My Initial Perceptions of Steemit!
Hello Steemit!
Full disclosure: I've been here for a little over a week. My views may be construed as ignorance and not representative of anyone other than myself.
From what I can tell, Steemit is still very much a growing community. What I see however, is not indicative of a community that wants to grow outside of a small margin. I've seen some very good quality content and information that gets passed by or perhaps not even seen (definitely not mine) and I've also seen content that could be easily seen as junk, be worth a hefty chunk of change.
While I certainly understand that quality and information is highly subjective, I'm not the only person that recognizes this. Given my short time here, I can not properly raise too much of a valid concern. My post is more in concern to how to get Steem flowing back into the minnow community.
I also fully realize that there is a time requirement. Time to gather followers, time to see your account mature and such. Given that, certain payout circles seem to be clique like in nature. Maybe this is by design. If so, how does the vast amount of steem flow back through to generate more users and up the value of Steem?
Any and all insights into this post is appreciated. Not a rant mind you, just a perspective and those certainly can change!
Thank you for your time in reading.
Nice job on your post. The llama was really funny by the way. Every once in a while Nemo catches a whale. Sometimes the whale catches Nemo. In other words, you might make a lot of money on a post for little work, or you might work really had on several posts and get very little money for it. Make sure all your posts are 100% for Steem Power, rather than the 50/50 option before you hit the post button. Even if you don't catch a whale every time, you can still collect your own vote, which will be bigger every time your steam power goes up. Best advice I can give, is be honest with yourself. If you want to do this for work, then post 10 times a day, and vote up all your own posts, and collect all the important bots to get noticed. If you just want to grow over time, collect followers you will actually enjoy conversing with, and share content whenever you feel like it, then don't stress out about how much you earn. Let it happen, and it will reward you with patience.
Great advice, thank you.
Truth be told, I'm not here to strike it rich or here for the money. I came here expecting a community that wants to keep a positive, healthy and in depth forum going. For the most part, I have not been disappointed.
I've gained quite a a few followers in my week and have had very good conversations. All good things.
Yeah, it all feels like a bit of a catch 22 to me. It's like I want to post solid, good quality content, yet you put your heart and soul into your work and generally nobody sees it anyway. So you try to build a bit of a following by going out and interacting but because I have no Steem power, nobody tends to really want to associate, so you try to post more quality content, but nobody sees it and it just goes to waste and around and around I go... At a bit of a loss really and don't know how much more time to invest here before I cut my losses and head elsewhere.
wow - you hit the nail on the head. That's exactly the cycle I find myself going through - but as @whoib suggests - I am sticking at it - because really , I am trying to grow a community more so than earn income - although I cannot deny that I would like to earn something for my post that think are well thought out and full of valuable of interesting information. Still - I fell like if I can spend time building up a full community of not just myself , but everyone interested in real estate and investing in real estate - then the benefits will transcend Steemit and overflow into the real world. I have already had the opportunity to help answer questions and educate others about real estate strategies and it was very rewarding.
After posting this, I had a thought. Perhaps I should post less and comment more. Will it be as viable from a money standpoint? No. However, by adding a little of my own money, which is an investment, and giving some value to my vote, I am doing my, albeit small, part.
I think that may be what is option going forward.
I've seen quality replies to trending posts make over $150. It is very possible to profit and gain quality followers from replies alone. Also, upvotes to those replies by people with high reputations is the best way to raise your reputation.
In that process may be the key to get started. Gathering followers to actually display your work to.
It is one of the reasons I go through intro posts personally and not using automation. I'm doing it for many reasons, but one of them is to find other friends of liberty. Those are the people I want to follow. I of course want them following me too. Anyone can go through intro posts. Yes, it takes time, but I've gained a TON of quality followers because of my efforts. As in the #libertyprofessionals channel description, there are two main ways to get quality followers:
Those two things get you a lot of followers. I've had a single reply post of mine get me over 25 people in a day. That's a lot in my opinion. Using those two tactics above and engaging people directly in intro posts has gotten me close to 1K followers. That's with only two months of activity too. My account was made last year, but I didn't use it until August of this year. I'm not gaming the system, posting crap, or begging at all either (not saying you or anyone here is).
great strategy - I am trying to implement the same. I look for opportunities to contribute to the conversation - I love that you are looking to connect with "friends of liberty" . I'm a friend of liberty , but sometimes I feel like we're just friends with benefits ... :) I'll have to check out your page - sounds like something that would interest me.
