This is a Serious Question that I'd Like to Discuss With As Many Steemians As Possible
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With the price of Steem and Steem Dollars increasing what feels like every day, posts that once earned $20 in Steem are now worth 2x, 3x, 4x, or even 5x that value in US Dollars.
NOTE: Since I started writing this Post a few days ago (when Steem was around $3.50 USD), Steem has broken above $8.00 USD. So the values above are potentially understated.
So.. What would it take?
- How long would Steem and Steem Dollars have to sustain a given price for you to feel comfortable with quitting your "day-job"?
- How many posts per day would you contribute?
-- How many comments?
-- How many upvotes? - Would you continue to upvote Comments on your posts, or Would you focus solely on Post Curation?
- Would you have to accumulate a certain amount of influence (Steem Power) on Steemit before you felt comfortable transitioning from Part-Time Steemian to Full-Time Steemit Contributor?
-- Would you invest non-Steemit-generated funds into Steem Power? - Would you Self-Upvote All of your Posts?
-- What about your Comments?
I'm interested to hear what you all think, and I suspect we'll get some interesting viewpoints! ... So if you are open to it..
Please start your comments below now (before reading the rest of my post where I discuss my personal thoughts).
Did you Start your Comments Yet?
@evolved08gsr's Requirements for Turning Steemit Into a Full-Time Job
There are a few factors that I would need to consider before I could personally turn Steemit into a Full-Time Job. Before getting too deep into my thoughts, I want to share basic economics about the platform in case some newer users are reading this.
The Economics on Steemit are somewhat like a normal job in that you get paid in arrears. You work for a week, and get paid for your first day of work after 7 days. However, you don't get a full payout in liquid assets (somewhat like a real job as well if you consider taxes and other "withholdings"). Your payout comes in the form of 50% Steem Power and 50% Steem Dollars (if you choose this reward option, which you'll likely be doing on many of your posts in order to convert Steem Dollars to Fiat currency to pay your bills).
Steem Dollars are instantly convertible to an exchange, where you can then convert it to Fiat Currency. Steem Dollar earnings therefore have a 7 day lag-time.
Steem Power takes 13 weeks to Power Down, which is performed in equal 1/13 installments after 7 days from the point in time that you initiate the Power Down. So if you have 130 Steem Power, you will receive 10 Steem every 7 days for the next 13 weeks if you decide to Power Down today. Once you have the Steem, you can then transfer it to an exchange and convert it to Fiat Currency. Steem Power earnings therefore have a 14+ day lag-time, depending on when you decide to Power Down.
Ok, so here are my thoughts...
#1: Can I Earn a Sustainable Income?
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Before I can consider quitting my job to work on Steemit full-time, I need to know that I can sustain a viable income that will support my lifestyle. This means I need to be able to support my wife, my son, a future child, both children's future education, my retirement, my wife's retirement, medical insurance, and much more.
So my wife works full-time as well, and has a well-paid job. That doesn't change any of my previous requirements. Why? Because if my wife loses her job for any reason, I would then need to be a sole-provider, at least until she found another job ... which honestly I feel wouldn't be too challenging as she's a highly skilled and intelligent individual ... but again, that's not going to change my requirements.
No matter what the case, I need to know that I'll be earning at minimum dollar value per week. Which brings me to:
#2: Can I Even Write Enough Valuable Content?
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If you want to ensure that you're going to succeed on Steemit, you need to have an audience who are willing to read your content and upvote it. Having your content become "Valuable" can happen many ways. Most minnows' valuable content comes from maybe 30-40 votes with smaller values. However, you can also achieve valuable content through "whale" upvotes. If you are able to find a whale to consistently provide large upvotes to your content, you know that you've made it! You could also invest your own money into Steem Power and provide yourself with significant upvotes, but this method is sometimes frowned upon.
