It may sound crazy, but that is my goal and I am on day 90 (14.5 weeks on the chart) right now and working hard to hit that target in 10 short days. Just so that everyone is aware, I did not invest any 'fiat currency' into my account. All this was accomplished with hard work, meeting new people, being supported by friends, hard work, having a lot of content, hard work and spending 6-8 hours a day blogging.
Why am I sharing this? Because I want people to know that it is possible to not only make a living doing this, but what kind of work is involved. So let me explain a few key milestones that helped me and I hope that some of these will bring you some inspiration or give you some ideas on how to help yourself out.
It helps to have a friend
I have a dear friend @lyndsaybowes who talked to me about steemit as she had been on here for over a year and enjoying it process. When I joined she supported my efforts by not only upvoting my work, but sharing it and talking to people about it as well. I already had over 2000 friends on Facebook, so I was sharing my work there too, which I know has resulted in people coming here to follow my work. Having a friend like @lyndsaybowes who can answer questions, provide hints, insights and mentor-ship helped out tremendously!!! So if you are just starting out, finding a mentor is a wise choice to help bring you up to speed on this platform. It is complex and it takes time to get ones head wrapped around how it works and all the tools you need to get started.
It helps that I caught the eye of an orca on the very first day
@fulltimegeek found me right from day one, most likely due to his relationship with @lyndsaybowes. He has been a supporter of mine ever since and has been a boon to the payouts I was getting with my posts. Make no mistake, good content is always a draw and because I work so hard on my content, I've also drawn the eye of other dolphins, orcas and the odd whale or two. I really do thing that if you are struggling getting seen, befriend the friends of the whales!
Luck with the market also helped me out
This may be of little help for people now, but there was a time when steem dollars were ten times the price of steem. That meant that when I got paid out in a post, I could then sell my steem dollars and get a ten fold increase in steem which really helped when I vested it all. I vested everything I got once I noticed that the prices started to take off. Now that steem is taking off, we can only get about 10% increase when hitting the market. But keep an eye open on the market. If you want to build steem to increase your influence, this is one way to do it.
Living off grid meant that I did not have to withdraw
I must admit that because I live off grid, our need for 'income' from this work was zero. I could spend 6-8 hours a day because it is winter and not worry about bills to pay ... because we only have the phone bill to worry about. As a result, it is easy for me to dedicate copious amounts of time working on my relationships with other people to attract followers, comment on threads and really work the social aspect of social networking. The more time you can dedicate, the better.
Being invited to Stewards of Gondor was a huge boost
At first I noticed that my payouts from @FullTimeGeek dropped to near zero because he had delegated his steem to dozens of other people. I wondered if that would have an impact on my capacity to keep growing my account. But then I noticed that the publicity of being invited to be a Steward of Gondor far outweighed the losses. In social media, publicity is king and good publicity works VERY well. I got more followers after the steem delegation than I had prior and the number of upvotes I was receiving on my posts started to climb. So if you can find your way into a group, it is well worth the effort. How do you do that? Hard work, participating and engaging with people. Begging for upvotes, followers and resteems will actually diminish your reputation on this platform, so don't bother engaging in that kind of activity. Begging shows desperation and people are looking for inspiration! Be inspirational.
Starting Debate Forum as a hit
When I became a Steward of Gondor, I decided to start a weekly debate forum where the proceeds would go to the participants. That way the gift I got from @fulltimegeek could be paid forward. It not only worked out well, but the debates have been getting better and better as people get the hang of the idea. That has no doubt increased traffic to my blog as a result!
Starting 'Stewards of Terra Mater'
I decided to take a page from @fulltimegeek and start my own group with the intent of helping fresh, new steemians get started, especially if they were off-gridders and working hard on their spirituality journey. I delegated up to 99.9% of my steem at one point to help 8 other individuals and the results have been amazing. Not only did I give them a confidence boost and found that they were inspired to work hard and do good work, but it also gave me a boost even though I lost all the voting power as a result of delegating nearly 3700 steem. It may seem weird but my blog was doing better as a result of giving away the lions share of my own steem. We really do receive when we give and it was amazing to be a witness to that effect. Generosity really is rewarded, so be generous and have faith that the rewards will come.
