Hi Steemians!! I hope the Steemforce is with you!
Ok, I'm a dork. It's been a long time since I wrote an installment to this series. As an active blogger since last September, I now have 1095 followers, and have made 2132 posts (including comments). This averages to about 1 follower for every 2 comments. My reputation is 59, and my account is worth a little over $1000. Not bad, but alas, I'm still a little fish. ;)
I guess I would rate myself as someone who falls down the middle. I am moderately successful here, and there is always room for improvement. I believe some actions I neglected to take in the beginning have hurt my growth though, and I would like to share these newbie mistakes with you with the hope that you won't follow in my footsteps.
Newbie Mistake Number 1: Not Learning Markdown
I went months and months only knowing how to italicize. Make your posts interesting and coherent by learning how to make a header, how to post a link with one word, how to properly quote someone, ect. Here is an excellent markdown guide I just saw last night, posted by @blackliberal.
Newbie Mistake Number 2: Lack of networking.
When I first started out, I treated Steemit much like Facebook, I hit that upvote button every time I saw something I liked, and I often didn't comment. I wrote articles that I thought were quality enough to draw others to them. I thought quality posts were strong enough to stand on their own merit. They aren't. When I realized I needed to make connections, I was like a confused octopus reaching out in haphazard ways. My actions were pretty random. I didn't make very many lasting connections this way.
Then I joined discord. The most popular group on discord is PAL, but the sheer number of people there intimidated me. If interacting with thousands of random people doesn't scare you, here's the invite to join them.
Chat rooms generally intimidated me at first, but I was tired of being a lone wolf. I joined @thealliance a few months ago, and it changed everything! @thealliance stretched me to get out of my comfort zone. They are a group of about 200 people who love and support each other on Steemit and discord. A number I can handle, not to mention the members there are fantastic! If you create quality posts, and think you would fit into our family-like atmosphere this post shows you how to join! I also have found excellent likeminded people in the @familyprotection community, @theresistance community, and I'm starting to get to know people in the @informationwar community.
My point here is find your people! They are out there, I truly believe there is a group for everyone here!
Newbie Mistake #3: Not finding A Niche
This goes hand in hand with finding your people, but I'd like to elaborate on it. There's a balance here. If you're all over the place on your blog, it may alienate your followers. If you only do one thing, you may bore your followers. When I was a beginner, I wrote about all sorts of random stuff, but I find that I'm more successful when I narrow it down slightly. At this point I have settled into an enjoyable pattern of writing for @familyprotection, @theresistance, as well as @informationwar type articles. I also include posts in which I just share my life, as well as a pinch of poetry, opinion, and advice. I'm not a great photographer, I'm not a cryptojunkie, I'm not a painter, I'm not a homesteader or gardener, so why stretch myself in those directions? I'm a writer! If you're new, be patient with yourself, and explore what you are good at!
Newbie Mistake Number 4: Not Voting For Witnesses
This doesn't help or hurt my account, but I went a long time not really knowing or caring about witnesses. Now I realize how important they are to the survival of the blockchain. I still have some slots to fill, so if you think of a witness who deserves a vote, tell me who and why in the comments. So far I've voted for @timcliff, @aggroed, @pharism, @blocktrades, @drakos, @yabamatt, @ocd-witness, @sircork, @thekitchenfairy, @enginewitty, @guiltyparties, @krnel, @dropahead, and @steemgigs. That leaves me with 16 votes remaining.
Newbie Mistake Number 5: Not Being Consistent
There were times when I just fell off the face of the earth, and it really hurt me. Every time I took a break, I would lose followers. Several months ago I was benefiting from a curation trail that upvoted all my posts about $1.60 in value. After taking a break for a couple of weeks, I came back, and was no longer on their list of people to upvote. They never came back either. Now I am pretty good at authoring at least one post everyday. I hope you are able to be consistent as well.
So, if you've been here for a while, what newbie mistakes did you make? Do you have any pointers you would like to share with new Steemians? Comments welcome!
Thanks for reading this installment of A Little Advice From A Little Fish To A Little Fish. Remember, I'm a little fish too, and we're in this together! :)
Love, snowpea ❤
Dropped you a free 100% vote :]
Love your stuff.
That's awesome, what an honor! Thank you so much @minnowpond!! :D
Very insightful and useful. I would add to buy some Steem and power it up when you are ready to make a serious time commitment to Steem. My friend @wizardofcheeze needs to take this advice. :)
Highly encourage you to write in @jatinhota for witness. He is fam and if not for him, I wouldn't even be a witness.
