Followers and Up Votes
I always try to see why some people make money on Steemit and others don’t. So OK a lot of people will post only about things which they see are trending and hope to get some of the action, others will just follow whoever is a big shot around here and agree with everything he or she says and make articles practically bending over to whoever he thinks controls the most votes around here.
But this got me thinking so I started looking at the trending posts and really I was surprised most of the trending posts actually have more views than posts so I am betting they don’t rely on bots for their success.
But also take into account that people like @dollarvigilante, @jerrybanfield, @sweetsssj have over 14000 followers each so they get 5% of their followers to look at their articles and half of these up vote the article we are talking about 350 votes just from followers.
And I am also betting that these guys have among their followers at least a few whales and a nice amount of dolphins so it is no wonder that their posts are all the time trending. Also they do post articles with substance they are saying something, OK maybe I don’t always agree with what they write but sometimes I do, so I guess many people do vote for them because they put out quality material.
Then I looked at the hot topics, here again I found another surprise, these guys with hot topics also have a large amount of followers, maybe in the 4000 range, but most of the hot articles had more votes than views , so these guys are being helped by bots.
I don’t have a nice opinion of bots, but they are here to stay, so that these people get a lot of bots to up vote them is OK with me, they can do whatever they have to do to get a better payout.
But the main thing here is that to trend you don’t need bots, you need a good reputation, good articles based on your opinion regardless if it is popular or not (for example @dollarvigilante I hardly ever agree with what he writes, but he does make good articles so he is entitled to as many votes as he gets) and of course a group of followers who are interested in what you write and are willing to up vote your post.
I have over 1000 followers and I am only sure of 1 vote and it is a bot, unfortuantely a very low power bot, and then I use minnowsupport, which is also a bot and that gets me into the close to a dollar type of post. I have never been able to motivate my followers to vote for me, then again, I frankly don’t know how I got over 1000 followers I have never had an outstanding article, I don’t use chat or discord to make myself known so these followers are a mystery to me.
I do wish they would interact more and read my articles, comment about what is good or bad about it, that would help me out, no matter if I don’t get an upvote but this feedback would sure help me.
Agreed. I've spent a fair amount of time looking at "whats hot" ie what get voted for & why. I'm sure it's not the content of a post, which is disappointing.
So I guess the question is "why are we here"?
is it to just post? there are lots of places to do that on the web.
or is it for the cash? if so then now I know the "problem" I can seek solutions.
eg I see a lot of people post about "themselves" ie "autobiography" type thinking.
As opposed to "Author" stuff which is written / posted to gain an audience as a novelist or publisher would.
I'm still thinking on solutions that work for me.
Regardless of what many people say, money is really one of the main attractions of Steemit, most people are here looking to make some, unfortunately only a few get to make large amounts of it.
Agree, money is the attraction, and that is my point.
Many seem to forget that.
They post stuff that wouldn't "sell" in a "bookshop" / record shop / picture store.
ie many look at it as just another facebook
I see it as more of a "stage" on which one can perform & the "crowd" may or may not leave tips
at least that's my impressions so far :-)
I am thinking the Tags are the most important.
I have the exact same problem , i thinknits the drawing people in that is the hard part . I mostly comment on post hoping the author or friends of theirs will toss me a bone . I've also seen many post about how to get the 500 bucker post that we do see , but these people for the most part aren't first time posters . Its got me thinking that the tags we use could be the most important part . Ive been trying several different ones to not much avail . Thanks for posting and if you get another brain storm on the topic ill drop by periodically tonsee how she going for ya :)
The hard truth in Steemit is that hundreds and even thousands of quality articles from RED FISH and MINNOWS are being washed out and become unnoticed in just seconds. But still, there is hope for those who don`t stop trying, learning and adapting new changes in Steemit. In essence, reading and digging more information about techniques and tricks is essential for all Steemians out there.
Here are some factors why many fail to succeed in Steemit. (IT IS ONLY BASED ON MY OPINION)
LACK OF INTEREST
While it is important to focus on publishing quality articles, it is also crucial to connect and interact with other fellow Steemians.
