This is a part of a 2-part-post with part 1 being released recently here, my hope is that is post can be used as a reference to future minnows wanting to kick-start their Steem career here.

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In the last post, I'm glad to receive the support and affirmations that many people have found my 4 Dont's very Useful. To those who may have been guilty of doing it once or twice in their time here on Steemit. It is not all Doom and Gloom though. It's never too late to stop a bad habit, nor is it too late to start one. In this post, I'll highlight 4 "Do's" that i have done in my time here and found that it's absolutely effective in building your name here.

These few points that I have been applying to how I Steemit has been especially great for me all as I am a Minnow, if you are one, I can guarantee these will work for you, with time, consistency and perseverance. Minnows by Steem community's definition is a colloquial term for people like you and me, who are;

• new here
• yet to have meaningful Steem Power (below 5000)
• yet to have significant following (below 500)

So without further ado, lets go straight to;

1. Engage

Engagement is the act of you intereacting with everyone! Read other people's post with 100% concentration and sincerity. Take the time to come up with a thoughtful response, either agreeing or disagreeing with the Original Poster and take the time to present your argument as to why you think so. Give back a meaningful comment to the author as a way of saying "thank you, your post has value to me", even if you disagree with the content. Good content doesnt have to agree with you. I would rather have someone comment to disagree on my sentiment and have a heated but insightful argument rather than seeing another generic "Nice post" shit-comment.

However engagement isn't limited to only posts and comment within Steemit though. Go over to Steemit.chat and join the hundreds of chatrooms there, you can even direct message directly to someone on there. Engage, and you will be taken note of. There are even places you can go beyond Steemit and Steemit.chat such as on Discord and the We Love Steemit Page on Facebook, these are only the place i know of so far, I am aware that there are more places you can go. It doesn't matter, so long as you communicate with another Steemian. It's the simplest way to build your steemit career.

2. Create quality content and give value

This is so important, and it goes inversely with Don't number 2. Have the courtesy create good quality content that you know gives value to your readers. The definition of quality content is so simple, It doesn't have to be a 20 page essay or a 2 hour video. It could be though... if you manage to pull that off and still keep your readers engaged, More power to you. However what most people can settle for as good content is a post that your reader can get something valuable out of. It can be a post, video, pictures, a vlog, anything.. So long as effort and planning is put in. Internal politics and circlejerk notwithstanding, quality content is most often the more appreciated posts around here.

Granted, good posts are NOT easy to make. If you're new into content creation on Steemit.. You're in for a wild ride! Just to let you in on this.. My 2-part-posts took me 3 days (20 cumulative hours) to make. From drafting, to researching, back to drafting, then editing, then Gimp or source my pictures, then re-editing, and finally proof-reading which may or may not pull me back to step 1 and the cycle continues until I feel i did my best. Even then i admit it could have been done better, all because i am like you, new, relatively inexperienced and is still learning. I'd like to quote a line by our very own @andrarchy about making a good post on Steemit. "Posts take a minimum of an hour... if we're talking about a really quick and dirty post".

And if you haven't done so, do take the time to watch the video which the quote came from.

You heard it yourself, and i hope that if you're reading this as a minnow like me gets a sense of the time needed to produce your content. Typically for me, it takes me anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days to come up with my typical post. Even the contests I'm running, though it takes relatively less time to actually write it and press "submit", taking into account the time it takes to steward the contest and perform things in the backend , It'll take as much time to do so.

3. Join a community

Minnows swims in schools, dolphins and orcas swim in pods. Even whales sometimes swim together. Similar to the Steem ecosystem, you cannot survive alone. No amount of good post and engagement can give a boost as much as being in a community. I cannot stress enough the benefit that joining a community can bring you. Just a small part includes:

1. giving a drive to push yourselves
2. getting help and enjoying the satisfaction of helping others
3. feeling a sense of belonging
4. gaining insights you'd otherwise not getting by your own.

As well as so much more. Being a minnow, i can tell you right off the bat which 2 communities which you should be in now, PALnet and Steemspeak.

PALnet is a made-for-minnows community spearheaded by @aggroed as a place for minnows to "growthhack their learning curve and shorten the 'why i suck' phase"(my words). There's over 600+ members in it now as of the time of writing and numbers are only increasing. You are guaranteed to get help in there if you need any by the many "greeters" who are minnows like you and me but have dedicated to helping others with no desire of reciprocation.

Steemspeak is hands down the place to be, there's always something going on there regardless of your time zone. I've gained more insights being in there in a day than i had in my regular month before joining in Steemspeak.

Not only joining these community gets you engagement on steriods. You'll also get the benefits as listed above.

4. Support others

In line with Do number 1 and Do number 3. Even as a minnow, you should consider supporting other minnows and/or a cause here. When i say "Supporting" i don't mean to blindly upvote or follow anyone who begs for it. You should do much more than that to help others.

For example, there's a nifty channel in PALnet called the #peer-review channel. As well as a Steemspeak voice server called the Productivity Room. In it you can find constructive help as well and provide for someone who is finding it. It's where i would find great advices to help out in my writing.

Remember, you get at least 100x of what you've given. The small minnow you've given a crash course to may one day grow stellar and come back to offer you help in your time of need. Or maybe not, but I find it satisfaction enough to be able to make myself a help to a someone whose my help will actually make him a better Steemian even if by 1%.

Do it for the sake of helping other's. The more you support other's the more you're actually growing yourselves. There comes a point in your journey where growth no longer comes by learning and experience but by teaching others. So support others, whether they need help or otherwise, drop some pointers to a newbie on how to write more eloquent posts, explain to someone how and why you can delegate your witness vote to a proxy. You may realize a thing or two yourself.

Conclusion

I am in no way an expert on Steemit. These are what I've learned in my time here and are tried and true principles should one wants to flourish in this ecosystem. Especially for a minnow like me. We are all in this together and we are all learning something new everyday. If you'd like to hit me up for any reasons at all you can do so via Steemit.chat using the same name, on PALnet and Steemspeak on Discord, or even Facebook using my real name. I hope you can gain something of value for your time spent reading my post.

If you'd like to support me, I'm currently running Comment of the Day as well as my personal segment of AskSteemit. Do participate in them. :D

I'm @awesomianist

Stay Awesome.