GUIDANCE FOR BLOGS – Here is a guide to the things you must do – and what not to do.
This is about blogging rather than commenting. There are many other guides to the do’s and don’ts of commenting. This guide is only about writing blogs not comments.
Here is a list of things you MUST DO if you want your blogging to be successful.
a) If you are just starting in Steemit, set your expectations low. Don’t expect to get many rewards, votes or comments before you have written 100s if not 1000+ blogs. Steemit is not an easy money place. Just because you see some bloggers in the hot or trending section earning $100s of dollars does not mean you can do it. These bloggers are already famous and have thousands of followers. Your next blog may be much more brilliant than theirs, but sadly you don’t have the followers yet. They do. No votes is the norm when you are new. It will take a long time to grow worthwhile followers.
b) Make sure your blog would be interesting to others. Write well. Write intelligently. Don’t make spelling or grammar mistakes. Take care of your layout. Use correct punctuation. Use headings and paragraphs to groups ideas. Make your text and layout pleasing to the eye. Always proof-read what you have written many times. Could you write something better? Can you improve something? Is what you have written clear?
c) Photos are not essential. They can be useful to illustrate a blog. Photos just for the sake of it may not add anything. There’s no rule. So use your brain to judge what is appropriate. If you are writing about a family day in the park then a lot of photos can make your blog come alive. On the other hand, if you are writing about “Does God exist” – or a blog like this one, then it is hard to see the added value of inserting photos. It could seem quite contrived.
d) Use tags appropriately. You don’t have to use all 5 tags. Make sure the first tag most closely reflects the topic you are writing about.
e) Write because you love writing, not because you are trying to earn a reward.
f) If you have written about 25 excellent and interesting posts, you should expect between 5 and 10 genuine followers. If you have them, then you are on the right track. “Genuine” means followers who have a reputation above 40 and who share similar interests and write similar blogs to your own.
g) If after 25 blogs you still have less than 5 genuine followers, and are getting less than 2 or 3 meaningful and interesting comments per blog, you could be doing something wrong. Maybe you need to change something.
Here are some recommendations to keep your most valuable followers:
i. Don’t allow the quality of your writing to deteriorate. Your blogs should only get better, not worse.
ii. Don’t write pointless posts.
iii. I sometimes see people who start writing here with a few brilliant posts. I follow them. Then they get disillusioned and write shorter less entertaining or less interesting posts hoping for another vote from me. I see these boring posts clogging up my feed, so I un-follow them.
iv. If you write boring articles you will still get followers, but not the type you want. These will be the kind of followers who don’t read your articles and whose votes are worthless.
v. You want followers like me. Having one follower with my voting power is worth 1000 times that of the people who follow just for the sake of follow-for-follow. You want to keep high reputation steemians – those with a reputation above 50, like me, interested. If not, - if I find your latest blogs lack quality, - I will simply un-follow you - to keep my feed clean.
vi. Don’t expect everyone who reads your blog to vote. Your readers are not charities. They want to be entertained, by something original and interesting. I only reward effort that I enjoyed. It’s like the movies. It does not matter how much time and effort was put into making the movie, I’ll only pay to watch it if I like it. I’ll only come back a second time to pay to watch the sequel if I enjoyed the original. If Star Wars versions 1,2,3,4 and 5 were brilliant, I’ll keep coming back for more. But if versions 6,7 and 8 aren’t as good, then I won’t come back for versions 9, 10 and 11.
Here are the things you MUST NOT do:
Don’t cut and paste news stories from other websites. That’s theft of copyright material. You are depriving the owners of their revenue. You are trying to make a profit for yourself at their expense. The journalist did the hard work and you are lazy. If everybody did that, we would have the contents of every newspaper clogging up steemit. You will be flagged if you plagiarize.
Don’t cut and paste content from elsewhere on the web if you are not the author. The same comments as above apply. It’s OK to quote a phrase, a sentence or a paragraph if you cite the original source provided your motive is to illustrate a point you are making on your own original blog.
Don’t publish third party photos, even open source ones, without citing the source. Posting someone-else’s photo without any meaningful discussion or commentary about it serves no purpose to steemit users. There are plenty of photography sites which are designed for that. If you post other people’s photos – whether open-source or not, then, if it is not part of a useful discussion, or to illustrate a blog, it will be seen as spam posting just like copying news articles.
The same comment as above applies to videos. Publishing someone else’s video in your blog, on its own, does not justify you getting rewarded for it. We can go to Youtube to find original videos by original authors without your help. Once again, doing this is downright theft. It’s like stealing goods from Walmart and then selling them in your own store. You will be flagged if you try to milk the steemit reward system by doing this. It is OK to use an extract of a video to illustrate a point you are making in your original blog.
Do not engage in blogging activities designed to “game” the steemit rewards system. Examples could include publishing lots of short boring blogs with the motive of harvesting votes from friends or an army of bots. There are lots of ways people discover to try and game the system. Experienced steemians are no fools. They will see it for what is. Sooner or later a whale will start flagging you. Your reputation and rewards will be shot to zero.
Do not publish blogs containing only the same information that would already be found on a dedicated site, such as dictionary translations, sayings, anecdotes, famous quotes, idioms, and so on, unless what you are writing is original, i.e. your own work. It should be more useful to others than what is already found on the dedicated sites.
Do not misuse tags. Adding a tag like “life” or “photography” to this blog would be misleading.
Do not post advertisements or quasi-advertisements. Do not add your own referral links to try and re-direct people to some “money-making” scheme where you will earn a commission for the referral.
When blogging, remember that some of your readers will be very different from you. They will have different backgrounds, religions, cultures, and ways of thinking. What you find funny, some may find insensitive, offensive, or plain rude. Don’t stop this from letting you voice your opinions, but be prepared to face disagreement or arguments from others.
Don’t abuse others, exact revenge or act like a child. We’re grown ups. Someone didn’t like your blog? Tough. Forget it and move on.
Don’t try and write when you are drunk or on drugs. You might regret it later. Remember, this is the blockchain. Everything you write is stored forever.
