My Steemit Cheat Sheet Part 4: Boost Your Blogging With dApps
Hey Steemains
Issya boi back with another helpful guide on how to steemit and do other things good too! I should actually start my own school at this point. Che's Steemit Tots sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? Do you want to be a CST graduate? All you have to do is read my cheat sheets and practice what I preach and you too could be getting your steem on with the big boys.
Not that I am a big boy, but I'm on my way there and while I stumble my way up this mountain, why not learn from my mistakes and let me be your steemit sherpa.
The inconvenient truth
So if you found your way to Steemit it was probably through some word of mouth or random forum telling you, you could get paid to blog. You'd find the website and register and be greeted with aspirational messaging something along the lines of "Your voice is worth something". Then once you got going you found out it wasn't as easy as it sounds. Many new steemians make the mistake of thinking they can rock up and post and the earnings will come.
This is not a Kevin Costner movie, you don't just blog it and they will come. You need to first build an audience through commenting and engaging with users. I didn't know that at first and merrily blogged away like a moron with my first 50 posts not making me any money. My voice wasn't worth shit and rightly so.
So what's a noob to do? I have so many things to say, feelings to share, opinions to put online and a few cat videos I think people would like. Well if you're not in a community or have whale love or an audience you can use dApps to give you a boost and a bit of encouragement with a couple of upvotes to get the ball rolling.
What DA EF is a dApp?
Steemit.com is well for lack of a better term pretty much a "Basic Bitch" and creating posts isn't really the most intuitive experience you'll ever find online. If you've used WordPress or any Wysiwyg blogging tool you'll know exactly what I am talking about.
Seeing as Steemit's front end doesn't get much love from Steemit Inc some thoughtful Steemit enthusiasts were kind enough to create dApps or decentralised applications that run on the Steem blockchain and allow you to manage your blog via their tools.
Blogging Based dApps
There are quite a few dApps currently available on Steemit but for this post, I will only focus on once aimed at blogging and augmenting the basic Steemit experience.
Each tool has its own pros and cons and I will try to walk you through them as best I can so you can pick out the one that works best for your current situation or preference.
SteemPlus
You can follow their account here - @steem-plus
If you're a Steemit purist and would prefer to use Steemit.com then this is the ideal solution for you. Steemit Plus is a browser extension you can download and install and it augments your current Steemit site with additional information and a host of nifty new features that will make your life a lot easier and your Steemit experience a lot richer
Steem Plus was created by @stoodkev and is supported by @adsactly & @utopian-io
Steem Plus Upvotes
Steem Plus also provides supporters of the tool with an upvote service via its SPP (STEEM Plus Points) which you can earn doing various tasks ill list below. The more SPP you earn the greater your upvote will be.
Tip: I would recommend that you delegate at least 50 SP to Steem Plus to get the full use of SPP
How to earn SPP
- Boost a post with Minnowbooster using SteemPlus
- Boost a post with PostPromoter using SteemPlus
- Create a new post with Beneficiaries using SteemPlus
- Create a post with Donation for SteemPlus
- Create a new DTube post using SteemPlus
- Create a new Utopian post using SteemPlus
- Buy Steem Monsters packs using SteemPlus
- Buy SteemPlus Points
- Delegate Steem Power to @steem-plus
Available for browsers
If you're using any other browser like Safari, IE or Edge I suggest you well get with the times and stop browsing the internet like a grandma!
Busy.org
- You can follow their account here - @busy.org
- You can find the site here - https://busy.org/
Using busy.org
Busy.org is a completely different website to Steemit and you will need to connect your account via Steem Connect. Once you do you'll have full access to the site and you can do everything you do on Steemit on the busy.org site but with added features and a much better blogging experience.
Busy.org upvotes
Busy.org also rewards authors who post via their site by providing an upvote service to anyone who posts. To qualify for a busy.org upvote you need followers and plenty of them, your combined following needs to hold at least 10,000SP for you to get access to the busy bot upvote.
Each busy.org user posts they can only be upvoted a maximum of two times a day provided that there is a 12-hour delay in between the posts to avoid abuse.
If you would like to know more about how the upvote service works in detail check out this post by @jlordc
Tip: Steem Plus can be used in combination with Busy.org so you can double up on your daily upvotes with one from busy.pay and Steem Plus.