Your posts - my fav is when you show off the family like the movie nights 😎 and in line with that, if anyone sees this comment and are curious about niches, just BE YOU, the rest will fall into place.
Ah, yes, @jatinhota. I've been meaning to vote for him. Thanks for the reminder! It's always fun to share what the family is up to. I'm glad you enjoy it!
This is extremely good advice! All of these points are incredibly important I think. Consistency and Networking I think are up there at the top. Community engagement/making friends on here is critical to getting people to see and interact with your own content.. and the consistency; I had that once too.. I went on a trip (to the maldives) where I didn't post for a week (limited internet at sea) and it definitely hurt me .. I lost almost all my momentum (and some followers), even though I had made many posts explaining what I was doing and when I'd be back.. and then some of my regular readers stopped checking my blog for updates also.
Your advice is absolute gold!
Thank you @fiftysixnorth!! Yes, that's the worst feeling when you lose followers because of inconsistency. Sometimes life takes us away for a while, and people just drop off like flies without even asking why we're gone. Then there's writer's block and people leave when that's happening too- like today I have no idea what to write about! 😱 Thank you for calling my advice absolute gold!! That's one of the greatest compliments I've ever received!!! ❤
One of the reasons for that I think is that steemit has so much content you literally drown in it, so if you forget even briefly about someone whose writing you like you may never see them again.
You are absolutely welcome, just telling it as it is :) Gold! :)
This is all very good information. I'm about at the same steemit level as you (so to speak) as i'm only a few months older in Steemit age. My first interaction with you was seven months ago when you downvoted my comment because you thought I was calling you empty headed. @ironshield
Chalking that one up to growing pains too. Sorry about that. 😅
No problem @snowpea. These days I do understand a bit better some of what you've been through. Keep those kiddos safe. @ironshield
Wow, I don't remember downvoting you lol! I do remember being really embarrassed after you explained what you meant by the GIF though.
One thing that's for sure is that I never forgot you after that happened, and I'm glad there were no hard feelings because I really like you and your wife. :)
Thanks for this great post!!!! I'll be adding it to our reference materials for the @welcomewagon!!!!
Great job @snowpea! :)
Thank you @dreemsteem! :) I just looked at your new project, and what a great idea!
I am at the same stage you were some months ago I guess...lately I have been reflecting on what I did wrong and what I did right.
Great points on networking and voting for witnesses, I will check out some to vote for today.
Thank you!
Nice tips!
I'm somewhere between the beginning and the middle of my journey here as well and hope to do as well as you :-)
Excellent advice my friend. We all need a brush up. LOL Thanks @snowpea.
I think you covered the most important topics that most beginners are struggling with.
I definitely made mistake #1 - had no idea about the markdown.
#2 - I think I was quite good at this but there's always new people to meet and interact with.
#3 is something I'm still working on even after being on this platform for more than a year. :D
#4 - just got interested in voting for witnesses, so far I have only voted for @curie and @adsactly but I'll check out people from your list. :)
#5 - in these 14 months on Steemit, the longest I've been away is 12 days in a row. Sometimes I don't feel inspired to write every day but I try to come and read posts/leave comments at least.
What I love about Steemit is that we are constantly learning and growing, I don't think anyone can come to the point of "now I know everything/now I have it all". Thanks for sharing this post and reminding me of that. <3
Hi @snowpea :o) Interesting read and always good to hear on this topic from people who have reflected upon the goings on here at Steemit and the ways in which their own interaction has influenced their time here. For me, the biggest mistake I made was the lack of consistency - more precisely, I abandonned ship after a run of posts which were met with tumbleweeds. I was very upset about it, especially as I'd put a ton of effort into the posts in question. My irl peeps were telling me I was wasting my time and that Steemit was going nowhere. BIG mistake. This was early on in Steemit-days, and MANY of those who stayed put whilst I was away have gone on to be very successful indeed. I have no idea how or if I'll ever recover the kind of support here that I had in those early days, but the terrain has changed so radically here that I really did shoot myself in the foot, I feel. Posts are worth pennies or nothing unless you're paying for votes, or networking massively, which as a 'lone wolf' type who also doesn't like to spend excessive amounts of screen time, I don't see myself doing. I'm a bit stuck on where to go next with Steemit right now. I feel like I'm teetering on giving up again, which makes me feel sad and frustrated. I want so much to contribute something useful and interesting here, but I'm just not the cliquey sort. I'll check out the resources you've mentioned here, and look again to see if I can find people to interact with who feel like a good fit. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, observations and experiences. Food for thought for sure! With love, Jay <3
I hope you don't give up! I'm not the cliquey sort either, and I'm naturally a lone wolf as well. It hasn't been easy to network to be honest, and I feel to be really successful here I would have to be on Steemit full time! Which I would love, but it's not in the cards for me. I already spend hours each morning here.
