Are You A Minnow in a Steemit Storm Counting the Days When You're A Humpback Whale? Learn how to think before you sink.
Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich is not titled, Grow Rich And Think for a reason. The thinking comes first. The mindset is more important than the money. This post aims to feed your head.
Creating a successful blog in a social arena like Steemit requires you to think in a different way than on any other social media platform out there.
Starting a blog on Steemit is like buying a new piece of land in an established neighborhood. Your account is your own private lot of real estate that you're going to build a hotel on in hopes of getting lots of visitors staying in your hotel.
Why Steemit Seems Unfair
As you drive past the other beautiful properties (other people's blogs) that were built months or even a year ago, you get excited thinking about how your hotel is going to look and how much you'll be able to rent it for.
If this were a real neighborhood, how silly would it be to pull up to your property, start pouring your foundation and then complain to the neighbors that no one is renting your rooms? That would make no sense, right?
The hotel is not finished yet. It still needs walls, a roof, plumbing, electricity, furnishings, and a decorator. It needs all those things before anyone would want to book a room there let alone recommend it to a friend.
And yet, I see this happen all the time on Steemit. A new user complaining about how unfair it is that someone posted a video of their kid singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star that made 200 Steem Dollars and their golden nugget of a post that they spent two days researching and writing made .02 cents. "It's not fair", they say.
I say it is fair. Who would want to pay to camp out on an empty lot? I'm not saying that their post is not valuable. It may be the most important words put down since the bible for all I know. But there is more to succeeding on Steemit than just writing posts.
Using the same hotel building analogy, you may have the most comfortable bed in the world available to rent to the most weary traveler but if that bed is on an empty lot of land you're not going to get Hilton prices for it.
Someone new to Steemit, seeing that kid singing video I mentioned earlier earning so many rewards, cannot understand why that person is getting so many upvotes. What's so special about that video? What makes that content perceived as valuable and my very well researched and written post only worth .02 cents?
What they don't understand is all the work that went into building a loyal following of repeat visitors on that other account long before they even knew Steemit existed.
More than likely, there were many posts that other account made that were full of valuable information that earned very little rewards just like you. But did they complain about it or did they finish building the foundation and then put up the walls and roof?
They probably spend many hours interacting with lots of other users, helping them navigate the Steemit ecosystem, sharing what they have learned, developing relationships and earning the respect and support of their followers one person at a time.
They spend time improving their writing skills, learning how to format and write engaging posts, helping to promote other people's content they like, upvoting and commenting on other people's blogs and selflessly giving to the community without asking anything in return.
They learned how to present their ideas in an easy to understand and digestible way and know how to format a blog post so readers can focus on the story.
This seems to be the consistent pattern that makes a successful Steemit blog with one exception and that is the people who invested lots of money buying Steem power and earn by commenting and curating other's content but don't make any posts of their own.
When an established Steemit blogger posts the occasional video of their cat doing something cute their followers upvote them because that's what friends do. They made friends here on Steemit not because of the cute cat video. They made friends by giving them useful, helpful insights about whatever they are passionate or knowledgeable about. They earned their followers respect and support.
Earning respect and support from people online is no different than earning their respect and support face to face. It takes time and there is some effort involved. Respect and loyalty are not free and cannot be bought. It is always earned.
If you're new on Steemit and new to blogging in general, getting a loyal following to your blog is going to take some time and effort before you can see any significant, consistent earnings from your posts.
Most everything you need to learn about succeeding on Steemit can be found on Steemit. Just Google your question and add the word Steemit at the end of your question and you'll find an answer on Google.
It's unrealistic to think that as a new user on Steemit you can just sign up for an account, post a few pics of what you had for lunch and pay for your next meal. You could get lucky and have a post that does just that, but more than likely more effort will go into it.
Like it or not, complaining about your poor initial results is not going to help you get your blog earning any sooner. If that bothers you and you think it is unfair then Steemit is not for you. There are plenty of sites you can vent your frustrations on to your hearts content, like Facebook for instance, but don't expect to be rewarded for that.
If, on the other hand, you're ready to roll up your sleeves (or invest a shitload of money buying Steem power) and share your knowledge, passion, creativity, and thoughtful content with an enthusiastic, loyal, and engaged audience, than Steemit is the exact right place to be.
