Originally my goal is just to reach 300 SP when I first started because I was just getting cents on my posts and reaching 500 is a good enough dream for me. I wasn't really that serious in what I was doing and it was merely a sort of virtual notebook for short stories, poems and my occasional musing like all blog sites that I have done through the years.

I even thought that I would stop on December because of some plans I had but luckily those plans did not happen and I am still Steeming. If ever you are interested what brought that change you can check on my old post Amazing adjustments that have happened to my life since I found Steemit: A New Hope

data from https://steemd.com

So why a 1000 SP? Pretty simple I want to be able to a $0.40 upvote when I am at my 100% voting power and weight. It feels good to see good content and reward it. I hardly have aspirations of becoming a whale but it wouldn't stop me from rewarding people with what I can.

Currently I am at 162 SP for my own and about 884 SP in delegation received from @blocktrades. I have delegated about 100 SP to a couple of initiatives that I care about. It's crazy right I have so little SP yet I am delegating. It is but you do what you can on things that you love and support.

SO HOW WILL I DO IT?

I have discovered a lot of different ways of getting SBD and Steem Power. You can use the various bidbots like a variety of people here. Mini-rant coming! So a person I respected because I always saw that his posts were doing well and he started this new series of one image and one paragraph which is fine and I commented on it and he absolutely knew nothing about it. I realized it was merely a placeholder post and I looked at his wallet and bam! it was all bid bots to his posts that was about to pay out. I left disgusted because it is basically a shiny shitpost placeholder for bid bots. Anyway it is his choice.

I'm no hypocrite I also use bots from time to time, be it to get my post back to the trending section or to give myself some love on an otherwise undervalued post that I spent time and effort to do.
I also use the various auto vote bots from busy.org, esteem, @quarator, @steemgigs, @steemph to give myself some promotion and a little upvote.

Content is still king

data courtesy of Steemdb.com

This is something that I will always do. I will always try write something of interest, something substantial and of worth to me and to others in Steemit. I post an average one post a day. Sometimes two days now because I am a bit busy. Yet when I do post I try to really put effort to it. We have enough shit posts out there already so I don't want to add to that.

My 90 day data shows mostly my posts did not do well but with a few upticks from time to time last November and December.

Things really turned out well on January with multiple curated posts that I got. I have to say my confidence level really helped not to mention a lot of the relationships I forged during the months prior. All in good time my friend.

Commenting and Curation

Based on Steem.supply the ratio of my earnings is coming from the comments made in posts that interest me. On average I do 11 comments a day. Biggest reward I got from a comment was about $13 dollars! It is even higher than some of my posts put together!

There are just too many benefits of commenting:

• You can get upvoted
• You can further develop the discussion and leave a lasting impression on the poster or readers that they will become curious and look at your blog.
• You can transform them into followers
• Building relationships

The benefits outweigh all the hindrances of commenting unless you are just spamming posts with upvoted and followed you comments and asking them to return as if it is there obligation to do so.

Given the very low vested and SP power I had during the early months of October and November the amount is small but is a start. With December I was able to get more SP and vested Steem so the curation rewards increased.

January when I received the delegation from @blocktrades that really boosted the curation rewards I was getting from comments, posts and curating other people's post. It was almost multiplied by 8 or 10 times what it used to be and so I am very thankful of that borrowed power.

This is the main reason why by having a bigger SP would be beneficial to the people that I support and myself. That's the beauty of a gifteconomy. You increase the value of other people and reward their contribution to good content and you are rewarded as well.

It's not easy. Not as easy as exploiting rewards and bid bots but it is more satisfying because you are building not just followers but a community. You are creating worth and boosting the self esteem of other people and feeling more positive yourself. You are enriching the Steemit community with good content and relationships. Sounds naive, sounds like fluff and rainbows but to me that is humanizing the blockchain.

Source

I will not be taking any shortcuts. I will create good content blogs, comment and curate as much as I can and build wonderful relationships with people. It is not going to be easy but is going to be worth it!

The road to 1000 SP beckons and join me in my journey through all my accomplishments and failures, my joys and heartaches, when I feel down send me an encouraging word and I will do the same to you when you need it. Laugh with me as I celebrate life and look to the future with hope.

Thank you for being here and Steem on!