10 Simple Steem.io Update Requests!

Would the Steemit team please make these few incredibly easy changes to steem.io because these updates will help convert more readers learning about Steem into new investors in Steemit and reduce new user confusion?

Why have I requested these changes on behalf of all of us?

1. These are REALLY REALLY easy changes that I hope will make a significant impact in making Steemit easier to use based on my experience on Steemit for a couple months now. If all ten of these changes were done, I believe it would take one person less than an hour and make a significant impact on the price of Steem because with a few simple updates, I think we can greatly increase our conversion rate of users on https://steem.io taking action and buying Steem!
2. Is it worth taking the time to update https://steem.io even with the rebranding in progress? YES because when I was learning about Steem and deciding to invest, I spent a lot of time on Steem.io which led to a lot of confusion after spending more time on Steemit. Fortunately I was referred to Steem by a friend I trusted because if I had just been curious about Steem on my own and visited steem.io, I would have figured Steem was just a startup cryptocurrency with no real value and left before I even found Steemit because of a few simple website design issues that I will offer very quick fixes for in this post.

Will the Steemit team please make at least one of these ten simple changes for us?

1. Update https://steem.io/blog/ with an RSS feed of the Steemit blog at a minimum or link it directly to the Steemit blog because seeing an empty or low quality blog on a website is my number one trust red flag. When considering becoming a client, I almost always visit the blog first because the quality of the blog almost always equals the quality of service. Most companies I am a customer with have an outstanding blog and most every website I have been scammed on had either no blog or a sketchy blog. Steemit has a great blog which should be immediately obvious on Steem.io.
2. Replace Shapeshift with either Blocktrades.us or changelly.com at https://steem.io/#intro-ex because Shapeshift is not currently taking Steem or SBD and it has been this way for at least a month. Sending users to an exchange that has Steem disabled is another red flag for trust.
3. Remove the link to the whitepaper or nest it alongside a list of changes or replace it with the 2017 roadmap because this will stop confusing new users and/or provide updated information. After reading the whitepaper in May 2017, it has been one shock after another in actually using Steemit. I felt like I had been punched in the gut when after powering up 10 BTC of Steem and expecting a very high interest rate as explained in the whitepaper, I discovered it was only 2% annually. I thought about powering down immediately and quitting Steemit before I even made my first post because of what I considered a huge betrayal in trust from outdated information in the whitepaper. Fortunately, I stuck with it because I was already filming a video course about why Steem was the best investment in June 2017 and I had already filmed the first half of the course.
4. Update the broken Forbes link to https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2017/01/17/fintech-steemit-migrating-servers-to-amazon-unveils-blockchain-roadmap/#6f77b42a7dd5 because the current Forbes link is broken which is another red flag trust signal. Scammers love to try and make fake trust online by using logos from what many consider reputable websites like Forbes. The scammers never link the logos because they never have any actual story in them and most people are not likely to take the time to Google Steem Forbes when the link is broken. Rather they are simply likely to be annoyed and leave.
5. Switch the links to "what people are saying" to actual Steemit user profiles or results from https://steemit.com/trending instead of quotes from people most of us have never heard of because it is critical to get new users to actually see what is happening today on Steemit. Pick a few top authors and feature them or recent trending posts instead to give people case studies to what is actually happening today on Steemit because that is what impressed me into signing up.
6. Update the payment terms at https://steem.io/#intro-ex to what they currently are with an average USD daily payout value. For example, I believe the actual data is close to authors earning $63,000 a day in payouts while curators earn $21,000 a day for upvoting content. THAT is useful to know and would motivate me to invest right away.
7. For the social links at the bottom of Steemit, shouldn't the official Steemit account be linked first instead of slack?
8. The https://steem.io/#rewards link at the top does nothing currently which would help to either remove it or link it to something!
9. Update the FAQ with "How is Steemit 10x better than existing social media platforms? Steemit allows authors and readers to earn money when they contribute to the value of Steemit while existing social media networks do not compensate users for submitting valuable content to their websites."
10. Add another YouTube video below the animated explainer video that goes more into depth because I personally learn very little from videos like this and generally avoid watching them after having seen so many. I have two videos which have received mostly positive feedback which might help a few people learn more instead of leaving right away. I am sure others have videos that would be worth considering in the same position!

Thank you very much for reading this post which I hope was helpful! If you agree with even one of these changes, would you please upvote this post because it will help it reach the developers?

Love,
Jerry Banfield