๐ญ Your Steemit Time Challenge
Since joining Steemit, I've followed the following "mantra":
Read more than you like, like more than you comment, comment more than you post
Which seems simple enough but is far more difficult that it sounds.
Why do I Follow this "Mantra"
Until you have enough Steem Power such that your curation rewards are significant, the chances are that your primary source of Steem income is rewards from your posts. So surely I should be spending more time posting than on any other activity?!
If you ignore all of the bid-bots and self-upvoting, a significant proportion of upvotes on Steemit are between people who have built up a rapport - It's far less common for somebody to just stumble across you for the first time and read your content (although it does happen). This is where the importance of the reading, liking and commenting comes in - It gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts on another author's work and for them to hopefully like you ("Great Post" doesn't cut it). It's also important to reply when somebody comments on your post (so long as it's a comment that has at least a little bit of effort put into it) - this is another opportunity to build that rapport.
If somebody likes you, they'll probably upvote you even when they're not as interested in what you write about
Stephen Covey has an analogy called "the emotional bank" where with each positive interaction, you are making a "deposit" and each negative interaction a "withdrawal" (in my experience, a withdrawal always seems to be more expensive than a deposit!)
For example, engaging in conversation would be considered a deposit whereas not replying to a comment could be considered a withdrawal.
How Long Does it Take?
In @denmarkguy's post that he shared yesterday (Blogging on Steemit: It Takes TIME to Create Nice Looking Posts!), he writes:
Most of my posts take a couple of hours or more to create, from the "idea" stage, through writing it out, editing it, selecting photos, formatting photos and text, proofreading, tagging and so forth.
This is what's required to produce the best content that I've come across on Steemit and represents a significant investment of effort. Especially as the general consensus advises that you post frequently, at least daily.
So that's a couple of hours of your day gone - you've produced your masterpiece and await the reward that you feel you deserve for your efforts and according to my mantra, you should be commenting, liking and reading more than you're posting! But that's 2 hours gone already - if I spend 2 hours on each of those other activities, that's more than 8 hours of my precious time...!
And herein lies the challenge with Steemit.
The Challenge of Time
Reading other people's content takes a lot of time - there's a lot of content available and much of it won't be of interest to you (which is another reason most upvotes are between users with a rapport). So you're not going to like everything that you read. But when you do find something that you like, give it an upvote ๐ It's not unusual for the person receiving the upvote to check out your profile and see if you're interesting to them too.
So I guess my 2 hours dedicated to liking is more like 2 seconds so that's only 6 hours of my time required.
But why stop at just upvoting something - you've taken the time to read it and if you like it, the chances are you have an opinion on it (but not always of course). So leave a comment and start a conversation - if you "get along", you'll quickly find you're following each other and liking everything each other do (some serious "depositing" going on).
So realistically, you're spending as much time reading, voting and commenting as you are posting - which is still a lot of time and how you manage that, is something you need to work out for yourself! (I don't have the answer)
Please Share Your Thoughts
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on my "mantra" and how you approach the time you spend on Steemit so please comment below - You never know, this could be the opening of a new "emotional bank account".
For me I've never really had a mantra/strategy in which I abide with when it come to how often I create contents, interact, and upvote. At the moment, I currently have no substantial amount of HP but then I'd usually to upvote any content I came across that I can cleary see that effort has been channelled into creating such content. The post doesn't necessarily have to intrested me but it's just a way to appreciate the creator's effort.
When it comes to comments and interaction, I engage on posts that interests me, and that I can also relate with so it doesn't seems like I'm trying to force an interaction or just end up leaving a comment such as 'Nice post'.
As regards to content creation, I'm also of the believe that one should post at least once a day. It doesn't necessarily have to be a post of a thousand word always. It could just be something simple that I know my followers would be interested in and some other time I'd share about myself or how my day went. My blog generally isn't and educational blog or something of such nature, but rather it has been about my lifestyle, so if I can create that day, I don't force it. Of recent, school studies haven't really even given me the time to create so I just stay off until I'm chanced again. But it usually do take me about 2 to 3 hours to create a content and I can spend at about 5 hours or at times the rest of my day reading and interacting.
