#Dolphinschool # 10, I'm in the top 25 Whale Voted Authors on Steemit! Post promote and other post promoting tricks!

The Post Promote Tool and MORE post promotion tips

According to this post, I am the 23rd most whale supported author on Steemit! YEAH!!!

Thank you to all of you lovely whales and invite your friends, there's a lot more good stories where those came from!

The charts in the post show that I received 28 whale votes last week and 35 this week, meaning I am halfway to catching Eric Vance Walton, the most supported author on Steemit, watch out Eric, here I come!

So, someone came up with a cool new way for you to get your posts to stay on top for longer!

1. Look at the bottom of your post and find the "promote" button.
2. Click it!
3. Choose an amount to spend to promote, the more you spend, the higher it goes on the promoted list in every category it's in!

So, what's the benefit?

You've probably already noticed that posts have about 2 hours to get votes before they pretty much disappear into the ether. This places you in a special category, called "promoted" not only is there a "promoted" list, but in each category, promoted is a searchable subcategory!

**You don't get the money back, so it's like buying advertising. **

• The SBD goes into a neutral account that no one controls and no one collects on
• The money will be taken from that account and essentially cease to exist at some point in the future.
• In the process, it helps reduce the "interest" on Steem and helps slow the depreciation of the currency.
• Make sure you're prepared to lose whatever you spend on a promoted post.

**I know some of you don't have steem to throw into a test, so I tried it. **

I tried the promote button on three posts so far. Here were the results.

• The first post was sitting around 200, with half it's time burned up. It went to about 350 so far, and got a good long extension on the initial payout.
• The second post was sitting at around 30 and jumped almost immediately to 200
• The third post was promoted at just a few cents, rose to 25 and has been sitting there since, it did, however pickup over 50 votes!

*So, for my money the promote tool is handy. Here's what I recommend. Don't use it right away. Let the post sit for an hour or so, if it hits a good payout, save your money and let it ride. If you get votes, but no payout, try promoting. If you get no votes and no payout, I tend to think that one is a lost cause, try changing your featured image, or rewriting the headline. *

Here are some other things to know

• I used it to get to the top of the promoted posts in story and fiction.
• To get to the top you have to spend one penny more than the person at the top, to check the promote payments, click on the down arrow near the payout numbers and read the amount from the drop down dialog.
• The top promoted post had over 100 SBD behind it when I checked, but the top promoted post in story was 16, so, I went 16.01, rather than risk 100.

So, how else can I promote a post?

Here are my best tips for promoting a post to get outside votes and hopefully a decent payout!

1. Wait until 25 minutes have passed. Early votes (before the 27 min mark) don't get payouts for curation and tend scare people off of voting, so wait a bit before begging for votes.
2. Use bitly.com or a similar link shortener to create a custom link from your post URL
3. Share the link on Steemit.chat in as many channels as make sense. Read the rules, NEVER spam any channel.
4. Join groups labeled "Steemit" on Facebook and post the link there. It will create an image link if you used an image.
   **If you didn't why the heck not?? Go do it, now. **

*Note: Imgsafe.org is down today, we seem to have crashed it, so use Postimage.org instead. It works almost the same. Choose the direct link and enter it in markup the same as you would an Imgsafe link. *

So, what's next?

1. Share the link on your Twitter profile. It will create an image link. So, stuff the rest of the Tweet with hashtags! I use #steemit #amwriting #scifi, etc, so choose hashtags that have active conversations and fit your post!
2. Share links with your readers in comments on your other posts if the material is related. For example, I go back to previous episodes of my stories and leave a link to the new post.
3. Join communities on Google plus and leave your link. Remember, inviting new users is great for upvotes and audience building, but won't help much for immediate payouts.

**So, there you go. I do this with pretty much every post. **

It gets votes,and builds my followers. You can also post into topical groups on Facebook and other social media to attract new users.

**Remember, new users, good for audience, Steemers, good for money! **

1. So, your homework today? Research your favorite topics to see what it would take to get the top "promoted" post.
2. Build a shortened link from at least one of your posts. On Bitly, if you sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account, it will also track how many click on a link to give you some idea of how well it's working.
3. Promote a post on steemit.chat, Facebook and Twitter.

Happy posting and steem on!!!