Followers on steemit / steem is huge. It's your audience. Much like facebook fans, or twitter followers. WAIT! It is not the same..
In a perfect world, yes you would. If you have 1,500 people reading your content, you'd figure that you would get at least 300+ upvotes for every good quality content article you posted.
Q: Does that happen?
A: NO
What is wrong?
Well first of all, just because you have 1,500 followers doesn't mean 1,500 people are sitting there waiting for your next post. Many of them may have liked your stuff in the past... they are just not here everyday.
Q: So what percentage of my followers are going to see my latest post?
A: Probably about 15%
That is 15% (255 out 1500) will ever see your post !?
Q: Will all of them vote up my post, if it is a good post?
A: Sadly, no. Out of the 255, you'll probably see another 15% actually vote you up (38 upvoters out of 1500)
Q: WHY? If I have a good post, and people actually like it and READ it, why don't they vote it up?
A: Sometimes they forget. Most of the time though, they leech what the post has to say, gain the knowledge from it, and save their vote for themselves or their friends. A lot of people just won't take the time to upvote. They WILL READ. They just won't upvote
Ok, @intelliguy, what you're saying really sucks. How can I spend the time to write great content, get a 1,500 following, and when I make a post, only get 38 upvotes from that 1,500 people who follow me?
....I EXPLAIN...
If you have 1,500 people following YOU those same 1,500 people are also following about 200 other people.
Those 1,500 people following YOU don't login everyday, or every minute. The majority of them will miss your post completely. It happens easily. They login. They see 37 new posts since their last login, you're at the bottom of their list.
Many are bots. If you have 1,500 followers, you probably have at least 200 bots that only look for opportunities to auto-upvote something if the heuristics means they'll earn something.
Your point you're trying to make, including your title, tagline, description, use of graphics, and writing style is going to only attract some of your followers (a tiny minority. most won't even see it as eye-catching or interesting)
The voting power of those that "do see your post" is limited. They're already upvoting lots of other people, and their vote weight isn't going entirely to your post either.
Q: So @intelliguy, if I were to gain 1,500 followers, you're basically telling me, I could only get 38 upvotes from my actual followers?
A: Yes
Q: How do you know this...
A: Experience. It keeps happening to me over weeks, months, and again and again.
Q: So why do you keep posting, working hard, and even doing this?
A: That's easy. I've had $87 USD paid comments before. I had one post in the early days worth $4,000 USD because it went viral on steemit. If 1/100 of my posts catches wind and goes crazy, it makes up for the rest of my posts that don't.
Q: How do you handle it when you put your heart and soul into a post, and only get 13 views, and 44 upvotes
A: I handle it well. This happens not to just me, but a lot of other people too. You can't get paid huge every single post unless of course you are @papa-pepper or @stellabelle
**HIDDEN SECRET: ** Both @papa-pepper and @stellabelle are experienced bloggers. They know how to attract an audience and it isn't a per-topic basis. They cultivate their audience and both of them could write a book on how to get guaranteed upvotes regardless of what their subject matter is... I don't fault them for it... they're able to do it. I can't. But they do well... so.. who am I to complain about their success? I wish anyone being able to obtain success like that (even if they post boring dribble on occasion) to make $150+ on every post. They know how the magic works, and they make magic, so.... I just sit back stunned and amazed. (...and happy they earn what I can't.. not jealous at all)
Q: How do @papa-pepper or @stellabelle get PAID huge every single post they make?
A: LOL, haven't figured that out quite yet. But they do, and if you watch, you'll see it too :)
The good thing I'd like to share is that there is still money to be made here. Not pennies.. But Dollars... and if you have something decent to contribute, there is always someone on the other end of the internet who will read your stuff and appreciate that you took the the time to write it.
I'm here to share my knowledge, words, experience, sense of humor, and whatever I can give to be a voice. Sometimes I get paid well. Most of the time I don't. I'm good with that.
