Before You Judge If Steemit Is Working For You...
I know how you feel.
You put your best efforts forward. You put in the time, energy, and passion. You feel like you're making progress. You have improved, and you can't wait to share your next post. Maybe even a little proud of this one!
Then nothing happens.
No comments.
No resteems.
A handful of votes from bots.
Is anyone even reading this?
It's always good to know when to quit. But here's some food for thought: (strong language - it's how I talk)
[youtubeI would love to get some input on this from someone who has been consistently posting for one year or more, or who has 3,000 or more followers. What was your growth curve like? Did you see accelerating returns in either followers or payouts, or was is slow linear growth? What tips do you have besides being consistent and striving for excellent content?
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I have to say, you have put in some real time and effort; but most people don't get that steemit is about making new friends, and having in depth conversations about things; getting to read everybody's stuff and watch their videos and really making deep comments about how you agree, disagree, or can add to the conversation your own views. Add something that got missed.
That's what gets you into the thousands of followers, and that's necessary to have any views... so people that come here and post a lot of stuff they also post to YT and don't get followers or views, wonder why.
@surfyogi Absolutely fantastic point!!! And thank you for saying it!
You hit the nail on the head with this. The interactions are the most important part. Connecting with people is what it's all about.
I can't believe I totally left that out. You just proved your point by making that comment. LOL!
Thank you!
I agree in part. Steemit is about meeting people, engaging with users whose postings interest you, and having fun while being informative and/or creative. But I have not seen this attract thousands of followers alone in a year or especially a matter of months for my page or anyone I'm following. There are the outliers, two of which I can think of who deserve their fast found following and success, but for the most part, I have seen little evidence that this alone will bring you more than a thousand followers. Hundreds maybe. The accounts I see with thousands of followers have either actively sought out these followers through robots, or tireless marketing comments on user's pages.... or they are people with a lot of steem power from buying steem rather than only earning it on the platform. There are a lot of users who will follow someone simply because they perceive them as powerful and want their attention or a piece of the curation that will likely have a higher pay-out. This is a downside of this great platform to me. I enjoy posting, making a couple bucks, but most of all I've enjoyed when I make a connection with someone.
Thanks for your input @travelman. I'm curious about this:
"he accounts I see with thousands of followers have either actively sought out these followers through robots, or tireless marketing comments on user's pages.... or they are people with a lot of steem power from buying steem rather than only earning it on the platform. "
1 - How do you know that these are the tactics used versus a more "organic" growth?
2- How does buying steem power get you more followers? I know that it gives you a lot of curation and voting control. Are you suggesting people just follow whales in hopes of getting noticed by them or earning curation rewards?
I'm genuinely curious.
By the way, I don't necessarily have a problem with any of the tactics you've mentioned. Even though I myself am hoping to grow a genuine audience, to me the bots and buy-ins are no different than when I have to pay Facebook for marketing my other businesses. It's a cost of doing business if you are trying to make Steemit a business.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with any of it. But from what I've seen through my own observations, and reading some "how to" posts (sorry I don't remember which ones, it was when i first got on), they suggested doing this- following those with a lot of steem power (chasing whales basically). I've noticed a lot of hyperbolic comments on posts that are merely a single picture or a couple sentences because they want the attention of the whale. If not that, they have the strategy to be one of the first (or one of many, at least) to vote on a whale's post because the curation rewards will be higher. And if you leave a comment on one of these posts, you're more likely to be seen by other users. So I'm not just suggesting, I'm saying it is what it is. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining, it's just the way it is. There is organic growth and some are more successful than others. @fredrikaa is awesome and has grown really fast, because of his awesome attitude and content. Jerry Banfield is a rockstar because, well just look at his page. But I've been visited by people with a thousand or more followers and they leave a generic comment (trying to disguise it as specific), they don't upvote, they just leave their comment in hopes you'll go to their page and follow them, and it works! I don't have the patience or energy for that. Some of the comments are clearly robot comments.
By the way, I discovered you a day or two ago. I loved your post, left a comment, you replied meaningfully, and now after resteeming and following I'm back for more. That's organic growth, and I thin you may be one of the few that has the right stuff to make great strides quickly, and more importantly, organically.
Wow- Thanks @travelman That's a hell of a compliment.
I checked out @fredrikaa. You're right. Very cool content. Thanks for the tip.
I'm happy to have you here. I appreciate your insightful comments.
I have over 1,000 followers, I really don't know how I got them, I do have over a year here. But anyway these followers are people whom I have never had contact with, they don't read my articles, they don't vote either up or down, so having a lot of followers is definitely not a sure way of being successful on Steemit. I guess my articles aren't too good, the most I have ever made was about $30.00, somehow 2 whales voted for that post. Overall I haven't made much, but I am conscious of my weakness as a writer so that does not surprise me.
