My first post had a value of $15.92.
“$15.92? For just sharing a poem? Madness! What is this? MAGIC??!” I thought.
I immediately told my friends about this site saying “FREE MONEY!!! FREE MONEY!!!”
I had heard of Steemit last year, but only got around to checking it out recently.
My next four posts garnered very little value. Until on my third day I struck a value of $120.45 with a post on Osama Bin Laden’s alleged compound in Abbottabad.
I retold my friends this time adding to the free money argument “Every day you are posting on social media creating content free of charge for that company! It makes sense to get paid! This is the future of social media!!!!”
Before I had even posted my first poem I had read through many posts, checking different tags, and looking at different authors. I thought through posting on Steemit I would make 100$ over the course of 3-6 weeks. I couldn’t believe the value I had accrued in three days.
I shared two other pieces on Pakistan which both gained around 15$ each in value. My poems did not generate much value (apart from my first). So I spent several days working on a piece on Terrorism in Pakistan.
It was perhaps too long of a piece (I cut it down more than half before posting) and it only valued at 0.03$ despite the time put in. From this I decided to aim for shorter fun or risqué pieces until I have enough following. I will likely still be sharing lots of things on Pakistan as I am researching the country for a literary project, and it's a super fun interesting beautiful place. 😊
As I got to know the site, I explored the markets and quickly changed all of my STEEM Dollars into STEEM. I realised after that I had no idea what I was doing. My wallet value dropped and then increased again that evening. I don’t know if this was increase of value in STEEM or rewards for content.
Over the course of the week as I found more people to follow, my feed began to resemble something worthy of my attention. It was a far cry from my empty feed when I first started.
“Why is it empty?!” I had wondered.
Impressions from my first week
I like STEEMIT. I believe it to be the future of social media. There is a great community and a very interesting history behind it. I’m glad I found so many excellent content creators to follow.
I feel as though I might be addicted to this platform; it’s the points system which is pulling me back in, regardless of the fact it is real currency.
“Gotta make those points yo!”
I have barely touched FB/Reddit or any of the other social media sites I generally use.
I have no idea why there is a slider when upvoting or what it means.
I’m going to keep experimenting, and also posting poems whether they make $ or not.
9/10 Full STEEM ahead!
Irish Writer/Poet
It's kinda weird how value is distributed on here. If I really think something out, research and write a deep, meaningful article, I typically make about 4 cents. If I write some bullshit story from my youth, it makes $$$. As to the slider, someone explained it but I'm really old and don't understand these things. He said keep it at 100% to get the most curation rewards. That's all I know.
My theory is that people like to read stories from the heart. Maybe this is why the one about your youth brought more $$$
Good point! Followed!
I've written a lot of content for News and Media sites. The articles and stories on which I would spend days researching and writing up would generally never get the same feedback as the ones I just sat and wrote in 2-5hrs.
So maybe it is nothing related to this site, other than targetting the right demograph and having enough followers so that the well researched/written/thought out work gets noticed.
I hope so...I'm not really in it for the $$$, but it's nice to be appreciated!
I find I land my followers from the more deliberate, structured pieces.
Even if the post doesn't pay well, there's usually a handful of people who want to see more of my stuff.
Followers are the real long term asset here :)
I've been building mine...I've only been on since Thanksgiving!
Steemit is still very young and the 100k+ users are not representative of the world population. We have sport betting fans, cup cake and cooking receipes bloggers, cryptocurrency nerds, poets and drawers in much more heavy percentages that a balanced community would have. Still very VERY early days !
The curration system will improve over time with a better distribution of the demographics and funds (steems)
Welcome aboard man, glad you like it and you could make some money out of your first posts. Lots of new users write tens of blogs before earning their first $.
Thanks! ^_^
also, it's worth mentioning that the vast majority of the 100K accounts on Steemit are not active users, and I believe most of them are automatically-generated accounts. I personally have 3 accounts. To see some simple stats about accounts and how many accounts control how much stake, check this: https://steemd.com/distribution. If you scroll down to the 30-days bit, you'll see that only about 13,000 accounts have been active in the past 30 days.
Once you go Steemit you never go back :)
Yes I confirm this my friend :)
True dat! 😎
I respectfully disagree with the rewards given for this post.
Personally I can not see how this post should be valued at over $20, so I will "downvote" it (unfortunately still misrepresented by a flag icon on Steemit.com).
This is meant as gesture towards the content itself only, not at all to be taken as personal towards the user posting and since I hold very little power on this platform it is very unlikely to harm the user him or herself.
More information about my voting patterns can be found in my profile description. Please don't let this minor speedbump keep anyone from posting what You consider to be great content!
-As a personal note to riskdebonair, welcome man! You'll fit right in here with the rest of us.
Bro!!! You've made a not-so-powerful enemy!
Just kidding. I too was surprised myself at the rewards for this one. But it was written in a fun way and there was some lazy photoshopping to be fair, that's got to count for something! 😜
I look forward to (hopefully) watching the rewards system develop into something more equitable.
Haha.. Oh no.... Seriously though, I hope not. Yes, I do agree that it is of value. And I hope that you will continue posting as usual. =)
So very much.
if only I had as much luck as you on this platform
I am very familiar with content creation across many mediums in many industries. I think my background has helped me as well as the noice Steemit community.
Try using a profile picture. And pics in your posts!!! Pictures are worth a bazillion words, and attract people's eyes. Check through all the tags and the kind of posts that do well. Know your demograph and who you are aiming at. Know the quality of content you are competing with. Aim for OC!!! Original Content!
Follow people who's work inspires you.
For a real masterclass read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people" and Sun Tzu's "Art of War".
But most importantly have fun 😎
And learn to use the editor...
how do you suggest I learn the editor?
The slider is for people with a LOT of Steem Power, like 100,000 or so. Until you have that much (I haven't looked at your wallet, but I'm guessing you don't have that much ;), just always vote at 100%.
Your slider affects something called "voting power" that isn't very important unless you get very serious and strategic with your upvotes. I wrote an article about it here: https://steemit.com/voting/@biophil/the-complete-definitive-and-yes-ultimate-guide-to-voting-power-updated
Enjoy Steemit! Glad to have you here.
Thanks! I have over 9 million Steem Power! Just kidding 😊
I'm glad you are addicted. I really like your content.
Thank you! ^_^
I like your style. Followed.
Thanks! I'm already following you 😊