The Proof is in the Pudding (Part Two)
Let It Be Known
First, a fair warning. Part One is important. Go there, read that, then come here.
Nearing the end of part one, I shed a bit of light on what sort of content you should consider pushing to the outside world. The Steemit audience is small and our words don't last very long here. Chapter 'X' of your great new book was published, voted by many, read by a few, maybe you received a reward, maybe not. Now many are busy trying to ignore the fact those efforts may never be enjoyed again. The proof is the view counter. If you published something last month and your work remains stalled at one view, that's more than enough to be disheartening for a few.
So What Gives?
I am not a quality nazi. I am not a judge of what is good and what is bad. I do have some very valuable suggestions though and I'd like to share my opinion with you now.
Very few have openly expressed interest in what I've been able to achieve. Each time someone had enough courage to speak up, I viewed their blog. I must stress, I would be very disappointed in myself for sharing this great little trick with everyone and it only leads to filling the service I'm using with garbage. This is why I'm so leery about even mentioning this. I have a great respect for the service and do not want to be responsible for the quality of their operation to fall by the wayside.
Within the few blogs I looked over, I saw what we all see here. A mixture of personal status update style posts along with either some very creative writing or intensely informative accounts.
In ten years, nobody will care about your short little paragraph about what you did that day. I'm not saying don't write those, I'm saying don't push that out and clutter up this service with things only you will care about. Let me put it this way. I know, that I, am not special. What I create, is special, and inevitably valuable to my business side of things.
If you're writing short stories and want people to continue reading those for years to come, fantastic. If you're writing detailed articles about food that include recipes and photos, if that is your passion, go for it. Artists sharing their quality work with included step-by-step guides detailing their thought process and how things came to fruition, yes. Photographers sharing many photos with stories about their adventures, oh yeah. Entertainers!
Anything creative, highly informative and most importantly, unique. If we can google your material and find higher quality information pertaining to the subject, it's probably best to just leave it here as you're not showcasing your own personal talent.
Remember, you're a self publisher creating a small business and the work you want people to see should be the best of your best.
Use Steemit
The Steemit culture is great, there's no doubt about that. When it comes to showing off your true greatness though, there are certain things to avoid. Remember, your audience, your market, not everyone is a Steemit member.
If you write the latest chapter of your book and finish it off with the phrase Steem on, outside viewers may associate that with your work. They are not familiar with the culture. If you have ten little badges bragging up your Steemit accomplishments, some will have trouble figuring out what the point of all that is. Go to any website, read any article. Show me the spot where the writer starts screaming, "National Geographic paid me fifty thousand dollars last year!"
On Steemit, you can simply write up an article, then have that article link in the closing credits of your latest performance. Write an about the author piece if you want and include your accomplishments there. This removes the clutter and distraction. You want the outside readers focused on your material, not you.
If you're here in an attempt to make a quick buck and following these strange guidelines being passed around, realize you're working for the Steemit crowd and only them. If you're told to put pictures here and make it short there, these people are restricting your creative abilities. You are not required to listen to them. Have a look at my blog someday and show me the part where I decided to act like everyone else with the hopes of earning a reward. See those rewards? You can be you, it's okay.
Contributions which you intend to keep on Steemit alone, that's a free-for-all. If you're talking about how much you love steemit, steemit is your audience. People will tell you this behavior is helping to get the word out. It's not. Your quality posts which you push out to a larger audience, that is a free advertisement for Steemit. The reader must come to this site to view your work. One of my methods to draw people to my old articles doesn't even require the reader to know about Steemit beforehand.
Steemit is Your Business Partner
Have respect for this platform if you're using it to self publish your awesomeness. On a few of my articles you'll see a disclaimer. Write your very own, however you wish to word it. I've been meaning to update mine. This is important. You must take full responsibility for your actions. If you're caught using an image that is not your property, that should not be the burden of Steemit Inc. This is another reason why I've stressed this information is only for those who create their very own work from the ground up and want a larger audience.
If you're sharing a video which you did not produce, then push your blog entry out to a wider audience, the potential of someone catching you making money using their work has increased. If it's not yours, it's not yours, very simple.
Another reason why I've created a business rather than just using my name is to distance my person from my work. I do my best to research before I publish. In the event of an error, I would sooner have any pending lawsuits fall on the shoulders of my business. This is by no means a way to weasel myself out of any sort of trouble, I'm still personally held accountable. My business depends on me doing the right thing. Call it an incentive.
Stumbleupon
Recent figures tell me I'm pushing my work out in front of audience of 30 million users. Numbers vary, that was the high end. I've been using Stumbleupon for well over a decade now.
