A reflection of my first month here on Steemit - 100 followers and $25 later
I joined Steemit exactly one month ago, and like many of us here I was in search of fame and fortune:
And while this doesn't look like the profile of a rich and successful person at all, in my short time here on Steemit I have achieved what I consider a minor miracle that I haven't really been able to accomplish in my professional career, which is to do something that I enjoy and help people at the same time.
Given that I have basically ignored most of the sensible advice on how to write posts that will make money and use bots that will get you upvotes, I can offer no tips on how to make it big here on Steemit (and you might very well want to stop reading here).
But if you are feeling like perhaps this is not the path for you, I want to tell you why it doesn't matter and that I won't change my way even if I do manage to make something of myself here.
Kindness & generosity is the best currency here - no amount of SP or SBD can buy you a comment on your post that comes straight from someone's heart; same goes for the motivation or inspiration you get when your comment on a post has made the difference to someone's day.
Truth & honesty is the best policy here - what happens on the blockchain stays on the blockchain forever... history is written by everyone here and not just the winners.
Empathy, curiosity & humility are your best friends here - treat others as you would like to be treated; don't be afraid to ask for help or offer to help someone; be ready to teach and learn.
Time & effort are your best assets here - the longer you are here the more people you will meet, and the more effort you put into each post & comment, the more meaningful each interaction becomes.
Love & friendship are your best rewards here - you will find people who love what they do and are willing to share it with you, and you will forge relationships that are based on mutual interests and passion.
I want to spend the rest of this post thanking all the people that have helped make this first month here on Steemit a thoroughly worthwhile experience. You have enriched my life by sharing with me your incredible creativity and stories (in no particular order: @marty-arts, @wanderingartist, @jacinta.sevilla, @bridget.art, @vermillionfox, @mitchhunter, @miss.dara, @kommienezuspadt, @jungwatercolor, @larkenrose, @edward.maesen, @battleaxe, @beekart, @pinstory and many others I want to get to know better), giving me a place to share my interest in data on #bisteemit ( @paulag, @eastmael in particular) as well as UX on utopian.io ( @elear, @fabien in particular), encouraging me to develop my passion in #infographics ( @manchow, @ankapolo) and this is just the beginning!
I am also looking forward to getting involved with @steemgigs ( @surpassinggoogle please let me know how I can help), helping to promote #untalented (@artaddict you are incredible) and working with @decryptionary plus other people who are generous enough to involve me in their various crusades here on Steemit to make it a truly inspiring place to be!
Good article thank you for sharing with us your story. I wish you next month to be even better for you.
Hi @mihail.tsvetkov, in a way I am glad this hasn't been some meteoric rise and that I have been able to take slow and steady steps here on Steemit. Rather than getting more followers and earning more SP/SBD, I hope that the next month can be spent on getting to know the people I have already connected with and rather than trying to attract the attention of the big whale it would be better to be helping more people who are new to steemit.
Same with me I focus on just connecting with people at the very first month. I am happy that you find me and supported me at my first article. That meant a lot for me you make my day. I think you have birght future at this platform or anywhere.
@mihail.tsvetkov - I spent a lot of time previously on the StackExchange website asking and answering questions for people, so you'll find that I will end up doing a lot of the same things here. I feel sorry that most people (including myself) get bots rather than people commenting on my posts right from the introduceyourself post, but anyone that has good content to share and is willing to persist should do well here (that includes you) :)
I wish you a lot of followers and friends on Steemit, good and strong reputation and all the best for the next not only months but for years)
Hi @bilta, thanks for the comment. I see everyone here on Steemit as friends, and hope I can grow a reputation for helping people rather than just growing a reputation. I think that will put me in a better position not only for the next month, but for years to come :)
My sentiments exactly, and thank you for the shout-out! :)
Hi @edward.maesen, I am pretty sure I missed plenty of people and that's actually one of the frustrating things about growing the number of followers and still maintaining contact + having good interactions frequently with them. There is a constant backlog of content from people I follow that I miss, and I try to do my best to keep up with it when I am not busy creating content. Luckily this is not as big a problem for me as some of the other people here, so let's hope the steemit team finds a good solution in the next update (but I would rather them focus on rewarding people who are contributing to the community better).
Agreed, I also feel I miss many posts of people that I follow. The "Feed" has only limited scroll-down it seems, so since I only check-in a few times a day, I miss what was posted in between... :(
I agree that making money should not be the primary goal. I have a lot I want to share, but it is sometimes hard to find the right area.
I'm still trying to figure out the difference between some very similar keywords, such as:
(1) introduceyourself and introducemyself (probably an error)
(2) education and steemiteducation (mysterious)
I have just discovered that there are posts under language and languages, but they seem to be very rarely used.
In this multilingual community I have often found that each country/language has its own preferences/quirks. Until such as time when norms are established, I take the approach of making the rules when there are none and hopefully not breaking others in the same process. Perhaps we could be the first to play around with the polyglot tag?
I'm planning to take a different approach. I have printed out and analyzed a list of the almost 250 trending topics (library training at work), and grouped them with similar topics. I will soon start publishing a series of commented mind maps to give people at-a-glance guidance on the "constellations" where they can post their articles.
Instead of a faint star on the edge of the known galaxy, polyglots can be associated with an existing constellation such as education (with "wormholes" allowing access to one or two other constellations).
Hardcore Scifi Analogy!
That would be a lovely contribution to the community! Way to go for the polyglots to be involved on Steemit :)
You have nailed it. Awesome. There is a whale inside of you. Steem
@paulag - I have been discussing with eastmael about how we can make bisteemit more mainstream as well, so that we can share the knowledge and insights that you and others work so hard to produce to even more people on Steemit, so it is time to get back into more data crunching now that I am done with the writing and reflections.
fab, I will be back on discord tomorrow and will be full time next week on steemit and discord so we will get sooooo much done :-) @eastmael is awesome