If you are a school-teacher or a preacher, do not encourage your students to write here. They are not ready for the harsh criticism that can be meted out by those who are not trained in dealing with sensitive little souls.
Don’t spoil your blogs with banners or non relevant animated gifs.
Using an image you found on the internet? That’s stealing!
You could be in serious legal trouble if you use someone else’s picture.
I found a brilliant, and very humourous blog by @rubencress which discusses the issues.
Even if you would never steal a photo, this blog from an amazing professional photographer is worth your time to read it. You will enjoy the humour.
I'm glad that you liked it and found it of use. Copyright is a dull topic to talk about, so I tried to make it as fun as possible to learn while reading it. Thanks!
I made this mistake myself.
Although I've made sure to use only photos under CC0 license (free for commercial use, attribution not required), looking back I've should still attribute the authors. Technically, I'm not required to do it, but it's something I've should have done anyways.
Since my blog is not a traditional blog (betting tips I share with the steemit sport bettors community), I've hired a designer to create the graphics that I'll use from now on. I've joined steemit less than a month ago and I'm still feeling my way around here.
There are around five guys I interact with regularly and that makes me hopeful for the future. Cheers!
If you need any digital task that could be done by a guy on the other side of the planet (make a logo, sing a song, write a story, critique your essay, and so on), then look at fiverr.com. Everything is supposed to cost just $5.
Looks interesting. Thanks
A perfect article for beginners and a must read for almost every category of user @swissclive. So thank you for publishing this article.
Now coming to some of the important points as described here in this article.
Expectations
As you said, expectations must be kept low. This is very very true, because if the reward is not at par with the expectations, the passion will die out quickly in this platform and if someone is just starting here, then it is very very essential to keep those expectation low and one should be more focused on blogging than on reward.
Grammar
This is also very very essential, as here people are writing so many things but those lack grammar at times and the topic of discussion may be of good quality but the way it is being represented is very poor in terms of grammar and typo error and this can be avoided by checking it at least two times after writing it and that is why proof reading is essential.
Presentation
While we are writing a blog, we must also know the basics of html code and this is very very useful to present our blog, because most of the time we dont just have to post good content but it would also be well presented to the public and this can be done with the help of html code and markdown styling.
Photos and Illustration
If we are putting photos/illustrations then it should be relevant to the subject matter and if we are taking the illustration from somewhere else then it should given proper credits. This way we can maintain the basic etiquettes of this platform and really make its standard very high.
Tags
Tags are very very essential, because it not only directs the post to the relevant readers and curator but also it enhances the proper use of tag while blogging. The proper use of tags can also generate votes to the post and all the tags should at least have some relevance to our content and people should not use irrelevant tags just get a upvote and this sort of practice should be avoided and that is not going to help as well.
Thank you so much for writing this article @swissclive and many things just got refreshed about steemit blogging while reading this article.
Thank you @crypto-wisdom. Grammer and presentation are so important. I’m not discriminating against those whose mother tongue is not English. However what I read must be easy on my eyes.
You have presented and laid your comment so well. You have the skills that I like, and you are doing it right.
Thank you so much mam @swissclive.
I personally believe in this global world, English is our global language and it is really necessary to get well versed in this language, so that there would be clarity in our thoughts what we are expressing and the person standing next to me can also understand it properly.
So communication skill plays a vital role in this world and for that to happen we need to strengthen our vocabulary and also grammar and then if we present an article it will look professional and also we feel good when it is appreciated in this platform.
Thank you again.
Well said! Many things in this world require the use of the English language.
Imagine trying to become a respected diplomat, scientist, banker, economist, doctor, or senior manager in an international company without mastering English.
Those who master it have a significant advantage - an even bigger advantage than those who were lucky enough to be born English.
For the first time, ever in history, it is possible for everyone on the planet (except North Korea) to access free of charge all the books and lessons needed to master English. Many foreigners now speak better English than 70% of the population of England.
One very good place to find English lesson resources is the BBC.
Hahah yes after travelling for the past year I can second this...
I've met so many people on the road who speak English as a second or third language, and their understanding of the language surpasses many of those from back home!
I am learning Spanish and can actually say the same the other way round. Many times when I am texting Spanish speaking friends, my grammar is much better than theirs.
I guess sometimes we get lazy with our own native tongues and forget the importance of correct grammar, well-structured sentences and clearly presented layouts.
An important comment @crypto-wisdom - a very valuable addition to an already very useful post... thank you both!
Thanks so much @swiss-clive for the informative post. I have really missed out on your posts update and i feel like slapping myself right now.
well, you still remain one of my mentors on this platform, no doubt about that, because when i got frustrated and was about to quit steemit, you were part of the people who revived my spirit. How? by sharing informative posts like this one.
when i read this post of yours https://steemit.com/steemit/@swissclive/help-i-wrote-an-amazing-blog-but-nobody-read-it-words-of-encouragement-and-guidance-for-newbies,
if i told you what later happened to me, you might not believe.
i am telling you the utmost truth right now, that post revived my spirit and i jumped back on my feet with determination to succeed on steemit. I also got to know about engaging in other steemians' comment section from you @swiss-clive and @humaearl and some few other steemians.
I am really grateful for what you have done for me. You might not know me, but i know you and can not forget you.
Thank you so much for everything. Reading your posts give me encouragement. Pls keep up the good work.
Thanks so much for the great comment which definitely deserves agood upvote. There is no easy way to be successful in anything. Every profession and every skill requires alot of hard work to get from the bottom and move up the ladder. Nobody joins a company and gets the top position unless they have years of proven hard work and expertise behind them. Steemit takes time to hone your writing skills and build reputation.
No ma. Thank you so much for being the best. I am so glad u found my comment useful..
And yh, there truly isnt any easy way to success in anything.. People some times wanna take the lift/elevator to success but it just lands them in destruction.. To be successful, one needs to take the stairs and endure and enjoy the process.. Its same thing on this platform and i am a living testimony to that. If someone told me i'ld have my reputation @46 one month after my stay on steemit.. I'ld doubt that, but look at where i am today because of determination, consistency and persistency.. Sorry i used my self as an example, i just couldnt help it.
