How To Manage Disappointment On Steemit
I never thought I would come up with a headline like that, but here we are. Disappointment is a integral part of Steemit, and I take full responsibility for this statement.
How Come?
Well, Steemit is very, very, very different from any other social media / writing platform. It may look like a vintage clone of reddit, but it isn't. It may look like a wannabee Medium clone, but it's far from that. It may share some similarities with Facebook or Twitter but it's way, way, way different than those.
Truth is, Steemit is revolutionary. And revolution is often uncomfortable. It shakes things around, replaces them with better versions, but in this process it also breaks a lot of stuff. Steemit is like a revolutionary pill, which can make you way healthier - financially, for starters, but also mentally and socially - but, unfortunately, it comes with a few side effects. And one of the most common is disappointment.
Help, I'm Having The Steemit Blues!
Here are a few symptoms of having the "Steemit blues"
- lack of motivation: "why interacting if I don't get any upvotes"
- jealousy: "look at this shitty post, and how it made $20/$40/$whatever_huge_amount, and I make nothing"
- bitterness: "it's all about the whales, they are controlling the game and I'm just a minnow"
I'm sure you felt at least once one of these emotions or been in one of these states. It's ok. Don't blame yourself. It's part of the process.
Overcoming Steemit Blues
Here's what I found to work with my own version of "Steemit blues". It may or may not work for you, but at least I tried:
1. Focus on your own gains not on others
Stop looking at other wallets, stop whale hunting, stop all of this. Check only your own wallet and be happy for it.
2. Be consistent, for the sake of consistency
Joining some writing group - or a 30 days writing challenge - may help a lot. Don't look for gratification, just stay there. Interact, post and be there. For the sake of consistency, not for the sake of rewards. It's consistency that generates rewards, not the other way around.
3. Enlarge your time window
When I started blogging, the shortest time interval after which I could at least hope to make some money (the old school way: by being indexed by Google and hoping to milk some AdSense from that tiny traffic) was 6 months. So, if you just wrote for 2 weeks on Steemit and you're not seeing any rewards, it means it's ok. There's still time. When I started, in October 2016, I wrote for days without earning a penny. Nothing. Nada.
4. Balance gratification with ownership
That's a very complicated way to say that you should consistently power up. Many people have financial constraints and they need the money they make on Steemit to survive, and I totally understand that. But make an effort and power up at least 10% of what you're making. It's like the first advice when you get in any financial education program: "start saving, even if you're in debt, just start saving". When you pair this approach - powering up constantly - with the consistence described at point 2 above, you will get something very rewarding. It may happen way sooner than those 6 months you were expecting in "traditional" blogging.
5. Stay away from flag-wars, they are not your battles
Flag wars are unavoidable. They are in human nature and there's no code that can fix human nature (so far). Those who are engaging in flag wars may have their own reasons and it's not up to you to judge that, if you're not part of one. Just ignore. Stay away. Pick your battles carefully.
There are many other things to be said, like "be positive", "smile and write, man, smile and write", but I think those 5 are enough. For starters.
Steem on!
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
Wanna know when you're getting paid?
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I know the feeling. That's why I created steem.supply, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your Steemit rewards |
it's seems to me sometimes that Steemit intentionally breeds worst of emotions in its users so that only the worthy and faithful will profit from the bright future.
How worthy and faithful are you - this is the question.
And ofcourse, it different with the other...
this. every, time, you type a blog post. .. . ;) great post man.
Something like this should be on the front page of steemit.com.
Many years ago I had an idea to create a website specifically focused on people complaining, since it seems to be people's favorite thing to do on the internet. I'm thinking that would be a good idea for a steem-based website now. Tagline: You already complain on the internet, now you can get paid for it!
There can be a specific section for complaints about how your complaints aren't earning enough!
Ahahhaha i love it a complain condenser that you only see posts made through it and all about complaints, how bid bots are evil, how people are reward raping and how "pro" bloggers should be the only ones here.
