Why Quality Content Isn’t Enough to Get Noticed and How to Make Sure You Are

in #writing6 years ago

Posting great content doesn’t guarantee upvotes, views or comments. Here’s why and how you can make sure you get noticed on Steemit

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Not long ago I wrote a post about how to create quality contenton Steemit. In the comments, people were wondering why, after following all the suggestions, they still didn’t get views, upvotes or comments.

I understand. It’s frustrating. You put the time in to create an excellent quality post, and it just sits there alone like it showed up to a party that was already over.

To help understand why that happens - and how to avoid it - we first need to look at the big picture and ask the age-old existential question:

Why does Google exist and why do I need to care?

Of course, I’m referring to the modern age since the birth of the World Wide Web.

The Internet is a big place. Without Google we’d be lost, forever searching for the information we want - like those never ending hallways in nightmares (at least in the movies). To demonstrate, let’s look at some numbers:

  • By the end of 2018, global IP traffic on the Internet will reach 1.6 zettabytes. That’s one and a half trillion gigabytes and then some. (Cisco)
  • In May 2018, 87,216,886 posts were made on WordPress.com and websites using their JetPack Plugin. (Wordpress)
  • There were 21,930,565,425 page views on websites using WordPress. (Wordpress)
  • Tumblr has 419.1 million blogs and 161.5 billion posts (Tumblr)

These are just a few statistics from particular places that host blogs. It’s easy to imagine there are millions of more websites out there too, not just blogs.

If you put up a website or a blog, there’s an infinitesimal chance that anyone will ever see it. Unless you tell them to look. To do that you use techniques called search engine optimization (SEO) that help Google find your blog. You can also pay for advertising, so people see your site, or you can spread the word over social media.

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Yes, Steemit is on the Internet

The Internet is the vast ocean that the little fish called Steemit (or Busy.org for that matter) lives in. That’s a helpful analogy, but what does that mean?

The chances of anyone seeing your blog post are still incredibly small. But don’t give up, I’ve got good news coming next.

According to the daily statistics published by @arcange, there are roughly 100,000 active Steemit users in May 2018. So the ocean isn’t as big as the entire Internet, but still big for just one person or post to be noticed.

The trending page was intended to help the posts that got the most interest to be shown. Theoretically, those posts are good quality content. Everyone knows that isn’t how it’s worked out. This post isn’t about that though, or how to fix it. The critical point is you can’t rely on your post hitting the trending page naturally. You could have written the best post ever seen by a human being, and it still won’t make the page without some intervention.

Just like on the “main” Internet, you can pay for advertising to get on the trending page, or just to get more money from upvotes. But using bots or upvote services is sometimes frowned upon. There are a lot of unwritten rules about how to use them, which one to use and when. But they can get you noticed, just like paying for ads on the Internet can drive traffic to your blog or web page.

But there’s a better, more feasible (and free) way to get your quality content noticed.

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It’s a social network - be social.

Steemit and Busy.org are social networks. If you want to have people upvoting your content, commenting, and engaging with you, then you’ll need to spend some time being social. This doesn’t mean going on a vote-for-vote or follow-for-follow rampage. That kind of social interaction is likely to get you labeled as a bot or a spammer. Your chances of being successful on Steemit will diminish every time you post something like that.

If you’re making time to create quality content, make the time for quality social time too. You need to build your social network so people will realize that you’re here and creating quality content. Here are the types of things you can do to help grow your network:

  • Write quality comments that show you’ve read the post (don’t just pick out a few words to make it look like you’ve read them). Be genuine and choose posts that interest you, not just ones from people with lots of Steem power.
  • Respond to comments made on your posts or replies to the comments you’ve written. Remember these are real people (well, except for the bots but they’re easy to spot) who appreciate being appreciated and good conversation.
  • There are many communities that have built Discord servers that allow better communication than just entering comments. Check the signature of the people you follow or are interested in and see if they say which ones they hang out in. Then join those servers and start chatting with the people there.
  • Don’t be a post-promotion spammer. Most Discord servers I’ve seen also have a place to promote your posts. Read the rules of each server you join to find out where that is and how it works for that server. The people who spam their post into channels where they don’t belong, or just simply don’t follow directions, will not be welcomed and no one will read those posts.
  • Be consistent. Do your best to post according to some consistent schedule, and also interact with people on Discord regularly.

Don't be discouraged

If your posts still aren't getting noticed, don't be discouraged. It can take time to build a social network, especially one that fits your interests. For example, I have some friends I've made since joining Steemit that I'll chat with on Discord. I'll support them on Steemit sometimes, but the truth is we are just interested in different things. Their posts are good quality, but I'm just not interested in reading them most of the time because I'm spending my time elsewhere. If I had infinite voting power, I'd still upvote them all the time, but I don't. That's why it's important to find a community who supports you and that you can support too over time.

If you follow the recommendations above, you'll be on your way to having your content noticed and your hard work appreciated.

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I think the fact that users must leave the platform and congregate on discord in order to be social says a lot about it's current state. I'm a bit new here so I'm definitely no steemit expert when it comes to its inner workings, but that alone seems counterintuitive.

Hopefully there is work in progress that will continue to improve the platform in a way that will encourage interaction with minnows, which will help with retention. I would love to see the current retention rates for new users as the platform exist today as I expect there is plenty of room for improvement.

@ross-early this is a big issue and I've read some people are working on updating steemit to use "communities" which would give users an alternative to jumping on Discord. But I haven't checked on that in a while so I don't know how far, or even if, that project is progressing.

