As someone who has been scrolling through the new feed for the majority of the time on Steemit (as a part of my curating process) I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of it.
Some users are able to adapt and quickly find their audience. Others have hard time learning the ways Steemit works. So they get discouraged and decide to leave or they try to get recognized by acting inauthentic.
There is a path that will always lead to your success on the platform. And there are mistakes that will drive you further from it. Here are some common ones I've noticed so far.
Asking for others to check their posts or follow them
We'll start with the most obvious one. You will go a lot further by actually reading posts and genuinely interacting with other people and following them. Most of the time they'll make sure to check out your blog.
Voting exclusively on top trending posts
This brings you less influence and smaller curation rewards. It's fine to check out those posts, they are probably there for a reason. But instead of focusing exclusively on them, go through the feed and look for quality posts from new or maybe not so popular authors. Connect with them and you'll grow together.
Seeing only the earning and not the investment opportunity of the platform
Hearing the concept of Steemit, everyone's excited about possibility to earn money by simply blogging. And that's great. But for everyone who didn't come here from the field of cryptocurrency, it takes some time before they realize that Steemit is one of the best shortcuts to crypto world.
You don't need a powerful mining rig or a big financial investment to get hold of those coins. Because let's face it, blockchain is the most exciting and revolutionary thing that happened since the internet itself. And we are all pioneers of this future world economy.
Not engaging enough with others
I've already mentioned it, but it can't be stressed enough. This is the number one thing you need to do. More important than posting and promoting. You want to create a community around yourself by voting and leaving meaningful, honest comments to posts you like or have something to say about.
And, of course following the like-minded people.
Not utilizing steemit.chat
It is a great tool to help you continue your conversations, promote posts, ask for help on any topic or report plagiarism and abuse.
Not being authentic
This is an amazing opportunity to find yourself, to explore different topics and approaches and see what you enjoy the most. No one is gonna be better you than you. So don't try to copy popular authors. Build your own brand instead.
Not enough effort on title, thumbnail and first paragraph
With thousands of posts submitted every day it's so easy for one to slip by unnoticed. It needs to make a strong first impression when people scroll through the feed.
And the way to do it is by taking extra time to work on your title, first image that is used as a thumbnail, and first paragraph. That's all someone sees when looking for interesting posts. With so much content out here, no one (except the most diligent curators) has the time to read through all of it. So make sure to grab their attention.
Lack of patience
It takes time to start earning significant rewards. Usually. It takes time to build your reputation. Once you introduce yourself and start posting and commenting regularly, people will get to know you and trust in the value of your articles.
It's a steady process, and if you are here in the long run, you won't be bothered by potential lower rewards in the beginning of your journey.
Images: 1
If you like this post, don't forget to upvote, comment and resteem it. Also make sure to follow @alcibiades to stay updated about future posts.
Seriously great article. I need to continue to remind myself of the importance of conversation and stop being lazy and not using Steem chat. I know about it, I have just been to lazy to use it, and that is going to change. I also agree with trying to be yourself. This is what I am most excited about! I believe when you fully let go and express yourself the way you want to is when the people who desire to read that will feel most connected because they will be able to feel your passion through your posts! Thanks for the tips! Cheers🍻
Thanks! Yeah, it's a social media platform after all, so engaging in genuine conversations with others either here or on chat is a best way to build your own community. Cheers!
Informative post. I've only made 2 blog posts so far on Steemit and have written another 10 or so which I'll post up when they're ready.
I like the way your post is structured, using horizontal rules, images and titles to clearly identify different points.
One thing i'm not sure about is whether to lead with an image or start with text.
Personally, I prefer post that start off with text.
an image has a stronger touch
The moral of this story is: go with what YOU want, as the creator. lol
Going with what I know has got me this far. So, I will continue to be authentically me. I spent a week trying to develop a style for my content videos. Suppose I already have a "brand". It's me and what I have to offer.
Much appreciation!
Thanks! Maybe consider making an introduction post where others can get to know you a little better. Steem On!