That's so curious. And it must be very frustrating and confusing to not be getting the votes. Did you have a big upsurge this summer when a lot more people signed up for steemit? I have seen other users talk about the ups and downs of a lot of followers. It's good because a crowd attracts a crowd, and followers attract followers, but it's also all about the actively engaged followers. I have 198 followers, they've trickled in. I communicate with about four to five people consistently. I've been lucky enough to be visited by @curie a few times, so I've gotten a couple bigger payouts. I think the gaining of the type of followers we want (friend followers) just takes time and consistently trying to put up interesting posts. I post to please myself and my friends that I got signed up on here. If other people like it, that's fantastic, and what I want, but I'm not heartbroken otherwise. I find it hard to find people that I actually want to engage with, it takes so much time and sifting through awful posts. I'd be a horrible curator, lol. I'm always happy when a stumble upon a great post or someone leaves a thoughtful comment on my page. I'll check your page out.
When the focus becomes 'an overnight Success' the journey becomes more difficult.
You're right. It's ironic, isn't it?
Unfortunately, the growth here comes not gradually but momentary. And the bots did not go anywhere. If you are in the list of auto-voting of one of the whales, then you're done. This can happen in 10 posts or 1,000 posts... but this does not negate the fact that you still need to continue to write good content. Last winter, in the dark days of Steemit, I was getting good results for each post (about 200 steem (not SBD) for each post), but then left the platform due to circumstances for a few months, and still can't reach past results.
So keep up the work, if you want to achieve results, and after that continue with your work, if you are serious.
Thanks for sharing your story. I hope you are able to get back to the returns you were seeing and I hope you enjoy the journey of getting there. I've followed you.
..till need to continue to write good content
I guess that should be the secret. Bots don't read your text and considering that situation is impossible to grow up in the SteemIt.
But you did something amazing with this text/video... put people to discuss this subject.
Great!
Thanks @nascimentoab . I am really happy to have this discussion. This is the most I've had on any post for sure.
keep on improving yourself and work with consistency wow , gonna move on writing great quality content, your video is very helpful @layl , thanks for the motivation!! ;)
I'm happy that it was useful for you! Hope to see more of you here soon!
You are actually doing very well taking everything into consideration. 33 people have upvoted this very post yet last time I check I think you had 9 views of your video on Youtube. This is usually the case. People or robots blindly upvote things here and do not pay any attention to the content. You can post incredible content yet it can be overlooked. A good title and a lot of followers help. Posting every day helps. I use Steemit as my secondary means of content creation. My original content is all on youtube. Then I post it here with little added. So what I get here is bonus. Always remember that ANYTHING earned here is better than what you would make writing some place else. if you post every day you eventually get lucky and get a nice payout. $20 is great in the long run IF You turn that Steem into Bitcoin and LEAVE it as Bitcoin. Every bit of Steem I have taken out of the system since July of last year I have turned into Bitcoin. I have never sold that Bitcoin. Bitcoin is worth 8 times what it was worth back when I started to post here. NEVER EVER PURCHASE STEEM. You get it for free and you turn it into BTC ASAP.
Check out this guy's post and all the views he has gotten because google picked him up in its search results for token related searches:
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@maxnachamkin/how-to-create-your-own-ethereum-token-in-an-hour-erc20-verified
6600 views and just over $2 in earnings. And you know more people have actually read what he wrote than have fully watched/read your post.
In conclusion. Steemit is still clunky and has many problems. Earning any amount of Bitcoin (yes that is the key here turning it into Bitcoin) is awesome and most people are not really paying attention here. Luck is involved, but consistency counts. Quality is not that important at this time. Do not put too much time into Steemit, but do put time into your main social media project that you simply copy over to here. I updated and re-steemed you yesterday.
PS- In most if not all of your Youtube videos you should mention your Steemit page and screen name. There are people who will join up and follow you because of you mentioning it (and linking to your page below the video) there.
Thanks for the tip about directing people to my Steemit from Youtube. I did forget to do that.
And I totally agree with you about converting to BTC. I was waiting until I had an even 100 steem to convert since I'm almost there but seeing how much BTC just spiked, now I wish I had just transferred the 85 I already have. LOL
Hey THANK YOU for the resteem. I really do appreciate it!
I've followed you back and will check out more of your content.
Thanks for the encouragement, layl.
You are very welcome! Thanks for being here!
Some are into money. Others want to go beyond that. They want to interact and connect with different races of people. I guess, it really takes time to see the money coming into your account. But what matter most is the relationship we have established on Steemit.
RIGHT ON! I love that people are mentioning this since I so stupidly left it out in my rant. Thank you for saying this. So powerful!
Honest words are not painful. Keep up the good work, layl. See you around again!
We need a "basic income formula" here. :D
I wish someone give us a magic wand for success on Steemit.
Haha! That's what I tend to see, yes. LOL!
I really enjoy posting my posts I don't wait how much I will get from I care much more if they read it and if it's ueful for them and how much can help them . I really feel happy when I was Ed the comment .
I love getting this feedback. It's the part of the community I love!