Hi Everyone,
Wow, I‘ve made it to 2000 followers. I celebrated 1000 in January and I get to celebrate 2000 in February. So I feel pretty happy about that. For the 1000 follower milestone, I listed the names of all my followers. I think 2000+ is a bit too many to list this time. I want to say that I appreciate the second 1000 followers just as much as the first 1000.
Exciting Year
So far, 2018 has been quite an eventful year for both myself and the platform. I think most people got excited about the jump in value of Steem as we began the year. The value has dropped in February but it is still pretty good at over US$3. The quality of the platform is constantly improving and the number of new accounts are increasing quite rapidly. So a big thumbs up to the Steem Team.
I am very happy with the popularity of my contests both meme and puzzle contests; I think so far most contests have been getting over 100 entries. I have to thank all those that enter for making that possible. I am also happy to run these contests and I have a lot of fun thinking up different puzzles as well as finding funny and unusual photos for all of you to create interesting and crazy memes. The popularity of the contests have put a strain on my Steem Power. So I have not been upvoting entries by as much as I did when I was only getting 10 to 20 entries.
I have also focused my attention on writing economics posts as well making economics videos for Dtube. The economics posts this year have been fairly theoretical with a focus on game theory. I find game theory to be a very interesting topic in economics and I feel it generally does not get the exposure it needs. I have also put together some posts and videos around a few other topics relating to consumer theory.
I have also put out two fairly controversial posts regarding abuse and bot usage that were well received by the general Steemit community. I also wrapped up my 5 fives areas of abuse (animals) in written posts, there are more posts to come along similar lines.
So where from here?
I will still be running the regular contests as well as some questions in some posts where I will be giving out small awards for correct answers. I will be starting an economics competition series in late March which will have different challenges each week. I will be giving out awards to the weekly winners. I will have more on that in the coming weeks.
I will continue my posts and videos relating to cruelty-free economics, formerly known as ‘vegan economics’. I changed the name as I wanted to expand the development of this subject matter. I also feel the broader audience might be more receptive to the name. As the year goes on, I will be pushing in deeper. I will be revisiting value of life, cost of life, and cost of cruelty. These areas can get a bit controversial and there will be many people that will not necessarily agree with my approach or my conclusions but that kind of makes it exciting and as an economist I get used to be being disagreed with and challenged.
I will continue with my posts relating to economics both theoretical and applied. I will be revisiting my dark side of economics series again at some point. There are still plenty to explore in that area. I will also be applying economics to explain some of the goings on within Steemit itself. If given enough exposure I am sure these posts will spark plenty of debate.
Use of Bots
I have been a fairly big user of bots in the past. I have written a post about how to get the most out of bot usage. Some of you may have noticed the lower payouts on quite a few of my posts recently. This is because I am not mostly not upvoting myself with bots anymore. I did not ever intend to use the bots indefinitely and I wanted to get off them at some point. I feel that with the following I have, it is about time to see how much my post are worth without distorting the value by buying votes. Ideally, I want to reserve vote buying for posts I feel are of significance to the broader community.
Vote buying is generally returning a negative return on investment as well. I find that votes are flooding in right before bidding closes and they continue coming in even if the maximum profitable bid is zero. Vote buying is also becoming riskier with fluctuations in the price of Steem and SBD.
Decline Payout
I have been asked why I sometimes decline payout. So far I have only declined payout for milestone posts such as this one. I personally don’t expect to receive payout for something that is congratulatory. I rather get paid for something that is adding new original content, which I believe is most of my posts. Accepting payout for this type of post somehow does not feel sincere.
I came to Steemit to contribute interesting and informative posts and earn enough to be able to support dedicating the time necessary to produce that content. It took a while to get momentum, which can be expected, but things have now started to progress faster than I imagined. Investing my own money in Steem has worked out well for me as well. I would strongly recommend anyone who is looking to invest to put that money into Steem Power. There is a reasonably good chance Steem will appreciate in the long-run. If you have more Steem Power, I can earn more on my posts from your upvotes. Also remember, do not overstretch if you do not have the money to invest.
Next milestone
I intend to make my next milestone at 5000 followers. Not so long ago that seemed very far away. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my post. Keeping steeming away. I believe that this is the platform to be if you want to make a difference in your life and those around you. It can be slow at first but keep plugging away.
Below is a gif flashing through my post thumbnails (excluding memes contest) since my 1000 follower post. I hope you enjoy, thank you Steemians.
P.S.
To just let everyone know that I will be posting less frequently for most of March as I will be overseas followed by some consultancy work. In late March I will endeavour to get the economics competition series running.
congrats.. how many of them are active ones?
I hope most of them are active. I try and stay engaged with them and I think my contests help keep them coming back.
This is really great milestone for you and you deserve it one of the most hardworking steemian who shares the best content always and quite interactive thanks for sharing keep inspiring and smiling :) steem on
Thank you @blazing. It is people like you that make all this possible. Thank you for your support for all these months. I also really enjoy reading your comments.
Congratulations to you, you are a successful person, and your pots are very meaningful, successful always @spectrumecons
I'm glad that you feel my posts have some meaning. I try my best to bring my knowledge to the community.
yes, very good, I strongly agree with your opinion @spectrumecons
congrats @spectrumecons for your success. having 2000 followers is not easy. this steeamians have their support for you. And I am proud to say I am one of them. Again happy 2000!!! ;)
Thank you @juwel, your support means a lot to me. It was hard to gain a following at first but once things got rolling the number of followers multiplied quickly.
