How I Grew My Account, RE: @practicalthought
Recently a respected Steemian, @practicalthought asked me to do a post telling others how I grew my account.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@practicalthought/steemit-for-beginners
His post is here. He made some really nice comments about me in the comment section. :) So, of course I had to respond.
I thought it was a good idea, as I used to write to the small accounts often. I don't do it as often, because times have changed some and in addition, we just haven't had many around.
In the early days: I landed on Steem in the middle of the trending page with barely any crypto knowledge beyond having heard of Bitcoin, I had a lot to learn. It was August of 2016 and Steem was ranked 6th on the CoinMarketCap.
My knowledge level at the time was Bitcoin was some kind of digital token that the government didn't like and that provided transparency and privacy which seemed like a strange combination. In addition, I thought that Steem was a social media platform that was based on privacy, Freedom and might provide some ability to earn Bitcoin. (haha, I was a bit off in my expectations)
This post probably best describes my minnow experience. I wrote it after 5.5 weeks of working daily on Steem.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@whatsup/the-life-of-a-minnow-why-you-should-care-part-one
I hate to say it myself, but it really was an excellent post and one I might repost soon, because some things have changed, but many things haven't.
To sum things up a bit... I struggled to find an audience, to be taken seriously, to find content I could write about that was of interest to anyone.
I was outspoken enough to annoy the whales.
I made 96 posts that didn't earn a penny and hundreds more that made a few cents. Rarely back then though you could get a big vote from time to time, and once a week or so I did.
I like to say I grew this account, earning pennies at a time. I tracked small growth and looked for tiny success stories to tell myself, and I didn't quit.
Fairly early on I spent about $100 dollars on Steem which equaled around $60 in Steem by the time I paid fees and transferred it around.
Even pennies add up as Warren Buffet likes to say. Over time you start to get small curation rewards and develop an audience it happens so slowly you barely notice it, but then it begins to snowball.
I've never had a delegation, I've never been on a whale's auto voter, I just kept posting.
This is part of a previous post that explains how I built my account:
The price was 7 cents, and I just kept posting.
Dan and Ned were fighting, the community was toxic, the community blamed SteemIt, Inc, and Witnesses said the minnows were "Draining the Rewards".
I just kept posting.
Dan quit in a manner that triggered me so hard, I am barely over it now. (Corporate Culture, I hated how he treated his investors) I am pretty much over it at this point, but at the time it was upsetting.
I just kept posting.
Many of my posts in the early days didn't earn enough to receive a payout, I got mad and yelled at the whales.
I just kept posting.
Earning Steem was painfully slow, and dealing with the community felt hard at times. I made some friends and some enemies.
I just kept posting.
Sometimes I took dumb positions on community topics, and I made people mad. Sometimes I embarrassed myself.
I just kept posting.
The reward pool was broken in a hardfork, many protested or left for a while.
I just kept posting.
The price went up after Dan left, there were mixed feelings and lots of debates.
I just kept posting.
At some point I hit 1000 SP
I just kept posting.
At some point I hit 10,000 SP
I just kept posting
It adds up faster now
I just keep posting.
What will you do?
If I were giving advice, I would tell people this is more about Networking than Content. No one is going to shower you will rewards for showing up. You nearly have to pry Steem out of the system. Make friends, find a nitch, support all things Steem. Seek a peer circle rather than Dolphin and Whale votes as the numbers do not support seeking big votes.
Make friends and grow with them. In the long run, it pays off. There are plenty of paths to success find someone you consider successful and emulate them.
Thank you so much. This is an inspirational post, one of the best I have read here. So many are quick to give up at
Not wanting to quote your entire post here, picked those as the best. You understood that perseverance (being stubborn?) was key.
And yet you didn't quit, and here you are. One of the pillars of this system that so many of us look up to. All because
One observation about the posting. I don't think posting by itself was the key factor. You are real in your posts, love it or hate it (as you mentioned some did early on). That is so crucial. Being real, being yourself.
I laughed again as I read this. I laughed through the whole thing really, but this one is such great advice, yet for many who are unsuccessful I see this being called voting rings and circles, collusion etc. And it really isn't. You stick to your guns and keep being real, keep posting and commenting, and over time as you said you begin making friends. Others who inspire you to have their back and some of them will want to have your back. Or you for whatever reason have that newbies back now. Then it gets to the point where your voting power is hard enough to spread among those people you have grown with, or have for whatever reason taken an interest in your growth here.
I'm going to quit rambling now as I am turning this into a post on your post. Thank you so much for writing this. With all the raging going on, and the usual suspects hitting that time of the month that they are claiming they are done with this place (yet we can't seem to get rid of them, they just stay and bitch) it is important to show everyone this can be done. Even if there is no whale support as so many claim.
Oh, and editing to say thank you for the kind words. :)
The networking part is huge! Also I guess I should have mentioned I didn't power down. I let my Steem work with me as the account grew.
I now take out some liquid, but in the early days I put everything back in.
Absolutely fantastic advice right here! Thanks for posting this. I'm still working on building my account but I've found the biggest thing is to stay consistent. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Very interesting review and you have come a long way to your success, so we all need to strive to go further to the top!
I can't believe I missed this! I just went and read those early posts and feel like you haven't changed one bit. I guess you must a have annoyed a few whales, but they didn't chase you off, so glad about that. It's funny that you've been talking about the "quality content" rhetoric right from the start and you've been right all along, but people keep quoting it even now. Then the new users wonder why someone's picture of a turd or their one line post gets 1000s of votes.
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I figure in about 5 more years I'll silence those idiots. :)
Kidding.
Persevere....
your words are very wonderful, you made my heart move by reading your story which is become my story now. I feel those experiences that no one notice you and no whales to vote. And yes I'll just keep posting until my heart's content.
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Great post @whatsup. Thanks for this valuable insight to how you made it
you were early here but wow you got to 17.000 with posts only, it looks like mission impossible. i would probably be around 600 if i did not invest some.
you can't go forward if you don't post, so yes just keep posting.
I'm going to do what I've always done.
Keep posting, use the apps, enjoy the discords and watch the system grow. I've been here for a reasonably long time and it took me a year to get any way established.
Since i hit dolphin status and the prices dropped it has been so much easier to be seen and to earn that everything has sped up exponentially. It all came down to engaging with people and being available. If people can manage that and keep posting consistently then they will grow. Not straight away but at some stage they will hit a point where it starts and from there it gets a lot easier.
You did it again, manipulating me into long term steempower growth.
Not funny...
:)
!dramatoken
You are a damn whale in drama.
You have
DRAMA!To view or trade
DRAMAgo to steem-engine.com.