Busy.org was created by @fabien and @ekitcho you can find out more about the team and project here
eSteem
You can follow their account here - @esteemapp
You can download the app here - https://esteem.app/
Using eSteem
eSteem is a desktop and mobile application that you can download to your windows, Mac or Smartphone and connect to your steemit account via Steem Connect. eSteem provides you with an insane amount of additional features and information and is probably one of the most intense Steem experiences you can get right now. The only downfall would be that since it's not a pageview based tool you're limited to performing one action at a time for those of you multi-taskers.
eSteem upvotes
eSteem also rewards users who use their service to post to steemit and based on the level of engagement with the app your upvotes will be more frequent so don't rely on it as a daily source of upvotes. Your upvote will improve as you increase your vests and eSteem will take a 10% cut of the upvote they provide you with.
eSteem was created by @good-karma
SteemPeak
- You can follow their account here - @steempeak
- You can find the site here - https://steempeak.com/
Using SteemPeak
SteemPeak like busy.org is a stand-alone website that allows you to manage your steemit blog with improved capabilities. To access SteemPeak all you would need to do is login via Steem connect and your account will automatically be created and populated. SteemPeak also provides a range of stats around your blog so if you're into metrics this one is a great option for you.
If you want to know more about SteemPeaks features check out this post
SteemPeak upvotes
No news on upvotes via SteemPeak as yet, can anyone confirm or deny this?
SteamPeak was created by @asgarth
SteemPress
You can follow their account here - @steempress & @steempress-io
You can download it here - https://wordpress.org/plugins/steempress/
You can find out more here - http://steempress.io/
Downloading steemPress
For those of you who already have a WordPress (WP) blog and feel comfortable posting using their system then SteemPress will be the ideal solution for you. SteemPress is a plugin you can install on your WP blog and when you post an article on your site, it is automatically taken and published to the relevant Steemit account, saving you time and effort.
SteemPress upvotes
SteemPress does offer upvotes to authors who use their platform to post to Steemit but the upvote criteria is based on a number of factors so you may not always receive one with every post. To find out more about the upvote criteria check out this post
SteemPress was created by @howo & @fredrikaa
Ulogs
- You can follow their account here - @ulogs
- You can find the site here - https://ulogs.org/
Using Ulogs
Ulog is a project that aims to bring a more personal element to Steemit. Not everyone is a crypto enthusiast, artist or amazing storyteller and those who didn't fall into those categories were often marginalised by Steemit. Until Ulogs, which is all about sharing your personal life and more about yourself. The community is pretty well backed with 100s of Ulogs posted every day with accounts of all sizes participating and supporting one another.
To find out more about Ulogs check out this post
Ulog Upvotes
Since Ulog has exploded into something of its own community posting Ulogs will get you noticed by quite a few users. You may get picked up by big accounts that support the project, a few inspired Uloggers or a curation trail.
Ulogs was created by @steemgigs and @surpassinggoogle
Minnow Support Project
- You can follow them here - @minnowsupport
- You can find the website here - https://mspsteem.com/
- You can find more info here - https://minnowsupportproject.org/
The Minnow Support Project(MSP) is a Witness community intended to spread the estimations of Peace, Abundance, and Liberty, enable Steemit to develop. The Project is an initiative designed to help all users under 5000 SP grow their accounts and well enjoy some Steem love in the process.
Joining Minnow Support gives you access to upvote trails and support from the community and posting via their MSPsteem you can improve the likelihood of getting rewarded for your efforts. MSP has its own website which you can connect to it with your account and private posting key and post, as you would on Steemit, however, posts using this site, are rewarded by the MSP community.
There is a range of support opportunities with MSP and to get started with other MS projects check out this helpful post by @marcusxman.
Using Minnow Support Project
Minnow Support Upvotes
If you've registered with @msp-reg successfully, then each 48hr you can upvote one post. The program includes a 5% beneficiary, which means that 5% of post rewards are returned to the account @minnowsupport in order to help more minnows.
Minnow Support is founded by @aggroed & @ausbitbank and mspsteem is hosted by @netuoso
Blog like a boss
So there you have it, 6 options to improve your Steemit blogging experience and get some additional rewards for your effort. I personally use a combination of busy.org, eSteem, Steem Plus and Partiko for my everyday use which is more me experimenting than anything else. Find one tool or a combination you feel comfortable with and start earning those rewards more often.
Your reward for reading this far
If you made it this far, then I'm impressed you're a real trooper and to show my commitment to improving your blog. So to give back to my Steemit Tots I've added a bounty to this post.