Yeah I think helping to add value to other people's posts seems to help build things a lot more and to be real, it's a lot of fun too haha.
Yeah I know what you mean @jolauski I'm mainly here for the community aspect myself, however I feel that there are lots of people on here who are doing quite well who seem to really want to hold onto their wealth (understandably) and keep it within their own small circles or "cliques" as @jimni17 so eloquently put it before, which seems to almost prevent them from interacting with anybody new and therefore kind of breaks down the "community" aspect. Does what I just said make any sense? Like, because everybody is trying to protect their piece of the pie, nobody else seems to get a look in.... Perhaps I'm too cynical but this was just the impression I got when I initially started out a number of weeks ago and I thought "oh well, time will tell" yet time doesn't really seem to be changing much, if you know what I mean (which perhaps in itself is telling). I'm happy to stick it out for a while longer and I really hope to make some good friends here and make some connections with people, I just hope that the money doesn't get in the way of that.
In your case I'd suggest sticking to Steemit. Many new things are being developed in the background. It's future will prevail for you. In the long run that penny you earn will one day add up and become more than it's value today.
It is about making community and coins. Don't give up.
Yeah that's it! Cheers @whoib, see how it all pans out I guess :)
Quality engagement, I have found at least, is the best way to get noticed by whales. People who have a lot of SP are rather picky about who they support it seems. I'm not here for their support though. Do we really need whale votes if we build a quality follower base? Pennies add up. I've seen people like Hilarski do it. He has 5K followers, so his posts make decent money without having whales supporting him.
You bring up an interesting point. I wonder if earnings/values of the upvote were somehow private or obfuscated from initial posts.
Something interesting to think on for sure!
Yeah I dunno man, all I know is I don't seem to really be going anywhere haha. I have a feeling it might just be an all chiefs/no Indians type situation where there aren't really any content consumers here, just content creators. I really like the idea and the platform itself but I seem to just be talking to myself on here a lot of the time haha.
Hopefully it's just a minor setback. It's bound to happen where all the currency binds itself to a small number of people. The trick is to get it going back through the community again while those that earned what they have keep it.
There is a way forward, of that I am sure.
Yeah for sure! Here's hoping :)
@grow-pro and I were discussing this. Here's a theory:
To sell your STEEM you need buyers. To get people to have their own power here, they have to invest their own money into Steem Power.
That creates buyers for the whales to sell. It's just a theory though... ;-)
Thanks for voicing your concerns @jinmi17 - I think about this everyday too. The way I see things now is that while $ being such an incentive, thousands of minnows are voting for dolphins and whales, hoping to catch their attention and earn nice curation rewards. However, I believe this way of voting is pretty much useless as things stand, as curation rewards for minnows voting for whales is next to nothing. If minnows only voted for each other on their posts the balance would shift to some degree, and then more and more. I think it's a mindset problem and a misunderstanding on how to make the most of one's vote. I'm three months in here and am still scratching my head about what's going on too. Cheers @steemmeupscotty
And P.S - Have a read of this post which gives great advice on voting strategy :)
https://steemit.com/bisteemit/@abh12345/curation-how-you-doin
WOW! So much to know...Thanks for sharing :)
You're welcome - steem on! :)
Actually, (not trying to self promote or anything) but would you mind weighing in on this thread here for me? (if you have any info that is) I'm a little lost with regards to this.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@falsefreedom/payout-dropping-to-zero-on-day-of-payout-why
Just read it + the comments. I believe like a few mentioned, that it has to do with the fluctuations in the value of steem. I think there are still payouts but they're too small to register as steem cents, but you might see them as 'vests' awarded which will contribute to Steempower. But to be honest I'm not 100% sure on that, but I think it's something along those lines :)
Hmmm...Thanks man, I'll have to keep an eye on it. I don't seem to be getting any payout from some of them whatsoever though it just dives from a few cents to absolute zero haha but at the end of the day, I guess it's only a few cents anyways.
