My One-Year Steemiversary and 12 Reasons I’ll Still Be Posting on Steemit This Time Next Year

This past weekend marked the one-year anniversary of my first two Steemit posts. Here’s a screenshot of those first payouts, followed by a few more posts that provoked a rollercoaster of emotions in my soul.

Yes, you read that correctly. My second Steemit post ever paid out just shy of $3600.

Back in those days, there was no slider to determine voting power before up-voting a post. When you got a whale vote, it was 100 percent; all or nothing.

Oh, how glorious those early whale votes were.

But there was also a dark side. With no way to follow anyone and no personal feed for viewing preferred authors, getting a decent payout was a crap shoot. After spending hours crafting your message and carefully selecting relevant images, all you could do was roll the dice and hope your hard work wasn’t buried deep in a pile of other posts.

The enormity of my second post made those next two posts with payouts of $0.27 and $0.05 very painful.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “What did you have to whinge about? Steemit had already paid you more in one weekend than many people earn on here in one year.”

True, but I didn’t know that yet, and I thought four-figure posts were normal, at least for me. It took me a while to realise that my payout, big or little, was not a reflection of my self-worth, or even the quality of my post.

Soon I got into a rhythm though and began building a following. My payouts became more consistent, although not quite as large; but I was happy with that because I knew relying on mammoth whale votes was not sustainable.

I kept posting consistently for the next four months, and then regretfully, I went on a seven-month Steemit vacation. But I've been back posting again for the last two months as regularly as my schedule and creativity will allow.

With that, here are twelve reasons I’ll still be here posting on Steemit in another twelve months:

1. I have relationships with people here and I enjoy connecting with them through their work and ideas.

2. There will be new people here in twelve months; people who I’m sure will be able to learn from.

3. I get pleasure from writing and sharing my thoughts with others, hearing their feedback, and engaging in respectful dialogue.

4. The people here on Steemit tend to be more intelligent, more thoughtful and more aware of what’s really going on in the world.

5. I like being recognised and rewarded for the value I contribute rather than donating my content to the shareholders of a company.

6. I can say whatever I want here and no one can stop me.

7. The blockchain is the future of money, and who knows what else, and I still have a lot to learn about it.

8. Exchanging my time for crypto is a small step toward liberating myself from central bank controlled fiat.

9. The decentralised nature of Steemit is giving me new ideas about what life in the real world can look like.

10. Steemit is challenging me to think out of the box and consider new ways of accepting payment.

11. I think STEEM could be worth a lot more than it is today, and I want to maximise the unique opportunity I believe I’ve been given.

12. There will never be a better time than the next twelve months to grow my following here on Steemit.

There you have it. Those are my twelve reasons why I’ll still be here posting on Steemit in another twelve months.

How about you? What did I miss? Why will you still be here posting on Steemit one year from now?

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Jason Staggers