My $25,000 Journey on Steemit
I have cryptocurrency worth $25,000 and I spent NO money obtaining it. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.
In fact, you can start accumulating this cryptocurrency by doing what you are already doing – posting interesting things on sites like Reddit, Facebook, Imgur, Instagram, or your own blog.
If it is good enough to get likes on Facebook or Instagram, upvotes on Reddit or Imgur, or visits to your blog, it is good enough to actually earn a digital currency!
What is this magic place?
STEEMIT
STEEMIT opened for use in the first half of 2016. It was a pretty crazy time! People were making thousands of dollars for posts!
It was the wild west.
A land grab. Just go and plant your flag.
I eventually caught wind of what was happening and happily made my account. I had claimed my space, and with it a few dollars worth of STEEM as a welcome.
I had always been a lurker, silently enjoying what other people wanted to share. Now there was a real reward to create something that other people like.
It was also the perfect time for me. I was away from home and my family, working in a trailer in the desert of Qatar. I no longer had my normal side-hustles of eBay or secret shopping. I also had a lot of free time. (something I lack now that I am back home)
So I tried my hand at it. Much like those pioneers of old, I toiled at turning this digital plot of mine into a flourishing farm.
It didn’t start out so well. My first post made a whopping $0.00. A big ‘ol goose egg. And my next post. And the next. (In fact, I have never had any post earn me more than $78!)
I wasn’t expecting the thousands of dollars that the big guys were making but something would have been nice.
Some people were buying new laptops with the money they made from Steemit. Others paid for vacations with their Steem. A few even became full time Steemit posters, quitting their job if they had one.
I knew better than to give up. The path to success isn’t easy. (not saying I am a big guy on Steemit, because I’m not) Anyone that gives up at the first roadblock will never achieve anything.
I wrote more articles. Oftentimes spending 12+ hours researching, writing, and sourcing images. Sure, some of that was my own inexperience with writing, but I also wanted to output quality articles that were well referenced. I believed that quality posts would be the correct path to success for me.
Then one day I had a post that earned me over $30! A few posts later I created another hit, $50 and comments recognizing the quality of my work. (This is all set in stone on the blockchain, my history is there for all to see)
Was this the start of something big?
I started to gain followers.
I wrote a post nearly every day. It got my name out there more and more.
I was still about as tiny a minnow (what Steemit calls people without a lot of Steem power) as anyone else, but us minnows started to unionize. Strength in numbers. #minnowsunite
Those very first minnows that had achieved success formed groups, asked for power from the whales (those with lots of Steem power), and started searching for the best posts to reward them. @curie
I chatted to people in steemit.chat. I wrote comments that added value on tons of articles. Other times I just told the author that I thought their article was good.
(I will refrain from mentioning names as I would surely forget to write someone down, but those people know that I think they are amazing.)
Anyone that spends hours writing something likes to hear from the readers, after all. If I noticed areas that could use improvement I told them. I took it upon myself to mentor a few people. I had learned things and wanted to help people succeed.
All the while, writing about whatever I wanted to. History, space, Leonardo Da Vinci. Whatever I wanted.
This was so much better than the freelance writing outfits that give strict parameters and pay nearly nothing. (Yes, I did look into that online work to see what it was like)
Steemit is the new way to share with the world.
A chasm appeared
At least that was and is what I believe, the price of Steem continued to fall. Some people panicked and abandoned the site.
Steemit was still brand new, yet people thought it should have been much bigger much faster.
I knew that we were just the earliest of early adopters. Like being on Facebook in the second half of 2004.
Still, the price of Steem went down – along with active users. It was the chasm time.
Steemit only had about 1,000 daily users at that time. Pretty much everyone knew about everyone else, at least in passing.
I posted nearly every day until it was time for me to leave Qatar.
Work and family commitments severely limited my time available to create articles. So I haven’t posted much since then, but the rise of cryptocurrencies has shone the spotlight back on Steemit.
