๐Two More And I Will Hit ๐ป1500 Followers! That Calls For A Giveaway!๐
It was 2 months ago that I hit 1000, it took me 6 months to get there. I want to give a shoutout to @thealliance and @enginewitty for their kindness and support; I am pretty certain they are the major factor in my growth. The other communities in my banner at the bottom are awesome, but thealliance leadership and members makes it really feel like a family. It was also through thealliance that I found @sircork and @youarehope, a cause that makes me proud to be a steemian.
I feel like I have grown a lot in these past couple months, and not just in numbers. I did my first podcast with@sustainablelivin last week, with the gentle and constant encouragement of @marianewest. A couple hours ago I did my first live radio show with @pennsif, "My Life In 8 Songs" with a "YouAreHOPE" trio of guests. It is not posted yet, but I will resteem it when it gets posted. I had to go to the big city today, had appointments I just could not rearrange and so I came FLYING home, got everything all hooked up and ready with plenty of time to spare, but... I could not flip to another window to see my notes, I did not even know what song was coming up next. When I tried, the audio cut out and I was scared to death I was going to lose the show right before I was supposed to be on. I sat there like a deer in the headlights trying to wing it, for an hour, my first time...lol! It was less than fabulous, but it is behind me now and that feels good. This old dog tackled a new trick!
I am getting a grip on the witness thing and if you have not delved into that I encourage you to do so. There is no reason to wait as long as I did. When I started on steemit, I had the impression there were 2 types of things going on here: A social media side and a tech side. The witness stuff was "techy" so I didn't care. Turns out the witnesses are some incredibly dedicated people - or they OUGHT to be - and they have a huge impact on both sides. I am not going to pretend I know enough to tell you what witnesses to vote for, but may I suggest... Go to the witness list that is right thereโ๏ธ on that drop down menu next to your avatar. Visit every blog on the list and try to get a feel for what they are about. I am still working my way through, have used about half my votes so far.
UPDATE: Courtesy of @pennsif - thank you kindly sir! "One small point regarding the witnesses, it is better to go to @drakos Witness list so you can see all the witnesses like Team @sircork, not just the top 50.
https://steemian.info/witnesses"
Blah, blah, blah, I know... I said I was doing a giveaway, didn't I? And the folks at steemsilvergold have been awfully nice to me, I should probably make it shiny although it is not the fanciest shiny... so lets make it two.
First up is a lovely the 1 troy ounce .999 copper round pictured above and below, with a tribute to the Second Amendment.
And for the ladies, or the rockhounds, or the men who love ladies or rockhounds, or ladies who love ladies or rockhounds... I am digging myself into a hole here aren't I? OK, for anyone who prefers this, how about this awesome picture agate? It was made by the mother of my friend at our local store, she sells her Mom's hand made cards and jewelry there. To be honest, I thought it was Idaho agate but it is from California. We can't hold that against a rock! (Sorry, I would lose my "Idahoan" card if I did not take a cheap shot at Californians there! ๐)
There is a little acid etched heart on the back, so it is still cute even if it flips around, which my necklaces always do...
Now, to get either of those gifts I will need a mailing address and it occurs to me that a lot of folks do not like to give out personal information so let me add a third giveaway of 2 SBD.
I realize these are not the grandest prizes ever offered, but I hit 1500 followers, I did not win the lottery... ๐ To be eligible, leave a comment below and tell me which prize you would like: round, necklace or SBD. You do have to pick ONE. Do not enter for all three or I will disqualify you. When this post pays out, I will divide the names into the three groups and randomly draw a winner. Upvotes and resteems are always appreciated but not required. Thoughtful comments will be tipped.
So I just can't end this post without a "thank you" to @c0ff33a, a man who changed the way I do steemit just being himself. His level of engagement with his fellow steemians is just so admirable, it is an honor to call him "friend." There are a LOT of other wonderful people who have helped me along the way, please do not feel slighted if I failed to mention you! I have to stop somewhere and there is a HUGE list of awesome people on steemit!
I am humbled by this milestone and delighted to be a part of this pioneering platform with YOU!
Lol rockhounds? That's a new term for me! Glad we have a given you a comfortable place to be sweets. Grats on your recent karaoke win too ๐
Thanks!!! The past 2 days on steemit have been kick ass for me lol! Thanks for hooking me up with the ssg peeps, they are amazing good folk too. I need to get my butt into that discord and mix and mingle more!
Np sweets, we leave some pretty kikass comments ๐
Good job my dear friend. What an amazing accomplishment. I would say that you definitely deserve it As hard as you work for the community and just helping people. And truthfully Im not surprised that you have an amazing amount of followers. Good people naturally attract friends. And as far as your giveaway, I think they are awesome prizes. And truthfully as much as I would like to have the SBD, due to the fact it would help me help people here, it would give me nothing to remember you by. So my preference for a reward should I win would be either of the two physical items the necklace or the coin.(You can pick either one for me. And if I do win I'll take whichever one the other winners don't want.) I recently won a keychain from @toresto and I'm thinking that I can make a little display case and put my rewards that I have won from Steemit in it as a means of retaining these special memories. I think that you're an awesome person and to have something to remind me of you and what you do would be the best thing in the world. So enough about me. I wish you continued success and hope that you meet many new friends along the way. I hope that you are always n good health and able to be happy every day forever. Thank you my great friend for all that you do and being who you are. Sending you and yours all of my love until we meet again. And may our Creator bless yous.