I want to congrats you @spectrumecons for the beautiful number of 2000 followers and also for your decision to quite the bots upvote. Indeed they are very useful in first month, but at these number of followers you shouldn't need them anymore. Good Luck!
Thank you @gabriel.ncl. The bots can certainly help at the beginning and I recommend using them so your material does not get buried. Eventually, it is important to be able go without them. I'm not 100% off them and I will use them occasionally still when I think a post needs an extra boost.
That is the good achievement and you have done this in less than one year. Hope you will achieve 5,000 followers in next 6 months.
Well done.
Thank you @mehta for participating in many of my contests. It is always harder at the beginning. It takes time and patience to succeed. It is great to have a lot of followers but it is also important to stay engaged with them so that they will want to keep coming back.
Well good for you, 2000 followers, congratulations, and increase of 1000 within a month, that is tremendous hike, I think the steemit community is growing up very fast, keep sharing such posts, thankyou
Thank you @mumin007 for your generous words.
Completely my pleasure
Awesome man..
Congrats on your 2k followers..
I've only participated in one of your contests, but it was really good.
Keep them coming.
Yeah, will do. It's great that you can enjoy them.
CONGRATULATIONS @spectrumecons
Thanks @chetan9.
@spectrumecon ...........congratulation for your achievement............i think,,,you are the super model for our steemains...........best of luck,,,,,go ahead..
Thank you so kindly. I try my best to bring as much to the community as I can. I also wish you all the best with your time on Steemit.
congrats man for your 2k followers, keep seeming and hope you keep posting your contests...
I certainly will. Thank you for your support @muhasib.
Hallo sir ...... CONGRATULATIONS @spectrumecons
Thank you @aowal202. I wish you all the best on your journey.
Congratulations on 2000 folower may forward to grow again folower
I certainly hope so.
Amin
I want to congratulate you, this is what I can say, hopefully the future will increase again its followers
It seems like things are moving fast. So I am very hopeful.
congratulations to you for the achievement of followers've reached 2000 more this is what I can say
It is exciting to see those numbers grow. I have never experienced this kind of growth on any other platform.
Congratulations I say to my brother the @spectrumencons always provide solutions and information on the development of
Anything relevant to my subject matter.
captivating & brilliant!
Congratulations on remarkable achievement this, hopefully I will be able to follow the trace my brother @spectrumencons, God willing.
If you work hard and keep posting good stuff, you should be able to do so.
Congratulations @spectrumencons on remarkable achievement. because it has been entrusted by followernya a total of 2000, rarely to earn trust such as, because not everyone can trust by the follower.
I try to create content that I think people will find interesting. The number of followers is hopefully an indication of that.
I have to say that I really admire your ethics with the bots and not accepting payouts for these milestone posts. Definitely going to start following you, your blog feed looks very interesting :)
Thank you. It is always great to gain a new follower.
Wow. What a milestone for more follower to your court. Am also a follower of your mems and puzzle contest. Benefiting from your grace
That's great. The contests are some of my most popular posts. I should have my next puzzle contest up some time tomorrow.
Congratulations on the great achievements.
Thank you very much.
congratulations on achieving Hopefully with the continued increase of followers, and continue to victory again
Yes, I hope I can keep bringing in more followers.
Be light. Be twinkle in the dark. Be an inspiration that makes a big difference. Congratulations on achieving 2000 more followers
Thank you @cutyanti for your kind words. I try my best to create content that I believe will be useful or enjoyable for the community.
I always hope that the sun will always shine on your heart, success always be with you, and happiness will come to answer your prayers, congratulations on the achievement of 2000 follower
Thank you @yokyok. Those are all things I strive for. I also wish you great success as well.
Congratulations dear. I celebrated 300 a few weeks back.
Congratulations to you. Keep working hard, you will see those numbers climb faster and faster.
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 17 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 14 SBD worth and should receive 47 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigThank you @trufflepig. It is great that you value my post so highly. It looks like you are doing a great service for the minnows of Steemit.
first of all congrats on the milestone buddy !It is nice of you to say nice words about the decline payout while some are indeed the opposite !Well hope you get the next milestone pretty soon this time ;)
I think many people have forgotten what Steemit is all about. It is very sad that so many people are just focusing on earning rather than content.
Well I agree upon that when I first got on in here I always was learning constantly but it is gradually decreasing but some are still maintaining the quality !
Congratulation! That's amazing figure there, you're really helping steemians with your contest, I think you deserve it and more
Thanks @danielisaac. I think my contests are possibly my most popular posts at the moment. I will keep going as long as people enjoy them.
Congratulations for 2000 followers....
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Congratulation. Keep going!
I certainly will.
Congratulations on that milestone. You truly deserve it. I am here to support you.
Your support is truly appreciated. Thank you, @yadah04.
that is the least I could to with all your endeavors. and it was always fun to do your puzzles, etc.
I just started a puzzle contest. You should have a go.
Alright. Thanks for informing me.
@ spectrumecons I hope you will celebrate 3000+ followers in March , have nice time here
That would be great but I'm waiting for 5000 for my next celebration. I'm hoping, maybe sometime in the middle of this year if all goes well.
I hope you will get , your positive attitude towards followers making you famous as my friend told me about you :)
Wooow you really deserve this keep it up
Thanks @dante1. I will keep going as long as I can.
congratulation @spectrumecons i given nice flowers.jpg)
Thanks for the giant sunflower, much appreciated.
congratulations for your 2000 followers
Hey, that's great. You shouldn't give up. It sometimes just takes a while to get things going.