My first Steemit birthday!
Does a month qualify as a birthday? For the purposes of fulfilling my excitement, I'm counting it!
So, actually, I'm a day late. I didn't have adequate time to write a post yesterday, but so far I've been fairly consistent in breaking rules, so I'll continue to do so. In this post I want to mainly target newcomers, being that this post will mainly cover my mediocre progress so far and some tips and resources I've found. But, like always, if you want to check it out anyway, you are more than welcome to!
I joined Steemit very zero knowledge of what the platform was. My girlfriend's brother(who is an avid crypto-trader) gave me just enough description to be interested, as I had been interested in the crypto world for quite some time but have had no money to invest. I signed up and a grueling 10 days later I got the e-mail saying my account was confirmed.
This e-mail came on January 3rd as I was just about to go to bed after a long day of wresting with my dog, Raiden. I quickly jumped up and started to create my account.
My first mistake I made was my introduction post. As I mentioned above, I had very little knowledge of the website. I was eager, and looking back I wish I had taken the time to make my first few posts of a higher quality. I rushed it, and as a result, no one saw my post.
And that's fine
It certainly wasn't the end of the world for me. However, if you're new to the platform, and wish to get a kick start on getting some attention, I suggest taking some time to explore some other #introduceyourself posts and getting a good sense of which are getting attention. Again, it's not the end of the world, but I have noticed that users who's first posts are well received gain success exponentially faster here.
After a few posts getting no attention, and my initial attempts at finding people to connect with, I made my second mistake. I followed a ton of people. Not very selectively, either. I made the common mistake of mass-following in hopes that the small percentage of people who actually took the time to check out my page would pay off in the end.
I did make some friends as a result. And for that, I don't necessarily regret it. However, even after spending an unpleasant amount of time trying to sort out who I'm following, and although I essentially tenth'd that original mess, my feed is still a huge mess, and I often forget about it. Your feed can be VERY useful, or very useless, depending on how you go about this.
By the way, I only unfollowed inactive users, bots, and people I would most likely never interact with. Anyone who had followed me or interacted with me in any way, I continued to follow. I respect all of you quite a bit :)
A quick glance at my page shows that I have a lot of followers. Well, a lot of those accounts are inactive. So, really, it didn't do much for me that I couldn't have done organically with less work overall.
Learn about Steemit, STEEM, SBD, etc.
Something else I wish I had spent more of my time doing was using the readily available resources to learn more about the platform. Documents such as the Steem Blue Paper and the Steem White Paper offer very useful information as to understanding how all of this works. I wish I had read them during the time I was waiting for my account to get verified.
After becoming more familiar with that, look into how the market works. Look for patterns, learn when to cash in your credits and how. I, for one, have a lot of faith in Steem and although I definitely could use the small amount of rewards I've received here I have invested all back into the platform in the form of Steem Power, and although the choice is always yours, I'd suggest doing the same if you'd like to see your account grow. But you'll learn about all this as you use the site.
Explore
If you plan on people just happening upon your page, well, good luck. Especially at the beginning. But, this site is meant to be fun, useful and as a method of community building -- so use it as such.
You'll find a lot more people find you when you find them. I am very avid about the use of thoughtful commenting, and if you are persistent in visiting users' pages and interacting with them, they will eventually start coming to your page. It's how I have received most of my active followers and I value every one of them.
It's a fun way to find more people you want to find, too. If there's one user's page you enjoy visiting daily, you'll probably start clicking some of the names of the people they mention, or that are commenting on their material as much as you are. Keep looking in the nooks & crannies.
Relax
I've seen a lot of positivity in my time here on Steemit. I've seen a lot of negativity too. Not so much peer-to-peer, but negativity about people's lack of success here on Steemit and how the market hasn't exploded during their short time here.
This is supposed to be fun, and should be treated as such. But, obviously, everyone drools over the possibility of Steemit leading to financial freedom, myself included. People come on here, put minimal effort in, and then make posts complaining about how they haven't quit their job yet. Now, no one's really going to want to support the guy running into the school yelling "WHY DOESN'T ANYONE NOTICE ME?" In fact, I think human history teaches us to be wary of such individuals(kidding, maybe not so PC. Sorry).
But also, if you want to have success here, you're going to have to put in work.
