We often associate success with hardwork, perseverance, a great idea, quality of output and even luck. But one thing that is not talked about enough is the importance of timing.
- You can have the greatest, game changing idea, but your timing can be off.
- You can write the greatest article that Steemit has seen and no one may read it.
- You can constantly create excellent content and it may go unnoticed.
In my businesses, I have experienced different levels of success. I’ve had things sky rocket, I’ve had things crash and burn. Much like on this platform, I’ve had successful posts and I’ve had posts which have gotten no love.
In each of these situations. Timing plays an incredible part as to whether I’ve ended up successful or falling shy of the desired outcome.
Yet often timing is seldom discussed. This is probably because it is actually shrouded in mystery, there are many factors to whether or not you will hit the mark and release your product or service at the right time.
Timing In Business
Consider this, I use to work for a large telemarketing company in my early 20s. I remember taking my boss aside and presenting an idea on how to better a time consuming process across the entire company. He agreed that it would be a good idea and told me to go out and make it, he would in turn get me in front of the right people at the right time. I ended up leaving the company but did follow through on the plan, once I had created a proof of concept. I returned to my old boss and he got me in front of the right people.
After presenting it, it was unanimously agreed that it would fix their issue and they outlined they would have an answer for me shortly. I was ecstatic. I had solved a problem and it was going to be a nice contract to start with. Needless to say months later, I still had no result on that conversation and no commitment. The company in that time could have saved 100's of thousands of dollars, but still they did not act.
The thing about it was, my timing was off. The idea was right, the timing wasn't. They had predefined budgets, other priorities and it was considered a nice to have.
I went on to sell that product to a number of other companies in the industry, but that first company never embraced it. Now, on reflection this has to do with a large number of reasons. But one core thing was timing. I didn't have my timing right.
As reported out on Forbes. 9 out of 10 startups fail. They can fail for a large number of reasons and even the best ones, with the best teams, the best funding can still fall flat. Where as mediocre ideas, with mediocre teams can find success. This can often come down to timing.
Timing On Steemit
The above example of correct timing in finding success in business can be applied to success on Steemit. 9 out 10 articles will most definitely be lost into the abyss of Steem. Mainly because of timing.
I've read articles that are in depth, fantastic and present incredible material and see them go missing (hence why we started our Best of Steem posts). Now you can say the community values other posts which are less involved more and they were most interesting. But again, the majority on here do not have the voting power and those that do can only vote so much. So again is your article going to be posted at the right time, does it capture their attention on that particular day or are they looking at articles only on a particular topic. Did you miss the day in which they read the psychology articles or did you miss them by 5 minutes?
You get my point.
Again no matter what your effort is, how good your content is, if it doesn't hit the right audience at the right time.
It can and most likely will fail to live up to your expectations.
Oh Life!
Life is no different. Timing in life is an incredible thing. How many people do you know almost had a relationship with someone but it didn't work out at a particular time, then years later those two people seem to effortlessly come back together and start a family.
This is another prime example of timing and it's huge effect it has on us.
We've all had sliding door moments, where what would have been the alternative outcome if I didn't get in the elevator or if you missed the bus.
Those amazing stories of people who avoid air disasters from being late to the airport or said no to going to a party so avoided a pointless tragedy. There are so many stories of the dramatic and undefinable events that come down to timing.
But one things is for sure, it most often is an unexplainable beast and it cannot be tamed. Sometimes it will go in your favour and other times it will work against your wants, needs and desires.
I will leave you with this wonderful quote.
“The right thing at the wrong tme is the wrong thing.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A New Attitude Toward Relationships and Romance
I don't think it could be said any better than that.
This is great, but what is the best time? How do you determine it, is it different by category, day, what?
@markmorrisjr I'm really not sure. The reality is post success comes down to whether the right person upvotes you, how do you gauge that - if there were more "whales" this maybe more of a predictable and measurable thing. But, can you really know what is going to resonate with the right person at the right time? I'm not sure on that, your best bet is probably just to keep posting what you want and hopefully someone else wants it :) overtime this may change though. Traditional social media took a while to work out what times work best for best audience interaction, but that was all turned on it's head when algorithms started to change and feed order was all mixed up
Well scrap my next article!! Well done, I'm inovved in a couple different businesses and Timing is everything. I was going to repost the same article at 3-5 different time periods just to see if there was a difference in viewing. Using downvotes for reposting as data too. I don't expect any upvotes for a repost. But I was going to use that info for my next article! Maybe I still will.
100% there will be a difference in viewing. I think though it would be picked up by cheetahbot, so would need to reword your content. I saw a post awhile back of someone who recycled an article, an expanded rewrite. It performed alot better. You just never know though. :)
One of my hopes is in fact, that if content creators build up a reputation, that their older content will be read and probably upvoted / rewarded later. It should be like royalties (not sure if this is the right word). If you get interest in one of your ideas it could be rewarded in a year or even later.
The main thing about Steemit is, that nothing will be lost, isn´t it?
Oh this is true, it can be rewarded later. I think that will change and actually work overtime, but the majority of reward you see on all top articles falls within the first payment period. But yes, thats conceptually how it works in practice I don't know if we are seeing that yet for older content. The content then would need to be universal enough to defy time. I.e an article on the olympics is probably not going to be relevant 4 years down the track. @pollux.one good points though
Past 30 days there are no payouts or upvotes.
Seems like your content has one shot then within the first 12 hours. @markrmorrisjr
Really more like the first 2 if you want to make money.
For timing on Steemit I use catchawhale.com
But didn't work so well til now :-\
@andrew0 not sure if that works, would be interested to see others experiences. just looked it has a delay. maybe a guide?
Couldn't agree more. Right time right place is just a impactful as wrong time wrong place. So get lucky, some know how to place themselves in situations when the odds of timing are in their favor. Either way I'm still trying to figure it out. My family jokes about how bad my timing is...haha
:) @scaredycatguide seems to be like a 6th sense timing. I guess you improve over time ;) ?
@steemzine, that's crazy you mentioned it as a "sense" and we our talking about timing. I'm currently posting a series of essays based on each of the 5 senses. Irony! Two are up, three to go. I may have to create a 6th called TIMING!
And yes, one hopes they get better with age when it comes to timing. Or atleast less bad, right!? :-)
I'm still truing to figure out an optimal Steemit posting strategy, and timing is something I've thought about. I wonder if it makes more sense to sit on a post until an optimal publishing time, or just publish more posts and hope something gets noticed. What are your thoughts?
@wiser - it's a tricky one. My instinct is to post quality over quantity, look at successful posts see which times they were posted and follow their lead. We are creatures of habit. But, with that said....does that mean you will have a highly reward post no...because that is probably what everybody else is doing :) Still don't have the answer on this one @wiser
Nice posting, I will read later... but I upvoted you for appreciate your hard work :)
thanks @happyphoenix