It's a beautiful day here in Scotland. The sun reigns supreme, unchallenged by a cloudless blue sky. The price of STEEM is yet again on the rise, and looks as though it will continue to do so. And on a more personal note, I have just received my 500th follower on Steemit.

Yes. It's a beautiful day, indeed.

I have to say, when I joined this platform, I never thought it a possibility that I might reach the big 500. I was far from a professional author or artist. In fact, I had never written anything other than the occasional text message, and I hadn't picked up a pencil to draw something in almost a decade. I was simply a man on a quest to rediscover the passions that had been stolen from me in my youth. And of course, I was hoping that I might make a little something on the way, to make the journey through life a little more comfortable.

100 followers was surprising enough, and I would have been more than content with that. But, apparently there are at least 500 crazy fuckers on Steemit who actually like what I have to say. (What's wrong with you?) So, not only did I exceed my own expectations in terms of followers, but I managed to do so whilst accomplishing the goals I had set for myself when joining the platform.

Thanks to Steemit, I discovered the passion that had been alluding me for so many years; writing. If I had not joined this platform, I suspect that I would still be searching for it right now. That, or I would have given up completely. I've also made a little something to make life easier too, just as I had hoped. I have certainly not earned millions, or even thousands at this point. But, I have made what seems to be, exactly what I have needed. I ended up with a puppy unexpectedly, not long after joining the site. And thanks to my followers and their upvotes, I have been able to feed that puppy the best, organic dog food available. I wonder, if I had not been on Steemit, would I still have found the money to do that? Or would I be feeding him that poisonous shit that they cannot legally feed to humans, so they just package it up and sell it as dog food? I never want to feed him that shit.

You have my gratitude, and Vito's.

One other thing that I have gained from Steemit, though it was never an official goal, is friends. There are a few people I have met on this site who I find to be truly remarkable. And a few that I find to be completely fucking insane. Both categories have earned my love, and I expect I will be staying in contact with quite a few Steemians for a very, very long time.

Because I have gained so much from this platform, I wanted to do something different for my 500 followers post. Typically, at such a landmark, I would create something and gift it to the community, as a way of saying thank you. This time, however, I want to share an honest word or two about Steemit, so that any non-Steemians who read this will be able to decide whether they too are in a position to gain something from signing up to the platform.

What You Need To Know About Steemit

It's a great place to learn about cryptocurrencies.

Before joining Steemit, I knew next to nothing about cryptocurrencies. Sure, I'd heard of bitcoin. But, my knowledge of it extended no further than, "that digital money thing that could be a problem for the banks." Now, however, I would say I have a good understanding of how bitcoin works, as well as many other cryptocurrencies. Everything I know of it, I learned on Steemit, and in a completely natural way. I was not reading up on article after article trying to figure it out. The information was presented to me piece-by-piece, on a number of different posts, making it much easier to digest.

If you are curious about cryptocurrencies, and want to learn more about them in a way that is not overwhelming, then Steemit is definitely for you. There are lessons to be learned simply through transferring STEEM and SBD to and from exchanges, or to other accounts here on Steemit. When you have familiarized yourself with the simple tasks such as transferring funds, you will find a wealth of information on the site that can help you get a better, deeper understanding of how everything works. Or, if you are like me, you can just use the platform for a few months, and let the information come to you organically through your reading.

There's money to be made if you stick around long enough.

For a new user on this site, it can certainly be difficult to get noticed. Under the current site design, posts do not have a very long shelf life. Unless your post makes it to the trending page, or receives a number of resteems, the chances are that it will become all but invisible after a couple of hours. This can be especially problematic for new users, as with so few followers, their chances of getting any resteems/shares are very slim.

It was certainly an uphill climb for me when first starting out. Resteems were not even thing back then, so very few people were seeing my work, regardless of the time I spent on it. Don't let this discourage you. There are initiatives set up, such as @curie, to help new users battle the visibility problem. And with Steemit still adding updates frequently, it won't be too long before posts have a longer lifetime, which will make things a lot easier.

If you can fight your way through the difficult early stages, it will be worth the effort. Where as 3 months ago, I would often have posts that did not exceed $1, now, at 500 followers, I find that it's rare for me to make less than $7-8 a post, and I often make considerably more. My record is $137 for a post, and I intend to top that this month.

