Welcome to the 16th weekly installment of my series on Steemit income and growth!
Income on Steemit is generated by "investment" (the more Steem you have, the more you earn) and by "work" (earning Steem by contributing content that adds value). Already having invested my savings in Steem, I'm now "working" by uploading unique valuable content to the blockchain. My goal is to increase my average weekly income to 15 Steem.
Calculating weekly income
Considering income from all accounts that I own, and that my wife owns, and accounts started as group projects with my funds (currently @drutter, @medikatie, @greatesteem, @hempy, @girlsofgreen, and @sativazeee), here's the running tally:
Week 01 - 0840 (+ ? ) Steem (+?%)
Week 02 - 0848 (+ 8 ) Steem (+0.95%)
Week 03 - 0862 (+14) Steem (+1.65%)
Week 04 - 0868 (+ 6 ) Steem (+0.70%)
Week 05 - 0876 (+ 8 ) Steem (+0.92%)
Week 06 - 0888 (+12) Steem (+1.37%)
Week 07 - 0914 (+26) Steem (+2.93%)
Week 08 - 0929 (+15) Steem (+1.64%)
Week 09 - 0936 (+ 7 ) Steem (+0.75%)
Week 10 - 0953 (+17) Steem (+1.82%)
Week 11 - 0960 (+ 7 ) Steem (+0.73%)
Week 12 - 0966 (+ 6 ) Steem (+0.63%)
Week 13 - 0973 (+ 7 ) Steem (+0.72%)
Week 14 - 0980 (+ 7 ) Steem (+0.72%)
Week 15 - 0986 (+ 6 ) Steem (+0.61%)
Week 16 - 0991 (+ 5 ) Steem (+0.51%)
Average weekly income (last 10 weeks): +10.3 Steem (+1.11%)
It was the worst week ever for our team, which is putting out top-notch posts every day of the week. Upvotes and payouts are the worst since we joined Steemit almost a year ago. At current rate (which isn't even sustainable) it's going to take another 8 months of hard work to hit our goal.
Cannabis category payouts plummeting?
After a number of great articles and videos I produced over the past couple weeks have flopped completely, most earning me a dime (and most of that comes from my wife). Even our @GirlsofGreen account's proceeds are down, even though we've added new models and increased our production quality. A model can put an hour or two into a photoshoot, and we'll get the photos formatted and uploaded and captioned, and the post will generate less than a quarter dollar. We realize we're doing this mostly for fun and for the cause, but if there's no cryptos in it for us, why are we on Steemit and not some other site, perhaps one that DOES pay, or at least has better support and development. We generate high-quality original content that people enjoy and want - we're in demand. But even working at it full time, we can't generate enough cryptos to buy ourselves a camera to replace the one we're wearing out?
Over the past few weeks, payouts in the cannabis category seem to have been declining steadily. My team's income has dropped steadily and this week it hit an all-time low despite the fact that we're at an all-time high for fans and followers. Where are all the payouts going? Where are the upvotes going? The past 3 weeks have been brutal for payouts and it's making Steemit really depressing. How can I motivate my team to put out even more content, of even higher-quality, if we haven't even got a camera that works properly anymore, and we're making 15 cents a day?
Steemit doesn't owe us anything. It's just disappointing that we moved all our savings here, and have put in several months of full-time effort, only to have lost most of our investment and made nothing for our work. Maybe this can serve as a warning to others who have heard they'll succeed on Steemit if they've got talent, ambition, creativity, or skills to share. Apparently to make it here, it takes more than just high-quality unique content that people want to see. That's puzzling and distressing to me, and probably to others thinking of investing in STEEM.
I'll continue to keep a close eye on this. We already have to pay money to do all the activism and modeling and photography and production we do. We have no income sources except Steemit. If Steemit isn't even going to be an income source, and we aren't gaining new followers, then it's going to be hard to justify expending any effort here. If we aren't reaching many here with our message, and we aren't helping many, and we aren't getting paid, then it's not our Purpose.
Have an excellent week,
DRutter