Quality posts certainly become popular when people with weight read them. Garbage posts can also become popular when people think they can make money off upvoting and resteeming them. This is why I try to make my writing as self-indulgent as possible without disregarding those who read them. I try to put my time and effort in to well thought posts as often as I can but I don't feel guilty about just organizing my thoughts in public either.
Yesterday I posted twice. Once was a spoof of that Matt guy everyone was talking about. It took me 90 seconds to put together, went trending and pulled in $50. Then I went to work on the post I really cared about, spent 2 hours to write it and 2 to rewrite it after accidentally deleting it.... the comments all indicate that it was really well received.....It brought in $0.40.
I am not exclusively writing for money but it's hard not to make comparisons. I feel a bit dizzy by this.
The only thing that consistently helps my posts is interacting with others, commenting and chatting and getting to know people. Everything else is inconsistent so I try to interact as much as I can and write when I can muster up the energy and feel excited by it (which I guess is fairly often).
Thoughtful response-- thank you! And hearing from folks like you is a large part of the answer to "what and why do I write here?"
Well, because there's a sense of community and interaction here that you really don't get on Farcebook or any other the other social content platforms.
I suppose I am also very self-indulgent in that I just write about stuff that interests me, makes me think or otherwise amuses me... with more or less reckless disregard for whether or not it is popular. Occasionally it turns out to be... but that's not by design.
Which isn't to say that I don't get all happy and glowy when one of my pieces gets a bunch of recognition and we can suddenly afford a nice dinner out.
We actually can give a lot more to others when we stop giving a crap about pleasing them. Funny how that works :-) Glad to know you here, I look forward to your most self indulgent posts