The Value Of One True Folllower
Uncle Luzcypher is not here to sugar coat things for you. If you're not ready to invest a lot of money to buy Steem power then it is going to take your "sweat equity" and considerable time and effort to get results. What, did you think you were going to get your money for nothing and your chicks for free?
NOTE: Not even rock stars get their money for nothing and chicks for free. They work their asses off for it just like everybody else. It took my band 5 years to get our "overnight success". (OK, we did get laid a lot, usually after 5 songs and 5 drinks, but not paid a lot.)
Without followers a blog is just someone talking to themselves in the mirror. Successful blogs are not about you, the writer, they are about the reader and how reading your post can help them or at least entertain them. Can you put people in the picture of a great story you tell that will make them laugh, cry, or help them with their life in some way?
Write about it and keep writing about it and the followers will come. Not just any followers, but the kind of followers that need to hear your story and can appreciate what you have to say.
To learn blogging tips from one of the most successful bloggers on Steemit read, Sweetsssj's Tips To Successful Lifestyle Blogging On Steemit --- by @sweetsssj
It's important to remember that money (or SBD) follows value and consistent money follows consistent value. Expecting your posts to make money right away and on every post you make is unrealistic.
The empty store
Imagine walking into a store that just opened and they had nothing on the shelves yet. Everything is on sale for $5 but there isn't a thing in the store to buy. You walk up to the counter and say to the cashier, "Hey, what kind of a store is this?" They say, "I don't know yet but everything is on sale for $5."
What would you buy? Nothing, right? You would probably walk right out the door and never come back and certainly would not recommend that store to anyone. The next time you walked past the store you would just keep walking.
Now imagine approaching the cashier and asking what they are selling and they say, "Helpfulness. What can I help you with that is worth $5 to you?" Now one has to stop and think because there are a lot of things I can think of that are worth $5 to me.
- Traveling tips that will save you money.
- How to negotiate a pay raise at work.
- What to look for in a used car to insure you're not buying a lemon.
- How to get your kids to love doing their homework.
- A map to secret natural hot springs to visit.
- How to tell a Rolex from a Faulex.
- Healthy food recipes.
- How to save money when buying food.
- How to get insanely, loyal followers on Steemit.
- How to cure my hangover from hell.
You get my point, right? Now imagine this store offered whatever is helpful to you but they priced it differently. Everything in the store was free, or $5, or $10, or whatever you wanted to pay.
You would probably visit that store regularly and recommend it to people. A buzz would start to develop around that store. Customers would come check it out and if they found things there that helped them, they would return.
Now imaging treating your blog like a store that sells helpfulness. You don't need to be all things helpful to all people. Just choose to be helpful about things you really are knowledgeable, passionate, and can genuinely help people with. Give it away and do it again and again and again. Before you know it people will be paying you for the gift you are giving them and paying you more than $5.
Steemit Is A Gift Economy
I know this sounds a little crazy but Steemit is a gift economy. What is a gift economy?
A gift economy, gift culture, or gift exchange is a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily exchanged for value received. Social norms and custom govern gift exchange. Gifts are not given in an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity. Wikipedia
A funny thing happens when you give to others without asking in return especially when you do it consistently. They begin to feel indebted to you to the point where they look for ways to return the favor and settle their "debt".
I used to build lots of WordPress websites and taught myself how to sell things online. Each month I would get checks from Amazon, Google, eBay, Clickbank, and many other companies, but one of my most successful sites was a WordPress tutorial site.
WordPress is a blogging platform used by about half of all websites on the internet today. I created a video tutorial site on how to build a WordPress website from start to finish for complete beginners.
What made this site different from all my other sites and online sites like it was I didn't sell anything on the site. It was 100% free. While other sites that taught the same skills were charging good money to teach people how to build a site mine was totally free. All you needed to do was sign up to the site so I did collect the member's name and email.
Most people who sign up for something free online that has value expect to be sold something eventually. Why else would I want their email, right?
Each day I would automatically send them the next video in the course and there was nothing I was selling on it. No link to click through, no act now and save 50%, no last chance offer. All they ever got from me was 100% valuable information that they wanted and asked for with not a single sales pitch.