@moomoo I try to switch styles. sometimes I center a title, sometimes not, same with an image sometimes i begin with an image sometimes not :)
@markush do you find that one style works better than another, votes/views/comments wise? Or does it not matter?
@munchell : I think the best style is your own style :)
Most important is proper content if you ask me.
@markush clever answer, very succinct!
I'm just learning the ways now! Trying to keep to my speciality which is to give people a little giggle. It's hard to attract the right audience though! Thank you for your advice!
@bratteam I like your style, that is what I like to do too. There is nothing that invigorates the spirit more than a good laugh, well maybe that and food.
All very good points. I'd add "fake comments." Nothing is so disappointing as working hard on a post and seeing there's a comment only to find, "I agree. You might like [insert commenter post here]."
I take the time to thoughtfully respond to real comments and often follow those commenters. But spam me and I want nothing to do with you. If I've worked for hours to post something and a commenter also wants my measly dime upvote, the least they can do is show me the courtesy of actually reading my post and demonstrating so in their comments 😉
Or "Nice post, dear friend [insert author name here]". :) I agree with you, either leave meaningful, genuine comment or move along.
I posted a question/request for input yesterday and immediately had two "very informative post, thanks for sharing" comments. I called them both out, was like "the only thing this post informed about was my desire for input, are you sure you read the the post?" One guy actually copped to it and apologized, and then left me actual useful input. Why he couldn't have just done that in first place I'll never understand...
True talk,when u want to comment make sure u take your time to study the write up to make your point of recommendation or against as the case may be,for people to learn one or two things from your comment.My point is what do you understand in other peoples write ups and u want to bring out your point of reasoning for others to see base on your understanding of the article or write up,just do it articulately for others to benefit from your sense of judgement.Thanks.
Jrhughes, your straight forwardness is inspirational! People should be fair enough on comments... but I think building relationships first is basic!!!
I have been on this platform for 2 weeks tomorrow and I'm still learning from the roomie mistakes , I guess that's what makes us become better investors . Thank you for the advice !
Exactly, we can learn a lot from our mistakes. But it's always better to learn from mistakes of other people. :)
I agree! If someone is confident with his/her writing ability, people will just follow naturally, no need to beg for reesteem or upvotes. Focus on creating quality content.
I also posted something similar to this. Great post!
I have read it earlier - wonderful article! You have a great approach and your authenticity is already paying off. :)
Thanks! :) We should post more topics about that to educate steemians.
People should share about their experience on the platform and what they learn along the way. But not too much so that potential newcomers checking the trending page only see posts related to Steemit. :)
I think the "document vs create" idea is very powerful. Sharing the journey is the most powerful way to create compelling content.
THIS.
All great points, although I just had a guy ask me to check out his post in a comment, and I did, and it was awesome. So sometimes that does work.
It helped that he'd left an entertaining comment first though. 🙂
Yeah, sometimes when it's honest and related to your post, it's fine. Other times it's pretty annoying. :) But I found that most users will check out their commenters either way.
Thank you for the informative post...yesterday was my first day on Steemit, and I've already decided to invest some of my crypto here...the platform is truly genius.
Reddit never got me excited like this, the crypto era is only just starting and it truly is going to revolutionize our world...
Upvoted and going to follow...hope to learn as much as I can :)
Glad to hear you are enjoying the platform and see its great potential. It's a game-changer!
Thanks for sharing!! Great read :) Patience is definitely a virtue... I've only been here a couple of weeks but I have seen and interacted with a few people who I think would be great if they stuck it out a little longer, but then they dissappear, i guess maybe disheartened!
I will keep this as a little reference and try not to commit any of the Steemit deadly sins haha :)
Yes, so many promising members left because they earned pennies in the beginning. I believe anyone who pushed through that tough period had no regrets. Looks like you are going to do just fine here. :)
A great way to look at it would be to take a job for 30 days starting at 1 penny a day and that doubles every day for the 30 days. Think multiples and long term. I joined for the Bigger picture. Success takes time and effort. You guys ROCK!
Thank you for the reminder that success take time. I have been building a better relationship with myself and that allowed me to see my pattern of growth. Which goes back to how this body is! The bigger picture is, we are all here doing the work to inform the people.
