"OMG My Posts Aren't Getting Voted On and Supported!!! Steemit Sucks!!! I Hate This Place!" - How to Effectively Grow as a Minnow
The title of this post is a sentiment I've been seeing far too often here on Steemit, even from people who join the @MinnowSupport Project. The other night, someone commented on my post about becoming a greeter for MSP asking for advice on how to grow/how to become successful on here.
I'll have to start off by saying that "success" is subjective, and it is up to you to define what your success is, not anyone else. You shouldn't be looking around at other people and comparing how well they're doing to how well you're doing (or not doing). However, there is a general idea of what positive growth on this platform is, which, of course, is a general increase in followers and post value over time. The key words there are over time.
A lot of people come on to Steemit thinking that they're going to make a quick fortune doing what they do on other social media networks, just posting whatever they want to post, even if it's just a meme with no real substance. Sorry my friends, but that's not how this place works! Which is not to say that memes aren't appreciated on this platform, because I've seen some memes generate a pretty decent sum before. But in those cases, it's original memes that the poster created specifically to share with the Steemit community, not just memes that they grabbed from other places on the internet and reposted on here.
Anyway, the real pathway to "success" here on Steemit is through the power of networking and being a real and authentic human being with other people that you meet on this platform. It's in joining amazing communities like the @MinnowSupport Project and becoming an active member, popping into the chatrooms regularly and getting to know people in there and letting people get to know you. Here is what I told the person who asked me for help in my other post, I hope that you all will find it helpful, too. I'm posting it in here at the suggestion of @creatovert, who felt that it could truly be useful to other people.
Hi @sajda! I did notice you in the MSP Discord the other night, but it seems like you only ever pop in to say hi and see who's around, and then you go away. If you're looking for quick success, it's not going to happen the way you want it to, unfortunately.
Steemit is not a get rich quick place, and I think that's why so many people come on here expressing dissatisfaction with the platform, because they have this notion in their head that they're going to make tons of money from their posts right away.
It simply doesn't work like that. If you want true success on this platform, you have to be willing to do the hard work of networking and talking to people and you have to develop real connections with your fellow Steemians. The @MinnowSupport Project is a great place to do that, but you have to actually spend time in the chat rooms really talking to people and getting to know them. You can't expect our support if we have no idea who you are and what you're about! :P
So I encourage you to give it another shot if you are truly seeking "success" on Steemit. Don't come at it with an attitude of "I'm not getting any promotion on Steemit" or "Why isn't anyone I talk to upvoting any of my posts," instead try to cultivate a mindset of "Who are some cool new people I can get to know today and share some of my life with?"
Steemit is not about the money, despite what you might have heard from whoever brought you onto the platform. The money is a nice added bonus to it, that's all. But the main idea here is in building true networks of people who really love what you post about and who love getting to know you better through the things that you are passionate about.
One last tip...if you are truly wanting to focus on making money on here, my advice would be to focus less on just posting stuff and hoping that it makes you money, and instead focusing more on looking at other people's content and engaging with their posts.
Comment on them something that you liked or appreciated about their post, make it genuine and real, not just some "upvote for upvote" or "follow for follow" type of comment. Spend most of your time on Steemit doing that for a while, and I can almost guarantee you, you will start to see not only earnings come through, but you will also start to see that your following is growing slowly but surely.
I sincerely hope that this advice helps you (or anyone else who might see this comment who has also been struggling to find their idea of "success" here on Steemit). Good luck!
I hope this helps anyone who is struggling out there. It took me two months of being active on Steemit and being an active member of several communities on Discord, before I got to my pathway to "success." My posts still aren't making me a fortune, but the few dollars that they do make is more than I'd ever have made on any of those other social media networks.
I know that as long as I keep up what I've been doing these past two months, I will continue to grow my following and my post value. I can't stress enough the importance of being actively involved and engaged in communities like the @MinnowSupport Project if you truly want your Steemit experience to be a positive one full of growth. Hope to see you there soon! Click on the animated banner below for more information on how to join us.
Check out some of my other posts!
What You Need to Know About Telling Veterans "Thank You" on Veterans Day
How The Minnow Support Project Helps You Achieve Your Dreams on Steemit
How I Achieved 200 Followers in My First Month on Steemit
Why I Chose to Invest $100 in Steem
How To Set Up Your Steemit Profile
The Dawn of The Dancing Dreamers
The Dawn of Friendship In a New Age
I'm Just an Island Boy Living in Utah who Loves EDM
!steemitworldmap 40.754539 lat -111.902618 long Salt Lake City, Utah local Steemian! d3scr
Thanks for posting advice for minnows, @rodeo670! I think if people really want steemit to provide income for them they should approach it like other jobs and really study the platform and commit the time, focus and energy that being good at anything requires. Quality of engagement and curation is key with real presence and attention. Otherwise, its like any other instant-soup recipe-- the platform will lack substance if there is a something-for-nothing, just-add-water-and-wait, attitude. I appreciate the advice.
Thank you for reading my post and for sharing your thoughts with me! I completely agree, and what you said here is something that @lexiconical told me as well when I was first starting out. I'm not quite ready to fully commit to it that way yet, because I enjoy this place way too much to turn it into a daily workflow grind kind of thing. Because if you turn it into something like that, just like any other job that you have this feeling of "ugh I have to do this to make money to survive," the fun and enthusiasm for the place can go away so quickly. Perhaps someday I'll go into the full-time workflow mode on Steemit, but for now I'm enjoying the community aspect of it too much to fully commit to such an approach. :P
I'm the same way. I do what I love with my time/life and sitting at a computer all day is not it. So, I get what I put in to steemit and the community aspect is what I enjoy the most as well as truly enjoying the amazing content that some people post. We are so programmed and entrained to fixate on social media constantly and so, personally, I think it would be hard to live a healthy life and also focus full-time on steemit every day!