Yeah - but if you find a solid answer, let me know, 'cause I've kinda been wondering about that too ;)
p.s Get yourself in with the minnow support project over on Discord to give your posts a little boost now and then.
EDIT - I think I'm right. I checked your stats over on https://steemd.com/@falsefreedom and there are a few payouts like this where you can see exactly what's been awarded but too low to register in the $0.00 on-screen parameters.
Oh ok cool, thanks for your help man! I'll keep on that :) I'll check out the minnow support project too, sounds promising. Thanks again mate!
Don't know how I missed this! Thanks for the information.
As I stated in the opener, I'm sure my understanding now has an ignorance component. The information you provided should remedy that. I appreciate it.
No worries :) It's taken me 3 months to start to get my bearings. Swimming around in these deep and murky waters ain't easy for us minnows ;)
All that's required is the willingness to swim!
:) Damn right!
This is definitely a difficult nut to crack.
Some of the frustration people have is automatic voting. People, especially people with lots of SP, will set automatic voting for people they want to automatically support. I've had a couple people with decent amounts of SP do that for my posts. They are not doing it anymore, but they did. It helped me get started too. I am thankful for their support!
Some whales use steemit.com as a crypto bank account. Who can blame them? This site has very high security with ways to lock your money away very securely. Even if your account is stolen, the thief has to wait for weeks to withdraw your SP. That is pretty good protection. Therefore, take your profits from elsewhere, and lock them away here. It makes sense.
Some of them are pretty bad though, and they will repeatedly and regularly upvote their posts AND their replies to feed themselves more and more SP. Those people are known however, and there are tools to easily reveal them. Just ignore them. Who cares? There are plenty of whales who do support quality content when they see it.
There's the real problem too. What is quality content? How do we decide? Because of auto voting, we see utter crap being paid high amounts. People support their friends regardless of the quality content too. That's how this system works, and I kinda like it that way. My SP gives me a very small piece of the daily crypto to hand out. Who's going to get it? Well, I'm going to support my fellow Liberty Professionals first. Then I'm going to give the rest to quality new accounts and other quality content.
It's my choice, right? We are in control as individuals over our small piece of the pie.
I don't think there's an easy answer to this issue. One thing that has been pointed out by a friend of mine is that whales who want to sell STEEM need STEEM buyers. How do you get STEEM buyers? You entice people to invest in their own SP. The more SP, the more you can give out, right? That draws in buyers, and then the sellers have a way to sell. It's a reasonable theory too. Again, I don't blame those people for wanting buyers. I'm investing a little of my money into SP, but I'll never invest too much of my wealth here.
No one should. Keep your investments spread across multiple baskets to minimize your risk.
I posted something that took me a week to think about, write in my head, and do the research for it. That post made pennies. Then I've posted random topics that I, at the last minute while standing at my computer, took only minutes to write. Those posts did really well. Trust me. It makes no sense to me either. LOL I won't pretend to understand what is valuable to others and what is not.
Quality matters unless you have auto voters. Engagement matters more than posts too in the beginning before your reputation is high. You want good quality followers too, not just random ones. The more quality followers you have, the better off you'll be in the long run both in reputation gained and pay outs.
Anyway, that's my two cents... I'm not sure it's even worth that much. haha ;-)
I stated earlier that what folks choose to do with their money (Steem) is of no concern to me. The purpose and longevity of the platform seem to be contingent on the spending and flow of Steem. Getting and keeping it moving, and perhaps it is, was my curiosity and concern.
Also learning, and I'll tell you now, I've learned quite abit from this thread! Yourself and others are providing so much valuable information and I'm resteeming all of those linked pages.
