Deciding your Topics and Tags does play
a factor in who sees your posts!

Until you get your following build up where they either check their feed or come to your blog, you have to stand out in various feeds.

Most new people to Steemit find that their Introduction Post brings them some attention and post payouts. But after that, many struggle and feel that their posts just aren't getting seen. Deciding what topics to post about and what tags they should use to get more visibility can be difficult for some people. This guide will cover the two topics to try and provide some help for you to find what works best.

It's still worth reminding you that those who are genuine and share portions of themselves here tend to find the most success.

Q: What topics should I write about? Should I just write what I want or focus on things that are popular?

The short answer to this is write about whatever you want! This is part of the beauty of Steemit, that you have no editor or business telling you what topics to focus on. However, I know that's not exactly why you're even reading this!

So my best advice for a new Steemian is to find something that you would do EVEN if you got paid NOTHING.

Think of things that you would be doing or creating regardless of anything else. If you have a good time creating your content and hopefully proud of what you published, then any money you earn from it really is just a BONUS.

A Few Tips:

Talk about things you enjoy.
Sharing real, emotional experiences tends to be noticed on here.
Try making a post meant to be a discussion started rather than purely informative. See if you can get people giving their views on something in comments.
- Use a 'call to action' at the end of a post to help with this. Things like "What are your thoughts on ..." or "Have you ever been somewhere like this before?" Make sure this is a broad, open ended enough question though. Few people will comment just to say a yes or no answer.
After a little bit on Steemit...you start seeing everything in your life as a potential post. Use this to your advantage and try new things!
Be creative! Not everything has to be the same old visual or written post. If you write poetry, maybe record yourself reading it for us to listen to. If you write fiction, could it be enhanced by artwork? If you like having conversations, maybe try having a hangout in discord that you could record.
Feel free to move on from a topic if it's not working for you. Nothing I write on now was what I had in mind when I started here!
Don't be afraid to have different types of posts. It really is ok to have some written posts, some photos, some videos. Different people digest content in different ways...this 'diversity' lets you get on the radar of different people.

Q: What Tags should I use?

Because Steemit doesn't have the huge number of users like Reddit, not every tag has a lot of people looking through it. So I tend to recommend having 2-3 APPLICABLE high traffic tags and the other 2-3 be APPLICABLE to whatever you want (good descriptor, a tag personal to you, locations like St. Louis, etc.)

Why did you shout APPLICABLE at me?
Because a lot of people try to just certain tags just because they are high traffic...even if they have nothing to do with the post. If you're post is some pictures you took of some great flowers....it really shouldn't have the 'Steemit' tag. Similar, you can't use the 'IntroduceYourself' tag on every post. This is called tag spam and it can actually lose you votes or even get you flagged.
So how do I know what are high traffic tags?
If you click those three horizontal bars in the top right corner of your screen...

...and the click "Explore"...

...you'll goto a page with huge list of tags that also show how many posts each has and how much has been earned by them.

The bigger ones will stick out pretty easily for you.
Some Additional Tips:
- Try to rotate between certain tags when you can't fit them all in. This can get you into different feeds and ideally can pick up a follower who then looks at all your work.
- New and small users often have a hard time trying to increase traffic in smaller or new tags. You're welcome to try, but don't let it discourage you if the results are lackluster.
- Be creative in how you present a post once in a while. For example, I post a lot of photos for the color challenge, always using the tags of colorchallenge, photography and that days color, while the other couple rotate between 'nature and flowers' or 'art and sculpture.' So this week I decided to tell a bit of a fiction story to go with the pictures, letting me instead use the 'writing and story' tags...which you can see by CLICKING HERE.