Be of service
If you can help people, do it. Lots of people ask for help here and if you have the capacity to guide people through the technology or other pitfalls, then you have a friend who will visit your blog and support your work. That gets around as people talk.
Content, content, content
Most of you are already aware of the content that I write. Content really is what people are looking for and if you have good content, you will get noticed and your blog can take off. It takes hard work to stand out and produce content that people are willing to read. The fact that you are reading this proves that what I've written here has captured your attention for much longer than most people are willing to give to any single blog entry. Provide information, imagery, music and other art forms that people want to see. My friend @lyndsaybowes does a #walkwithme blog each day and people love it. Why? Because people want to see the world and we all live in on a beautiful planet and every single spot on this planet is unique, exquisite and worthy of exploring. Show people your life, through your eyes! In the end, we all want joy, peace, freedom and love, so shine that brightly through your work. Growth is exponential when you get your stride, so be patient.
Will I make it?
I have 10 days to go and I'm working hard to hit that goal. Even if I don't, my avatar here on steemit will be a dolphin soon and because I write so much content, I don't get a chance to spend too much time on other peoples blogs. I work hard to do that, especially with the members of the Stewards of Terra Mater. But I am on steemit.chat now and I work hard to respond to or at least acknowledge everyone who posts on my posts. I do miss some as steemit has work to do in regards to notifications on comments. But either way, I feel my roll as a dolphin will be to continue with my work and doing my best to support other people so that they can get established here as well. If people could follow what I've done in my blog to get off grid, reduce their cash dependencies and that sort of thing so that they can spend more time here, then you too could be a dolphin in 100 days!
But to manage expectations, for an individual who is working, it is more realistic to spend a year to establish the following and steem power to have influence on steemit. Be patient, work hard, be polite, engaging and come up with ideas that allow people to play, engage, have fun or other sorts of activities. This does not have to be just about reading dry content, but can be fun too! Be creative and get noticed.
All I ask is that we do this peacefully, respectfully and honorably. I hope this helps those who are struggling to get started or get the momentum they want out of their blog.
you are better than Dolphin... Because the dolphin owns a strong account because of the money. But you have a strong account because of your heart and your brilliant ideas and your principles. You can't lose because you win a lot of love here. so It's not weird you becoming a dolphin...
Even if you don't help me, I'll love you because you deserve too much.
I wish you success in everything. Brother @wwf
I guess you are saying he is like the "flipper" of dolphins.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1964_TV_series) for non-targer audience reference)
I don't understand what you mean... but i hope it's not an insult.
Not an insult. Flipper is the best dolphin ever
Love! Love! Love!
I truly am blessed to have you, and @lyndsaybowes helping me in this amazing steem journey! I am grateful to be a steward of Terra Mater :) It is my hope and intent to pay it forward, and help others as you and @lyndsaybowes are doing!
I have no doubt that you will swim past dolphin soon enough!
Thank you @wwf for all you do, and the beautiful being that you are.
These are great pointers, and have helped me greatly!
Peace, love and success!!
I am grateful that you got some valuable insight out of my experience and that it helps you along your journey! Already it was worth the time to type it all out! <3 You are welcome and I have no doubt that you will pay it forward as your heart shines bright and people can feel it across the planet when you share. <3
Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us! You are not just a dolphin, but a whale already in my mind by your willingness to give freely! Thank you for helping others including me even though you yourself are still 'new' on the platform. I have been blessed not only by your support as a Steward of Terra Mater but also by reading your posts and learning from you! Thanks again for sharing your life with us! May love, joy, peace, and prosperity be always with you, my brother!
People feel that I've been generous, but to be honest, I think I got more out of it than you or the others. My heart beams watching the Stewards of Terra Mater shine, grow and develop. There is no better feeling in the world than seeing another spiritual being step up and shine their light. That is the true accomplishment and it is yours, not mine. It is an honour to be a part of it all and for that I am grateful.
Hi @wwf. I come back to this after my last comment because there was one thing that keeps on popping up in my mind during my steem-off-time.
You where saying: "[...] I did not invest any 'fiat currency' into my account. All this was accomplished with hard work, meeting new people, being supported by friends, hard work, having a lot of content, hard work and spending 6-8 hours a day blogging."