Thankyou so so much @swiss-clive for this.
And lastly, thks for the upvote, it even boosted my reputation... May God reward you, You are the best!😇
Yes!!! Upvoted (not that that really means much from me!) and resteemed... I think this is a really important article and you've articulated it really well... New steemians like me get a potent dose of very valuable information in a relatively short read! Thank you!
I just got into Steemit and am so thrilled to find so much awesomeness here... many inspiring people and writers, contests, chat communities, so much inspiration and a wealth of knowledge and information... I feel very lucky to be here!
Saying that I want to ensure that I bring high quality content to this website... which is exactly what I plan to do! This excellent post will help me stay on track with that when I do start writing for this platform properly... right now I am focusing on just getting involved in the communities and getting to know people here! If you have any other tips for a complete newbie just starting out here I'd really appreciate any extra guidance you have for me!
Thank you once again for a great post. Resteemed mainly so I could keep looking back on it and remind myself of the important points!
Keep up the great work my friend. Happy to have found your blog and this post today!
With love
Hart Floe
<3
@hartfloe. I am delighted that this has helped you. I can see from your comment that you already write very well, so I think you will go far on steemit. After I have upvoted your comment I will be off to have a look at your blogs to see what else you have written.
This is a very good post for the beginners that are just here for the sole purpose of "making money" here alone. That phrase "making money" is what most them have in mind instead of having the orientation of "Getting Paid." I picture these phrases differently and i will explain that.
Making Money; They have the feelings or orientation like steemit is a dumoing ground where they can come with all sort of blogging or materials just to come have money out of the system.
Getting Paid; They believe they have to work their ass up real hard before they could earn a penny. So those with this orientation tends to grow faster than the "making money" people.
They still don't understand that you can't take out of this system if you are not adding a value to it. For instance, you can only make a withrawal from your bank account if you have a savings in it alone, without savings in your account, you can't. I see steemit as a bank account where i have to make savings before i could say i want to withdraw out of it.
Most the new people i have around always compare themselves with those trending without considering swhen they started, their time and effort to the system or the dues they have paid before they could be trending too. Looking at some of your articlewhen you started too earned you no dime but likes and comment, yet your consistecy and determination got you this far. I think i would personally be telling all newnies now to start following first before anything because you always take your time to tutor newbies on how to grow without a ny hitch on this platform, i wish i had this opportunity earlier than this though
"Don’t spoil your blogs with banners or non relevant animated gifs."
This is one of the main reason why i have put a STOP on an unnecessary contest becaues it always require to RESTEEM and getting my blog littered with un informative post which will tend to drive my followers away. Yes contest are good though but not all contest are going to work to your long favour.
PLAGIARISM
These issue of "copy-copy"needs to STOP. I count it as stealing, you can't be reaping from what you didn't work for, which can't work here. They should seat their asses down and work is what i tell those i brought to the sytem and also advice them to desist from comment "nice post, nice picture, you are nice" because it makes them spammers and no author like spammers at all. Rather, good constructive message that would engage or strike a conversation bewteen them and the author.
Thank you for sharing, and these kind of messages are proofs that you are really adding to the development of the platform.
Please do have a wonderful weekend and my regards to your lovely family over there.
Your Agent,
❤Spam Detector
As you have spotted, my first 10 blogs earned me only a few cents, despite spending many hours of work on each one. But I persisted, and slowly a few followers came, then more, then more and so on.
Yes! Funny enough, the post are worth more than they could imagine. You thought me the power of consistency and I'm still learning from you as my mentor. Thank you for being there for people like us (minnows) to grow is deemed highly altruistic by everyone.
I think it's about what you say, gathering truly loyal followers willing to vote for their content, there are many who succeed here because they get some sponsorship from people with big votes, but I think that regardless of that, users should try to give the best of us when it comes to providing content, try to make it as original as possible, their advice is very good, but really quite understandable, with some time on the platform one should notice what you say.
The formula that has worked best for me to grow a little here in Steemit and get some votes has been to constantly comment and vote on the content of other users, in such a way that a relationship is created in which it can be interactive, after all it is a social network, so I read the content of the people I follow, that's why I follow very few people, and I think some do the same with some of my publications.
Indeed you have grown, thanks to your high quality blogging. Like many of the people who commented, I looked your recent blogs and read one. It was about the crypto event with skateboards etc. You write well and illustrate your content with high quality photos, so it is readable to the end.
It does not surprise me that you have come a long way in steemit. Effort pays.
Thank you very much for your words, I try to learn from other users who do it very well, and try to be a little better each time.
I have some personal thoughts on this after just being here for a little under a month, hopefully it can be helpful to any of your other readers.
a. Because of the way visibility of posts on steemit works it will be extremely difficult to get noticed by just blogging. It might be faster to comment to get visibility, I know swissclive specifically mentions this is about blogging and the tips are good but if you are new then please note that generating a return from any blog post will be difficult without a voter base and/or a capital base to work with. I've seen countless people do nothing but blog all day and because they don't have any outside investments to work with and because they don't have any big followers their blogs always pay under a dollar, even if the content is good. Note that English is steemit's dominant language so try to use a translator if it's not your native language, they're quite good these days.
b. Making good content, even at the start, might seem like a waste of time but if your writing ability isn't "there" yet then it's still good practice to get in the habit of achieving a certain level of quality before you even get noticed by anyone of note, because your later blogs will be better.
d. There are lots of tag guides on steemit related to how to use/exploit tags, if you can only invest so much on a post you need to know how to work the tag system if it's going to get on the hot page. Take time to read those guides.
e. I think that intrinsically because everyone needs to eat food and most people aren't exactly here to learn how to farm that there is a bit of both writing for pleasure and pay going on, some focus more on one or the other.
f. At this point the new pages are so cluttered that to stand out from the noise you have to join one of the many chat groups you can find on discord or steemit chat, don't be insincere and kiss too much ass but if you find like-minded people to converse with then it can jump-start the relationship-building phase.
g. You might not be doing anything wrong in terms of any of the other advice given, but steemit is still in its infancy and it can be hard to find readers of many various niche topics that you might be interested in. Perhaps there will be an audience for that kind of content later when we grow!
iv. You will still get worthless followers like me even if you write interesting things.
v. Basically, spamming feeds to get an average post payout revenue stream might not be the best idea once you have large wallet clients with discriminating tastes.
vi. Let's not kid ourselves, we all watched even the crappy ones to find out how things turned out.
