As a new Steemian, one of the first questions I was confronted with was: How do I get my content in front of other people?
I've been thinking about this since my first day on Steemit, and today I read an interesting post about exactly this issue. That lead me to an interesting discussion with @shanghaipreneur, the post's author, and @wholeself-in, another Steemian.
The question I asked them, and that I'm asking you, the reader, is this: If using bidbots or paying for upvotes is in bad taste, how do new Steemians like myself get people reading their posts?
The Minnow's Dilemma
Just to give you some background, I joined Steemit because I was looking for a good place to blog about crypto mining, anime, gaming, gadgets, and other miscellaneous things I'm passionate about. Although it's nice to get crypto rewards for what I write and what I curate, my main goal in becoming a Steemian is to provide some value to the community.
That said, what I've already found to be frustrating is that it's hard to provide value when it's so difficult to distribute the content you create.
That's where the bidbot dilemma comes in. It's easy enough to pay STEEM or delegate SP to get upvotes, and getting upvotes does seem to lead to getting more organic votes. That indicates to me that using bidbots or paid upvote services really is a way to get some exposure for your content (although, from what I read, this is less so in #NewSteem).
On the other hand, it seems like it's in poor taste to pay for upvotes. I see other, more experienced Steemians speaking out against bidbots, and really, I can't disagree. I don't really want upvotes on my content that aren't from people who genuinely appreciate that content in some way.
On the other hand, when I don't purchase upvotes for my content, it seems like very few people see it at all. That's also discouraging. I spend a good deal of time trying to write quality articles, and I want them to be read!
What's a minnow to do?
The Choices
It seems like I, and any new Steemian, have a few choices when we write an article or provide some other content:
- Pay for some upvotes in the hopes that they'll lead to some organic votes, and that those people who are led to our content will appreciate it, follow us, appreciate our future posts, and maybe even resteem us.
- Stick to our principles, not pay for a single upvote, and cross our fingers that we'll be noticed somehow--maybe even by a big curator or a whale who will help boost our content.
- As @wholeself-in suggested, be sure to engage with other people's content, make friends, and slowly but surely grow a network.
So far, my biggest success has been with option 1, which, honestly, is a bummer. Option 2 has not worked for me at all...but maybe I'm going about it wrong.
Option 3 is a great idea, and I've done some of it, and it's worked out well. I've made some friends and gained a few followers and that's been great. The only argument against Option 3, really, is that it can be very slow going, and I'm putting a lot of effort into content that very few people will see in the meantime.
My Question For You
So this is my question for you, the person reading this: If I'm doing my best to create quality content, are paid upvotes a bad way to get more people reading what I write? If they are bad, how can I grow my audience with a clear conscience?
Ironically, I may need to boost this post in order to get more answers. But I'm really curious what other Steemians at all levels of experience think about this. Please feel free to weigh in with a comment.
Everyone was a minnow once, right?
growth is slow on just about any social media site you join unless you bring a following with you. So, hang in there posting, commenting and curating. I do a post promotion show on Discord on Thursdays. Those are a great way to get to know people and to get known. Check out my profile for more info and come join in.
Hey, thanks for commenting. You're right, it always takes some time to break into a new social platform. I think what I've been wondering is how the etiquette and ethics around paid upvotes are different on Steemit than on other platforms like, say, Twitter or Facebook.
Anyway, I'll definitely continue posting and commenting and curating. And I'll check out your Discord show if I can, too!
well for one thing, Twittter and Facebook don't pay you to post. So when you purchase ads on there to boost your posts, you're paying directly to those companies to promote your post and any return you get comes in either more notice of your post or income if you are promoting a product.
Here on Steem, when you use a bidbot, you are buying an upvote but the value the upvote gives comes from the reward pool that everyone else's rewards come from. While on one hand it is promoting your post, on the other hand it is circumventing the community's input on the value of your post to the platform.
Some people will spend a lot on bots to push their posts into view on Trending. They are basically demanding the attention of those who visit the page and doing so at the literal expense of everyone else. The downvotes on those posts puts rewards back into the pool
I think that in a way, even on Twitter or Facebook, when you pay to promote a post, you're circumventing the the community's input on the value of your post, like you say. It's just that on Twitter or Facebook, the value is only expressed by likes/retweets, and not with rewards. That's what made me wonder, in my post, how ethical using bidbots and buying upvotes is.
But I didn't think about it in terms of demanding attention at the expense of other people's rewards. And in fact, I didn't realize until I read this, and then did some research, that the reward pool was fixed (though it makes total sense). Now I see the role of the downvotes, and why people would want to use them against bidbots.
So today I learned a lot about Steemit! And this changes my thinking about bidbots and paid upvotes a lot. Thank you!