If you're a person that wants to get paid well everytime your fingers roll over the keyboard, well, sorry, while steemit BETA is still in test mode, this might not be the place for you.
For the rest of us, that got paid $0.00 for facebook status updates, or $0.00 for twitter tweets, or $0.00 for reddit posts -- yes, steemit and steem is completely worthwhile. So please don't complain -- just appreciate. :)
I'm on day 13/30 of my positivity challenge.
I wrote this blog post not knowing the repercussions of it. But I'm happy I did. I'm honest with myself, and honest with my readers. That feels good. :)
A couple of people have resteemed this post. If you think it is worthy, please consider doing it too. :)
It's not entirely true, though. While you're basically correct in saying that only a small percentage of your followers will read and upvote you, you also see loads of posts with much more upvotes than views.
Bots and auto upvotes will do that for you.
And of course if you're already a whale,a single self upvote will already put a nice sum in your pocket
What specifically is not entirely true?
I agree, posts will have more upvotes than views, of course, we do see that all the time (because of bots, etc).
You are very correct. I've been paid $0.00 for more than 7 years of Facebook. So I'm happy with that $1 upvote here. Steemit rocks :).
Me too. I've been paid $0.00 for almost 10 years on Facebook. Additionally I spent $100 to promote my page on Facebook
You spent money to promote your Facebook page? Please why did you do that?
There are people on fb who make money with the ads. I'm in fb groups with them and there are lots of yt vids on it. you have to be willing and able to invest money in trial and error which I am not. Plus fb is getting none of my money.
I have about 15 fb pages going. They get traffic from the keywords in my posts and I get affiliate money when the fb traffic goes to my affiliate. It is not usually that great of money, but it is steady. I just post related information to my pages a few times a month and make sure all the posts have good seo and go to an affiliate and then wait. I'm number one infb search for a lot of long-tail terms and have little competition.
Ok, that makes business sense. A smart way to survive on Facebook. Thanks
I definitely never scroll my feed there. Just use groups and pages :)
I'll have to contact you for a tutorial. Hehehe
Great post, I felt like that a few times already.
Followers definitely don't mean huge payout.
The platform is growing and if Steem doubles we would all get twice our current payout :).
Check out the last Datas and Metrics on Steemit : https://steemit.com/steemit/@vlemon/steemit-traffic-data-engagement-and-other-metrics-end-of-august-update
(This can also illustrate the fact that followers don't mean payout as I put my heart in it and payout is still limited).
I will not give up ;).
The entire place of steem depends on people who:
Thanks for the comment. I've upvoted it too
I am new here. great piece of advice.
Additional question, don't you think bots and curation are killing the platform?
We all noticed that 99% of posts have twice as much votes as views.
So if only 50% of the readers upvotes it means that that 3/4 of the upvotes are just bot/curator hunter...
Your feeling about this?
IMO this is what could kill the platform.
There are "good bots" and "bad bots". We need "some bots" because new users coming on seem to repeat the old scams of copy/pasta (copy/paste) existing articles on the internet and tried to get paid for it. The good bots watch for that, and post a comment which stops them from getting rich from plagarism.
If I had a choice from "no bots" to "some bots", I would still like bots.
We need good bots.
At the same time, we don't want bad bots
At the same time, we don't want bad users who try to trick and game the system like spammers either.
It's all about a balance thing. Some bots are welcome to stay.. we need them.
Agreed for the copy-paste or even resteembot and even other waleBot that help new users to get noticed.
I am talking about the one just following a curation trail or uovlting everything.
What prevents me from creating 200 bots that will consistently upvotes all my posts and that will get bigger over time?
Thank you for your answer.
Self-respect, dignity, morality, just because you can try to steal from a reward pool, doesn't mean you should.
Agreed but when I even see whales posting 10 posts with one video from YouTube in 3 hours that get paid 10$ per post with just a copy paste. This is unfair in my opinion.
