RE: "Can anybody hear me? Or am I talking to myslef?"
What you say is true. It is hard to get eyes on your posts, and there are plenty of problems, real or perceived.
To get anywhere somewhat quickly on this site, just like you probably would elsewhere, you need to know people, get to know people, bring people over from your other online endeavors, or have big money.
I say somewhat, because then you're still fighting visibility, unless your followers actually are paying attention to you and few others. Most people are here to create and fewer actually curate, I feel, which means fewer people looking at what you're doing than are hoping you will look at what they're doing.
But is that much different than anywhere else? I've blogged off and on for the better part of 10 years. In all that time, I didn't even manage to make $100 off my Google Adsense. Facebook and Twitter didn't get me any sales, really.
So, Steemit comes along, making grandiose promises, or at least someone has, and so you have all of us flocking to the platform like we've found the answer. And what we find instead is closer to the answer, but not all the way.
The visibility issue may never be solvable. But at least the potential of being paid is there. There are people here who are willing to reward for good content. I've been finding I need to go try to seek them out, go where they are, instead of waiting for them to find me. Even so, I'm 13 weeks into this, and I don't feel like I have a whole lot of traction yet. Apparently, it will take much more than that.
So, you're feeling what we all feel who weren't early adopters or beneficiaries of a nice pre-launch distribution. The question becomes, though, what are you going to do about it?
I don't know if I have the answer yet, even for myself. I would say, though, do what you think is best for you. If you're consuming content already without engaging with it, I would suggest doing that. If you are commenting on the posts, keep doing that. If you feel like doing a post, then make one.
I've been spending a lot of time here on a daily basis. Not everyone has that luxury. I might not for too much longer, depending on what my wife feels. But, without a bunch of followers from the outside willing to follow you here, or without at least tens of thousands of crypto or fiat to power up into SP, it's just not going to be a quick process.
So, empathizing totally here. And I hope something happens that will make this all worthwhile, for you, for me, and everyone else who would love to see this idea succeed.
Hey, thanks for such an elaborate reply as always.
One thing that really sparked my attention was the wife part. I already had to cut down on my time spent here, because my wife was starting to get mad about me not paying attention to her. With that being said, we are both young and somewhat hooked to social media, so I guess she shouldn't mind all that much. But then again, she is the wife, so she is always right and there is nothing one can do about that, haha :D
Overall, I really like connecting with people around here. It's just so much more than just mainstream soical media. I would love it if I could find more followers like you. Most of my followers seem to be bots or dead accounts, which really is a shame.
Hope all is well with you.
Oh, I think I'm good, thank you. Always could be better or worse, right?
re: the wife
You probably should pay some attention to her, true. :) The relationship will shift and change somewhat overtime, though, so hopefully, that will mean being able to have some time for your different individual projects, like Steemit (if it's still around, something else if it's not).
re: connecting
Yeah, it's not a family and friends set up like Facebook generally is, and it's not quite like Twitter or Reddit where it's all flaming all the time. It's somewhere in between here.
re: my followers
I have more, maybe, but most of them are bots, dead or dying accounts, too, or really active accounts with a lot of people they're following. So, there's probably up to eight people who will interact all together. The core group is more like four or five. Sounds great when you have none, one or two, but where I'm at isn't really that much ahead of you in the grand scheme of things.
Still, it's a start, and I appreciate everyone of them (which includes you) for hanging with me. I'm not the sparkliest personality to hang out with, after all. :)
The thing with engaging with others is that, even though we might not notice it, we behave differently when typing compared to face to face conversation. It's just so much easier to type something, rather than speak in front of people. Somehow I get the feeling that you are more of an introvert. But your attention to detail and ability to analyze things to the smallest of detail makes you a great writer, which does well here.
Oh, I would definitely say I'm an introvert, but not nearly as bad as I once was. Getting older and marrying my wife have both had something to do with that. My wife is so extroverted she has no problem coming up to perfect strangers and striking up a conversation. That I still have trouble with, unless I'm trying to get some kind of information.
But yeah, writing is my first creative love, and so commenting here with more than a few words is something I can do. :)