Of course I agree on content over content over content. Nothing else matters. But is it a bad thing to bring real money into this platform? In the end this produces an even stronger backup to this platform making it more resiliant to fluctuations and building real financial value into this network.
Best of course is content over content over content combined with financial power so that the user can have a stronger influence in the network bringing other good content to the daylight.
I would love to hear your take on this.
All the best.
Moritz
I don't have any issues with people investing their hard earned fiat currency in the platform. The reason I made that statement is that a lot of people don't have any money to invest. Unlike bitcoin or some of the other cryptocurrencies that are out there, you can earn currency with the creative genius of the individual. All that is required is time and we all have time and energy to create.
The trap that the colonial system sets is that without a 'job' the impression is that you cannot do anything or meet your needs. However, with a tool like this and some creativity one quickly realizes that we can meet all our needs without a 'job'. That removes a key link in our chain of slavery.
The fact that people can engage with nothing but time, internet access and a computer means it opens the world to the possibilities of removing oneself from the slave system. So I wanted to make it very clear that I did this without investing money as most opportunities demand within the system.
I hope that helps clarify the intent behind the statement. thank you for asking the question. I love it when people have the courage to do that. Bravo!
This is where it is life changing for some....meeting needs with this tool. I have no fiat to invest but am able to now. I also hope to build my account to a point of being able to make a change for others here on Steem. You got this! 10 days to dolphin! Incredibly inspiring, and thank you for the support you have shown me as well. I agree with your words about @lyndsaybowes, I started this journey because of her <3 She is an excellent mentor!
How incredible for you!!!
I'm hoping to one day be where you're at; obviously at a little slower pace.
But I'm so thrilled for you and your milestone!!
Coming from you @goldendawne, that means a lot to me. Your efforts to curate content is amazing and I only wish I had the time to read everything that you are sharing. Your contributions to steemit have been wonderful and I cherish the friendship that has grown as a result. You are holding an important role in this community my dear spiritual sister. <3
You have acheived so much in such a short time, that is true, but you also have also given so much more quality content than most other steemians I follow! You have earned your position here, be proud :)
Nice offering @wwf. It is great to see efforts such as yours being so well recieved! Wishing you great success on your journey!!
Thank you Jill. When I earn my next 500 steem I want to make you my next steward. Please keep in touch and keep blogging my friend.
Wow! You have made my day. Blessings!! I will keep blogging ❤❤❤
Great article! This is a good one to share with people who just get started. Which I just did ;-). Thanks for sharing your goals and details of your journey.
<3 Thank you @jet.wilda. I appreciate your participation over the last few months and your support, sharing and encouragement. One day it would be great to meet the actual spiritual beings that hide behind these avatars so that we can really get to know one another. :) One day perhaps. Until then, my Creator bless you with peace, freedom, prosperity, joy and love.
Hi @wwf. Im really really new here and still trying to find my way around and learning non stop. I signed up the day before yesterday, introduced myself yesterday and today I posted my first (memory) article.
Stumbling upon articles like yours that describe in depth the long initial journey on steemit helps a lot. There is soo much to learn and only by trusting this platform one manages to put out content before really understanding how everything works. I am very excited to be part of this.
Thank you very much for your indight!
Moritz
You are very welcome @my-permaculture. I am glad you found me and I hope you enjoy the blog as I've published the equivalent of three books over the past three months. May Creator bless you with peace, freedom, prosperity, joy and love. Welcome to steemit!
You got the perfect Steemit Spirit and personality for to become successful. I think most people underestimate how much time somebody has to spend for getting into the right design of a blog, find good content to post, promote your posts and reply to your follower. Great Job thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you @masterthematrix. I appreciate the insight, support and encouragement. <3
Well you journey has so far not been easy despite little help, well I like the fact that you highlighted content, it's a way to go, expecially in a place where you can easily go unnoticed, well you have come so well, and have been a success
I look forward to learning more from you. I've followed you on Facebook for a while and read most of what you've written. I am thrilled to be able to follow you here and have your insight in this community. Credit where credit is due sir. Good luck!
