It may be quite hard for new Steemit users to have their posts discovered. Last week, I wrote talking about one of my posts that wasn't anything out of ordinary, but was lucky enough to have been randomly upvoted by some big fish (in the Steemit sense of the expression) and got past the $2 mark (some may think this isn't much, but to me, it is), while other better posts had hardly been seen by anyone that isn't my follower. The conclusion I got from that random event was, unless you have "fans" (followers) who are really interested in your content, your posts will be left up to luck. It may happen that a post which isn't that good gets seen, while posts that took a lot of work and time get lost in the vast Steemit ocean and no one will ever read them. It's quite ironic! And can be frustrating sometimes...
However! The other day, I discovered that there are a lot of helpful people who understand this issue, and are holding contests to help newbies get more exposure. The contests usually involve having new users post a link to their articles and interact with each other. This not only helps promote newbies' posts, but also helps users to connect with each other. Prizes range from bot upvotes, to @steembasicincome shares, or even SBD. Prizes aside, though, not just newbies, but veteran users also keep an eye on these contests, as they are a nice way to discover good content. There's some really amazing gems hidden out there, which may not have gotten noticed if not for these contests.
Good places to find such contests are the tags #newbiegames and #newbieresteemday. Also, some of the contest pages listed there might contain links to other contests. A few interesting ones that are going on right now:
- "NEW CONTEST EVENT FOR MINNOWS AND GROWING MEMBERS! ~ OVER 10 STEEM IN PRIZES ARE UP FOR GRABS! LUCKY 7 LOTTO" by @terminallyill.
- "Steemit Comment Challenge #20 - $10 SBD + 200 SP (2 Weeks Delegation)" by @danielsaori.
- "Win 2 Shares in Steembasicincome!-Meet, Greet, & Win!" by @markkennard.
- "Newbie Event - How to Earn Free Upvotes For Life?" by @andhovesyan.
Actually, I'm not one for competitions myself, but I believe that even if we don't win the contests, the opportunity to have our posts read by others as opposed to just being thrown into the ocean is already a great help in itself. The amazing authors, as well as the helpful and friendly community make the experiences fun and worth it.
The only "downside" I found is that all participating posts I've come across are in English. I don't know whether there are similar contests specific for content in other languages. For instance, the only one in my native language (Portuguese) that I know of is this Steemit lottery by @vempromundo.
I'm curious to find more contests like these. If anyone knows of others, please leave a link!