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Our first guest ever on the Humans Of Steemit is @aksinya, she is someone I have watched on this platform and I can assure you that she is a hardworker

She has been putting smiles on the face of people for a long time now, she is a true Steemians in every sense of the word.

Ladies and Gentlemen i give you @aksinya

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My name is Ksenia and I am from Moscow, Russia. Aksinya is an old version for the name Ksenia. Before having a child I worked in one oil - service company in Corporate Finance and I really enjoyed it.

After having a baby I was on maternity leave. And later when time came to decide to come back or do something else I decided to do something else as it would be impossible to work full day with constant staying late due to some heath problems and a baby.

And fate brought me to Steemit. It was August 2016 and it was fate indeed. Me and my husband were looking for extra income and in Russia there is such service in internet where people offer what they can do and other people write what they need to be done.

And I found one guy who was looking for somebody with perfect English to write blogs on any topics. And my husband (as his English is like native) was writing for that guy and got some money for it.

Then we googled and found where those articles had been posted. Once that guy refused to pay for one of the articles and my husband refused to write for him. That guy earned quite good money at Steemit (60$-400$ per post) although not all his content was good (of course, except what my husband wrote for him))) but constant change of authors killed his career at Steemit.

He is no longer with Steemit, at least with that account.

So, we decided to try to write for Steemit by ourselves. And, of course, it was a biiiig disappointment in the beginning. The account of that guy was still alive and I saw that during first minutes after posting he could get about 50 upvotes. My husband’s and my articles had few upvotes and $0.5 earnings.

It was very frustrating when I understood that the same things posted by different people earned different money. But I am not the person who gives up. I spent days and nights reading advice and recommendations.

I tried to write interesting posts. I spent minimum 3-4 hours per post. I was thinking 24 hours per day about what to write. I had a list with more than 50 topics. I tried to understand what was popular. I found site catchawhale and I was so happy as I thought it was a clue but, of course, it didn’t help.

And still no earnings and just few upvotes. When I saw some posts which earned up to 1000$ I couldn’t understand what was the point. It was soo strange. At that time there were many posts like that. Content was so so, but earnings were very high.

I think now quality of posts with good earnings are much much higher. And now I still have a question (as my earnings are not that high) how to get so high earnings.

But now I know one thing for sure. FIRST YOU WORK FOR YOUR REPUTATION, then YOUR REPUTATION WORKS FOR YOU. Mostly those people who are famous and make good money now WORKED VERY VERY HARD. When you have a feeling that it is insane here, remember that. Those people worked very very hard to achieve that. And most of them supported and encouraged others.

When I was almost ready to give up, one guy @lpfaust mentioned me in his regular post Hidden Gems and it gave me wings. There were people who read me! There were people who liked what I did! I am really thankful to @lpfaust. He did amazing work to support people and to develop the platform.

By the way, recently he recorded the interview with me and it will be posted very soon. Don’t miss it.

So I didn’t give up. But there were no earnings. And once I wrote 2 posts. I spent 6 hours per each. It was a story about mysterious death of one tourist group (Dyatlov’s group). It was not just one of the deaths, It was really mysterious and strange death and till now they don’t know real reason.

So, the first post was about that group and their trip and how their bodies were found and the second post was about possible reasons of the group’s death. Actually I was kinda possessed with that story for a long time. I read a lot about it and watched tons of movies. So, I had a lot to write.

And...no earnings again....Next day when I already didn’t expect anything sitting in the cafe I checked my Steemit and couldn’t believe my eyes! FINALLY! One post - $100. Another post - $150. Whales finally visited me.

After that things went better. It wasn’t 100$ but....Curie was one of the best projects which helped me a lot. I can’t say that they voted everything. They upvoted quality posts. I decided to write about what I liked.

As my hobby was art, I started to write about artists. It was very interesting for me and I know there were people who liked it and my friend @lpfaust wrote to me that he was happy that I found my niche and even now he encourages me to keep doing that. I think I will.)) It was very interesting posts and sometimes I enjoy rereading them.

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And another thing finally I learnt about was steemit.chat. It was very very helpful. To write a good post is one thing. Another thing is to promote your post. You know what I did? I got up at night and promoted my posts at Steemit chat (only channels and NEVER PERSONAL CHATS!!!) as I noticed that most readers live in another time zone and curie project as well. Twice or at least once a night I woke up to promote my posts.

After my reputation was over 60 I could no longer get @curie's support, Steem Guild started to help. I really really appreciate their help.

I had good times and I had very bad times. And to be honest in the beginning Steemit was the way to earn money for me. But later I understood that Steemit is not only earnings for me. There are really amazing people here.

They make me smile, they make think, they make me develop. Many people make me better. It is difficult but I guess I am changing in better way.

It will be a long list of people whom I am thankful. First of all, all the participants of my contests. Amazing and talented people. And you know what. They take part not for reward. They do it because they enjoy. This is the most valuable thing for me. They write me comments which make me happy and I understand that everything is not in vain. Thank you, guys.

There are people who support my projects morally and financially. My number one supporter is my husband @beertripper who gives me encouragement everyday. I have friends who always vote for me and leave comments full of kind sarcasm and sense of humour.

I have really good friends here I enjoy to communicate with. There is one amazing person at Steemit. I remember her collaborative art journey didn’t make money at all but she kept doing that as for her money was not that important. She just did what she liked. And I am really thankful to her journeys as thanks to them I went to study.

Once I was not in pleasant situation here and my post was downvoted and some people spent much their time to protect me and support. There are also guys who make amazing posts which show me how posts should look like. There are many creative people who make me smile and admire their talent.

Steemit changed my life completely. I feel here almost like at home. I am happy I have 3 my babies here – my projects. The first one is Artchallenge where people give interpretations to surreal paintings. It is based at @artquest-trail now.

In the beginning of it I spent much more than I earned. Even during 1 month after HF18 when there were no earnings at all, I had very big reward pool. I knew I worked for future. Another my baby is ARTstyleART where I offer artists to make a painting in certain art style and with certain topic. It doesn’t bring money but it makes me happy.

Another my very little baby is a travel contest where people guess the location by the photos from my trips.

To get something from Steemit, you need to invest a lot. Your time, your soul, your believe in the platform. There were times (1 year ago) when money was easy. But now it is not. Don’t give up. Be polite. Be sincere. Be creative. Don’t ask upvote for upvote or follow for follow. Find your niche, write good posts and make interesting comments. It takes time but you will get everything back

You will find friends, you will develop and I am sure you will earn money here too if you have such a goal. Support other!!! After HF-19 earnings increased but number of votes decreased. And it hurts. For me it is painful that my participants make real masterpieces but don’t earn.

Now I am happy that my vote gives something and I try to upvote posts and comments of my participants and others to support them at least in little way.

Support and encourage others and you will be rewarded

You see I had a long and difficult way to achieve something. And I still have a long way ahead. I wish you all the best!

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