Success is relative to each individual but there are some fairly standard parameters for success, especially when it's in relevance to making a profit and Steemit is no different.
Everyone has something different they want to achieve by being here but its pretty obvious everyone is here to make money, if you're not your lying because there are much much better blogging sites to use and you're here because it rewards quality content with monetary value.
That being said lets figure out why people aren't being successful here. Its a mixture of the system in place the people who abuse the system and you yourself.
The system itself
Steemit is like communism, they both work in theory.
Nah, Steemit does work, it just isn't perfect. One of the main issues is that it has a large learning curve, 2 months in i'm learning something new everyday and with the exception of Steemit posts themselves there isn't a whole lot of info out there unless you're watching people like Treyvon James or Jerry Banfield (yuk) on YouTube.
It's having a lot of front-end issues at the moment which is why so many people are using other sites like busy.org etc to access it but if you don't know about them then you're kinda stuck with a broken system. This sucks for new people coming to the site and makes them give up fairly quickly, which brings me to my next point.
You give up too fast. Good things don't come to those who wait, nor those who quit. Becoming successful on Steemit takes time unless you've already got some big whales to back you, and it takes work. a lot of work. My highest payout was $26 and that was pure luck. I sometimes put in a couple hours work on my posts( not including distractions like PAL on discord or my cat, see below) and make $0.80... but that's a far cry more than when i was making 7-8c a post.
2 months in and 2 posts a day at anywhere from 10 mins to 2 hours a post equals a lot of time put in. But i'm watching my upvotes comments and payouts steadily increase, as well as putting money into the Steemit platform myself buying sbd and sp ( although not a lot yet) because you don't get something for nothing.
You need to find your niche or niches and use them to your advantage, are you a good storyteller or poet? can you make good art? are you a captivating writer. Everyone who comes here seems to think they can get rich quick off of memes and YouTube videos, putting in little effort or little time and then complaining that Steemit sucks. No Steemit is awesome, it has its flaws but you're expecting something for nothing and that just doesn't happen.
People who abuse the system
We all know of people who abuse the system, whales with a cult following who will always make hundreds of dollars a post regardless of if its good or not, unless its a blatant ripoff they will always profit. Why? because they have whale friends and they all auto upvote each other, just like the real world 90% of the wealth in 10% of the population.
When you have a group of people just sharing the wealth around it makes it hard for everyone else to get noticed, you might be putting in tons of effort and just not getting anywhere other than from a few minnows or help from MSP etc.
So how to solve this? i don't know to be honest. Networking with whales and dolphins helps, if you can win their approval they may vote for you or resteem or share around your work with others they know. Networking in general as well, build your own little community, people that will regularly upvote your work and support what you do. Don't let it get you down if you're not making big bucks because if you integrate yourself into the community all it takes is a couple of big players to make a huge difference to you.
Problem with this is you get disenchanted so easily when nothing seems to work, i've tried out many subjects, i've tried many formats and the results seem random at best. the only thing i can say with utmost certainty is the quality effects it majorly.
You, yourself.
You are your own biggest obstacle when it comes to success. Everyone has the capacity to be successful its down to how they execute it.
Put in consistent effort and do it often, don't let minimal payouts and upvotes get you down, I've almost reached 500 followers and i can think of nothing more than the work i've put in to attribute it and the resteems i get from people i have networked with.
There are some written and some unwritten guidelines that most of the community adheres to.
Don't plagiarize
Don't spam
Don't forget to source
Don't pretend to be someone you're not
Staying on the right side of these rules is important for keeping up your rep which shows how trustworthy you are to other people and gives u more voting power in terms of affecting others rep. So don't piss off people with higher rep than you :)
Post interesting things, things that haven't been done over the top, things that bring value to the community not just things you think are valuable ( im very guilty of ignoring this sometimes)
If you can be both informative and amusing you'll be kicking goals in no time.
I'd say 90% of the people here will give up on Steemit when they realize it isn't easy money. Be in that 10%.
Hard work+Networking+Consistency+Not giving up= Success!
Any other combination will fail.
Another reason you may not be sabotaging yourself is by posting at the wrong times, take note of who would be online when you post.
For example i often post around 5-7pm Australian EST which is when most of the steemit users are asleep, so i began writing my post then and trying not to publish it until the next morning when i get up for work, hopefully giving it more exposure. The time you post can make a big difference.
I'm not saying you wont be successful but there's a good chance most of us wont, whether that's your fault or the way the system is set up its an unfortunate fact.
If you like my stuff please upvote follow or even resteem
Steem on Steemians.
There's a lot of truth in what you write. I just carry on as usual but reading other posts and occcasionally really useful ones (like yours) I learn. What confuses me is - is it bad to post every day? Somewhere I read something that irks someone and it worried me. Anyway I do post every day because I can - I don't go out to work any more, just the occasional foray and it suits me better. I can do other things. I am bothered by the slowness etc but imagine it's the people behind the scenes who are making (hopefully beneficial) changes. So I'll stick with it and do my best. Like you are doing. Have a great weekend! Happy Steeming! Resteeming this.
mmm i dont think its bad to post everyday, as long as its good quality and not spam and stuff ya know.
