Since not everyone (obviously) can get hit by a whale, it's important to persevere, post quality blogs, and gain the support of minnows and dolphins. ><> ><> ><>
If everyone got paid big for every stupid post, steemit would soon fail, and there would be no incentive to ever put anything worthwhile into the community. Thankfully, people are starting to realize that.
Many have already done quite well on steemit for a variety of reasons, but it appears that others are still having a hard time. What I'm about to share is part of my story. Even if you apply what I'm about to share, it may not work for you. Many may not even care about making $300, and consider that to be too small of a goal. Either way, here's what happened.
IN THE BEGINNING...
At first, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to post a pic, style my text, or make a link work properly. Basically, the computer was a glorified typewriter to me and I was technological roadkill. I was certainly in no position to swim with the big fish and succeed.
THE BLESSING OF ENCOURAGEMENT
As I began to write and post, I got some upvotes, varying from a few cents to twenty some bucks to fifty or more. Once I even had a post jump over $400 within minutes, just because a whale liked what I posted. It was pretty much a single vote from a single source that launched the post; no other votes jumping on after that ever affected it much. (Even that post was nothing but text; no image or nothing.) That post eventually paid out just under $300 :)
STICKING TO YOUR PASSIONS
As I was kind of randomly posting a variety of material, I thought about start a blog series about weeds and outdoor plants that you can eat. I titled the first one "THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS #1 - Intro and Common Yellow Wood Sorrel" and shared about one of my favorite wild edibles. I got a handful of votes from minnows and made $0.07.
TWO OPTIONS
At that point, I had two options. I could have concluded that my interest in wild edibles wasn't a good subject to share about and dump "THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS" into the mental waste basket. I could have said, "Seven cents is not worth enough to me for me to invest any more time into this." I could have just picked something else to write about or dropped out of STEEMIT altogether. Perhaps I could have just switched to whale-baiting instead and tried to appeal to the interests of others rather than sharing about mine. Thankfully, I didn't, I went with the other option.
PERSEVERANCE
I chose to persevere instead, and press on. I enjoy wild edibles as much as garden grown ones, and there is a much greater return on the investment since I don't have to buy them, plant them, or water them. I just need to find them and pick them. Now, I had a chance to share that information with others, plus I had 7 cents worth of incentive to do so! So I continued, and, as of right now, I have already shared six more posts in my The Edible Outdoors series. Interest from specific individuals caused many of them to payout around $20 or $30, and they've been increasing in popularity ever since, with the last two nearing $100 in blogging rewards.
THE NEW PAYMENT SYSTEM
Also, as STEEMIT has many hardworking individuals continuously attempting to make it better, we now have another payment to potentially look forward to a month after posting. Since I continued on with the blog and continued to learn more and improve my posts, now there is more interest in what I am doing. People have even went back and upvoted all previous posts in the series, which means those same posts will now pay out again. (Thank you!) That would have never been possible if I had quit, or if the payment system hadn't changed.
GAINING A CROWD
In a community, relationships are built and develop based on interaction. If no one likes you, no one will follow you or upvote you. It may not even be that you aren't likable, but just that they don't have a reason to like you. If someone comments on one of your posts and asks a question, answer them. If you don't "answer them" when they call, why would they "call back?" As an example, look at the interaction between @cryptoiskey and myself at the end of this post or how I answered @calaber24p by clicking here and looking at the comments. Perhaps I may have went above and beyond, but I may have made a STEEMIT friend in the process. Speaking of @calaber24p check out this recent post of his here.
KEEPING YOUR WORK ALIVE
As things can quickly get buried online and on STEEMIT, find creative ways to keep your blog alive and noticeable. If people can't find your material, they can't upvote it. I post links to my previous THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS posts at the bottom on the newest one, since they are in a series anyway. This gives the newcomers to my blog easy access to the previous articles. I'll put them at the end of this post so you can understand what I'm talking about.
PROGRESS AND DEVELOP
Over time you should be making progress and developing your skills. Keep learning and improving. Also, PROOFREAD. I can't stress that enough. No one can give you a half-vote for a half-hearted attempt. Your post today should be better than your post a week ago. Check out the difference when you compare one of my ealier posts with one of my more recent posts. Also, please note that I just "kept some of my work alive".
CONCLUSION
You have many options in life, online, and on STEEMIT. Personally, I'm glad your here, but I don't just want you to be an observer, I want you to be a participant. This is a community. I would recommend being yourself and sticking with it. Share about what you know, and the adventure that you are on. Keep it up!
THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS links below
1-Common Yellow Wood Sorrel
2-Lamb’s Quarters
3-American Gooseberry
4-Stinging Nettle
5-Sassafras
6-Creeping Charlie
7-Dandelion
Thanks - @papa-pepper