My personal take:
I've put what I believe to be an above-average amount of time into this website. If you look at my wallet, you'll see I'm certainly not exactly a Steemit success story. However, I am very, very interested in the platform and have been enjoying it very much. I've also been using the site as a resource to research other things, such as cryptocurrencies in general. If I can get paid to do so, however minimally, then why not?
It's an escalating pattern, as well. It's a given that you will have to put in more work in the beginning if you want to be a success in the end. Am I saying that I think I will ever be a Steemit success? Probably not.
But there are other things to consider:
1. We have no idea what will happen with STEEM
It could go anywhere. I've heard a lot of people speculate it could reach $100 by the end of the year. If that were the case, that would mean my current 53 STEEM, now worth just over $200, would be worth $5300 USD. That's well over twice as much as I make in a month at my 50+ hour/week intensive job. I've heard numbers even higher, (even $2000), but who knows. Maybe it won't budge. But you earned it by interacting with others around the world so.. why not?
2. Steemit is growing
Steemit, as a platform, is growing immensely in popularity. Although it seems very obvious to some friends I've made who have been here longer, well, it's not as obvious to me as a newcomer.
Until I look at some numbers:
Steemd shows I was the 556,500 th member to join. A very nice, round number, yes I know.
Steemworld shows a current member count of over 710,000 members.
That's over 150 thousand new members in a month. Considering the platform's been around for well over a year, well, just think about what that means.
It means there are going to be a lot of people very jealous of you soon, if you work hard now. And what will they want from you? Attention. And how will they get that? By giving it to you.
That's it, for now
Now that I am finally starting to learn more and feel more confident in my understandings of the site, I am planning on making more posts about advice. There was originally a lot more that I wanted to fit in here, but I think the length of my ramblings is nearing an undesirable affect.
One last thing I will mention, however, is the importance of finding users that create posts designed to help their followers. I look up to @spiritualmax , among others, in this regard very much, and strongly suggest following him if you're new to the site, or if you're not.
Thanks for stopping by :)
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Great post! Me and my friends (we're all minnows, by the way) keep on pressuring ourselves on what to post next and continuously being frustrated for receiving under $1. We didn't want to break that one-post-a-day minnow rule. But that doesn't sound fun especially if you're about to graduate and do a lot of term papers. It's quality over quantity, still!
Hell yeah, man! I think we're all in a pretty good position here, as long as we're putting in genuine content, we'll be the OG's!
@herbertholmes one Month! wow you are really doing way awesome after one month my friend. I do really enjoy your regular stopping by on my posts. And all your new minnow bumps in the road are like all of us once we start to get it.... I invested my own money in STEEM and bought 1200 steem and powered it up my first week here. I was holding bitcoin at the time and I traded it 1 steem for 27,000 satoshi now it is at 46,000 satoshi. That is the base pare of bitcoin... so I felt that with steem I am investing in people that are coCreating a future on a blockchain. This really excited me much more than watching my little ballance of bitcoin rise and fall in the tide of the exit from fiat. In the bitcoin boat I was only helping myself. I see steem as a big boat we are all in and there is this big cloud of the rewards pool and we are all starting out thirsty. Looking up at the clouds when we notice this whale sitting under a waterfall and others floating there boat... How can this be? How long will this take me we all think... This is the funny backwards thing we are all excited to post to make some of the delicious rewards pool, when our first task is to study... I would call your account a Massive success after one month show me one other social media account that is worth what you have built in the first four weeks.
After looking at your steem id number I went and looked up mine I am number 362,101 and I started September 9 2017 and you are 556,500 and one month later it is at 710,600 I see a sharp curve up!!!
OK now after all my time here lol I figured out how to build this thing and @rkz and I are doing a test. I recently heard about @minnowbooster and after ignoring all the bot stuff from my early tests I decided to check this out as on of my gaming buddies that I helped join @duecedout-gaming sent me a text saying hey check this out does this work https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@ilyastarar/understanding-minnowbooster-how-to-use-minnowbooster-7-minnowbooster-services-you-should-know-about
I read the article and thought oh my this is really built to help make a win win win So I tried the first step and oh my it works. I will let you read it and see what you think and you can watch my progress as I am using it.
