RE: You're not supposed to make money when promoting a post on Steam. The ROI is hidden and over many people's head.
I experimented with promoting three posts of mine. I thought the posts were pretty outstanding and might go viral if seen by more people. I tried for $10, $20 and $30.
None of my posts earned the amount invested, although I did increase the amount of upvotes compared to normal and the earnings were higher than my average. However investing $10, $20 or $30 wasn’t enough to get me in the first three or four pages. People on the first page have literally invested hundreds of dollars.
As far as the promoted section is concerned, it seems like the first page or two are filled with ads for mostly for new ICOs. Probably people glance at the promoted section a few times, see the ads, and don’t visit again.
In conclusion, I would say it’s an expensive experiment for most people.
You are right on. I did a similar trial couple of months ago and here are my observations https://steemit.com/steemit/@gokulnk/are-steemit-promotions-dead
One suggestion would be do not spend amounts like $10, $20 and $30 in promotions. It is not worth it. It is pretty much like google search results. Nobody really takes a look at posts after the first page. If you look at the promoted tab now you will see that the first four posts are 100$ plus. So there is no point in outbidding them. But the fifth post is 60$. So I would spend 61$ on promotions and make sure that my post is in the fifth position.
By following this approach I was able to get better ROI on the investment I made for promotions. But I was still not happy and have not spent on promotions after thats.
Right on @swissclive and thank you for your comment.
As you said the top of the promoted page tends to be new ICOs.
One thing I forgot to mention in the post is that you can actually see how much each post on the promoted page was promoted with and then you will be able to tell how high up your post will show depending on how much you spend. So far in my month and half here the cost of being the very top promoted post has fluctuated between $180-$400....the more you spend, the higher you land on the promoted page.
If it means anything, your $37 promotion earned you at least one new follower. Since the long term future of Steem requires investing by advertisers, I tend to check out what is there from time to time if not just to see who the advertisers are. Without the promoted feed the Steem that is generated daily has less value.
Thanks for the follow @curtiscolwell! I too check out the promoted page to see is willing to pay for their content to be seen. Many times it is either something for sale that I don't want, or very high quality content. I think the Steem will think of other ways to raise money in the future even if it means adding some outside CPC/Google Adsense or something similar. I wouldn't mind a small amount of ads if it helped the platform sustain growth.
Thanks again for the follow and the comment!