Hi Steemians,
How are you doing? How is your Steemit journey going?
Answer these questions in your mind.
- Are you happy?
- Are you frustrated?
- Are you wondering when you'll be rewarded?
- Are you struggling to earn any consistent rewards?
If your answer is yes to only the first question in the list, there is a problem. But every problem has a solution. And I am here to offer you a guaranteed solution.
I've been there. The frustration, the expectations, the ignored posts, etc. etc. I've seen it all. It is not nice. I know. But the good news is; I am out now. I am relatively stable and going strong. I have learned my lessons and seen opportunities.
And here I am, sharing with you what I have learned through months of my experience on Steemit. I am going to share with you confirmed ways of earning regularly on Steemit. They are all practical ways.
I don't guarantee you any success if you do not promise to follow my guidelines. But if you do and work hard, I guarantee that you will definitely earn more rewards than you currently are.
So, let's begin with the first one in the series. Stay tuned for more.
Stop Focusing on Creating More Posts & Start Writing More Comments
That is my number one advice for you. As a beginner and a minnow, your posts get very low visibility. Hardly anyone sees what you post. And because you are new, your posts may not be of required quality. Rookie mistakes at times and blunders at others. Accept that.
No One Sees Your Posts
Creating a post is an art and while I can help you learn how to create engaging posts on Steemit, I cannot assure you that every post will be seen by 100 people and voted by at least 10. Your post may be wonderful but it will receive, may be, less than 10 views. Because...
- You don't have enough followers who can see your posts in their feed. Also, not all your followers are online when you publish your post.
- The new section on the website is where your post immediately goes and can be seen by people on that section. But only for less than 10 seconds because newer posts takeover and so on.
- Social media, specially a Facebook group, is insensitive to your links. No traffic from there as well.
So basically, your post gets ignored unless you manually send its link to people to see, as is the case with sending links to voting bots. But that costs money. Spending money to earn that money back is not smart or sustainable.
Comments Have More Visibility
Comments do not go down the drain. They go directly in the comments tab of every Steemian. Comments are happily received and welcomed. More comments makes the author happy because it is a sign of massive engagement on his content.
That's why comments are where you efforts must be focused in the beginning. To be seen, read and rewarded. I'm not saying that you should not post and only comment on others' posts. I am saying that...
You should publish posts once a day at least to learn the art of blogging and keeping your blog active. But you should comment at least 20 times a day because all your comments will be seen.
I hope you understand the importance of commenting now. I am going in extensive detail to make you understand the whole system as I have learned and experimented. I want you to get the basics right and only then you can start earning on Steemit.
Having explained commenting in detail, I now come to the most important part. This is where money is so be attentive.
The Art of Commenting
There are good comments and there are bad comments. Good comments get a reply and sometimes an upvote as well. Bad comments are flagged (downvoted). So by writing good comments, you have more than fifty percent chance of getting upvote on it. But also, by writing a useless comment, you are a risk of being flagged.
I walk the talk. I comment a lot. I have written thousands of comments since the beginning of my Steemit journy. You can see my comments here. Let me share with you screenshots of one of my comments which was upvoted recently.
This comment got upvoted to $1.42 worth. Can you figure out why it got rewarded?
Now let's see a sample of bad comments.
I chose this comments from replies on one of my posts due to multiple reasons. Firstly, he doesn't know that he's at 8 reputation score already due to flagging. Secondly, he's not doing anything about it and rather keeps commenting like that.
Having shared with you the insights and the examples of good and bad comments, here are the tips that you may follow to earn Steemit rewards just by commenting on others' posts.
Before commenting, always read the post till the end. If it is a video, watch it. You will know what exactly the author is talking about. You will also learn new things everyday just by reading good posts.
Start the comment by stating what the post felt like and also mention the main topic of the post. Share also if you learned something new.
Then share your opinion about the post's content. You may agree or disagree with the author if you have prior knowledge on the subject.
End the comment by thanking the author for helping you learn a new thing or enhance your knowledge (if that is the case).
If you followed the author recently, let him/her know that you are glad to follow him/her. But never ask the author to follow you. Just politely let the author know that you are a follower.
If the author is a witness and you voted for him, let him know that you voted for him. I'm talking about ending part of the comment.
