Upvoting For the Mutual Benefit of Patrons, Commentors, and Others While Promoting More Engagement
As I near my one year anniversary on SteemIt I am reflecting on the past year of blogging, commenting, and upvoting. In this post I will reflect on my upvoting strategy and how it has evolved.
Created Using MS PowerPoint ClipArt
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Evolved to what I think is an upvoting strategy that is mutually beneficial and hopefully improves engagement.
Upvoting Everything of Interest to Me
When I started back in 7 August 2016 I upvoted on everything of interest to me. You could say I was upvote-happy. A fellow Steemian even said that they looked at my pattern of upvoting and accused me of being a "bot". I assured my fellow Steemian that I was flesh and blood. But that got me thinking about my upvoting strategy.
Upvoting High Earning Post to Capture Rewards
What was a minnow (one with little STEEM Power) to do? My next strategy was to upvote post of high earners on SteemIt. This strategy works if you time your upvote just right.
Early Days of SteemIt
When I joined SteemIt in August 2016 human upvoters were up against bots (voting bots). There was a simple rule that is still in effect today. The rule was the first to upvote a blog post that earns well gets the majority of the reward. The encouraged the use of voting bots that would swarm a post of a high earner as soon as it was posted.
Graph from Curation rewards explained in great detail
Discouraging bot Upvotes
A voting bot works very well, but to make it more challenging SteemIt added the 30 minute upvote rule that still exists today.
Graph from Curation rewards explained in great detail
Now if you upvote immediately after a blog post is posted, the author gets 100% of your curation reward. If you upvote at 15 minutes after a blog post is posted, then the author gets 50% of your curation reward.
This new rule made upvoting within 30 minutes after a blog post is posted an optimization problem that depended on your voting power and your total STEEM Power.
For a minnow this meant I was typically upvoting at least 15 minutes after a blog post is posted (especially if I thought it would earn a lot).
Upvoting After Accumulating STEEM Power
In my last anniversary post I showed how I accumulated STEEM Power over the last year. At first I was all about accumulating more STEEM Power, but after a while I felt an obligation to upvote in a way that was mutually beneficial to myself, curators of my posts and comments, and those who comment (engaging and sharing with me on my blog posts).
My Rules for Upvoting for Mutual Benefit
Most will think this is just too altruistic but I have come up with an upvoting routine that benefits myself and those who engage with my blog posts.
Monitoring Tools
Just before I start my routine I monitor my voting power and my STEEM blockchain with Steemd.com (just overwrite my username in the URL with your own to see your account). Next I check for any rewards that came in and claim them to increase my STEEM Power. Throughout my upvoting routine I monitor my voting power and do not let it drop below 88% on a typical day.
If you expend all of your voting power then it takes 5 days to regenerate to 100%. If I think I will not be upvoting for a long period of time, then I will run-down my voting power.
I do not like to let my voting power to be wasted, that is why I do not let it stay at 100% for too long.
Upvoting My Blog Posts
A blog post collects upvotes over 6.5 days. During the last 0.5 days only downvotes are allowed. (I do not down vote post, I leave comments instead of down voting.)
You will see most bloggers upvoting their posts immediately upon posting. This gives 100% of their upvote to themselves.
I typically collect upvotes on my blog posts between 0 and 3 days after posting. So I upvote one or two of my blog posts at 100% between 3 and 5 days old. Since I am usually the last person to vote on my blog posts, this gives some of my curation rewards to those who voted earlier on my posts. If none of my blog posts are between 3 and 5 days old, I move on to the next step.
Tip for those reading this, if you like my blog posts then upvote my blog posts between 0 to 3 days and I will increase your curation reward when I upvote between 3 to 5 days.
Tip for minnows, if you like my blog post, then upvote it between 28 minutes and 3 days. This should maximize your curation rewards on my posts.
Upvoting My Comments
Whether they are comments I make to your blog posts or responding to your reply, I upvote my comments at 25% between 3 to 5 days after they are posted. Many times no one has upvoted my comments. In these cases the curation rewards go to me. If none of my comments are between 3 to 5 days old, I move on to the next step.
Tip for those reading this, if you like my comments then upvote my comments between 0 to 3 days and I will increase your curation reward when I upvote between 3 to 5 days.
