On my Fifth steemit day, I am going to review what I have been doing for pre-post, post promotion.

After submitting a post yesterday morning, I planned on researching and installing bots for the rest of the day. But just after I hit the post button, I watched it appear on the "New" screen for about 10 seconds before it was gone into the ether. I could not even find it with search…. POOF its over…. I wanted to figure out how to get eyeballs to the post. My plans changed.

Pay to Play

I went looking for my next steps, and learn how to promote steemit posts. After reading numerous articles… I started to see a common theme… Pay for it. I am not going to go into the “pay to play” topic yet. I am a minnow, in my first week at steem. There are 0.001 Steem Dollars in my wallet thanks to the great people at PALnet with a gift of 0.002 when I created my steemit account.

I am going to need a month or six before I am talking about slinging STEEM around like a drunken party whale.

Also remember I have only been here for 5 days now… I am simply sharing what I have learned so far while I test it out. If you know better techniques please share!

Free Post Promotion

So far I have learned that there are 2 sides to promoting a post. First there are moves that you can make to set a good foundation for your post before you hit the button. Then there are services and techniques that you run to after you post.

In this article I want to talk about the first step getting ready, and will follow up with a post early next week that reviews the post-post promotion and offsite things that can help you get the upvotes you need to be relevant.

Be ready before you hit the POST button

From what I have been reading so far the first 30 mis after you post are critical for gaining any traction as a minnow at steemit. If it is not seen and kept alive with votes, it gets buried under the thousands of posts that come in every minute. You don’t want to waste this time fixing and editing your post, adding or changing tags.

First Off, Have a quality post to promote.

Make sure you deliver the best quality you possibly can. The only ones that vote for bad posts are other people trying to game the system. I could go through all the different post types… I think the point I am trying to make here is put out quality. Even though these techniques (or tricks) below will get you some upvotes, the goal should be to build a following. If you put out quality, it will most likely end up in a follow, that will then lead to future upvotes from these followers.

Quality content is whale bait. You need to put out content that people will like and want to view, then worry about the tricks.

Second Pay attention to the HEADLINE for the click a through.

Headlines will help users decide if the are going to click though to your site or if they are going to pass it over. This is your chance, make it a super executive summary of your post. In one line tell them what to expect, and give them a reason to click trough to your article. Don't use clickbait headlines (you know how you feel after you click on one of those, it sucks) if you want upvotes.

Here is a great article about how to write Headlines by @walkingkeys that will help you write effective headlines.

Third, Add Tags to focus in on your audience and get upvotes to stay visible.

You get 5 tags for every post, use them all.

I always use my first tag spot for the most descriptive. Tags can help you stay alive on the lists. Be specific and descriptive so you can connect. Unless you have some groundbreaking announcement or stay away from the larger tags like #steemit. If you are a minnow like me your post is going to live for about 1 second in the #steemit topic because there are thousands of posts per day at the tag. No one will see it, and you will get no comments, and it will suck. If you choose a specific descriptive tag, you will get in front of the audience that is seeking out the information you have.

Here is the great post by @vominhquoc that I taught me all about tags.
Steemit Tricks Tag Using Strateg Secret of Ridiculous Post Payout
It is worth the read especially if you are a minnow like me.

For now I am only using the first tag spot for a descriptive tag... The rest are going to be a mix of the following

Tags that I am testing, that give upvotes

#upvoteforupvote - Use this to trade upvotes with others. Yesterday I had 4 votes in the first 5 mins after posting using this tag. But like the tag reads it also its a trade, so you have to make sure you upvote their latest post in return or you are a jerk.

#trevonjb - If you add this tag you will most likely get a vote from the account.

#craigrant - I read this tag is viewed by dolphins that are looking for quality posts to upvote

Other tags:
#followforfollow - Same as #upvoteforupvote above but it is a follow swap, make sure you keep your end of the deal.
I personally have not tried this tag out yet, this is the first post. Will let you know in the comments.

I found these tags at another great post by @vominhquoc
steemit-tricks-how-to-get-at-least-10-upvote-in-just-10-minutes

STEEM ALONG!

If you have any great ideas please leave me a comment!