The human race is unfair to each other unfortunately. That's why this system is still in BETA. Consider the fact, that they are trying to do the impossible. Design a computer system that can stop humans from being greedy. It's never been done before. :)
Number of followers is greatly overrated here. Number of engaged readers is much more important as a metric but probably next to impossible to quantify. I doubt that more than a handful of members here would have very high numbers if a way to quantify it were developed.
Meh. Sprinkle crumbs in the forest and trails will eventually form.
I thank you for coming back even if we did lock horns like goats once. (grin).
Agreed and disagreed.
Agreed in the way that engaged readers is very important
Disagreed that it is impossible to quantify. For some great posts you make, the little eyeball icon will show like 75 eyeballs, but only 30 votes. That eyeball number is steemit calculated. That means 75 people loaded the post and had it on their screen, but only 30 people actually upvoted the post.
It is normal to see more "views" than upvotes, which is unfortunate. A good post, is a good post, and you'd think the # of eyeballs/views would be pretty close to the number of upvotes.
However, when you see 75 eyeballs / icon, and only 30 upvotes... I would consider that a problem. :)
Very good post @intelliguy, you've described the situation perfectly. It kinda helps to have a large following but it doesn't automatically mean that you will receive big payouts. People should focus more on the quality and originality of their posts. If they keep posting, improving than the rest will follow.
Very well explained , more followers doesn't always mean bigger payout , unless you have a lot of them that are self upvoting us. Maybe one day we will be at the point where our 2000 or more followers give us a decent payout . Something is better than nothing right ?
Honesty is the best policy, and I believe it. I was honest in my writing, and I'm glad you liked it enough to comment. Thanks for taking the time to vote and comment, it just made it worthwhile for the time I spent. I'll check out your blog the next time I get a second.
Cheers 🍻
Great post @intelliguy 👍 I believe that people are upvoteing big whales like @papa-pepper & @sweetsssj purely for the curation rewards, because they know that their posts will always get alot of upvotes and therefore you can get a small percentage of the steem for little effort.!I think about 80% of people don't even read the posts they just upvote. I know I am guilty of this 🤔 I mean really there isn't enough hours in the day to read every post and also produce quality posts of your own! Unless you do it full time like alot of whales can now do. Just my opinion though 😁 peace out @crypto-expo 😎
This! I actually stopped upvoting authors like @sweetsssj and started upvoting minnow authors with good content. I am actually getting higher curation rewards now.
Umm... that is true. Most people don't know that.... I'm glad you figured it out. I've known this for quite some time.
I also try to support any content that I believe is worthy 👌 if more people dud this the we could spread the wealth more evenly 🙌
You got my vote and a resteem :]
Now you have me thinking, you actually may be a @smartdeveloper
Thank you.
What a great post...I never started posting to make big dollars. I hate Facebook and Twitter, they seem fake to me. With Steemit you can let your fingers go wild. It's soothing to know that if someone does read your post you may be rewarded for it. I post daily and have now hit 100 followers. I know I must be doing something right. It is fun too, as I always answer those that comment on my post, so a conversation begins.
Upvoted and re-steemed
Some of the best, honest comments, just like the one you made.. I've seen people excel past me in reputation, earnings, followers, and rewards.
The sheer fact you know how to express yourself, upvote, and resteem something that means something to you... shows me you're a contender in this space. I give you my best regards. I think you'll do well here. (Actually I don't think, I know). If you were to scroll down my comments over the last year, I've said something similar to about 5 people, and all of them did really well, like $2,000USD+ ... so expect that. Thanks for the resteem.. Was very nice hearing from you. :)
Wow thanks for the pump up!! Much appreciated.
Great post - I read it, and I only ever upvote posts I actually read.
You are doing some of the best posts on Steemit, but as you say - it's all about cultivating a band of followers who just blindly upvote everything.
