Happy Monthiversary. To Me!!! (highlight reel and thanks to those who helped)

I thought this would be a good time for a re-cap, which I tried to do yesterday, but instead I got caught up in my back-story.

_{(logo by: @yusaymon via Steemit Wallpapers)}

So, I've been on Steemit for just over a month and I feel great about it.

Lets Drink! To new friends, always learning, and new beginnings.

Here I will mention the people who have helped me find my way here. The strategies that I employ, and whatever I feel has significantly improved my experience here. Also, you'll find what I think are my best articles, so far.

First of all, I read the FAQ, and @reggaemuffin's Complete Guide to What is Steemit (which helpfully came in a link from @welcomebot via the Minnow Support Project. That took up a good chunk of time as the whole world of crypto-currency was brand new to me. There are a lot of new things for me to learn here, and I love it! I've always loved working with computers and getting them to do the things that I want. Now that I'm thinking about it, this might be a good time for me to to review the FAQ.

After I wrote my Introduction Post, I joined the PALNet Discord Chat Server. Whew, that was overwhelming. Not the joining, but the High Speed chat going on in [general-noposting]. Of course, it had been many years since I had spend any time in a chat room. I did happen to make friends with @CreativeSoul there in the [quiet-room]. That was a place where I could feel comfortable in my slowness, and focus more on getting used to everything. Around the same time I met @discordiant.⁽¹⁾ He really helped me figure things out and gave a bunch of tips and advice.

In my first few days of writing, I spent 5-8 hours a day on articles. A lot of research and effort went into creating them. Not that they were earning a lot. That part wasn't as important to me. A lot of what I write here is the foundation for what will later become even better and more informative in it's later form.

Early Research Articles, I wrote:

• Exercise and the Root of Addiction
• How to Improve your Smile, and Why you should Care!
• OF Course! You don't need Social Skills to be Successful on Steemit!
• How to avoid saying things you'll regret later
• Steemian of the Week #1 @iamjustincscott

Because I would like some day to make a living as a writer, there were a few things that are important for me to learn and re-learn. How to avoid infringing copyright, where to get my images, how to properly reference, and how to format posts so that they look nice.

Here are a few helpful articles on those subjects (sourced from within steemit where possible):

• fairuse.stanford.edu - Copyright and Fair Use
• educationworld.com - Fair use for Educational Works
• steemit.com @mindover - 13 free and legal ways to find High Quality Images for your Blog
• indiemade.com -How to Credit you Blog Images and Why you should Do It
• steemit.com @mono - Steemit Markdown Cheat Sheet
• steemit.com @shieha - How to Wrap Text around Images

That's when I realized I needed to make friends. I needed to spend more time commenting on others posts, upvoting and engaging with the people in my comments section, and seeking out people who are interested in some of the same things that I am.

Because of this, I realized that for the type of articles I like to write, I can't do this every single day. Despite the fact that many people advise us to try to post every day, this is not possible to do for the types of articles I like to write. Even this article I thought would be easy. A recap, what helped me, who helped. Simple, right? Well, not when you add asking people if I can mention them, finding links to the various articles and adding photos. I'm still learning how to break up my work into bite sized chunks.

Ideally I will find a way to balance my need to produce high-quality content, with going out and voting\commenting, with a healthy amount of time in the chat rooms.

As I was learning the ropes, and practicing my writing skills, something happened that would change my experience greatly.

The Bandwidth Crisis of 2017

Users across the board were having difficulty posting, commenting, or voting. I tried to find more information about it in chat and on steemit, but I couldn't find much being written at the time. So I started writing about it myself. What we all care about here is Steemit. Any time we write about steemit, we expand our possible interest to everybody here. It helps to be careful with this, as I'm a new user to the platform, I try to not write about steemit so much. This was just a particular situation where I acted and made a lot of new friends and had a post payout of about $60 for 4 posts I wrote on the subject.

