Hello guys! You know being successful on steemit takes effort, time and dedication, it's not as easy as it looks. When new users find out about steemit, they think of it as a milk cow: just post a few words and miraculously start making crazy money! Well, Steemit doesn't work like that, why you might ask? well simply because Steemit as a community needs some value in order to expand and grow. Think of it as a business with serious competition, the only way to succeed is to offer something really valuable, original and worth spending time on. That's why huge investors get paid more than the average users and that's the reason why you find most of the good posts in the trending section, with more and more users each day competition becomes tough. It's much easier to fail than to succeed.

Plagiarism, Plagiarism, Plagiarism! 

Plagiarism is copying another work and giving yourself the credit. Plagiarism here is taken very seriously, you may not be subject to legal charges but you will be no longer supported by influential users of the community. 

The easiest way to failure is trying to copy others' work. Talking from a personal experience, I'm not an innocent man, I've tried it in the past and received some harsh critics. My earnings went lower and lower but I've learned my lesson and I've been paying the price ever since.

If you ever take an info or a picture from a site, check if it's reusable and if so, refer it. Give the credit to the author and people will appreciate that! Steemit is an original idea that needs original content from its users, so remember always to do things your way!

Write low-content posts:

New users usually think that if they write a post with a couple of words, they magically make money! Seriously ?? I mean come on man ! if that's the case I would become the richest guy on the platform, you can write up to 6 posts a day but if they have no value so does your earnings.You need to give your post some value, think of it as a painting ! have you ever seen someone gets paid for a painting that he drew in a couple of minutes? No way! take your time, be patient, and try to present some good stuff. Sometimes you'll be frustrated but that's the circle of life, we don't usually get what we deserve so live with it. Try harder next time and you will be appreciated! 

Consistency:

With hundreds of users coming each day, you will be forgotten easily if you don't stay consistent.Personally, I can see why we want active people, those who bring weekly content not more visitors.I reached my first year on steemit and I've always kept posting, I have seen my followers increasing each day, I have more than 1000 followers now and I'm grateful to each and every one of them. It's nice to know that some people have your back.

Zero interactions:

What part of social platform people don't understand, Posting good content alongside with consistency makes you money but not always enough, simply because this is not a one-man job. If you work at a grocery store, sure you don't need any kind of extra-interaction because you have a fixed salary at the end of the month but to be successful at steemit you need others' approval.Make friends on steemit, let your real-life friends know about steemit, comment and follow great users, this way you gain more and more support. Each member counts even if he has 25 reputation, you might be looking at a future whale! The point is to be active as much as possible.

Not investing Money:

Many of the whales of the platform invested big amounts of money.Before being a social media, steemit has a currency worth investing on. @JerryBanfield believe that we are making the only platform generating its own flow, I can't argue with that! Other cryptos don't have a site where people can interact and get rewards, they're just currencies! Steem is the real deal, my friends, if you can afford to invest, what are you waiting for? it will increase you SP and voting power, therefore, attracting more and more visitors to your blog. Steem price was 9 USD in January, some people made a lot back there. If we have learned something from crypto, history is always repeating itself. 

Forget About Flagging:

Flags are used to keep steemit clean of bad posts that can harm the platform's credibility, but I noticed that some users are using them randomly. We want to attract more users instead of punishing them if you don't like a post or disapprove a certain point you can always criticize the author politely.I Don't see the point of flagging anyway, I believe if steemit creates a control unit it would be much better (something like @steemcleaners), criticise "a lot" but never flag anyone, that's my slogan. Criticism brings the better version of the author while flagging brings frustration.

The Amazon Analogy:

You know why the Amazon forests have the most biodiversity on the planet? Simply because there are so many species there adapting over time and becoming even more specialized in certain things in order to survive. That's what you're going to do! First, you need to pick something that you are really good at and start from there, put some serious effort, learn from your mistakes and grow each day. Personally, I've picked the science field, there is a wide variety of fields to pick: crypto, food travel... as long as it's a worth-reading subject that adds something valuable to the platform. 

But that doesn't mean you have to stick to one field, you can always try different things but the idea is to excel in one area.

Steemit is a great opportunity and if you want to take your chances you gotta do it right. There are literally hundreds of users out there helping new users, I've tried to pinpoint the major mistakes made by some users.I had to learn my lessons the hard way and I'm presenting them to you on a silver platter.

I hope the post was helpful if so leave an upvote! 

See you soon ^^