Here’s a typical story, you wake up and you have great idea lodged in your frontal cortex, you are so excited that you can’t wait to open your laptop, post it on steemit and share it with us. You spend hours writing, then editing, polishing and then proof-reading it again. Now it’s perfect. You start looking for the best pictures out there and finally you are ready to present us with a truly beautiful post.

You scroll down, you find the blue button, you click post, but nothing happens.

Before you know it, your post is already swallowed by the large wave of competing minnows, dolphins, sharks and whales.

To be honest, I don’t know in which category I would fit, but if I had to guess I’d say maybe somewhere between a sardine and swordfish. Tough if you want,

You Can Call Me Nemo

The whales as you may know, hold most of the voting power and as a consequence they’re always first to be blamed anytime a post doesn’t get the attention it may or may not have deserved. Kind of like a sports referee on a soccer game, no matter the decision that he’ll make, part of the public will always remember his mom.

Wait, did that son of a bitch…Enter controversial decision.

That being said, if I said the whales don’t affect your position I would be lying. What I don’t see however is why the whales are considered gatekeepers as some people seem to believe.

So let’s take a step back, leave our emotions aside, and see what logic tells us.

Why We Do What We DO

There are three possibilities here, that the whales either want the best for steemit, that they want the best for themselves, or that both these things are one and the same, which is a little closer to the truth.

At this stage, it’s fair to say that nobody actually believes that the whales want to act against their self interest and harm steemit. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that their decision-making is obviously in a direct correlation to the benefit and prosperity of steem.

The same as me and you, the only difference here is the size. And I don't wanna be sued by Cosmo here, but you know what? Sometimes, size does matter.

Here’s what @dan had to say on the subject:

The whales are actively seeking out people to promote up the ranks. We have no incentive to be a majority holder of a small puddle. We would much rather be a minority holder of a giant ocean. All that matters is that we grow from a puddle, to a pond, to a lake, to an ocean.

Whales are small in the grand scheme of an ocean of fish.

You see, what he says not only makes sense but was obvious from day one. Unless of course you believe that visionaries spend their time dreaming up about of Lord of the Flies scenarios.

All that matters is that we grow from a puddle, to a pond, to a lake, to an ocean. Which is what we all want, as I mentioned earlier.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we still haven’t solved the why my post doesn’t make it to the top question.

You might be thinking that your post deserved better than many others that made it to the top page. You would probably be right. That being said, I question the wisdom of spending precious energy trying to justify the success of other people.

Let me give you some of the most recurrent examples that I’ve recently read:

She’s on the main page just because she’s beautiful. That celebrity got the votes only because he’s famous, or that dude keeps hoarding upvotes because he created that stupid app, this one stole the upvotes for producing those dumb tutorials…etc.

First of all, in case you didn't realize it, those guys must've produced some sort of value. And more importantly, I’m not sure that’s an area I would wanna to go to in the first place.

Because let’s face it, how is that different from something like, say: What does she see in that guy?

Plus, how would I know which parameters they consider to cast their upvotes. I’m not a whale, I’m an alien remember?

Alien, I meant swordfish.

All that we know is that they want the best for steemit. Maybe they like posts that have the potential to bring more audience to steemit, maybe they favor the potential impact of a certain post, or maybe God is fucking with us.

I don’t know.

I don’t know, and I don’t really care that much. Because if I’m being totally honest here, I don’t see how I can really improve my style and hone my craft if I’m busy figuring out who screwed who on the votation. I know this sounds a little like tough love, but it’s love nonetheless.

Now there are two versions of the story, and there is no saying how it turns out.. So I will give you both, and you decide which wolf you feed.

“Let’s admit it, we all got two wolves in us, a good one and a bad one, you know what I’m talking about — and they BOTH wanna eat… We just gotta feed that good wolf a little more than the other one.” — Matthew McConaughey

Dancing with the Wolves

I can tell you that that nerdy guy who created that app to help us navigate steemit got the votes just because he’s on the inner-circle, and not because he put the time and effort to bring some value to the community.

I can tell you that that marketer that is trying to promote steemit at the best of his or her ability are just some suck-ups that sold off to the whales. I can tell you that "privileged" travelling girl was getting all those votes because she’s pretty, oh and because she a pair of boobs.

I can tell you all of that while pretending that I am completely oblivious to the fact that some of the latest travel posts here have totally kicked ass.

That being said, I also get where you’re coming from, life is not fair, never was and never will be.

So maybe, we should treat steemit as all the other aspects of life, and maybe the best thing to do is to focus on the things that we can control. Does that sound fair?

But as I said, I can tell you all those things I said above and more…

Or I can tell you this:

The truth is, I don’t have all the answers, I don’t have everything figured out. Personally, I keep it simple and I follow the advice of billionaire businessman Rick Rule, one of the people I respect the most in the world. This is what he says:

“You get successful in life as a result of providing value to other people”. —  Rick Rule

So that’s my ultimate goal, to provide the maximum value I can. This how I do it, and I am happy to share it with you:

The Alien's Recipe for a Successful Steemit Post

First and foremost, you have to treat your audience in the same way that you treat any other relationship. It’s a privilege not an obligation. Imagine that it’s a romance for example, you should never take her for granted, always consider her needs, and most important of all:

Pay Attention

Attention has got to be one of the most underrated qualities that we clueless bastards neglect the most on this planet. And with writing it’s no different. You have to pay attention to your partner, or in this case, your audience.

For those of you who remember, I started writing mainly about political comedies and Blockchain technology, and as more new-comers started finding their way to steemit, I toned down the political comedies because I wanted it to be more inclusive and I didn’t want our new members to feel left out, to feel like outsiders.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted steemit to grow, maybe that little fact helped because my goals were somewhat aligned with what many of you want.

And of course you try to pass it forward, to help the other guy. For example, Richard @steemship and me, wrote a guide to help the new comers get better rewards by curating content.

Then when I started having the impression that there were many new steemians who were new to the Blockchain sphere, I decided to write essays about what is the Blockchain and why it has the potential to change the world.

Doing in so while taking in consideration the new comer’s perspective.

Even as soon as yesterday, when I felt like some of you were already thinking about giving up, what did I write about? I wrote a story about the reasons why I think that you shouldn’t give up on your steem-dream just yet, and I wrote it in my habitual unusual style. Would you go back to a world without steemit?

Point two, try to pick her brain a little, try to make her feel something special if you can, do something new, something different, try to surprise her, and together maybe you can embark on a unique experience..

That’s the state of mind I had when I wrote this post for example:

When Philosopy and comedy start making babies

Create what Seth Godin calls The Purple Cow, something truely remarkable, do that and the audience will remember you. After all, what would you be without them?

And last but not least, and my own personal favorite:

Make Her Smile.

These are some of my favorite ingredients, and as you can see it’s very simple. I mainly focus on the things that I can control, I prefer to bet on my strengths instead dwelling on my weaknesses.

And above all, the reader’s experience means everything to me.

You are the hero of your journey, you can write your own rules, but you also have two wolves, feed them wisely.

I hope that this small post comes as a little help to anyone who was intimidated by the whales. Remember, the they are people too.

This really came from the heart so,

Love,

The Alien.