Glad I could be of help
The community's over reaction to bidbots is a direct result of the bidbot owners who did nothing to curb abuse and provided blind upvotes which they would not revoke.
I think in time bidbots might become acceptable again, but only when they come up with some standards and enforce them.
Hey, thanks for commenting! That's some background that I didn't have. I can 100% see how unregulated bidbot use would be annoying--and also how people with a lot of resources could use bidbots to promote posts at the expense of people who couldn't afford a lot of votes.
I'm all in favor of standards for bidbots. What do you think would work? Rate-limiting them in some way?
The excuse they have used for not regulating content is that it is subjective and it is! So, while I acknowledge the challenge the idea that it is impossible for them to do a bit of curation is just silly.
I think it would be okay for each bidbot to come up with their own standards... Such as no sharing links or add some words with that photo.
Or they could remove a vote a round for subjective low quality.
As consumers we could support and use the ones that came up with excellent standards.
Yeah, I agree, it's hard to make the argument that there's one correct kind of content to boost. I've seen a few curation/upvote services like @qurator that have some fairly objective vetting standards (post length, technical writing quality, citations) for new members, and that seems like a good start, at least.
I'm totally with you, though, on letting bots and services set their own standards and then allowing the community to "vote" on them with their wallets and SP. I'm still thinking a bit about which curation projects I want to support with my relatively small amount of STEEM and SP--but I definitely want to do some donation/delegation.
Keep in mind bidbots have not been banned but they are being monitored. I don't hate the bots, but I still look at the steembottracker every day to decide what to downvote.
I don't mind if it seems like someone is actually trying to promote content for visibility. However, it is pretty clear when people are using them just to try to farm some steem.
They promote old posts, there is little engagement, they post in non-English, because there is less curation.
The accounts don't interact or engage, because they want to fly under the radar not be discovered...
Everyone has their own standards and that is okay, but the bidbots got abused for so long they are tainted with the reputation they earned for themselves. I'd use them with extreme caution for now.
Thanks, that's good advice. I hadn't heard of the steambottracker, but I'm gonna go check it out. And it's a good point that bidbots are totally within Steemit's terms of service, which is something I had in mind when I wrote this post, and should have mentioned.
I think it's totally appropriate to try to combat bidbot abuse and reward farming with downvotes. But I think you're right that there's a lot of bidbot hate out there (based on what I've been reading), and that does make using bots and upvote services risky in a way that I hadn't thought of.
I wonder if we're going to start seeing bots that downvote posts that have used bidbots automatically?
I think talking about hot topics or breaking news AS it happens or as close to as possible whilst writing great quality content really helps. Also spending some time curating good posts has helped me considerably, as people follow good replies on the best content also :)
That's a really good idea that I hadn't thought about. Thanks! I think I had the idea that I didn't want to write about "current events" because I didn't want to get involved in political discussions...but certainly things like the Bitcoin mini-crash count as current events as well. I'll keep that in mind.
Also, really good point about replying to high quality posts. I tend to think of curation only as upvoting, since that's the curation model on sites I'm used to like Twitter or Instagram.
Where do you tend to find high quality posts? In the trending/hot lists? Or are there better places to look?
I know (and most others do as well) how hard it is to get noticed on here. I been here for 2 years and let me tell you getting a "whale" vote is no easy task.
As you pointed out Bidbots certainly help with getting noticed but they have been frowned upon for some time. I do use them from time to time but its mostly just small $2 upvotes or below. As long as your not abusing them and not upping your post to what some may deem as too high of an amount then those who fight against bidbot use likely won't bother with downvoting you.
If getting noticed is the goal, a great alternative to using a bid bot is to use a service called @steem-bounty. A few on here like to hunt these bounty topics in hopes of earning a share of the bounty put on the topic. It doesn't directly add upvotes or cash value to a topic but it will get eyes on it. This service was created by @knirky.
Commenting on others topics is another way to get noticed. Many newbies overlook this important aspect. After-all if you want others to comment on your topic then doing the same on the topics of others makes sense. I wish you the best with your account here on the Steem blockchain.
Thanks for participating in our Followers Appreciation Promotion !
Thanks for your comment! I wasn't aware of @steem-bounty, but I'm going to go check it out now. From what you say about it, maybe I should have put a bounty on this post.
I agree about commenting on others' posts. That was what I was trying to say in my "Option 3" in the main post, and, in all honesty, I haven't been very good about it yet. I'm trying to change that now, by engaging more with other people's content, even if it's not strictly related to the subjects I tend to write about.
I suspect that getting noticed just takes a lot of work and a lot of patience, too. Like most things in life!
Congratulations @zyzzyva! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!