If you are hoping to sign up and get rich off one or two posts, then this site is probably not for you. But, if you want to put in hard work now that will pay off later, and earn some friends in the process, then this is most certainly for you.

You don't have to be a content creator to enjoy Steemit

There are probably too many content creators on Steemit at the moment. It makes it difficult to keep up with all the people you are following when you are creating content yourself. But, if you are someone who simply likes to read other people's work, keep up to date with news and events, view art, read fiction or have discussions in the comment's sections of interesting posts, then you will love it here. The large amount of content creators means that there is a lot of diverse content out there, some of which is truly exceptional-- and exclusive to Steemit. You will never have a hard time finding something interesting to look at, and you can even make rewards yourself by posting comments. I'd say about 30-40% of my Steemit income has likely come from comments, and if I wasn't so busy creating my own content, I feel confident that I would have made just as much as I have by using that time to read and comment on more posts.

If you spend a lot of your time reading and commenting on articles elsewhere, then come to Steemit and do the same thing. I can't guarantee you will make money. But, it is certainly a possibility. If you're brave enough, come to Steemit and find out how much your voice, and your opinion, are worth.

Steemit is still just a baby, with a lot of growing still to come.

However good or bad you find this platform to be, you must remember that it is still in beta. It is a time of experimenting, to see what works best, and what doesn't work at all. There have been a lot of problems during my time here, and most of them have been addressed pretty quickly. Besides the issue-fixing, I have also witnessed countless updates being added to the platform since I joined the community, The development team are certainly not sitting on their arses doing nothing. I may not agree with every decision they have made, but, I am inspired by the rate that they are making decisions and pushing for progress. When I look at how far we have come in six months, I am very excited to see what Steemit could be in 6 years.

If you want to be a part of something that is still developing, and have a say in its direction, this place if for you.

Steemit has the most potential.

This platform could not have sprouted up at a more convenient time. The current social-media giants are deterring users by the millions with their censorship bullshit. Should people learn about the censorship-resistant nature of Steemit, the fact that YouTubers who have been stripped of their rewards could use this platform to remonetize their videos, or of the potential for STEEM to act as an alternative monetary stream to Google Adsense, then Steemit could be in a position to draw in millions upon millions of new users. If this happens, then everyone who got in early and bought or earned themselves some STEEM will benefit greatly when the value of their STEEM holdings skyrockets.

If you sometimes wish you could have bought shares in facebook before it blew up, then you should be looking very closely at Steemit and STEEM right now.

It's not perfect, but what is?

I must be honest. Steemit is not perfect. It is not truly decentralized. Just like the real world, the overwhelming majority of the wealth does too lie in the hands of a few. I almost let this put me off the platform at first, until I noticed the difference. Yes, we have our own 1% here on Steemit. But, whereas in the real world, the 1% keep getting richer, while the 99% get poorer, things on Steemit are reversed.

The real world is full of systems that have been designed for the express purpose of stealing wealth from the poor and redirecting it back to the wealthy. Here on Steemit, however, there are initiatives set up to do the opposite. There will always be greedy little fuckers out there, who want everything for themselves. But, here at Steemit, it is clear that the predominant sentiment is to share in the success of the platform.

If you want to be part of a community, a family, that is incentivized to help one another, rather than seeing each other as opponents, then Steemit is for you.

Steemit is destined to succeed.

I have had a few doubts about the platform in my time here, but the one thing that always replenishes my lost faith is the community itself. Unlike other social media platforms, Steemit's success does not belong solely to a small group of men in suits. The platform was designed so that everyone could have a share in it, and as a result of this, there is now an army of Steemians who all have good reason to see it succeed. With an entire community(a growing one I might add) behind it, the chances of Steemit failing grow slimmer and slimmer by the day.

If you want to be a part of that success, then sign up to Steemit.

Summary; for lazy readers.

I have gained a lot from this platform. Skills, patience, knowledge, friends, laughs, money, direction and more. If you're still debating making an account, don't debate it any longer. Come and sign up, so I can read about everything you gained from doing so in six months from now.

A big, big thank you to my 500 followers. You showed me that my voice is worth something

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