Lessons Learned During the First Seven Weeks

My Solar eclipse shot everybody takes for a nice Moon image. Clouds were my natural filter.

So I joined the Steemit platform while it was still relatively young. I had immediately liked the sound of it as my colleague @lightcaptured talked about his interest in in during a club meeting. I got home and applied for an account. I was approved a little over two weeks later - just an hour or so before I was about to leave on a five-day trip to an island. Stories of it will come in due time.

I want to do something else today. Tell the beginning of my tale. Remember - this is my short-term experience and my thoughts about it. Also I will probably repeat things I have already heard and so have some of you.

I hope it will serve as a good guide to my friends whom I expect to join the platform soon and also to everyone new who gets to read this.

My first advice would be, as usual:

Learn from others first but do some thinking and the decisions yourselves. Experience shared is nice to have as information but you have to decide what part of it is helpful and what should be discarded. It's all opinions, anyway. And they change.

Sounds like Bruce Lee's 'Be water, my friend', right?

Quick! Before somebody takes my prey...

Well, let's do it the smart way. Which also means not greedy. Just my point of view.

First, the creators of the block chain and the network told us a lot of good advice in the FAQ section. We should all read it first, and then again from time to time: https://steemit.com/faq.html

I will stress one thing that we sometimes tend to forget: This is not a get rich quick scheme.

It's actually a social network, a platform we can build communities upon. Worlds if you like. Create something real in or through virtual space. Of course financial success is the main incentive to start on a crypto currency driven platform.

Of course I care about it, too. It is the kind of appreciation that is necessary for us to be able to continue our work. But this is how I see things - I love my work. I don't only need work so that I can have money. I need money so that I can work on and do something I value. That would be art. Otherwise I could just work something else, somewhere else. Short-term it will bring me more than photography, more than articles... I could cook, for instance. But I am not a cook at heart.

So, next advice - Do what you actually love. Give it your best (without instantly dumping all that you consider your best work in one place). Be patient. Connect. Discuss...

Be curious!

If we all only paid attention to ourselves... guess what. We should help each other out. If you are here for good content purposes, then give credit to good content.

Now, I know it's hard to be active, especially after new changes introduced by HF20 (the Hardfork 20 update) and with it - the new Resource Cost or RC system.

So be efficient!

I worked a lot on developing my status since I joined. I had some luck and good hits with photography contests and that helped me immensely to feel as if I had actually taken off. But I am far from reaching escape velocity (what I need to get out of gravity's pull and into orbit). Yet.

And I froze due to recent updates along with most other users. And I felt I have lost the momentum I built with so much effort. but what can you do? Time to push uphill again. The more of us together, the better.

So, here are my ideas of being efficient:

• Think long-term. Do not get discouraged if your first few posts, weeks, even months do not seem to pay off. You are building a pyramid from the base up. And occasionally some brick may turn to gold because of good karma or statistics;

• Scout the network for good initiatives in your fields of interest. They can give you the boost to next level. Scout in general. Follow interesting people;

• Use all five tags you are entitled to. Choose them wisely. A lot of initiatives require a tag slot or two. Then keep one or two for your main and/or specific category;

• Make posts that are about you and what you care about, not only contest entries. Post as regularly as you can, but not too much in one day. A few posts a day at most. Engage with others'content more regularly than posting;

• They say reputation is key. While it is, followers are also key. Be patient about that. Quality relations are what matters anyway;

• Contests may boost you reputation but personal work will generally be more interesting to your followers (my opinion, again). I had too high contest entry percentage at a certain point but I am working to remedy that. While still supporting and joining contests;

• Sometimes you may do work that is both your own and it can fit into a contest easily;

• Join discord or other chat channels of communities you like. I stood aside for too long but eventually was happy to go through that unnecessary barrier in my mind;

• Socialize in any other way you like. Comments may be costly now but sometimes worth it - that makes friends;

• Upvoting comments if you do not give at least 0.01$ by yourself equals spreading upvote pools too thin. If you would support somebody, better upvote their recent posts. Upvote comments when there are enough other upvotes on the same comment or when you have reached 200 SP or more. Which will probably be after a few months;

• But, yes, your moral support matters. Even to people much higher than where you are presently;

• Try ti build enough SP so that your vote is worth at least 0.01$. At least it is visible effect even when you upvote alone. That will take time. I am not halfway there yet;

• Keep track of your RC by various applications. As of now I use steemd.com/@ and your account name after the @

• Take note of the rate at which it recharges and plan your daily activity accordingly unless you decide to overextend a bit - sometimes worth it, of course;

• When you have the opportunity to power up into more than 15 SP, do so - that gives you more mana (your first 15.00 are delegated and they will be withdrawn as you gain your own SP)... ;

• There are curation programs that would help you. Also, people who would help you. Help them.

I should make a break here. I will get back to this topic soon. Meanwhile I appreciate your attention, support, even critics.

I may have said thing that were said thousands of times but even one new convert would be worth the effort ;)

Also, we may add more value to the topic in comments below. Together.

Listening to: Dream Theatre - Take the Time