Your first comment on a post should never be short. Write a few sentences. Make it a habit to write longer comments.
Don't share your link in the comment unless you have written at least a 100 word opinion about the topic and include a link as a reference.
"Nice post" and all such comments (follow me I follow you , upvoted, see my posts etc.) are BAD comments. They will get you flagged. You will not earn anything. On top of that, your reputation will fall below 25 instead of going up.
Comments do not need hectic formatting like posts, making them a relatively easier option. You can include pictures, gifs and videos in your comments to make them more detailed. But it's not compulsory.
Always track your comments. See which authors reply and which ones upvote your comments. Interact with those who reply and closely follow those who appreciate comments with upvotes. Wise authors like @kus-knee, @dragosroua, @surpassinggoogle and many more encourage good comments with upvotes.
I can go on about the benefits of commenting but let me stop here. These guidelines are enough to get you upvotes on your comments. One trick is in my sleeves still and I will disclose it in the next post of this #SteemitEarningSeries. Stay tuned.
Supreme Example of Steemit Success via Comments
If you look at the profile of @charles1, you will see an insane number of posts.
For your understanding, posts and comments are collectively considered posts by Steemit and hence both are upvotable.
Back to the point. After seeing his number of posts, see his blogs, reputation and followers. See the rewards on any of his posts. The major reason of his huge success is...
He comments.
He joined Steemit the same time as I did. He's at 62 reputation, 1818 SP. But look at 12961 posts.
Let's see his SteemitBoard.com snapshot.
That's right. Just 83 posts and 12873 comments since June, 2017. On his 83 posts, he has earned an average of 29.178 Steem per posts. That's because he comments a lot, has made 2651 followers and gets on average 99 votes on one post.
The only reason is that he comments a lot and attracts a lot of eyeballs and followers. I love thsi guy's dedication and persistence.
Do you understand why I am so serious about commenting?
Conclusion
Commenting is the most practical way of getting noticed by authors and get voted. When we do good comments again and again, our name becomes familiar to the author and he generally likes to upvote regular visitors.
Not only that, good comments also bring a lot of followers other than frequent upvotes. So, set a target. I recommend at least 20 comments per day but all of them should be standing out from the crowd. Detailed, full of value and honest.
I wish you all the success on Steemit. Believe me you can be successful here by following this post. Stay tuned for more guides on Steemit earnings.
Do not forget to resteem this so that struggling Steemians can benefit from the guidelines. Upvotes will be a huge support.
Always Helping Steemians,
Ilyas
Hey Steemians,
You can start practicing right here below the post. If your comment is good, I will upvote it. If it needs improvement, I will suggest improvements.
I wish to help you but remember...
So help yourself. Start writing great comments!
^
And see for yourself how comments can get you rewards.
I started focusing on commenting more profoundly over the weekend and not only I am seeing rewards but I am focusing on something I enjoy. Plus it's easier to write a well-thought reply than write a sound lengthy story with good visual formatting. I just don't know how I will match your 20 replies a day. I could only manage about 5 yesterday.
This was very handy for me. Only completed my first post today and have previously found it hard to get any good guidance on how to interact on this platform. I now know that commenting is pretty crucial to the continued development and popularity of your steemit profile (something which wont be achieved just by making high quality, engaging posts).
Thanks!
Commenting is the number one thing as per my opinion. Look at your comment for example. I liked reading it and gave it an upvote. Your reputation was 28 before and 29 after my upvote. It happened only because you made a good comment.
I'm sure more interaction will bring you followers, upvotes and more reputation. Welcome to Steemit and have a wonderful journey!
Thanks man! I've followed you because all your content regarding Steemit, it's mechanics and how to make the most of it have been very easy for me to understand.
You're an asset to the community.
Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I tried to simplify the learning for newbies and I am glad to see that it's working.
I enjoyed reading your insightful message to new steemit writers like me. Especially how it wasn't negative on the community like some. You are positive voice of reason and i look forward to meeting your 20+ replies target. It's what I enjoy about steemit and I do believe in its genuine community building opportunity. Peace my friend.
The only purpose of my comment is to help me to find "this" very useful post whenever i check my "comments". And i need to say that @ilyastarar you did a really useful job with this post again. Merci
No doubt you shared a very nice and powerful motivated post as usual.
