Steemit is like Facebook?
Steemit is a social media, just like Facebook. Making a circle of friends from scratch, just like Twitter and Google, but getting paid for posts – revolutionary!
Yeah, you all know this, and I suspect that’s the main reason most of us are here. I know a number of my friends are here because I told them about this place – Waves!
Just like Facebook, I’m finding I’m spending a lot of my time online here – yep, Steemit has surpassed Facebook for me. I now check this out before going to my FB account.
But unlike FB, I don’t have my ‘usual suspects’ to fall back on.
To begin with, I wandered about, trying to suss it all out. I’ve mimicked successful accounts (or tried to,) without anywhere near their success and I think that’s what the problem is. I wanted to make this my job, but it’s not as easy as all that.
https://www.facebook.com/DMichelleGentAuthor/
Over in FB I have a few hundred core followers, my ‘peeps’ who always respond when I write a new piece for the new books I have coming out ‘soon’ - (Thank you for your patience, one really IS coming out at Halloween), but over here, tumbleweed…
I think the differences between FB and Steemit make it difficult for non-writers to get to grips with. Where over there you get a handy little Share button, over here it’s got to be all your own work for at least the vast majority of the time.
Yeah, I have seen people getting rewards for posting Youtube videos but it’s either their own video they put on Youtube first or the account gets one or two good payouts and then grinds to a halt as Steemians catch on.
Steemit is more complex. I can spend a few hours just on writing one post, let alone figuring out which picture(s) would suit it best (most of mine are my own pics by the way). FB is quick and easy, share this, like that, catch up with the gossip, what friends have been up to etc, and on we go!
I don’t think most people using FB actually have the burning desire to write, it’s a way of passing on a few minutes a number of times per day.
Steemit is not so cliquey, not so insular. The majority of the people on here are strangers and I have to appeal to them before they will come out and engage. That’s a new one on me! I never went into the whole blog thing with any sense of regimentation, no strict posting every day or three times a week, come what may and that, I think may be somewhat detrimental to my Steemit experience.
NOT that I’m discouraged, nope, not a bit. I’ve seen people ranting that it’s not fair (really? How old are you?) and the Whales have an obligation to the minnows, but I do not subscribe to that train of thought.
I’ve had a few good responses and I’m enjoying this platform. As I said in a previous post, I’ll give myself until the end of October to see if it’s viable and I’m sticking to that.
I suppose then, all I can do is follow people, keep making the posts (original content of course) and hope that I catch one of the fabled Whales I hear tell about.
This Steemit thing is in Beta mode yet and to be hanging onto the back of this train by the fingernails has to be better than climbing aboard in a few weeks/months/years when the Steemit Train has picked up momentum and really got going, and there are another five carriages added to the back.
So to the nay-sayers, I have one piece of advice: Suck it up, buttercup. If you don’t like it here and you want to whine about how unfair all this is, try going out into the ‘real’ world and making a living. This brand new, shiny Steemit Train may have a few issues to iron out yet, but you can see the development guys are working on it.
The Whales of this world, not just Steemit, have NO obligation to help a minnow out and why the hell should they? Their idea, their courage to start it up, their initial investment, their reward, all the way down the line.
That is also not to say that the Whales, Dolphins, Orcas, Kraken etc that take a moment to upvote a post and send that one into the trending stratosphere are not appreciated, they are! Oh boy, my first post that hit payout – a whole $8 – had me celebrating! Actually, every time I get a payout I celebrate because, if I were to write all this on my personal blog or on Facebook, I’d get $0 – nil points, zero, zilch, nada – sod-all!
To the Steemians behind the competitions and the projects to get the minnows a little recognition and reward, I say thank you! You’re doing an awesome job! You’re creating a society all your own where the minnows of today will pay it forward tomorrow and help out the new minnows when they have become dolphins.
Am I going to give up on this Steemit thing because I’m not making a wage?
Nope! I think I’m here to stay.
This platform has seen more of my new writing than anything I could think of, for the longest time, to get my mojo flowing.
You see, I first published way back in August 2010. I followed up with the second in that series in April 2012 and another in October 2012. With a series of short stories (7 in total) to put at the side of that, I haven’t done much at all where writing is concerned.
I set up a business to edit new authors’ books which gave me the excuse to not write for myself – and that’s what it was, an excuse.
So Steemit really has lifted me out of the Writer’s Block I’d wedged myself into.
Yeah, I think it’s safe to say, I’m sticking around.
Thank you.