New users are joining at tremendous rates. So much so that there is a backlog to get in. It is a beautiful thing if you think about it. All of these early adopters joining the future of social media.
So what are you waiting for?
Join up, claim your name, and start working towards success in the new future.
Write what you want.
Share your photographs, music, videos. Anything that people enjoy.
Not only will you receive more responses per view than anywhere else, you will earn valuable Steem at the same time.
No longer is recognition your only payment for what you do online. Get paid for it too!
And the best part, it is all FREE!
It's not too late. In fact, it has hardly even begun.
Claim your space right now.
Who knows what you will grow it into.
Steemit could change your life. It has for me. It has for many others already.
In a few months, I went from nothing to an account worth over $25,000. Just by casually posting what I wanted when I wanted.
You can do the same, or much better. Just don't give up like those that left Steemit before we had even got going.
What other website offers such an opportunity? No other.
For an understanding of how it all works, check out this post by @teamsteem: https://steemit.com/steem/@teamsteem/steem-an-in-depth-overview
If you want some assistance on your own journey, check out my previous post 10 FREE courses for Success on Steemit!
I'm picturing a guy sitting in a trailer in Qatar, middle of the desert, banging away on his keyboard like a madman. It's the perfect type of setting to work a little steemit. No distractions to speak of. Cool story.
Haha, pretty much so. If you scroll ALL the way back to my intro post you can see the living conditions. I would link it but I am not at home currently.
I'll go find it and link the post.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@getonthetrain/from-the-jewel-of-the-arabian-penninsula-my-intro-and-photo-tour
Mentioned your awesome journey in our first podcast! <3
You might find some talking material with my latest article comparing Steemit and cryptos to the old gold mining rushes.
That some alt-coins have nothing of value beyond the possibility to get rich trading them. Once the crypto market settles down, those coins will be like ghost towns.
Steemit is like San Fran - the ability to prosper after the rush. https://steemit.com/steemit/@getonthetrain/the-digital-gold-rush-is-now-and-steemit-is-positioned-to-thrive-like-it-s-1849
Great! Will listen to it once I get outta work.
My bro!! God, I'm so sorry. Why in the hell didn't I check your blog before? I assumed your hiatus would last a little longer given your new familial responsibilities and such? Please, please accept my sincerest apologies! I'll make it a point to check up on this blog regularly as I always considered us a great team back in the day (well, a few months back!).
Anyways, your article. You've done tremendously well. All earned by your hard work and perseverance, you deserve every cent you own. the quality of your posts never wavered and you were always on your A-game!
It's such a pleasant surprise to see Steem rise back from the ashes the way it did. At one point, almost everyone had written it off (although it still did what it said on the tin. You post, you get paid) so now you've amassed this huge amount of money and I honestly think there plenty more room for it to grow still.
Fantastic post, man. Keep going from strength to strength and pushing higher still. All the best, buddy! :)
Not to worry, I blame myself. I haven't commented on your posts yet as I just have not had time to really be able to read them without being distracted. Plus, there is a part of me that just wants to be able to bing read them when they are done!
I know you remember what I said to you in Steemit chat when you were feeling blue, and I am glad to see that you stayed true to what you knew this place would be - even if it seemed like everything was going the opposite way.
Today was my last day of work, taking the family back to where I grew up near Boston, Ma. I am sure with the grandparents and aunts to occupy the kids and my wife I can bring my laptop and have a good sit down and binge on the wonderful writings of @ezzy.
Plus, it seems that my upvotes are quite substantial now since the latest hardfork. :D
Ah bro! Please trust me when I say you are sorely missed, but at the same time, I totally understand your personal situation at hand. I miss those days when we used to banter back and forth about our musings on Steemit and the inspiration we provided for each other.
Well, we're still here and Steemit ain't going nowhere. You're a goddamn masterful blogger and hold a firm place here on this platform! I'll make it a point to check up on you regular and hopefully enjoy much more of the awesome content you so deftly create.