Upvoting Replies to My Blog Posts or Comments
Whether you reply to my blog posts or comments, I will upvote your replies between 0 to 5 days. The upvote percentage (typically between 1% to 10%) depends on the quality of your comment. If I still have plenty of voting power, I typically upvote replies at 10%. Depending on the STEEM price and the rewards pool, this is on the order of $.40 or better.
Tip for minnows, up your engagement on SteemIt and reply to my blog posts and comments. When I upvote your comments you not only get rewards, your reputation on SteemIt will also increase.
Supporting A Few Steemians that Produce Quality Content
@stephenkendal is a strong supporter of the SteemIt community and has organized a campaign to promote SteemIt awareness in England. @stephenkendal also produces technical analysis, commentary, and SteemIt statistics posts. I upvote all of the @stephenkendal blog posts and comments.
@me-tarzan also does technical analysis and statistics blog posts. I have been following @me-tarzan for as long as I can remember and really appreciate the SteemIt statistics posts. I try to upvote all of the @me-tarzan blog posts.
If my voting power is still above 88%, then I move on to the next step.
Perusing My Feed and Upvoting Posts I Like
Every does this I think, spending time perusing your feed, reading posts, and upvoting the ones you like.
Perusing the New Content on SteemIt
If my voting power is still above 88%, then I peruse the new content on SteemIt. I start are posts that are at least 25 minutes old and peruse the post back towards the younger post. This is entirely random. If after reading the post, I like, it then I upvote it. I especially like upvoting posts I like that have not earned anything yet.
And that is my voting routine and strategy.
Special Rewards
I also do special rewards from time to time.
Reaching a New Milestone of Followers
Each time I reach a new 100th milestone of followers, I look up the 100th follower in steemdb.com and reward that Steemian with STEEM Backed Dollars (SBD). For example, I am coming up to my 1300th follower. That lucky person will recieve $13 SBD. I plan to keep doing this for as long as it is feasible.
Rewarding Random Steemians Who Reblog (Re-Steem) My Blog Posts
From time to time, I will check to see who is reblogging my blog posts at steemdb.com. Pick a random person or two, visit there blog posts and upvote the ones I like that are still elgible for upvotes. It is a way to thank and reward them for reblogging my posts.
If You Have Read This Far...
If you are a minnow, I hope you will use my rules to up your engagement with my blog posts and earn more rewards.
If you are not a minnow, I hope you might adopt one or two of my rules to also mutually benefit those who engage with your posts.
For More Information See These Informative Posts and Support Their Authors
UPDATED Steemit FAQ - Section: "Voting"
Mind Your Votes! An investigation and guide to maximizing your Curation Rewards
Curation rewards explained in great detail
I upvote my post on the last day so that my upvoters are benefited by me the most. You always take care of your followers and support them, this is the best thing I love about you.
Thank you!
Supporting the SteemIt community is what will make this a vibrant community.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
thanx buddy
The timing of my upvote for myself never occurred to me. I've been doing the 50/50 thing at post time and I had no idea I could upvote myself later if I had not done it before. Does this mess with your post payout? Mine are small enough!
I've been upvoting the comments people leave me on the 4-6th day depending on how many I have how much power I have. I definitely notice those people to come visit me after I upvote their comment as they will end up commenting on a more resent post. I have no idea if I get any financial benefit if I upvote the comments on my posts. Do you know how that works?
I stay about 75% - prefer 85% and now I'm thinking about your 90%. Right now that I am new, I am all about growing sp and I can not afford to invest.
So I just rented 375 sp for a month (I had 90 before). I want to maximize my vote which is now 6 cents at 90% - I do not have a slider. I hope this 4 week boost will make a difference and will try to do it again as I grow. It's cheap! The 375 cost 10 steem.
Here is how I get my posts to check on. I use steemnow and set the parameters at the bottom to "new" "50" and $0.50. This way I get a feed of all new posts by all steemers anytime I refresh. It goes from current to about 1 hour.
Then I open people I know and good titles and look from there. I never use my feed in steemit. I do scroll certain hashtags, but most of my posts to upvote come from steemnow.
