Mums are great! They love us unconditionally. They nurture us, protect us and support us from the day we are born. They encourage us to go on when we lose faith in ourselves. I know Dads do all of the above as well and I do not want to ignore all the brilliant Dads out there (including my husband and friends who are truly wonderful fathers) so any reference to Moms in this post also includes Dads.
So why do you need your mum and dad here on Steemit? Let me explain. I am relatively new here on Steemit and I am not yet a full time Steemian. Although a big part of my life revolves around writing, my documents are almost always confidential and they do not make for very exciting read.
Yes, I am a lawyer.
Some background...
I joined Steemit towards the end of September last year as part of a little personal experiment. I know three months on Steemit makes me seem like a reasonable size dinosaur but I am not there yet. In fact, I am so small that I don’t even qualify as a minnow yet. That’s right, I am a redfish which is as small as you can be on Steemit.
So getting back to my experiment, I started my Steemit account as an experiment to see if one could actually make money on Steemit without investing any money. Now the reason I was particularly interested in this experiment was because my past experience taught me one thing and that is:
“money attracts money”.
In other words, if you don’t have any money to start with, it’s going to be a rough ride and it will be a lot more challenging to attract new money. Whereas if you are loaded, new money will come knocking on your door.
Now obviously there are loads of rags to riches stories around. I hear no end of them. I sometimes feel like everyone is a billionaire except me. However, if you think about it, you will see there is some truth in what I am saying. It seems the more money you have, the less people want you to pay for things.
Just think about it, do you think Justin Bieber paid for that Jacket?
I can’t be certain whether Justin actually paid for it or not, but I have my reservations! It seems to me the richer you are the less people want you to pay for things (the more Steem Power you have the more people vote for you). Whereas if you are poor, there is a tax for you to even live on this earth and then some more when you die (trust me! I know about taxes, I used to work for the biggest accounting firm in the world).
Getting back to the experiment, could you make money to pay your bills with Steemit without investing in SP? I suppose it sort of depends on the bills and where you live. I live in Europe, so the cost of living is not as low as some parts of the world but there are some expenses like healthcare etc that are covered by National Insurance so maybe it’s not as high as U.S. or some other countries. I use the local cryptocurrency exchange Kraken when I want to treat myself to some crypto. I hodl a collection of different cryptocurrencies and steem just happens to be one that I couldn’t buy there. So I knew I couldn’t cheat my way here. So I started the experiment with some delegated SP (courtesy of Steemit) and started this adventure.
The first time I logged into Steemit and the first post I saw was a 75 SBD giveaway and I thought to myself, oh wow, this is going to be soooo easy. At the time I didn’t have a clue what SBD was but I knew whatever it was I wanted some. So I entered the competition. I resteemed that post (as per the competition guideline) and nada! Why didn’t he pick me for that SBD? I don’t like him anymore :D
That little exposure taught me, it ain’t as easy as some people make it sound. Just as I thought! So I decided to persevere, I experimented by posting my first post to see what happens and there I found some hope. I found @dwarrilow2002 - my very first Steemit friend :)
@dwarrilow2002 left the first human comment encouraging me to post some more content. I didn’t know what to say, I was like a happy puppy. So I upvoted his comment with my virtually non-existent SP.
I had not yet gathered the courage to actually write my own content, so I did the next best thing:
I started commenting.
I started to look for Steemians whose content resonated with me (I was not doing this full time but I tried to make a bit of effort). During my adventure I found some more amazing people @dandesign @lorilikes @chesatochi and @francisk who are truly very special and creative people and most recent addition to my friend list @somecoolname and @fmalafaya
I started commenting on their posts and also other steemians who were writing interesting content and trying to help redfish survive in this ever expanding Steemy ocean. All this time my dear friend @dwarrilow2002 did not give up on me and he kept encouraging me to post some of my own stuff on Steemit.
So finally on Christmas day I posted my first real-ish post and my new friends supported me. Ok, I didn’t make a fortune out of that post (a few cents to be accurate) but for some reason that didn’t matter. It was the fact that I found friends (people I have never met in real life) who were voting for my post knowing full well that there is nothing in it for them! This was truly wonderful feeling! I felt someone cared :) This was also disproving what I thought to be true: It showed me that some people would help you even if you don’t have any money. So maybe you don’t need money to attract money?
I have posted a couple more posts since Christmas and commented like a maniac (no not one of those “nice post” comments) and although I have not made anywhere near enough money to pay the bills, the experiment is not over yet and I know my friends will support me whenever they can.
This brings me to the title of this post. Why do I think you need to bring your mom to Steemit? Well, if you come to Steemit without any money (SP) and you fail to make any friends, you truly do need your mum to upvote all your awesome posts just to get through the day. You need all the love and support in your initial stages (same as a human baby) of your friends and family to find the spirit to carry on this journey.
Although I have not persuaded my mum to join Steemit yet, I have found a few friends (mentioned in this post) and some family (to be introduced in future posts) who I feel are encouraging me to persevere.
I am truly grateful for all the wonderful people around the world that I have met in my last few months and I wish all the SP and SBD in the world to these wonderful folks. I hope to see them grow on Steemit like Bitcoin grew in 2017 or may be Ripple :D
If you happen to somehow stumble upon this post and decide to read all the way through, please upvote and leave a comment below for this redfish. I will definitely come and find you :)
Also, if your mum is not on Steemit and you are looking for some new friends, I would highly recommend that you visit each and every one of the incredible Steemians mentioned in this post and engage with them. They will help you, guide you and most importantly encourage you to grow on Steemit.