Share with me how you're growing your blog and resteem this post to get the word out about these dApps and I'll show with you give you a share of the bounty.
Also feel free to vote on comments you found helpful in this post and reward uses from the bounty pot
Have at it
Do you have any blogging or dApp strategies that have been working for you? Will you be trying out some of my tips? Drop me a comment and let me know! Let's get all up in each other's blogs!
Previous cheat sheets
If you enjoyed this post and would like to know about more hacks to improve your steemit experience then check out the following:
- Steemit Success Cheat Sheet
- My Steemit Cheat Sheet: Part 2
- Kicking the self voting habit + Subscription services to help curb your addiction
- My Steemit Cheat Sheet: Part 3 - Cashing In On Comments
Let's connect
If you liked this post sprinkle it with an upvote or resteem and if you don't already, consider following me @chekohler
Put your votes to good use
We all can't max out our upvotes every day and a little help never hurt. Sign up to Smartsteem and sell a few of your votes each day, earn some STEEM and SBD in the process and still get in some curation rewards in STEEM Power. Check out SmartSteem
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@chekohler has set 2.000 SBD bounty on this post!
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Thank you for a really good synapse on all of these different apps and initiatives. I have been curious about a few of them for a while now. I am glad @conradt resteemed your post, and I look forward to reading more of your informative posts in the future. Resteemed and following. :)
Aww, Thats very sweet of you appreciate you taking the time to read it all, it was quite a long post had to cut it short and will split the other info into another post. Stay tuned, I'll be dropping more guides very soon :) just takes a while to research it all
Thanks for sharing information on these DApps. I knew about several, but was not aware of eSteem and Minnow Support. Will definitely give these 2 a try.
Glad I could drop some knowledge on you! Hopefully you get some joy out of it, I've only recently started using minnow support so i'm still figuring my way around it
In the description of the dApps one can use you didn't describe the use of Partiko. You only mentioned it in the concluding part as a tool you are experimenting with other tools.
Partiko also does upvotes, has point based reward system which you can redeem for upvote.
Great write up in general, I've learnt more from it.
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @ketcom yes I left Partiko out purposefully. My guides are a series and this one become rather long at over 2000 words so I did not want to bog down the reader. If I start mentioning mobile apps I would need to include more than just Partiko so I stuck only to the desktop blogging versions..I want to create bite sized guides new people can use to understand and extract some value out of steem.
I will do future guides on mobile blogging on steemit so stick around
Yeah you're right. I must say I was caught up with your work and was using Partiko to read & respond so it just came to me. Thanks for the clarification. As long as the writing is great and learning from it, it won't seem long to me, but am not everybody so it's good you're adjusting for everyone.
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks for the post. I am currently a vanilla Steemit user; I use the website itself. I will eventually delve into one of the apps probably Steem Plus since it's just an extension to Chrome or Firefox.
I am still running into the issue on my mobile app for eSteem, I can't interact with anything once I make a post or comment and have to close the app and re-open it. Unfortunately I reported this months ago but alas no updates to the app have been released.
There are certainly some of these that I didn't even know about so that was cool to learn about ones such as Steem Press or Steem Peak.
I've heard of Minnow support but don't know much about it, I'm going to give it a look now though and perhaps join it to get try to get some help and help out others.
I was lucky enough to get into the comment whore game early and didn't make an actual post on the platform for several weeks I believe. I think that one of the best things I can tell anyone that's new is to start it out with the comments! I will occasionally pop over to the "new" section and comment on some noob's post telling them the easy way to gain traction and I've gained two people I follow because of it so that was cool.
I find it funny that some people don't even make it to the end of a post before commenting or clicking off; they don't even bother so your comment at the end was amusing but I know it happens too often.
Lol hope after this post you start pumpkin spicing up your steem use. I'm really enjoying SteemPlus and the rewards only increase each week which is a great motivator. I tried the eSteem app a while back and it wasn't great but since I got Partiko I haven't looked back it really is the superior mobile experience with steem.
Your strategy is tops man you're going about it the right way it also puts less strain on you having to produce content for rewards so when you do your content is much better and you could get picked up by @curie or @c-squared
LOL yeah you gotta incentivise people once your blog goes over 500 words and this one was well over 2000 a bit excessive but I wanted to give a complete overview of your options as a new user
Just downloaded SteemPlus and so far so good. I like the signature section and others that I've noticed thus far. Now I have to come up with a signature that isn't stupid looking.
I like how it classifies users as human, that's unique and good to know.