Not to change the subject...I noticed on your description of yourself that you say you're a radical unschooler. How is that different than the average unschooler? Just curious. Thank you for your comment! :)
Hi @snowpea :o) I keep striving to find the motivation to keep on keeping on - it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who struggles with the whole 'social' aspect of social media ;o)
So-called 'radical' unschooling differs from homeschooling in that there is literally no coercion whatsoever. It's basically unschooling (which is very different from parent-directed homeschooling, or 'school at home' - blech!) but even more so, lol.
I often meet 'unschoolers' who are still subtly manipulating their children's learning experience and who also 'worry' about all kinds of traditional elements of what they're doing (e.g. can I really trust that she'll learn to read one day without me instructing her? Am I really doing the right thing by 'letting' him choose his own bedtime?) I'd say that 'radical' unschoolers (to my mind) are those who have successfully let go of all that baggage and the trappings of the mainstream schooling system to an extent that they really are capable of confidently supporting and facilitating their offspring responsively rather than superficially, with absolute faith in their innate ability to intelligently direct their own learning experience. It's really a mindset, IMO, and you have either switched over into that zone or not. I can tell within seconds whether a parent is there or pretending to be there ;o)
Just my take on it, of course, and there is a wealth of info out there online if you're interested in researching further. And you're more than welcome to ask me (or my unschooled teen) anything, any time :o)
I have a heart to unschool, but our family is currently being investigated by CPS. I feel like I'm being watched, so I'm currently homeschooling, with a curriculum and everything. I want to just let them be free, but there is this oppressive force in our lives now. One question for you: Do you limit screentime? I'm finding that very hard to do at this point. If I let them do whatever they wanted, they would turn into nocturnal screen zombies and sleep all day lol.
All good advices! Even though I'm still here since summer 2016, I still have a fuzzy understanding of what the Witnesses are all about, and Discord is very confusing... I don't like the UI and find it not user-friendly at all to find and connect with people!
A nice list of things to do. I ran into some of the same issues, and still doubt I will ever be consistent in what I write or the frequency. Probably because I was self publishing for a few years, I got burnt out on writing (especially the same things again and again). I have to feel the writing pushing at me to get out before I can type now. I am going to try to challenge myself to at least 5 posts a week for the next month. Hopefully I can.
I actually took almost a month off from posting, just spending my time reading others of like mind and commenting. My own posts were not being seen, and I was questioning if this platform was a good fit for me. Through reading others posts that I identified with or was learning from, I made it through that dark spell and picked up some followers on the way.
I doubt I will ever have a huge real following (I don't consider ass kissers for votes or bots real followers) and don't mind if I never do. It is hard to juggle a large circle, finally convincing me to rent some SP so I could have more votes to give with the slider. So many posts deserving upvotes, so few to give.
I just realized that I wasn't following you yet, but I fixed it lol!
Consistency can mean different things to different people. Some bloggers only post a couple of times per week. I think that's fine as long as you don't just disappear for extended periods at a time.
I know what you mean, I can't just force myself to write something, I really need to be inspired by an idea. I've been on a roll lately in part because of all the ridiculous nonsense going on in my life right now. I suppose that's the silver lining of it all...I am considering taking a short break though - maybe a couple days because 1) My voting power is super low and 2) I can't think of anything to write about today lol. Good luck on posting 5 times/week! I'll have to check your blog to see how you're doing ;)
Yes, there's so many great posts out there and I'm constantly killing my VP lol. Very smart of you to get a slider! I'm working up to getting a slider too. Almost there! I think with my next payout, I'll have enough of a payout to rent enough SP so I can get one too. :)
Thank you for your comment and continuing support! :D
The thanks are mine really. You have given me a new obsession to investigate with this gang stalking. I have been spending hours nightly researching this and will probably begin posting on it myself soon. The problem I am having is as I learn more, it opens more things I need to look into.
When I begin following people, I usually will peruse their previous posts (at least skim through them if they have a ton of posts) and was curious about something. Please forgive me if I am overstepping here. I read about your husbands depression (and the reasons leading to it). How is he holding up? Has he found someone to talk to that has given him a foundation to work from? If not, maybe you could convince him to join here.
Like your husband, I also chose to cooperate back in the 90's when CPS got involved with my family. My ignorance of the process led me to conclude I had nothing to hide and cooperating with them would get them out of my life quickly. Fortunately, that was how it played out for me. I am hopeful that the two of you do not let this become a rift between you, as it is imperative that you two bind closer and have a united front to deal with this.
