Blogging While Circling the Drain...?
Well, isn't this fun!
Seems like the current downtrend in the price of Hive is more than a momentary blip as we appear to be descending through a three-year low for our little ecosystem's token.
Whereas I definitely feel a little bit sad about it and find myself periodically wondering whether we're actually just circling the drain here, it's also an invitation to revisit why I'm here in the first place. And that reason is because I'm a writer and I really enjoy blogging and expressing random thoughts in the form of the written word.
It's something I've been doing for a very long time, dating back some 25 years in the online environment, and even longer before that with that mysterious archaic thing known as pen and paper.
For the vast majority of the years I've been a blogger it wasn't actually something you got paid for. This was something you did because you had some thoughts you wanted to express or maybe you had a writing exercise you wanted to experiment with, or maybe you even just wanted to engage with some other people and share ideas.
The whole idea of monetizing your web content was a bit of a late arrival, really.
I actually started making money online in 1998, because that was when I created my eBay account and I started selling stuff. Over the years I have made quite a bit of money online by selling stuff.
So what's my point here?
The primary difference between selling stuff on eBay and blogging and expecting to be paid for it is that eBay is very specifically created as a venue in which to conduct commerce, while the blogging venue is very specifically created as a place in which to express yourself creatively in writing. Getting paid for writing is more of a bonus than an expectation.
What has changed over the years is not so much the type of venue as it is our expectations of what is "supposed to happen" as a result of our time, energy and effort expended.
The ostensible elephant in the room that most people - especially those who are big proponents of web 3.0 - don't like to look directly at is the fact that web content has never really had much monetary value. The hard lesson learned by scores of operators who started the idea that online creators would be paid for their content is that it almost invariably fails.
Why is that? Well because somebody posting a picture of their breakfast taco or somebody talking about their pocket lint doesn't have any value... who are you trying to deceive into believing that this is so?
Of course web content does have a value of sorts. But that value comes from vast numbers. Mr. Beast has the ability to make millions with web content because he has 280 million subscribers on YouTube. But when you break it down, each individual person who watches a Mr. Beast video has almost no value. It's all a numbers game.
As a web content writer, I have occasionally sold directly commissioned articles to websites for $20 to $50, and those ended up being looked at (to the best of my knowledge) hundreds of thousands of times.
When you look at a venue like Hive, the rewards we earn here are not directly correlated to the value of what we're producing.... we have to think of it more in terms of what happens when you're a server and the food is establishment and somebody leaves you a really good tip. Somebody perceives that what you're offering has value and so you end up making some money but most of the time this word soup does not have much value. And claiming that it does is really just a form of self deception.
Of course that's not a very popular point of view around here. But don't forget I am including myself in this equation!
By contrast, I built most of the base of this account when the original token was only $0.07 to $0.10! So there's that...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead...
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-06-18 01:35 PDT
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I started posting here because I'd been trying to use FB and they were locking out my viewers. Getting paid was definitely a bonus but not the incentive. I am sad to see the descent over the last little while, especially when I hear BC has gone up again. But I've not ever taken much out of the account, as it was too hard to do. So maybe leaving all the Hive in will turn out to be a good thing...
Look, I didn't even notice the price because Hive is still the best alternative to monetize my content and I hope it stays that way for a long time. Hopefully someday I can sell a piece of writing at that price he,he,he,he..... Thanks for your words of encouragement and let's hope our ecosystem keeps going. Regards.