After about the 30th day of the 40 day course I would get email from people and comments on the sight like:
"I can't believe you're giving this away for free! You could charge a lot of money for this information"
"I have actually made money building websites for other people from what I learned in your course. I feel like I owe you something.
"Is there a way I can give you a tip?"
Then I noticed my subscription rate growing rapidly and incoming links coming into my site from other blogs and Google started ranking my site on the first page of their search results for some very popular search terms.
Similar sites that did charge for the same information I was giving away for free offered to buy advertising on my site or to buy my site from me.
So, what was the catch and how did I make money on that site?
About the 40th day of this 40-day course, there was a link with a very soft sell suggestion of how to get 50% off of a hosting account. Hosting is something you need if you're going to build a website. My conversion rate was 30% from that one link.
Now, typically conversion rates for similar offers online through email are about 1-3% of you're really good at it so a 30% conversion rate is huge. That means 30% of the people that clicked that link bought and almost everyone on my list clicked the link.
I made $50 per year per person for every year that they had that hosting account. There were hundreds of people signing up.
This went against the "proven" knowledge that an offer should be emailed to a new sign up immediately after they sign up and every day after for at least 14-30 days. After that much time, a customer was supposed to lose interest or forget about you. Mine we asking me to sell them something.
Why did this work so well? Because I gave them so much value upfront for free that people were happy to buy their hosting from my at a 50% discount. They felt like paying me already for the value they already received. Because of the valuable gift I gave them they felt reciprocal obligation to do me something for me in return. They needed hosting anyway so why not get it from me. Besides, it's 50% off.
Even though that site only had about 500 subscribers and only 30% of them bought a hosting account from me I made $7500 per year from that alone. So each subscriber was worth $15/year from hosting alone.
I later sold them many other things like themes and plugins for their sites and doubled, then tripled my value per subscriber. But when I sold those things that I used myself I just shared what I was doing and then they would ask me to help them too and would happily buy from me.
The takeaway from all of this is giving first is very valuable especially online where it is harder to build trust with people. And you don't need a lot of followers to be successful, you just need loyal followers that value what you are giving.
Now I realize that in this world of barter economies that we live in this goes totally against everything we were conditioned to believe but let me tell you, it works.
According to Chris Gregory, author and economic anthropologist, reciprocity is a dyadic exchange relationship that we characterize, imprecisely, as gift-giving. Gregory believes that one gives gifts to friends and potential enemies in order to establish a relationship, by placing them in debt. He also claimed that in order for such a relationship to persist, there must be a time lag between the gift and counter-gift; one or the other partner must always be in debt, or there is no relationship. Wikipedia
By always giving your best when you make a post on Steemit, the people who find what you post helpful and interesting will follow, comment, upvote, and resteem your content. You don't need to beg them you just need to keep giving to them.
To understand more about what a gift economy is and how they work read The Reason You Don't Understand Steemit -It's Like A Gift Economy Not A Commodity Economy --- by @stellabelle
Conclusions
Steemit is a project that is constantly under construction and one big experiment that is unique to the online world of social media. With the promise of rewards we can sometimes get distracted to the fact that it's basically a social experiment. Being social is more important than just trying to earn money.
Being authentic, consistent, and involved with the community, besides having its own rewards, is what makes someone a valuable member of this community. But relationships don't develop overnight. They take time.
People come to Steemit because they hear about this site you can make money on and get lured into giving it a try but get discouraged when the rewards are not instant. In this fast paced world of ours we sometimes forget that social media is more about being social than anything else.
When you study some of the more successful people on Steemit you'll notice that their focus is not so much on what's in it for them, they are more about what they can do for you. That's how gift economies work.
If you're new here and are wondering what this place is all about I highly recommend you change your focus to what can you give to this place instead of what can you get from this place. Do that and you will be most welcomed in any neighborhood and do it often and long enough and you'll make a lot of friends that will be more than happy to upvote your occasional silly post.
I hope this post helps you wrap your head around this crazy place we call Steemit and may your content earn many upvotes, your Steem power grow in your sleep, and your resteems and followers be plentiful.