Thanks. It is definitely a worthy discussion to have. We need to understand how this place works. I want it to be a force of good, and by good I mean furthering individual liberty. :) Goodnight, friend!
Another book to add to my @finnian saga collection XD Great read man, keep it steemin'
Thanks and you too! I love the blurb in your account. "In the name of Steem and Freedom!"
Hello,
I am from redfish community
The first steemit rank,
My support to you
Keep evolving and steeming
Steemit is all about sharing
We appreciate you, @albertvhons, encouraging us #redfish. We even have our own coin. @ironshield
Have you get yours @ironshield?
@redfishelp will buy redfishcoin on oct. 16
Yes, I have one #redfishcoin always looking for more. Are there buyers or sellers out there? @ironshield
You can check here for buying orders https://waveswallet.io
I just stop buying back cause redfishcoin was on giveaways level
Soon to end this oct. 15
i love the both dignifying community and the crypto currency names redfishcoin! ironshield!
Redfishcoin is a new token,
Currently on free giveaways
This token is name after steemit redfish rank for awareness
Soon it will be profitable!
Yep, seems like a fair assessment. If I only had 50k steempower and a silly picture of a cat i'd be raking in the upvotes
Hey, whatever folks want to post, resteem and upvote is of no real consequence to me. I'm just curious is to how or if there is any incentive to put it back into the Steemit economy. Realizing that the more you share it, the more it grows in value seems like the proper answer.
My point is if you have alot you get alot... It's not really quality of information. I guess though to answer your question is we need to take the time and use our own upvotes to encourage new people to remain engaged and using the platform and get new people to join. Also I think upgrades to the platform like private messaging service would help. Hey jinmi have you done any Dtube yet?
Would a private message service decrease posts and create denser pockets of the population? No proof, just a question.
No sir, I've not played around with Dtube yet.
Perhaps but it would also bring in more users. Steem it is competing with established social media platforms and alot of potential users are not joining steemit because all there friends and family contacts are on Facebook..... I'm just brainstorming and about to do a post on how to recruit new users.
I don't think that Steemit is equipped to compete with big social media networks. Forums and message boards however, yes very much so!
I found the draw here to be incentive to put time and thought into posts/comments in hopes to make a little profit. However, can vids can still reign supreme! Only half kidding. =D
I left fascistbook and google+ to be here exclusively. Why wouldn't steemit.com compete with them?
Budget and volume. We may very soon compete, but at the moment, it's no contest atm.
I don’t have any answer. I do see some very good content just slip through the cracks. I am new to Steemit as well. I try to resteem anything that is worth anyone reading; I also post it on Twitter. As for myself, I honestly post because I want to share with others. If I gain Steem along the way that’s great!
That will lead me into my next post, the community and discussion aspect. I've already had some great ones on steemchat and discord. However, I don't quite think that's the point of being here! =D
I do enjoy posting, even though they are no where near some of the content creators here. Some actually make their own graphics specific to the post. That's an incredible amount of time.
I'm here to further liberty's cause and share a bit about my passions. What each person is here for is up to them of course. I have to have some sort of social media to connect with other people. I might as well make a few pennies from doing it, right? Also, as a PI, I love people watching so to speak. Being on here is that in a sense. Most importantly though, I'm here looking for other friends.
I agree with what you say, still it is an interesting platform if a bit frustrating at times.
I hope my post doesn't come off as a knock to the platform. That certainly is not the case. I do enjoy it and am enjoying my time here.
Don't worry, you came off fine, you weren't knocking the platform. There certainly is a lot of good things that can come from Steem. An exciting time ahead I am sure.
Great Goat. But what are you Goating at?
I thought the thread more akin to nagging, thus the goat! =D
Good morning @jinmi17 , I would like to share with you my thoughts on this subject... https://steemit.com/steemit/@meno/in-defense-of-steemit-s-and-its-whales
That along with your 1 month posts were very informative. It is appreciated, thank you. Resteemed as well.