We are running a test I sent @rkz $100 usd and had him buy bitcoin then buy steem then we are going to use minnowbooster.net and see what that steem will lease in sp to turn around and sell out his vote. And be able to vote on my content when he gets around to it.
REad the article and you will get a good idea. The guys that built that are so smart, @rkz and I are working on the idea to have a way to mine STEEM where it is a switch pool miner that mines different coins and we can set up a market so people with steem can trade that steem for the coin mined as one option or using an api like blocktrades is using to bring trade those mined coins for steem and plugs into an account like minnow booster. WE want to set this up as an automated thing so we can create an inflow from miners to steem. ONe of the ways I thought of to make it attractive is to have a pool fee that is a lotto that pays out in STEEM so a percentage of all mining goes into that pool and then once a time period it does a lotto and It would be cool bonus and adds a gaming layer to the process.
One thing I figured out is If I want the price of steem to be $100 a coin I need to add value in every way I can think of... This is the cool thing about steem everyone is thinking of how they can add value... when you start you mostly think how can I extract value... I have personally brought over 10 new people to the platform and by looking at the numbers we are all doing similar things. Soon the onboarding will flow better but then you get to say I am an OG back in my day we had to wait for an email and it took over a week to get my golden ticket.
ONe other thing I was thinking about the mining pool to steem concept is if we set it up like nice hash we can make it where people can use steem to buy mining contracts to mine alt coins of there choice.... @herbertholmes Thank you so much for your post and allowing me the space to come flow my thoughts. Much of what I just wrote came to me thinking about how we can build you up to double what you are earning from trading all of those hours for currency. I look forward to our journey as we grow this boat together.
@allowisticartist hey man!!
I want to start off by saying I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. I saw your awesome comment yesterday but I was on my phone and figured I'd wait until I was on a computer to respond(I don't like using Steemit on my phone very much; just less convenient). It was a great comment and I want you to know I appreciated it very much! I've just been very busy the last few days and haven't been on the platform at all
First of all, thank you so much for your kind words! Having no (serious) social media presence previously I feel pretty good about what I have accomplished here so far. I think your Steem vs. BTC view is very on point! Sure, it would have been great to be an early investor in BTC, I don't think anyone can deny that. But here, we are actually so involved in this community, and the fact the community even exists in the first place is amazing.
Wow! From September-Jan ~200,000 new accounts, and almost as many since. That is a sharp curve!
I am about halfway through the @minnowbooster article you posted and am very intrigued! I've heard of minnow booster but was unaware of the variety of use methods. I'm definitely going to try it out.
I think you and @rkz 's idea is great!! I am definitely very interested and would love to hear more as you guys make progress. It sounds like a really good idea and one that would work. I think Steem will go far and we will all find our own ways to add value. It sounds like you guys have a good head start! I'm still having trouble bringing people to Steemit, but I'm sure that will change as we continue to grow :)
Thanks so much again for coming by @allowisticartist and your comment! I always enjoy looking at your stuff, I have a list of a dozen or so accounts I visit every time I'm on the site and you're pretty high up there on that small list :) Looking forward to our future here on Steemit!
Hi man! I know exactly how you feel. I stated here just a few days ago and I have been so much in a hurry. My introductory post wasn't well planned out, I guess that's why I got below $1 but its still on until 3 days though so I don't know perhaps something awesome can still happen.
I am trying to chill a little and really dive into all the information I can get to be successful here. Meanwhile, let me just have fun with it. Lol
Happy one month on steemit @herbertholmes!
@iamjimmy
Hey man! I just read your introductory post, it was definitely a lot better than mine. I don't think I received more than a few cents (haha!). Aproko sounds interesting! I'll look into it.
I also read your other post. You are already doing really well. I had no background in blogging or anything of the sort when I started here so my first handful of posts were pretty much a mess of text accompanied with shitty photos. It took me awhile to even figure out how to make headers(haha).
I gave you a follow because you seem to make good quality content which is exactly what we need more of! Thanks for coming by man!
I appreciate you for your comment. Now I am geared even more to explore this platform.
Thanks for following back man. We will definitely be talking more. :)
Well written and edited + it serves me right as a noob here.
Some people write a long blog and I'm reading it like, "when does this thing end?"
I know that sounds awful of me, right?
This was a long blog and I read the whole thing without hesitation. I didn't even notice the length until I reached the end and tried to scroll to the top 😉
I like the way you think and the way you write.
