Let me start by saying, I believe in Steemit and where it is headed. I think the future is bright for those who are not on the platform yet. I think the future is extremely bright for us, the early adopters of this platform.

• I think the future is decentralized social networking.
  Where the users share in the rewards.
  Where investors can share in the rewards.
  Where advertisers and entrepreneurs can more economically and efficiently sell their ideas and products.
  • I'm simply sharing some observations I've made, and applied a bit of logic (which could be totally wrong thinking, or it could be spot on...).
    • McDonald's doesn't sell the best burger, but they are the #1 burger joint in the world, mainly because they were the first.
    • Steemit doesn't have the best social networking platform (yet), but they were the first to tie it to the blockchain and decentralize it. As long as Steemit keeps on keeping on, they should remain #1.

Sad but true

Some sad but true facts I'm noticing about Steemit (as it is)

There just isn't enough money to make Steemit worthwhile.

Said the man who lives in the United States where the average yearly income is $51,939 according to Google.

• Would I make that statement if I lived in Venezuela or Nigeria?
  Probably not.
  • Am I gonna quit?
    (I consider "gonna" acceptable grammar, since POTUS Obama used it quite often...)
    Nope. No way!

I'm talking about from an investor and author and curator view point.

Here's an example investor @sirvotesalot:

• According to https://mysteemitfriends.online/accountvalue.php his:
  • Account value is estimated at 488,902 and is ranked 128.
  • Pending payout is 484 and is ranked 77.
    • That's a yearly income of $25,168.
      Less than half the average yearly income in the USA...
  • I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure if I had 1/2 million dollars to invest in a "real world" business, I could make more than $70/day.
    • But $25,168 / $488,902 = 0.0514786193702 = a little over 5% annual ROI.
      That's better than my local bank will provide you,
      But it's not that much profit considering he is the 128th ranked investor in Steemit.
• He has over 125k Steem Power invested, so $25,000 / 125,000 = 0.2 yearly income per SP invested.
  • What's your SP?
    • Multiply it by 0.2. Is that yearly income from your efforts here at Steemit really a worthwhile endeavor for you? I'm a little over 200SP, so I'm quite aways off from retirement through Steemit income! haha

Now wait a second, I'm not trying to be discouraging or talk anyone into quitting.
Quite the opposite!
I'm simply sharing my observations, in hopes to give some ideas towards a solution to the problem current situation.

Please read on...

For one thing, This is not at all a scientific study. I randomly picked one account that was in my feed when I started this post. You may do extremely better with your account. Flip side of that coin is, you may do worse.

• I also do not know if this person is doing other things to earn a ROI.
• There are other ways to earn a ROI from your investment here on Steemit, such as delegation or selling your vote.
  • It would be interesting if @therealwolf would publish some examples of what could actually be earned delegating or vote selling using his great site... https://smartsteem.com/
    This could be very useful to attract investors. (Who might end up using your service...)

Another point is that Facebook never paid me a dime for using their platform.

• I've invested $0 and now 181 days later have 200+ SP.
  I've earned a little over 1 SP/day.
  Today that SP is worth $1.161 USD.
  Nope, I can't yet retire on that income...
  • What if SP became valued at what Bitcoin is today?
    $6,990.92 USD
    Wishful thinking?
    Maybe.
    Maybe not!
    • I could retire, because I'm pretty sure I could live on $6990.92 / day.

Quality content is not fairly rewarded

Steemit is basically just another blogging platform to prove the concept behind Steem, Inc..
A decentralized system where users are rewarded for their efforts. And since that has been proven (even though this beta platform does have a few problems), the next step where entrepreneurs develop their own platform using SMTs which will be tied to Steem is just around the corner. Creating a win-win for everyone, especially for those of us like you and me who are smart enough to be early adopters of the platform.