Bless you, my bro and keep Steeming on! You'll always have my 100% support. Never forget that! :)
That's a truly an encouraging story. You have started so early that it was almost a year ago. You are so lucky that Steemit has been growing since its launch and every day we can see thousands of new users and system improvement, such as the change in the voting mechanism in HF19. Steemit will continue to be great and I am now working harder and harder on it
It certainly seems like it will help retain people. It took me weeks and weeks before an article of mine made over $10!
Back in my day on Steemit we had to write articles uphill - both ways - to earn a nickel!
wow that is really impressive.
I am starting my 3rd week now and tried to make a post a day.
I am starting as a dolphin since I thought steem would also be an good investmant.
I made some posts which I thought could do really good but didnt get any recognition and some posts were I barly wrote anything got way more.
Anyway my goal is not to go full blogger steemit pro and I just want to learn, connect and have fun and I make some $ on the side (I see it as my mining) which is awsome.
Oh wow, you are starting off right with your Steem investment.
When you get here and see those large dollar signs next to the posts, well it's enough to get most anyone excited. The thing is nearly all those people have built up their reputation here, or have a following from another source already.
The rest of us have to build up from scratch. So it takes dedication to not stop. As I said, my highest post ever was $78. But small things add up when you do them often enough.
totally true.
As I see it, the people who are joing now (like me) are still early birds.
Tbh I wasnt sure about steemit and just bought steem to get some gains but when I joined here, I was convinced to power it up and hold for the long run.
Great article @getonthetrain ,and thank you, I was feeling a bit down and I thought ok, I will just search for topics I am interested in and forget about the big tags, so I searched "Wisdom" and your article came up top .. so thanks again. Feeling a bit frustrated as I am wanting to set up an Incubator for Nomads here in Chiang Mai and am organising meetings so they can build personal relationships as well, (there's about 5,000 Digi Nomads here at anyone time, and there's a constant flow through all searching for something meaningful), so I'm keen to help them develop personal relationships as well. but seeing my post got zero response, I wondered if I was leading them down the garden path. Searching wisdom sent me to You !! .. The community I am trying to form is about wisdom, so maybe there should be another tag for that. I will follow your posts with interest, I will check out your courses above, any more wisdom you can share would be appreciated. I enjoyed your post about the ancient libraries in the Middle East..Regards @quantummonks.
Thank you for the kind words, I've always tried to write useful and quality posts here. I enjoyed researching the House of Wisdom, but it was quite a flop. :/
I know the feeling of not being noticed. It takes time and work to build up a following but know that because it is difficult it limits your competition. There are not many people that will put in the time and effort to become a success. So stay the course in whatever it is you do, cherish the small gains, be content with everything, but also strive to improve because that is what we humans do. At least those of us that want something out of life.
I'm your newest follower. :D
Really great to make your connection. There seems to be lots to do, to make a difference, and I can see you are a wayshower.. any thoughts you have on encouraging the house of Wisdom would be appreciated..))
what will you do? Sell your account?
Is that what you got from this whole thing?
Not at all, but you are putting this into the title
I didn't mean to imply I was 'selling out' or anything like that.
A VERY well-written post- but I'm still on the fence about whether your title wasn't just a little TOO clicky...
Whatever works, man, even without the hype of the title, this is SO encouraging to people.
Oh really, I didn't think of it as too clickbaity at all. We each have our own ways of looking at things though. I just wanted to show that a normal guy like me can have some level of success here - you just have to keep at it.
Absolutely awesome. I'm really glad I've gotten on the train. Looks like it's going to provide an incredible ride for a lot of good people. Following you.
Great gif :D
Thanks for sharing this, I will look into the 10 Free courses, much appreciated.
Hey, knowledge is good. You can take all or just a few that interest you. I hope everyone can earn thousands of STEEM if they are creating great posts. 😊