Also, you don't want to get in trouble if you get accused of convincing your students to gamble!
Don't be like literally every other person who begs for a witness vote.
No idea why the two numbers above aren't 12 and 13, lol.
I usually enjoy reading through the comments section to learn and grow. Oh dear, you did a pretty good job. This is the kind of comments that contributes to the post. I wish my voting power was anything useful to encourage your efforts. I'll come to your blog now to see what you do. I have learned a lot from just this one comment.
Thank you! comments like these mean more to me than a nominal upvote. Genuine feedback makes me feel like my essay-length comments are worthwhile. Just because you don't have massive steempower, doesn't mean what you say has no value. I myself don't have a huge amount of SP, knowing this, I would rather make comments of substance as a way to give back to the community, if I cannot do so monetarily. My blog is a bit embarrassing at the moment I am afraid, I've been working on a science article for steem stem, and have some more plans for the future. Check back and hopefully I will have more content for you similar to this. I'm just getting started!
Its okay. I studied chemistry in the university back in the good old days. Will enjoy some science work too.
I'll try my best not to disappoint!!!
Lots of really good points there @charitybot. Lets hope that some newbies benefit from them. Have you thought of turning these comments into a blog? There’s plenty here to make more than just a comment.
Thank you! I hope so too. I wasn't until you mentioned it, and it did give me cause to think about it in the future. I've just been working on a funny/serious science article I've been writing, maybe I'll try to delve into a different take on steemiting in a blog series too.
This is an interesting comment, aside from the useful advice, the witness chasing part I find interesting. Being relatively new activity-wise I'm used to other alternative sites that don't have such a firmly built-in whale system. Not quite sure how I feel about it but it certainly does add a unique feeling to the site.
Well said @charitybot, thanks for the addition
Any guidance on how to go about this? I am not sure I understand which groups to join and how to use them effectively.
I would like to thank you for this useful topic for everyone and not just for beginners
In fact, most people here are interested in financial gain only
I did not explicitly apply the points I referred to ( There is no one to guide us when it started three months later ) , But I will try Avoid these things .
I think Steem Power is the most important ?
Because if you have a good Steem Power they will follow you a lot, even Though your topics are trivial .
Thank you again @swissclive
have a good day
Excellent point, even with a $1000 of steempower, you will attract more followers. The question is how many of them are just chasing a reward?
Hey @Swissclive, Thanks for Guiding, Here I want to add some more points that a steemer should remember
I suggest that we should buy the Steemit cryptocurrency and put it to our wallet and power it up because it allows us so much more influence in the website. we can use thatr influence on this website to produce more currency, more money for ourself and for the other people in the cummunity.
Post as consistently as possible.
The more consistent we are the more that we gonna get the people to follow you and look forward to hearing from us whether it’s videos, blogs or pictures. Be as consistent as possible.
Get the attention of the “whales”
A whale on Steemit is somebody who has a lot of influence. we should get their attention by making a really good post, and having a lot of right people steem and reSteemit! and Get the whales on our side.
Build a big following of raging fans
we have to built a following of people that are actually engaged with us and create really good content for them. If we wanna start trending and earning hundreds of dollars we need to build that following, we should follow people like the whales and the people that are engaged to us and the people that we enjoy their content. And then get in the comments and comment to these people and comment to our post. Be engaging!
Create really good content.
Create really good content. But also create a lot of things because you won’t know what’s going to be really good until we get out there and do it! Keep trying until we get the results that we want. Put some really good time, energy and effort into it.
Yeah
Most of them use spam comment like nice post ; great post ....
As you said in one of your subjects
It's on the person on how he will use it. If you use it well and reward people that deserve it, I believe that you will be fine. Of course that's not the only requirement.
Furthermore, @hassanben I would say that a really good way is to go on other people's blog and upvote comments or blogs(while always providing value). Upvote and engage with the people, engage with the community, make connections and things will work out.
I believe that every time it comes down to who you really are! People should stop faking a character and pretend that they are someone else just because they think that this is how people will like them. Be you and keep trying.
Thank you for reminding us. These are simple and practical tips yet most of us failed to do. I, for one was lured in to this platform hoping to earn money by blogging. I do not have anyone in particular to teach me about steemit, which I only learned from a you tube video. It was a tupsy turvy ride, since I really don't know what to do. Unlike Facebook that you can message someone and ask for help. That time I do not know about steemit chat nor discord channel. I was able to make it through alone, looking for ways what these top Bloggers do. I tried to imitate them, but as you pointed they have followers who upvote them substantially, I do not. I tried voting bots, as this is what some Bloggers do and has helped me earn a little. Since, I do not have that money to invest anyway. It is good for us here in the Philippines to encash SBD, a $ is almost 50pesos which can actually give you a budget meal from McDonald's. But to invest a thousand or so, could only mean a few Steem, that might not add up to one's voting power.
And so, these are very good points to remember when writing posts. And I just recently realize, that steemit offers rewards however, the most important thing is the blogger itself. If I wanted to contribute to the community and to the individuals behind each username, I would have to write contents that I know would help someone in some ways. I do not write contents because most trending posts are from those tags. I write contents by heart, I let people see the me behind the username and hopefully inspire at least one. And that I truly belive is better than any rewards monetized.
I will resteem this post, so that my followers which might be newbies also could learn. They may not be substantial, but in the future it will help me read feeds that are worthy of my miniscule upvote.
Cheers!
Thanks for the re-steem. I know of many steemians who started with nothing, never bought any steem power and now have over $1000.