I watched some of your video and saw that you've been busy with school - it's good to see you've prioritised that over your activity here... you've chosen wisely ๐
I like your approach with this and the thought of not forcing an interaction. I see a lot of posts that (as a moderator) I feel that I should comment on but don't want it to be a 2 word effort. Unfortunately, there are a lot of users who don't even reply to "high effort" comments - perhaps they see a low SP and think "no point me wasting my time with them". I'll write a post about this on another day and I hope that we can change this within the WOX community.
Wow. Thanks
I can't imagine what that's would feel like, leaving a comment without getting a reply. I always look forward to replying and comment I get. Even though there's nothing to elaborate on, I'd at least acknowledge seeing the comment and appreciate it.
Agreed - there does reach a point where everything that needs saying has been said and we need to stop replying to each other - but some acknowledgement that it's been read (a simple upvote or thumbs-up) says "thanks, bye now ๐".
I'm more of a reader than a video watcher so your post, summarising what was in the video, hit the spot for me.
Thank you The-gorilla ๐
In my opinion, writing on Steะตm it is a hobby. Those who like it, it is a joy and they do not consider the effort expended. Who doesn't like it, it's difficult and not profitable here.
I love your perspective and it's probably my primary reason for being here ๐
@the-gorilla @qwerrie Thank you for being interested in my opinion.
I think engagement and comments are great when you have found proper community / situation to get engaged into and proper people to built up a rapport to. Few proper places, few proper people on Steemit.
Writing posts vs engagement. The Middle Way rules. But for a beginner, writing posts at a proper place is the best choice. When you are a new one, when you are a minnow, they don't value your engagement or even dislike it because reading your comments is time-consuming and too many people will see begging money in every word of yours. People also don't want to invest time into a person that may disappear in a week.
But there are situations when any engagement is needed. Like a period on Steemit, when SC01 actively sponsored fight against plagiarism and anybody could join (I got some good rewards too then). Or when a new community is being actively created by good people and needs comments, any comments and posts and even 100 Steem delegation greatly appreciated. So a guy with SP50 may become a super star at that situation.
'Mister SP50 Superstar' guy -- I love how it sounds.
you have got a gift to word out a good formulas, datych
good analysis in your comment shows that the real world is not black and white, but more complex, and theres a room for this and that - everything should be appropriate and good in due time, nobody should accentuate, pedal something to the detriment of the other. 'diversifying tactics' is a good tactic.
SP50 Superstar can be a star novice. But it can also be an ironical name for a talented user who often withdraws Steems so his/her SP is usually below or around 50... :)
I like your analysis of my analysis, thank you :)
Regards,
High-on-Coffee David
P.S. being high on coffee is a topic to write a discussion article by the way. For example, I can be just drunk after a cup of coffee. And I don't know what other people can feel. Maybe just energetic ...
oh, I didnt know you are a vivid fan. let me inform you theres a very nice active community dedicated to it: hive-152524. it awaits your stories!
Coffee... ๐คฎ
Some excellent points here -
This makes me a little sad. The truth hurts.
There's some truth in this although I feel that it applies more to short comments that add no value. A newbie writing a comment the length that your reply is would only go down badly with an ass hole ๐
It's a shame that the support sc01 wanted to give wasn't reflected further up the hierarchy.
Hola @el-gorila
Muy interesante, yo soy nueva (creo que no llego ni a pececillo) y sรญ, tardo mucho en preparar una publicaciรณn, no he publicado muchas porque creo que hay que pensar para subir algo que guste, sin embargo luego de publicar no veo mucha reacciรณn por lo mismo que mencionas, hay que crear interacciรณn con otros usuarios. Esto desanima un poco porque yo misma antes de siquiera hacer mi primera publicaciรณn (Logro1) ya estaba votando y comentando o luego de hacerla (no recuerdo bien). Pero sin un interรฉs oculto, estaba navegando en la plataforma y viendo el contenido, vote y comente lo que me gusto (porque creo que esa deberรญa ser la idea).
Hasta hace poco entendรญ que aรบn si yo voto y comento por verdadero interรฉs en una obra, se necesitan los "depรณsitos emocionales" para que las tuyas sean siquiera vistas.
