**Social media platforms are build on that business model. Offer a 'GRATIS' service, promise to keep the essence of it for free and attract a user base. For the accounts it has no apparant costs, except hardware and electricity. But these are allready part of what we got used to over the years. For the companies that start these services it is not cheap. There is a certain price attached at offering a social media platform to large groups. Is it idealism? That can be a part of it of course. But creating a profit making business is often part of it also.**

There are huge investments involved for creating an infrastructure that is able to handle extreme amounts of real time data. This takes a while to setup, to expand and to secure. Not every idea can and will be implemented right away. Some things would not work, while others only start to take off if a certain user base got established. Investors know that every starup needs time, mostly a couple of years, to get things going. In the meantime the hardware needs to be hired, or bought, it might need repairs and technicians to control. Programmers need to be hired and there are calls to be made. An investment group will cover these costs with their investment, but they will want to see a return on the long term. 

Strange, maybe, to the outsider. Because how can something that has a billion of accounts, not charging them a thing, still get people to put their money in. Taking a risk to lose it all. Partly that is speculation, but it could also become a big hit and then start to create substantial revenues. And then the stake holders will be very happy to see how much they get in return on their innitial investment. Maybe even make a big buck when they sell their shares to new investors. That is a win-win. So, apparantly there is something to that 'GRATIS' business model in the world of Social Media. And yes, it is, there are billions to be made...

### Attracting attention and monitoring behavior

That is where you, the account holder and content creator and your social media network comes in. You got in for nothing, some friend told you to join and slowly you were building up your own sub network. Sharing photo's, sending messages, posting video's online and so on and so forth. These actions build up a huge data stream and this keeps on growing. And it attracts points of attention, with attached behavior patterns. That is where it gets interesting to monetize. Because at some point it looks like humanity is diffused over a lot of centers of attention. To get that attention might almost seem an impossible task. 

And you might not be aware of this, but the commercials on radio and tv are mostly in sync. Not the same commercials, but at almost the same time, on every channel. Because there is not such feedback as on the internet. Although with digital radio and tv it can be noticed when you swap channels, not much more data will come from that. Will you watch the advertisement for detergents? Or do you skip to another channel. So, it is hard to predict what will keep your attention. And almost no information about your drive, the behavior patterns you follow.

On the internet that is a whole different story. You are helping by clicking on smilies, responding, giving likes and sharing things of others. That is data that can help advertisers to show you the right commercials. The platform might even ask you to tell them what you did not like about an advertisement, if you click it away. All this will create a pattern, that does not need to be monitored by humans, but this can be automated very effectively. And social media platforms are the best candidates to be used for this. 

Sometimes this can cross certain privacy lines, such as WhatsApp sharing your message data content with FaceBook. So you would see advertisement on FaceBook that resonated 'magicly' with what you spoke about with your friend in private. This is something most of us don't like, even if we understand that advertisement serves the purpose of keeping a platform 'GRATIS', whe don't like it to become a spy, or a kind of 'big brother'. Most of us draw the line there. 

And what if the companies start to activily filter what we are supposed to read, view and hear? They would not call it censorship, but something with finetuning their business model towards the advertisers. Because they want to keep the basic use at no cost for you. While at that time you probably need to pay something to get more attention, even in your own subnetwork.

And in comes blogging on the blockchain... Specially SteemIt.

### ♨ SteemIt community might want to hurry with advertising

Now, I'm writing about a roulating economy. And I try to stay away from things like Austrian Economics and Freigeld. That might be something you want to write about. No, what I want to bring forward here is that there are more competitors on the horizon. And I mean specially at the part of monetizing attention and behavior using a social media platform on a blockchain. Some of their plans I've read, watched promotion video's, tech demo's and so on, but they are still no where near where SteemIt already is right now. Though, sooner or later these competitors will hit the market with a new product that works. 

But, from the ones that I've seen it is mostly about starting from the advertising point of view. Decentralizing advertising, some with content attached, still in way that looks very fuzzy to me. And we at SteemIt have seen that only creating great diverse free minded content is apparantly not enough to keep our economy going. This also has been addressed by the CEO's of SteemIt incorporated, in the person of Ned Scot. At one of his talks, in Oslo - Norway, he suggested the idea of using advertising on SteemIt. This could benefit the whole community if done right. Keeping it as a closed economy, by selling it in Steem. 

The big advantage in monetizing the content at SteemIt is that the transactions do not carry any cost. Transfers between accounts are gratis and extremely fast, compaired to other blockchain systems. Micro-payments are easy as pie, same as big payments in Steem Backed Dollar. For users of other blockchain based crypto currencies this is hard to imagine. And what about companies that can see their payments right away, like 1-2-3!

So there might be a healthy roulation economy potential in that for the SteemIt community. 

### Censorship should be kept out though

One of the great things about SteemIt, that I'm very fond of, is the free thought that can be expressed here. And I don't mean verbal abuse, because that is, in fact, still abuse. No, with mutual respect as all being equivalent, celebrating our uniqueness as humans. There might be tough discussions and sometimes I too have ended them with an agree to disagree. Still, main thing, an open social media platform that takes human liberty to express themselves very seriously. And the data that is generated by this, is on a public ledger, a blockchain. Even the sourcecode is open en free.

Now, there must be a market for this to monetize this content, still keeping it open and free for every member of the community. And at the same time sharing the revenue it brings. After the costs of keeping it going are fullfilled. Because if SteemIt becomes a non-profit foundation then the running costs need to be covered first. That is for everybodies benefit. But at no time should advertisers be able to put a lid on the freedom of expression here. 

And I do trust that all the content that is being created here, will attract the right amount of attention to monetize it by using a closed roulation economy, using Steem.

Thank you for your attention.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84666869/steemit/voluntary_objectives/oldambt/_DSC0026.JPG
_photo "The road ahead" cc-by-sa @oaldamster_
- 50/50 payout post