I just realized that I totally missed my own anniversary here on Steemit. That's because I haven't been active on Steemit for a whole year, just four months actually.
source: Wikimedia Commons
So I thought I'd grab this opportunity to share how my start on Steemit went and maybe give some tips and words of encouragement to my fellow planktons :-)
I discovered it was my first anniversary here when I opened my SteemitBoard page; there it was, under the "personal" tab, a happy birthday message for my first full year on the platform. I joined somewhere in July 2017, but wrote my first post on August 7th 2017. It was a post about combining the blockchain with photography and it got 3 upvotes and made no money at all. That wasn't a problem though, as I remember clearly that I only was going to do that one post and wasn't really interested in staying around. If you're interested, you can read it here.
And I didn't; since I just entered the world of crypto-currencies, I had other things on my mind, like getting my two gaming videocards to mine Ethereum, something i've done until two months ago when electricity costs started to almost outweigh the earnings. But I never looked back at Steemit until April 1st this year when I posted what I consider my first real article, about a spreadsheet I made for keeping track of my crypto-currency portfolio. It got 6 upvotes and it earned my first 6 cents and someone responded! I was so happy with all of that that I immediately decided to stay this time!
Two people in particular took me by the hand and taught me a lot about how Steemit works, how STEEM works and what all those bots are, how payments work... Thanks so much @meno and @movingman :-) As a beginner it's easy to get overwhelmed by all of this. And if you came here just to earn money, it's easy to get demoralized when you realize your posts, however good they are are just not seen by a lot of people and don't make any money to speak of. And this is maybe the first and most important piece of advice I can give to any starter here: don't give up! It'll take time for your fellow steemians to get to know your work.
And that's something you can do for yourself to get more eyes on your posts: network. Like I mentioned above, in the beginning I mostly read other people's articles and commented on them, and upvoted them even if my upvote still isn't worth scratch. I quickly realized nobody minds the value of your upvote: it's the mere fact that you show support for the author and that you take the time to leave a sensible reaction, one that shows you actually read the post and that your interest is genuine. You'll slowly build an audience that way that's genuinely interested in you and your work or opinions.
If you don't give up and interact with your fellow steemians by commenting on their posts and replying to any comments you get on your own posts, you'll start to see growth in your income. Another thing to do is keep an eye out for any communities that you might be interested to take part of. Of course @helpie is the best there is (biased opinion here ;-)), but Steemit is literally bursting with communities that help the Steemit citizenship find it's way. They usually have a Discord channel to go along, where you can chat, take courses, participate in contests or take part of "curation" radio-broadcasts where you can present your articles for some extra upvotes.
image by BK - source: Flickr
All that I learned in my second month here, and mostly by joining the @helpie community of super-friendly steemians that honor the name of the community: I've never met a group of friendlier or more helpful people gathered together in one entity. I'm so lucky that I've been scouted by the founder, @meno; that's another reason why it's so important to reach out and comment on other people's posts, as this is how you show that you're not just in here for yourself and that you could contribute to the community.
In my first month I made one post that earned more than one dollar. In the second month I doubled that to two dollar and nearing the end of that month I got my first upvote from a whale. I was shocked, truly shocked to see that my reflection on the movie Avengers: Infinity War made more than 100 dollar..!! The post got curated by @curie and in their vote-trail resides the mysterious whale @hendrikdegrote who's upvote skyrocketed the post's earnings by 80 dollar!
Since then a couple of other posts got curated by @curie, but also some other curating communities started to notice my posts. Maybe it's because I don't have one specific subject I write about, but these communities are as diverse as the topics I tend to write about. And this is something else I'd like to share with all you fellow planktons: my limited experience here has shown me that it really doesn't make a difference what you write about, as long as it's something you're truly interested in. This makes all the difference because your enthusiasm will manifest itself to your readers and will make the post look authentic. Also this will aid you in your ability to give meaningful replies on any comments you get, pro or con.
Most importantly though, interacting with other people keeps you connected and should be the main reason you participate on Steemit. Making some money on the side is nice to, and if you make the effort, take your time and don't give up, you can even make lots of money here. But don't expect riches when starting here, you'll just be disappointed and return to Facebook where others make money of your time and effort by selling your info on the "big data" marketplace. And that would be a shame, because we don't want to lose you!
I never replicated that 100 dollar post, and I don't expect to in the very near future. But you, my followers and readers, have made every day here a good day. Your upvotes, however small, your comments, your visits to my blog are what make it worthwhile to keep sharing my thoughts on Steemit.
image by OpenClipart-Vectors - source: Pixabay
Also I'd like to say a few words about the whales, because they get a lot of "bad press" on the platform and are often accused of only being interested in making money for themselves. I hope this little story about my first months here has changed some minds in a positive way about the orka's among us: a whole lot of them do good work in the background without us ever hearing about them. @hendrikdegrote is but one example, but there's so much more. The bottom line is that yes, there are some circle-jerking, self-upvoting greedy bastards filling up the Trending page with a lot of junk-posts.
But for every one of them, I've learned, there's ten that do great work for the platform. Granted, they're not all as huge as @hendrikdegrote, but they use their considerable Steem Power to back a lot of the communities I talked about. I guess what I'm saying is this: as a starter don't get disillusioned by the Trending page or when you see others make a lot more money than you, even if your posts are demonstrably better than those. You don't know that person and don't know what he or she has done or is doing to get where they are now. That's my final little piece of advice; engage with others based on the content they provide and not based on their wallet-size. That way you have the best chance to grow the size of your own audience and, possibly, your own wallet.
Tomorrow I'll be back with a post about something more interesting than myself, so I hope you'll be back here to join me! Until then, keep cool and keep steeming! ;-)
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Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!
Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:
Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO