I'm not going to lie to you. I could really use some money right now. And I would like to find out if I can earn over $200 in a single day using a very simple system.
A few days ago I ran a test in which I made a post requesting that no humans upvote it, hoping to establish how many bots are upvoting me automatically and the number of upvotes I received was 54 with a total payout of $2.61.
I realise that some of these votes may have been from humans basing their decision on nothing more than the image of fir cones on a white background, but to put it plainly they were behaving like bots if they didn’t read the only words I wrote: ‘please do not upvote this if you are human.’
A number of people commented saying they would have liked to upvote me but respected my wishes and didn’t.
Then it dawned on me
With this many bots automatically upvoting me, I could be earning far more than I currently am with my 2 - 3 post a day regiment. Each of which usually earns between $2 and $4, even when I have put hours into its creation. We all know how that feels, right?
My top payout article a month ago earned $129 and it took a day of my time to create so why not use a single day more efficiently, with a better chance of achieving that higher payout?
My Plan
I intend to spend this one day dedicated to Steemit and from dusk till dawn I will be producing a total of 100 posts. I am currently waiting for the birth of my 2nd child so have a bit of time on my hands, though this could change rather suddenly at any moment. The due date passed some time ago.
Please understand that I am not going to be producing rubbish, but rather a well thought out story I have been wanting to tell for some time, divided into 100 chapters, with photos & video links too.
The Story
I intend to tell you the story of how I came to be where I am now. Because where I am now is a very special place. And I would like for other people to experience this kind of freedom. And to know that it doesn't matter where you come from or who you are... anyone can do this.
Five years ago I was a drug addict porn maker living in London with a porn star bride and an ego the size of my house. Three years ago I sold all my possessions, put my life in a bag, didn't marry the porn star and set off barefoot into the world to find whatever it was I was looking for. Two years ago I met Sabrina on a bus in Thailand and today we are just about to have our second child here in Bali.
I am currently living in the home of a famous Ubud artist (@yaariart) where I am making a documentary about his life and every day he jokes with me that someone needs to tell the story of my life.
So, that is exactly what I intend to do.
What does this prove?
I feel blessed to have found this platform at exactly at the moment I needed it and equally blessed to have made my bot discovery at exactly the right moment too.
What this proves for me is that once we establish ourselves here with many hours of hard work, we eventually find ourselves in a position where we are able to inject $200 into our lives when we need to.
- A decent Valentines present for the other half
- A new phone
- Some clothes that don't have holes in
- A guitar
- A new piece for my time-lapse kit
My own personal list is endless! But right now I must focus on paying for the various goodies that go with a newly born baby.
In Conclusion
I only intend to do this once (unless it is a resounding success!) because I am a traveling film-maker by trade and I happen to love what I do, so would never swap a life of film adventures for a life glued to my computer.
Some may criticise me for this experiment and to them I say this: I have worked extremely hard over the last five months to achieve my status, currently ranked #187 in rep and what I am trying here is ultimately an experiment which may not even work.
But if it does, it could well help a great many people finally buy that thing they really need!
I am not encouraging people to spout 100 posts of mediocre content but to rip out their hearts and slash blood across their keyboards with fire and passion by telling that one story they know will inspire others to lead better lives.
heh mate, I think you need to check about the daily posting limit. My understanding was that any more than 4 posts per day begin to receive diminishing rewards. Hopefully somebody else will have the exact answer for this, but would hate to see you waste your story if this was the case.
Ah! Good to know! I will check this out. Thanks very much for the heads up :)
I found the answer. Oh well. We live and learn. I may still try it with a less important story, just to see what happens :)
I understand the limit is going to change, or is planned to change, in an upcoming hardfork but at the moment, you are correct. Four posts is your max before your get diminishing rewards. I think that posting more than that in a day may lead people to scan rather than read. If you posted them spread out over say a month, people will look for them and share them around if they really like them thus increasing your audience over time.
Good advice. Now I see clearly my situation, I realise with a story like this I should give it more respect by spending more time on its creation and spreading it out over a longer period. And as you say, people are more likely to read it this way.
Thanks for leaving your comment :)
I'll be watching for it :)
They are planning to remove the 4 post limit in 0.17:
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/steem-0-17-change-proposal-introduction
https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/hardfork-0-17-what-does-it-means-for-steemit-and-my-feedback
Amazing news! Thank you for sharing this with me Alex. How do we know when this is implemented I wonder?
It seems they plan to release it on February 7th (though this can obviously change). Once it's released, historically the hard fork takes place about a week later. You can keep tabs on its progress here:
https://github.com/steemit/steem/milestone/13
Nice experiment.
