Exactly one year ago today, January 18, 2018 my @organduo account was approved on the Steem blockchain and today is my 1st birthday.

Not too many people keep posting and engaging here every day for a year like I did. A lot of them quit after the first week or so because it's so hard to get traction in the beginning. But I persevered and today would like to share with you 10 things that I learned from posting on Steem every day for 1 year.

1. Most earning posts on Trending page have bought their way to the top

When I first started my Steemian journey I was impressed by how much people can earn on a single article which reaches the Trending page. Only after a few months I took a closer look and investigated the upvotes they received and it was clear that most earning posts have done so because of bid bots.

2. Paying to bid bods isn't necessarily worth your investment

Just to see how it works I have promoted a few of my posts this way too. One post about creativity actually reached the high position on the Trending page. But it wasn't sustainable because we receive only half of the payouts as liquid Steem or SBD. The other half is locked in Steem Power. Which means that if you want to promote your post next week, you will have received much less and you will need to power down or invest your own money to purchase enough promotion through bid bots. For me it didn't make sense to continue this path.

3. Words matter

Whenever I write a post about some idea I get much more engagement than if I simply post my Pinky and Spiky comic. That's OK because mostly these are entries for the Artstorm contest but I see the value in writing longer posts. It's strange because it's said that a picture is worth a thousand words but Steemians is a different breed in general. Although I have to say it's hard to make generalizations about this community because there are so many different traits here. And that's the beauty of Steem, I think.

4. Comments, comments, comments

My best growth strategy has been through commenting. I have participated a few times in @curie's comment contest and even won a few Steem. I diligently try to answer all thoughtful comments that my posts receive. And whenever someone leaves a thoughtful comment on my post, I give them a 5 % upvote. For some people this is a good encouragement.

5. Contests rule!

I don't believe I could make it alone here on Steem. I need to interact with people and join at least one community that seems interesting to me. And the easiest way to do that is through participating in contests. At first, of course, I was new so people rarely paid attention to my entries but when I persevered and kept submitting, I earned attention. Plus I win prizes occasionally too which is nice.

6. I need to self-educate

When I first started a year ago everything on Steem was so confusing. Luckily they tell you right away to back up my password in a safe place but other than that it's easy to get lost, especially for people who are new to the blockchain world. Sure, there are explanations about SP, Steem, SBD and powering up or down in the wallet but it's just a start. And because this is a decentralized platform, there isn't one place where all the newbies should go to get educated. There are multiple places, multiple authors writing helpful guides and how-to posts, you just need to find them. I googled all the answers to my questions.

7. I needed to ask for help

Sometimes I didn't find a good answer easily so then I would read a closely related post about the problem I was having and leave a comment with my question. People reply. This is a very engaged community because it pays to be engaged. A good place to ask is various communities on Discord or more active witnesses. After a while you will be able to answer questions yourself.

8. Become a supporter

With the bear market in full swing I started to notice that my Pinky and Spiky drawing contest doesn't generate significant revenue in order to stay attractive for participants. So I decided that I could donate a portion of my liquid Steem myself towards the prizes. Then I looked around and saw the same thing in the Artstorm contest that I was participating. I started to send donations and give upvotes to @deemarshall who organizes these contests. It feels good to give back to the community and help each other grow. I also donated to @magiccleatus Zen Coloring contest and @cobmaximus Steemit-Webcomics contests but as of late they are on hold. I also support @qurator initiative which a team of manual curators who help authors creating interesting content get discovered. I delegate some SP to @qurator and in return I get daily upvotes from them.

9. Read a lot

At first I only posted my drawings on Steem without looking around too much what other authors are posting. This got boring after a while and I began to read more. The more I read, the more I learned. When I participated in @curie comment contest, I would follow their upvotes and read, comment and upvote around 13 different posts a day. This was exhausting but a wonderful learning experience because of diversity of topics these posts had. I remember reading posts about Japanese street theater, Venezuelan drums, a day of the electric pole technician, watching videos about mountain hiking, natural gardening and musket making. This is just in one day... What if I did this for a year? I would get a college-level education for free.

10. Keep a note book

When I read and upvote my favorite authors now, almost every post of theirs generates at least one idea for a new comment. Immediately after reading I try to comment on their post so I would not forget the idea. What I do sometimes is to expand this comment into a separate post. This way if I read 10 or more different posts a day, I could generate 10 or more ideas for new posts. Now if this were just one or two ideas, it would be fine but with this speed it becomes a mess to remember them all. That's why it's good to keep a physical or digital notebook for your ideas. Or at least to create drafts on your favorite Steem blogging DApp.

So there you have it. Joining Steem has been my best investment of time, energy and money so far and I don't regret it. May the 2nd year be at least 10 percent better in terms of engagement because this is what matters to me the most at this point.

If my post helps at least one person smile more, solve some problem, to get more skills or knowledge, I know I have succeed.

I'd like to thank @stellabelle, whose article on Medium got me introduced me to Steem and to my all followers and fans, especially those who take the time to comment on my posts and participate in Pinky and Spiky contest. Two people from the Artstorm community have been especially dear to me - @lildebbiecakes who has been so supportive with her sincere comments and @deemarshall whose daily efforts to organize Artstorm and other contests keep this community alive. Some time at the end of 2018 I discovered @tarazkp whose daily thoughts inspire me to keep pushing forward on Steem and beyond. You all are beacons of light when it is rather dark outside and I try to inspire others to do the same.

I couldn't make it to SteemFest 3 but seriously considering for SteemFest 4 if it's not too far away. Hope to see you all of us there!

I wish great success to all my supporters. I hope that in the not too distant future we can look back at our journeys on Steem and be very happy that we didn't quit.

What has your Steemian experience been so far? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments.