perfect advice!)
you told your own story, you had this way by your own, you know all mistakes and hidden stones in the sea of Steemit, and your advice is very useful!
I totally agree with you! When I started my Steemit story 2 months ago (I was registered in summer but I didnt pay attention to my blog here), I was full of these very questions - how to attract attention, how to get votes, how to find friends, but then I realized it's a wrong way, I just need to enjoy and to be ME here, not to be a girl for somebody's upvotes but just to be me, and this sincerity is always attractive for somebody. Let it be 5 people but really nice who honestly like you and your posts, whales, upvotes... it's not the goal here, I'm not a money hunter, I can't go and ask for upvotes, it's miserable and I have never done it. To read, try to get what the author wants to tell and to say my opinion about it - it's amazing for me, for him, and it can be start of our friendship.
I had another situation with followers, their number increased every day very fast, but it didn't bring me anything, no comments, no attention, and then I understood they are bots or just "dead souls", not alive people with whom I can communicate, or they were alive but became my follower without any reason, just pushed the button without any look who I was and what I wrote...then I became sad( and even was about to leave Steemit but decided to try and go on...now I'm not on the top, but I start to love this place) I love to read smth interesting, to know people all over the world, to tell them smth, and they start to comment me a little and even upvote - oh how happy I was to get my first upvotes and comments) and now I am happy like a child getting them))
I never reply such comments like "Cool post, upvote me" and I'm sad people don't understand they have chosen a wrong way here..
oops, the comment turns to be longer than I expected))) the topic has touched me much)
I think you can expand a bit further on this comment @taliakerch, and turn it into your next post! lol
That's really the thing though. With other sites such as facebook, people are not generally looking for a monetary reward. Many of them (granted, not the ones retweeting/facebooking their every bowel movement, who seem more interested in the attention lol ) are just posting about things they know about and are passionate about.
On STEEMIT, you're basically expanding on those posts and ideas, and presenting them to an even wider potential audience that can potentially reward you if they like and appreciate your work. And granted, there's an "ebb and flow" just like with everything else, from life, to the markets, to those who read your posts, right down to your "writing inspiration". It's best not to force it, and just "go with the flow" of how you feel. If you get stuck, try writing about that!
And who knows, but it might just turn out to be one of your most "appreciated" posts, a "work of art from the heart" that many others relate to as well! :)