Why I Quit Steemit, and Why You Should Too

When I first registered with Steemit, man was I excited! The promise of riches dangled by the Trending page made my mouth water something fierce.

I could do this. I am a professional writer, I’ve been doing this for years! But there was something about the concept of getting paid to write about anything I want that secretly intrigued.

I moved in to Steemit as soon as I received the final email. I’m the girl that doesn’t check the temp before just diving right in, so I hurriedly scanned the whitepaper and guides, knowing my bookmarks would keep them handy for when I had time to lounge by the pool.

I looked at a couple "how to write a good introduce yourself" posts before I just couldn’t take it. I had to announce my presence at the party.

I was excited to get started on my journey already!

It did ok, as most introduce myself posts do. In between answering the awesome welcomes I received, I read posts and commented on articles that piqued my interest. My second article was a question on something I needed help on here at Steemit and could not find an answer to. Imagine my surprise when I made almost $10 in rewards from it! Who makes money from asking questions?!

That right there was my exclamation point. If I could make $10 just from asking a question, this was the platform for me. Epic Win.

In all seriousness, I was taken aback at how supportive and encouraging the people of Steemit were. The positivity and the feel of this place has no comparisons online. So I decided to publish an article that had been commissioned by a regional newspaper, but later denied after a management switch leaned them too far to the right to publish the piece they had asked for.

The article went on to face a number of rejections. One major news outlet said they loved the piece, but they had a guy covering that topic for an article that was slated to be published in a few days, and that two would be oversaturating. I felt that the delicate subject matter would be well served on the sympathetic, kind and welcoming platform of Steemit.com. So I felt a certain comfort publishing it. And hell being new here, if it wasn’t well received I could always just disappear.

As happens when it’s something important, the butterflies were definitely all riled up. I tentatively pushed the publish button while peering through one eye.

Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. I don’t think I even breathed. I waited, tension building with every refresh and second that passed. Not one comment. Not one upvote.

After 22 minutes I decided not to subject myself to the torture anymore and turned my laptop off of the evening. But only after talking myself out of deleting my entire article from the platform.

When I wake up every morning my normal routine is to immediately start a pot of coffee. But that morning I bypassed the coffee and logged into Steemit eager to see the damage that was done. I was sure negativity abounded.

I was pleasantly surprised, and quite honestly a little in shock to see such tremendous support and kind words.

And then I was on a roll. I fully trusted Steemit now. I really could write about anything I wanted! I met some really cool cats and formed friendships. I joined the chatroom and had many laughs. I developed a deeper understanding of the blockchain and the amazing unlimited potential of Steemit.

I took off my shoes and made myself at home.

The editor emailed me three days after I published the article here, telling me his guy’s article was nowhere near as well received as mine, and he wanted me to pull mine from Steemit and he would pay me double his rate- $250 total. I have never been prouder to turn someone down

Remembering how difficult it was to navigate when I first joined, I began offering minnow support. I wrote compelling thought pieces. I wrote steemit navigation articles, making leaning fun. I posted some silly stuff too of course, I wouldn’t be your random cat if I didn’t ;)

I was here all day, every day, commenting and posting and learning. And I did rather well. And it sure felt pretty damn good.

The shiny Steemit newness wore off all too soon. The longer I wrote here the less rewards came. I went from making hundreds per article to pennies.

I started to grow frustrated. I watched everyone else growing, and all of a sudden I was lost in the shuffle. I suddenly felt unwanted and unneeded.

People started leaving comments on my articles “don’t give up”. What? I hadn’t even talked to anyone about giving up! I hadn’t even thought about giving up myself!

Yet.

Was my frustration showing through the computer? Could they feel it?

But as I did worse and worse I seriously started contemplating throwing in the towel. I mean, the proof that I was no longer wanted was staring me in the face. And I am not one to stick around when my blind date is on his phone- I get up and leave the restaurant in search of a more mutually stimulating arrangement.

I continued to fight for a brief while. But then some bad shit happened in my life and it took a downward spiral. I am not supposed to have emotional stress due to my medical condition, so bad shit is not good.

I always tell my boys when you are angry to take a step back and separate yourselves for a while to come back and revisit it after you have cooled down. That way nothing is said and done in a highly charged emotional state.

So I quit Steemit.

I focused on recovering from the stupid stuff in life and writing outside of the platform.

Had I not taken a step away, my writing would have grown bitter and cold to reflect my attitude. I may have extinguished the flames of relationships I had newly formed here.

I came back with renewed spirits about a week later. The let down I had been feeling had dissipated, and I was no longer holding Steemit responsible. My slow spiral to failure was due to a number of things, and looking back really began with HF19.

I came back with the newly refreshed eyes of who I was when I first joined. The potential and my belief in Steemit had been clouded by my Ego. And since I’ve been back I got involved in two new projects here.

You will succeed if you keep going. I firmly hold fast to the truth that you will get from Steemit exactly what you put into it. Same as in other areas of your life. Everything takes time- nothing great was built in a month. Yes, it takes patience. And I, too, really suck at patience, but it is a necessary evil. Keep STEEMING ever onward and you will rise ever upward.

That is why I quit Steemit for a week when I grew maddeningly frustrated. And why you should too.

• Link to the article that enabled my full trust in Steemit

Gifs via giphy.com

Minnows! You Have More Power Than You Realize

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