Here's How a Top 30 Earner Does Steemit, #DolphinSchool
I'm in the top 30 payouts again for the third week in a row and here's what I know.
Want to join me in the top of Steemit earners? Here's how you can get more votes, more followers and earn more SBD.
Write Quality Content!
That is all there is, there is no more. Now, once you've done this, you have to continue to do this until the cows come home if you hope to earn here.
- You have to seek out and find your audience and speak to them!
- You have to make yourself useful through voting and curating posts.
- In short, to earn a $1000 SBD+ each and every week, Steemit has to become your job.
@EricVanceWalton The top earner on Steemit this week, and two of three of the first weeks I was here, is in the enviable position of keeping his day job and saving his steem dollars.
If you read the interview with him (just search EricVanceWalton on Steemit, it's the first result, I think) You'll see that his plan is to save up the equivalent of two years salary, then quit and focus on his fiction. Good plan, mate!
So, why am I not doing this? Well, a lean year as a freelancer ($40k instead of 80) means I'm catching up at the end of the year and thi is a good way to do it!
So, let's talk about what it takes to put together a payout post!
- First, I write, or select a section of something I've already written. I shoot for 1000-2000 words. Anything over 500 is better.
- Next, I send my post through Whitesmoke editing, just to be sure I haven't left horrible typos. I don't spend a lot of time on this, and I don't get many complaints, just a few helpful suggestions, like, hey, learn to spell!
- Next, I handcraft illustration using internet photos and Photoshop. Rather than risk that (even if I share my source) someone will make me take them down. I composite and add filters to create unique pieces. It's fun!
- I dunp the post into Stackedit.IO and mark it up with bold text, etc, or, like now, I write in a program called Haroopad (It's free) It makes your post more fun to look at and easier to read.
- I choose my categories. THIS IS KEY! I look for categories that are 1. Listed in the topics catalog on Steemit 2. Have action! (some categories are basically dead) so, look for good payouts, recently. 3. Fit my post (I've said this before, but people will downvote spam posts in the wrong category)
- I add links to previous sections and a call to action asking for an upvote and follow to EVERY SINGLE POST!
- I create a short link, using Bitly.com and share it through relevant channels on Steemit Chat, in Steemit and writing Facebook groups and on my Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus profiles!
- I answer EVERY comment, unless it is obviously a bot, or an empty curator comment like "nice article" when the post is scifi.
Beyond this, I am experimenting almost daily with:
- Types of content, fiction, non-fiction, different topics, I try to use at least one of my four posts to try something new.
- Times for posting. I need to get at least one day ahead so that I can make posts happen at specific times.
- How many images, etc
*As I have said, time and again, I cannot guarantee that you will experience the same results. I am a professional writer, who was already getting paid daily and in the habit of writing. But, this is as close to a "formula" as I have at the moment. *
Here are things I am currently experimenting with
- Category placement. I'm thinking I may need to shake it up, try some new categories. Here's my theory, those with consistently high payouts have more whales watching them.
- Audience participation posts. I did one yesterday asking for contributions, it did "okay" got some payout but not as much as I'd like.
- Continued content versus one off, such as short stories and things like this. One offs tend to get more votes, but less payout. They also lead to follower growth.
In the past week, I've noticed a couple of trends I'm following in my posts
- Non-fiction posts, like this one, are good for garnering votes and seem to increase followers, but are not as good, for me, as my fiction. I think this depends on the topic, obviously, since the biggest payouts continue to go to non-fiction posts.
- I get the most comments on dolphinschool and inspirational type posts. I love comments, it lets me know that someone is reading.
- The first illustration in a post seems to have an impact. Something eye catching and colorful. I need to focus on this. Make it interesting, make them ask, "what is that all about?"
- Decent payouts are still coming in one big vote. I can have 100 votes with $5, or 50 votes with $200. While I'm glad they didn't change the vote limit, it does seem that the inequity is too vast still.
- Payouts, overall, seem to have dropped a bit. This may be due to competition, or perhaps someone was voting for me when I started that has moved on to another new writer in an attempt to raise up good content? Not sure, but I'm guessing this will get better as my followers increase. I notice Eric, again, closest thing to what I'm doing, gets 300-400 votes on many of his posts. I'm still under 200 votes most of the time.
So,that's it for me, love to hear your best tip! If you have one, share it in the comments. If this post reaches over $200 in SBD payout, I'll pay a reward to the best comment!
