LETTER TO A NEWBIE| A FEW TIPS FOR A PROMISING STEEMIAN

Hello my friend,

I am glad that you have finally made it here. I am glad to see that you have decided to take a definite step towards defining your social media experience, towards engaging yourself in the latest technological marvel; the blockchain technology as well as setting yourself free from the drudgery of depending on a nine to five job.

_{Photo by Trevor Cole on Unsplash}

I will not tell you that it is easy, that will be a lie. I will not tell you that you will get what you feel you deserve, that will be another lie. I will tell you though, that if you work hard, watch and learn, communicate with this platform, you will achieve a great deal.

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I know you are here for the money. I know you were told that you will make money by posting stuff on the platform. This is true but it is not a get rich quick scheme. This is an investment scheme; of time, money, ideas, skills and parts of yourself you might not now consider to be valuable to others.

You do not understand? I know. I too, was confused when I first joined in. I had thought the dollars will just begin to roll in but I was wrong and I thank God for the people who mentored me, lead me in hand and showed me the possibilities to be found here.

Making money on here is not a buy and sell system. It is not just about posting quality content, sitting back and watching the upvotes roll in. No. It is more than that. In fact, the way to make money that I know and depend upon, for there are many ways to make money here, is in giving yourself to the community.

_{Photo by Marina Khrapova on unsplash.}

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This brings me to an important question; what community are you a part of? What services do they offer you? What are you giving to them in return?

It is vital that you belong to a group that share your ideals, whatever they may be. If you have not joined a community on discord or on steemit.chat, i advise you to do so immediately.

There are communities that are looking for writers, for curators, for voters with big sp, for quality content creators, etc. They are all over the place. Look for something within the community to do and offer your skills and knowledge.

In return, you will find friends who will love you and want you to succeed. Do not waste time in the post-promotion channel pimping your links. That channel is like a lottery, there are no guarantees of upvotes, rather spend time in the chatrooms making friends for if you have support from community members who know you, who have exchanged ideas with you, the post-promotion channel won't matter much.

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Have you mastered the markdown editor yet? I have read some of your posts and I can't say that it is well edited. Please learn as much as you can as you are here now. There's so much to learn; this is an opportunity for improving your knowledge base. Learn to use the markdown editor, for it will make your posts better and a good looking post attracts traffic, curators and upvotes.

Do not be afraid to ask questions. Seek for knowledge and you will see thousands who are ready to assist you achieve your dreams. You do have dreams, don't you? If you want to be a better writer, a better musician or painter, if you want to help the illiterate, the poor, the sick in your community, with this platform you can do it. Just ask.

I hope you are making good comments on the posts you read? Do not spam, it's a disgusting habit. Whatever you may have learned on other social media apps, please endeavour to unlearn them. They will not help you. When you comment on a post, drop a comment that shows that you actually read the post by talking about the post; what you liked or agreed with or what you disliked or disagree with. Make room for interaction.

Do you know your friend that joined last week, that wears thick lenses, do you know that she always replies comments on her posts? She even upvotes the comments she likes. That is something you can emulate. I am not saying you should go about commenting every and anything, you have to consider your bandwidth. You need to show that those who come to your blog did not waste their time, you know. You need to give them value.

_{Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on unsplash}

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I have seen that you have followed over a hundred whales since you joined? How is that working for you? How many of them have replied your comments on their posts? How many of them have upvoted your lengthy, painstakingly edited comment? How many of them have followed you back and showed you support?

The question you should ask yourself is this, do they need you? They have what they want. They can upvote themselves and make money, so why do you think your opinions will matter to them. I am not saying that they are bad, no. There are whales who give their time to the general community but in most cases, those sort of whales are overextended and would probably be too busy to take note of you.

What I can offer to you is this; instead of chasing after whales, go after two things; quality blogs, no matter their reputation and steempower value, and dolphins.

Your comments on posts that you like gives you no pressure, you are not trying to impress, you are simply exchanging ideas. This will enable you make new friends and improve your knowledge. I encourage you to go after dolphins because they are big enough for their upvotes to make a difference and small enough for them to value your relationship. A dolphin in your corner is of more value to you than a whale in your sights. Whales will come or not, to your blog but you have to learn to survive without them.

