#DolphinSchool 13 Tips on Audience building, a backup image tool and more!

Time for another edition of Dolphinschool!

Over the past week, I've taken in over $2000 in SBD and I am having the time of my life, so let me share a little on how!

I spent almost two decades teaching theater. Everything from directing to writing, to costuming to sets to producing. If there is a job in the theater, I've done it many times. So, what did I learn?

Here's a few things about getting an audience!

• It's not hard to get an audience, any fool can do it. Don't believe me? Walk out in the middle of a crowd and start looking up intently, people will join you!
• It's not that hard to maintain their attention! Once you have it, all you have to do is keep them interested and not offend them.
• It is nearly impossible to get them back once they are lost. You will be starting from scratch, and likely won't get the same audience you had before.

So, what does that have to do with Steemit?

Quality posts, written on topics of interest, or well written fiction, will gain readers here. In every case, if you find a steemer getting paid out on the majority of their posts, the content is good. If they are not, here is some what you may find.

• Short, skimpy posts, with little content at all
• Poorly and hastily written pieces. sometimes the writer writes as if their first language is not English. (nothing wrong with that, but it won't get as many readers)
• Pandering posts that ask for upvotes, or insist they deserve to be paid.

Here's a few things I've noticed.

The steemers who are getting consistently large payouts have a few things in common.

• They share image rich posts, in almost every case. Typically 3 to 5 images per entry.
• They have large followings, many over 400.
• They post every day, typically twice to three times.

So, if you'd like to experience the same results, you're going to need to up your game.

• Post every day, at least 700 words per post, at least once.
• Use images, create your own if you can.
• Comment and upvote, don't worry about the stupid 5 vote thing, hasn't started yet anyway and even once it does, that's only votes at 100%, not all votes. Go for it!

Be sure you respond to each and every reply on your work, and in your comments on other's work. Conversation is the key!

Here's a new tool!

Early this week, Imgsafe.org was down for at least parts of two days. So, I started looking for alternatives. Here's the best one I've found.

http://funkyimg.com/

Starting to conceptualize on an audience participation series!

You can help me out here by voting for your favorite concept in the comments section.

1. A choose your own adventure type story, only a bit more in depth. At the end of each episode, I would offer several choices up for a vote, then write the most popular option.
2. A Write a Paragraph About This challenge. I would select one or two images to set a mood, or theme, write a page of story involving them, and then invite you, the readers, to add your own version.
3. A writing contest where I hand out writing prompts, you choose one, write a post and publish it, with a common hashtag (for example, #steemitprompt) and the entry that gets the most upvotes, linked to the original post, wins a prize.
4. I post a flash fiction piece and call for illustrations to be added in the comments. They could be anything that makes sense, from photoshopped images to hand drawn. The comment image with the most upvotes, shares in the payout.

**Okay, just mention the number of the idea you like best and I'll keep that in mind when I make my selection. **

Naysayers and mathemeticians

There are a lot of people on the platform going all doom and gloom, because some people get good payouts consistently, while they don't. They seem to think that big payouts are over and that fewer posts are making money. I wonder how they even measure that?

• As long as someone is getting a bigger payout than me, I know there's room for improvement.
• Don't be silly, build an audience from here and give them something else to read as well.
• Remember this, pessimism is just as naive as being overly optimistic, but it's a lot more limiting!

That's it for tonight, steemers! Thanks for reading and I hope you'll all take the time to follow my blog and read some of my fiction. It's really fun stuff, if I say so myself, and I do!