Dear Littlescribe: I'm feeling defeated on steemit. How do I get my dollar amount up?

Dear @littlescribe, I recently started steemit and I feel like I'm not making enough progress. I feel defeated. How often should I post?

Thanks for your question! You are not alone. Many users on Steemit, new and old, are feeling the pangs of living in Disappointment City. I am not new to the feeling either.

What I'm going to do is take a look at your blog and break down my analysis in a 5 C's fashion (Curate, Create, Comment, Community, Consistency).

Let's see how you are doing on each, and hopefully other users will gain something from this as well.

1. Curation:

As you are so new, and your voting power is worth so little, this will not be your focus. However, you do still need to get in the habit of voting. A lot. This will do three things for you:

• It will put you in a habit of awareness and generosity toward other users on the platform

• It will position you on the vote list, even if you're at the bottom. Your name WILL show up sometimes. The more it shows up, the more you become a part of the crowd, in a good way.

• It will put money in your wallet over time as you curate successful posts and gain earnings from the payout. It will be cents at first, but these cents turn into dollars later.

2. Creating Good Content

Your content is good. I like your poetry and musings. Your photography is very good as well. I would suggest adding a little more substance to your posts. They are very short. This gives the impression you don't care too much. If I were you, I'd do a brief write-up of your subject matter, to personalize the content a little more. We want to get to know you and what motivates you. Make it mean something to me.

I highly recommend checking out:

• How to Spice Up Your Post
• How to Use Markdown to Stylize your Post

You asked how often you should post? I would focus on quality first. I would rather see two well-written posts a day than ten crappy ones. I shoot for two a day. But starting out, you might want to do a little more, just to generate a presence. Whatever you have time for, as long as it's quality, is perfect. There is no rush here. This is not a competition. Well...it kind of is. But there is enough love to go around. So don't freak out.

Remember, if you were to blog ANYWHERE else on the internet, you would have to give it a good solid 2 years of solid production and networking before you saw a decent following or earned any sponsorships. Here on Steemit, you statistically have a much better chance of gaining traffic and headway much sooner if you stick to a daily or weekly routine. Most people I'm seeing are starting to make a dent within the 6-month mark. Some are sooner, some are later. I was later. I had very little time to put into it, and it showed. It's up to you what pace you want to make. And it will show accordingly. This really is a numbers game.

3. Comments

This is where I think everyone could do the most work. Stop focusing on your earnings, and focus instead on your relationships.

I do see some good commenting going on, but you could do better, and more often. It's extremely important to make MEANINGFUL comments on lots of posts a day, if you have the time. If you don't have the time right now, do what you can when you can, but do it as close to daily if possible, or you'll fall off the radar. Ask good questions, make genuine observations, take a minute to say something about the post no one else has said. If you really like someone, follow them, and let them know you've done so. Often times, people will follow you right back.

Some of my best and most supportive followers now were teensy weensy minnows like me when we started following each other. We stuck together and just hung in. People like @ats-david, @nonameslefttouse, @roundhere, @coruscate, @steemmatt, and @hanshotfirst are some of these who I met early on, before they were more influential, and they consistently support me now, and I them. Just to name a few.

The work you do today is for tomorrow. You need to establish a core group of people you really like. This may morph over time, but you've gotta have groups you feel comfortable associating with on a daily basis. Find a writer's forum, or a poetry or freewrite group, like @maryannewest or @improv.

Me personally? I like the comedy section, the writing and meme contests, music and art. What do you like?

Feed the things you like, and they will grow!

4. Community

Be regularly thinking of ways you can contribute to the community and the platform. You could offer contests to engage people, even if the pot is only $1 SBD. You could downvote spam, and report it. You could make a "Top Ten Favs" list of content you like the most. You could do an analysis on best witnesses and show who you vote for and why. You could upvote and comment on contest entries. You could help other users by giving them advice when they're down. Or find someone to commiserate and complain with. This is useful too! There are many ways to be involved. These are all things I do, on a regular basis, and I don't feel like it's enough. I wish I could do more!

5. Consistency

I cannot emphasize this enough. Did you know, popular and well-loved user @coruscate posted DAILY for 4 months on d.tube before she really began to gain ground? She was small and did not have much of a reputation yet, so she chose this way to get noticed. And it worked! It's not because she's pretty, or because she's a girl. It's because she stuck at it day after day for 4 months. She works full time and has a life.

For my first 18 months on here, the most I could dedicate to this platform was a couple or a few hours a week. There were weeks that would go by sometimes where I just couldn't hang in. I had too much crap going on in my life. And do you think my wallet showed it? You bet!

Now I'm posting, commenting, and curating DAILY. I have time to now. So I can. But if you are short on time, then do what you can. Even if it's weekly. Do something. As consistent as you can.

Find a niche that works for you. Again, make sure you check out the following videos on the subject:

• How to Spice Up Your Post
• How to Use Markdown to Stylize your Post

Shotgun Approach

Another approach to gaining followers is to just follow as many people as you can and see where it leads. Many of these contacts will return the follow, and you'll have a list of followers grow rapidly--even if it doesn't amount to a lot of cash at first. There are users on here who swear by this, as a sheer numbers game.

Do not...I repeat do NOT ask for people to follow you or read your stuff.

It's tacky. And annoying. And sounds desperate. And it will only hurt you. OFFER to follow, and read, and upvote. If you have a post you want to share, make sure it is pertinent to the conversation first. And even then....

I hope this gives you an idea of where we could all work to improve our experience here. It really is a numbers game. If you're putting out good content consistently, and you're regularly staying in touch with and supporting your core people, you'll do amazing. It just takes time. Likely many months.

If you feel like you have done all those things and you are still struggling to get off the ground, or you'd like me to evaluate your blog:

come over to my discord channel and I'll take a look!

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****Disclaimer****

I am NOT a therapist, a doctor, or a licensed professional. I'm just a person. But a relatively logical one. And I can't wait to help you with your complaint!

An open invitation to my discord channel: steemitforboomers

• images royalty free from pixabay