• Bandwidth Limit Exceeded - Is the Price of Steem to Blame?
• Down the Rabbit Hole - The Bandwidth Bug

Not only did the big (for me) payout on those posts increase my steem power, and boost my self esteem. They also allowed me play around with some bots, and other features of this site. However, I realized my big break was more like 10 minutes of fame, and a mild increase in interest for my blog. After that it was back to creating and learning how to connect with people when there wasn't some big story to cover.

After the dust settled and I realized I needed to keep on grinding, I came up with the idea of trying to source images for my blogs from other steemians. I'd much rather make a linkback to another steem creator than a free stock image portfolio. The idea is part of my strategy to build connections within steemit. Links, networking, promoting other creators. It's not the vote for vote type of thing though. I do vote on a lot of the posts by people who's art I use. Partially because I don't have much SBD to offer for use of the images. But i don't expect them to vote for all of my posts. Relationships have developed, however, where some will drop link me on Discord, and occasionally I will mention something I've written to them if I want more attention :-)

_{(image source: @creativesoul - Grandma's Hidden Treasure)}

Why don't we get more Images for our Blogs from other Steemians

The process of seeking out images for my blogs has begun a few wonderful friendships, and I am excited to continue working with artists. I can take a nice photograph, however, I seldom remember to. I can draw anything..... as long as it doesn't have to look like something in particular ;-) Someday I'll take some art classes and learn that I really can paint, but until that day I need you! Plus, I'm too busy writing atm to paint and draw.

Steem-Art: Welcome to #Art-Services.
(!!WARNING!! This post contains 100% Steemian Generated Art)

^{(Image Credit: @JuliakPonsford from: Painterly Surreal Nature Photography)}

Now, we're catching up quite quickly to the present time. I can say that I really enjoy doing the Steemian of the Week posts. It's a great way to show what someone has done with their time here on steemit without you having to wade through to the bottom of their blog. That's one feature I wish every blog had, a little side bar "highlight reel" where users could show off their favorite posts. I'll continue to publish Steemian of the Week every 9 Days or so. An art post every week. Hopefully, I will be able to do at least 2 research based articles, every week.

Because not everyone is interested in learning about Social Science, doing the art posts, and the Steemian posts expands my potential audience. It's good to have a niche, but social science is poorly represented here on Steemit. I'm glad to be making so many friends in the art community, however.

Here are a few of my most recent posts:

• How much Eye Contact is "just right," and Can too much Eye Contact cause us to Hallucinate?
• The Eyes, a Window to your Soul
• Steemian of the week #3 Witness Edition

The first two are both research based articles on Eye Contact. How to do it(scientifically), and how it impacts the way the world relates to us.

The Steemian of the Week #3 is one of the best posts I've written. It highlights all of the awesome that @rycharde has brought to this platform. If you don't know who he is... You should! If you do know who he is, you can get to know him a little better from reading that article.

I think that about covers it!

A big shout-out to the Minnow Support Project.

Thank you @aggroed @someguy123 @ausbitbank @netuoso @reggaemuffin @drakos @discordiant and @creativesoul

Specifically, @reggaemuffin was available to me during the Bandwidth Crisis, and was open and considerate to my thoughts. Not only open to a suggestion I had, but also helpful in showing me this invaluable tool for collaborative editing.

hackmd.io

This is a perfect tool for anyone who writes posts that involve other people. Whenever I first start working with someone and am going to feature their art in my blog, or write a Steemian of The Week post, I can show them how they will be represented. Before I post. The Hackmd preview pane does not render markdown perfectly the same way that steemit does, however it's really nice to be able to say "Hey, this is what I was saying when I asked if you mind....."

So! Try it out if you ever want to do such a thing :-)

A big thank you to all the other members of MSP who work behind the scenes helping people like me get along in this world. I wouldn't be this far along if it wasn't for that welcome message!!!!

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Proud member of the @minnowsupport project.
Join us on https://discord.gg/GpHEEhV

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Thank YOU! For reading this all the way to the bottom ;-)

One final note, I have just entered the Minnow Accelorator Project contest. Feel free to:

Vote For Me!!!!!!