Very nice description, a wonderful trick and amazing guideline. Well done dear @ilyastarar keep it up
Thank you so much @hamzayousaf bro for your comment and appreciation.
@ilyastarar thank you for writing such an outstanding guide to making comments here! I will add this to my list of recommended reading!
Thank you so much, Jerry. The appreciation means a lot to me and I will keep sharing valuable content on Steemit. Community heads like you appreciating such efforts is exactly why we are encouraged to improve even further. Keep being amazing!!!
PS: There's a reason you are listed at the top of the most amazing Steemians according to community.
I just joined Steemit yesterday and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. This post is great! Valuable information about good strategies, which I so appreciate! I plan to track my comments so I post at least 20 comments each day. Thank you!
There is an issue going on. Bandwidth issue. I will cover it soon. Rather I will update this guide to highlight that issue as well. As you interact more with Steem blockchain through posting and upvoting content, your bandwidth descreases. In the beginning, SP is low so bandwidth is low. I resteemed a post which highlighted this issue.
Just take care of the bandwidth issue while commenting. Rest of the guide is as valid as when posted.
Man! I am really impressed with your work. I have been on the platform for a couple of weeks now, but somehow, whenever I need help with something on steemit and I type it in on google, one of your blogs always come up! On top of that, they are all very informative and very well organized. It sounds cheesy writing a comment after reading your post on how to comment, but I will genuinely be looking forward to seeing where you go on this site and reading all this great content that you continue to post! Best of luck.
Hi @tristanoliff. Welcome to Steemit and welcome to my blog. It is an immense pleasure for me to read what you have written. I wish to do evergreen work here and google seems to be liking much of my previous work. It's an honor to be a guide for Steemians who haven't even joined.
Keep up the good work and see what the platform does. Steem on!
Absolutely Agreed the ability of commenting is the most important for newbees as compare to spent whole day on making posts and get nothing:(
My personal opinion is 1st make name in this community and then post whatever you want this way you get better results.
Thanks for the such a nice post.
Exactly what I wanted to teach as well. Thanks for the comment. This is what I was talking about. Your comment is valuable and deserves upvote. It's a shame that I don't have enough SP or VP right now.
Steemit is lucky to have you @ilyastarar, I am learning so much by reading your posts.
By commenting, you are also 'listening'. Listening is such an important exercise, I rate it sometimes more than talking.
The talking here is posts. Only if you listen more, you learn more, you interact more and that not only creates steem dollars but also reinforces our knowledge on a particular topic.
Upvoted and resteemed!
Thank you for your feedback. Take care of bandwidth while commenting. Too many comments may lead to restriction on posting.
nice. Plz follow me. I beg you...
Just kidding..😁
But the post is really well written. I can see why people prefer to write posts rather than comments. Its because they think that posts are the major source of income and they have to push out anything to let people know they can write.
This is clearly wrong. To second ilyas's opinion, let me tell ya'll that i made 2 posts today and commented on like 14 different other posts. So thats what you should do.. its never an obligation on author that since you have commented on their post so now they have to give you an upvote. Sometimes my comments go unnoticed too. But thats part of being here on steemit. We are not Martin Luther King who should be rewarded on every word and sentence we utter or write..
Let it go. Move on. And always mix it up.. comment on new authors everyday. I, for one, follow this practice to go alphabetically in my followers list and watch recent posts from lets say people whose account begin with "a". And next day i move to accnt names starting with "b" and so on and so forth..
It will not only get you upvotes, but also will get you followers..
Ilyas, nice work. I am going to resteem it..
Thanks a lot for this comment. The guidance here is also of good value to readers. Thanks for adding that value.
The practice of commenting on variety of authors' work is a good practice. I would recommend that too.
Good idea to go through your followers alphabetically. I will surely start doing that too.
Ilyas, this post is money in the pocket! You're saving a lot of time to newcomers, and time is money (specially here on steemit).
This is my second week here and I can say that what you state in this post is what I've experienced so far:
I have done some things well and others not so well. I published my first post having just 1 week on steemit (and the introduceyourself post in my 2nd day) and very few followers (actually I think most of them were bots hehe). Maybe I had higher expectations at the beginning, but could quickly realize that it was not so smart and the problem was the lack of followers.
