The frusteration of Steemit - don't give up!
This topic has been discussed before, so it's nothing new for some, but perhaps useful in these eerie times anyway.
You've probably been there.
You come up with a great topic. Eureka! This is going to be my $500 moment! You grab a beer and start writing. Four hours and a cranky family wondering what you're doing later, you finally press post. It's a masterpiece! Should I quit my day job right now? Just send my boss an email and tell him you're a steemian now, so fuck off!
Let's wait..
30 minutes late...
No upvotes
An hour later...
1 upvote and one comment; "great picture, follow me please!"
Before you go to bed...
Still just 1 upvote. What the fuck is going on?
When you wake up the next morning...
STILL just one 1 upvote (and by the way, all crypto currencies are going down the toilet)
Then you decide to just post a random picture and you get $10 dollars.
I feel your frustration. I've been there many times all ready. You really want to create great and interesting content. But you realize that your work and effort result in nothing. Your five hours of work gives nothing back. While posting a picture that takes literally one minute to post gives you more in return.
Here are some thoughts on that
Timing
You were just unlucky. Maybe most of your followers for some random reason did something else the exact time you posted. Perhaps there was a nuclear attack on the US and they were busy hiding under desks.
Play the long term
Sure, you can post pictures and tell small stories. But that doesn't mean you should quit writing your "masterpieces", and sticking to your niche. It's quite possible that your few hundred followers have a very varied field of interest. You probably have 50% spammers/follow-follow people, 20% who doesn't like to read and perhaps a few weirdoes who enjoy your "brilliant" "work" Take your time. You're probably not that brilliant, and you've never written articles before. So you need time to get really good at it. Practice.
Don't quit your day job just yet
Obviously
Don't burn your best ideas when you're at 10 followers (or 400)
Sure, write good content and stick to your thing. But realize most of your potential curators aren't following you yet. So don't spend your entire summer working on that one masterpiece, and then post it for three people that cares.
Don't forget your followers and friends here
Don't get too obsessed with all of this. Have fun and spend time commentating and curating others. There is no magic formula on how to get a lot of upvotes. But like with everything else, people tend to think they're great and have so much to offer. So instead of realizing they're not that great (yet) and take their time learning and getting better, they just quit eventually. Even if your post doesn't go viral, it might attract one or two new people that are interested. That pays off in the long term.
Yeah patience is key.
Haha, I posted one 3 days ago were I just wanted to celebrate 150 followers in my first 16 days.
I did a shout out to some of the people that had inspired me and helped me in some way the first 2 weeks. It was a very quick and simple post with no pics.
I literally just wanted to say thank you to my new community.
I hit post and waited. Nothing..
Next morning: nothing..
Couple of hour later: still nothing..
Now 3-4 dyas later off course still nothing.
So no I´m celebrating my first $0 post! :)
I was a bit frustrated for a couple of hours the first morning, but then realized a lot of the same things you wrote here.
Could be a big number of reasons why no one saw it or didnt do anything with my post. And it´s it not helpful to get frustrated and use enegry on that.
My "strategy" will be to not think too much about all of this, create the content that I want to create and do my best to connect with people that I see create content that I´m interested in.
Haha. Yup, my initial introducemyself post garnered the most number of votes and was probably my highest paying post thus far - approximately $12. From then on, it only goes downhill. I have to resort to self-voting to barely even make 0.01. I guess my strategy like you, is to keep doing what I'm doing.
If my Steemit account ever do take off, I'll just attribute it to luck. :D
The universe will eventually reward you for being yourself, sharing your passions and contributing to community. :)
Steem on! :)
Thanks for the encouragement!
Hey, you've made 8 bucks so far on your latest post! :)
Yup apparently i realized that people are more willing to upvote something more fun than an article that goes deep into economics.
0 $ Dolar syndrome is devestating for most of the people and I like the last gif :D
It's just hard times, but you're on the right track.
Thanks main
That is a grat post with very usefull advices for beginner like me .
I do sometimes feel fustrated but try to keep posting still.
Every good thing needs time, so I give Steemit time.
Good luck to us all
upvote and follow
Yup. Just try to post things in your niche, content that you enjoy. Perhaps that post don't give you much money, but it could perhaps attract one or two people that are interested in your stuff. That could pay off in the long term.
Yes, getting as many followers as possible.
thanks for the reply
"relevant" followers :)
Thanks for the encouraging post. One of my great frustrations as a writer is how damned slow I am at it. I want to be more prolific, but it takes me hours to write a post, sometimes hours more just editing and formatting to get everything just right.
As a result, I have over 50 unpublished articles that are somewhere between the "I have an idea" stage and "just needs some formatting" stage...and only 3 recent published pieces.
I think I need to get more short-form content to build followers and a bigger catalog, then slip my long-ish posts in along the way.
Now following you. Cheers!
That's a great idea! Imagine you have 500 followers. A lot of them are unfortunately irrelevant (thats just the way it is) and some are relevant, but most people only invest a very few minutes into reading. Our attention spans are very short, so only the very interested people will sit down and read a long article within a niche. And its hard to catch peoples attention in an article like that.
The short-form content is great. It's hard to master that format, because you have to format everything down to just 10-15 lines. But I believe you'll get a much bigger return on your time invested in the short term. But keep pumping out those long articles now and then. That builds trust and people see what you are about :)
And thanks for the follow! I'll check you out
I've only been on steemit for a few weeks now and I know exactly what you mean. This post really illustrates the frustrations I have been feeling, it is good to know others are out there!
Cheers
Yup! Remember, it takes time. You need higher reputation, and you need relevant followers. So just think that you should give it a year at least.
good post. a lot to be said for perseverance, even a few cents on posts(what i usually get) add up over the years and when steemit hits $1,000/SBD. I'll be set. I know it went to about $1.00 today, but I'm in for the longterm. Now for my post, what I had for dinner today, Delivery Pizza!!!!!!!!!(that'll get some upvotes).
your post has thought me many things and tricks to apply to get more on this platform thanks for sharing i know it has helped so many people
Hi, I appreciate the tips.
My pleasure! :)
What about @minnowsupport and Discord? These are helpful for newbies as well. I joined the Discord chat and followed the steps presented there. My rep jump 5 points and I had my first $1+ post. Here's a link - https://discordapp.com/channels/319885228464406528/319885228464406528