Related Posts
Grasping A Better Steemit Mindset --- by @papa-pepper
The Mindset Behind Success --- by @ianneate
Why 95 Of Steemit Blogs Are Doomed To Fail Before They Even Start Fa5B88732Fec --- by @SteemRocket
This is an amazing post. Completely comprehensive and took me a while to read, but I read it all. I feel you are 100% correct. I have my lot and I'm building on it, but I decided to build a small carriage house first while I work on my hotel. That way I can at least rent one room a night and generate a little income. :)
I love how you explained the gift economy and the idea you had for the training site is awesome! Smart. Plus a 30% conversion rate is incredible.
Thank you for what you do for steemit and your followers. You really do provide incredible insight and wonderful advice. I also appreciate your recent activity on my blog. I really appreciate you taking the time to read, resteem and vote. It means a lot. Thank you so much.
You're writing some great stuff which ios why I started following you. Keep up the good work and I look forward to more from you. Thanks for taking the time out to read my post too. Much appreciated.
great post @luzcypher, this really captures the "essence" of STEEMIT, and why so many people become hooked on it and enamored by it once they really start to "get it".
Just the past few days alone, I've tried to explain STEEMIT along the lines that you've described. I believe this will now be my new "go-to" post to help people better understand what I'm talking about with STEEMIT and what makes it such a unique and special "social experiment"!
I like to call it "John Galt Island, our new City in the Virtual Sky", though I'm still not quite sure even that fully captures the "essence" I'm going for! lol
btw, resteemed too! :)
... and also, this clip just really hits the nail on the head:
Wow @luzcypher thank you for bringing this much wisdom with this post and cheers @alexpmorris for directing my here!
Your writing and analogies were spot on all the way and broke it down so easily for anyone to grasp. I myself appreciated the reality check that we all need sometimes. The truest gift is in giving and re-framing what we can bring to Steemit, or how can I be of service to the whole is POWERFUL!
What I personally came away with that really helps me is "Successful blogs are not about you, the writer, they are about the reader and how reading your post can help them or at least entertain them." THIS IS GOLD!
Thank you Sirs for sharing,
Wholeness.
couldn't have said it better myself! :)
Me too ! 😉
Thank to you, that have resteemed this goof posting so I can see on my feed page. Nice ! :)
Thank you and you are more than welcome. I appreciate you.
Hi @luzcypher, hope you don't mind man. I'd like to link to this post in my blog today? You've really helped me reevaluate my subject matter and I feel all I can do to help your rewards is the least I can do. Lmk thanks :)
holy macaroni that's a lot of good stuff and links here, as a new and hopefully up and coming steemian i really gotta check it out, TY !!
Talk about value, this could be an hour long keynote speech with all the knowledge you are dropping here. I really enjoy the hotel metaphor and the store selling nothing for $5 as two great ways to explain why some users earn so much more for their posts.
I've had a good perspective shift about this. Now that my account is a bit established, I see many newcomers in my feed earning way less than me. Now I'm the guy who has the upvote that can provide some money! It reminds me that patience is everything, and that if new users are willing to grind it out for less than a buck per post, I should be more than happy to post at the current rate I tend to earn.
Awesome post, I'll be linking other users here in the future.
I'm glad this post got you thinking.
I can remember when Steem was .04 cents and we just kept posting every day and powering up.
Wish I knew about Steemit then!
this must go on a lot because I see posts like this all the time explaining to people that the rewards ain't instant and you have to build a following and all the stuff you would think is common sense. Well keep telling it like it is maybe some day people will understand.
Dear @Luzcypher I love your post. Thanks for all the metaphors, and the howtos with links to other posts that I am sure will be helpful. I'm new, but the appeal to me is that this is a big social experiment. I am willing to be authentic here in a way I have never done on another platform.
Thanks for the story of your wordpress video series. That is very compelling. I have a large following at a wordpress blog that I have been writing for about 10 years, and I want to bring that group of people over, but before I do, I need to understand this platform better myself, and be able to educate them so that they don't start with their hands out. I am looking forward to using this article as a resource. Do you mind if I link to it at www.ofsuccesslaw?
You gave a great deal of value in this post. Thank you for modeling the behavior that you are sharing. I love that this is an economy based on value. What I add to Steemit will be my 'currency.' I've just decided to not even think about the money I receive, but think about the people I meet, share what I have, and enjoy other's contributions. I love that you started out with Napoleon Hill, He was all about what you have to offer.
