Content is cheap

They say talk is cheap, meaning that it is easy to say something but action speaks louder than words, but with so much content flying around for free these days, information is not only cheap, it is free.

I was thinking about this after a discussion with a user here this morning who was talking about their Hive experience not being ideal as a creator and after I asked what their content offered their audience, one of the things was information. But, this is the internet and information is available on absolutely anything and usually for free.

There is pretty much zero content scarcity online, which is why content creators have to work extremely hard to get noticed, no matter where they choose to put their material. This means that no matter how good a content creator is, unless they are able to gain attention from an audience, their work is going to go largely unconsumed.

In this regard, Facebook is a little bit different, as the average person doesn't have many external viewers, they have network viewers, effectively a circlejerk of friends, family and random acquaintances. Instagram is similar to Facebook, while Twitter and TikTok is more for strangers to consumer strangers - and like Tinder, it is largely casual relationships. But one thing to remember is, the vast majority of users on the popular platforms are not getting paid.

On Hive of course, many people are getting paid something though no one is likely to be buying islands on what they earn - unless they held what they earned and HIVE goes up a lot in value. The majority of users on Hive are getting something, which is actually an anomaly in digital content earning, as the centralized platforms are middlemen who distribute earnings and they take the lion's share of value, mostly in the form of advertising revenue (FB 97%, Google 80%), which endusers and content creators have no direct access to and the latter, are actually feeding the platform as they buy attention from the platform itself to promote their work.

This (and many other things) all have to be considered by the content creators, wherever they are, as if they want to earn on what they create, they are going to have to understand where they are creating and whom they are creating for, something that many on Hive tend to ignore.

Many treat Hive like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or whatever and then wonder why they don't get engagement, why they don't attract interest, why they get largely ignored, even though they believe they are doing "all the right things" to get them there. Most aren't, because they offer what can be found somewhere else with a simple Google search and often what would be found is of a higher quality.

For example, in my last photography post I added some macro pictures of a cricket from my yard. If someone was looking for a macro picture of a cricket, they could do this:

There are millions of pictures on the internet that will fit the criteria, so if I had added another one into the mix, what is mine adding to the audience? Nothing really (mine hold up pretty well actually!), but I also added some text and for many people, the text doesn't add anything either, but because they follow me, it does mean something coming from me because they know me. In this way, it is like Facebook, because I have built an audience and have developed relationships of various depths across my time here.

This means I have developed a network, which is vital for a social media to function well, but unlike the centralized platforms that use algorithms and have teams of people curating in order to drive content that they can monetize through advertisement, on Hive it is organic, which means we have to do our own legwork. There are many ways to do this, for example commenting, but an individual has to find what works for them. For example with me, I have taken (often unwittingly) many approaches, yet word of mouth through sharing and recommendation has probably been the one that has led to the most reward.

Word of mouth recommendations don't come on content that can be found anywhere, it comes on content that offers something unique. So an account that is looking for reward is likely going to either have to suck up to a whale, or be an actual content creator who pays enough attention to find what an audience wants.

Some will say that the most rewarded content is "Hive" or "crypto" content and this is likely true, considering the most consistently rewarded accounts are people' who create this kind of content, with myself being among them and probably adding the least in these categories, but still a fair bit.

However, it isn't only the content that gets the support, because it is a lucrative and competitive topic set, meaning there is plenty of Hive content on the blockchain that isn't earning. However, @edicted, @taskmaster4450 and myself all bring something different to the table, because each of us take different approaches and have very different personalities. What this means is that someone interested in Hive can effectively read all three of us and get something new from each, even if we are talking about the same thing in essence and - they can't get it anywhere else on the internet, because it is Hive exclusive.

But this isn't fair!

Interestingly, @taskmaster4450 (the highest rewarded by far on Hive) started after me, but we have been earning up the top for some time together - Also targeted up the top at times too. Yet, @edicted is a relative newbie up the top (been around awhile still now) and had quite a different start to us, as he was involved with a lot of drama, and how he dealt with it was amusing and he still doesn't mind taking a swing. Yet - all of us started from nothing.

So, while a lot of people seem to think that there is no way to break into becoming a high earner on Hive, I call bullshit on it, because I have seen plenty who have and they have taken various paths, yet nearly all have something in common. They all add their own style and personality into their content and their interactions with people on the blockchain. Their content can vary in form and topic, but who they are becomes the hook that the audience keeps coming back for.

There are so many sides to this that I can splinter off into and probably will at some point, but every content creator who also wants to make a business from what they produce and earn on it, has to consider a multitude of factors and they aren't going to be the same for each person. It is going to depend on what kind of content and style, the skills and personality, the market segment and stake availability and a host of other things - but for nearly all of them, it is good to remember one thing.

Information on the internet is cheap and plentiful, personality is scarce and something people are willing to pay for.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]