Making the Most of My First 7 Days on Steemit (from an artist!)

I’m an artist and I joined steemit 8 days ago (counting today!).

You can read more about why I signed up here, but for this post I’d like to share some tips on how I’ve approached my first 7 days on the platform! (That’s me, in full Teaching Artist mode, down below!)

There’s obviously A LOT of opportunity on steemit. There’s also a lot of information to digest if you’re a total newbie like me, so here’s what I've focused on learning each day, and some helpful tips I’ve found so far! Break a leg, friends.

---

DAY ONE

1. Set up my profile.
2. Check out the platform and FAQ.
3. Search content and find like-minded accounts! I’m lucky because I came to the platform as someone who makes creative content for a living. I already knew that I would talk about art, equity, social justice, and a few other fun things like hiking. On Day One I searched under hashtags I thought would be useful to these categories to see which ones have the most/least leverage on the platform. It also led me to find accounts I was genuinely interested in!
   
4. Discover @MarkrMorrisJr and sign up for Bootcamp! The best thing that has happened to me was discovering the #DolphinSchool Bootcamp by Mark on my first afternoon snooping around the platform. Mark is taking 20 fledgling authors and providing them with mentorship over 10 days to develop their work! It’s an awesome, entirely free opportunity. Check out the project to sign up for the next round!*

DAY TWO

1. #DolphinSchool Day One! Participating in this community instantly gave me a significant boost in followers, comments, and upvotes that I never would have had alone. I’ve had over 30 comments on my #dolphinschool posts, and one even paid out at 20+SBD!
2. Follow all the people! Partially because of my #dolphinschool homework, I followed and explored a lot of accounts in my first day. I made the rule that I would only spend time looking at accounts I was actually interested in and then pushed myself to find creatives, artists, and interesting personalities on the platform. I commented genuinely where it was warranted and got a lot of engagement.
3. Try out posting! Here is my Day Two article on Theatre of the Oppressed!

[DAY THREE]

1. #DolphinSchool Day Two!
2. Building genuine relationships! Via Mark and the #bootcamp I’ve naturally made some great friends already. But I’ve also been searching out people whose content and ideas align with mine and starting conversations. I have plenty to say because I’m talking to people about things I care about!
3. Curators are awesome. I’ve found curators like @juliakponsford that do amazing weekly roundups of high-quality artists (my favorite demographic!). I follow these curators and also dig into their content to find others I want to follow and get to know. I’m spending all of my time looking at things that have to do with the content I want to create!
4. Post! Here is my Day Three article 7 Tips to Make Radically Inclusive Art.

[DAY FOUR]

1. #DolphinSchool Day Three!
2. Keep on connecting and engaging!
3. Sign up for Discord (scary!) A lot of users hang out in Discord chat rooms in groups around common interests. A few Discord groups I already love are #TeamGirlPowa and #IsleofWrite. Many channels allow you to promote your work for free--just don’t spam or abuse the privilege!
4. Post! Here is my Day Four glimpse into a 7500’ climb into The Enchantments.

[DAY FIVE]

1. #DolphinSchool Day Four!
2. Keep on connecting and engaging!
3. Chat on Discord and join groups! I’m in over 10 different groups now, and over half of them allow me to promote my work for free!
4. Sign up for steemit Facebook groups! Cross promotion is key, and I was excited to discover a lot of steemit groups on Facebook which I’ve joined. Most of them let you post your links for free and generally get a glimpse of steemit outside of the platform.
5. Post! Here’s my Day Five piece Who say feminism is a dirty word?

[DAY SIX]

1. #DolphinSchool Day Five!
2. Business as regular. For the most part, I just kept on doing what I’d been doing, i.e. trying out Discord, cross-promotion, and engaging with people across the platform!
3. Post! Here are my Day Five snaps of Joffry Lakes Provincial Park in BC.

[DAY SEVEN]

1. #DolphinSchool Day Six!
2. What are bots exactly? Bid bots are accounts to which you can transfer some SPD in return for a vote on your post (that might be worth more than what you paid to make it.) Although they are a clear way to make money on the platform, there is a lot of debate around bid bots, spam content, and misuse. I decided to take about 1.00SPD and try a few out for myself and I saw a good return on my investment--I tripled my money which will pay out on posts over the next week. I can see where there are loopholes in the system that cause misuse, and I intend to proceed with caution because nothing trumps making valuable content.
3. Post! Here is my Day Seven art curation article, #MyTop5Artists: New Visual + Performing Artists Roundup.

---

AND HERE WE ARE, MY 8TH DAY ON STEEMIT!

I have 90 followers, 270 posts to date (this includes my comments!), and about $30 SPD pending payout in the next week. I think it’s a pretty good start, and I’m learning more everyday. I know it’ll take awhile to build something lucrative on the platform, but I’m having FUN and that’s what counts.

It also helps that my boyfriend, @ukuleletutorials, is a crypto, gaming, and steemit lover who runs @moneymatchgaming and has given me some helpful tips along the way. If you are into games like Overwatch, go check them out, (they also run weekly tournaments that I’ve heard are the bomb diggity).

What am I missing? What other must-do’s are out there for new steemians? Hit me up with your best tips!

---