I am really grateful for all your ideas and will get them into my system now. Thank you!
When voting on your own post it is usually better to upvote when you post. I do not upvote when I post because of my attempt to reward curators of my posts. With 100% power and a 100% upvote I can add about $4 to a post. 25% of that goes to the curator rewards. And by being nearly the last upvote on my post, I can reward those who upvoted before me with a higher curation reward.
Comments work nearly the same as blog posts. When you upvote a comment you share in the curation reward that is 25% of the total rewards for the comment. While it may not be financially beneficial, upvoting comments does promote interaction among the SteemIt community. And it is possible you may gain a few more followers too.
Depleting your voting power is a common newbie mistake. I am glad I was able to help you on that point.
As for increasing you SP, I would change your blog post option from 50/50 to 100% SP. Your comments always payout 50/50 and your curation rewards will always be in SP.
You have some good ideas too on your use of the Steemnow tool.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
Thank you so much! I am bookmarking this and will be sure to follow all your advice. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me. I feel like I am in steemit college here and I am not the smart kid!
Everything takes time. I have been here over a year and I am still learning. The key of SteemIt and life is to keep learning.
Enjoy the weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
All this sounds very strange. As in "upvoting my own posts" ? I don't get the logic ... what is the expected value to the community, what is that supposed to signal ? It sounds meaningless (as in "everybody would upvote their own posts or else they wouldn't have bothered to post in the first place"). And then the rewards that go here or there depending in the number of minutes after an article was posted ... I mean ... if the content has value and is not tagged news (think of fiction for instance) why would rewards change so drastically with time of voting after posting ?
So many questions ...
I stumbled on this post and you have helped my life
You are very welcome!
Let me know if you have any questions. I always try to help out those in the SteemIt community for the betterment of the community.
Have a great day!
Steem on,
Mike
Okay please there is an aspect a lot of steemians on here always miss, please can you explain what the savings in the wallet is about? Thanks
Think of it as putting your STEEM Power (SP) or STEEM Based Dollars (SBD) into a bank vault. It simply puts your SP and SBD in a safer place.
Currently you can transfer your SP and SBD instantaneously. And Power Down your SP over 13 weeks.
When you put SP and SBD into Savings (your vault) it delays the transfer. It take 3 days to transfer the SP and SBD out of Savings.
So if a robber (or hacker) is able to take over your account (this is extremely rare but can happen), your Savings is more secure because hopefully you would notice the take over and the initiation of a Savings transfer. It gives you enough time to alert SteemIt support.
The take over of an account is extremely rare when you keep your password secure. And do not change your password to something simple like "password".
I hope that explains it.
Here is a SteemIt post on the "Savings" feature:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@shenanigator/the-real-reason-for-steem-savings-accounts-for-beginners
Have a great day!
Steem on,
Mike
It's pretty cool to get some insight into how a pro like you does it. Thanks for sharing your secrets!
Hi Mike! I missed this first time around, but it is a very good article. I knew a little bit of these facts, but it is going in my favorites for occasional review ;) I'm still a minnow, but I could be a Dolphin by years end if I get BUSY!!! I will have to purchase a lot of steem, but my earnings are greatly increasing. I am getting over $1 worth of SBD and SP daily, minimum. Likely averaging $2/day but a good day can be 3 or 4! I have even been on a dry spell for content, I'm just reading and voting.
Thanks so much for this guide, my faithful followers always reciprocate and reward me very well! I will educate them with this valuable info as well...
Rob
Thank you!
Consistency, perseverance, and patience go a long way toward success on SteemIt for the average user. Of course there are those to come with many followers to SteemIt and they immediately do well.
Always continue learning and exploring!
Steem on,
Mike
A lot of lessons I get from here ... I get to understand about curation and reward in steemit. Thank you my friend.
Thanks for the info. I never knew about the 30min upvote rule.
The 30 minute rule will sometimes nullify my curation reward. Occasionally I will find a fantastic photography post and immediately upvote it. When I look at the clock time on the post, I go DUH!, I just gave 100% to the author. But you know, sometimes a post is so good that you don't mind it.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
Thanks for the helpful information.
I like your analytical approach
these are very good upvoting tips. thanks for your post!