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If you have issues with grammar and spelling, I suggest you get applications that can do spellchecks for you and help with your grammar as well. Also endeavour to participate in post reviews, mentorship, workshops, editorial programs, classes, etc within your discord community. If your community does not have any of this, look for a community that has one. I always say that what you get here will help you long after you have stopped bothering within your steemit account.

_{Photo by David Iskander on unsplash}

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Congratulations on the curation by Curie. That was unexpected right? I remember my first curie; I screamed for hours. I kept saying God, God, God... So I know how you feel.What did you do with the sbd when payout came? Did you withdraw to spend on your boys, show them that you are doing fine, that you have arrived, bought some new clothes, some new kicks? If that is what you did, don't do it again. I repeat, do not do it again.

The platform is not automated. It is run by humans and one thing we can be sure about any human, is their ability to change their minds in an instant. If your support fails you, if that whale, that orca, that dolphin decides to remove his or her support, what do you have left?

You see no one can take care of you more than yourself. If you do not do it right, you will find yourself playing a losing game. What I am saying in essence is, invest in yourself. Powerup for God's sake. Change sbd to steem and powerup. The bigger your sp, the more independent you will become and your independence is a reward in itself. It says; I did it, so can you too. Everybody loves a success story.

Don't get me wrong, my friend. I am not saying that you shouldn't spend your sbd. I know you have needs; medicine, food, rent, school fees, loans, etc. Just make sure that the sbd is being used for something important especially if like me, this platform is presently your only source of income.

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Do not, out of excitement, bring anyone into the platform and abandon them later. That is wrong on so many levels. Any one who comes here through you, is your responsibility. It is your duty to teach, mentor, encourage and lead that person. Do you have the knowledge and time to do all these things? This is why you need a discord community that will assist you in teaching those you onboard, this is why you need friends.

_{Photo by Jakub Kapusnak on unsplash.}

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Pace yourself, my friend. Do not say because warpedpoetic posts everyday then I too must post everyday. Do not compete with what you do not understand. Post according to what your skill, energy and inspiration will allow. Do not force it because you want to be seen to be industrious or because you are desperate for upvotes. You will end up posting low quality content and you will lose your support.

You have asked me about those who buy and sell votes, bid for votes, exchange votes and whatnot; I have nothing to say to you about the matter except find out what doing any of them entails then do as your conscience dictates.

Where do you get your pictures for your posts? If you have a camera or a phone with superb camera pixel and you know how to use it, then take original pictures for your posts. It is the best. If you do not, then I encourage you to use sites like unsplash, pixabay, pexels and wikimedia for your picture needs. They provide photos under the creative commons licence. I know unsplash to have really beautiful pictures. Use pictures from other sites when you have no choice.

Always put the sources of anything that is not originally yours, be it a quote, a picture, a gif, or a video. Plagiarism will get you disdain and even the removal of support from your friends. Be very careful about this.

If you are having trouble with writing, as you sometimes will, you can try other features of the steemit blockchain. There's the Dtube, Dsound, Dlive and Dmania. These doorways into the steem blockchain can also give you the same opportunity that Steemit offers. You could do videos of your hobbies, you at work; recordings of your songs, your rants, your talking shows, podcast, etc. There is so much you can do. There is something for everyone.

_{Photo by Maaria Lohiya on unsplash.}

Find a niche; a category that you can express yourself well about then explore ways of expressing yourself in it. Look for ways to turn say, your love for food into a writing blog, a photo buffet, a vlog and more. Do not do what everyone else is doing because it seems easy to do. Find a way to turn what you love into content and you will do fine.

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There is so much I want to tell you but it is quite late over here and my battery is really low. I hope this letter finds you in fine fettle and roaring to do great things here. I would be watching to see how well it turns out for you. I believe strongly in what you can do.

My regards to your family and your friends. Tell them about steemit, show them what you have learnt and live the life that you have always aspired to live. Stay safe.

Yours affectionately,

Warpedpoetic.

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_{Hey folks, this is Oskilo's blog and he would love to read your suggestions on how to make this blog better serve you. He would like to know what you, his reader, think of the content so do not forget to leave a comment; you just might have something he needs.}