How to win friends and influence people with me 👨🏼💻 @c0ff33a ☕️
I won't lie this is quite an unusual post for me, and to be fair I'm quite an unusual one myself. What I hope to achieve with it though is to provide a little hope and inspiration to everyone posting on the Steemit platform that might currently feel the posts they make do not gain the visibility or rewards they deserve.
Above is my current standing on Steemit as of May 15th 2018, as you can see I joined in March 2017 and have been on this platform for nearly one year and two months. In that time I have posted many posts, and learned many things - hopefully some of the things I have learnt will be of benefit to others.
I literally have just reached reputation 65, and I'm very proud of that. I don't fully understand how the reputation algorithm works but I believe it combines the number of posts you make, the number of upvotes you receive and some other things. I do know it get's harder to increase reputation as you go higher - so for every reputation level you increase you need to do even more work to reach the next one.
I'm currently 27 people short of 4K followers, that is both amazing and humbling to me - that so many people would choose to follow my blog is truly an honour. I follow 2.5k people, and to be honest this is way too many. I started out like many no doubt do with the old Twitter theory that if you follow someone they will follow you back - so in my struggle at the start of my Steemit journey I followed everyone I came across, In retrospect I would do this differently, and just follow the blogs of content curators I enjoyed - people rarely on here follow you just because you followed them - and because I now follow so many my Blog feed is a blur that is unreadable.
Starting on this platform was hard for me, I had no idea what I was doing and the posts I made generated little, always less then $1 SBD and no comments. That went on for MONTHS. I could not understand what was wrong, I could see other people get many SBD for posts - I did the picture challenge posts and tried to vary my own posts to make the content more interesting - still nothing and I could not work out why. Slowly by following what @old-guy-photos did who brought me here from YouTube I realised the problem was I created a post and waited for people to find it - which of course they did not do. To get your post seen and upvoted you need to find people to upvote and bring them to your blog - that is the challenge of Steemit.
How to bring people to your own blog is the biggest challenge, there is no right or wrong way but it is fundamental to your growth on here you spend time finding people to upvote your work. How I approached this is the same method I now still use, I hunted for the posts I enjoyed reading and upvoted/commented on them. Comments are like little reminders of your own work, people really appreciate a comment on their work and they will return the favour on your own posts - and of course the best thing is this costs nothing more then your own time.
Essentially that was the turning point for my growth on Steemit, I would spend more time finding posts to comment on then I would spend creating my own posts. It was a start, but it also became obvious that Discord and the various channels you could join would play a big role. Discord is the main way you can chat with fellow Steemians, and receive their feedback. You can also find many social channels like SteemStarNetwork https://discord.gg/ZDANjzy which host shows you can actively precipitate in and of course the more you parcipitate the greater number of people will remember you. Also you have The Steemit Ramble https://discord.gg/FSwCb5T which features Pimp My Post Thursdays where you can share your post.
Some 9 hours after creation of this post, I am adding a few finishing touches. Due to a technical glitch (most likely involving me) when I went to grab my laptop charger last night this post I was half way through writing up just posted itself! At first I thought it had wiped all the writing I was doing as create a post suddenly appeared blank - but no, when I went to my blog there was my half finished half baked post I was planning on finishing today. So I had a choice - remove the content and make it a "mistake" post, or just roll with it. Given it was the early hours of the morning and I was falling asleep - rolling with it probably wasn't the best plan - but I did it and managed to tidy up a few bits and make it slightly more like a real post. There is more to this though - I will just have to continue it in a separate post, so watch out for Part 2!
Some of my previous posts you might have missed
Driving to Darlington
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The C0ff33 Vlog 4th May 2018 |
Kolegas contest Hands by @c0ff33a ☕️
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Kind thanks to @enginewitty for employing his Ninja graphic design skills and producing this banner
If you enjoyed my post don’t forget to leave an Upvote, feel free to comment on what you liked or where I can do better even. Follow @c0ff33a for regular and varied posts, photography, my weekly VLOG, posts on coffee roasting and brewing - just follow and see.
For the simplest way to upvote and promote your work, log into SmartSteem it’s the smartest way to get your work noticed.
Join Steemfollower and get upvotes in return for upvotes. It’s free, simple, easy to find new content to upvote and get your own content seen by more users and possibly upvoted.
All photos are my own, taken with my iPhone. All my steemit posted pictures can be freely used by other Steemit users in their own blog posts - all I ask is that you follow me and credit @c0ff33a linking to my post you took it from. You can also follow me on Twitter
The picture to the right kindly sketched by the wonderful @bridget.art , be sure to check her incredible art out https://steemit.com/@bridget.art
The greatest challenge we face on Steemit is getting our posts seen, I have always believed the simplest and best value way of doing this is by commenting on the blog posts of others, the more you engage people and interact with them the greater the chance they will visit your own blog and return to the favour.
