My Steem Journey - Maiden Post

Hi everyone, my name is Neil. This is my third introduction in the SteemIt platform. I would like to have a fresh restart and at the same time share my ideas and experiences as I navigate through the world of Steem. Back in the day, I used to do Internet Marketing and one of my favorite places to hang out is Black Hat World. It is an online community composed of people who does Internet marketing, SEO, PPC and most of the things you do online to make money. But there’s a particular section there that I frequently read which is IM journeys. That’s the part where a user chronicles his/her journey about achieving something (e.g. To earn $4000/month in Instagram, Get 1M subscribers in Youtube, etc). I thought of doing the same here and while other users have done the same, I think the way they did it was not the way it was done in BlackHatWorld.

Looking back, I joined SteemIt in 2016 and tried putting myself into it. To be perfectly honest, I was nott interested that time, I believe I just signed-up for the sake of it. While I created a few blog posts, much of the rest are just resteems and video embeds from Youtube. Then I totally abandoned SteemIt. The main reason probably is I always see posts about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies during those days and I really haven’t gone any interest in learning blockchain technology. Then at the beginning of the second half of 2017, Bitcoin prices started to soar. That’s when cryptocurrency caught my attention. I started buying some crypto in 2017 and tried entering the world of crypto trading. I lost some investments which I don't really regret since I consider it as a part of my learning process. Besides, I only invested what I can afford to lose. When the market crashed in 2018, I am still speculative about cryptocurrency and even if I stopped trading crypto, I supported Leondrino ICO and bought a few thousand tokens. During that time that the market has yet to recover from the crash, I went back to SteemIt and posted a few of updates. That time, I still didn't understand how the SteemIt network operates and I still didn't have much interest to regularly use it, much more make it an investment.

Now in 2019, I decided to give SteemIt another try, so here I am. With regard to this series of post, I am working on a few assumptions (which you may or may not agree with) which will also more or less be my mantra and I take on this journey.

Assumptions

Do unto others what you want others do unto you. Yes, it is the golden rule which I always believe in. To thrive in this social environment, one should learn how to give and not just take and take from others. So if I want to be upvoted, I should upvote others too. Reply so my posts will have replies too, etc.
I cannot give what I do not have. This will have a big impact on the first assumption. With the introduction of voting mana and resource credits, it is important that I have enough of these to be able to do the things that will make this journey go forward.
This will be a long journey. While I am planning to just have this series hopefully within a year, the process of actually making money from this might take more than that.
Every little thing counts. I don’t mind earning 0.001 in a post or in any action that I did. Every earning is important. A droplet may be useless for you but multitudes of those droplets can fill a bucket, or an ocean.

I won't delve on too much detail about the business-as-usual stuff (e.g. commenting, upvoting, resteeming, etc.) but I will highlight those which made substantial impact on my account's performance. I will also present a table that compares stats I have from the previous update to the present update. Also, in this series of posts, I will introduce the tag STEEMVESTING and also use STEEMJOURNEY so other readers, especially those who will stumble in this series of posts at a later time, can go back and read the series of posts from where it all started. I will also use Update numbers in my title instead of week to be on the safe side in case I won’t be able to provide update on weekly basis (I originally planned to have my append my titles with Week # XX)

Plan
• Post regularly. Posting on a regular basis makes my account active even if it does not guarantee any earnings. So how and where do I get my content? I actually have a number of ways to contribute. I have varied interests which I can write about - Internet, technology, cryptocurrency, gardening, food, photography, travel etc. Just by sharing photos I took relating to some of my interests, I can have a steady source of content to share.

• Invest money to boost my post and power up my Steem Power. I believe that in the Steem network, you can navigate yourself up even from scratch just providing good content and constant engagement with other users. However, as for any investment like Steem, it is still better to have a boost to kickstart my campaign. Not that I will be spending huge amount of money to buy Steem and power up my account. I have a particular amount in mind which I will invest of a staggered basis and when I reach that amount, I will stop putting more money in and just solely focus on building my account and hopefully start earning Steem and SBD.

• Power up for a year and assess my account after that. If I think I have enough production (income) for each day then I might stop powering my account and start putting them into savings.

What I did so far

I registered with ActiFit. I may not have a clear idea what to do with my ActiFit tokens aside from using it to promote my ActiFit posts (which at the moment is very limited - a boost request may take a few days and you cannot do another boost unless you current request is completed) but I am saving these tokens as they may be useful in the future. I am already using FitBit to monitor my activities and having ActiFit on the side is not an additional burden.
I started playing Steem Monsters. While it requires that you buy the starter deck worth $10, I think it is all worth it. More than two decades ago, I was an avid fan and player of Magic: The Gathering trading card game. I see some similarities with the two games and I like the strategy involved in selecting your creatures and having a battle with other players around the world. More importantly, I like the idea that just by playing, you can actually have a chance to win more cards and trade or sell them if you wish. I can spend hours and hours playing another game without getting anything in return so I think playing Steem Monsters is better than spending time with other games that I used to play.
I signed up with TravelFeed. Many of the photos I got are from our travels. I can use this tool to share these photos along with my travel experiences and in return, they also reward you for using this tool, like a point system that others have.
Who does want a steady flow of STEEM paid to your account every day? And that’s one of the things Smart Steem does! You delegate your Steem Power and they pay you a percentage in return. So it’s like doing a term deposit in a bank but what I love with this system is the fact that you can actually choose to be paid daily, and you can just re-use those earnings, regardless of how small they are, to invest in other endeavors or back to Smartsteem. I haven’t put it a large amount of Steem Power (just a hundred for now) but I can say I am deeply satisfied with the returns. I might also use their vote buying system in the future to boost my posts.
I use Instagram daily and when I learned Share2Steem lets you earn from your social media postings, by cross-posting your content to Steem, I also signed-up for the service. I still have to pump up my followership in Instagram and I am also devising a plan not to repost (as an independent posting) to Steem what I already shared using this system.
I downloaded and installed this Steem apps - Partiko App – eSteem – eSteem. I have a definite use for each of them (I use Partiko in my mobile phone, eSteem for general browsing, and Steem-plus in my desktop PC). The good thing about these apps is they let you earn points from using these tools which you can use to boost your content. It’s a win-win.
I also signed-up with PAL, Splintertalk, and Steemleo. It doesn't hurt to earn more from these platforms by cross-posting my SteemIt content, as long as they're appropriate (i.e. Steemleo - only for investing-related content).
I use SteemPeak when composing lengthy posts such as this one, especially those that I need to do special formatting. Also, this
I signed-up at Musing, a Q & A platform on the Steem blockchain which rewards you for posting questions and answers. I am still a newbie, that’s the reality, and what’s better than being able to earn something by posting a question and getting the right answers from other Steem users. At the same time, I can also give something back by providing answers to questions I am comfortable with and confident in whatever answer I can provide.
I already spent about $90 boosting my account, and delegating my Steem Power to some users, and buying a few booster packs at Steem Monsters.

Stats to date

Steem Tokens	1 July	This Update
Steem	0.004	0.0629
Steem Power	0.004	196.046
Account Value	4.62	70.56
Reputation	33	41

This is the first post regarding my SteemIt journey, which explains the lengthy text explaining how I will do it and what this series of post is all about. The succeeding updates will also have a shorter narrative, as I said previously, it will only contain the highlights of what transpired after the previous update up to the current one. After I publish an update to this series, I will convert my Steem and SBD to SteemPower, as such, the progress table above will always display Steem and SBD with zero value for the previous update.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate your comments. Stay tuned!