Y aunque me guste el contenido de alguien, aun no tengo suficiente contenido para gustarle yo a alguien. Pero sigo trabajando en ello.
Yo si creo que hay gente de interรฉs, con un gran pensamiento que se pierde entre los populares xD
Saludos ๐
It's funny how often you'll get inspiration for a post by reading and commenting on other people's work - or within the discussion that follows. Countless times I've started a post with "following a conversation with ...."
It's doubly hard as a new user for your comments to get acknowledged though I have no doubt that if you continue to invest the same effort with all of your comments as you have done with this one, you will receive plenty of replies ๐
Gracias @the-gorilla lo harรฉ, concuerdo contigo en que si algo nos gusta de seguro tendremos una opiniรณn al respecto.
Saludos
Glad to see you've accepted @bambuka's invitation too ๐
Siiiiiii es una gran oportunidad!!! Estoy muy contenta y agradecida ๐
๐
Well, it wasn't my mantra, but it was definitely my philosophy from day one almost four years ago.... ;-)
Is promising. Still a tough job. And it is still amazing how often credit and debit on the "Emotional bank account" change...
Very, very good post, thanks!
Glad you exist... :-))
Thank you. I really do love the analogy as you can deposit and withdraw small and large amounts.
Give somebody a hug - small deposit
Slap them in the chops - large withdrawal
Put ice pack on bruise - small deposit
Take them to hospital - small deposit
Net deposits = Negative.
What a great post @the-gorilla illustrating the number one Steemit challenge The Time I canโt agree more with you in regards to the โmantraโ you follow. Time management is the key to success here. What I do currently and works for me is that I post minimum three times a week on days of the week with the letter โtโ in. I think of what to write while travelling between places and exercising. Multitasking helps. I always reply, the sooner the better. I read and comment focusing on the trending posts and the people I usually interact with.
I have found that having a "content schedule" often helps - I know that I'll be writing about fantasy sports on certain days following Premier League, Champions League, F1, etc. and then I have a list of other topics that I could write about. Some days, I'm too busy and stressed to concentrate so things get shifted about!
There's also the additional challenge which I didn't mention of "moderator duties". There are additional expectations and demands that accompany this which also need to be factored in. Steemit could very quickly become and full time job which could potentially make it less enjoyable.
Having a list of topics to write about definitely sounds quite useful. I always base my posts on photos I took so they guide me to what to write about. So do the contests here in WOX ๐โโ๏ธI love entering them as I find it a way to make a bold statement and get noticed by other members in the community.
Being a moderator sounds awesome ๐ @the-gorilla Believe it or not I already thought of how much time daily such duties might require ๐ป
It's always good to have an idea of a topic or a theme that you can write about easily when you want to. If you look through my posts, I've got a few things I can turn to which I enjoy writing about - Football nostalgia, Players Behind the Shirt, Away Day Tales and then the random nonsense that keeps me awake at night ๐ I could (and certainly did before the-baby-gorilla arrived) spend all day writing content and trying to build up my reputation.
It often helps (although I haven't done this for a while) if you write a couple of posts that you have saved for a lazy day ๐
These are certainly fantastic tips โ๏ธ @the-gorilla We need to be on top of our game here ๐ I guess it doesnโt take long for one to be forgotten as the online blogging reality is definitely not a slow motion thing. You also post about Eastbourne every now and then ๐Speaking of it, have you got a Christmas market on this year?
๐
Good question, I have no idea. It's still October here ๐
๐คฃ I did the weekly groceries after work today. The customer before me on the till, purchased several Christmas treats and she was telling me who sheโll be gifting them to ๐ฑ Iโm very approachable, so literally I every day I end up taking to strangers ๐โโ๏ธFew days ago, on the family group, I got asked about my Christmas list ๐ I still havenโt got one ready ๐People tend to get busy near the holidays so they start shopping early I was toldโ๏ธBut all this can well be a crazy London thing really @the-gorilla๐ค
Ha ha - I used to attract nut cases too. That's the problem with being nice to people ๐
I bet all of her Christmas treats go out of date before Christmas. Mince Pies that go out of date in November should never have existed in the first place.