It's a sure-fire recipe for a hard burnout, for sure! Even now in my casual Steemit mode, it's important to take at least one day of the week where I don't post anything and just do whatever with it :P
Great advice, as usual. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much, @josephsavage! I'm glad you could appreciate it. And thank you so much for planting a tree on my post! I really appreciate the support!
You're welcome. I like @treeplanter and it's a great way to give posts a little more support than my 100% upvote is able to provide.
I'm new at MSP and have enjoyed it there so far. I caught @crimsonclad 's show last night, which kicked butt (saw you there). From what I can tell it's a little like an MC. You start out as a hang around then if someone vouches for you, a prospect and if you do a good job and add to the community you get your full patch (more votes). It's not like you can just bust into the Hells Angels clubhouse and expect them to pat you on the ass and hand you a patch. Just my 2 cents as a noob.
Hey @road2nowhere! I'm so glad that you have been enjoying your time in MSP so far! Especially because I invited you to come join us :P It's always a great feeling when someone you show something to truly enjoys their experience. That's an interesting analogy you made! I'm not too familiar with MC culture, so I just learned something from you today. :) Thank you for reading my post, and for stopping by to drop your 2 cents in! Hopefully people who read this post will see your comment and will be convinced that they really should try it out.
b'awww, I love that you had fun. You know, I can't speak for everyone, but I don't wait until there is vouching. When I see someone who's trying to be a bit more active in the community, I will add them to a list and start watching their content...and from then on I work through curation decisions based on my observations of them. (But I'm a creeper.) Your metaphor isn't wrong. Just handing out votes isn't fulfilling enough for most, and won't help things really, truly grow~
I didn't mean to imply that votes are given to shit posts just because they are in the MSP. If anything, it seems to me like the opposite would apply.
Yeah, I dug your show... it's a great place to blow off some "steem" \m/
#creepercuration
stealing that. It's legit me.
#creepiestcuration
🔆🙌PREACH🙌🔆
Great way to put it @rodeo670 you have a way with words 😃
Now pliz like follow upvote me or suffer my wrath 😂
🔆 SUCCESS 👏 IS 👏 EARNED 👏🔆
🙏Amen 💛
Thank you so much, @staceyjean!! LOL :P
I'm so glad that you took me up on my invitation to join not only Steemit, but also MSP!
It's been so great for me as your friend, to see you truly grow and flourish within the community.
And now we're both greeters!! Yay! :D
I have been trying this method of commenting at peoples post like you mentioned. When I started, it was very hard to do because I got used to other social media where you just like or <3 their post and off you go. As you said, you need to do more work here to get noticed. As of now, I enjoy commenting and reading comments. It is a matter of changing your perspective and changing how you engage in a new environment.
Thanks for the awesome post btw. I will share this to my friends.
Thank you so much for reading my post! I'm glad that you have found the commenting pathway to be beneficial to your road to success on Steemit. It really is a matter of changing your perspective from "what's in it for me" to "how can I help other people feel like their posts have value." You really get back what you put out into the Steemitsphere.
Thank you for sharing it with your friends, I hope it helps them out, too! :)
Oh ya, did you get home to the Philippines? I have not really got updated on your post. Your mom is up there watching you as you sing through every contest that you join. <3 Nice voice btw.
No, unfortunately I ended up not being able to make it home to Saipan for the funeral. You can read more about it here, here, and here lol. But what can I do...life goes on and so must I. I can't stay depressed about it forever, and I'm sure she would not want me to. Thank you so much for checking up on me, I really appreciate it!
You are correct with everyone's personal definition of success is different.
There is no one perfect way to be successful on steemit. It comes down to being active, productive, (obviously) writing quality content and being supportive of others when you comment and UPvote.
Exactly! Thank you so much for checking out my post, @goldendawne! :) I hope you are having a great day so far.
I've been on steemit since the beginning of May, 7 months now, and most of my success has come in the last 3-4 months. I'm not really very big yet, but I'm growing.
Yes you are!! Do you have any other tips for steady growth that I missed in my post? Thank you so much for reading it and for sharing with us your own experience so far!
The only thing I could add to what you've said is to just keep writing decent post and leaving comments for people. Keep on keeping on, don't give up.
This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme, it's a slow methodical climb for most of us.
Good job! Thanks to @josephsavage you have planted 0.13 tree to save Abongphen Highland Forest in Cameroon. Help me to plant 1,000,000 trees and share my Steem Power to the others. Selfvoting is prohibited, but that should be the reason to spread the world to protect our precious environment. Check out profile of our conservation association @kedjom-keku and the founder/coordinator @martin.mikes to get more information about our conservation program. My current SP is 14368.75. Help me to plant more trees with your delegated SP.
Thanks a lot,
your @treeplanter
www.kedjom-keku.com
Beep! Beep! This humvee will be patrolling by and assisting new veterans, retirees, and military members here on Steem. @shadow3scalpel will help by upvoting posts from a list of members maintained by @chairborne and responding to any questions replied to this comment.
Ahhhh humvee, it's always a pleasure to see you drop into my posts and show that veteran support that you love to give so freely to everyone on the list :P
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