However I think it has performed not so bad: it's in its 5th day, 11 votes and 50 views, earning 0.85 until now (btw people: there is still time to take a look and upvote if you like ;) hehehe).
There are other aspects I consider can influence in posting & commenting success and haven't read here so far; I look forward to share them with you and all the community soon.
I'm keeping reading and learning a lot everyday (going to bed all this week I've been feeling my brain with hyperactivity), and you have been one of my main sources of knowledge... I really appreciate that!
See you around friend, and thanks again :)
Fantastic post as always Ilyas!
in the way of your posting I can see that you already understood important points in life.
These are well structured and very helpful tips you share with your community.
Another great guide for beginners and also for advanced persons on steemit.
Everyone should follow these tips.
Meaningless comments will rather push someone into the ground instead of pushing him up.
People like you should get more visibility so of course I will resteem this post :)
Thank you so very much, Jason. Such feedback is what keeps me going and this encouragement is priceless. I cannot thank you enough. You're on fire on Steemit and I know you will be HUGE soon. Don't forget me when you're rich. Haha!
Pleasure to know you since your introduction post.
Hahaha now I laughed
You'll big aswell, no doubt ;)
Also a pleasure for me. Thank you :)
Such a informative post. I will apply your suggestions.
I hope it will increase my earnings on Steemit.
Thanks brother @ilyastarar for Such a nice sharing.
Welcome. Thanks for reading. I have applied this knowledge for months now and results are guaranteed.
First of all, I must thank you for writing this post, it is great because my mind instantly opened, and I am motivated to follow these tips step by step. And go ahead with your advice, I do not mind making a mistake and I'm not in such a hurry about payments or votes. I want to learn in the best way. Take the time it takes. I vote and I share!
You're welcome. Thank you for reading, giving feedback, up voting and resteeming. I wish you success.
From the beginning I was doing mostly comments and once, my earning from comments were more than own post. But due to busy offline job, now it is difficult for me to comment in lots of posts. But it is better to make lots of engaging comments which will help you earn some SBD and SP. Definitely comments should be relevant to the post.
Excellently exemplified by you. That's what I talked about too. Thanks for reading.
When I first got here I dipped my toe in by making a few comments, before I had constructed my intro post. I guess, though, I have been in the FB mindset of simply making small, encouraging comments on posts I felt inspired by. I had no idea comments could be so lengthy - and welcomed as such!
Your tips are very much appreciated, and will likely help change the way I interact on Steemit. Thank you. :)
Please to be of any help. Thanks for reading and I wish you all the success.
Great advice @ilyastarar. I have made some fantastic close friends here on steemit through commenting on posts. I think too many people forget about this aspect of the whole process. Steemit is obviously amazing due to the monitay incentive that it provides everyone for quality content creation but It's also a great way to find people who have common interests and similar personality to yourself as well!
With an open mind and a genuine interest in what your reading and the author you will meet great people and receive rewards in the long run, that's the beauty of steemit.
This post is gr8 advice particularly for newbies. Keep up the good work :-)
Thank you for adding the relationship building aspect into the discussion. How did I miss that! Well, I did mention becoming familiar but you have put it so nicely.
Please support with a resteem. Thanks for a wonderful comment.
Who could ever imagine that commenting could actually gain you an upvote, over time i have spent my time and channel all my energy on just writing post of which i ended up not getting upvoted at the end and i was becoming so tired and giving up not until this moment i came across your article. Thank you so much for sharing this great knowledge, it really has helped me alot, i guess i now know where to channel my energy. I recently follow you and am pretty glad to do that.
This a great manual for the begginers! I've made my first entry today and now I have a great tips what to do next. Thank you Ilyas!
hola, tambien soy nueva y estoy en la búsqueda de consejos para tener éxito en esta plataforma. Deseo que puedas aprender mucho , te di mi voto, tenemos que apoyarnos entre principiantes jajaj
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by ilyastarar from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
Another Blog/article that touches the sky, this is a great one to link to from the series I am doing on helping the folks from YT etc learn the ropes here.
Thank You Ilyastarar!
