I've been pondering
Okay, so I'm not that depressed, but I'm wondering where I stand with Steemit. Okay, so I've only been here a month, but I've managed to get 109 followers. I've posted 785 times (posts and comments) and made maybe $10. I got 3 SP at the start and paid in a few dollars of Bitcoin to top it up.
My best post, about IoT made me $3.13. That's not bad, but most struggle to make a few cents. Many get to 1c, but that rounds down to nothing.
So am I doing it wrong?
I could go for 'clickbait' posts, but I have to be true to myself. I try to post stuff I can be proud of. I am getting some good comments on some posts, so that is a reward in itself, but it would be good to see my SP rise a little faster.
My greatest hits
These are some posts that I thought were good and might have done better. I welcome constructive criticism on what I can do to improve. You have to bear in mind that I have to balance the effort I put in against the potential reward. I have other things I could be doing, e.g. practising guitar or honing my programming skills. Many of these made nothing at all in the first day. They may have a chance in the following weeks.
- Getting a custom guitar. I know there are a few musicians here including some guitarists. Too late for votes on this
- British Prog is alive and well. Not too many posts using the #prog tag. Too late for votes on this, but it got picked up in a Facebook group. Steemit ranks well on Google
- Recording a podcast. I started doing a show recently. This might be helpful, but late for votes on this
- Blogging in the 21st century. I started in the
previous century. Too late for votes on this - Running for fun and fitness. I know there are some runners here
- Podcasts about guitar. Discovering cool stuff can be hard. Thought this might be useful
- Give a little. Thoughts on charity on Steemit
- Pick a plectrum. My collection. I'm still up to swap or to buy for Steem
- Sign your name about digital signatures
- Scripting for Steemit. I practised my Python by writing a script to generate image links for me. Saves me time, but specific to my needs
- Getting into Python programming. Some suggestions for learning
- Cello lover. A music suggestion
- Local safari. Some of my nature photos
- Read the docs includes some Steemit documentation links I've not seen mentioned
- A Steemit song. Not many of those yet
- The value of recycled content. I do see a lot of posts that earn a lot despite not being totally original
- #22kill charity challenge. I've not seen many charity efforts here. I thought I'd join this one, but only made a couple of cents from 5 posts so far. I will donate anyway.
I'm slightly spooked as @robotev has been voting on some of these posts as I'm writing this. Is it spying on me?
my reply won't even get noticed because I'm a minnow commenting on a post by another minnow. I've accepted this fact and just hope that a post of mine gets noticed by a whale and gets a juicy up vote once in a while.
Your comment got noticed.
I saw it, so now a minnow comment, on a minnow post, was noticed by a minnow! Whoot!
Wow thanks for the up vote @murh and @neoxian, I didn't see that coming you made my day!
Thanks @whatsup but you forgot the important bit ..... the little arrow next to the $0.00
We minnows should stick together, and there are some efforts to get people together to combine their votes on good content. A few people are seeing this post, so you may gain followers.
First you get the followers, then you get the upvotes, then you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women.
I think a big problem is that people just don't vote on old posts and you only get paid 1. after 24 hours and 2. after a month, but no payments for votes after that.
If people had the chance to build up a legacy of posts that others could upvote later, it would really help - but they freeze voting and earning after a month, so you really need to make an impact early, otherwise your best work gets unrewarded.
Steemit posts come up in Google searches. I'd like to be able to vote on old ones and possibly comment too. A lot of the information will still have value later.
I really seems that most money is made in the first 24 hours.
Great post, especially at this time in the game of Steemit.com! Thanks for sharing and keep on with your good courage as the site is really only in its infancy, in beta mode, still... It is evolving quickly, though it might be hard for one to believe, especially since we are so used to Facebook and so many other sites that are well and running full speed by now. It was a very different story when it first started though, if you can remember?!? thumbs up for your article and you sure get my upvote, namaste :)
Cheers. It looks like another post that got a lot of votes may earn nothing. I'd hope that an original song is worth something. I know the site is still new. I'm hoping it will grow to millions of users. That will be interesting to see
I feel with you and for you. That's the exact reason I took a one week leave from Steemit.
I can see that nothing has really changed. Time for another leave :)
I missed you! I don't know if it will change much in the near future. It's still evolving. I'll continue to post. I at least have my charity challenge to complete. I have to decide if my time here is well spent.
I will have to check your challenge.
As for the time well spent. I don't know, honestly. Lately, I am wasting my time on Synereo slack :)
I've got a few things I've noticed and I tend to be verbose, so please don't take this as anything other than trying to help out. :)
Topic selection: Your main topics seem to be assessments of steemit and/or other social sites and tech such as the Internet of Things (which seems to have brought you the highest payouts.) Steemit comparisons with other social sites can be a viable topic here, especially with some of us (like myself) not really having experiences with ones I've seen you mention like Tsu, bitlanders, etc... The Internet of Things topic has an audience, no doubt..you even got @ned to vote on this one.
[Note this is in no ways saying to stop your pushups for vets posts. That is something you are posting because it's important to YOU to do and is outside of this marketing writeup]
Expand on your topics: Steemit users tend to vote for longer articles over shorter ones. Using this post as an example.