Take this post as an example. It has already earned $40. But half of that is paid in SBD which are worth $5 each, so that’s $100. If you start to build followers, - good followers - the rewards will follow - slowly at first. To get good followers, your writing needs to be good.
Now it's slowly coming to me the things I needed to work on in this platform. I didn't know it was going to be this tough, as sometimes people just advertise it as "blog and earn" thing. Before, people would tell you can earn from upvote blah, blah, blah. But inside steemit there are other things to take into consideration as well. This is unlike the other social media accounts, here we need to work on it daily. It is like going to work on a regular basis. And work on specific skill sets. What I like though, is that as I go along I don't only give value to other people but more importantly I'm re-learning. Making myself better as I blog. At the end of the day, it's not how many upvotes I get but how much part of me I made better. Thanks again and I hope to learn from you more. God bless!
My word! You do speak your mind! You sound like my Dad...he gives you straight from the heart and the head with no b.s. in the mix! Honestly, this should inculcated into the Steemit Welcome page for newbies...I would have loved to read this 4 weeks ago when I came on board. It would have curbed some of my unrealistic expectations (smiling sheepishly). I realize now that writing is hard work and it takes time and effort to write properly even when it's a short article! Thanks @swissclive for this wake up call. I shall be sharing with a lot of my new friends coming after me on Steemit. Cheers!
Maybe I am just like your Dad. Good luck in your future blogs.
Indeed you are. I would be watching out for more of your post, as I can tell I'm gonna be learning a lot from you.just finished setting up my kids for school and was feeling kinda tired and washed out only to see your comment and upvote!thank u sooo ooo much for the upvote..u've absolutely made my day and now I'm energized and inspired! Cheers!
This is such perfect article for beginners.
Yes, it is not easy for those whose mother tongue is not English. My native language is Russian. But I try my best to make fewer mistakes and improve my English.
Oh, writing is really enjoyable, especially stories-fiction. For example, for contests like yours :)
Just today, the number of my folowers has become 500, but this, of course, is not basically the type of folowers I want. Yes, I'll try to write better!
I am a Maths teacher and tutor and I totally agree with you.
I never encourage my students to write here.
Thanks @swissclive for this your great article, I upvoted and resteemed.
(1)Act like an Organizasion :- When I say this, it should mean, I have in depth knowledge of the subject matter and here I am publishing the subject with an organized approach where I have authority and also the responsibility to respond the questionnaire and the different view point, keeping in mind the decorum of the platform
(2)Credit others before crediting self :-While publishing a blog the credit should be given when something is derived from other source, but credit does not mean this solely. One has to also credit and appraise the comment section also where some beautiful and valuable thoughts or inputs in the form of comment is there and this way it would mean that the blogger is really up for productive and healthy debate over the subject matter, and will not mean like.....just publish the blog and leave it.
(3)Persevere in steemiting:-I must assume my act of blogging as a regular activity and I must do it without seeking for high SBD earning. In fact I must not look for what SBD price is and not even imagine the kind of earning my blog will have, before publishing the blog. I should stick to blogging and I should pay much attention to my blog, its topic and the different approach of it. I know at some point of time I will be rewarded much more then my imagination but my approach should be focused on quality blogging and I should work on it on day to day basis and not just one day basis.
(4)Try to be the inner circle of steemit :-When I say inner circle means, the core. How the core is ?? The core is like having highly reputed people with years of experience in blogging and having so many followers. In fact that is the milestone for every blogger here in steemit and once that milestone is achieved here, that would mean like a business card for me. And that is my aim or target and I will reach that inner core through enormous circles of struggle, pain, frustration etc but at the end of the day I would reach that inner core.
(5)Success is not an overnight phenomena :-Success can never be an overnight phenomena not just in steemit but outside steemit also. Who is successful now in steemit, we see them and dream to earn like them. But we dont see the years of hardwork behind their success, the years of struggle we dont see and once we recognise those aspects, then we can also have clear definition of success which we can apply here too. This is not stock market or forex market, here so many things like followers, reputation, SP etc have to be developed and this can happen with persistent effort and investment of time and energy on regular basis and if I am determined for this, then yes I can be successful too.
Along with all these points, I need to avoid any kind of referral work & advertisement here in this platform and also I should take sometime to read properly the steemcleaner's guide and I think that is an essential guide for everyone.
Thank you very much @swissclive for guiding the minnows by writing such articles...steem on and stay blissful...
Lots of good points and I have learned from them, not all of us are writers or bloggers but we hope to be so as to participate in the steem community. I have Decided to put more time to learn but its not as easy as just deciding.
All in all, I will do my best to follow this rules and wish there was a favorite button so I would always come back to remind myself of this lessons. faulted in so many already.
Thanks @swissclive
A “favorite” button for steemit is an excellent idea.
It sure is
Thank you @swissclive for the guidance it really helpful to newbies, personally me point 7vwas always my major challenge.
Knowing the right tags to use
Also these point
@swissclive I also notice that most people on steemit follow others mostly due to your reputation and steem power.
Thanks for tips and suggestion....These tips are awesome to become a good blogger.I actually want to write blog but i think myself that i dont have any create ideas or capability to generate new ideas..Its really hard for me to write anything or to begin writting. But now i will try to write something good by following your tips....
Hello friend, I encourage you to start blogging! This was indeed a very useful guide to help us on our blogging quest. If I might recommend something, not to be rude, but in general it will look cleaner to the reader if you save ellipses "..." only for very long pauses or pauses at ends of statements, and use them sparingly. Most pauses are implied by the reader so commas "," are typically sufficient.
Thanks for the advice.
You just said everything that is needed to grow fast on steemit. If all this things are followed to the letter, in no time, a newbie will become a whale.
My own challenge is writing a good post because I don't like writing but I am seriously working on that and I'm improving day by day.
Thanks for this post @swissclive. You have always been a source of inspiration us
All you have said is right.....I wish you could help lecture some newbies on a whatsapp group I created, nevertheless I will send them the link to this post, have been waiting for someone with influence on steemit to do this, at least even the doubters will believe surprisingly am also a culprit of some of the things you listed........ thanks a lot 💚
I really learnt a lot and I hope other do some people have actually started upvote for upvote, I wonde if they understand the platform they are in.....
