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A lot of you may be confused. Back in 2017, I found these cryptocurrency blogging sites like Reddit called Steemit. You can post a photo you took, embed a video, or write and people can vote it. You get credits that you can exchange for crypto/USD. It was the only way I can have money since at the time, I was unemployed due to autism and mental health. Being a small creator getting sales on my art store, Patreon, etc seemed impossible. In 2021, I cashed out the credits I built and I had almost 300 in USD. I was able to collect at least 100 a month or so. In April 2022, Steemit switched its reward credit system to a credit that was low in value. The original credit I was getting had high value. My earnings on a sister site like Steemt, hive, my earnings were still intact. Around June/July, my earnings on Hive dipped as well. Causing me to struggle hard.
The consequences of the loss
This loss hurt me hard. I wanted to commission an artist for thumbnails when I couldn’t come up with my own idea. I couldn’t afford them anymore. I need to get my eyes tested and new glasses, can’t afford that, when my grandma needed the oil changed, car repairs, etc, I couldn’t help her with that on top of having to give my grandma 125 of my already tight funds for a new heating system. I agreed to help her BEFORE my earnings took a hit.
It’s causing me so much stress
This has caused me so much stress. Panicking, scrambling, and posting as much as my fingers can take when my earnings dipped even lower because I already couldn’t afford the drop. If I collected what little I can get too soon, I’m broke for the rest of the month. My grandmother made an unwanted comment about my body. Maybe that’s why in her eyes I “got bigger” due to the stress of putting so much time into these blogs only to still struggle and still scrape by. I unlocked ads on Facebook in March. If there is a chance I could get 500 bucks one month or 300. I rather put my energy into that. Also Youtube lower the requirements to unlock memberships and my gaming with jazz channel is closer to the sub-goal. I rather put my energy and time into something I have a chance of growing. If it’s been a year and my earnings are still down and I’m still struggling. It’s a sign.
I never wanted to only rely on those blogs
I never intended to only rely on these sites. I was promoting Amazon affiliate links for my gaming gear, but couldn’t get sales. Promoting my Patreon, couldn’t get members. Promoting this blog does not have enough viewers. When you’re a small creator it’s tough starting a gig. Yeah, you want to sell cakes, you set up your shop, take photos of the cakes you make. Getting the sales is the hard part.
I’m just wasting my energy
I don’t know if I did something wrong to cause the people to vote me less. I feel I am just wasting my spoons putting all of these hours into these blogs just to still barely get by. Facebook will give me a chance to get out of a ruin with one viral video. If there’s a change my Youtube can blow up with one viral reel or video. Just how it took 2 viral reels to blow up on Facebook.
The plan
Instead, I will use the sites as typical social sites to promote my content. Channel my energy towards something I have a chance of growing and will get me out of this hole and something keeping me in the hole.
I am still going to be active at times in case I get demonetized or ads or slower than normal. This is also why I need to build Patreon, kofi, art sales, and more so I’m covered while I sort out why I lost ads, etc.
Small creators are not, by choice, only depending on one revenue source. growing social media is hard. plus the spoons to promote stuff. I promote kofi since it’s more diverse with ways to support your favorite creator. If you don’t like memberships you can send a one-time tip. I’ve added tiers to accommodate various budgets. I added a simple tip jar level. I decided to treat everyone equally. Everyone should be allowed to access my content fairly regardless of how much they can spend a month. Therefore I added levels just to give people options. If they can only spare 2 dollars, they join the 2-dollar level.
Overall I need to put my health and well-being first. It’s not worth it anymore putting all of my time into a platform that’s keeping me broke and struggling instead of a platform where I at least have a chance to stay afloat for a few weeks. I’m done with trying to guess why people vote for my post with fewer credits when they can just tell me they’re not enjoying the content. If that’s the case. At least on Facebook or YouTube etc comments like “I want more” and “I enjoy this” tells me what the viewer wants. At least people TRY to communicate. When I was targeted for downvote abuse, on Steemit, no one cared to tell me what I did wrong so I can fix my mistakes. When this guy thought I was so horrible for making Steemit my “income stream” wouldn’t tell me what I did that got his attention ( eg stolen photos) even though I site where I got the photo from.
I will no longer post videos on 3speak (it was like a crypto YouTube) there is no point when no one watches them. Instead, those videos will be put up for Kofi/Patreon supporters. So vlog every day in August and vlogging challenges going forward will be for Kofi peeps.
Instead of panic posting on these sites only to still struggle, panic post and share reels on Facebook where I have a chance to get out of a hole for a while.
I will still use the sites to boost content as I said, I won’t make videos for threespeak anymore. I won’t invest any more time and energy into these platforms. And instead, invest in a platform(s) where I have a chance to grow instead of a platform where my earnings are not improving and just dip lower at times. It will be better for my health as a whole to channel my focus.
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