I think my mum does her Christmas shopping in January. My sister does my Christmas shopping ๐คฃ I'm already being asked if there's anything I want for Christmas but they can't really provide what I need - Peace, Quiet, Time away from the family, etc... all of the things which are the opposite to Christmas ๐
These are the ideas I like in @denmarkguy - Posts. In his mindset. In his demand on himself. But how many steemians are thinking and acting in that way? I'm doubtful...
I find that many of his posts resonate with me and are thought provoking - when I try to write a comment, it always feels like it doesn't do credit to the quality of the post I'm replying to ๐คฃ
I certainly feel it's a minority because it's hard to keep going with that level of effort without seeing good rewards. When I was a new user and I saw poor quality content getting $100+ rewards, it was disheartening - now that I've been here for longer, I realise that people have spent $80+ to get that.
not at all, this is not a rule. it is partly a game of random, and partly some other nasty game of sorts I really dont want to discuss here. I dont run records list but I think everybody keep in their mind a lot of usercases to remember.
It's more the concept that most of the big payouts are because the author has "bought" their upvote which new users won't be aware of (hence the demoralising aspect). Whether that's from UpVu, Tipu, bidvote or a delegation to justyy or another user. There are so many new users who have replied "tipu curate" on their own posts or tagged upvu / tipu.
So they see the $100 payout and think that's a realistic payout if they write a good quality post whereas a payout of $2 of "manual curation" would be impressive.
I was certainly confused by the big payouts to somebody who'd shared a picture of a coin.
well, new users sooner or later will became experienced users if they do communicate and engage with their native (or not) language communities / good (experienced) steemians. if they stuck to posting posts vs reading commenting and engaging like oysters in their shell - well, perhaps then they will never know stuff like this at all. plausible?
Absolutely - The sad thing is that unrealistic expectations of making thousands of dollars when people join quickly destroys the spirit when the first 5 posts earn $0.01 (from steem-history) and good authors quickly leave.
At the moment, I do my best to support good authors in the hope that they stay but it's a real (Steemit Time) challenge with everything else I want to do on the platform (including maintaining existing relationships). A lot like the "New Business" / "Existing Customer" challenge in the world of business.
I'm starting to ramble now ๐
"Emotional bank account" - I will think about it. An interesting approach.
It's a cool analogy which might explain our reactions to some things. I know that with me, deposits take a long time to build up and then withdrawals are huge whereas other people are much more tolerant ๐
Hola , amigo...๐ค Claramente por lo general, no leemos lo que no nos interesa, como bien lo explicas; sin embargo, parte de crecer es estar al dรญa con diferentes temรกticas, y al mismo tiempo apoyar a otras personas con sus publicaciones o presentaciones. En casa particular, en el transcurso del dรญa casi no tengo tiempo y trata de enfocarme en temas que llaman mi atenciรณn, pero ya en horas de la madrugada en la cual estoy un poco mรกs desocupada, trato de leer de todo un poco.
Me distraigo admirando imรกgenes que otros publican y es mi hora para publicar o participar en algรบn concurso, por ello, concidero que es relativa la posiciรณn, son muchas variables interactuando, el mecanismo que apliquemos dependerรก de nuestra forma de vida y percibir las cosas.
Cuando un concurso me gusta o se que es algo en lo que puedo destacar me, como escritura o algo de pintura, la noche es mi mejor aliada, enfoco la idea y listo a producir en silencio y soledad, soy muy rรกpida inventando historias o ideas para alguna actividad, y eso me divierte.
Muy buena la publicaciรณn, excelente participaciรณn y gracias por compartir lo que te ha servido en este maravilloso mundo de amigos. ๐Dios te bendiga ๐exitos
I've certainly found myself enjoying reading other people's content that perhaps might not have been of interest to me a year ago. My lack of knowledge sometimes makes it difficult to think of something to write in response but it's normally worth the effort.
Some of the photography is fantastic and it's not a topic I've ever been particularly interested in before. I also stumbled across @ammonite whose sand
castlessculptures are quite simply something else!Then or early morning for me ๐
Que bueno. Lo cierto es que eres tambiรฉn muy bueno escribiendo
Thank you ๐
I have a slightly different organization of time. I spend all my free time creating posts. When I have no strength left, then I read and comment. So some days I may have three posts, and some days none.