• Most who are honestly trying to blog quality content feel they are not fairly rewarded for their efforts. This results in people trying all sorts of things to increase their rewards (ROI) for use of brain and use of time.
  • This may be due to the linear reward setup we have. I've recently ran across some "old timers" who got in on the wild and crazy exponential rewards setup. Posts could earn pennies or hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
    Was that fairly rewarding the content producers?
    Evidently not, because according to this post, the Community requested this change.
    • I would like to take a moment to mention the misnomer "reward pool rape." I believe with the old exponential rewards system you could rape the reward pool, if you gamed the system and no one caught you and downvoted you. However, I do not comprehend how you can "rape the reward pool" under the current linear system.
    • A vote, is a vote, is a vote. Under the linear system, it holds the exact same value regardless of where that vote is placed. ASSuming the vote is used, it matters not where the vote is used, it affects the reward pool exactly the same.
    • Under the old system, this same vote could be worth a penny or a few hundred dollars depending on when and where it was placed.
    • Unless, you can explain how under a linear reward system you can actually rape the reward pool, please stop using that outdated, fixed-by-linear-rewards term.

Try not to forget that down the road, blogging will not be the main attraction to Steemit.
So the term "quality content" will become a moot point.

• If someone started a links directory, "quality content" may become simply a url.
• If someone started a _____fill in the blank_____, "quality content" may become simply a ??? who knows???.

Curation is not profitable.

Looking at our example account, according to the great https://steemworld.org/ by /@steemchiller, they are earning a little over $3/day from curation.

• If authoring was not profitable at $7/day, I guess curation is even less profitable...

The churn rate is too high.

There seems to be a problem when 95% of the people who try Steemit drop out.

• We have all kinds of initiatives to help the newbie.
• We have all kinds of tutorials and posts with seemingly great ideas to help the newbie.
• But, in spite of all that, 95% of the people who try Steemit drop out.
  • Perhaps the problem is not them.
    Perhaps the problem is us!!!
    • Along comes a brilliant young man named @surpassinggoogle who came up with a great idea called @ulogs. This one idea has done more to reduce churn rates than all of our collective tutorials and initiatives to help the newbies.
    • In case you don't know about his great initiative, you can check out my post about it

Which is a better way to promote Steemit?

• Hype as we saw from an ex-witness, resulting in unreasonable hopes and impending let down in results and higher churn rates...
• or no hype as we see from witness @steemgigs?
  (If you haven't voted for his witness, go do it now!
  

The price of Steem is too low.

That's only because the demand is too low.
In a free market the value of anything tends to become the actual value.

• So what is one Steem worth?
  Today, apparently $1.161 USD
  • What could it be worth some day?
    Who knows?
    • It's market value will tend to become it's actual value.

If we agree, we would like the price of Steem to be higher,
can we also agree we need to increase the demand for it?

• How can we do that?
  Thanks for asking. I have a few ideas about that and will gladly share them with you...

We need to create a good environment for investors.

• Rather than slap their wrists if we don't agree on their strategy to get a Return On their Investment,
  let's encourage them.
  • If they want to invest in bots, goferit,
    cuz the more investors we have,
    the greater demand for Steem,
    the higher value will be placed on Steem
    and isn't that our agreed upon goal?
• If they want to self-vote, goferit,
  cuz the more investors we have,
  the greater demand for Steem,
  the higher value will be placed on Steem
  and isn't that our agreed upon goal?
  • Why make them hide behind a circle jerk or multiple accounts or any of the other ways people try to earn a decent ROI?
    Why not just let them goferit?

The problem is not them earning a decent ROI, the problem is there isn't enough money in Steemit.
That is a temporary situation that can be put behind us if we

• create better environments here on Steemit for investors, authors, curators, advertisers & entrepreneurs and
• reduce the churn rate, resulting in more eyeballs for investors, authors, curators, advertisers & entrepreneurs

We need to create a good environment for authors and curators.

I believe the biggest help for this will be the next hard fork, which hopefully will include communities. But the future may show that the best environment for authors and curators isn't on a blogging platform, but some other use of the platform.

