My intention behind this blog entry is not to start a fight with people who are disappointed with the way the Steemit ecosystem works, but to bring a little balance to the negative arguments that seem to be flooding my feed lately.

   I won't deny that Steemit as the first ever social-media/crypto-economy platform has many flaws, but to focus solely on them, robs us from the ability to see its potential. I will admit though, that Steemit is definitely not for everyone, and there might be users that simply don't like and/or enjoy it, and that is completely acceptable.

Ok, I'll go right to the point.

   In no particular order I will attempt to tackle some of the negative comments I've been reading lately.

"Steemit is just a Highschool Popularity Contest"

   The way I see it, all content creator on any platform have to deal with the "popularity contest challenge". Just think about it, there are thousands upon thousands of content creators online posting the videos and blogs every second. So let me ask you, Should their mere existence stop you from posting? of course not!!! The game plan as new content creators has to be a long term strategy, and to look at these successful accounts and think that we will never get there brings no value to our life... To put it bluntly, we can't take jealousy to the bank.

   Can you be successful in any platform, online or otherwise without being popular? Maybe, but it sounds improbable to me... I should say however, that this does not mean that someone who is not popular on Steemit, is not creating great content worthy of hundreds of upvotes. What I'm saying is that the success of a Steemian or lack thereof could be a matter of knowledge on different topics like marketing and branding, and its up to us to put in the work to learn these things and discover our own potential.

"The only way to grow on Steemit is to Kiss a Whale's ass"

    I do understand people who think this way, it can be painful to see someone posting a silly picture with a caption, and minutes later witness that post make ten times more than your post when you just spent all day writing a beautiful story (I've been there myself). On my first day on this platform I posted something very personal that I believed was the best writing I had done in a while, and to my disappointment it only made a couple of pennies... But, I disagree entirely with this statement and here is why:

   There are whales and there are whales, some of the biggest users on Steemit are not only working hard to grow their accounts, but also sharing valuable information everyday to help you do the same. Steemians like @papa-pepper, @jerrybanfield and @luczypher to name a few, are constantly running competitions to help and encourage new users to grow within the platform and they don't ask for ass kissing to participate. I will admit however that there are big users on this platform who are not doing much for the community. In my book its not relevant or productive for me to focus on these users because no level of complaining is going to change them, and also you can't deposit complaints into your bank account.

"The math doesn't add up, It's not worth my time "

   Can you imagine how different the world would be if the biggest artists and entrepreneurs had this mindset? I'm pretty sure we would still be plowing ground with cows in the field, if it wasn't for the men and women who took a chance. It's really up to each one of us to decide what Steemit means and what we want to get out of this platform, the truth is that we all joined up for different reasons, but lets be reasonable... if it takes me 16 hours to write an article, and I had to quit my day job to do so, I'm not only guilty of unrealistic expectations... I'm shooting myself in the foot and complaining that I can't dance anymore.

   In the long term Steemit can become a nice source of income for anyone who can put time into it, note the word I'm using here: "can", there might be users who simply cannot spend the time on Steemit to grow their account and that is completely OK. How much energy and effort we want to put into steeming should be decided by us and nobody else, and if the fact that your posts are only making pennies is enough for you to stop, then I'm sorry to say Steemit might not be for you, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

"You need money to make money on Steemit"

    Yes this is true, if I had thirty thousand dollars to buy Steem Power I would be making some decent numbers each week, but let me ask you this. What business venture requires no investment? I simply can't think of any, and as I was writing this blog entry all that google could provide me was the typical get rich quick scams. So why focus on money we don't have? I don't have millions of dollars in a bank account, and like most people, belong to the group who lives paycheck to paycheck, but complaining about it has never added one penny to my wealth. Again it's not that I don't understand the frustration, we all feel the same way at least a couple of minutes a day, but these unhealthy thoughts bring absolutely no value to our life. I try to think of Steemit as a Marathon and not a quick sprint.

"People are upvoting whale content without reading, its all fake flattery"

   This is very true, there is a large group of people who are hoping that their upvotes will one day catch a whale's attention in hope to hit the Steem Lottery, but this strategy is extremely poor and stupid. In my opinion if you are not truly participating in the community and adding value to it, you should just stick to the Casinos. The chances of a whale deciding that a generic "Great post!!" and a 2 cent upvote makes a him/her think "You know what? I'm going to give this guy a full vote BOOOM! here is a $grand!" are slim to none. Why would a power user waste their time like that? Would you? To even give these accounts more than two seconds of your time is too generous, we should all be working on connecting with real people, with real ideas and develop strong peer relationship with them.

"There is no way for me to get noticed"

    I know it can seem that way at times, but its completely not true. You will find an interesting phenomenon on Steemit, groups of users who are dedicated to finding quality content and getting up and coming authors the much deserved spotlight. The great group at @OCD does a fantastic job finding undervalued content and one of the biggest whales on here @curie is behind a great curation initiative on Streemian that supports content undervalued creators and the curators that discover new talent.

IN CONCLUSION

New opportunities on Steemit are being developed everyday

   We must not forget that Steemit is still in its infancy, and many of the problems we experience now are being actively worked on. One of the things I personally appreciate the about Steemit, is that the formula of "how to be successful" on this platform is being written by us, with every blog entry we make.

    I would encourage you, my dear reader, to think outside the box, discover how you can bring more value to this community and rid yourself of all the pressure and negativity; simply because, Steemit is just getting started, and we are right here in the beginning.

Keep CALM and STEEM ON!

All images source: Pixabay