I guess some people may not like it but i try to do 1-2 a day and havent had any negative feedback about the amount i post so i wouldnt think so.
Appreciate the resteem and your support :)
My pleasure
It is well worth investing in Steemit, that's why I put my SBD back into it as as I grow, so does my support when I upvote good content I like.
It seems true that it can be hard if you don't have a good following or don't put in the effort but you continue and you get there. I have seen you slowly growing and it makes me happy as you put the effort in and deserve to keep growing mate.
It has been kind of nice that Steem as a crypto is under $1 but also just watching it everyday hoping it jumps up to $2 or more :P
Ive only thrown in maybe 150? so far but im hoping to throw in another couple hundred before christmas
Yeah it's a good time to buy before it goes up again, going to hold onto spare SBD for when it does.
Ive been wasting mine getting buildawhale votes and resteeming lol. although the buildawhale votes are quite useful and so far always profitable
I use minnowbooster, even better when it is at 60% + voting power and you get a nice chunk back. Well worth it.
i havent tried minnowbooster just cos it always seems to be under 60% when i check whereas cos of our timezone im usually the highest or one of the highest bidders on buildawhale :P
Well it was at around 70% just last week when I did one. :P
Atm it is under 60% though.
The only problem, from my perspective, is people wanting to be rich quick and fast. That's not going to happen. Not on Steemit, not on blogs, not anywhere. The learning curve part is really true as I have barely spent a week here and everyday I am learning so many new things. Thanks for writing this post.
I think people want to get rich quick everywhere in life and thats just a problem we as a society face but i guess it makes it better for those of us who do put in the effort when we see the rewards.
Im learning after a month or two and it doesnt seem to be slowing down but it also helps keep it interesting :P
good luck mate
Great post! And you're right, people do give up too quickly if they're not making their "millions " patience is a virtue!
thank you :)
But figuring out all the little hacks and manual tricks in Steemit is half the fun! No? Ok :D Grat article mate!
i do enjoy learning new stuff its great fun, it would be nice if there was a simpler way though just to avoid losing new members :P
This might be a conversation that sees no ending, I agree with your points... without a doubt Steem is not for everyone and most people will end up giving up, but on the other hand I don't know how much the platform can grow, thus catapulting Steem as the currency, if the platform does not become easy to understand and use, we might never see it bigger than what it is today.
I'm not trying to be negative... I'm just saying there is still work to be done...
oh yes lots of work needs to be done, hopefully sooner rather than later before a competitor outstrips it.
Love your illustrations XD
I tried experimenting with posting times, didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason behind why some posts did better than others but for that to be a valid experiment I would have had to post the same or similar posts at various times and that would just be annoying for everyone, so I just post whenever I post now :)
Getting involved with people/communities of similar interest definitely helps. And you get to meet fun people too XD
Easiest thing is definitely not having an instant gratification mindset, that's an almost guarantee of a fail I think. If you just plod along well everyone eventually gets enough SP to be a whale, it will just be very slow :)
i love that fkn goat you have haha
This post received a 15% vote by @mrsquiggle courtesy of @choogirl from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ). Join us in Discord.
Upvoting this comment will help support @minnowsupport.
Good stuff @bigdizzle91,
2 months and 500 followers, you already have me beat! I'm a month or so ahead and I'm still learning new things daily from the Steemiverse. I'm in a weird time zone, so by the time a post goes up a lot of people are asleep, but I rather not mess up my sleep schedule. It's posted when it's time.
I agree that this isn't get rich quick, but a long-term ride. I used to post 3 or 4 times a week, but I'm increasing it to once a day to try to keep my writing skills sharp c:
People succeed everyday. I think the biggest obstacle is in fact ourselves.
i have a bunch of dodgy followers cos i used that steemfollower to start with, but when i got to like 100-150 followers i was like this i s shit lol
Good to know, I'll make sure not to try it lmao. Small following may not be too bad, if they are dedicated...
Hm. I think I just answered my own question!
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Curious?
The @resteembot's introduction post
The @reblogger's introduction post
Get more from @resteembot with the #resteembotsentme initiative
Check out the great posts I already resteemed.
Your post is 100% correct. Just keep putting one foot ahead of the other and keep going in the direction you want to go. A slow forward direction is better than not going forward at all.
agree :)
Um your cuteness just made this post that much better!! 💖
For sure. I have been active on the platform for about a month. I have a little over 80 followers, and have had to do quite a bit of learning just to use the system.
I think the learning curve probably does turn quite a few people away.
You're right about people basically wanting something soft and easy. They want to sign up hit resteem a few times and be millionaires. Success takes dedication pretty much anywhere.
Every post I try to improve my post presentation, and focus more on the content that people respond to. So far it looks like people people have been more interested in the posts where i just kind of speak freely as opposed to something too structured.
I spend a lot of time on my posts and some of them hardly catch a view while others make a surprising amount of money. I'm still trying to find the right posting schedule. I have learned that the money I make here is largely due to others on the platform. Sure it is my responsibility to try and create valuable content, but if it weren't for some of the amazing accounts that have reached out and resteemed my work then my wallet would be pretty near empty. Lol