Yeah, this has hit me really hard as well. Not just J2R, but almost everyone I started with has wandered away. J2R had the advantage of #TeamAustralia which my friends in other countries have really struggled without.
I still find it really weird that Steem Inc doesn't upvote posts or try to guide or curate the content on it's own platform... it's delegated a ton of SP out to third-party apps so they can upvote content created on their platforms... but actual blogging, the mainstay of their content gets nothing. All the curation services are just users trying to make a living themselves, and if it wasn't for them, I don't honestly think there would be any users at all.
It's weird, no one really gets paid for posting on Instagram or Facebook, but those platforms have the benefit of a decade of acquiring at least 90% of my friends. I totally get where J2R is coming from... I wouldn't spend 2 hours on a post for Facebook... but I'd spend 2 hours on work that I was paid for. If Steem wants quality content, it needs to do something to encourage it.
Let's be honest, pretty much no one is making money unless they:
a.) Spend money or SP delegation on autovote services
b.) purchase bidbots
c.) have powerful friends
d.) have a network of powerful friends that all vote each other.
None of the above produces quality...
The main thing that keeps me here is the engagement and friendships, but I really would love to make a full time job out of Steemin' it up... and if I was to make that happen, it would need to be by August when my current job gets complicated... but I just don't know if it's viable... for all the reasons J2R mentioned.
Agreed. A lot of the points you raise are going to come up in some of my later articles. The marketing thing confuses me too. STINC posted 13 twitter posts between 1 Dec 2017 and last week when I checked. That's nothing.
I think understand the development side of it a little better, but still agree with you. As best I can tell, their focus is horizontal diversification. The blog platform is up and running so now they are focusing on Dtube, Dlive, DSound etc to broaden the appeal to a wider audience. I agree that blogging is the back bone though and it doesn't get much love.
I've noticed that the people who started these seem to be making large sums of money.
I don't think that statement applies just to you and me 😐
No... but I'd be very curious to find out.
I don't think @curie makes much from it's actual curation process. For starters it's own curie vote isn't worth that much, it's more the curation trail that brings the dollars to authors. It makes about $60-$100 a day in curation... but pays curators a finders fee that would vastly outweigh that. I think curie makes it's money as a witness.
@qurator is a different story though, they charge a subscription fee and require users to delegate to them and upvote them. Their fee is $4 steem per user which probably takes a while for the user to get back in daily $0.03 votes. They're making about $150 a day not including subscription fees. Not sure about the others.
That said... curation isn't easy. You've got to shift through a lot to find the gold.