Thanks a lot @swissclive
You yourself have been a great teacher to many, I myself been a beneficiary. Its good we don't just invite people to join this platform but to also guide them on how to utilize Steemit properly so to succeed on Steemit. Thanks Bro for your efforts in helping newbie learn through Whatsapp platform.
Nice post. Thanks for sharing this with us. Newbies like us will be able to See far by climbing on the shoulders of people like you who have gone far. This will go a long way to help newbies like us not to make silly mistakes and even if we've already made the mistake, we can easily trace our way back with this guidelines.
This got me and I'll say in my own words, Write from your heart, write cos passion to write flows in your heart
Thanks for sharing some great tips with [email protected] find very helpful information at your blog. I think style of writing also plays an important role in making an article engaging and interesting.For good blog post we must use nice pictures, engaging graphs or charts, write short paragraphs and use a good font. I think these are some of the great ingredients for good article
Yes, you are right. I should have added the point about SHORT paragraphs.
You have great knowledge about blogging but you post one or two times a week??
I post only when I am inspired, and have the time. I am working on a blog now, but is only for the most sophisticated of steemits so it may sort the wheat from the chaff.
Thanks @swissclive for sharing such an educative post, making people like me take a rethink about our stand on steemit.
Honestly, I have done one or two of those things you just said we shouldn't. Initially I came to this platform just for the rewards but now my view has changed (if I want to achieve much on steemit I have to put in more intelligent work).
I'm going to resteem this post so my followers will equally have the chance to see this post and I will equally be reminded on the right thing to do whenever I see it on my blog.
I really appreciate, thanks.
@enajo Yes I had noticed that you were cutting and pasting news stories (e.g. gold in sewage). Lucky for you the cheetah bot didn’t catch you. Hopefully you won’t do it anymore
I agree with you on everything especially the part that steemit is not a place to earn quick money or rewards, i usually tell people especially newbies that steemit is not as easy as it may seem a times because it requires you to put in a lot of work and consistency
Nice article you've made! It's helpfull for beginners that is still working on getting their blogs better. Good guides, keep it up!
The way you've covered the details there isn't really much to add, but there's one thing that has helped me grow a lot and thought i would share that.
Yes, while it's absolutely essential to have followers like you with great voting power, there kind of is an alternative. It's about finding your niche TAG.
There are a lot of dedicated teams on steemit who go through all the posts in a specific tag and they reward good content under those tags. Now, they don't necessarily follow you back but they're constantly checking out your posts when you're posting under that specific tag.
I'll give my own example. My niches right now are steemstem and smartcash.
I have gained considerable number of followers from these niches, i won't deny that. But for the case of steemstem, the huge upvotes i'm getting are from people who are not in fact following me, but they come across my posts under steemstem tag all the time and enjoy my posts. Why I bring this up is, not necessary that every time someone enjoys your posts they'll follow you back, even if they are constantly enjoying your posts. But they WILL reward you for you posts constantly. My science posts on average get $70-80 worth of upvotes, but not all those people are my followers, but I do get genuine interaction on those posts (can't avoid the occasional spammers though lol). The point I'mmaking is, even if your number of followers isn't as high, don't get discouraged as long as you're making good quality content, in the right niche!! It is absolutely necessary not to force yourself to write in a niche just because others are getting paid well. I'm a doctor so I enjoy writing about medical topics, but I also see people just trying to come up with science posts who are not even from the field of science in hope of getting upvotes, which often leads to copy/paste crap.
Not necessary to always find a niche where there's people with high VP. The smartcash niche for example doesn't really have such high VP and you'll see my posts not making anything worth mentioning in terms of payout. But I'm getting absolutely genuine interaction from people i actually constantly chat with over on discord and I'm absolutely enjoying it (which goes to your point of blogging because you enjoy it, not for the money).
So in the end, it's about finding the right balance between making some money plus having fun blogging!!
Cheers for this amazing post!! Gonna resteem this and hope some of my followers will learn some basics of blogging!!
That’s a great tip. Those who have a special interest or niche can hope to be rewarded by those who are interested in that niche.
Yes, one only needs to find those niches by hanging around...reading through lots and lots of posts and communicating with other users and someone might just introduce them to their perfect niche!!
Hello @swissclive.
Thank you for your informative blog. I'm going for a way to create high-quality content for my blog, I rarely comment it. I already use one of your advice: multiseries of one topic. I agree with many bloggers, that nothing is given do here by easy way. The stories should be fascinating and written in good language. Sometimes the translation into English language takes a long time for me. I see for myself this plus - a deeper study of English, that improve my skills.
Honestly, the beginning stage is much more difficult than I initially expected. Am glad at least my situation hasn't been really bad in the first week but I have seen many who quits after two weeks. Patience is a virtue and no Steemit, one will need a lots of patience and commitment to succeed. I read in one of your old blog you wrote before I joined Steemit of how difficult it was too at the beginning to attract people's attention. But with consistency and commitment, we'll all get there.
I think it is quite important ones find his or her niche early enough - an area where one is good and passionate about. Not trying to write on trending topics even when one is not good and knowledgeable in them.
For the error free writing, I recommend you write first in a digital notepad. Since I used my smartphone, I use WPS text pad. I learn all the formatting tools with the markdown editor and apply them while writing with the note pad. Proof read everything, then copy and paste on Steemit markdown editor. That way you can easily see your errors and correct them.
The photos is quite enlightening as I thought you must always have photo's to catch people's attention to your post.
One more thing, socialize. Find experienced author in your area of interest, read their work and offer quality contributions as comments and you might end up having them come check out your blogs. If you are as good as you think, you can keep them too. Thanks @swissclive for this lessons. It came at the right time.
Very good point. Aspiring authors should use another tool to write their articles so that it can spot spelling and grammer mistakes. I use Microsoft Word, but I guess there are even better tools for steemit.