You might be thinking, well @evolved08gsr, 30-40 minnow votes don't really provide you with "valuable" content. And you'd be correct. So before I would be able to move full-time onto Steemit, I would need to probably be seeing 60-100 votes per post. I haven't specifically calculated the dollar value per post (or per week), but I would suspect it's somewhere slightly above my current weekly take-home pay. The above is to cover other costs like saving for retirement and health insurance, among others.
#3: Will The Value of Steem Continue to Rise?
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I'm as optimistic as the next person about the future of Steem! The Steemit Platform has been a wonderful use case for the Steem Coin / Blockchain, and SMTs have the ability to considerably change the external marketplace for advertisers and other small-dollar movers.
However, I am also a realist. I can't simply say with 100% certainty that because Steem has gone from $1 to $3 to $5 (now $8), it will continue to rise. The blockchain is public. It can be "improved", if another venture is willing to make adjustments to the existing blockchain.
Do I believe that Steem will be replaced? Definitely not soon.
Do I believe that Steem will stay above $8? Probably not for long.
Do I believe that Steem will be above $8 again? Absolutely.
Ok, So What Would It Take?
- I would need to accumulate a consistent following on Steemit of at least 30 accounts, and "random" upvotes from let's say another 10 or so outside observers, per post.
- I would need to accumulate at least 1,000 Steem Power, and another 1,000 SBD that I can keep "In Reserve" as a "rainy day fund".
- I would need to have a significant amount of comments on each of my posts from my followers, and others, to validate that my account is "popular" enough to get votes.
- I would need to become more efficient at finding and curating quality content. Currently my curation rewards are too low to sustain any sort of income (partially due to my low SP).
- And probably the most difficult of all... I would need my wife to sign-off on me quitting my job to be a Full-Time-Steemian.
Possibly if you are thinking of going full time Steemit, you should maybe 1st look at the possibilities of shorter hours were you work now, to accommodate the change over and provide some back up financial support.
The continuing content might prove to be an issue Finding , maybe you would need an alternative channel or blog to supplement. to increase your following, You can always use Facebook Twitter possibly Twitch which may also provide an additional line of income.
Great advice. I see Steemit as separate channel. Anyone who wants to truly make a living creating content online should "be everywhere". Steemit, DTube, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, your own blog/website, the list goes on!
Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income is a great resource for anyone who wants to work online to create sustainable streams of passive income.
Thanks for stopping by, @digitaldruid!
I agree that Steemit as a sole source of income doesn't make too much sense. It puts yourself at risk financially by putting "all of your eggs in one basket".
It looks like you are starting (already started) your own business. That's awesome! If I were to offer you some advice on Steemit, people here are more likely to reward you for being you as opposed to advertising for your company. While the platform often supports entrepreneurs, it's usually the ones who are building something on the Steem blockchain who are being supported.
If you posted about your workout routine (one post per routine / day) or you could post about your goals, your achievements, clients / friends that you've helped reach their goals (Or are working toward a goal), I think you'll see more positive response than the few posts that I saw on your blog.
PS - great photo shoot! Since I can't provide value to your posts anymore as they're past 7 days, I'll upvote your comment here. Good luck and I hope to see you around!
Thanks for your response, @brayias. I'm not personally looking to take on Steemit Full-Time, at least not anytime in the near future. My blog is far too immature and has too few followers for me to consider it a worthy option. Also, I earn a good living from my current job and enjoy working with my colleagues.
I posed this question because I've seen many others discuss taking on Steemit Full-Time and becoming their own boss. My criteria for being a Full-Time Steemit Blogger is a bit higher than the average person's though (I think?). I'd just like to hear from the community!
Great article! We have different realities but I guess if I have kids or a husband, I don't think I will make my him quit his job to become a full-time Steemian. Unless we find some other side hustle or something aside from steemit. Although this is a dream for most, it takes writing every day and some serious networking around here too.
People are partying around here for the rise of steem and sbd but we all know this is not forever. With all the drama around here on steemit and some people ruining things for us. But anyway, let's still wish steemit keep on enriching other people's lives.