!steemitworldmap 53.766547 lat -1.801500 long Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. d3scr
Thanks for sharing Rob. Great advice for gaining momentum on Steemit.
Thanks for taking the time to read through it, I would have liked to have fully finished the post instead of accidentally posting it - but it just leaves me open to do a part 2 post.
Of course the essential part of Steemit is it is your platform and you make of it what you wish, at your own speed. There is alot we can do help push ourselves forward, but it is also important to create what you like and enjoy what you like.
Good advice there man. I sonetimes feel bad not following more people, and will from time to tine follow new accounts, and prune a few old ones. It's difficult to balance following people and not having a messy feed.
Reaching out and giving meaningful comments and upvotes on others' blogs is by far more effective than just following. Engagement with others is the key, I think.
I really wish I had taken that line originally, but I went in deep following everyone at the start and now it's too late.
Engagement is the key, if you can build up a good relationship with accounts and then help each other grow that is half the battle - and I still find on a daily basis people producing incredible content that are also the nicest, most friendly people. And that's the thing, find the content you enjoy and the people you like sharing your time and comments with.
Nice tips in here @ c0ff33a! I personally don't follow a lot of people coz I feel it would make my feed too crowded. Though i follow interesting people and curators like you who resteem great contents so I thank you😉. I used to comment a lot to, but slowed down a bit these days. I have to work on that.
I should have done that at the start, kept the follow list small. But you live and learn, I have other ways now to keep track of content.
I resteem all the content I enjoy, and I really like it when people say thanks for resteeming such and such post I would have never found it otherwise - that makes it worth while. It breaks every rule I read on Steemit about resteems - hides my content so I can't find it - but I like sharing and that's the important thing to me.
Yes, when you’re new the most important thing is to engage with other people. There’s just no other way for anyone to ever find you otherwise. It’s a very social platform.
Thank you very much, you are of course exactly right but it took me a long time to work that out - and really I still see sometimes with accounts that have been here a very long time they are still in that terrible trap of just hoping people will find their posts.
I am not to worried about following to many as I have a 2 tier system. Those I follow normally over steemit and those I have set up alarms for with ginabot. The people on @ginabot are the special ones I always want to see then if I have time I scroll the normal feed. Third thing I do is check the blogs of people who leave quality comments.
Thank you very much, and I think you have an excellent system for keeping track of people on Steemit. Especially I try to keep up with checking out people who leave comments on my posts, although for my sins I am way behind with replying to comments - and I hate not doing that. But time is so limiting for me, I am replying to these comments when I still have not touched the last 3 - but on this post it makes sense to reply quickly - because of course I should practice what I preach!
Great post and good on you for making more people aware that for most you do not make tons of money here without very hard work. What makes it great is all the fun you have too along the way if you let yourself!
Thank you very much, it would have been so much better if I finished it! But essentially I really want to encourage more people to take time to comment - not you @snook because you comment more then me! And get everywhere on Steemit - but that is the thing I find so many doing what I did at the start - create a post, wait for people to appreciate it, wonder why they don't - it's an easy trap to fall in and I just don't know how to push them out of it.
I have never been good at sitting back and being quiet :D and you always underestimate yourself and how truly great you are to all of us!!
Honestly, this is one of the best suggestions. I found I did much better on Steemit once I began commenting all over the place as well, although you are much better as you have constantly continued to do so. I love that you are giving out a much-needed tip on how to be pretty successful here. Keep being awesome :)
Thank you so much, I really did spend so long at the start on this platform floundering around just not getting what it was all about. Eventually I found my own way, but I was still quite lost and isolated but the momentum built it's own way some how. The greatest revelation I made though was when I realised that it's not the posts that matter so much as the PEOPLE posting them - and what they mean to me. That changed my entire outlook on this platform, and I have so many to thank for showing me what incredible people and friendship can do.
However busy I get, with an ever expanding list of accounts to follow and support - I will always remember those that made a real difference to me.
A nice read with good reminders. Thanks.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post and leave a comment.
Congrats on (65)!
It's nice that you shared your story and the beginnings, because I'm sure there's always someone new on this platform struggling with the same things so posts like this are always helpful.
When it comes to following, I try to keep my list filled with active people I am truly interested in because I do scroll down my feed to see new posts. I have few of my favorite people on GinaBot notifications.
Great post! Keep steeming! :)
Thank you very much, I did struggle so long and it pains me to see others in the same situation - it is an easy trap to fall into. Maybe my experiences will guide others - I don't know, but I do like to try and help people on here grow and achieve .