I have been in many platforms, and it looks like steeemit gives all of the best tools for me to deliver the message and connect with people.
I am certainly guilty of some of them. But as I am not a very good writter, I am happy to give my thoughts in the comment section for now and figuring out what I want my steemit experience to be and how much time I want to devote to it.
That's a great approach! I'm not that good at writing myself, but I'm learning it here.
Oh yes Flipstar! I am new on this platform! I can only read people's posts for now and keep a great attitude and a high spirit to learn more about writing... I know in the end it's worth the effort!! Way to goooo!!!
I've only been here a couple of days and it's a little overwhelming how much there is to read and learn. But I've already decided to take it slow and really engage with the readers who interest me. What's the point of all this great writing if nobody takes the time to read it?
I haven't delved into steemit.chat yet - that sounds like a good area to explore tomorrow!
Indeed, there's so many content here lately, it's impossible to look through all the quality stuff. But like you said, take it slow, engage with like-minded people and build a community around yourself.
And most importantly, enjoy the process. :)
Having a blast so far - thanks!
Yes, yes, yes I agree with all of the above. I love hearing advice from people who are successful. I personally find so much value when I do get the opportunity to connect with people on Steemit. People here are so funny, clever and intelligent. There is so much to learn for others. Knowledge to me is more valuable than money!
Yes! Learning from others and sharing experiences is what makes Steemit amazing! Rewards just get on top of that.
yup! Bonus points... they cherry on top!
@alcibiades Thank you for doing this Blog I am still a newbie and The way I choose to do this for myself is to have fun . I did get into If you follow me than I will follow you , I never asked anyone to follow me . But now I backed off of that completely . I just interact with others and , let Steemit happen :)) The main reason I joined was to have fun , met new people and to show off my work and see what others are doing :))) I was sharing my Blog in the promote chat , and anytime I did I always checked out others . Fair is Fair :) Anyways Thanks for Sharing ::))
Yeah, some other platforms like tumblr work in a follow-for-follow way, but here it's just best to "nteract with others and , let Steemit happen". :)
Your motives for joining Steemit are genuine and great and I'm sure you will do just fine here.
@alcibiades Thank you :)) I fully agree. :) Some people I got to join and they love it and others tells me they won't because all of there pictures are on facebook :(( I just Respectful say okay and leave it alone ::))
I just recently stumbled on Steemit while researching the blockchain. I was never much into Reddit as you're sifting through a landfill to get to good posts.
Steemit, I found, is a great place to get in on the groundfloor and build relationships unlike other platforms that have already been overrun.
I'm still learning to sort through all the posts on the 'topics' tabs in order to find the good ones. Haven't figured it out yet.
It's good you wrote this as I have seen commenters leave "Please like this" or "follow me and read this irrelevant post to yours."
That worries ,e about spam, but posts like this are a must-read so no one follows along with their spam and thus kills it.
You can ignore the spam. As for searching for good posts and avoiding junk, it's a skill that you will master with time. Good to see that you are searching for quality posts on the topics that interest you.
It seems you must check steemit a bunch of times a day to keep up with the influx of posts...is that what you do? Or, do you have a shortcut :D
thank you so much for sharing this! been here since yesterday only. hehe and actually found this post on FB. Very great ones for newbies, and yeah easy to read, easy to understand :) keep it up ! Well written :D @camelx
Oh, nice to see it even spread on FB. :) I'm it was helpful!
I think, I have faced this issue I feel not being able to find my audience. Sometimes I write about life and sometimes science and then sometimes maybe something relating to arts. But some post always got much more recognition than the ones which were closer to my heart. That kind of shook my spirits a bit. Gave me a writer's block but now I'm trying to figure out a way to mix what I love to write about with what people want to hear. Hope it works out. Thanks for this information that you shared. It's really helpful for beginners like myself.
Fellow wanderer, best of luck to you with finding that balance. If you are passionate about something or want to share what's close to your heart, by all means don't stop! :-)
Thank you for the support.
That's a tough one, when something you are really passionate about is not attracting audience. You are on the right track, continue writing about it, but also explore some other areas and topics you might enjoy.