Thank you. I am grateful that people from facebook have found me here as well. It was sad to walk away from the platform as there are a lot of great people there still. But I keep in touch with some and I hope one day they will come over as you have. Peace to you and I am grateful! <3
<3 I agree. I'm going to begin recruiting friends here
As a total newb (sigh- yes, I said "newb"- eye roll) I'm so grateful to have found you on here. Your posts are a reallyreally big help and whenever I run into some sticky steemit problem, I pause and ask myself WWWWFD? Then I come poke around in your stuff and find the answer.
I am grateful that you were able to find some help. Welcome to steemit and also a big welcome to being a Steward of Gondor! I look forward to reading your work and participating with you here on steemit! I must admit, I laughed when you said 'WWWWFD'!!! hahaha
Thank you for this inspiring article, @wwf.
I'm intrigued by the idea of organic growth on Steemit. How far do you think it can be pushed with regards to groups? Can one grow - it would of course be at a much much slower rate than your own meteoric rise - without allegiance to groups or whales? Groups have rules and dictate behaviour - I've seen several references to flag wars since joining Steemit just over a fortnight ago and would hate to be penalized because of refusing to join in the mob, to resteem an article I don't agree with and so on.
Also, I'm fascinated by Steemit's wildlife analogies. This is the first I'm hearing of orcas. What's their role?
And are there other species that I and my fellow plankton should know about?
I'm not sure how groups work on steemit. Can you expand on that? Are you a member of a group?
As for the rules, that would be one reason for me NOT to join a group. Having somebody dictate to me what I can or cannot do is not appealing at all, especially in a system that was designed to operate under anarchy. That does not fit in at all. If the groups are built to help people grow but doing so through control of behaviour, then I am not game for that.
I was delegated steem from @fulltimegeek, but it was in support of what I am already doing. I was honoured by the gift, so I do extra to pay it forward, but the main spirit and intent of my work has not changed.
If you do some searches on plankton, red fish, minnow, dolphin, orca, whale and steemit, you will find lots of articles written about the different stages within the platform orcas are whales too. @fulltimegeek is an orca for example. Check it out. Thanks for writing.
It's the defined communities formed around common interests I'm curious about. A common theme is supporting members by having them upvote each other's posts. My question is whether you can grow if you don't belong to such communities. And no, I don't belong to any.
Thank you for the wildlife list. I'll check it out.
The growth comes from social interaction with one another and by individuals adding value to the community. For those that add value, they do well. I've also seen many who end up begging for support, upvotes, etc and they won't find much support here as a result. This platform demands that everyone contribute as everyone has value to contribute. The challenge is for people to find the calling and engage it so that they can do well. The community rewards that initiative and commitment.
On top of that, curating, commenting on posts and performing full on participation can bring all kinds of rewards and get people noticed. There is lots that people can do here to provide for the community.
An eco-system which acknowledges that everyone has something to contribute is incredible.
The challenge for me and other newbies, as you point out, is to explore and figure out what this value can be.
Thank you for the insight.
This is great. Giving in the form of contests, gifts, generous upvotes, good content, good comments will all go far in building good "esteem" among other users. The biggest expense of Steemit is TIME. So giving your time is the most generous gift you can give. Use that time wisely. @ironshield
Doing my best! <3 Thank you @ironshield. I appreciate the fact that you took time to respond. Lovely gift time can be. I will cherish that very much.
Solid advice! Although I did join Steemit because of your inspiration, I kinda just jumped in head first without a mentor and managed to figure it out on my own ish haha.
It is so easy to give on here I love it, and I absolutely love learning about the world from other peoples eyes.
Everyone, keep up the good work! Thank you wwf and everyone else for being so damn awesome.
You and @lyndsaybowes are my inspiration to succeed here. With the help of our friend @fulltimegeek and being a Steward of Gondor keeps me on the straight and narrow. There have been times when I have felt like giving up, but with all this encouragement and support I am sticking with dogged determination. So, thank you for being there for me.
My dear friend, life is funny at times. I see you like an elder and I often find comfort in your participation with my work, the discussions we have and the common bonds we have found. So we inspire each other and what better way to move forward than together, side-by-side. I have a deep respect for you and I thank you for the friendship that we are forming here. May Creator bless you my friend with peace, freedom, prosperity, joy and love.