You are such a sweet, gentle soul! THANK YOU for your kind words and support! May Creator bless you and yours!
Good job, partner! Keep it up!
Thanks, your support and guidance are much appreciated!
Kudos to you, @fishyculture! I am glad that you stuck it out. I think both our first days here on steemit were a little rough...here's to smooth sailing from here on in!
๐ปCheers to that!
Great job! I remember it was only back a week or so you wondered why people would follow you....it's not just your unique stories of homesteading you have a wonderful personality that reaches out to people with a incredible caring for other individuals in need.
Thank you so much! Your support and kindness are very much appreciated!
Wow, congrats! That's fast growth lately. I'm impressed that I'm over 300 followers now, starting around Christmas. You're on a roll!!
I'd like to enter your contest for the SBD, and the reason I would like that over the others (even though the round is awesome) is because I'm trying to power up and grow as much as I can right now, and meet my goal of being able to withdraw a small income in 52 weeks. :D
Every bit counts, especially early on, to help with the compound growth I'll need to make it happen.
You are Hope seems like a great cause, wow, so much to learn about here, and it's growing faster than I can take it in! Excellent!
If you only have 300 followers in 5 months, you are not spending enough time in the over 250+ niche steem related discord communities or steem chat. Using communities, I had several hundred followers my first week, by simply getting to know people. Quality friends, still with me, as I near 3K followers 10 months in. It took getting out there to the communities and getting engaged and being engaging. It took work. Lot's of it. Contrary to the claims this place is about starting a business and marketing it. That business is you and your personal brand. At 5 months and only 300 followers and still at rep 47, that tells me many of your followers are low rep and cant help you increase yours, nor will their votes be worth much.
You need to go sell your product (your blog/yourself) if you want to get anywhere here. Hate to see you end up in a couple months saying, well that didn't work, and quitting. Which ive seen thousands of users do who didn't understand you basically just arrived in the equivalent of New York City, and opened an independent pizza shop on a street with 50 more up and down the block just like yours, and to stand out, you need to out market them and build solid relationships. Which doesn't happen by accident or organically here without waiting years and gaining a big list of bot followers that pick your name up from comments and posts. You need humans, and thousands of them are waiting to discover you and be discovered in communities that fit your interests in discord. That's where the action happens. It ain't gonna happen sitting out here on the blogs, even if you are Earnest Hemingway wrapped in a wordpress theme over here.
It just doesn't work like that in this environment.
Good luck!
I'll see your "this is just how it is around here" and raise you a "LOL", because that's always my response to that silly idiom. Nah, it's however I want it to be around here, because "here" is my page, my posts, and my finances.
Normally when giving financial advice on the internet (like this), we say things like "I am not your financial advisor" as a disclaimer. Because we can't possibly know how best to invest or manage another person's money (or time, or posts, or comments), unless we really know them inside and out. Their financial adventures and misadventures, their current situation, their goals, and so on. You know 4 things about me (months on Steemit, number of followers, number of steem, and reputation), which isn't even 10% of my "current situation". You don't know the intricacies you would need to know to offer useful advice.
You've offered advice you would like to send back in time to YOURSELF when you signed up. It's no good to me, and likely no good to anyone else either.
But good luck to you, too!
Well, Ive built multi-thousand member communities here, two 24/7 streaming news and entertainment stations that service the community, a worldwide charity known throughout the entire chain for serving a couple thousand people in a dozen countries with fundamental human needs and been a witness running your blockchain for nearly a year. I've onboarded members all around the world in person in 6 countries on three continents while travelling, and answered questions from literally thousands of members, hundreds a day over the past ten months.
You can waste your time here, that's your prerogative, but that is exactly what your stated position leaves you doing.
I actually AM one of the people considered an expert on this chain, how it works and what is to be done here, and I've built and directed multi-million dollar social networks for a career living at times during my 35 year tech career. So you go ahead, and do whatever, but your blog will languish as it is already, so why even bother at all?
I know four things about you that are awfully distant from your original post.
"I'd like to enter your contest for the SBD, and the reason I would like that over the others (even though the round is awesome) is because I'm trying to power up and grow as much as I can right now, and meet my goal of being able to withdraw a small income in 52 weeks. :D
Every bit counts, especially early on, to help with the compound growth I'll need to make it happen."
I've told you how to do it in like a month or two, but go ahead, don't take the advice. I can assure you with some historic certainty though, that if you don't take it, you will not achieve your goal. Been here and done this WAY too long, being the coach for way too many thousands (this is not hyperbole, i was former leadership in PAL from 20 members to over 5000 we handled personally daily as they arrived confused and new, and got them successful, they are all around you right now. and now that community has over 11K people in it) of new users to tell you anything but that stark reality.