Yeah I use Markdown x app on my tab...since steemit.com use markdown styling guide....
@sheriffakin I just downloaded the App called “Markdown” from the Apple App store. I am not sure if is the same one as you refer to. It does the job, as it has the markdown characters like “#” along the bottom. However, it does not seem to have a spell checker or grammer checker.
it doesnt have a spell checker...its one of the things the developers should be looking forward to add in the next update...aside that it works very well.
I guess so too but I only mentioned the one that I have used. The best practice is for the individual to create his own formula and utilize tools that best serve his needs.
Awesome tips @swissclive. I took my time to read it. Some of this mistakes i actually did them during my beginning days. But now i know better. I keep studying the dynamics of steemit so that i can succeed. Thank you for sharing this with us!
One thing that tends to drive people away is the high expectations. Most people come for the money and when they do not get it they get upset. People also spam the comment box asking for follow backs and upvotes instead of working on the quality of their post.
But at the same time seeing a $0.04 payout on a post that took you weeks to compose can be frustrating. At this point what are minnows to do? Use bots? How do they attract the whales to their post?
Frustrating as it seems, that’s the reality. It takes a lot of good blogs before people with reputation follow you. People who want to be paid faster should get a job.
I never did anything to attract a whale. They came slowly.
As for bots, their vote is always worth less than you pay them. Let’s say you pay the bot SBD 2. That’s like paying $8 in real money because SBD isvworth $4 each. The bot now votes you $3. That means you get $1.5 worth of steem and sbd 1.5 worth $6. The total of $7.50 is now split 75% for you and 25% for the bot. Finally you collect only $5.62. Bad deal.
@rajaduttablogs as you are new here, have a look at this post! :)
Thank you for the tips! I will consider all of these to make my blog better. I might have ruined my blog by sharing memes on dmania, but after reading this, my eyes are fully opened..
I have been here for a short time and I can not tell you how many posts I read about people coming here and complaining and going on others posts and asking for votes, follow, SBD, or other things. This never works as they are not organic. I for one never did that. I went on posts that I was interested in reading. I feel that it is a slower way to grow but more sustainable. And I write 2-3 posts a week now and no more. I also post my videos which those are 2-3 a week. the rest of the days I try to seek out new people to network with and learn from. This way I have more things to talk about to grow a bigger community. I know that not everyone will like every post as I did with my YouTube channel I like to talk about a wide variety of things. It keep my discussions fresh and interesting. I enjoy this type of blogging more than just focusing on one topic. This works well for me.
I could learn a lot from you.
I have only a few months here but i have always think this way.
i am new on steemit and i find this information very valuable. nothing comes easy in life, it comes with hardwork and dedication.
the top bloggers here have spent alot of time and resources building up their porfolio. i am taking my time too, to think and produce quality content that will add value to people's lives.
thank you @swissclive
What a statement. If we would enjoy Steemit for what it is, and follow this principle then the community would only prosper for it.
I would argue that pictures can play an important role in the overall aesthetics of a person's blog. Also maintaining high quality is very hard when you have other commitments.
I think having fun is my number one rule, because if you make money here and you don't have fun you might as well work a regular job :)
This is good advice to us new steemians, thanks alot for this, I will screenshot this post and look at it every time I'm about to make a post.. Hopefully I should be on my way to greatness like you.
Fantastic guide, ought to be tattooed on new members heads when they join. Hard but fair, although with reference to point 'e'. Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote:-
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." ;-)
And if I could just possibly add something useful to your post, it's that people can download Grammarly and it works in markdown to check their spelling and grammar :-)
PS. Don't even bother visiting my posts, I can't write for shit, and I'm still looking for my niche, I'm just here for the engagement, commenting and education and the fun competitions.
Sorry this post isn't as sycophantic as others. I promise to do better next time ;-)
sorry again, it seems it's illegal not to add @swissclive to my reply lol
@nathen007 You threw out the challenge
I wanted to see what kind of shit you write, so I just read your blog about the bitconnect ponzi scheme.
I was very disappointed.
It wasn’t shit at all. In fact it was so good I was literally forced into giving it a massive 100% vote worth well over $30.
I can’t wait to read more good blogs like that.
Thanks @swissclive for taking us through this lecture. If one can adhere to all these, one's Steemit journey will be smooth to the top
Thanksfor these tips,willwork on the ASAP...
Careful careful..
Hahahaha i have to first talk about this:
I hope they are not reading this while being drunk or on drugs too. Haha.
You absolutely nailed this @swissclive. I still struggle with the appropriate tags sometimes and i have to admit that. Having you as a follower is definitely worth more than a thousand as you have rightly pointed out. Quality over quantity and that is also needed in writing of posts too as well as having followers. I have always loved your approach to cleaning Steemit and having people work for what they want and also reward those who make efforts. I spoke about this at the Steemit workshop which i was invited to speak at yesterday with several other amazing people and i made reference to you while coaching the newbies. Posted about it already and telling them about not being lazy and making relationships.
I always learn from you and i hope to use the appropriate tags more.
This is too detailed. Do i have your permission to use these to give another lecture whenever i am invited for a talk on Steemit? I would definitely reference you and give them your handle to follow 😂🙈.
You feel stronger and way better now i am sure. Stay strong.
Please feel free to lecture using my points. But please stress that this is not an easy money place. We have so many people come here, don’t get rewarded, and then try to game the system with insincere or pointless comments.
Exactly. Hahahaha. That part of you that i know, i don't hide it but to tell people to carefully read a post before giving comments. How can one give a comment on something they didn't read. It was pointed out yesterday and i will make sure of that too. I also told them of how i made 0.012 in my introductory post. They are always attracted when the money is huge, no one wants to know the struggle to get there and that is what i always try to let newbies know even though i am still new too and learning. I like learning fast and people like you make it easier. Thank you for all you do for this platform. You are giving a perfect mindset to have so we can rid this platform of lazy and insincere lots.