I love how the minute that Steem went above $3, all I see is a daily (or sometimes multiple-times-per-day) update somewhere on the platform where an author (read: whale) is posting about how high Steem has risen! .. And each of their posts is earning $100+ just for saying what the value of Steem is ...
Everyone has their own path ... Blogging isn't for everybody. Although it can be a stress reliever :)
You're not joking on the amount of networking that you need to do on here to maintain a popular blog. It's a lot of consistent & hard work to get people to pay attention to you haha
One could earn some decent amount just by leaving engaging comments, especially on whales' posts haha. But I don't have all the time in the world to do that. I guess that is why some fellow bloggers who started the same month already surpassed my rep haha. It does not matter anymore as long as I'm earning a bit.
Yeah, I've found that the whales typically "swim I the same circles", and most of my comments wouldn't get a reply comment or upvote. I wrote it off as part of "the experiment" where whales stopped voting. We joined about the same time! :)
It seems like whale voting has changed a little, with more whales voting in small amounts.
Although with the jump in Steem price, I bet they pulled back again on sharing their votes..
The part where you break it down into tangible goalposts is just the kind of discussion I have been looking for. I see some of the other commenters are not sure the future is so bright for Steemit... so I don’t know where that leaves me for sure. But I actually just quit my job and have several irons in the fire right now, and Steemit is one of them. So, I will reply to your questions with the assumption that Steemit is stable:
First off I need to support myself, my son, my dog, house, car, etc. At minimum.
“How long would Steem and Steem Dollars have to sustain a given price for you to feel comfortable with quitting your "day-job"? “
I dont know how to answer this because I am hearing that the higher Steem is priced the harder it will be for minnows like me to earn Steem. So I need it to not jump to the moon quite yet! I would like it to stay how it is for a few months so I can have time to grow here. Then... to the moon! :)
I think your estimates for sustainability seem good. Having $1000 SP and $1000 SBD seem like good targets. I want to go above that, but I might be able to lean on Steemit for income at that level.
As for the rest of your questions, I dont know enough about what its like at that level of Steemian to know what my voting habits would be. I am going to love paying it forward though, so I know I will do a lot of curation and helping with community efforts.
Hi @dflo, Thanks for stopping by :)
Your response is exactly what I was looking for!
Moving past the part where it's harder to earn Steem now than it was previously.. I would agree and disagree.. Everyone's vote value is worth more just as much as Steem is worth more.. so you effectively earn the same (or close) to what you would have earned before. It's not like the price of Steem goes up and your Vote Value stays the same. Is it proportionate? I'm not sure, but it's definitely not a 5-8x difficulty jump for a $5-$8 Steem value (compared to a $1 Steem value).
With that said, I wish you the best of luck on Steemit! (and your other irons on the fire!). I took a look at your blog and decided that I'll follow you for a bit. There were a few articles on there that seemed interesting to me (I'll have to check back on it later though because I'm about to head off to sleep).
Thank you so much for sharing!
I believe that the future is Bright for Steemit. There is a significant amount of loyalty to the platform among the community and I feel that we'll make it through everything just fine. Even with the significant rising prices of Steem / SBD!
Oh, that makes sense about vote value. It also explains why my vote is suddenly worth more, lol. Thanks for explaining that. Always so much to learn. Have a great night!
hey man.... playing poker right now but resteemed to my wall so I can read later bro !
Thanks man! I appreciate the Re-Steem!
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$10 SBD
That is an interesting statement that I would like to hear more about. Please share! Thanks for visiting :)
That is all that is needed to get started with some good articles. Write some good posts and Promote them or buy up-votes.
Ok, that's fair to use to get started. But are you saying that you would be able to become a Full-Time Steemit Blogger for only $10 SBD? I guess at current values, that's around $80-85 USD?
Are you in the US? Because I'd love to know where you can live off an income like that!! :)
$10 SBD is just the one time fee to convert, then I earn the rest through authoring & curating. Further, I can make additional income writing software that interacts with the Steem blockchain.
I love your enthusiasm and wish you the best of luck!