So you can listen to wisdom of an "elder" or ignore it, that generally works out well for those that take the second option...
Heheh, well I won't embarrass you with a list of MY accomplishments.
And you clearly missed my point, which is that your opinion is useless to me because my goals are different from yours.
If you goal is to fail your stated 52 week intention, you are on the right track, keep doing what you are doing. If you'd like to succeed and sooner to boot, the person with experience here has provided the instructions.
Your accomplishments outside here do not apply here, unless they too were building very very very similar software and even then most ordinary rules don't apply here, and only someone with the right expertise would know which ones.
You've been offered guidance and advice that WILL achieve your STATED goal. As said, go ahead and ignore it. You will find in six months by doing so, though, you are barely even incrementally further toward your goal.
It's fact. Known from an incredible load of first hand experience. Experience you are arguing with. Good thing I'm not a driving instructor, I'd leap as far from your vehicle as I could, if you ignored the guidance on how to do that from a professional instructor too.
Thanks for reaching out to my buddy! He is a lot like you... ;)
Except I took advice as a noob from more experienced people, who are respected platform wide, when they took valuable and very rare time, and offered it.
I hear ya' - but I also know drutter is a really good guy. Makes me a little sad to see you two bump heads.
Makes me sad when arrogant noobs who have no concept of what is going on here, turn down probably the most solid advice from probably one of the top ten most trusted voices on the platform too.
/shrug. I wish him luck, but he's gonna get schooled with his 'tude.
Maybe he will take advice from you on that?
Nope, but 'tood is a good thing sometimes. He just deployed it incorrectly this time. I have told him he needs to get into discord too. I just TRY not to let it bother me when people ignore my advice. Being the smartest kid in class got me used to having everybody run to me for answers. Now there is not daily test showing everyone around me that I am smarter than them... so they just don't care what I say any more lol! I had to learn to not care whether or not they care. I watch the karma bus... she rolls. Not always when or how I want, but it generally gets the job done.
Hehe, well, if I tell you not to touch the stove, cause it's hot, and you say. "you don't knooow me" and proceed to burn the shit out of yourself...
I'm gonna laugh :) Cause at that point, you done screwed up, pardner.
Thanks @drutter! And I do know how accomplished you are, but cork is a good guy - one of the best around here. You guys are too much alike, hard workers, driven... play nice, boys! ;)
Congratulations @fishyculture - it was great having you on the My Life in 8 Songs show. I will be putting the recording up over the weekend.
I would go for 2 SBD prize - if I did win, please then donate it to @YouAreHope on my behalf.
One small point regarding the witnesses, it is better to go to @drakos Witness list so you can see all the witnesses like Team @sircork, not just the top 50.
You are a DARLING!!! 2 SBD on their way to @youarehope in your name anyway. THANK YOU for your patience with me! That was my first live thing, I was so stressed about getting home in time and then I could not make my computer behave... THANK YOU so very, very much! It was kind of fun, but a little stressful too lol! Your kind and patient steerage got us both through!
Thank you for the tip on the witnesses, I was not familiar with that!
๐
YaaaYY! Congratulations. Have fun and have a party - with pictures. :-))
Haha! It is 4-20... in Idaho... no photos. Party on!
I know, I'm miles behind - you would not believe it but I'm a week behind replying to comments on my own posts. How tardy is that, such a lazy little chump I am doing nothing useful as usual.
Congratulations on a superb Milestone, it is of course all hard earned and all the work you have put in - connecting with people and supporting charity including your weekly @youarehope fundraiser posts - which are you now doing them directly on @youarehope instead now?
I always worry what I have done now when I see someone mentions me in a post, you are way too kind although I can't quite work out how I would becoming a guide to Steemit - but if whatever I am doing helped you progress further I'm pleased about it!
Keep up the great work, the next milestone is not so far away.
#thealliance
Yes! Thank you for noticing... Of all the wonderful things that have happened on steemit, perhaps the most touching is the @sircork trusted me to post on his oh-so-sacred @youarehope blog directly. I am a sap, so don't tell him, he will just tease me... it made me tear up a bit. And LOL! Yes, "lazy little chump" is exactly how I describe you to, um... NO ONE!
Awesome, every other post has to be a Meme though
Business
Casual.
But absolutely the best... I think that is @sircork, @beanz and @rhondak isn't it?
Congrats on your milestone my friend ๐ a great accomplishment and well deserved.
Im happy to be one of them and honored to be in the same family with you ๐ค #thealliance is the best and has changed my life as well.
So many amazing people that you never thought you ever meet.
You are a wonderful person and does so much for others, stay as you are and you will hit 2000 before you know it ๐
Have a wonderful evening. Cheers! ๐๐
Thanks so much! It is funny, I was not sure what I was getting into with thealliance, I really did not know enginewitty at all... just lucky to have fallen bass-ackwards into such a great group!