
I never know which post will resonate with the community but each day I’ll share a thought and see how people react
I really just want to start conversion on various topics of interest! I do centre around like society, money, business, sport and technology thingies!
Don’t often do personal posts/slice of life stuff perhaps I’ll add that a bit later lol still feeling this place
It’s really just my online journal and helps me get a lot of things off my mind!
"I really just want to start conversion on various topics of interest!"
thats kinda perfect really!!!!!!
Same, it's an online journal for me. Although what I notice is that often my ramblings gets more interaction than my well-constructed post.
its an online journal for many and I like that.......
I’ve considered in the past breaking my main blog up into a bunch of smaller ones each more focused on a single gaming genre. The issue for me is I would not be producing enough to keep them all with content. Not to mention that is just a lot of extra work trying to keep on top of everything broken up like that.
Instead I’m more reliant on linking out to similar content at the bottom of each post. Along with the rebuilding of my index which should help ease in content discovery.
I could see if things are really different and those audiences just don’t mingle much with each other to have a need for it. I’ve been toying with the idea of creating an account just for some creative freedom. I don’t have to even think about losing supporters or people telling me my content has been better in the past.
it can be a hard juggle. before steem I only published content about Excel, Finance and Accounting. its crazy how steem has changed my outlook on content. Breaking thinks up can also be hard to manage, and as you say, then having enough good content to keep them going.
For a long, long time I've wanted to write a blog but it wasn't until Steem that I had the motivation to actually do it. Of course now I'm too busy to post very often, but once every few months is better than never!
you make up for posting by being active in comments and building for the chain :-)
I'm a true content maker and always tell the story about how I already wrote on a very similar to steemit.com website before Steem was born ;-) I did it for free, there weren't even 'likes' yet as it was 'pre-Facebook'. But yeah. Many people are here for the moneyz. Not a bad thing as it gets people curious and some of them will grow into something more valuable to Steem :-) It's one big playground! And I like it that way.
a playground is a great way to describe it, nice!
pre FB.....are you showing your age hehehehehheheheheh
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Writing for yourself or for the audience has always been a dilemma. Sometimes audience wants to see is not always the same as what we want to express ourselves. Probably on steem we should write for the audience, otherwise the concept of content monetization doesn’t make much sense.
I believe writing for the audience on steem is too limiting. on steem write about steem and you will do okay..everyone on steem wants to read about steem. But write for the world and you can bring the world to steem :-)
Very interesting, @paulag
I started blogging precisely to get away from my "work" type writing and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and that other people read what I wrote. That's going on 6 years ago on my original WP site. Things shifted and I neglected that when a few things happened. Including joining Steemit. Here my blogging changed completely and about a year to 18 months ago, found it necessary to post virtually daily. However, with New Steem and having built up a network, I'm feeling that pressure less.
That said, the type of post on which I spend the most time hasn't changed. I've also gone back to posting virtually exclusively from WP: I've now got a self-hosted site (as you've seen) which is a bit eclectic and from which I blog. I have stolen Steve Biko's maxim: I write what I like and have been surprised at the response.
Finally, and like you
Fiona
hehehhe I love your WP site. another factor of using steempress for me is advertising. I came to blockchain because the 'big boys' always made more from my content then I did. Now, steemit inc is doing the same with ads. Steempress and WP bring that control home :-)
When I joined steem, it was the lifestyle and personal posts that I most enjoyed - informal, low-key, like you were all sitting round the kitchen table, often with beautiful and illuminating pictures. I'm not sure why you're counting these as the least valuable?
I was listening to a programme last night about gentrification of the internet. Their premise was that, just like land gentrification, everything ends up looking the same - same rules, same format, same content, same algorhithms. I know it's going to happen to steem, it's the life-cycle thing, but I dread it. We'll lose all those quirky, vibrant, personal posts and it'll all be SEO bland.
we need content of all types. Maybe steem will be known as a social influencers place to be, just like Instagram. But facts are, we do need more SEO focused content to also help drive traffic
hey, I always ask myself a damn solid part of these questions!
also I ask myself, how much ( % )of my text is being read. I consider it is not too much -- and, therefor, I try to become less verbose. VERY LESS.
and the answer 'what type of content rewards me back' give back quite unrational and discouraging answers... thats it.
You do share nice pictures, but I think you might be surprised at how much goes get read.
I am a pessimist, but I have no objections to be surprised in a good way, not at all !!! better underestimate, that over-value, smth like that... many thanks for your optimistic comment, Paula! :))))
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Hi, @paulag
I enjoyed your post. It was very human, personable and I could identify with some of what you wrote. I even laughed at some your excel comments. I am curious to read more here and maybe the excel club 😂
Take Care,
✍️
what a thoughtful comment, thank you for reading :-)
Your very kind, your welcome.
Yes, I know why I joined here and partly still do it but I lost a lot of motivation after the last HF22. I never earned much but now it is so less I ask myself why I am still posting and investing in this ghost town.
I am not rich enough that my vote counts, my wifi are for too slow to be a great curator (my SP too less to be the first in the right minute)./I mainly write to join contests to earn so I can give it to those who join the contests I am hosting. Most of the time I need to remind people to join. It all takes a lot of time and keeps me away from what I like to do/write most.
I slowly leave to other places, read and post there, esp the place I started before I came here and where what I wrote was appreciated.
I believe you can learn everywhere and agree with you that what the crowd upvotes is not what is vulnerable for Steem. I hope the engagement will stay, this can by commenting but I noticed commenting is hardly done after the HF22.
I wish you luck with whatever you write or choose. Excel is not what I believe I will ever use on my mobile phone. I admire those who can work with it. Who knows I pass by to have a look.
I wish you a great Fridday and weekend.💕
I am sorry to hear HF22 hit you so hard. I actually stopped running the power-up leagues before the HF because steem was getting like a ghost town. its really hard to grow an audience when there are no people. where were you writing before and what sort of stuff were you doing?
I was at Yoo.rs a Dutch platform that pays for views till eternity, you can earn extra by up voting and I mainly joined the writers group and writing contests.
There were no prizes but many who hosted one, writers who published, posted it on their sites or Facebook as well.
The plus of that is you can also be found on Facebook. The payout is good/fast and the plan is to add a translator and all languages. The past month there were many changes and the site was hard to reach. All bugs are still not out of it but I started posting there again.
Writers/Authors are not appreciated here. Steem has nothing to do with good content and to be honest I think it is a waste of your time (days of writing) to get no comment or downvotes by people who hardly read and write.
Here it all has to go fast for the earnings and it is on to the next platform.
Partly I see it as a game too but not if I am the only one writing and it is mainly what I do not like to write. Actually everything I write is a rewrite. It pops up in my mind and I write it down but these are not the stories I like to write or want to leave behind. I am slowing changing it.
Many left, I think more will or perhaps they just join one tribe that feels better?
You are right, we all should write what feels good for us, what we are good at. Sooner or later that will pay back (and if this is not the place we have to look further).
Happy day 💕
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