I honestly think this is brilliant! You should really go for something like 'steemplaints.com - for those willing to post their complaints for STEEM'
LET'S TOP THE COMPLAIN TAG!!
Its amazing what a little bit of anonymity can do. The worst of people is typically shown.
I try to compare steemit as trading, the more you focus on the gains the more you suffer. It is when you just focus on learning the markets and forget about your gains and loses that you start being able to trade.
Steemit is a great project and you need to forget about the money at the beginning, focus on enjoying, engaging, posting and learning and then you will get results.
In trading, is not a race against the markets. In steemit, it is Is not a race against the others, its your own race.
I pretty much do all of those @dragosroua. Although I haven't powered up for a while as I've been hoping the SBD to Steem ration would improve. I've never taken anything out of the platform though.
The main way I manage my disappointment is through engagement with others. Having some fun conversations or even "poor me" ones, usually does the trick.
As times goes on I would say the Steemit blues are getting less and less frequent even though I think the platform is getting worse and worse in lots of ways. 😁
Now I tend to have more or the attitude - just enjoy it while you can!
I think you're dramatizing here. A lot. The platform gets more complex, significantly more crowded, but the more you stay in it, the more your early adopter advantage will weigh.
I'm staying and using Steem to see who else is staying and using.
I like to interact with some oldies and see where they are traveling.
I'm not sure I am @dragosroua. 😁
My experience is probably very different from yours and I'm speaking from that rather than the bigger picture. So I concede, in terms of the bigger picture, maybe things are getting better.
But in terms of the number of spam accounts that constantly follow me, the number of people who are buying their reputation through bid bots and the sheer amount of bid bots the situation has deteriorated a lot since I joined just six months ago.
@paulag wrote a post yesterday where she analysed comments, for example, and found that when she removed comments made by the top 12 bots only 15% were actually left by humans. And the situation, of course, is worse than that because there are way more bots than the 12 she removed from her calculations.
These statistics are the ones that matter most to me because engagement and commenting is the way I earn most of my "money" and form the relationships that make my time here worthwhile.
I find it harder to find quality accounts to converse with than I did six months ago. many of the people I spoke to them are currently dormant and have been for a while.
That is my experience and for new people it's probably worse.
It certainly is for my friend who joined just over a month ago. She's written a quality post every day had not has 157 followers. All but 3 of those are spam accounts.
She posted this morning, for example, and immediately had another 12 spam accounts follow her.
So I may be dramatising as far as the big picture is concerned but I'm not about my day to day experience.
Who is your friend? Ill check out her blog.. and I'm not a bot, just a scary looking dude :)
I too had another 12 crap followers this morning in leau of my post, it sucks and I doubt I will be ever doing a 'celebrating 500 followers' post now, as it will be a farce.
Ha, ha, ha. You are a bit scary looking @slobberchops. 😂
I'll pass on your message to my friend so she can follow you and speak up if she wants to. Thanks for the offer. That's very kind of you.
I haven't posted yet today so will have to wait and see if I get the 12 crap followers. 😂
Its just a front, I'm quite harmless really :)
I can remember a time when nobody visited me, and I almost gave up. I still don't have a huge following but have some. I would hate for Steemit to lose another person for this reason, if they have something to offer.
I don't think she's going anywhere @slobberchops. Her biggest challenge I think is that she works really long hours and doesn't have the time to comment much.
That was the way I built up my following, by engaging with others and also by meeting people in person. The latter was a big help but, of course, that is not available to everyone.
I agree that spam is getting worse, but you have to expect that as the platform grows (unfortunately). I'm a great believer is some sort of automated de-monetisation of spam comments/posts, but that would go against the grain of the whole decentralised, community-driven, censorship free thing we have going on.
What you have to remember is that all these annoying spammers are on every other platform too. Follow-for-follow stopped working a LONG time ago as a good way to build an audience, but still spammers and desperate newbies do it.
We all have to remember that we're early to Steem and (fingers-crossed) when SMTs and Communities hit, and the platform grows further, 1 Steem could be worth a lot - which will make all your efforts and hardship be rewarding in the long-term.