FEAR TO CRITICISM
In my few weeks in steemit, I have seen some negative comments posted by people with higher reputation.
LISTENING TO EVERYBODY
Information overload! Though I am new here, I guess many steemians fail because they are trying to employ too many different tricks they heard or read all at once.
DISTRACTION
They let themselves get distracted with the latest gossips or what one whale did.
OVER-ANALYSIS
Some, if not all, try to figure out what kind of posts are qualified to enter in Trending page. There is no uniqueness on them. Yes, it is true that it is important that we stand out in the first place but thinking too hard about what we should post and expecting too much is not good. Be who you are and heartily write what your soul wants.
Lazy
Most Steemians are too lazy to produce something that has value. They just want to make easy money without working hard.
Chasing
Some attempt to do things too fast. Hey in this world, there are things that take time, that is if you want to establish a real success. Also, don`t go beyond your limits. There is a limit on how many posts you can pubish within the timeframe.
That
s all. I am a red fish from the ocean. I am still small so dont EAT me. You wil not be satisfied to my fesh. 😃No, I think the main problem is bot voting, you see a lot of people delegate their Steem Power to bots, and these bots do the voting for them, if you are not on bot lists you are in deep trouble, because very few people take the time to read the articles, much less if you are a newbie and have no followers, I have 1000 followers and most of the time I am only sure of the bot that always votes for me (doesn't even have 1 cent to his vote) and I've just checked my post and he hasn't voted yet so now I don't even have that bot's vote, must have taken me off his list.
I just discovered these bots only this morning. So I said to myself, "WHOOOOAAA!!! Now I know why some spring up from the ground. "
I wanted to open up this comment by saying that I remember last month you were on the fence about throwing in the towel, I'm glad to see that you're sticking around and doing your best to continue writing content that interests you. Mad props to you!
This was a genuinely interesting and enjoyable article to read because you do acknowledge different areas, topics, skill levels and various factors that can help a post to succeed. You understand that people put in the work to be where they are, and you are still grinding and learning for yourself as well c:
I come to you with respect when saying that I feel that depending on how upvote bots are used, they can help create some exposure and help your posts become a little more available to someone who may like it. Posts can and do get buried, and I do use bots myself to get my posts a little higher in tag lists.
I used to feel bad for using them until I realised why I wanted to use them in the first place. When I write, I make sure that my posts are something that I myself would want to read. Bots can be useful as long as they aren't abused, and these votes can easily be down voted away if one is trying to game the system.
If you ever get several votes at once that you didn't activate or pay for, it is known as a trail. This means that at least one real person read your post all the way through and sees value. The other "bots" are people signed up for these trails that trust that curator's votes.
The best advice I ever got on Steemit was from a fun and involved user named @tojukaka who said;
You never know who may come across something you wrote.
@gduran, your heart is definitely in the right place with this post and I know that you will make a break through if you keep going. I'm here to cheer you on. You got this!
Resteemed <3
Thanks, and I know bots are sometimes useful, but I do think people should get more involved and instead of delegating VP to bots they should actually read more articles and up vote the good ones, I know it is easier to have someone else do it but I think putting in a little more effort could do wonders. Not many people take the time to actually read the content and leave a comment like you do.
In some ways I agree that ideally people can benefit more from reading the articles, than just simply following someone else or blind voting. There's so much new content being created daily on Steemit that it does get difficult to manually curate all of the time, but there are a lot that still do.
At most I can read 15-20 blogs in a day, but that's only when I'm veing super ambitious. I found that by joining the discord channels, even just to cruise them in the background is a huge step up. You can slowly make a bunch of great friends in the process.
Contests are also really good, because that's instant exposure and your post will get seen by people who would not normally see them. You can get more followers that way, and you might even win xD
It's not all bots, as you've highlighted in your post, there are lot of things a person can do to improve their Steemit experience!
@cryptohustlin has voted on behalf of @minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowponds team on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by gduran from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
This post has received a 1.56 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.