And you have certainly done quite well for yourself-- and congratulations on that!
"What it takes" around here is really two-fold. A lot of people come here with unrealistic expectations, and that's a good part of what's responsible for the high minnow failure rate. I do remember @jerrybanfield being super enthusiastic about the platform early on... and it was "all about the money." Now he has settled into being a far more "responsible" Steemit citizen; running a witness and doing all manners of supportive things for Steemit.
My own account here is 100% "organically created" and I feel like I have done quite well, too. I came here as a content creator, hoping the site would take off and become fairly popular... but I also recognize that will take time. We're pushing into the top-1000 on Alexa, but I see no reason why we can't become a top-100 site within 2-3 years.
You are right about the empty posts... and I fear many of them come from those seeking "easy money." And they may end up being disappointed. But I think we can still grow based on "real" content. At their peak, the old "social blogging" platforms around 2005-06 had some 30 million users. And that was on an Internet that had 15% of the number of total users we have today,
Wow! Where are those people now! I have many contacts on many other platforms since I've been at the weight loss gig for almost 8 years now. I think less than 10% have the content to succeed here at all. And many of those people will never put the time it takes into this place.
I'm absolutely thrilled with the Alexa ranking. Now I do everything I can to get my "good" posts over a $10 payout so I can take advantage of it.
I've followed Jerry to a few places. When I got here is June he was insane. But I've seen him do this in other places. He tries everything with great enthusiasm and is the first to admit he was wrong and back off. I find that very refreshing in this world of people doing nothing.
Thank you for the compliment. I am very happy here and just keep posting!
One of the things I appreciate about Jerry (whom I'd only briefly come across on Facebook before here) is exactly that he stands up and says "Ooops, that might not have been the best thing to do" in a world that otherwise tends to abandon all accountability in order to SELL, SELL, SELL! And he puts his money where his mouth is-- he runs a witness, programs to help people and he put in a bunch of his own money... so he has "skin in the game," as they say.
Where are those people? Most of us did what we were told was "the future:" We created niche blogs that focused on narrow topics and provided information rather than personal experiences. Our "voice" became New York Times style, rather than "conversational." The "social" aspects of blogging were lost to Facebook, leaving behind only the WORDS but not the connections. Which-- I feel-- was a great shame. But I also acknowledge that it's a "sign of the times," relating to our eternally shorter little spans of attention.
There's no reason Steemit shouldn't continue to do really well. At their peak, both Squidoo (now defunct) and HubPages were top-100 web sites, both peaking somewhere in the 60's. If you can make it into the top 100, that's some serious substance...
I was on Squidoo! I don't remember any money from it :)
I've been screaming about the Alexa ranking to all my contacts who are content creators ever since I got here. That was my most compelling reason to join. I've had really good results on my other sites from posting here and my posts rank well if I get over the $10 payout level or so. So far - few of my contacts try - and fewer succeed in this very difficult place.
What I mean by "those people" is that the @archange reports show close to 8000 steemers above the level of redfish. If I actively follow everyone good that I see as I browse here for over 7 months, why am I only following 3000+?
Maybe that is a reasonable number; I'm not sure. These days if I scroll 50 comments on a good post, I am already following at least 45 of the people posting them.