Great advice! My compliments on bringing it to our attention.
this is an interesting post. i know that the comments are the better way to earn but i did,t know how to write a good comment and your post make me understand how to write a comments thanks for sharing. You are amazing thanks @hamzayousaf for resteeming your post because i can from his post. i am now following you to get more knowledge about Blogging and how to work on steemit. Keep sharing your Good work
This is one of the best posts for new minnows. I always tell people to spend time getting to know the Steemit community before posting. This is a marathon not a sprint. No point in shouting at an empty room, commenting on posts that interest you will help built circles of interaction for the topics that you are interested in.
Thank you so much @ilyastarar, for this insightful post. After almost two weeks of Steemit I thought I was well on my way but this post gave me confirmation of what I suspected: since community is key, commenting is essential (as long as it is genuine commenting).
Valuable lesson on 'bad' comments learned here!
You are on my follower list!
Dear ilyas,
This post is surely on point. I definitely love it.
It has shown me what separate the winning steemians from the losing steemians by doing the necessary things.
I am absolutely happy to be your follower.
Thank you.
unique18
Hi, it is me again. I am a newbie on steemit and I really appreciate all your hard work done to help us to endure and get better on steemit. I like your advice: “Before commenting, always read the post till the end... you will learn new things everyday just by reading good posts.” This is why I really like steemit, I can find interesting and upbuilding posts and I can always learn something new. Thx for all your effort 👍🏻
I just read this now, after requesting to translate it to Nigerian pidgin English. I'm really inspired by the post. Most times, I don't get to read long posts to the end because of my eyesight but in this case, I stayed glued till the end.
This is surely going to mark a new beginning of my steemit journey. I start commenting now!
Thank you so much Ilyas.
Thank you. Now I understand my mistake. I commented bad. Like in your examples. I will start focusing on great comments. I think before posts are most important. And other yours tutorials are great. I would like to translate this to Croatian for Ex Yugoslavian audience because this is very important tutorial for beginers. Keep on with great tutorials.
This was helpful to understand a bit more how it works and to find some good people to follow.
Thank you.
This is one of the most helpful articles I've read for newbies (like me) here on Steemit. I love that in addition to your making the point of how important it is to comment to succeed here on the platform, you give lots of examples. Seeing the examples makes a huge difference in driving the point home. It's not the first time I've heard that one should comment, and comment a lot. But it is the first time I've been convinced to absolutely dedicate myself to doing it :) Thanks so much for this article and for this series. Definitely following you.
an upvote thanks to @folkert for his translation
hola, ya es la tercera de tus publicaciones que leo, pero este es mi segundo comentario, no sabia que era importante comentar. Estos consejos me van a servir de mucho, soy principiante, todavia no he realizado mi primera publicación y quiero hacerlo bien y aprender interactuar con todos los integrantes de este mundo. Muchas gracias nuevamente, y seguiré leyendo tu material que esta muy bueno y de fácil comprensión para las personas nuevas como yo. Ya te seguí y te di mi voto.
Another great post for all the small fish out here. I realised that commenting was the best way for minnows to start making an impact but you've made me realise just how important this aspect of steemit really is. I've learnt a lot from you these past few weeks so thank you very much! I'll try my best to pay it forward and help other minnows out as well.
Thx man , I am new her
I learnt something new @ilyastarar, I just received the link to your post from my daughter. You are totally right! Thanks a bunch for sharing this valuable guide. Cheers.
Thanks for coming here and sharing your thoughts. Thanks to your daughter too for sharing the link with you.
Thank you a lot, your post was very informative. I was looking for a solution for a newbie and I'm not sure how exactly found this post, but it happened to be a light in dark tunnel for me. :)
I don't know if I would ever think about that commenting a lot is a solution, but now I'm sure thanks to your article.
I'm not a type of writing person, but it is good to have opportunity to tell somebody something nice or share thoughts about their post.
I think it is great that good comments on Steemit are upvoted and bad are flagged. I didn't know that until I read your post. I guess that gives a bigger quantity of constructive criticism and less disruptive. So as a result it should create a very kind and friendly community. Because everybody likes to be treated nice and with respect. :)
I gave you upvote. Thanks again, I'm gonna use this knowledge in practice .
P.S. I have a question for you. Is using emoticons like ":)" in comments is also BAD? I use them because it is enhancing my expression.