So, sometimes, we can get a lot of followers. Sometimes, we can get a decent payout for a great article. Then… the rest of the time, we just wonder.
Personally, I think that I am doing very well on steemit and I am glad that I’m here. I’m enjoying my time, making some friends, checking out some great content, and even picking up some STEEM.
Overall, steemit life is great.
Yet, I have some things that I wonder about, and I think that you might as well.
FOLLOWERS
So, right now, @papa-pepper has just under 300 followers. Not bad for a nobody who has only been here for 6 weeks. It certainly is encouraging to for us to see all those followers and to be able to know how many that we have.
However, have you ever compared the number of your “followers” to the average number of votes you get? If not, you may not want to. I know that @dantheman recently posted about the amount the accounts that may not be “real”, but does the same apply to our followers? I would think not. Somehow, at some time, someone chose to click the “follow” button to your account, and now you have them as a follower.
Hopefully, this is because they like what you are up to and want to upvote at least some of your material. I guess that someone could also follow another user just to “keep an eye on them and see what they are up to,” which would not generate much for upvotes, but most often, I’d like to think that isn’t the case.
A BRIEF STUDY OF FOLLOWER STATISTICS
With just under 300 followers, what does that mean in comparison to votes?
First, let’s figure out some averages for my recent posts. I post quite a bit, and the material is varied, so obviously not everyone may have time to read my blog or even be interested in the specific topic being shared, but I’ll do this analysis anyway just to see the results.
I will only evaluate recent posts that have already reached their first payout, and check the total number of upvotes that each one received. I’ll do the past 10, 20, 30, 40, & 50.
If I look at 50 of the last posts that have already reached their first payout, from THE DAILY ADVENTURES OF THE LAST BIG FOOT : INTRODUCTION to LOVE LIKE HIS : Chapter 2, at the moment, these are the upvotes that they received, when they are broken down into rows of ten posts each, starting with the most recent.
01-10 : 45 - 67 - 42 - 46 - 43 - 62 - 28 - 52 - 63 - 42 - TOTAL VOTES- 490
11-20 : 32 - 45 - 75 - 32 - 55 - 61 - 34 - 52 - 31 - 32 - TOTAL VOTES- 449
21-30 : 45 - 59 - 26 - 38 - 24 - 47 - 48 - 42 - 32 - 29 - TOTAL VOTES- 406
31-40 : 61 - 31 - 25 - 50 - 35 - 27 - 19 - 22 - 45 - 66 - TOTAL VOTES- 365
41-50 : 25 - 39 - 19 - 11 - 37 - 51 - 48 - 37 - 46 - 31 - TOTAL VOTES- 344
The average votes for each 10 posts are as follows:
01-10 AVG : 49
11-20 AVG : 45
21-30 AVG : 41
31-40 AVG : 37
41-50 AVG : 34
Total # of posts evaluated – 50
Total # of votes for the 50 - 2054
Average # of votes per post for the 50 used – 41.08
First of all, these are the results from 50 posts, made consecutively, over the past two weeks. The first thing that we should notice is that each of the newer ten posts received more upvotes than the previous ten. That’s good news for @papa-pepper.
Also, only nine posts before the last one used for data was when I posted about gaining my 100th follower.
This means that for the 41st to 50th post data, I only had just over 100 followers at that time. Because of the changing variables, it is difficult to manually decipher all this and attempt to gain some concrete understanding, since the more recent posts had a potential of over 250 followers voting on them and the earliest ones were posted when I had less than half as many followers.
However, what does the average number of votes per article tell us? For the 41st – 50th posts being used as examples, I had approximately 100 followers and averaged 34 votes per article.
Does this mean that 2/3 of my followers did not like my articles during that period?
Or, look at the more recent posts, the 1st – 10th ones being used. I had at least 250 followers during that period, yet, on average, I only got 49 votes per article.
Does that mean that 4/5 of my followers during that period did not like my recent posts?
When things are viewed from this angle, things seem to be getting worse. Though overall the votes and followers are certainly increasing, it seems that less of the followers, on average, are actually upvoting my posts.
Potential reasons for this:
New users who forget to upvote. - I have experienced some positive comments from people who did not upvote the post, perhaps either due to inexperience or absentmindedness.
Sleeper accounts. – Perhaps, with the large amount of accounts being generated, not all of my “followers” are actively involved in the community.
Variety – My posts span a wide variety of topics and subject matters. If someone started following me because of my gardening posts, they may have no interest in my comic strip or my fiction story.
Quantity – Almost since I first began steemit, I have been posting about four articles a day. This is a high volume of information and a lot to actually digest. I think I will slow down to about 2 or 3 per day in the near future.
Internet Frequency – We know that many of us are on steemit everyday, posting, reading, replying, and upvoting. However, if you have some followers that only go online once or twice a week, then you would not see them upvoting your posts on a daily basis.
Though the data can be used to gain some insight into some of what happens with followers and votes, much still remains undetermined. Of course, it is easy to get discouraged when you work hard at an article and only 20-some users vote on it, especially when a couple hundred users are actually intentionally following you. However, in the grand scheme of things, progress is the main thing that we would desire to see.
SOME WAYS TO MEASURE PROGRESS
Am I gaining followers?
Am I receiving more upvotes on average?
Are the comments people make on my post positive and encouraging?
Are my posts progressing in quality?
Hopefully, we can all see some growth in many, if not all, of these areas. I know that I can.
CONCLUSION
It can be very easy to get discouraged in this community, and many will always be willing to raise the banner of “UNFAIR!”. I would recommend not joining in on that chant. Just the fact that we have an opportunity to get paid to blog is great news, even if it never manifests itself in reality for us.
Hopefully, this post has provided you with some good food for thought. I should be posting one in the near future about some great ways to attract more followers, because I think that many of us would appreciate a little more attention while we are swimming in the sea of steemit.
Stay tuned, and I hoped you enjoyed it,
Awesome Handcrafted @papa-pepper logo kindly donated by @vlad - Thank you!