The typical user signs up, is presented with a list of topics they might enjoy, and is then given a fancy little toolbar that sits nicely at the top of your browser. You hit your magic button and off you go to a completely random website with a random article. Not for you? Hit the button again. It's like channel surfing the internet.
For years I'd browse other people's contributions. Their information, videos, news, the list is very long. Recent statistics tell me that button has been hit more than 25 billion times. If someone is browsing the internet and finds something unique, they can click the like button. If they are the first person to ever like that specific page, they become the discoverer. That page is then added to the Stumbleupon database and every other user now has the ability to stumble across this fantastic piece of the internet.
This is how my articles combined have the potential to receive hundreds of hits per day. This breathes new life into what I've created and users of that platform are given the chance to see it. The moment I publish something I want a lot of people to see, I hit the like button. I add my stuff to this database. It's there forever. Some may eventually see thousands of hits, over time. This also gives my work the ability to go viral one year from now, rather than the twenty-four hour lifespan so many Steemit users have become accustomed to.
I used to browse using the stumble button, I'd like pages, each like is saved to my profile. The things I was liking were not drawing other users to follow my account. I sat at zero followers for a very long time. As soon as I started adding my own work, the followers started to show up. The numbers are still very small, it's a slow process, but I am starting to see the benefits.
People are following me on two platforms now, not because of sharing another persons work, because I'm providing my own. My followers here see the quality of entertainment I'm able to provide, they enjoy it. The rest of the world is starting to as well. Pardon me, but this small step makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
In Closing
Normally, I keep my tricks up my sleeve. This is just one small step along with some very important information. There's a lot of take-away here. Use this knowledge however you see fit. Read between the lines. This is not the only thing I'm up to.
For now, I'd rather experiment. I'd like to know if these steps are working for others, if they choose to use them. I'm not going to reveal the rest of my road map which includes fancy ways to make money beyond Steemit. All I am is a man with a plan. A regular guy on a mission. Nearly three months ago I set out to be a writer/artist/entertainer. I'm using Steemit as a tool. It's become clear to me, some Steemit members do not see my work as valuable to the platform. They feel I'm doing things the wrong way. I'm sitting here giving Steemit alot of outside exposure and I'm not even talking about how great Steemit is. I'm simply making people laugh.
So now you know one simple trick that will give your work the ability to last a lifetime. You will not make money by doing this. This is for those who appreciate their self worth and would like others to enjoy what they can offer. If nobody wants to vote for us, fair enough. Everyone on the outside will see the pennies. That part, is beyond our control.
Lastly, my target audience today with this message is clearly Steemit. This is not something I'll be out pushing on the rest of the world. This one's for us.
Okay, done and done. Stumble onto my playground, haha!
Test it out. If you do end up adding some of your stuff there, make sure you use the right categories and tags. I've messed up a few times and that kills the article.
What would you list yours under? If I was that amazing of a friend that I decided to add pages of yours that is;)
Most of my stuff is already in the database. If you liked it with the thumbs up button, then it's placed on your list of likes. You don't have to stumble on my pages if you already know about them. Finding them on stumble is hard, people just "stumbleupon" them. I use the humor category a lot, as well as bizarre/oddities and a plethora of other tags.
Gotcha.
Sure. Just thought it went along with your ambition. Do whatcha wanna.
I've used Steemit as gas for my creativity gas tank. When I first arrived on this platform I used my wordpress articles and art and now I have a body of work from Steemit I'm going to publish on Wordpress, I have two accounts that are several years old, one on gardening and organic food recipes and the other one is all about my paintings.
Interacting with the amazing members of Steemit has given me an idea on a book using my illustrations and family recipes. I find my relationship with Steemit very beneficial and this has been the first time I've made money blogging (if I want cash out).
I will take some of your suggestions and start using them immediately, like keep my personal and political views to myself. Publish only what I want to sell...although I do want to share my health recovery process for free. I think I have something to share from my personal stories and experiences.
We're allowed to talk about whatever we want. I just know my Facebook status updates don't go viral for a reason. This is all about the business end of things. People need to know the difference between business life and personal life when it comes to publishing. If the user doesn't want to take their work to new heights, that's up to them. They do need to be honest with themselves though. I can look back on some of my stuff and shake my head, "What the hell was I thinking?"
There's a difference between the blogger and the person. It's the same as an actor and the person. No different than the doctor and the person. We all put our work face on. The stuff I'll share to my personal friends on facebook, compared to the personality here, quite different. Yes, I'm still the person behind the blog, but I'm sure you get what I mean. We can still say whatever we want. If you're exploring other avenues though, not everything needs to be shared.
There is such a thing as a true story, they do well. If your life is interesting, talk about it. If that's what you want part of you business to be about, go for it.
