You Need To Avoid Deadly Networking

"Deadly networking? But you say networking is good!" Yes I do and networking in P.A.L. by the @minnowsupport project was the single best choice I made since joining Steemit. The second group that was a huge help to me is @thewritersblock. The first is for any and all minnows. The latter is for writers looking to improve their craft in a professional manner.

I love networking and believe in its contributions to success so much that I even created two of my own Steem based community projects. The first is Supporting Steem CreatorsThe second is the Tech Bloggers' Guild.

The mission of Supporting Steem Creators is to build up a group of experienced bloggers, podcasters, video editors, and proofreaders to improve the overall quality of the Steemit community. This is for everyone from a day one minnow to the largest whales. The better the standard content is on the Steem blockchain the better chance we have to gain new investors.

In the Tech Bloggers Guild, we focus on the #technology niche. I never knew how many posts are simply copied and pasted from a well know site. Zero effort is needed to creating these and it's out right plagiarism. We also see a lot of posts with a video from YouTube and no original content. As a tech blogger of many years it pains me to see this.

Tell Me Why Networking Is Bad Already!

Because networking can distract you. Our main goal is to create content. If we are not practicing our craft we will be stuck with the same stale blog day in and day out. We have enough distractions in our life and adding all these groups can make that even worse. Chatting for hours and meeting other Steemians is awesome and helps our growth but what is the point if we cease to create?

This can become exacerbated as we get to know the right people, show our value, and get promoted into leadership roles for these groups. Now, not only is there networking to meet new people, but it's also a bit of a job (unpaid at that). The more time spent in chat groups the less time we have to create for the steem blockchain.

How To Stay Focused

This may be different for same people so make sure to find what works best for you. What we cover here are more suggestions than hard rules you must follow. After all, it is your blog and you can post as much or as little as you please. The goal of these posts is to help everyone improve their blog so it's best to take the writing process seriously.

In the blog post How To Breakthrough Mental Blocks Into Flow we talked about several great ways to stay focused and get our content out on time.

(Remember, setting a schedule is the second most important step to generating growth.)

Read the post above for an in depth look at the flow state. For now let's recap how we get into flow and stay focused. The first aspect we mentioned was our environment. This needs to stay consistent each time we go to write.

Second was motivation. This is one area where networking may help. Chatting with others gives the opportunity for us to stir up new ideas. At the same time this may backfire for some people. Seeing all the success other people are gaining could easily make us feel unworthy.

Third was self control. If we want to write the best post we can that day we need to develop the self control to push off the distraction of chatting with our new friends and actually create! The best part is that we can shape our environment so we only need a small amount of self control to reap the benefits. If the networking groups cause a distraction it would be best to use a computer not connected to the internet or a pen and paper.

Effective Networking

I go much further in depth in Simple Networking Skills To Unlock Success but I still wanted to share this with everyone in case you need a refresher course.

Be friendly
-- Don't be mean.
Give
-- Always give more than you receive.
Don't Beg
-- People don't like to get direct messages asking for an upvote so stop that.

I need to add there a fourth step and that is moderation. Everything that comes along with networking is awesome but if it starts to get in the way it will only hurt our content. This is why I set networking to number three in my Steps To Better Growth for those who are interested. Content always needs to come before chatting in Discord groups or on steemit.chat.

Does This All Really Work?

It may seem like a lot to you but yes it does work! You can see my growth since going full force into Steemit. It is all laid out in Superior Growth Is Practiced Not Preached. This growth has a lot to do with @sndbox inviting me to be a member. But that would never have happened if I had not met @heymattsokol in the @minnowsupport project's Discord server.

It all ties in together. It's not luck. It is hard work and dedication. Set goals to make amazing content. Afterward, you can network, not the other way around. It does not matter how many friends you make through chat groups if you have no content. Even worse if your content is trash, so practice and create evergreen content that will help people for years to come.

It is great that you want to grow your blog to whale status someday but remember that it takes work. It's best to not be in this for the money but for the love of creating. Take your passion and start writing, or recording video, or podcasting about it. That way, when the the post payouts are zero and no one is commenting it will still be rewarding to create.

Thanks for reading!

If you have a blogging topic that you would like my 15-year experience on, let me know in the comment section!

Looking to take your Steem based creations to the next level? Join us over at the Steem Creators' Guild! We are here to encourage, support and increase the creation of quality content for all Steemians.