When joining Steemit, we make a list of followers and one for following as well. Do we know how many are dead?

Introduction

When I joined Steemit, there were many like me who accepted to follow each other and also find some Steemians who have been on the platform for a long time. We try to write some good comments to get noticed by the big guys and in the end we managed to build that list.

While writing my posts, I have seen that not many of my followers upvote my posts. Some of them may not be high quality but they were not that bad also. I tried writing in different timezone since I thought maybe they are not online when I am posting. The result was the same.

My followers list is not that impressive with 115 in the one month since I joined. I thought that if only 20% vote on my posts, I would be getting something decent to invest in Steem Power and make my growth exponential. With all the excitement and motivation that I had when joining, it all faded in the space of one month.

This has helped me make extensive research on Steemit, trying to understand the maximum I could about the platform. This is how I stumbled on cool services like @minnowsupport, @minnowbooster, @worldclassplayer, @randowhale, @dropahead and @bellyrub . These bots have been a real eye opener on the Steemit platform. Showed me the different possible ventures, how to use them and how to become an investor myself.

My dead following and followers list

(credit: pixabay)

During the weekend, I did not have much inspiration to write on a new article, which allowed me to check out all the people that I am following and following me. I wanted to use this research as a means of finding what others are doing right/wrong and how I can apply it to myself. I made two gruesome discovery during my analysis.

First gruesome discovery

I am following some 50 Steemians at the moment as I am building my list. I have read posts on the importance of having a manageable list of following, which makes sense. A big following list would clutter my feed whereby I would not have been able to read all the articles with much attention and creating a long lasting friendship with them through some great comments. 

When I checked my wall / feed, only some 10 Steemians posts regularly (excluding bots of course). I was shocked to see that. Where are the others, what are they doing, they don't like posting? It took me some time to digest the discovery. What is happening on Steemit?

Second gruesome discovery

I went on the feeds of my followers to check out their activities and it was disturbing. Their last posts or comments were 20 days ago or 30 days ago. They were not active. Some had not even post anything.

Around 90% were dead accounts!

No wonder I am not getting any upvotes from the majority of my followers. I started to feel alone in this vast sea. It made me doubt the platform. Is this something I want to be in? Why are they all leaving? Will the platform crash soon enough with the dip in almost all cryptocurrencies?

My conclusion

Of those Steemians that had posted something, I checked their curation reward history as well as payout from posts. Most of them were less than $2. One Steemian had written some 10 posts with the average payout being around $0.05. Some of those posts were well written with good references but his/her reputation was 27. With such a low reputation, his article did not get the recognition it deserves. They have got discouraged by the way Steemit works.

The main problem, I believe, is the way Steemit has been presented to them, whereby they thought they would be making hundreds of bucks on each post. Their fairy tale broke when reality smashed into them. It takes time and energy to grow a blog. To create your followers list. Keep updating your followers list as many would be leaving the platform soon enough. Keep following new people with great posts so that your wall does not look empty. There is much work and dedication that need to be invested on the platform before reaping the big bucks. The shortest and sure way that a newbie can become big is to invest in Steem directly by converting fiat or other cryptocurrencies to SBD/Steem.

All in all, the difficulty to penetrate the Steemit market and the lack of concise information has led to a very low retention rate. My friend @elyaque provides a daily summary on the number of accounts that have been created and it makes me wonder how many will still be active at the end of the month. I have decided to take some steps to help the community as the community has helped me.

My pledge

To help the Steemit community, I have started some actions, which I hope, will make others follow and help in increasing the retention rate.

50 SP delegation to Minnowsupport

@minnowsupport had been of great help in my early days. It requires 0.002 SBD to register for the service but as a newbie, they can't afford the service till the 7th day when they will be getting their first payout. Some have probably never heard of this service before since there are thousands of posts coming out each day, such kind of information gets easily dissolved in the Steem ocean. For the recognition and the support that they have given me during my early days, I have delegated 50 SP to @minnowsupport to allow the team to upvote with greater powers and continue helping new Steemians. I will continue to delegate more SP as I will be able to afford to show my ongoing support.

0.002 SBD giveaway

To all newbies reading this post, comment on the post to get the 0.002 SBD to register for @minnowsupport service. If you do not know how to register, just give me a shout and I will help you with it. The first step is to register yourself on their discord channel using the following link.

Then go on the #registration channel and then write

$register yourSteemitUsername

In the chat room, you will get 2 messages; one from @banjo and one from @minnowsupport whereby you will be required to send each one 0.001 SBD. DON'T FORGET THE MEMO TEXT WHEN SENDING THE SBD!! Once your registration is successful, visit the #upvote channel to use the service like below:

$upvote fullurlofyourgreatarticle

Share this post with all new Steemians who are struggling on the platform and let them know that there are Steemians in the community who are willing to help them grow and share awesome contents with us.