Sure you can link this to your blog.
You have the right approach to Steemit in my view. Forget about the money and think about the interactions and what you can bring to the table to help the community. The more you do that the more fun you'll have and the rewards will grow too. It is a great big experiment and fun to be part of it.
Thanks @luzcypher. I've been out for about a week with a health issue. I'm not forgetting you, and I love your work.
I have meet many great people from my YouTube channel and also here on steemit. I like the interaction between people form my blogs and such and sharing something people do not know about or what to learn about.
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STOPAwesome guys! Thanks
To be honest I was getting a bit impatient myself. Now that I have read your article I have re-aligned my thinking and need to just keep doing what I am doing. If you add value you will be rewarded, if you want to get paid to post you most likely won't.
Thanks for reading my post and Steem on.
3 years before steem...i even found myself paying out of pocket to help bitshares and now steem.
And without the appreciation of all those who saw me never give up...id never be where i am today. But it was because i never gave up just as much.
Consitent value... 100%
Lots of great information in this post that I cannot read all right now because of time's sake but am resteeming so I can catch up on the rest later.
I do love the whole analogy about the hotel and though I am still pretty new here, I never understand why people complain about things being unfair. I came in here with the complete understanding that it takes work and time to establish a good following - a TRUE following, not that silly follow for follow rubbish.
Of course, I have been building a youtube channel for nearly a year so that could explain why I would not expect to suddenly be a whale in my first week but when I look at how I am growing here, in comparison, I am growing much faster and getting better rewards here than on youtube - and not just monetarily. So I am very grateful for how far I have come so far and have no complaints!
With you understanding and mindset you will go far on Steemit. Thank you for the resteem.
Wow this is a really well done article. Honestly I didn't read every single sentence, but I went through the whole thing and you made so many really good points. If I wasn't already aware and didn't already agree and was new to Steemit I would totally have gotten a lot of value from this post.
This post really helps people get in a proper head space for Steemit. The sooner the better I say.
So very nice contribution to this platform, I may reference this post in one of my posts as it highlights a point so thoroughly why do it my self?
SteemON!
Haha that's bs
If a fish follows your advice he will get cents
It's better I grow tits
That's the only way to make some cash here
Unless you have buddies in high places they put you on a list
And than you get hundred us for a pic of a chicken curry
Or a vid about nothing
It seems like you missed the entire point of this post.
It's like luzcypher missed the entire point of the concept of heaven
Haha I don't think so
You just trying to get away easily
I have no idea what you're talking about.
A guy calls himself luzcypher don't get it
Luzcypher was the person closest to god almost perfect like god himself
So he questioned the authority of god
That was his downfall
But he is still the NR 2 after all
Come on try harder
Thx for your advice
But u not gifting you using people to push up the price of the cryptos
So you can make a big profit
That's very ok for me that's why I am looking at steem too
But I don't want to swallow all that bs you are trying to feed everybody
Again, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying or that you understand what I'm saying in my post. No harm done.
Thanks a lot for this reflexion. You have changed my perspective for good. You have excellent content!
~Vancry
just 2 words.. Thank you !
That is something I needed to read. I got lucky and had a few early posts pay out well, but there are a lot more of my posts that havent reached those levels. I post on myriad topics, so not all of my content will resonate with all of my followers when and if they see it. Im barely over a month on steemit, and have a loooooooonnngg way to go before reaching whale territory. Lol. Thanks for this post. Sometimes we just have to hear it again.
Persistence really does pay off. Just keep on Steeming.
I can totally relate to this. Roughly same situation as yours.
Wow! This has to be one of the best posts I have read! Had to resteem this! You my friend, are droppin the golden nuggets! @luzcypher
Just sharing some thoughts with the community. Glad you liked it and thanks for reading my post.
:D
Think and Grow rich with Steemit. I like your tips. awesome!! Up voted and re-steemed!
Thanks for the resteem
What a beautiful post, loved reading it.
Some people are in hurry because of their circumstances, like may be they are jobless or have less reserves for the next coming months but whatever the reason, the truth is we have to be patient and follow a "Be Yourself" approach rather than writing about something just for the sake if $$.