Eventually, you will build a community around you and you'll be free to write about whatever you prefer. :)
I guess you are right. Thank you for that advice.
This is a really good post. As someone that is growing a YouTube channel (3400 subscribers and gaining 500-600 subs a month), many of the things you have mentioned here are also true on that platform.
Namely, genuinely interacting with others, as well as those who comment on your own content. I've really made it a point to do these two things, and not get into the sub 4 sub/follow 4 follow game and it has paid off in spades. My engagement on YouTube is doing very well (the amount of views/likes/comments ratio to my subscribers is excellent by all metrics).
I hope to replicate that success here, while simultaneously building up my YouTube channel as well. Of course, I will be promoting the hell out of Steemit on my YouTube, as I truly have a world wide audience. Thanks again for this post!
Normally, Youtube is a one way street where bloggers rarely communicate with their audience one on one. Here on the other hand, there's a much bigger accent on engagement.
It's good to see you already have that great habits.
@alcibiades
This is probably the best i've seen so far "Tutorial with Warnings" how to generate income on Steem and join the Community in a right way. I've actually recently had enormous growth in every possible way, by reading the feeds, and interacting with really focused subject got into my eye. It was completely not my intention visiting that post. I even analyzed 2 accounts recently giving "face2face" advice for each of them directly by having a pattern you are presenting here (except for steemit.chat, honestly i didn't had idea about it's importance).
UpVoted, ReSteemed and Followed... Closely :)
Many thanks for great article,
Digital Lucifer
P.S. Da ne pominjem da sam se pre samo par godina iz Beograda preselio u Aziju. :) Veliki Pozdrav, Milos (Tux)
Hey thanks! I'm glad you are finding your way on the platform. :)
Zapratio. :) Pozdrav!
Hvala veliko :) Ajde pa da izgradimo i zajednicu unutar zajednice :) Ako nista makar smo korisni :)
@alcibiades thank you for your guidelines. Not caring about rewards is half of battle. If we do it for money, after few articles that earn almost nothing we would quit. But if you don't care, writing because its beautiful creative process, law of averages will be on your side, and good things will surely happen. Everywhere else, you would need to wait for months, rank your website and earn pennies. So if this is too hard for you guys, you won't make it anywhere.
Well said. Enjoy your writing process and enjoy interacting with these interesting people, and you'll do just fine.
I've spent some week on a steemit and i find this place very nice and warm. Someone, who wants to make earnings here must be patient but earnings is not the only bright of steem. I found some really interesting people and quite a usefull info here just by reading the "new" stream.
Your have a great approach to the platform! There's so much diversity and things to learn and amazing people to meet here. :)
I like that my votes can give something to the people that deserve it. We have a proverb in Russia "You can't spread "thank you" on the bread". It fits well i think. "Thank you" here has more value. Steemit is the place where creative people can get some money to make art, to write books, poetry or sing songs. It's what cybernetics was for. I'm proud to be the part if that process.
Yes! There are so many people out there giving up their passion because they can't cash it out and earn for living. Steemit was able to already change so many lives and I believe it's only gonna grow once it's released to the masses. :)
Great Post! Over the past 2 months on Steemit, I have made many of the mistakes that you have pointed out. I am now relaxing and being myself. I post about things that I am interested in, and I also now find myself commenting more than I am posting.
I am also finding that as I am now less concerned about the "upvote", I am actually receiving more of them.
I look forward to reading more of your work.
That's a great new approach - sit back and relax, interact with others and share good content and it will pay off. :)
Thanks for posting this article. As a beginner in both Steemit and blockchain, I'm really looking for all the help I can get! I appreciate the tips.
I'm glad you found it useful! Thanks for the comment. :)
Yup that sunrise me in the first day here 😁.
I just used the site like fb and didn't really know much about this curating and reputation thing.
Luckily I googled some awesome guides regarding how steemit works. Moderators should be able to submit important guides though. It really overwhelming for a newbie on they may quit for not understanding how the system works.
We've all been there. :) But yeah, some basic guidelines should be made easily accessible.