I've also read retention rates are low - it's just too technical and difficult to do anything for the average user. Busy.org is better I think than steemit.com but there's still a lot of room for growth.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

I've seen the busy.org mentioned a few times now. I will have to give it a try here soon.

I wish I had the technical experience to make needed improvements, but unfortunately I don't. As I get more involved in the different communities I will continue to throw around ideas to see if any of them stick.

Thanks for the response!

Search function on steemit and busy could be a lot better imo

I will definitely be checking out busy.org here soon.

The Lay out of busy is more like the’known’ social networks, steemit has the ability to search on tags ... thats the biggest difference imo. And you get more followers on busy, at least, it looks that way to mea

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Yes you are right. If your posts still aren't getting noticed, don't be discouraged. It can take time to build a social network, especially one that fits your interests.. That's what I did.

Frustrating is a good word to describe the feeling of the void from creating a good post, even more so when you I see other steemit posts not only raking in the cash but receiving upvotes and comments. I tell myself that, most likely, many of those people have already put in their time and have had many unread posts themselves.

so I will keep on steeming along and posting my words. -

Great post! And totally agree, being social is one of the best ways to letting yourself be known AND discover some great content here too. I dont resteem that much, but this on deserves it!

I enjoyed what I read in your article and I plan on using some of those tips for my page. (Bookmarking just in case so I don't forget.)

hi @hyperfundit , Thanks dude for writing such an amazing and motivational blog , i just read it , and found my self , where i was mistaking and why i getting discouraged by getting not too much interest by the public here, and other platforms, like facebook and twitter i got some better public traffic on my posts ,

with your bolg i,m able to understand the difference between these platforms and also my mistakes that i do in back few days on steem it ,

Again thanks @hyperfundit dude, your blog is enough motivational for me to do some more effort on this platform ,

Cheers :)

Thank you for your post. I am new here & start blogging for the first time and of course I want to go far. I think nothing is easy, to earn money someone has to to work hard. Whatever the platform digital or not it will take time to be someone. There are several learning I have found from your post and thank you so much for this. As I am started to collect some post like this to understand the way of steemit, I would thank you once again.

Thx for accumulating what I already discovered after one week here on Steemit. I followed some advices already, and it starts to pay out in terms of visibility (slowly, but it does). Consistency in being social and being patient are the two things that help. Resteemed your post as well to my followers.

Is it only me who thinks that good content and often commented well in post belongs to others, still be defeated by post from author with big capital that send some SBD to bidbot?

Networking, Networking, Networking. Oh Hey, Friends!

Conversation is Definitely Key! People Like to be talked with and not "AT"

Thanks For The Info ^-^

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you should post articles about your point of interest!
yah, you're right! don't be discouraged! #newbie here😊

My advice Use bid bots and make your post visible

Yeah. Is hard but nobody says it will be easy. Keep working and never surrender. I need to repeat this over and over again everyday ----> "don't be discouraged"

You got a 24.01% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @hyperfundit.supp!

Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!

Thank you enlightenment @hyperfundit, this is very useful for beginners like me. this is a post I'm looking for

Very interesting post. I totally agree. And yeah, it's frustrating :(
I resteem

Patience, effort and time. I'm sure that all of us are agree that this 3 words are the key, the way will be difficult, but it's no impossible.
Thanks for this.

Hi, i am one of those people, but you give Some great advice here, it counts for all social networks. I’d like to add that using the right tags will also help you along .... I really need to start checking out that dischord site, i thought that was more for gamers ... succes with your future posts.

It is exactly the questions answered that the new steemians as like want to now after delivering their good content. Very helpful direction. Thanks.

If you’re making time to create quality content, make the time for quality social time too.

this is my first step in doing so. Thanks for writing this.

Great post. Really enjoyed reading your article and I really found some tips from your article. For new guy like me here really needed information like this.

This a very useful information, good write up

Thanks for your valuable post i really tried some of what you mentioned and some of my posts get noticed and the most not also i started to promot my posts and it works somehowi get high reputation from 55 to 57, but still don't get it, should i continue promot my post to be notice? Or should i just stop and post everyday and waiting for luck🤔🤔

I'm kinda newish here as well and I am writing posts about different subjects, but it just seems like this whole platform has been consumed with bots and vote for vote users, which is definitely not good for the platform itself. I know it takes a while to get the community and followers together, but when is the time to move on? Is it actually possible to get to the top of the tredning posts and earn some decent money, without ''paying for advertising''? Doesn't really look like it.

Hello there. New steemian here. I am new to Steemit and I would appreciate if somebody could tell me what Discord as well as Busy is? :D

I am sure many people new to Steemit will benefit from this answer.

Cheers!

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Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade in the following category:

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Thanks for sharing this, helping people to create good content is very necessary so there are always good vibes around here

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I think patience it's the fundamental key when you're a content creator and using social proliferation and be a nice person (cheesy but true xD) it's reaaallly important. Great article! I'm new on steemit and this kind of posts are truly helpful tho.

Please source your images to avoid getting flagged

Hi,

I am glad that I came across this. You really opened my mind to become more active in Steemit to get others Steemians to get to know me.

I think I agree

This is excellent advice! As someone who has recently joined the Steemit platform, I very much appreciate posts that allow me to gain insight into how the Steemit ecosystem works.

I agree that community engagement is key to being recognized on Steemit. I also believe that engaging with others' posts is incredibly rewarding in and of itself! I really enjoyed reading my fellow Steemians thoughtful responses to my introduceyourself post; it made me feel welcome and excited to post high-quality content that would be meaningful to the Steemit community.

I really enjoyed this post, and I look forward to reading more of your content! :)

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