If it was something that the community agreed on, I'm not fully against putting ads on Steemit. The money could help the site and its users. If the company decided to utilize them, the money could go a long way to promote the site and pay devs for more features. They could also let users, if they decide to, put ads on their posts so they could make bonus money for their posts. But that word, bonus, is the main point I want to talk about in this article. Steemit doesn't need ads. The users, some who are making good money, are doing so without ads. The site is growing without them and steemit can take them or leave them as they wish. This leads to a lot of freedom.
I was reading today about the new Call Of Duty and how streamers cannot make money streaming it. It is too violent and this in conflict with new rules on Youtube involving ads. Like Call of Duty or not, it is a big game and it is unfortunate that their are men and women who cannot make money from their gameplay on this site. I don't blame Youtube or the companies placing their ads. Youtube offers free video and it needs to pay for it somehow and these companies have the right not to associate their product with something they do not want to associate with (though I think people are smart enough not to connect the two). The problem is, with the volume of videos on Youtube, you need blanket rules to cover your bases and this leads to a lot of frustrated streamers who just want to play C.O.D. for their fans. This isn't a problem with steemit. Since steemit doesn't need ads, users have more freedom to make money from their content. They shouldn't post garbage, but that is true regardless of sponsorship or not. And if we decided to let users put ads on their page, it can their choice, and users who don't can still make money from their work.
We also do not need to worry about views as much as other sites do. When you are making money from ads you really need a high volume of users. You can make money from clicks but again, you need a lot of traffic to convert enough of them to see real money. With steemit, since it always rewards users with a set amount of steem, there will always be people getting paid. Now the site does benefit from high traffic, like every other one, the more people use the site, the higher the chance the value of the coin will rise. But even with lower numbers the site still pays people. A dead day on a site that only pays with ads mean a day without payment but on steemit, you can still earn for your work.
Would you put ads on your page if you had the option? I am on the fence, they would have to not be obtrusive.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: https://steemit.com/steemit/@whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account
In a platform that markets itself as an uncensored, freedom loving, disruptive place, why would they want to sell their soul to the advertisers like everyone else?
Why be shackled with the same limitations other sites now have to deal with in order to keep the advertisers on board?
Is Steemit only about making money? It that what counts?
Personally, I love that there are no ads, that it is free from the taint of the marketeers.
I'm here for the community and the content that community creates.
If I made NO money on this site I would still remain, because it is ad free and it has an awesome community.
Yeah right, we had enough ads on all the websites we get into.
You can already place ads on your articles. You may not be able to put Adsense style rotating ads up but you can put up single image style banners and such. Many users do it.
That is a good point, I didn't think about that. I like that people have the option.
Yeah, I often use ads.
Nothing wrong with that. If you can monetise your posts with ads then go for it. Similar to people on YouTube that run sponsors in their videos while collecting ad revenue (though YouTube has cracked down on that activity quite a bit).
I don't think we necessarily need ads, but there should be some form of revenue generation on the platform that is distributed based on stake. Finding a revenue source would not only provide a great amount of utility for users and investors, but it would take care of the "Why should I hold SP?" question.
Steem is a good platform. Steem with a great source of revenue generation and dividends to stakeholders becomes a phenomenal one.
Good point @ats-david. Agreed, it can really add a layer of financial security to the site. With diverse layered revenue, the site can be hard to stop.
The holdings of @steemit account is more than enough to generate income for the platform in the same way others are earning.
I think that if posts had advertisements, there may be people that will spam the feed just to get themselves seen more.
Maybe if the user homepage had a section they could sell similar to an affiliate box? It could be a happy medium between promotion and taste, where people aren't forced to see them unless they are really interested in what you do/say , which might be a better target audience for clickthrough in the long run.
True, when you use a system that needs views then spam becomes a possibility.
Then the site will turn just the way other sites look like.
Yes, I do. @whatageek
Through AdSense.
It looks prettier, better UX, without ads, though.
On Steemit, we trade the advantage of not needing ads for monetization to needing whale support for monetization.
SEO v WAO
Search Engine Optimization versus Whale Attention Optimization
versus
Whale Attention Optimization
I am glad that steemit does not have ads.
Hope it will stay that way.
I guess it's good to have the option of ads but we see so much advertising everywhere do we REALLY SEE it anyway?
ADS! Some of those clickbait photos and titles do get me though.
I absolutely HATE advertising !!! Trying to wish that welcoming in ads that would be "unobtrusive" is simply obtuse. The whole point of marketing and advertising is to get noticed, to be annoying, to be disruptive, to get noticed. I actually PAY MONEY for YouTube Red - so that I don't have to look at any advertisements. Please don't hasten the commercialization of SteemIt for your own, soulless greed.
Thank you , learnt a lot... Steemit will grow into a massive community... One bright future.
Agreed
I like not having ads, more screen space for posts.
It does have its benefits :)
The key for steemit to survive without ads will be to create a circular economy, in other words 'closing the loop'.
If people hold onto their steem and spend them for everyday stuff then not much steem is going to be sold and less demand will be required to increase/sustain the price. This is why the power down period is good because it encourages users to keep their money in the steem economy, this is essential.
I think having steem used outside of this site on other sites/apps will help it a lot.
Yes, like bitcoin.
For me a platform without corporate sponsors has to be a good thing.
I prefer no ads.
I agree with you totally; we do not need ads on Steemit for this platform to continue its growth trajectory. BUT we do have the option of adding it for additional benefits. This is a luxury that the traditional social media platforms do not have. Without advertising, they really have limited options to generate revenue (which will only enrich the shareholders, and not the content creators/users like ourselves). Thanks for sharing!
In a sense, our content ARE the ads and we are the shareholders
That's deep.
Great piece! Steemit is such a breath of fresh air compared to all of the other blog/news sites with to many advertisements.
Ads generally generate profit for the wealthy by luring people into consuming and spending way beyond their means. Steemit is the haven humanity so desperately needed
You are right, steemit users does not ads to generate income because lots of them are already earning through their contents. Its good to be this way, free, free from all those blinking ads in every corners of a website just like all social media sites out there.
Great thoughts about ads @whatageek. I would leave the choice to authors to place on their blog if this option would exist.
I'm against targeted advertising, because it involves tracking and thus privacy invasions. Sure it could be done responsibly but the most profit is to be gained by sharing as much information between you and the service as possible, and allowing them to hold on to that information, or even own it for later resale.
As all advertising (really, all of it) is targeted advertising nowadays, I am forced into the position of rejecting it outright.
I do personally hate advertising as it appears to me to be manipulative and soulless. However that's just for me personally and I don't disagree with it in general on any moral grounds. I've bought goods and services on the back of an ad many times.
I would consider putting an ad on my page if I could be convinced that no tracking whatsoever would be involved, and if I would have the choice of what ad was there.
Oh, and one thing to make clear here too is the difference between the Steem blockchain network and Steemit.com, owned and operated by Steemit Inc. If steemit.com introduced tracking ads on the site, I would stop using it immediately and switch to a competitor. If no such competitor existed I guess we'd be looking at forming a new one!