Is this correct? I don't know, but I need to build an account and a reputation. Few people are interested in the comments of a beginner, and my upvotes are invisible. So at this stage, creating posts is the only effective way to grow on Steemit.
I don't think there's a right or wrong approach as it will depend upon what you enjoy doing and how you like to spend your time. Some people prefer creating, some prefer consuming and I can't overemphasise my opinion on how important it is to enjoy it in order to keep motivated.
That's a valid point but they're not invisible if you also comment. I'm often confused when I see a comment on a post, complementing it and then see that they haven't upvoted.
I think that I disagree with you on this point. Comments are important not just for the person you're commenting to but to other readers of that post. If you comment on the right posts (perhaps somebody popular whose content you enjoy), your comment will be seen by many and if it's worthwhile, you'll get noticed as somebody who wants to add a valuable contribution to Steem rather than the selfish approach of posting their content and moving on (which is why I consider replying so important). So the beginners who do some hard graft and take the time to "build a foundation" will (in my opinion) be more successful than those who create a lot of content (and possibly still go unnoticed).
If I see people interacting with a post, I'll often think "wow, I really like how engaged they are with this community - I'll see if I can support them" and then I'll check to see if they're plagiarists or content abusers ๐คฃ
In general, I agree with your opinion on the importance of comments. Comments turn Steemit from a blog into a social platform. But of course we are talking about quality comments, not comments "Wow", "Thks", etc.
Much also depends on the post. If the post is just a good photo, sometimes there is nothing to say but words of admiration. Sometimes the post touches on a problem. A whole discussion can be born here.
However, I often saw posts where the author addresses readers with a question and does not receive any comments. Why? I do not know. It seems to me that most users prefer to chase after profits and do not read the posts of other users. Or maybe I'm wrong.
That's true - I often find a cool photo or painting and the best I can think of is something like "that's a beautiful picture / photo" which doesn't quite feel like enough.
I think you're exactly right with your view of chasing profits rather than reading posts. You make money writing posts, not by engaging with other users - which is a bit of a falsehood because without engaging with other users, your posts won't make any money (unless you buy votes).
this.
I think that's poorly worded. You get more rewards for writing posts than you do for engaging with other users. But... engaging with other users helps get them to support you. Without that engagement, who's going to upvote your content (ignoring the vote "buying")? There are are so many people complaining as we speak that they don't get noticed - they don't get upvotes. Why is that?
If I didn't engage with other users, I wouldn't have 13,000 SP and another 20,000 Steem that I trade with (roughly 33,000 SP total). If I'd joined and just written posts without getting to know people and speaking to them regularly, there's no way I'd be a moderator in this community and have the support from the more active whales on Steemit.
I can't tell you whether that compares favourably to people who have used Tipu / UpVu or delegated at 30% APR or whatever else but I definitely feel that it's worked for me.
But...
if....
and some other simple but mighty words.
I am not a native speaker, you know. I understand you, without opening the dictionary, but that is not the case for a lot of users. Steemit was EN-oriented blockchain for long... and to some borders it still is (haha! I wrote this in English, not in Russia). Folks cant (or had serious problems) with understanding the requirements, policies, guides etc etc etc etc. What have worked for you, would hardly work for many other users whose native language is not EN. But this is just... another brick in the wall, step aside. I don't think this is a very significant reason.
Is it your investment? Not sure if I understood you correctly here. I never could invest money into Steemit. It is sort of magic that I could invest my time into it... in such quantaties (I was a jobless for 14 months during this C-19 shit...)
Ok, I value your time too. It was a good conversation. And next time!
I agree with this 100% and actually contribute much of my "success" to it. I'm a native, well educated English speaker and from what I can see - most of those left for Hive. So in one sense, I stand out as a result. If I had to post, comment and reply in Russian, Chinese or Korean (other than the fact that I probably wouldn't have joined), I wouldn't have survived.
