### Why would we need or want advertising on Steemit?  Why would the Steem blockchain need revenues?

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Relying on the next buyer of your token isn’t a long-term strategy. It’s essentially a Ponzi scheme – without the accompanying lies about business profits from revenue generation. If revenues *can* be made and even distributed to holders of a token, then why not take the appropriate steps to make it happen? Diverting from the typical cryptocurrency concept of “buy now because it might be worth more later” is a welcomed move, in my opinion.  

Having the ability to actually receive passive returns on investment (in the form of dividends), other than simply from price increases, can bring a lot more attention and attract more “smart” investment into a crypto token. So, how do we get there?

### *Advertisements,* of course.

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![steemit_advertising.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeaM6doFuQNAEmYd2WYJT8BXWJdhMjWAXUvANx5zyAhXQ/steemit_advertising.jpg)

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I know, I know...I’ve heard it all since I joined Steemit last summer.  

Advertising is bad and will ruin Steemit. It will make the platform unattractive. It will lead to data collection and other terrible things. 

I’m not convinced of any of that and there’s no reason why we can’t have advertising *and* a good user experience where control is retained by the individual user. There are many ways that advertising can play out in the Steem ecosystem, so let’s dive right in.

### Account Creation and Investment

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Any individual or company can make a one-time investment ($500,000, $1 million, $5 million) and use that to “promote” their own advertisements in the form of blog posts (Steemit), images (Steepshot), links and short messages (Zappl), and any other app built on the Steem blockchain. 

Instead of a one-time advertising campaign where the funds are spent and gone, these individuals and companies can make continuous posts and use their own influence and following to not only be seen on the platform on various “hot” or “trending” pages, *but they also have the potential to earn profits for doing so.* The slogan that targets companies could be: **_Get paid to advertise!_**

This option would be a direct investment into their own brand’s/company’s presence/marketing. Imagine a company like Samsung investing in 10 million STEEM Power so that they can produce marketing/advertising content on their own blog, have their followers read, comment, and re-post it, and then actually earn profits from the rewards gained on that post. Then imagine dozens or hundreds of companies doing the same. 

### Auction Blocks for Premium Advertising

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For exclusive advertising on Steemit, there can be a daily auction for a 24-hour block of premium ad space for the auction winner. Instead of a gaudy, flashing neon banner image, the pages would simply display the normal thumbnail and tagline for a post created by the auction winner for that ad block. 

The 24-hour auction could begin at 0:00 UTC and conclude at 23:59 each day.  It could be followed by a 72-hour period for post development, then the post would need to be submitted for the ad space. 

The Steemit ad spaces would include a featured post on the welcome page and the top of the *new, hot, trending,* and *promoted* pages. 

The revenue generated from the advertisement auctions could be distributed to all Steem accounts based on Mvests.  There could also be an opt-in or opt-out setting for seeing those ads – with those who opt in receiving the distributions and those who opt out *not* receiving them.  Visitors (non-users) would not have the option.  They would need to sign up in order to opt out. This would create incentives for either option: Sign up to opt out of seeing the advertisements or sign up to earn from the distributions...and buy/power up STEEM to earn more.

Imagine a company like Pepsi purchasing ad blocks with STEEM or SBDs and then *actually using* those currencies to purchase premium ad spaces.  The revenue is then collected via the daily auction and distributed to stakeholders every day.  This creates demand for the Steem currencies, provides an on-chain use for them, provides more utility for STEEM Power, and provides an opportunity for passive return on investment for stakeholders. 

### Auction Blocks for Targeted Advertising

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These would be tag-specific ads that could appear at the top of each page under specific tag searches, such as photography, food, or travel.

A company like Canon, Nikon, or Sony could bid on ad spaces in a similar fashion to the premium ads, but their posts would be displayed only under the tags on which they bid.  If Canon were to win the auction block for photography, then their submitted post would be at the top of the new, hot, trending, and promoted pages *only under “photography.”*

In addition to the tag’s main pages, there could also be a link with thumbnail embedded in every post using the “photography” tag.  The same opt-in and opt-out rules would apply for in-post ads.  Users would have the option of not displaying or seeing those ads and would either receive or not receive the distributions from the auction, while non-users would not have the option. 

Incentivizing the opt-in would very likely result in more people choosing that option, thus making advertising more attractive for the advertising individuals or businesses, which in turn could boost demand for the Steem currencies from companies and individual investors alike. Those users who do not wish to see ads on the platform would still have the option to not see them. 

### Buying Ad Space on Individual User Posts

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This would be the most direct, traffic-based advertising strategy where the user essentially has full control over whether they want their readers to see ads or not. Many successful users on YouTube have had companies/advertisers come to them to either create videos to promote their product or to embed their ads on a specific user’s video/page.  The same type of popularity/traffic-based advertising can occur on Steemit, with direct payments from companies to individual bloggers. 

The details for this type of advertising would be worked out directly between the two parties and readers would likely not have the ability to opt out of seeing the ads displayed in the posts. 

*All of these options would also result in an entirely new set of data and analytics – more apps or businesses that can be built and monetized, such as premium analytical services for marketers and advertisers.  And all of it would be non-intrusive.*

### Will Companies Invest and Advertise...and What Should We Do?

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Whether or not companies will invest into a cryptocurrency-based social media platform and advertise on it remains to be seen, but I believe that – if the user base grows large enough – the potential audience reach would become harder and harder to pass up. If there are millions of active users and many more millions of visitors to the sites, there will surely be people wanting to capitalize on the audience and we as users would be crazy to continue to oppose monetization via advertising if revenues can be made and shared among stakeholders.

Even if you are vehemently opposed to any and all advertising, you can still have the option to not view the ads. But even if you choose to not view the direct advertisements, you’re still going to see some form of marketing and advertising within posts over time. It’s inevitable. It’s unavoidable. 

If there is an opportunity to create a revenue model via the blockchain and if there is an opportunity to share that revenue with investors/stakeholders via the blockchain, then that opportunity ought to be seized. The Steem blockchain is a zero-fee transaction network. There are no built-in revenue mechanisms. The currency is only guaranteed to flow *out* of the system. That’s not sustainable without new buyers constantly flooding *in.* Rather than rely on the Ponzi-like concept, we should find ways to monetize what can be relatively easily monetized, as many social media platforms have already demonstrated.  

Notwithstanding everything mentioned above, a larger audience will likely require a much better flagship interface and complementary apps. But we can save that conversation for another time.

### What are your thoughts on this?  Are these advertising and distribution options feasible via the blockchain and interfaces? Should advertising revenues and distributions be part of Steem/Steemit? Should stakeholders benefit from monetization of the platforms? 

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<center>[![ats_content_slayer8f72e.md.jpg](http://www.steemimg.com/images/2017/02/27/ats_content_slayer8f72e.md.jpg)](http://www.steemimg.com/image/OQFVK)<center>
<center>Image courtesy of @mynameisbrian</center>

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