Preface: this will be a 2 part post to make it an easier read, my hope is that is post can be used as a reference to future minnows wanting to kick-start their Steem career here.
Hey Steemians!
I am happy with the rising trend of newcomers signing up to Steemit and the growth of userbase in Steem's many other great platform shortly after I've joined in back in April. Perhaps I'm also one of those included in the trend. Nevertheless i feel that it's a good thing. Goes to show that as a whole, the ecosystem is just in it's infancy with massive growth potential.
I can say confidently that as it stands now, almost all us the 200k people who signs up (lets just ignore bots' existence for now) are people coming in here to make some sort of income for improve our lives in some way or another. The fact that you're reading this post now (thank you for that) is a testament of your personality to hustle and putting in hard work to position yourselves as an early adopter of what we all believe will be the best social media platform there is in the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately. however, I have observed some behavior of people on here that are not only unproductive, but is detrimental and will ultimately lead to the demise of their career here in Steemit as a content producer.
This applies especially for someone who is what we refer as a minnow. Minnows by Steem community's definition is a colloquial term for people like you and me, who are;
- new here
- yet to have meaningful Steem Power (below 5000)
- yet to have significant following (below 500)
I do not know it all. But i feel that i can offer some pointers based on my couple months of observation and experience as a Minnow to fellow minnows who may be newer than me or are simply looking for a refresher. So here goes.
1. Don't ever post about crypto advice
Go ahead and search using Steemit's search function for posts titled "What is Bitcoin/Blockchain/Cryptocurrency". Or better yet, use AskSteem. You see hundreds of post? other than a few posted a long time ago, did you notice that all other posts made in recent times have little to zero payout? If you're any good you should know by now what my point is.
Put yourself in my shoes, I've been "crypto-ing" since 2014, the first Bitcoin ATH bubble. Every single day i've been aware of the going-on of the cryptosphere for 3 years straight. Do you think I want to read about "What is Bitcoin/Blockchain/Cryptocurrency"? Now, put yourself in the shoes of a big time Steemian, a Whale. Who's been at it twice as long as i do. Compared to them, I know NOTHING about crypto. What makes THEM want to read your post?
I totally understand. Upon signing up, you may feel that you are quite the expert. which is technically true. Statistically, you ARE the expert of Bitcoin among your social and geographic circle. Just the number of Bitcoin wallets in existence is less than 0.02% of the world population. We all know the number of real users are much less than the wallets. Bitcoin is a growing innovation "niche" that not many know about. You're perfectly fine posting "What is Bitcoin/Blockchain/Cryptocurrency" in Facebook because it makes sense.
Steemit however, is a congregation of the the most prolific and technically advanced crypto enthusiast among other people, whom ALL already know about your "advise". It just doesn't make sense. What makes you think anyone on here will read your advise? of course, it DEPENDS on who you are and what's your expertise. If Andreas Antonopoulos comes in as a short-term minnow and post something, I'M ALL EARS (EYES). But my advise is to you, dear minnows. For now, you're better off posting other stuff.
Because in the words of Steem OG Mr. @fyrstikken himself;
2. Dont Shitpost
By my definition, if I reach the bottom of your post in less than 20 seconds, and feel that familiar feeling of being pissed for having my time wasted, Your post is a shitpost. No exception. You can TRY making a career as a serial Steemit shitposter, but please let know if you survive the inevitable Steemit's Autoimmune System of systematically purging low quality shit to oblivion. So the next time you think about doing well on Steemit by posting captionless images without giving context, Think again, or read this post by yours truly.
Remember the hypothetical situation where i found a shitpost? Because my next course of action is checking if you're a serial shitposter and if you are. Im flagging you. All because any self-respecting reader will do the same thing. I'm sorry, it's nothing personal. I'm only doing my part to keep Steemit a place of good quality content.
3. Don't beg for vote/follow
If i saw a "nice post, follow/vote me" comment on my post when i have a toothache, you're getting flagged. Let me explain.
First off. It pisses me off that i have spent at LEAST 2 hours Brainstorming, Researching, Editing, Fact-checking, Re-editing, Beautifying, and then Proof-reading my post, only to have someone mindlessly and effortlessly parked a "nice post, follow/vote me" comment without (I'll assume) reading a single word of my content.
It would piss you off too if you have any ounce of self-respect and thirst for perfection as an author like i do.
Secondly. Sure, i mentioned "effortless". But in truth i just don't think that "strategy" is sustainable. Think about it. If you have been guilty of doing it all these while, do a self-audit. How many of your "nice post, follow/vote me" comments have ACTUALLY garnered a vote or a follow? how many comments have you needed to "effortlessly" parked to reach 100 followers? how many more comments do you need to get the next 100/200/1000 followers?
Votes and Follow should follow an organic growth in relation to the time and effort you've spent in tandem to the quality of your posts and your person as a general.
4. Dont Drop,Plop and Hop (and expect good results)
Sadly, this advice will never reach those who actually needed it. which is very sad from how i see it. Regardless of the value in your post, YOU WILL NOT GET GOOD RESULTS if all you do is post, post, post and not do anything else. For one thing, no one will know who you are, with a few exceptions, RARE exception. It is why its so important get your name out there.
No, not by spamming your links all over the internet as well. If you do so @battleaxe would like to have a word with you.
I will show you in Part 2 of this 2-part post. In essence, just dont post and run please. You'll not get payouts as much as the "typical post" and after a time, you'll only burn out and give up, calling Steemit "a scam" through all fault of your own.
These are the basic "Dont's" that you must must must avoid. These mistakes can kill your career the worst way, slowly. Fret not, in the next part I will show you what you should do. So stay tuned!
I'm @awesomianist
Stay Awesome.