Here's What Minnows Should do, Instead of Buying Votes and Joining Curation Trails! Dolphin School is Now in Session!
So, in the past eighteen months, I've made over 2500 posts to the platform, and made over $60k in cash outs. I've been up, and down, a few times, and I'm on the way up again. But the platform currently makes that tough.
- Voter curation trails consolidate voting, making it tough to catch votes.
- Steem delegation does the same thing, and mostly results in post farming.
- Vigilante down voters can strike at any moment, destroying decent rewards when they come.
So, here is my best advice for minnows that want to succeed on Steemit!\
VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE!
That's right, resist the urge to join a curation trail, or sell or buy steem delegation. Build your account and vote for people whose work you feel makes the platform better. Don't vote merely for profit.
You're asking yourself why not, aren't you?
There are some really great reasons why standing on your own and forming organic partnerships are better for you in the long run.
- Large team posts, like those from adsactly, are drawing large payouts, but look at the work the contributing authors do on their own, hardly any of that recognition is spilling over to their accounts, because they're not posting under their own name. Their work is not recognized.
- Voter curation is great for making curation rewards, but those are notoriously small, and the power of your votes to build relationships with new followers, who will in turn upvote your work, is much more valuable.
- Even if you get in good with a large curation pool, they are notoriously fickle and can turn off the flow of funds as fast as they turn it on. It's not a stable basis for long term success.
- All of the top paid author run accounts, have large followings, and voter curation, buying votes and counting on large pools for support is not the way to build that kind of a following.
So, what should you be doing?
First, you've got to present the very best content you can! Don't be satisfied with just putting up a couple of memes with some commentary, really dig deep. Share a story, or a tip or better yet a list of tips.
Second, upvote people whose work you value. Right now, the platform is working just like the outside world, we're all giving the rewards to the top one percent of posters, just like we do in our economies around the world. We have a chance to change that!
Third, follow people you think are good for the platform. Read their stuff and comment on it. Upvote and resteem good content, not just big payouts. Add value and build relationships.
This is a long game
Learn from my example. In Summer 2016, I made a lump of good payouts and it changed my life for several months. Come around a year later and the steem I earned from that was waiting for me to cash it out when I needed it. You cannot overestimate the potential of what you've got right there.
Short term gains will waste the best opportunity you're going to get to establish yourself on this platform. When you first introduce yourself, people will pay attention. But, it may be like pulling teeth to get them to pay attention in six months, if you didn't do it right from the beginning.
Steem is going to grow
With crypto now coming onto the world's radar, people who a month ago didn't know what bitcoin was are obsessing over every video they can find on the subject, losing sleep over it! Look at what happened when Korea threatened to outlaw it! People freaked out.
As Bitcoin grows, we get the crumbs from their table. When it goes back up, so will steem. By building a reliable audience and producing quality content, you can go up with it. Or, you can keep scraping a few cents here and there off of following others.
The choice is yours!
In for the quick payout? Buy votes, follow curation trails, sell your delegation. Join the herd. You'll make some money, but will any of it be based on you, developing your brand, creating your voice, building an audience you can leverage for other things? NO! It will only be there as long as this trend lasts, and there have been several. You will only succeed so much, because the people at the tops of these schemes will keep you in check, if they need to.
Just my two cents! Thanks for reading. You know what to do.
I'm just getting back to Steemit so this is some great advice. It sucks if it's just a platform for people to click to make money.
Well, not everyone is like that. I suggest those that are here for the long haul, won't be.
thanks for information and experiance
i always follw you
i appricate your post
So, how about an upvote?
Lol that account always says the same thing.
Yeah, most of them do. But, it's worth a shot.
Do you feel there is value to withholding your better content until you have more followers? I have posted what I thought were a couple good discussion starters just to get nothing in return. Upvotes are nice, but I didn't even get a reply. Just trying to figure it all out. Very nice post.
There are two ways to look at it, and both of them have merit, it just depends on how you feel personally.
Way #1: Hold off on anything truly ground-breaking and intensive until you have a sizable following, because the potential for payout vs. time invested are separated by a sizable gulf.
Way #2: Hit them with your best shot right off the bat. Introduce Yourself posts tend to get a lot of activity at the start, so the best way to capitalize on that is to deliver something rock-solid that will be seen by a huge number of people, a percentage of whom will hopefully follow and start paying dividends immediately.
Which way is best? Whichever one you want. For me, I'd rather see great content up front because that shows potential followers you are serious about the platform. I don't follow people who do a single introduction post then follow it up with 4-5 posts with 1 picture and two sentences of text.
That said, it's also disheartening when you pour your heart into a project and earn seventeen cents the week after because no one saw it, so just do what feels right to you with the understanding that anything you earn here is more than you had to begin with, and way more than you would have made posting it to your personal blog or other social media sites. :)
Thanks for the reply. That makes a lot of sense. I know I started with some bad posts, but I am working to correct that moving forward. It helps to just take a step back and remember what I am actually here for. It's easy to fall into the trap of seeing the whales and wanting to chase windmills.
I disagree with @modernzorker on one point, bringing less than your best at any point is a poor plan. It won't build a strong audience, add to your reputation, or draw readers, comments and upvotes.