Maybe if you had a big production team working on all your posts and included a few dozen bikini shots in each one you too could average $1000 per post
Edit your genuine comment, to remove the boob photo, and I promise I'll upvote it 100%
Hope you like kittens - after my most recent post featuring that boob image started WW3, I must admit I'm still getting LOL's out of boob reactions
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@sift666/i-am-new-to-steamit
Kittens are good. Boobs... I know why you do it. But to be honest, some of your comments are quite good and don't need boobs or kittens. :)
If boob photos help you get views on your blog, do it of course.
..but if you have a genuine comment to make on one of my blog posts, keep the kittens and boobs photo away and I'll still upvote you and like your opinion.
Thanks for changing the photo, and as promised, I upvoted you 100% on both.
Thanks - I have had this thing ever since I started out on Steemit over a year ago of including a picture on every comment - on some of my own posts I have added more than 50 images in the comments.
I don't usually post boob or kitten photos - I aim for something suitable for the subject - believe it or not on this one I was making a very vague reference to something you talked about in your post.
For the first time ever I didn't immediately know what image I wanted to add.
And then two seconds later I did!
I don't fault you for having your "thing" with photos.
I will tell you that you're a good writer. Usually your writing means more than the photo to me. Just write. You're good at it.
Photos are for those who can't express themselves. You can. You're smart and brilliant in your own way. You know it too. I can tell how smart you are. Smart in the way of thinking... not what you know.. but how you are.
The photo thing isn't really because I have trouble writing - It's because I just like seeing some pictures - I enjoy them and when other people post them I always notice.
Thanks for saying all that, coming from you I really appreciate it.
As soon as I get to the end of each comment, I actually see the image in my mind that I want to add to it.
I feel obligated to point out that the vast majority of Steemers are minnows. We only get to make 10 votes a day before we deplete our VP so much that it won't recharge the next day.
This dramatically limits our ability to upvote posts. It isn't 'leeching' intentionally, if they read and even enjoy your post, but simply need to conserve their VP so that it will recharge.
As, unfortunately, I am. I assure you, I am far more offended by the fact that I cannot simply vote for what I like than you are by my not tossing you an upvote.
Before I read the white paper and learned about VP recharging, I cast about ~130 votes/day. I'd do that today, if I had the VP curve that would let me.
Well gee, you ARE a valued customer. :)
One suggestion: minnows was an early term, that is now taboo. It's small fry or small fish eaten by dolphins and whales.
New users should never be considered a minnow. They are simply steemians. Try to avoid the term minnow. We're trying to not say it anymore even if it is prevalent everywhere.
130 votes/day is too much
13 votes/day until you build up your SP is plenty.
I strongly disagree (BTW, it is actually 10 votes/day. Your 13 votes is 30% more than I get to cast daily. 3 votes is 30% of my daily allowance.). Being limited to ~10 votes/day is being limited to interacting with but a fraction of the people I desire to interact with. This strongly inhibits my ability to grow my SP by developing reciprocal relationships with creators of content I find valuable, and who might find mine valuable. Reciprocity is a strong social motivator, and a robust mechanism driving the value of social networks.
Being limited to ~10 votes/day also contributes heavily to selfvoting, particularly for new accounts that have visibility limitations due to not having established an audience, and lacking understanding that using their votes to gain visibility is far more beneficial than trying to selfvote themselves more SP. HF19 decreased the votes available to the poor by 400%, while during the time HF19 was being developed, the number of posts increased by 1000%.
This is a vote desert for new accounts, and much of the desperation evidenced by those new accounts for follows and upvotes is a direct result of the 4000% fewer votes available per post (for accounts without a slider - the vast majority of accounts), as is the pandering to whales, and casting of votes on trending posts by authors that consistently trend, as curation rewards are substantial if one can get in on such a post early.
Why do you think that ~100 votes a day is too much? YOU have ~100 votes/day. Do you feel oversupplied? Do you feel that having those votes makes you a danger to the platform or blockchain? Do you feel that people without sufficient funds shouldn't be able to interact with others? I fail to see any superable rationale for the idea that ~100 votes/day is excessive.