I'm new to all of this, but I'm not new to business. I'm learning much as I go. I'm only sharing what I've learned because it seems a lot are missing the point. Writers who finally get their books out here are stalled once they are finished. I'd call it "early access". Write it, the rewards help along the way, then publish the book. In that case, I wouldn't necessarily want my early access copy going viral because it could hurt sales down the road. Business. People can't stop here just because they were given a few dollars.
This is the best message for me. And I do not follow the trends here, or really anywhere. I follow my heart and share what I like and maybe others will like what I like.
The other part of your message is basically business, get organized, find your target audience, and stay focused on what works!
I totally get Facebook and left because my friends got really weird politically and that was really scary to me and all the personal shit I had to wade through. I had to buy barn boots...omg!!!
This message isn't for everyone either. People will set different goals. I'm not knocking anyone down. If their goals are to sit on here and talk about their day, good on them. If they're finding success doing that, even better. For those of us, like myself, who have set goals to take their work to increasingly higher levels, so far this is the advice I have to offer.
As for Facebook, I still use it, I still bug my friends there. You won't see my name beside a rant under a news story though... not because I think it's wrong or a waste of time. It's simply not my style. I like to joke around and make an ass outta myself. I like moving colors around and making fresh looking images. Dumb cartoons that don't make any damn sense at all. I'm rarely ever serious about anything, so I'll take that and try to find a way to make a living. I don't require fame and a Ferrari. If I'm making people think, "wtf", I'm happy. If I'm not outside in the cold working my ass off to make ends meet, even better.
Yeah, that makes sense, friends are friends, and not freezing ones ass off is an important goal in my life too! I've done that growing up on a hill farm in Oregon, layering is important!
And Steemit has published itself as a social media site even though voices in this community speak out for or against content quality. Some want a Steemit Facebook without the censorship and the ability to monetize their own data instead of the platform using their data for its own profits.
I will leave this site if I have to constantly mute porn like postings, nudity isn't an issue, it's context. I find sexual explicit content next to a how to care for a child article unsettling. That's my bottom line when working on social media sites in the past. I've been on a lot of new platforms in the past.
But anywho...you message got through to me, I can use it to clarify my goals, thank you for your well thought out articles and ideas and your helpful comments.
My main issues with the platform involve the automated voting process and how those using it are are only looking out for themselves. Setting the bot to vote for the easy curation rewards and damaging the future of the platform. People are not here to read or be entertained, for the most part. I was sold on the idea that I could perform in front of an audience, an audience that barely exists now. So I must look further and hope for the best. I can't keep doing this for free though. I'll use the platform that allows to me to be free, proudly, and there's no need to lash out.
I set my goals when things were different here. People who want to ruin things for the rest of us will not hold me back. I'll be more than happy to be a member who actually draws people to the platform. If they see the efforts I put in and the rewards I get out and decided this isn't for them, that's not my fault.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, it was a good talk, I wish you the best of luck and hope you have yourself a very good day.
I was a against bots from the beginning and I don't know if curation guilds will grow a healthy community and free market. But these issues won't drive me away from Steemit, I am a curious cat and I want to see what happens next! See you on your next post my new friend ;-)
Do you have coat tails? Can I hang on to them? I googled two insanity productions last night (now here's where I kinda want that ridiculous laughing emoji) I've never read the llama story before ;) Lots of cool cards too. Sorry, coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Hugely important to separate your person from your business. I've always used limited liability (LLC) I will talk with/at you later. Did you check out that link?
I've been trying to get more about Two Insanity to the top of google. Currently, googling my username here does a finer job, especially in the images section. Whonamezuh Studio is a great google. People really need to learn the importance of research. I suppose that's some good advice to add.
Google your work before you publish it! Google your business names, character names, everything! If there are one million of you, you will not stand out.
"Personalized Selfie Store" google images... boom there's my ugly face sitting at number one. This stuff makes me laugh.
I didn't want to be overly technical with the legalese stuff. If someone wants to, they can always ask a question.
Which link are you talking about?
I commented in Dream Weaver, it's in there, which by the way, I'll say again here, was incredible. I had a couple of people watch it with me, one of whom has done lots of logos and immediately recognized how many hours of work that must have taken.
That took far too long and I didn't even make it as good as I wanted to. I got lazy. I could have spent a few more days on it and done a far better job. I still like it, but I know where the flaws are. The original vision was of far superior quality.
Then one day I hope you have reason to realize the original vision ;) But do put yourself on the early subscriber list for what I sent you. You never know (I like the name, much friendlier and to the point) Not that easy to find, a techie friend of mine sent it to me.
Yeah I did have a look at that link. I'll just have to wait and see how things pan out.