Let him know that he should consider joining here too. Maybe he would find an outlet for the crap he is bottling up inside. Many of us have had our down periods and self doubt, and sometimes just unloading it openly helps let some of the steam off. Plus, it might open up another stream of income for your family.
I'm glad you're researching gangstalking. I'm curious to know what you've dug up about it! To be honest, my research on the subject isn't very expensive, mostly I just speak from experience lol.
You're not overstepping your bounds at all! I mean, I did put it on the blockchain as public knowledge. He's okay I guess. No changes really. He went to the doctor twice in the last 6 months or so for his depression, and started taking the 2 prescriptions he was given, but they took so long to work, that he gave up and stopped taking them...He's on a waiting list to see a therapist too.
I've asked him to join Steemit, but he doesn't want to. When he's at his best, he's a great communicator through spoken word, I think he'd be a great vlogger once he's better, but not a very good writer.
Ohh, I just thought of something! Maybe no break after all! ;)
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Yes, and thank you! :)
WOW, I am a minnow! Great content, I am resteeming this ( I have learned that much) and more importantly, I am re-reading this. I have not even heard of witnesses, so I have some study to do! I have been looking for specific areas that work best for me, and I am closer to that distillation. I agree on the crypto currency, Not what I am here for! I enjoy writing, but as a means to an end, and not an end in itself; but who knows? My photography skills are cell phone level mostly, but I have a microscope camera, I want to use here. I have been doing FaceBook on Steemit, without even realizing it; so thank you for this insight, I will try to do better!
I am so happy that this was helpful! Thanks for your support and resteem! There are lots of articles about witnesses if you want to look into it yourself, but I did find this handy little bit of info for you. Cheers! :)
Thanks, That helps, I have been reading since I posted to you. It appears that the witnesses are voluntary block chain hub server systems, as well as a blog chain. Interesting, I had wondered where all the computing power came from. May need to look at some of my spare computers to lend a hand, might be fun.
I have to un-facebook myself, and rethink. FB deleted my account when they figured out I have fairly conservative views, they also told 1000 people that I had unfriended them!
You just found out about witnesses, and you're already aspiring to be one! That's awesome, and I'd vote for you. :)
Wow, I can't believe FB did that to you for your conservative views. I'm surprised nothing ever happened to me, because I've been pretty outspoken before too. I keep FB around because my family is there, but Steemit is way better. ;)
Same here, FB blocked a post today, because it is conservative, when I tried to post it, by saying the link was bad. I snuck it in, in a comment, and it worked just fine!
As far as the witnesses, it would be fun to help steemit with hardware (I will have to move to the new land first, :( but I intend to ahve a high speed link out there). I am an electrical engineer, and have a small accumulation of computers here. Can probably make a dozen or so run with what is here. I have four where I can touch them right now, LOL!
I'm witnessing the birth of a witness!! It's so beautiful!! ;)
Witness or witless, remains to be seen I guess, LOL! But it would be fun.... :)
Thanks for the shout ❤️
Absolutely! :)
True!
I wrote articles that I thought were quality enough to draw others to them. I thought quality posts were strong enough to stand on their own merit. They aren't.
Markdown - oh heavens - I'm still getting formatting glitches, especially when I post side-by-side photos, and text sneaks in between them, and the break indicators, *** or --- , show up, along with # bold for headers.
I waste more time formatting and hyperlinking than I do writing.
And for what? A dozen upvotes, a comment or two here and there.
I joined PAL early on, and a dozen other Discord groups, but there's no way I can keep up with the traffic. I used to try. :)
Thanks for sharing all these pointers. You're right about being consistent.
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These tips are trully useful for me. I am so thankful for sharing it with us. And yes, those pointers are essential.
Yep, that's good and concise advice. I learned a lot of that the hard way. Some of those I'm still trying to pound into my head.
Joe
@joe.nobel
science fiction, fantasy, erotica
check out some posts, no obligation
Thanks to you for pointing out the reasons, I will follow your guide. But it used hurt me when I used to get a minnow sized upvote from a whale. Indeed you will get what you deserve its true. I am working on my self to make my blogs and whatever post to reach my followers mind.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by snowpea from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
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Great article and very useful!! 💕
Really great tips @snowpea! I slack at networking because I don't have a lot of time for Discord. I wish I had more time for Steemit. ;0)
Thanks a lot for this post. This is the best article I've seen in Steemit.
I'll join thealliance soon and apply your tips. ^^
Do you think to participate in a contest is a good point for newbie? or it just waste the time?