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How You Were Sweet-Talked Into Giving Away Your Labour For Free

Content is the engine that drives the Internet. From selfies to music, to video, content powers all social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google +, helping mobile phone companies, media companies & social media networks to earn ridiculous amounts of money at the expense of you, the users.

In fact, billions of internet users (content producers) have been convinced by huge Internet conglomerates like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, to freely produce content, share on their social media accounts and give up their rights to earn income from the use of said content and the building out of massive user databases.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE:

Ask yourself these questions: How is a random social media user that produces video content and shares on Youtube any different from a videographer? How are Instagram or SnapChat users publishing millions of selfies and freely sharing any different from a photographer? How are reviewers on "Yelp" aka "Yelpers" any different from critics that write reviews for media companies for a fee?

Yes, my friends you have been conned, duped, deceived, hoodwinked, sweet-talked, tricked, cheated, defrauded or lured into giving up your labour for FREE to build content for Internet companies whom have aggregated your knowledge, repurposed it and made huge profits for themselves without compensating you. With the exception of Google through its Adsense and Youtube Partners program, most of the top Internet portals don’t really care about your needs.

You, the content producer should demand the right to be paid for producing and sharing content including selfies, random images, video or short articles. And most importantly, you should be rewarded for helping web portals to build massive databases or fan networks.

The question is: “Do you want to perpetuate the status quo? Do you want to learn how the “Greatest Con In The History Of The Human Race” was pulled off? And do you want to learn how you can fight back and claim your piece of the pie?”

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN CONNED INTO PRODUCING CONTENT FOR FREE?

Well, the con has taken many, many forms. Let’s investigate a few of the techniques used by social entrepreneurs.
First, have you ever heard the term “User Generated Content”? If not, “User-generated content (UGC) is defined as "any form of content such as blogs, wikis, discussion forums, posts, chats, tweets, podcasting, pins, digital images, video, audio files, advertisements and other forms of media that was created by users of an online system or service, often made available via social media websites".

It is a great term, I must agree. However, the term “user generated content” simply amounts to:

“Create content for me for free and I will transform it into revenue for myself.”

This business model is the engine behind literally millions of websites including Twitter, Yandex, TripAdvisor, NetEase, Linkedin, Yahoo, Baidu, Facebook, Tencent and Google (just to name the top 10 sites with a free business model). These businesses alone account for hundreds of $100 billion in sales.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Now, let us, just for a minute imagine a different reality. Imagine a world where every website, every mobile app and every marketing company is powered by a single “Social Rewards” platform like a traditional frequent buyer program like Air Miles where Internet users are rewarded for sharing content with friends and family online.

Imagine a world where every app, contest or website is considered a self-replicating business that generates residual income for that licensee or franchise owner for LIFE. STEEM has implemented some of these ideas, but what if you could take it further.