The Steem that I trade is also from upvotes but instead of powering up, I use t to provide liquidity to the internal market (volatility is my friend). Other than learning how to withdraw to various exchanges, I've not withdrawn any Steem (yet).
I know that my path here has been unique and almost certainly something that can't be replicated. My objective has always been to make Steemit a better platform and have taken a number of bold steps (and risks) as a result which has presented opportunities that I've taken advantage of. I've no doubt that 100 other people could repeat my journey without the rewards.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your perspective. Your English is superb - better than many who call it their native tongue ๐
Why? Because there are 1000 posters vs 1 reader here, and this said reader at the time was busy with some other posts, right? It might be an obvious thing. We all do investments of our time, energy, money, knowledge into the blockchain. If they bring no return, we feel frustrated. If you see your comments bring you nothing (or bring you smth less valuable than your life time... or less valuable then smth else that you could do during the same period of time) -- soon you will cancel that.
Depends on the a) quality of the contents; b) the certain person. I know a lot of folks who are intrested not in the financial side of the blockchain but in engagement, and all those folks no doubts would appreciate the good communication / feedback.
It is impossible to say that there are 1000 posters and 1 reader. If so, there were not so many comments under this article. @the-gorilla raised an interesting question and the discussion began. So, many people read the article and wanted to speak.
I completely agree with you that people came to this platform to earn money. To do this, they invest their time. Invest in what works best. Creating posts works best.
At the same time, as an author, I am very pleased and interested to receive comments under my posts. Then it seems to me that my post is interesting and someone needs it.
THIS.
here you answered to yourself. 8-)
I'm in agreement with both of you.
This is absolutely true. You need to enjoy it. If you have a blog somewhere else and people engage with it, you might as well move it here and earn a couple of dollars for what you were doing anyway.
When I joined, I asked an older user if they'd prefer to receive upvotes or comments (I was receiving upvotes and no comments). They replied "a bit of both". I wanted comments - others wanted money.
I've enjoyed the comments to this article. I enjoy the debate and it's clear that everybody has slightly different motivations / expectations and experiences here. Having followed @o1eh since he joined, I know there's been a challenge in knowing what path to take. I chose my path when I joined and decided it would be a different path to what everybody else was doing.
I was curious about this type of ratio earlier today and analysed a number of posts over a 12 hour period. 57 posts in total. I'd like you to guess how many comments were made (excluding voting services and moderators)and the average number of words for each comment.
how many well-developed, non skin-deep, intresting, heart-touching and time-consuming comments were made?..
well, as I am a pessimist... my bet is: one to zero.
ofc, I would be happy if I am wrong here.
other questions are: how much these certain folks gonna carry out, and were their posts / accounts rewarded for doing so (the last cannot be measured at all, I totally admit this myself - so this might be a metaphysical question).
I just see what I see with my own eyes. I can name myself... well, lets say: 4 to 6 Russian users that are truly engaged. So, maybe the true proportion isnt like I said. Note, I said: figurally... just to describe the schema. @datych, wanna come to join the conversation? but I feel ashamed myself to alert you on this, cause your life time is precious too...
@qwerrie, @o1eh - So the 57 posts were all more than 12 hours old (so had slid down the feed) and were between 12 and 24 hours old. Excluding bidvote comments and moderators, there were 8 comments. Average length of 10 words.
E.g. "What a lovely day it is today for going out"
Or
"I really like your photo of a bug's head"
I.e. Not exactly high value comments. Maybe one of them was a full sentence and the rest were 2 words (I excluded the post where the author had replied "great post" to himself (twice)).
According to your reasoning, to enjoy and prosper on Steemit Indeed, the time spent creating and publishing is less than 50% of that required to review, read, and vote for other posts.
Thanks for posting your mantra, @the-gorilla, itยดs a good recipe to be success in steemit
Have a pleasant and productive stay at Steemit!!
Thanks for dropping by. For some, the idea of reading and commenting for more than half of their time on Steemit won't suit them but for those that are happy to spend their time in this way, I think they'll be here for longer and enjoy their time more ๐
I think I belong to the group that I enjoy the most and that I will spend more time here, @ the-gorilla, because I "waste" a lot of time and commenting, hehe.
I liked reading you.
I follow you