Thank you for your kind words, WhiteWalkingFeather. They are truly appreciated. I think you for the friendship you have shown me, a mere minnow. I am speechless that you would think of me as an elder. Yes, I am older, but I don't consider myself very wise. I still have much to learn on my journey. It would be an honour to move forward side by side.
Congratulations on your quest for better living and sharing that with the rest of us. I am so very happy that others have noticed your contribution as well. Next stop minnow status for myself. ChooChoo! See you later friendo
unbelievable, well done. everything is possible on steem.. keep going
Hard work pays off. Although being lucky and spotted by @fulltimegeek i think you would have been spotted one way or another by somebody. People with a drive and talent mostly gets noticed here IMO.
I myself as a dolphin(or atleast a small one), took up a few accounts i like their content on to support them grow. It feels amazing to have a little bit of power and with now 3 dollars worth of vote i feel stronger than ever lol.
Good luck on your mission man, its ambitious but completely possible!
Thank you @holm. I agree with your sentiment and I pray that Creator blesses you as well along your journey. It is a huge accomplishment and feels way better than just 'buying in' if you catch my meaning. I prefer to accomplish great things through hard work as it brings great satisfaction. Whether that was becoming a black belt, building our off grid domain or helping people on this platform, it all brings a great sense of accomplishment and it enriches my spirit. Peace to you.
A true fighter! I did buy partly into it because steem at 1 dollar was too good of a deal. haha. Keep it up man!
Awesome! Thank you! I wonder, if it´s possible to be successful here without the "luck factor" of having whales helping you all the way?
I'm sure it is. One whale = a couple orcas. An orca = a few dolphins. A dolphin = a number of minnows. So even if you don't get the attention of a whale, a few dolphins and a bunch of minnows can still make a difference. The ecosystem is getting bigger and bigger and there are more and more dolphins and minnows out there. Make a wave and see what surfs in! <3
Thank you! I try to get myself seen as best as I can and I´m totally excited about the possibilities we have here. I just wished, I had more funds to invest in STEEM, since I know that this is gonna be huge!
You may not have the funds to invest, but you do have your creative genius to invest and that is what counts most! <3
Thankyou this is helpful. I have so much to learn! How does one go about joining stewards of terra mater?
I have made you a member of the 'Stewards of Terra Mater'. Welcome. May the steem delegation I sent you help you with your journey to share your off grid living and spirituality as we all learn how to live in peace and harmony with all life and bring prosperity to Mother Earth!
Wow thankyou!!! I am honoured ^_^ having more steem means I can help other new steemians better too right? I'm still learning how it all works. Got a friend to join who has been a sovereign for about 20 years and like yourself been posting useful/inspiring information for a long time on facebook for free. It's such a joy to see people who have been a huge inspiration and wealth of knowledge thrive here. I am still a newbie in many respects but I shall do my best to share all I have learned and am learning on my journey. <3 Excited to be able to help others along too & pay it forward!
Yup. You can help them by voting for their work. Now your vote is worth more, which helps them build steem and cash flow. Pay it forward!!!!
YAY!!!!! I'm so happy! I will be continuing to put all my payouts towards more steem so that I can help build everyone up :D
When I have available steem to delegate I will select a new user to delegate steem to help them out.
You inspire me
<3
You've done amazingly well in the short time you've been here.
Very inspirational and you've also offered some great advice here too.
Finding great people to interact with regularly is one of the 'golden keys' to getting ahead here on Steemit.
Dolphin in 100 days... I really need to pull my finger out.
Steem on!
Thank you. Just make sure to wash off that finger before you use it anywhere! lol Yes, there is a reason it is called a social site! People with strong social skills tend to do well here. Interacting with people is a big part of growing a following and getting the votes on the content. Steem on!
This post is very inspiring. My goal is to able to spend long periods of time at ancient sites and share my experience here in steemit. Your post helped feel like it's possible. Thank you
Sounds interesting. Photography seems to do well here as well. People seem to want to see the world and this is one cool way of doing that.
That's true but it's not just about photography and sharing the views. I want to connect with ancient wisdom of those places and Tera is holding. It's in the stones, crystals and the land. I shared some of my experience with an ancient crystal skull max in my last post.
ahhhhhhh. nice! That is unique.