If everybody had the same capabilities, knowledge, wisdom, education, etc., to become a millionaire who'd clean the bathrooms, serve you your dinner at a restaurant, seat you in a auditorium, show you where a product is in the store, all the integral services provided to you that assist you in making your world a better place to be, for without the farmer you'd starve, without the repairman you'd be freezing or covered in shit, without the roofer you wouldn't be sheltered so before you go off calling people lazy and insincere maybe you should reflect upon what the value is that they bring into your life for it just may be it holds more value then what they can contribute as a writer.
You definitely have no clue on what we are talking about.
I have way more of a clue then you do. How many minnows does it take to feed a whale? They all encompass part of the system built here, some get eaten up and others thrive but in one way or the other they've all contributed to the eco system in the long or short of it.
We are talking about learning, you are talking about ecosystem. The ecosystem supports people by not developing themselves? How do you give comments on a post you haven't read? That is what is being addressed here which clearly shows you have no clue and you are just like the rest. Btw...i am a minnow too and learning is vital as much as the reward. You have had your time. Take care.
Thanks for the great tips! You pointed a lot of important things. I will try to execute these tips step by step :) I think the most important thing is that:
Thanks again, all the best..
Once you take the incentive away why would anyone want to write? If this is just a place for people who love to write why would anyone else want to be here? I am here because I like to blog as a hobby but that doesn't necessarily mean I can write blogs on a consistent level. Are you even aware that people form groups on here and those groups come together as a advantage to each other to contribute to quality blogs because on their own they can't? Do you also realize there are people on here who take other people's materials that are badly written, edit them and publish them under their more profitable blog site? Not in every case is it that a person loves to write, some may have more of a ability to write more sensibly but couldn't write a book to save their life. Some emphasis on the quality of the writing is to sort out the lot for quantifiable subject matter for those whose main contribution is as a writer to provide continuous stream of revenue. It's just a variable in play on Steemit, Steemit has many variables but they don't all require excellency in writing, look at some of the videos in trending will prove that.
I think every newbies joining steemit even some minnows need to go through this guild. Thanks for this wonderful post
Thanks @Swissclive
This will help a lot.... As much as am not a good writer i always try to make my posts as original and genuine as i can!!! I must say, most time it's kind of tempting to take a peep at google... LoL!!!
But then how can i be a better writer here if i don't force my brains to work!!!
I agree with number (12) ...But then i think it could be a good idea for young writers to take challenges ...You will be surprised how much kids are brave these days!
Thanks for your support and guidance... Its really appreciated. :))
@swissclive You nailed it!
This is the information we all need, thank you so much for the insight.
Please can I hold on to this link?
so I can refer to others as well especially the newbies.
Yes, copy this link to another app, so you can always retrieve it quickly and easily when you give guidance to newbies.
All you have pointed out is true. It takes patience and persistence to become a good blogger. Not everybody is good at writing so it would take a considerable amount of time to read and learn the art of producing a great write up.
Personally, I am still learning.
After abandoning my steem account for over 5 months because of impatience, I have learnt that it takes time for great things to be achieved.
Thanks for the insightful post.
worthy pointers from a seasons steemian.
the aspect of finding "true" followers hits home the biggest for me. i would rather have a strong core than any follower base with meaningless comments. thankfully, i am developing that and i am in awe often at the fantastic comments! some posts don't make the money i wish them to, but i believe it is just a matter of time. And perseverance. This is helpful stuff especially for newbies!
The first point you raised explaining not to expect many rewards until you post 100's to even a 1000+ blogs, is sooo true. I also fell into the trap of expecting quick rewards, having seen those on the trending page earning $100+, I got quite unmotivated that my blogs weren't appreciated like theirs. But persistence is everything, I did not stop creating blogs and always tried new types of blogs, and eventually I posted a STEM related blog that got got a $30 upvote from a STEM curation trail, i was so excited! My first big reward!! So defs my advice to anyone else who is also trying to make it big on steemit, is keep trying! And don't be afraid to try new things!! Your persistence will pay off, and when it does you will be handsomely rewarded :)
Thanks @swissclive for making a blog like this, I think it's really valuable and insightful to minnows, in that it's no bullshit and tells it how it is.
I've followed most of these. And yet I'm still stuck getting stipends for my posts. I feel alot more has to be done to promote your post. But creating original and good content cones first on the list
@charitybot's tips are really good and I would like to add some more tips on those. I am on Steemit for a lot of months now and I am mostly consuming content and not writing so much( I've got poor time management skills, but that's another story) so I've got some points that I am looking for.
In my opinion, that's the most important part! @charitybot said that due to visibility problems you should comment on other people's blogs and I absolutely agree with this one. But you shouldn't go with a comment full of compliments. Serious Steemians(and that's the kind of audience you want) never bite for those things. You may get that $0.10 - $1 upvote that a reputable person is giving away to almost everybody under his blog post but he will never take a look at your profile.
If that's what you are looking for then you are fine. But if you have ambitions and goals I'm sure thats NOT what you are looking for. You have to provide value to the other person, but to do that you have to find a subject that you are interested and you may have some knowledge. Search on the tags for something that you like, even if you know nothing about it's always an opportunity to learn and make connections. Steemians are wonderful people(most of them😀) and open to connect with likeminded people.
Show who you truly are and everything will be ok.
You are into crypto people, your world is already awesome!
You have written quite well and exact tk the point. I can say it's the best article I've read on the steemit platform. Well, I also newbie here and I didn't write too much on my blog expect two posts so far.
Being a newbie I thought I've to write for getting votes but your E point is really good that we should write quality work focusing on quality not only for getting rewards. That's why I offered you a thumbs up for this.
But don't you think in starting if we only focused to write quality content then we waste our time?? Cause we don't have much followers at that time. Yeah it can be good for later when you got some relevant niche blogger followers who might be interested in your blog.
As I'm in start do I thought I can get attention and appreciation from other steemians by getting upvotes but no actually I was wrong because in starting expectations is quite worthless thing.
Thank you so much for contributing with your quality content. Love it ❤️
Those who come only for the money will be disappointed. It’s more profitable to buy and sell chickens in Lagos market.