"Since the beginning, one of our goals has been to onboard many of the WordPress blogs and websites out there, which currently makes up 30% of the internet."
If you want to achieve this, wouldn't it make sense to allow bloggers a way to somehow claim ad revenue on the platform? I mean, I know that there is a revenue model built into the Steem blockchain already through the voting system, but as we've seen, it may not exactly pay the bills for people who might want to make the switch. If Steemit itself were to build something into their UI that would allow for this type of monetization, a la YouTube, it may increase the incentives for established writers to switch over.
You're already advertising to pay your own bills, so it doesn't seem like it would be much of a stretch to add this feature. I'm thinking of YouTube again here, where they have their own ads to the side that are for the platform only, and in-video ads that are shared with the content creators. Content creators could then opt-in and you could even have it set up that the ad revenue would be paid to users via Steem, generating an additional incentive to have Steem purchased by interested parties and stabilize the price, and also increase the value of Steemit, Inc's Steem holdings. Keeping the ad monetization process decentralized would be huge as well. This is one of the big problems with YouTube and other platforms like it, that there are gatekeepers who can arbitrarily demonetize your content. It's not necessarily their revenue model that's problematic, just that one nameless corporate cog with a bias against your brand has the ability to completely destroy your livelihood without due process or recourse.