You're exactly right. Social structures take some time to grow like planting a seed before harvesting the fruit. While we wait we feed, water, and care for it. If we nurture it well the fruit will be abundant and some of it will be low hanging fruit.
Thanks for reading my post. Cheers!
You have plenty of examples, from hotels to planting seeds :D
And no problem!
Knocked it outta the park again. Your steem-help posts are invaluable, I'm again sharing this with groups on fb, and resteemed here! This will help a lot of folks take a deep breath, re-centre, and either buckle down to be in it for the long haul, or peace out.
PS, LOL to your 'free chicks'! Glad your band had those early successes to get you through to the big ones :)
Thank you for reading my post and happy you enjoyed it. I just spent 10-hours on Steemit so I'm taking a deep breath right now.
Have a cerveza you deserve it!
Well, that was the longest post that I've read all the way to the end. It was worth the time spent, good information to use to carry on with the writing.
I usually don't have the attention span necessary to read long posts, but like I said, it was worth it.
Aww, what a sweet thing to say. Thank you for your valuable time and beautiful music.
Excellent post! Steemit and the people in steemit owe us nothing starting off. Just like real life, you have to earn respect before opportunities come knocking. Some people are natural at creating great content. But I believe hard workers can surpass natural talent if they work hard and never give up!
I agree with you on that. Anything can be learned and persistence is the winner at most thing in life.
thanks very much -- it means a lot to me to not be renting a bed in a unfinshed hotel and to learn to give more value to people ,for free. I really enjoy your easy to read writing style and will work on writing better myself too. Of course i followed and upvoted too -D
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this post and for the follow.
all good - i just posted a few pictures from our recent holiday in Japan - drop in if you like travel shots. All the best ,David
If you need a guide to write better, my post is linked in this post. I invite you to have a look at it.
not sure where your talking about - i read this post
Awesome post! As I was reading through I thought of the post @stellabelle made about the gift economy which made mention of the steemit champion @papa-pepper, then low and behold you talked about it and linked to it!
This is great advice for everyone, not just the new kids on the block!
Those guys are awesome and I find many of their posts so helpful.
I'll always regret that I drifted away from steemit in only a couple months when I first joined. Knowing what I know now, I think I could have being doing great by now with just a little more faith, persistence, and hard work. I won't make the same mistakes again. Thanks for this very thorough post, it's solid inspiration.
Knowing what you know now? And what is that exactly? Just curious.
Oh just knowing how well the community would develop mostly, and that I just needed to be more persistent. I sort of struggled to find many people I connected with at first, and I gave up too soon haha
Hey. Just saw what you wrote here and I think that the lesson you learn is very important to you. And next time you are will be one step ahead of giving up you can use this power to NOT do it%) For me, life is always giving us lessons, not bad experiences! Good luck and in my opinion you should Steem on - Prismatic Form is gorgeous song and I do like that it is written intuitevly%)
Thank you! I'm glad you like it :)
Awesome post. Have been here a short while and this has some very useful, and little understood wisdom.
Has been resteemed, hopefully it will catch another noobie and steer them the propper way.
Thank you
Thanks for the resteem and welcome to Steemit.
Thanks man.. Great post.
This is actually something I can share with my friends who don't know anything about Steemit yet.
Keep up the good work. See you around.
Thanks a lot. Cheers!
Great tips! Thanks.
First of all, thank you very much for mentioning my post, unlce @luzcypher and I feel priviliged to be part of this amazing post.
I absolutely agree with the hotel analogy and how an unbuilt hotel won't receive any guests. I am building my hotel knowing that when it's ready it will be full of guests.
Steemit rewards are not linear and predictable. I am quite satisfied with what I have got in my first month from Steemit. To get that, I have put in a lot of effort and written more than 60 posts in my first month and leave more than a thousand comments and replies.
You very accurately pointed out two things everyone needs to prosper on Steemit.
1. Patience:- Building a hotel or building your blog will take time so there's a lot of patience required.
2. Money:- If we don't want to spend our time building a blog, we have to invest money in the platform to get rewards.
I can also relate to your WordPress experience because I have been blogging too for a while. Nice to meet you on that account as well.
I agree with your conclusions and I think everyone must read this detailed post that's why I am resteeming it.
