[LESSONS LEARNED] My First Week on SteemIt - From $0 to $7300+ - Sharing what has worked and what Hasn't

After my first full week on SteemIt it's safe to say I've learned quite a bit. From not knowing what SteemIt was to having one of my articles trending on the home page, I'm going to share with you what the past 7 days have taught me. So let's dive in head first (that's me below :))!

1.  Having a Trending Article is Both a Blessing and a Curse

I'm serious. Many people new to Steem would love a trending article because it almost certainly means a large payout. Trust me, I was very happy when one of my articles made $5000. It was awesome. But it also gave me the notion that ALL my posts should trend and yield similar payouts. This simply isn't the case and sets a dangerous precedent. I'm constantly refreshing my posts to see if they are trending and or getting more upvotes but 99% of my posts never make it past the $1 mark and there are several reasons for this. More on this further down.

2. Quality Trumps Quantity Every Time

This isn't breaking news but it's important to mention. Spamming the network with news articles, simple posts or downright plagiarism WILL NOT WORK. Sure, you might get lucky and have a cat video trend but these are anomalies. And with the update coming that penalizes mass posting, these types of posts should slowly be eliminated. 

Focus your time and energy and good quality posts. Add value to the platform. As the platform matures the GREAT content will be rewarded. If it's not, we need not worry because SteemIt will fail anyways.

3. Sometimes Things Just Aren't Fair, GET OVER IT!

Over the past week therehas been quite a few posts saying how unfair the platform is. How women are getting votes because they are women and they post bikini pictures. How another post with the same news article is trending while there's is not. How SHIT quality is being rewarded while their journalist masterpiece is forgotten.

LIFE'S NOT FAIR, GET OVER IT

For these people all I have to say is LIFE'S NOT FAIR, GET OVER IT. The quicker you stop labeling yourself as a victim and start adding valuable content the better. Don't be a whiner and don't forget that a week ago, you weren't getting paid for your content either and we didn't hear you bitching to Facebook and Twitter then.

4. Know That What You Post Can NEVER Be Deleted

Steem uses blockchain technology and blockchain technology is open source and public. This means that what is posted on the blockchain stay on the blockchain, forever. Keep this in mind when you post stuff. There is no delete button.

5. Focus on Your Passion and What You're Good At

So you're "How to bake a cake video" didn't go viral. Don't despair, the Steem community is still quite young and audiences for certain topics will start to develop, with time. So be patient, stay the course and continue to write great content. 

Don't start posting about blockchain technology just because you see that 5 of the 10 trending articles are about that topic. People will see through that.

6. Learn From How Your Posts Perform

This is very important and I need to practice what I preach. By nature, we all think are own posts are AWESOME. Well, this means nothing if others don't think it's awesome too. For example, my passion is traveling and I want to share all my adventures with the community. I've had one post trend but my other 10 travel posts have not, with most yielding less than $1.

Either I can continue to write similar posts or I can adapt my writing style to connect more with the audience. I am going to try and adapt my style by looking at some of the successful travel bloggers here on Steem and see what they are doing to connect with other users. It's going to be a trial and error process but if I don't try other ways of connecting I shouldn't expect different results.

Extras:

This post was worth about $5000 - It was travel post and also my first travel post which like I said above, set a dangerous precedent - White Cliffs of Dover

Other Travel posts that have yielded very little - I often ask myself why the first post succeeded and the other failed? But it's important to keep posting my travel adventures and find a style that will connect with the readers.

• Top Travel Photot's I've Taken - $20
• Mont St Michel, France - $0
• Adventure in Iceland - $.23
• Skiing in Chamonix, France - $.19

Another post that performed well. This post wast about some of the issued I can see with the platform. - $200

Hope this helps some people, just wanted to put some of my thoughts down.

Let me know your experiences with Steem in the COMMENTS below!