Consider @liberosist's proposed VP decay curve, where the first ~100 votes/day are essentially at 100%, after which VP decays rapidly to zero. Even avid Steemers (that post and comment substantially, rather than merely vote/insubstantively comment) will find ~100 votes a reasonable supply of interaction, while bots, which currently have an unlimited number of votes they can cast, in the extant VP decay scheme, that deliver some rewards, would be limited to the same number. Since, IIRC, VP decay was intended to decrease the profitability of botnets, @liberosist's proposal seems an improvement over the extant scheme.
I really want to hear some good reason why I, and other Krill (as you disavow the term Minnow. @dan's flagging of @berniesanders has proved that the metaphor of larger eating smaller is appropriate, IMHO.), should be limited to the number of votes I can cast on posts I have completely read, and commented substantively on, in an hour or so.
Take your time. I have all day.
Edit: spehllingh airrohrz
Think of bots with several hundred new accounts trying to game the system.
Is it really 100 votes? I thought it was related to your # of vests and percentage.
Regarding the term Minnow
Obviously you don't agree. So let's enjoy the term:
Minnow, minnow, minnow, minnow.
I don't though. I'm not heavily into long threaded debates. I've done that many times in my past and at the end, it just leads nowhere. The person you debate with eventually stops listening and reasoning, and the debate slowly gets worse and worse to the point, you have two people talking AT each other, and not talking TO each other anymore. Right about now, where we sit is my mark for that..
Thanks for the comments and your view point.
Well, as I hoped for more substantive criticism, I want to let you know that I'm taking our discussion onto my blog, in a post there, so as to not further clog yours, and allow you to comment there if you'd like.
Cheers!
Indeed an intelli-guy, honestguy, inspiringnguy! I am feeling a little sad today and this post gave me some positive vibes. Thanks brother!
Interesting topic thanks for posting 👍🏻
Very great and realistic post about what to expect on Steemit!
Now, how can we build this into an elevator speech for Marketing of Steemit and get rid of (and discourage) the damn bot upvote invasion! :)
it's true man. How many followers you have doesn't mean as much as people make it seem.
Very interesting post. Blogging has been around for so long some people have just mustered it and know how to get everyone to look at a post. I have noticed that you have used a few common blogging techniques
It definitely paid off you have quite a few upvotes (got mine) and would not be surprised if I wake up tomorrow and find this on trending. Great work!
I make things look easy. It's actually not the case. I could write about something really cool and unique tomorrow and spend 4 hours doing it, and get paid $3 for my effort.
Yes, it is true. My writing style does yield good votes. However, I am still stuck in the conundrum where I could write (and not pay to promote) a blog post and get $3 to $5
So glean what you can from my history. But I am far from a huge success like @papa-pepper or @stellabelle
BTW, I've had occasions where I've spent $36 or $50 on promoting a post only to make $24... where I lose. Luckily for me, I did gain some followers. But that's like working in reverse gear. Not all that profitable to do it that way.
Nice one
Owsm....very helpful.
Upvoted... So true @intelliguy ...
Nice.. pretty accurate representation of mine.
Buena explicación y el post está genial
no hablo español pero te agradezco tu comentario
I guess I should consider myself lucky: I have less that 1400 followers and I have more than 70 upvotes for most of my posts.
Of the 70, how many of those people have blogs and comment? I looked at one of your posts and saw these names:
sshh, aarkay, uxair, omnia, mikashocoirgas, aek081969, mulsanualak, erikal, nyzafa
..those are all bots and I could have kept going.
Oh, I am sure that there are several bots that upvotes my posts.
On a recent post, with 107 upvotes and 101 views, I have got 29 commenters, 7 of them with junk comments such as "nice post" or "please upvote me".
Thanks for councils
Ahhh, that really made a lot of sense!!!
