My Thoughts After A Week Of Steem, Advice For Newcomers

So It's been a week since I began my Steem adventure already. This post is more of my recollections with encounters of the community. I'll be talking about my personal likes and dislikes of the platform and finally give a conclusion on where I stand with it as of today. Now where to begin... lets start with the bad I suppose. Having your cake at the end is more suiting than the beginning don't you agree? Don't worry, I promise the cake isn't a lie. Also stay tuned, I may be new here but I want to give some advice that I've already learned myself and share it with you guys.

The Bad
Alright, I'm sorry but I really need to address this as it bothers me just enough to annoy me. I know that Steem is collecting a lot of newcomers right now, myself included, so things like this are bound to happen. I see so many users coming in here and begging for up-votes and followers. They will usually say things like "I follow you if you follow me" or "I up-voted you so please come up-vote me and follow". Sometimes they will even go as far as demanding in ways such as "I have followed, follow back."

I get that you guys want to get big fast and start earning money, but that isn't how you do it. Sure you may get some followers from people with the same mindset as you but that is exactly the problem. Think about it deeply for second and read this. You are getting followers hoping they will vote you up, but you don't really have the intention of up-voting all those people you followed do you? Now imagine that all those people who followed you are thinking the same way. In that case, sure you'd get an initial up-vote but they have no intention of continuing. So in conclusion all you are doing is wasting your time instead of using that to actually start making progress.

Besides the tremendous amount of that going on, the website's design isn't exactly great either. It is really rough around the edges and could use a ton of small improvements. For example, a drop down menu for topics like on mobile phones would be amazing. They could also use the mass amount of empty white for something else. If you are reading an article, suggest other articles similar to the one you are reading using the users following list and preference. The bulletin system for comments it also out dated and a huge waste of space. However, with all these complaints I know they will be fixed in due time. Steem is still in Beta and has many years to improve itself.

This is how I imagine everyone who tries this strategy and thinks it's how you use Steem.

The Good
Enough about my personal gripes, I'm starting to sound like the Grinch. It's finally time to talk about the good stuff! First off is the community here. While I admit there are tons of people doing what I addressed earlier, the number of amazing people dwarf them to the point that I am able to see it as just a small annoyance. 80% of the people here are all extremely nice and helpful. They offer good criticism and opinions when they comment, and post interesting things in general. I have yet to come across more than a few people who haven't responded to a question or gave a less than satisfactory reply.

Next is the diversity in topics. There is truly a topic for pretty much anything you can imagine. Yes, even including the uhh... less than appropriate kind you could say. (Thank the lord for censorship am I right? Imagine scrolling through Steem's new section only to stumble across that content in public. The horror and embarrassment that would follow...) They make it really easy to find the exact section you want to place your post in. You can never run out of things to talk about and you can actually write anything that you want to write about. There is no worrying about running out of things to explore and discover either. You can be entertained for ages just by exploring everything there is to offer.

Congrats on making it this far!

My Advice to You
Keep in mind this is based off of my personal thoughts, opinions, and experiences. Please by no means take any of this as concrete fact. I always encourage you to try things out your way first and do things how you want to do them. (Unless you are doing drugs. Don't do drugs kids.) Anyways, the first thing I would say to you is if you really want to be successful here talk about things you want to talk about. Sure you might see people talking about Bitcoin and posting facts making 3 grand a pop, however those people are doing it as a full on business. They are trying to make a living off of it. If you are just trying to do this as a side thing then don't dive into it that deep.

Instead of doing all that and boring yourself to death, write about things you like and enjoy. Your work is so much more enjoyable to read and make if you put love and passion into what you are doing. You can really tell the enthusiasm levels of a writer and the feeling of the piece changes so much compared to someone doing it to make a quick buck or two. This also brings me back to my first complaint and I want to give advice to those people. Follow the people posting things that you plan to write about and enjoy yourself. Chances are by doing that the person you followed is likely to have the same interests as you and follow you back if you make good work. This way you will have readers who actually enjoy reading what you make and will come back for more, instead of a ragtag group of followers who will like your post once or twice in the entirety of their time following you.

The next advice I have for you is presentation of your stories. Don't be one of those people that never puts a proper spacing between their paragraphs. Doing this makes your article feel jumbled together and claustrophobic. As humans we enjoy ingesting bite sized pieces of information taking them in slowly. Having 5 paragraphs but keeping them connected makes it look like a chore to read and is usually an instant turn off.

Finally the advice I have for you is diversify your writing style. Don't use the same words repeatedly and never start all of your sentences the same. You should also try to put emphasis on certain words of your writing to make them feel more important and draw the reader back in again like I did in the last sentence. Just doing these small things can add so much more life into your writing, you'd honestly be amazed. Oh, and don't forget to add an occasional picture to match the mood and give the reader a break from the long list of reading.

My Conclusion
Steem is an amazing place, and it's going to grow quickly. Treat the people right and they will do the same to you. I like this place and I hope to continue posting!
Quick, hit triangle!
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That's all I have for you this time and sorry for the long post. Please consider following, up-voting and sharing this article if you enjoyed it! I hope I could help at least one person today. Have a wonderful day like usual, and may your heart be your guiding key.