• But keep on coming up with initiatives in the mean time.
• One of the biggest helps you can give a newbie is purchase them a share or two of @SteemBasicIncome. Help them get enough shares, so their posts automagically surpass the dust level.
  • I am starting to question SBI as an investment vehicle. I recently doubled my shares of SBI, yet my upvotes have not nearly doubled. I had 50 shares and happened to win 50 shares from @dosdudes in a contest. (Thanks @dosdudes!!! If you haven't heard about them, you should check them out!!!). My payout went from around 20 cents/post to mid-20 cents/post. Perhaps there has been an error in their calculations on their end. Perhaps, I'm misunderstanding how it should work...

We need to create a good environment for advertisers.

Yes, many will totally screw up this opportunity, but given time, they will get it figured out.
3 months ago, I asked What if Proctor and Gamble came to Steemit

• We need advertisers to dip their toe (invest) in the Steemit ocean.
  cuz the more investors we have,
  the greater demand for Steem,
  the higher value will be placed on Steem
  and isn't that our agreed upon goal?
• According to coinmarketcap.com the market cap for Steem is $313,034,656 USD .
• Proctor & Gamble's worldwide advertising budget was $7.1 billion in 2017.
  22 times the total market cap of Steem.
  And that's just one company!
  • What if they threw just a fraction of that onto the Steem platform?

Within just a few months of a big boy company dipping their big toe in Steemit to test the water, the landscape here will be radically and forever changed. You will not recognize it once a few of the big boys start competing for our eyeballs.

• When it happens, I only have one bit of advice.
  Buckle up cupcake and enjoy the ride!

What these types of investors are interested in is eyeballs.
The more eyeballs, the more money they will throw our way.

• So maybe we need to promote the heck out of @surpassinggoogle's @ulogs, to help reduce the churn rate.

We need to create a good environment for entrepreneurs.

These are the people that will work (invest) within the current setup or create their own site using SMTs.
Either way they decide to go will increase demand and we've already concluded
the greater demand for Steem,
the higher value will be placed on Steem
and isn't that our agreed upon goal?

We need to promote success stories.
To name just a few...

• @SteemMonsters is going great guns.
• @Appics has a good idea.
• @SteemHunt
• @dtube
• @actifit
  • Comment below your favorite success stories...

Conclusion

Is Steemit too good to be true?
OR
Is Steemit too good to be ignored?

Personally, I think we are in the right place at the right time.

• We, the early adopters, will likely prosper as the demand for Steem grows.
  • All the stuff you don't like about Steemit today
    won't be an issue down the road.

Please explain in an easy to understand, detailed post,
how it is possible to rape the reward pool,
with a linear reward system,
or stop using that outdated, no-longer-an-issue term.

We all need to work on creating better environments here on Steemit.

• for investors, authors, curators, advertisers & entrepreneurs.
  • We need to reduce churn rate by promoting @ulogs.
    • We need to keep on keeping on...

Why did I write this post?

I'm an entrepreneur and have a few ideas to bring to the platform.

• Not to let the cat out of the bag, but I do own the domain name MajorNews.com that is just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.
  • And I do realize the so called "mainstream" media is nothing more than an arm of the many secret service type government agencies around the world whose main goal is to promote their propaganda...
    • If this is a project that sounds interesting to you that you would like to be involved with, let me know your talents and goals. [email protected]

This is just one of the many ideas I toss around with @firstjabi2.

Since I want to use the Steemit platform as the foundation for my future endeavors, I want Steemit to succeed. I want eyeballs. I want a high valued token. If it doesn't happen, I'll look for an alternative platform. That's how I found Steemit in the first place... Looking for an alternative to what was currently available...

Comments desired
Am I way off base?
Am I spot on?
Am I somewhere in between?
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Comment agreements, if you agree...

What is jabi?

jabi = Just Another Bright Idea
pronounced jab eye

Source - This is my original design.

Check out the easiest 14.3 Steem I ever made!

My post about it...

	Meaning you can't waste your vote

Who I am @WizarDave		The KEY to Life!

2594 words (of wisdom?) / Thanks for taking the 13 minutes to read this post.