My answer: Comment, reply. Try to comment every time you can, and reply what steemers say, this way youll be making a small group network looking for your posts because they feel you are not just for their vote but because you care to talk no matter if thet upvoted or not.
I get a fair amount of consistent success and I tried to explain my thinking on why that is here: Last Week I Made $1,500 Worth of Cryptocurrency Blogging on Steemit. Here's How.
I don't know if there's a secret to it or if it just takes consistency or if it's because I've been blogging for 13 years and I've picked up some helpful habits along the way.
I do know a lot of the financial success here comes from being interesting enough to people with Steem Power to put you on their bot voters to support your work and for them to earn consistent curation rewards. As to how to get their attention? I do not know. It does not involve messaging them in chat asking for them to look at your post. At least, it didn't for me. I never do that and I wouldn't suggest anyone do it. If your content is consistently good over a long period of time, I do think you'll get noticed (especially if you're adding useful comments).
Nice, Shared this at:
http://www.steemup.net/2017/09/strategies-to-get-payouts-if-i-have.html
it is a great thing to even earn a couple of dollars -- i dont compare myself with other bloggers
I think Steemit has a great future because of the way it works. It is still in beta version but when it gets official it might really kick out Facebook . What I observe here in Steemit are hundreds of posts published every minute which in my opinion is the reason one might not get the attention he was expecting. There are many quality posts along with some crappy ones and this makes it even more difficult to get noticed. Hopefully Steemit will develop even more and every user who is publishing good content will be happy here. For instance one thing that I like about Facebook is it's algorithm which is pushing forward content you are more likely to interact with or you have interacted in the past, the one that meets your interests.
AMAZING, AMAZING-FANTASTIC ....
Steemit really is a true work of art, it takes time to become great
It's so nice
receive thanks from core of my heart dude
inltelliguy,greetings as I do here I always upvote if I choose to read a post. The title or picture attracts me and I never know what it is - that's why I like Steemit, it's educational, entertaining and if you do it well (content and curation) you have to earn in the long term. Thanks for the post
Thanks for posting this. I'm new to Steem, just wandering around let other people teach me the ins and outs and this helped me.
I remember myself 3 months in.. I finally learned how the place works. Then 6 months in, I learned more and went, wait a minute, I found some whales, I'm ahead of the game. Then 9 months in, that happened again.
....and what I learned....
Was.. if I just put out my thoughts and feelings into my blog, it's not whales or tricks of the trade that will help me. It is mostly just being honest with the people that want to read my stuff. For that I'm super thankful I can just be me.. and appreciate those that like me... and so that's my secret. Just be real, and over time it will work out on its own.
Good luck to you.. and thanks for the comment.
One suggestion: PLEASE don't think about dropping out anymore. The whole place needs people like you. :)
I like this comment and am curious how it compares if you were a brand new person today.
Does joining 15 months ago, like you did, confer an additional advantage by:
But, I'm new, so I'm guessing at some past activity.
Some of the bigger challenges, though, are that we follow people and not topics. To follow topics, as I understand it, I need to click on them. I would much rather follow topics, so when Papa or Stella write on a topic that I'm following I'd be more inclined to read, comment, and (maybe) upvote. It's what I like about Reddit.com, even though Karma there isn't worth anything. I focus more on topics rather than authors.
However, I may be more interested in trying to earn curation rewards, and I know that Papa and Stella (and Jerry B, Stan, Fuzzy, etc.) will have a solid following, so I may just upvote without reading or commenting because the possible payout is worth the risk.
With Stan and Fuzzy (and you too, Intellguy), what they post is usually on topic with my interests, so I'll purposefully look at their home page each morning to ensure I'd didn't miss anything they've posted. I'm also looking at using a bot (like Steemvoter.com) to upvote them automatically to get in early on curation because I know I'm always going to read their stuff and likely throw in a comment, too.
The push to make some $$ when I'm putting in time on steemit makes me want to help maximize both what I'm learning and what I'm earning.
The bitter truth... God bless you..