My first post on Steemit was January 1st so we're right about the same time starting. If you compare our wallets I think it's safe to say that your methods and efforts are doing very well 👍 and powering up was the right move. I don't know why but I'm still holding on to my SBD (just in case) 😁 which I used some today to donate to a contest so it's good that I had it, I guess.
Do you really have to get to 500 steem power in order to have increased voting power? I think that's what I read.
Anyway, a year from now we're going to be whales. Or maybe Dolphins? I like dolphins 😉
Congrats, wishing you many more moons, as they say here on Steemit, and I love the expression!
Thank you!!
Great post! And it's reminded me that I need to power up.
I've been an active Steemit user for three months, and I've had great success with some posts, while others that I've put more work into have gone almost unnoticed. I just feel grateful for all the upvotes AND because people are reading and enjoying my work, even though I know there are a lot of bots out there too! I learn from every post. I learn the kind of things that work and the kind of things that don't work.
And I also have confidence that Steem will explode as a currency, but these things take time. I think it's moving at just the right pace. In a few years time I think it will be massive.
Yes I agree :) I see a lot of people concerned with the day-to-day goings on of the market and even though I am new it seems silly.
I know what you mean about posts as well. I put a lot of time into this post and was honestly wondering if anyone was going to see it. So far, the results are dramatically better than I expected. Cheers!
Congratulations Herbert!
Happy Monthday!
I'm grateful for your kind words and for having mentioned me.
I also hold you in the highest esteem.
Cheers my friend!
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Max! When I have a question now my go-to solution is to look at your page or another (most of which you've introduced me to) to see if any advice has recently been posted on the matter. Usually, the answer's yes.
Thanks for stopping by, man!
We all learn as we use steemit. I did'nt make an introduction post. Maybe I will in the future. But still we met each other and I like to read your blogs. So some things went really well.
Yes! Exactly! I didn't mean to overplay my view on introduction posts - really I just see them as a nice tool for newcomers; if you do it right, you might get lucky. But I think my tendency to ramble put more emphasis on the matter than I intended to.
Glad to have you as a friend here :)
The rambling is part if what I like in your posts. It gives insight in how you think and whats is important to you. Also it was the moment I choose to leave a comment that i am your friend.
I made many 'mistakes' on my first month as well, but I think this is one of those platforms where you don't need to (and shouldn't be) defined by what you do in one day, month or year. I think there is the freedom and intelligence for this to become something more than the platform itself, and it is great to have people such as yourself in the ranks :)
Thank you so much!
I honestly think, as you said, there's potential here for doing greater good outside of the platform. We will see what comes!
Thanks @herbertholmes . Your close to when I started. And I can relate about Followers. I am definitely more discreet than I was a month ago.
thanks and am Following you now !! :)
Hey man! Thanks for stopping by, and I gave you a follow as well! Looking forward to it
Happy 1 month! We’ll be one month soon too. I made the mistake of making an intro post myself on my personal acct. I think I got a whopping .08. Lol. We learn and grow and help others as we do so. 🙂
Thank you! Yeah I got a few votes but I think it ended up still being less than .01 haha. But, whatever!
Thanks for stopping by! :)
We can go on forever with all the stories of Steemit :)
Happy one month anniversary. Thanks for sharing your insights. I joined just a week or so behind you. I admire your progress. You're doing great! ... and yes... this is supposed to be fun!
Hey ! Thanks! I fortunately have had a decent amount of time to spend on here.
It certainly is supposed to be fun! It bums me out to see people arguing and getting pissy on here. Thanks for stopping by!
Good artical ots best of day.
Happy Birthday
Thanks for this great article, I can relate a lot with your thought process. My wife incessantly asked me to join as she is really into crypto. I am glad she did, there was a big learning curve for me, not understanding a whole lot if it at first, but I am finding it to be quite rewarding now. Following bud, Cheers!
Hey Brad! Thanks for stopping by. I've always been vaguely interested in crypto, but until Steemit, it was nothing but a vague interest as I'm young and don't have anything expendable to invest. I try to push Steemit on everyone I interact with daily, and am surprised with the lack of interest! I think we've got a good "head start" here.
Going to check out your blog and follow you back. Thanks for coming by! I love beer too. Cheers!