Thank you again!
Thank for the resteem and for the helpful post you made. Congratulations on your progress so far on Steemit. Keep Steeming and having fun with it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, uncle Luzcypher, for telling it like it is. This should be required reading for newbies. As a Minnow with a digital marketing background, I know that the real success will be in the quality of my followers (not my wallet). Since I started a little over a week ago, I've had more fun getting to know people and learning ALL sorts of things - the little bits of SteemPower or SteemDollars earned is just icing on cake.
Great attitude @jannell. You're approach is spot on.
This is fantastic and thank you for bring this issue up. Every since i joined this community and felt the love, i decided to bring in as many people as i can . Some of these people sadly dont get the concept. All they think about is the money and i always tell them to focus on socializing more with people on this platform. I am thankful you share the same thought on this issue as i do and i hope they see this post as i have resteemed it.
Thank for the resteem. It's good to know we're on the same page.
Thank You so very much for posting this, you knocked it out of the ball park and then drove the nail home! Everything you have said is what I have seen here on building the relationships with Respect and Loyalty and quit trying to get rich and become humans again in forming relationships, that is the treasure (the people)..Resteemit for others to get a clue!
People are the treasure. Exactly. The only thing that has or creates any value at all is people. Good point.
I have had people ask me why I blog on steemit. I tell it is to meet and become somewhat friends with people. I may never meet them personally but it is good to just interact with people that may not have the knowledge I have and I can help them or not let them make the same mistakes I have made. I have made my friends from other social media platforms, I one I talk to all the time on the phone and in person. Some have asked you have 170 or so followers and only get 7 or 8 votes on your posts, why is that? I do not know . maybe it was because they did not find it informative or entertaining. I enjoy putting what I do in something that my kids and grandkids can see and have when I am no longer on this earth or reminders to me of what it was like before I got this or that done. It is about the journey and what I personally learned and what someone else can learn from it. Showing someone something new and maybe opening their mind to a whole new or different idea. Thanks for reading and have a great day.
It is a journey and we're on it together.
I've been on here a week and today I reached a point of frustration, this post got me back on track. Sometimes you can start to drown when you try to swallow too much info at once. Your links to other articles were helpful as well. I even followed @walkingkeys because I found him here.
I've been pretty scattershot this week as I try to gain a foothold on what this is all about. It seems as though I should above all make my page worth looking at, at least for most of my posts. I'll be traveling the world soon and hope to give travel tips and stories of my adventures. Also, it seems to be a good idea to post articles about what I'm learning about steemit, so that others can use what I've learned and find encouragement. Thanks again, I haven't read all of this article yet, but most of it and plan to read more of your posts. Thanks for your advice and hard work!
Travel is a great topic to post about on Steemit.
You should check out @lizanomadsoul who just started a two-year world tour, @world-travel-pro, and @sweetsssj.
Also, check out @travel-trail.
Thanks for the tips, very much appreciated. I'll follow them!
too many great points to mention. Loved it... resteemed and all that... can't refollow you, unfortunately.
Thanks for the resteem
I'm curious. Since you are already doing pretty well on Wordpress, what makes join Steemit? Normally, people don't really deviate much from what they are already doing. Is there a fundamental shift in your perception that made you decide to blog on Steemit?
Hope you can share your experience.
I sold all my websites a few years ago. That WordPress tutorial site was bought out by a competing site.
Seems it was ranking for some of their most profitable keywords on Google. They eventually made an offer I couldn't refuse.
When I saw Steemit I knew right away it was something unique and jumped right in.
Like a cool cup of water offered to a marathon runner along the way, posts like this offer a refreshing reminder to minnows like me why we should keep on Steeming!
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Ahh.
Love the housing/hotel metaphor.
The gap however is that building a foundation is a very different skill set than running a bed and breakfast or giant hotel. How much should steemit be invested in making foundation pouring easy versus making hotel owners master the skill?
Also agree that steemit is a gift economy. But, how do people discover the gifts you may be giving away?
Thanks for the post.
You make a good point about different skill sets and Steemit needs to make on-boarding easier before main adoption is possible.
As a general rule, only 10% of people online are content creators and the rest are consumers. That's why media (television, radio, internet, cable, print) make money producing content and I don't think Steemit can change that fact.
