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RE: Strategies to Getting Bigger Payouts on Steemit
Excellent article! I really need to work on my own self-promotion skills. Any tips how best to approach this?
Excellent article! I really need to work on my own self-promotion skills. Any tips how best to approach this?
I took a look at your blog and it you seem to write in the area of steemit and psychology. Each category/topic has it's own hooks, grabs and buzz words so the specifics need to adapt to each post and its target audience. (If you have a specific post you would like me to talk to, just toss the link in a reply.)
Let's use your post "We do not know our own minds" as a case study. Personally, I love this topic and it calls a lot of things we take for granted into question and I would expect that many others do too.
Target Audience: I see the target for this post being people more in the psychology and philosophy realms. There may be others, but recommend starting with the top two. Otherwise the specific words needed hook someone vary too much.
General Thoughts: While it's important to have sources in your post such as the NY Times article you are talking about, there needs to be a little more of your interpretation of the source or at least specific questions that it's causing you to ponder. Some suggestions that come to mind are including a paragraph or two summarizing your interpretation article or an implication of that finding such as (How can I trust what I think?, How can I know what is objectively/subjectively real?, or a realization/AH-HA moment like 'I realized that I couldn't take certain 'facts' for granted anymore.') You've only got a paragraph, maybe two, to hook someone into reading further (for websites, the hook has to happen in about 3 seconds or they move on.) With this in mind, while it's great bringing the article to the attention of others, focus more on adding value, such as providing a short summary and reaction the article so the reader doesn't have to read the article itself.
Tagline hooks: Some first thoughts include, "I don't know if I'm real anymore" or "The day everything I thought I knew flew away." This is still being absolutely honest and still explains the content. Just little buzz words thrown in and situations people can relate to from their own life/perspective. (Again remember, this is targeting psychology and philosophy categories, my suggestions would be slightly different. If we were focusing more on the religion/spiritual realm it could be "How I connected with the universe by unlearning what I knew.")
Photo hook: With philosophy/psychology being the target, my first thoughts are to look for images with people emoting either a pondering/confused state (like the statue of the thinker, or a silhouette of Socrates with a question mark) or something that shows emitting energy or connection attempting to visualize what is going on behind the scenes (like the one I used in this guide under the heading 'psychology of others.') I do recommend filtering google image searches for usage rights: free to use or share even commercially. This can be found by clicking the gear in the top right corner, selecting advance search, and you will see the usage rights filter.
Things to do outside the post: Some of this was touched on in the guide, but if you have difficulty, you might try searching for articles akin to the same topic and have a discussion. Once you begin to connect on a more personal level they are more likely to follow your blog. Another trick, if you have friends (online or irl) simply ask them to upvote it for you so it can gain some traction. Even 2-3 people upvoting and leaving good comments will help tremendously.
Call to action: Try to keep the conversation going. Ending your post with a question drives the reader to respond.
I hope this is helpful :)
This reply alone could stand as an article. Wonderful response.
Thank you!
I'm also more than happy to give anyone about a more specific reply category or post if wanted.
I just like helping.
Thanks, some very well-written, in-depth and actionable information there! Like @quantumanomaly said, that could be an article in itself!