Good luck with the struggle - and remember, that for 99% of us, it is a struggle. But...that's life :)
I don't really feel it's a struggle @m-ssed-t. At least not today! 😁
Overall I'm enjoying myself here. Not much point in staying if I'm not.
I was just expressing my experience but you make a good point about the newness of the platform. It's easy to forget that. And that the spammers are on other platforms too.
I suppose it's just been more noticeable for me here because it's gotten so much worse recently. I'm focused more on my day to day experience rather than the longer term because day to day is what matters most to me.
I like to enjoy myself now rather than do something today that will hopefully make me happy in the future. And, I'm pleased to say, that, most of the time, I'm enjoying myself on Steemit.
Discussions like this, for example, are what make it all worth while. I like to see alternative ways to look at things! 😁
Change the way you look at things and things will change!
Indeed @chesatochi! 😊
This must be Steemit reflection week, or something (actually, when isn't it?).
We all have our ways of looking at things, as you and I have discussed elsewhere, and I'm feeling the need to point that out. While I do consider myself to be a person who looks at the big picture, I can't escape the day to day experience, either. Most of what we know and do with STEEM revolves around our posting, commenting and curating. Those who build apps, run witness servers, spend time rallying the troops for various causes, are going to be getting a different experience than us because they've chose to do so. Which is fine. That doesn't invalidate our own experiences or our own perspectives.
In other words, I don't feel like you're over dramatizing anything. At the same time, what he said is true, too, with regards to the size and complexity of the platform and maintaining a growing an early adopter position. Will it all be worth it in the end? Who can predict that? No one. So we do what we feel is best for us and time will tell us how things will be.
I think I'm one of those who have frequent Steemit blues, lol 😁
Well I for one am always glad when you're around @irreverent-dan, Steemit blues or not.
We've had some good laughs along the way!
What is it they say - "misery loves company!" 😂
Lol, that's true :) We will surely have more good laughs in the time to come. Have a great weekend, Gillian!
I agree with your five points. I have found, quite accidentally (though I really should have figured this out on my own), that by turning my focus outward as far as what I can do to hopefully add value to other people's posts (comments and curation), while only being concerned with what I can personally control, ie, what I do, how I improve, that it's made the last eight weeks or so a lot better.
And I'm seeing that consistently commenting and posting is bringing about better reward results. Instead of rushing to look at any wallet, I'm really only going to mine to accept whatever payments might be waiting. I've been powering up, though I do have some things sitting liquid until I figure out what I'm doing with it, and I'm watching the main flag war, but that's it.
Very nice post.
I think people get very excited when they start on the platform. There is definitely an exuberance that gets tempered with time. I think there is a false sense that Steemit solves the audience problem. Building and maintaining an audience is difficult, and is not necessary made any easier by Steemit. So, when people eventually learn this, frustration and despair set in.
Its very much like the normal change curve.
You are spot on with this post. Like you said, I think all of us have been in that place a time or two where we just want to give it all up and not keep going on Steemit. The advice you give to move past that is very good as well. I usually find when I have those feelings I give myself a day. Don't do anything yet, but just wait until tomorrow and see how you feel. Obviously I am still here, so it works for me :)
This is best advice. All of us need to follow it. Basic principles of life never changes.
Yes, yes, yes!
This should be required reading for every new user on Steemit.
I've come to the platform with my eyes open. I have a lot of social media experience and know how the game is played. Nothing happens immediately, and patience is key.
But on Steem, even though I know it's the same as other platforms in that you have to put in the hours before you get anywhere, it's somehow harder.
I think it's because the rewards are so visible. It's a double-edged sword - a motivation and demotivating at the same time.
On a successful blog, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube (anywhere else), you can see popular accounts, and you know they're being rewarded. But because you don't see how much, it's not an issue.
I'm comfortable with the long-haul, and have a specific game-plan, which I'll be kicking-up a gear or two shortly, but a lot of people see the big rewards, and want their share NOW.
Money breeds impatience.