I wish I had taken that approach with my feed, when I started it seemed a good idea to follow everyone I came across....bit too late to change that now but I have my ways of keeping track of people. Thanks for dropping in and leaving a lovely comment :-)
I always wonder how one does get seen more. I honestly post here becasuse I truly have liked the response in the comments section I have got thus far. I joined last year, but only really 'joined in' around late December and early January this year and never looked back. I do sometimes see simple posts get large rewards whilst others that have obviously taken more time and consideration go almost unnoticed. I just figured it was the 'way of steem' and try not to worry about it.
Then I saw that some of my fellow artists were using bots, and I didn't really understand them, so I did a couple posts using them and saw a big number but realized it was most likely just getting back what you put in, which I thought was fine. I looked at it as a way to take something you were proud of and put it out there for more to see. Then I did a post about whether or not to use bots and boy people are really opinionated on the subject. It was probably about half and half for and against, but those against are very strongly against it. I still am uncertain if I should use them and thus have not done so since that post.
I see here you mention the Smartsteem which was one that I used. You do reccommed it? Do you use it on every post or is it a once a week sort of tool? I just want to make sure I am using these sort of things as tools to promote what I feel is content I am proud of, but really uncertain which are the best ones or if I need to include a 'trigger warning' for anyone who might 'object' to bots. :)
I'm going to earmark this post and come back to it. Thanks for information, it's greatly appreciated and helpful. Sometimes I feel I cannot get a straight answer as to what is the best way to go about promotion on Steemit.
An excellent and very succinct comment, thank you for taking the time to share this one. You cover a great deal and I would like to equally answer all your questions.
Regarding the Upvote Bot's your experience is exactly the same as mine, Steemit is very divided and the people that are against them are REALLY against them and don't mind telling you about it. I see the arguments either side, I don't want to get deeply into what is right or wrong with them - let's just stick with they are still here and seem set to stay because if Steemit was not happy with them the admin team would have dealt with it some 8 months ago instead of allowing them to grow and grow in numbers.
Do I use them? Yes, every post in fact. I'm not particularly good at anything, so while I have a great deal support from all around my posts would not generate a great deal of value on their own. Most of the most strongly anti bot people are also the truth artists, creators - writers etc - people with real talent that produce incredible quality posts that will pull good upvotes on their own. And of course content like this can draw the attention of the incredible @curie team that do so much good for the community rewarding excellent work with a big upvote - I see many people benefiting from them and it makes a big difference to encourage them to keep posting.
So I use the bot's to upvote my posts, it gains them more visibility and when you work really hard at it can help you grow a little. They are a gamble, and you can loose money on them just like any gambling machine. If you use the Smartsteem website to buy votes it is very safe, they will always give you the upvote they quote or return the difference. You can make an informed decision on what you will get back, it is not the most profitable way - but there is no risk.
If you use https://www.steembottracker.com you can work the Bid Bot's - and this is risky but the tracker is essential in guiding you. The key thing is to look at the maximum profitable upvote - you have to wait until the last few minutes of the bot bid round to ensure there is still a profitable upvote before bidding. Once there is zero profitable bid the benefit you will gain declines as the bids get closer to the total upvote value of the bot - I have seen some bot's blind bidded with bids far exceeding the Upvote value of the bot - that's a situation where you could put $10 SBD in and get $7 SBD back - and that really set's people off complaining. If I time it right, I can put $10 SBD in and get $20 to $23 SBD back depending on the amount of profitable upvote left - the more left the greater the gain. At post payout that get's me pretty much back what I put in plus I gain the Steem Power payout.
I would point out before anyone spot's this and tries pulling the "raping the reward pool' tag on me, I pay for delegated steem power to increase my own upvote value so I can better support the many accounts I upvote. My own Steem Power is delegated back out to many small accounts to help them grow. I have never transferred any funds out of Steemit, and in fact buy in additional Steem to keep funding the delegated Steem Power - what I gain from Bid Botting my posts helps me fund my own personal efforts to support and grow a wide range of content creators on Steemit.
If you wish to use bot's use them, just take care because it is a gamble. Nobody has complained at me directly yet for my use, and often you will see the Transparency Bot in my comments telling you how much I paid to promote a post - see https://steemit.com/kolas/@c0ff33a/the-kolegas-contest-this-week-hands-with-me-c0ff33a
How to get your posts seen and appreciated is the hardest struggle on Steemit right now - I would strongly advise looking at the Pimp My Posts Thursday by @shadowspub she does a great job it's a wonderful community and you can get more views for your own posts while also find new creators to follow and enjoy.
Wow and thank you for your wonderfully detailed response.
I guess I'm still on the fence about them but personally don't have an opinion one way or the other. I just feel like if someone used them I wouldn't care personally, but then again I have enough other stuff to focus on that it's not upper most in my mind if someone does or doesn't use bots :)
I'll check out the @shadowspub page as well, thanks for the information.