Thanks for the reply with the link. At the mo, I'm not getting to see half my feed each day, so it might have taken me a day or two to come across it.
As @reddust said - Steemit has sparked my creativity and got me writing again. My websites had been sitting languishing for years. But for me, I think Steemit is a playground, where I can share more of myself than I can (or think I can) on my other sites. Any $ are a bonus that I think of as a long term investment (hopefully!).
As far as ongoing views go, I still hope that new Steemians who find me will go back and read the other articles that may help them. So I put links to similar articles at the bottom of each post. But I realised after reading this that views from "outside" - I want them to go to my websites not Steemit.
I've already started copying across the articles that fit into my other websites. Three of those are information sites (health & nutrition info / recipes / doing the GAPS diet in NZ) that are supporting and hopefully driving traffic to the sites for the two businesses that are our income (my health practice / online health food & supplement business).
So I will definitely use StumbleUpon, but will direct them to those. I can still monitor how many views they're getting and report back periodically.
Then I can still keep playing here and still keep using my row of pretty pictures (yes, I noticed that gentle little dig), post self indulgent posts about my favourite music, blather on about whatever crosses my mind as well as the nuggets that will find their way elsewhere.
Thanks for the StumbleUpon info - I think that's exactly what I need to drive more traffic to my existing sites.
Well, at least you got something out of it. I have more tricks, but like I said a few days ago... without the support of the community there's no point in spending so much time writing out detailed information. Remember, for many, the selling point was being able to write and get paid. Only some people are allowed to write and get paid, the rest do the work to help feed their economy.
I don't have websites of my own, no help on the outside. I use existing models as a base and work around that. I'm not taking stabs at people for making half of their articles credits and accomplishments, I just put myself in the outsiders shoes. Since I am an outsider anyway, that stuff looks strange to me, but I'm familiar with the culture and know how people like to borrow from each other.
I got my start here, so now I have to find ways to make something of the time I invested. I'm not afraid to be honest. I'm never going to fit in with a lot of the strange practices here. I'm just an independent writer now using steemit to get my product out. In the future, I'll probably just keep things to myself. I really did think a lot of people would be interested, I was wrong and wasted my time. I'm still glad you got something out of it. Maybe in the future I'll share a little more, but only if people ask and probably in private.
For me, this is becoming embarrassing watching these pennies roll in, looking over and seeing a very select few with high payouts and 20 views. Nobody even reads their stuff.... people read mine, they want to see what the hell I did this time. The attention economy phrase gets thrown around, but that's now how it works here. Anyway, I'm too tired to be on here. Have a good day.
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the second half of Dec 13. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $5.79 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Dec 13 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
I had no idea that StumbleUpon existed. It's almost overwhelming over there. It seems like Pinterest, which I found overwhelming, too. I will have to spend some time there to figure out where my stuff fits and how to use it. The numbers look pretty incredible, though, in terms of people and potential. I will definitely figure this out and use it.
I've been torn between two approaches to Steemit. One is to carve out my content before the 30days is up, and move it to my own website. So Steemit is like an early release. The other is more like you are suggesting, where Steemit is the base and other efforts spread from here.
You definitely have me thinking deeper about how I structure my Steemit posts. I can see putting a Steemit spin on a post for the first few days and then editing the post for longevity - taking out the Steemit references. And some posts are so Steemit focused, that it wouldn't make sense to connect to StumbleUpon. But Steemit has such a short attention span.
I generally have separated my personal and posting selves. Because I do foraging for wild food, which carries risks, I set up an LLC earlier this year.
Anyway, I'm rambling. But thank you for sharing what is working for you. We will all do better if we help each other do better, that's for sure. Thanks for helping me!
I'm glad you were able to sift through what I said and find the valuable points that work for you. The target audience is important. I've had this on my mind since the beginning, that's why I've been so standoffish with the general Steemit culture. I don't have a problem with it, it only goes so far though.
I don't have my own site set up yet. Many others do. I'm going in reverse yet trying to find ways to move forward from here. I think you get it. If enough people enjoy my work, I'll be able to set up that site and have a good pitch for advertisers who might want to listen.
I don't mind sharing this stuff. I do get a chuckle now though when I see people scratching their heads and trying to figure out ways that might work. Those screenshots I shared with the view counts. You can add 100 views to those numbers, even more. There's a progress update for you!
Your viewcount has got to be some of the highest on Steemit. You will do well with your own website and advertisers, too, I bet.
Well, certain articles are doing well. An older one I've mentioned previously is now up to 213. Baby steps though. There are many avenues to explore yet.
You are so right - so many avenues to explore. It will be an interesting year ahead, for sure. Here's to a great 2017 for you! Merry Christmas, too.
Same to you!