The majority of rewards here will always come from creators so it is a skill set that will get the most rewards. Consumers are not going to build a following in my view.
How people discover the "gifts you're giving away" is another topic entirely and a good idea for another post.
Great article. Made me think though, if it's a gift economy, which you make a great case for, people might want to reevaluate their thinking on taxing it. You don't pay taxes on gifts.
Lol, right. What are these taxes that you speak of?
They say it's voluntary
I read the whole post and it is amazing! Thank you so much for the post. I loved the hotel analogy. This was well worth the time to read!
Thanks for this post, I am just starting out and hammering away at what I believe is content people will want and suffering the "I have built it where is everyone" feeling.
You are so right, I will keep going and slowly try to find my audience :)
It is slow starting out on Steemit but don't stop or give up. It will pay off eventually.
Great post. Up-voted, followed, resteemed and shared.
Think and Grow Rich is a good book and you have reminded me that I need to read it again, except maybe Chapter 11 on the Mystery of Sexual Transmutation (what's that all about).
Nice explanation on the reciprocity principal. Have you read Influence by Robert Cialdini by any chance? Some great info in that book about it with an example of how the Hare Krishna use flowers as gifts to make you feel like you should donate.
I'll check that book out. It sounds like a good one. Thanks for the resteem and follow.
please follow and up-vote i will do the same for you
You should read this and stop begging for follows and upvotes.
Thanks for information
First of all congrats for the post. It is really the right mind set to have and not only here on Steemit. I practiced that in my life and most of the time it paid out. I have had dificult times in my life and in all of them i had help and suport from people i helped before. Here im just nobody but if i see some one that needs help i try to help. I cant give much because i dont have much but i will give you my own shirt if you need it, that may make me poor but it will make me happy.
Steemit is one of a kind. The people here care and the truth is that even with no rewards (thats the case most of the times for me) i like to be here and be a part of it.
That alone makes me whant to give and help, so i xan just be a part of something good.
So we must forget about the money and focus on whats really important.
Saudaçoes
Ps.: To avoid hell hangovers, party in heaven.
Steemit is a special place unlike anything on the internet.
Yes everything is correct. First you need to earn a reputation, and then it will work for you :)
I loved your metaphor of the hotel and the one with the empty store. They're fantastic illustrations of exactly what you were talking about, and you're absolutely right. You can't demand value here on Steemit. Value for your work is derived from what other users gain from it. The trick is, and always has been, developing connections with people and providing value to them. Just like in the real world where word-of-mouth is worth thousands of dollars in random advertising, resteems and social interaction are worth their weight in gold when it comes to building your blog. I'm thankful that I've made it past the 500 follower threshold myself, and I stand by that advice. Build a quality following and the rewards always follow.
Congratulation on reaching 500 followers
I agree with you, newcomers are in an unnecessary hurry. i haven't made any thousand dollars on steemit YET but i am getting lots of benefits with it's great content.
i just think that things that can be easily achieved are not really worth a lot.
Persistence pays off in the end
I also think, that the important Systematic Approach. You just need to do job. And love what you do.
This equally applies to the management of your blog on Steemite.
I agree. Loving what you do makes it fun and not feel like work.
This post is most excellent!
I chose it to feature in my new project of MUST READ POSTS.
U can check it out here if you like. Thanks for all u do for this community.
SteemON!
https://steemit.com/community/@quinneaker/quinn-s-quality-content-curation-q2c2-episode-2
Aww, thanks for choosing this post @quinneaker. Much appreciation.
Totally deserve it mate!
Haven't seen much of you lately, to busy on the white sand beaches, blue waters and hot girls aye???
I get my licks in when I can.
So true! :)
Most excellent post @luzcypher... these kinds of posts should be "required reading" for all newcomers here. And I'm glad to see @stellabelle's great post about Steemit as a gift economy still having legs to run on!
I remember a couple of my very early posts-- that I worked on for a couple of hours-- earning a bit fat zero! And I remember writing and powering up through 10c Steem, and 9c Steem and then 8c Steem and thinking "this is NUTS, this place is going to go TU any moment."
Which, of course, it didn't. I like the whole hotel metaphor, too...
this is an amazing post. i feel you are very correct