Thanks. Nice German youtube video. I am going to send it to a few German friends I have in London :)
Thanks for sharing :-)
Your posts should recieve exponentially less payouts after the 4th :| so cents and cents
Thank you for the info. I understand now. Just didn't know of this feature until now. But now that i do, I will re-think my strategy :)
Do it, I will support you..Nice! I use steemvoter and in 15 minutes will automatically upvote your post ! :)
Thank you my friend. You have been a supporter for a long time and I am most grateful :)
good luck with it mate - 2-4$ per post is really good, i have some that go over 10$ but rarely, usually i am between 3-50 cents per post no matter i have 30 or over 100 upvoters. Not complaining but that sticks me to reduce to much time investment in huge posts that tend to be not recognised :-)
Yes, I know that feeling. So many times i have spent an entire day on something only to make the same as I do for a five minute post. But every now and then I get lucky and catch a whale :)
yeah, this is the only think i am struggling a bit, the knowledge not to know what might be a good post (earning wise) - i rejoined 2 weeks ago and told myself to test this 4 weeks in total, then review to decide to leave it or continue :-)
Well, I hope you stay! You have been a great member of my group and I suppose we must remind ourselves that when Steem is worth $1000, even a small amount of Steem in our wallet will make us feel very good indeed :)
yes steem on :-) @samstonehill
I agree 2-4$ is good id be very happy with that right now also as @samstonehill hope you stay @uwelang
As long as you don't post it emptie shit, I think posting 100 post by hand on a single day is an achievement on its own ;)
No problems there. I have a ripper of a tale for you. And yes, I will have tired fingers by the end of the day. But thankfully, I touch type pretty fast :)
Upvoted! (Can't get much of a guitar for $200)
haha :) Here in Bali I do have my eye on a half decent one for around that price. Though frankly, after not having had one in my life for a year now, anything will do! Thanks for the upvote.
This is a great post Sam and extremely interesting about your life and how you came to be where you now are. Only hope you do succeed ,
Good luck
Thank you for your kind words. The most important thing is that I have a fun day telling my tale. Which I know I will :) Though I'm sure I'll be knackered by the end of it!
Good luck!
Thank you, though it turns out this wasn't such a great idea after all :(
But I'm still going to tell the story one way or another!
All the best to you :)
And to you :)
I like this idea and hope the best for you and your experiment, it should lead to some interesting results!
I was wondering how you ended up in living in such a beautiful place from your previous post!
Thank you my friend. Sadly it turns out that my fabulous idea won't work as the daily limit is 4 posts. We can post more than this, but the rewards won't be the same. We live and learn hey! Happy that I at least made some new friends by posting this :)
And set in motion the telling of my story.... one way or another!
Oh wow, well we all learned something new since you're testing and sharing your ideas on this Steemit!
Aha indeed, and we'll be able to learn more from each others perspective as our stories unfold on this platform! :)
Great post ! And wishing you all the best ! Steem on !👍😉
Thank you Karen. It turns out that there is a 4 post daily limit after which the returns are greatly diminished.
But it was a nice idea to tell my story anyway, and it will happen one way or another :)
Great experiment!
Wish you all the best :)
Many thanks my friend. I appreciate that. Though it turns out that there is a 4 post daily limit after which the returns are greatly diminished. Still gonna tell the story though :)
Still there is a constraint on 4 per day so I heard.
Yes, I realise this now. Never mind.
I understand however that the limit will be removed at some point soon :)
Really, first time I heard that. Thanks for the info.
I guess there'll be a flood when that happens. :-)
Love you very much brother, glad that someone mentioned the 4 post thing.
Your story is priceless and I know you already know that the greatest gift is in giving.
You're a huge inspiration to many, share on and STEEM ON!! :)
Thank you bro. You & @sebcam have been a big inspiration to me all these years and already know my story very well... coz you were there! Body health was not important to me before I met you guys and in fact, now i think about it, you were the first person to introduce me to Bitcoin. So, thank you to you and STEEM ONWARD & UPWARD :)
Nice experiment! It was odd for me too when I saw your post and the title was so clear. Anyway, people take their own decisions. Nice post and I can't wait to see the story!
Thank you my friend. Have learned a lot here in the comments and I am sure I will tell this story, but perhaps not in the way I was planning.
I'd love to hear/read a story about your life! I'm sure it would be worth the time. :)
Appreciate the comment. I am looking forward to telling it and as long as I enjoy the creation process, it will be worth my time :)
This sounds like an interesting story.
It's hard to know what qualifies as interesting when the story is my own, but I am sure it will be fun to tell. It's definitely a unique story :)
I meant the story to come that you're talking about doing sounds interesting.
After digesting all the responses here I realise now that I currently can't go ahead with this plan due to the 4 post per day limit. However, it seems this limit may be lifted in Feb... so let's see if I get a chance to do it soon. Many thanks for your support.
Sure you can. One post a day would be able to tell the story I should think.
Yes, that's true. And I suppose it would give me more time to prepare each chapter and present it in a way that I feel proud of.
Hey Sam,
I upvoted this (person, not a bot) because I like your work generally speaking and also because (as a "creative") I love seeing "interesting experiments" and I also hope to run a few of my own from time to time here on Steemit.
This might be interesting to try after the hard-fork (mentioned elsewhere.)
Hey, anybody know approximately when that may take place?
In any case, rock on - and if this experiment doesn't work out, keep on thinking! 😄😇😄
Thank you my friend. I really appreciate your words and support. And like you i am interested now to find out when this limit will lifted.
Hoping someone will provide the answer! And looking forward to seeing your own experiments in the future :)
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Hey @samstonehill this sounds like a awesome story and I am very much looking forward to reading about it, all I would suggest is dont do more then 4 posts as everybody already mentioned below, also I will be supporting you as you have been supporting me thanks alot dude.
Thanks. I'm still feeling my way into how this one will play out. They tell me the four post limit is being lifted in Feb, but I guess spreading it out over a longer period would increase followers. The whole story in one day could be a bit intense!
Yes I keep hearing they will be lifting it which could give you more time to write if you need it, and I guess that all depends on how long it will be and how much you want to try this experiment. Good Luck
"earns between $2 and $4, even when I have put hours into its creation. We all know how that feels, right?" JEEEZZZZ yep.