Great tips! What it all boils down to for me is "write to write well, not to make money". If you're explicitly focused on making money, then you're doing it wrong. Pick topics that you are passionate & knowledgeable about, and write for the sheer joy of communicating that passion to others! Another maxim along similar lines is "content is King".
The time of day that you post is also very important for getting noticed. If you post during a slow time, like the middle of the day in Asia, then your post might disappear from the top page of search results before many people see it. I've experimented a bit with timing, but I think my strategy going forward will be to post on the weekend when it's morning in the United States, which I figure is a time when many people are browsing the site.
You can sort of get a feel for when things are picking up by checking the whale watching score on this site: http://catchawhale.com
So, tried the high points on this site today and brought my averages back up quite a bit. I still need to get a couple of days ahead on post prep to make and keep a schedule. Plus, then I can work like a dog one day a week and respond to the comments for the rest of the week! LOL
I do find it quite hard to balance post prep vs. commenting / curating, especially since my Steemit time is quite limited. I try to balance the two roughly equally, spending time in the morning reading posts from others & commenting, then doing writing for my own posts in the evening. Both activities are very important, neglect one to focus on the other and I think it will be detrimental in the long-term. You're lucky you have enough time to build up a stock of posts and get ahead a bit!
If you download a tool like Haroopad, you could prep multiple posts to copy/paste if your online time is limited. Then, spend the bulk of your actual online time curating and building relationships. Check out my Steemit Ninja series for some great ideas coming up about how to build a network that can help you get more from your work.
Thanks, will be sure to check it out.
Yeah, I worked with that for a bit. Not sure how it impacts once you get past a certain number of followers. I know I have some speculators that vote on everything I toss out and don't read any of it, but they are not usually worth a lot in payout.
thank's for all tips. I'll try to apply them. The most difficult things for me is to learn english before make good comments. I hope to be perfect billingual one day, thank's to steemit (or maybe steemit in french why not?) pending this I use G**gle.
Well, Pickoum, were I in your shoes I would be hustling my ass off to build a French audience on here. Invite, invite, invite. That way, you end up being one of the first French authors on Steemit.
This is the best comment.
Thank you for the stackedit.io and bitly sources. Should help me clean up my content. Gonna tell us what time is best for posting?
I would tell you what time if I knew! LOL I have to get a few days ahead on crafting posts first and right now I have a lot of side contracting gigs, (I'm also a carpenter) so my days are pretty full keeping something on here 7 days a week.
Agreed. I curate daily, but post every other day. That'll change though as I am teaching myself python and posting as I go.
Well, be sure to share any data on time with me as you figure it out. I think we'll all have to discuss it off of GMT, since it's such an international audience here.
thanks for the tips sharing, especially for the haroopad
Sure, I always aim to help. I needed a lot that I didn't get when I first started freelancing. So, I try to be the guy I wanted to find when I started. Let me know if you ever have questions. I'll answer as I can.
cool info
thx for this!
You're welcome to it! Hope it helps.
What times of day are the best to post? I notice you posted this one around 9am eastern.
I wish I really knew, Geke. I wish that they had a time stamp on posts so I could just go back and see which ones did best! LOL So, I am starting a journal to track it to see what's working best.
There's some really good tips here. I hack already picked up some helpful hints from your previous posts. The need to be consistent, comment, curate, discuss, and build up a follower list seems to be the path forward. Since reading an earlier dolphin school post of yours (I think it may have been one week ago), I have increased followers from approx 55 to over 85. And also likes and comments have increased.
So thanks for sharing your advice, and what you have found works for you.
Thanks, glad it's helping. The same tools that work here will work on any platform. It's all about being relatable and keeping it "real" if you get what I mean. Write about things you want to read and let your passion show.
great thoughts. Several are some that i have tumbled with myself. Thanks for sharing, a simple idea can be vital for keeping your blog going
Movie reviews, that's a novel idea. I haven't seen anyone sharing those here yet. IF you get yourself established that should pay pretty well. Where are you sharing them, besides just posting?
Okay, I've been following most of the points that you have covered. I don't have a lot of following on facebook and google plus. So it all depends on how good my content is ,and how well I promote the post. I'm focusing on both as of now. Not curating alot , I think has led to low payouts.
I need to curate and get to know a lot of people for maximum exposure.
Bookmarked the article for future reference Thanks!
On both Facebook and Google Plus, I don't depend mostly on my own following. I'm going into groups and communities based around Steemit and writing. So, everyone in those groups sees the post, whether they know me or not.
Cool. I guess I need to do more research :)
I spent two years as a social media consultant, so I have a head start there. LOL