Happy Steeming :)
Lucy!!!! I never ever saw this! Omg!
I love you and wish I had seen this while.... wait a second I upvoted it already. Wow. What does this say about me? I didn’t read it until today. Shame on me.
At least i did upvote but...
Anyway. This wakes me up to so much.
Hugs
Ha ha ha :D
Nooo you mustn't worry about it love, you saw it now which is just as wonderful
xxx
Awesome post ! It's really hard to get traction on Steemit, especially in the beginning. It's like trying to drive a car in space.
So I would say that adding some SP is very beneficial. But one thing that can be even more powerful than SP is engagement. It is one of the most powerful tool. And if you get just one bigger fish to take a liking then everything will become much easier. But it comes down to persistence persistence persistence. You are doing great ! Keep swimming !
Love the analogy "trying to drive a car in space" vroom vroom :D
It is certainly challenging without SP and I wonder if it is actually doable (to make something out of nothing). hmmm
Heheheee, I better get cracking on finding that big fish but I am still happy and grateful to have big fish like you and other steemit friends visiting me and supporting me :) Thank you so much!
I'm still a small fish as well, but step by step, like a salmon ladder it's possible to work the way up :) we just need to support each other in the process
@dwarrilow2002 Resteemed your post. This is how i found you. I have read the article. I agree with almost all of it. Its not easy to make money on steemit unless you invest. If some one wants to earn money here without investing then he has to bring a mountain of luck and time. Just yesterday itself i spent around 10 hours on steemit. I was travelling thus i could afford this time. After so many comments all i managed to grab was 50 cent worth of upvotes. That's it. I also ran out of my steem power. After all the upvotes i did yesterday now my upvotes count for nothing.
I have been here on steemit since more than 20 days and all i managed to earn was 1.92 SBD. With this amount i may never be able to pay my bills. Still this 1.92 SBD are important for me since i will be putting these in my retirement funds.
Thank you for your comment :)
@dwarrilow2002 is awesome! It is certainly challenging on Steemit and I think it is getting tougher every day. I have started following you and will certainly support you :) I don't have any voting power right now either so I won't upvote you with nothing but I appreciate your time and honest comment so I want to send you a little SBD. I see tipu is currently not active because I tried to send you a little SBD. I will try it again tomorrow as I think it will be active then.
Don't give up on Steemit. Keep at it :)
Thanks for the Help. I really appreciate it. This will definitely help me grow on this platform.
Hi @lucygarrod
I am flattered by your praise but I am more pleased that you are actually posting. I am also a little jealous ... So far this post is $1.52 STEEM. I know that this isn't very much (possibly the price of a fancy cup of coffee). However not only are you rewarding yourself, you are acting as an inspiration to those around you. Not necessarily in the physical world but your Steemian community.
I am truly grateful for your constant encouragement and support :) Thank you so much! I am trying to pay it forward to other newbies (even though my vote doesn't have much power, I think it is encouraging when you see someone bothered to read your post and they liked it!). Hehehee I think I will skip that fancy cup of coffee and just use this $1.52 Steem to vote for my friends and other newbies who need community support.
I think it is getting tougher for newbies to be seen as the platform grows. I see some new people joining who are contributing some nice content and not many people are even bothering to open their posts.
This is not a get rich quick scheme, it's a matter of persistence and good content. Keep up the good work!
Tell me about it :D
I don't think I will quit my day job just yet. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind words. That's what this post is truly about. It's about wonderful people who are supporting others and without whom this place will be very dark and lonely :)
Oh yeah, the avatar is back online. I am happy to read the first post made by yourself on the Steemit platform and the story is very interesting to read. I love the sentence money attract money ;)
I upvote and resteem :)
Thank you so much! You see I do listen to my friends and follow their advice :) Thank you for being so kind, I will be coming to your blog to visit you now.
As to "money attracts money," I could write a rebuttal that partially refutes that, but I won't split hairs. It is a general truth, if one is willing to put the word "general" in bold letters and realize there is always a way to claw your way up from rock bottom. I did.
Still though, your point is taken.
The cryptocurrency aspect of this site is still baffling and a bit confusing, and I spend a lot of time saying "okay, that went completely over my head."
To be honest, I never thought I was going to make a great deal of money on Steemit (I say "never" in a manner that makes it sound like I've been on this site more than a scant few days; isn't that cute?), but the way I saw it was "well, I spend an ungodly amount of time writing things on Facebook that earns nothing. If steemit earns nothing, then I'm no worse off than I was on Facebook."
Thank you @patriamreminisci for taking the time to read the post. I have started following you and will be looking out for more content from you.
I really think it will be brilliant if I am wrong! If more and more people could claw their way from rock bottom, the world would be a much happier place for us all. I also wonder if this is something Steemit can help us achieve? Just think about all the people in the world whose lives could be transformed if everyone had access to a tool that they could use to make money out of nothing! It is great to hear that you successfully clawed your way up from the bottom. However, I have my doubts that majority of people around the world succeed in their attempts to do the same. There are so many other factors such as access to education, healthcare and geopolitical conditions of one's native country that contribute to one's chances of success in their attempt to find the resources to make their lives a little easier.
As to earning potential from Steemit. I think there is probably great potential. There are people who are creating content that people want to see and making good money from it. So although you do not intend to make money out of this platform, I think there is a great potential :)
I obviously make money out of my day job which I think is more lucrative right now than my Steem posts :D
Sorry for writing a whole thesis in response :)