Lol I actually haven’t used the signature feature! I really like that you can check mentions and also the search is much better
Posted using Partiko iOS
Lol I actually haven’t used the signature feature! I really like that you can check mentions and also the search is much better
Posted using Partiko iOS
I'm a big fan of Ulogs and Steempress, although Ithis last ond is only ptofitable if you have a weel-estabished blog of your own. By setting up a blog from which you can post tlStedmIt has nimerous benefits:
I jsrkk lzvenhaven't figured out yet whether the 15% commission Steempress takes is worth the trouble of setting up.your own blog. Still I have one.
Benefits:
people are familiar with WP sites, so there's a bigger chance your posts will be read by non-steemians. If they come across a famîar interface, they will feel more into their comfort zone than when they end up on an site with an interface tbat looks like it has been designed in 1999.
More and easier options to share your content, and creat backlings on other sides.
You can customize your entire site, add meta-date, retargeting pixels'which is all beneficiak
Yes I agree. Steempress is great if you're already a blogger and want to add an additional revenue stream via steemit. I've seen people trying to do it the other way having a steemit blog and then building their own and it hasnt gone too well for them, like the ones i've seen who push their established blog content strategically to steemit.
They use steemit as a tease for other content on their site too and becomes a real traffic driver as you build a following
oooh well arent you just the digital aficionado, I like it when you talk meta data and retargetting pixels
Lol
Was about to do research on my own. You saved me quite some time.
Thanks.
Right now I'm on Steemit. Thanks to the comments I will try Partiko for mobile instead of esteem.
You are probably right in that you cant expect to walk in here and start blogging with the expectation that your audience will find you.
There is just so much noise. The Trending page never yields anything of interest to me. The New page is more fruitful but still irrelevant.
It seems to me that the best way to find good content is to build a nice feed - that feeds itself. That way you can find one good creator after another. Step by step (baby steps in my case).
Well I'm glad I could save you a trip to the steemit search bar, we all know how painful that can be. I think you've gotten the hang of steemit pretty quickly, I havn't bothered to chek out the trending page in probably over 6 months its a waste of time and page load lol. My feed has been well curated over the past few months and is all I really need. I'll drop in some topic tags with new and explore since the full new is overwhelmed with shit posts.
I do pop into the full new tag if i feel like getting rewards for flagging spammers ive just been a bit lazy lately.
Thats the way to go and try joining up with some communities on discord, this is your blog you make the rules, dont anyone let you tell you how to steemit
Such a good read! I like the busy platform a lot but I always forget to use it for some reason, I'm also starting on steempress and I was luky enough to get their vote on my first try, tho I gotta catch up soon, I'm kind of a storyteller so gotta dry my mind to make some posts, but for many of my friends is super hard to create what is usually called quality content and I just recommended ulog to them thx to you, I hope they learn how to flow in it.
Lol yes I agree even though these dApps are avaialble I still use steemit from time to time. You reallly have to remember and practice it daily to make sure you don't miss out on those dApp votes. All those votes add up over time trust me, its going to be worth it.
So true you should mix it up to get the best results. I'd say you're on the right path using uLogs for your daily stuff maybe just try adding steemplus for that extra boost. While SteemPress for your researched long form content from your blog.
You should also check out my previous cheat sheets may be some tips you'd like to try out. But you sound like you've got the hang of it, i'm sure you will keep improving
Yes, I'm working on it!
Definetly gonna try steemplus now, I didn't want to post everything on my blog and now I know there are more options with these dApp votes
I'll read the other cheat sheets asap, thanks for the help!
Great post. Although I was aware of some of the dapps referred in your post, you really did a great job of explaining them. I usually just use Steemit to post, but I plan on using one of those other dapps thanks to this post. I’ll also check out your other blog links.
Thanks for this info.
SDG
Hey @sighmanjestah
Glad I could help you improve your steemit experience, means alot since I put quite a bit of effort into reseraching and putting this post together lol! Good to see it actually found its way to people who found it helpful. Stick around ive got a few more cheat sheets coming soon
Excellent publication, friend. Information that is certainly of great importance, especially for those who are starting on this platform, however, took some time and there are some who completely ignored hahaha so I thank you.
Keep it up.
Thank you! Took me quite a while before i figured all of this out and well hopefully people learn from my mistakes and take advantage of these cool dApps. If you haven't already I recommend you check my previous cheat sheets too. Linked in the post some good tips to optimise your comments and content