I am really new here but most of these things either come naturally to me or I quickly read about them in newbie posts and I made sure to at least try to get started on the right footing.
I get a lot of people commenting with just a link or simply just telling me to follow them. I don't know why this doesn't instantly feel wrong to these people. Sure there are times I really want to show someone my new post and wish I could just put in a link but it just feels too false.
As for trending posts they seemed interesting and important for the first few days and then I got really bored. These people don't really need my attention or upvote and the few times that I have commented I was mostly just lost in the crowd.
I would much rather search out an article with little or no replies or feedback that is underrated and try to make them feel like their efforts are appreciated.
You can't ask for what you won't give.
That's really great and something I've been doing most of my time here. Looking for those hidden gems and making them feel welcomed. Great comment!
Thank you for reinforcing the concept of natural growth. The payouts are nice and without them many of us would not be here but it takes time and there are no good shortcuts to building a reputation. It is a social media platform and being social is the key to success.
Well said!
Thank you for your advice! I think it is good for newbie like us! I even do not know about the chat room when 2 week ago!
this is an excellent post - well-written and concise. I liked your use of headers and white space. You know what you're doing.I especially liked your remarks about engagement - there are no short cuts on social media - I learned that after six yrs. on Twitter building a real following - not a fake one. Good work!
Thanks, John! By following your journey on the platform, I know you are doing this the right way.
In addition to you post,
most people tend to forget the difference between patience and persistence. It is the difference between doing and dreaming. It's the difference between those who get to the finish line and those who quit before the work really begins...
Thus; be patient and do the work, will set you up good!
Great clarification! Patience does not mean letting it all work out itself, but actually putting the effort and being cool if there's no instant reward.
Great post! I tell people this all. the. time. and they just don't get it! I was a tech in the bay area during the dot com years. It was amazing. Don't miss out on the biggest innovation since the internet!
It's still a wild, new world, but those who see its potential may benefit from their involvement in it. :)
Great tips, thanks
No problem!
This post received a 1.3% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @alcibiades! For more information, click here!
I like your post i resteemit!!!!
Thanks!
Good information. I need to get into steemit.chat next.
Congratulations @alcibiades!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:
Nice!
@alcibiades I am brand new to this site, new to cryptocurrency, and starting out on a new phase of my life despite already qualifying as old. There have been so many comments on this post already, I doubt I have much to add. Much of what you said applies to life in general: be authentic, engage others, have patience, and go easy on the self promotion. I appreciate the most the tips on how to navigate this world. Thank you.
Good luck on Steemit!
Good article, it's hard starting out. I had a couple of early successes then a streek of low payout post so I was a bit discouraged. With the volume post being so high with the flood of new users it takes a bit of luck to get noticed before your post is burried under a mountain of other post. I'm going to conduct an experiment and post a very high quality post and see if that pays out any better than what I've been doing.
Don't draw any conclusions from the success of one post - consistency is most important. If you share quality posts regularly, it will payout sooner or later.
Great advice. Being authentic and trying to connect with like minded people has been the greatest gift this platform has given. So glad to be here.
I'm glad you are enjoying it here!
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@llange/is-the-dollar-vigilante-wrong-about-the-etymology-of-the-word-government
Thank you for the info good article vote and resteem from me thanks Karl
Good you mention very good points I do not know before it. I am a beginner here . Hope will follow these instructions for better interaction with steemers
Thanks for the tips. I will keep all of them in mind when creating post for Steemit!
I'm glad to hear that!
This was really helpful, thanks a lot
Am new here ,but after reading this post am more enlightened
as a new streem user your post give me a hoop
Thanks for that usefull post. I´m brand new on here I´m figuring out how taht steemit-thing works ... My account took 3 Weeks to be approved and now I´m ready "to rumble" ... :)
This is a great post. I'm new here and it's good too see people who wants to helpe to new users! Nice job
good motivation to start, thanks
Thanks for the recommendations! I will try the STeemit chat!
You are welcome! Glad this helped.
Looks like I picked a good place to start. Great post with excellent feedback.
People helping people...I love it!! I think i found a sweet new home.