I realize you linked this article to provide the background to your post, but I don't want to read another whole article. I want to hear what YOU have to say. Provide the link like you did but give me a 15 second explanation of what that article says and why I should care about connecting sensors and devices. Give me examples of cool things or programs that I can relate to. Sift through the info so we don't have to. Attention scarcity is an issue for many on Steemit, admittedly myself included.
Same things at the end of your Internet of Things post. Tell me about the product that Google shut down. Again with your last paragraph, tell me what all is/was included in your home automation system. If you have pictures of your own great! If not, find some, even it's from an ecommerce page for that product (give source and of course only with license allowing.) If the turning lights on/off was as far as you have gotten, tell me things that you plan to do next, like turn on your computer with Steemit opened up when you open the front door and turn the alarm off (as a cheesy example.)
Follow for Follow: To be blunt, this doesn't work to convert meaningful upvotes. I follow the people who I have a desire to see their posts and/or have build a personal relationship with because this is what I want in my feed. All follow for follow does is increase the number at the top of our screen, while filling your feed with to a ridiculous degree, with articles that more than likely don't interest you, let alone have the ability to sift through and keep up with. It's the whole point of using the feed, to get a sifted down list of things YOU want. That person following you is more than likely in the same boat. In my opinion your efforts are better spent elsewhere in the search for upvotes. Along this path organic follows will come naturally and be better rewarding, if not in steem dollars, in conversation and relationship building.
Tags: Tags right now are extremely important, especially for those in the 'building stage.' I highly recommend finding 1-2 ideally larger tags from this list steamsquad, minnowsunite, and 1-2 of whatever you want. With the example post, I'd recommend swapping the iot tag for minnowsunite...opensource and linux are the bigger tag in this scenario. There may be better tags, though depending on the article. Many things can apply to the life tag for example.
Other things like grabby headlines and photos. I don't mean meaningless click bait. These are merely ways to accurately frame your content meaning to draw people in. Remember you're among lists and lists of other posts, why should they choose yours.
Come by #steemprentice in steemit.chat anytime. All we do is analyze, give feedback/suggestions and try to help. :)
Thanks for that. All valid points. I need to make some notes of things I should try to do on each post. I'm not a marketing person. I just do this for fun, but I can see it's worth applying certain principles to get good results.
Keep trying It takes a while to get noticed, I think you will do fine just be patient :)
Your material is good and original.
Don't give up.
I think you could improve your voting behaviour.
24 votes in 24 hours ...
As a minnow you should vote much more, to make new friends ;)
Cheers. It's a matter of time. I'm only going to vote on what I really like, regardless of what it earns me. I am making some friends here and that is important.
That's the best and only way to approach the situation.
Hang In There
Cheers
Give it a little more time :)
I should be happy as it took a lot longer than a month to make this much on Tsu. If Steemit grows as big as that did it will do well, but it's the active users that really count.
I may just ease off a little and let it grow.
Yours is a story we hear over and over. Although it's great content - you're a minnow and therein lays the problem. Some people will take the moral high ground and insist they're not in this for the rewards just to post content and stimulate debate ....... really! if you monitor a posting by a whale you'll notice on occasions it isn't even original content but the up votes go stratospheric. Why? because it's not about the content it's about riding on the coat tails of a whale for curation awards.... it's bullshit ..... if you can't beat them then join them!
LOL! Yeah I could just try to join the dash for cash, but we minnows don't stand to earn much from curating. I think I barely made a cent from that so far. Things are just too skewed at the moment, a bit like society (bit of politics!)
I respect you for that & you've earned a follower. As a content creator and artist I feel this so hard, across any platform. Looking forward to digging into your posts! I too am concerned with the struggle of being a minnow on a media platform that promises to reward for content, especially when you believe your content is quality. Frankly I'm kind of excited for yours to launch to see how that goes as well. The blockchain presents an interesting opportunity and I think we all want our rewards now but it's still getting on its feet. I'll be following!
It is early days and I think it's hard to justify posts getting thousands when the userbase is so small. It devalues Steem in my opinion. I'd love to be able to make a living online, but I'm resigned to keeping the day job for now
You have awesome post, but it doesn't matter much until you get that big juicy whale upvote. Get yourself into comment section of random post and create converstions. Whales upvote comments to post. Your time will come. Im a lowly minnow myself, but I'm following you now. Best wishes.
Cheers. I do enjoy writing. I appreciate anyone who comments or votes. I know whales are pretty rare. I did get a vote from one of the founders that earned me a few dollars and I've had comments on a whale post that did well. Hey, it's more than we get on Facebuk or others
That's true but it's only the up votes or comments that tell us our post get read. That's why no up votes or comments is so depressing.
We are in the same boat! I l voted. (my .02) Hang in there!
Thanks. Looks like you had a few good posts. Sometimes it seems like too much effort for what you get. Not that I'm going anywhere
Really only one good one. I have some time right now, so I figure it is still good for my brain to keep working on it.
I am just working on stats to see how likely it is to get some money with a post on Steemit.
Come join the steemprentice channel in steemit.chat. we're there to help get people over humps like yours.
I'm gonna take a look at your blog and get you some suggestions shortly. :)
I'll see you there