I composed that reply very quickly, and looking back, I see I didn't communicate the idea in my head very successfully. Allow me to try again. :)
Obviously we should always be looking to contribute the best we can, but when starting out, nothing is more depressing than to pour four or five hours' worth of work into composing a post about something only to have it top out at $1.50.
Maybe 'start small and work up' is a better way of looking at it, or don't feel like everything that you post has to be the result of a full day's effort. It's impossible to predict what will 'hit', so my idea was more to increase the level of energy and effort put into your posts as you build a following and a reputation. Churning out crap isn't going to help anyone. :)
But your best doesn't always have to involve hours and hours of prep and composition either. :)
My apologies for not being more clear in my original comment, @markrmorrisjr. You are correct on this. :)
Small, tight pieces are a great way to start. Posts of a few hundred words often earn huge payouts.
I remember the very first group that I joined here in Steemit one of their rules is for all posts made by members it should have the name of the group which would act as a sort of advertisement. 2nd all posts has signatures thanking a particular whale.3rd and most ridiculous for me is using the name of the whale as an actual tab.
Well keeping to my namesake I did not follow their rules and eventually left.
I still see some of their posts and they have to a certain degree achieved some success but I achieved mine through my own hard work. I did not beg for upvotes, I got curated because of the quality of my work and I can stand tall and know I am did my best.
Yes it is easy to fall the trap of wanting to get a whales attention but do you want to be reliant on one person who will hold your success or failure.
Yeah there has been a lot of people who became successful after getting mentorship and support from a whale but looking at their work it is because they are unique and contribute something to the community.
They are bound to be successful.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation here. But, in my opinion, either bring your best stuff now, tomorrow and yesterday, or stay home. Consistently posting quality content is the way to bigger payouts, and I've had my share. break good stuff into multiple posts. Develop series, you'll pick up more readers and they'll go back to your old stuff. They may not be able to payout, but you'll build an audience that expects the best.
As a professional writer, developing good content is never an issue. I think you should bring your best content now, later and forever. Push yourself to go further the next time. As your audience develops, you'll have eager readers that know you're always going to bring the goods. If you post subpar content, you'll never build a bigger following.
Amazing ..thats the great number on...
With steemit it is the best ..
I appreciate ..
Thanks for sharing
Thank you for great advice... im new to this so hopefully it will help me alot 👍👍
Bring your best, everyday and try to be consistent to post regularly. Upvote others, comment, follow people you enjoy, wash rinse, repeat. It's not rocket science. And it will work.
Another great post with excellent advice, thank you! I am definitely not part of any 'herd', and never plan to be. However, I do need to work on posting more regularly (which is difficult to do with multiple health issues).
Well, start small. Break your work into bit sized chunks. As long as it's good, that's what matters.
Good advice, thank you. I'm a perfectionist, so there's no going the 'lazy' route for me, lol.
This post came just in time to give me hope and motivation to continue doing what I've been doing since I joined steemit less than a month ago. I'm glad I've been on the right track you described.
A month and already a reputation score of 43, so, here's a secret about that. A score of 43 is 10x more powerful than a 42, so you have grown by a huge magnitude. Keep it up!
Fantastic. So, as you grow in reputation a 44 is 10x a 43 and 55 is 10x a 54 and so forth?
Yes, I've noticed it's taking me way more time to grow each addition 1 reputation point than the one before. I guess I'm a living proof that your advice in this post do work with new joiners.
A lot of the new folks that join us ask me how to earn money and I always tell them the same thing create good content, engage your readers, leave good comments on pieces that interest you not because someone is a whale and you are hoping that they'll rain upvotes on you because you commented on their post. Comment something generic and repetitive you might just piss them off enough to look at your profile and see the behaviour of your comments and start flagging you down.
When you leave a generally good comment then you might piqued their interest because you left a good comment so what would their posts be like. That's my way of thinking whenever I post something and get good comments from someone because I am intrigued why he responded. I have stumbled on several hidden gems because of this and follow them regularly.
If the poster did not respond or upvoted you don't feel bad because you added something to the conversation. Too many people comment and expecting something in return as if it is owed to them.
From the start I have been trying to produce quality content and at the start was just earning cents but it never deterred me. I have gotten some followers now and even get curated a couple of times which I am happy.
I was looking at my stats and 63 % of my earnings come from posts. I post an average 1 post a day. So I do try to make it count haha. I comment about an average of 11 times a day.
That's says a lot in terms of the quality of engagement I do.
I don't judge those that post 5-6 times doing those color challenges and photo contests or even submit multiple memes if that is what they want to do. I do roll my eyes when some compare themselves to me and complaint that it is unfair that they get cents with their multiple posts and I get a dollar for my 1 post.
I like your advice that we should upvote and reward those that are enriching steem and not diluting it with shit posts.
It pains my heart though that a lot of shit posts get a lot of money because they are mere placeholder posts for upvote bid bots and they raping the rewards. I am glad that @upme has started to impose bans on these behaviours.
Good day to you.
More than 90% of my income is from posts. I'm trying to get back into commenting more.
This is an important message. It would be a shame for casino players to come gamble on steemit. Other way to look at it is to change the economics. Do you think rewarding pageviews would change anything?
I think every time they've changed the rules to try and make it fairer, it's gotten worse. People just need to do what's best for them in the long run to make it work.
Thanks for the post and advise! And thanks again for getting in touch on my first post. It is certainly a learning curve. But quite excited about it all