What I've learned after 2 weeks on Steemit. Ever wonder how people make real money here?
After two weeks I have a reputation score of 46
- I have made 16 posts (I would call them quality posts, but that's just me)
- I have 87 followers
- I am following 111 steemians
Umm, Nope it isn't that simple!
source image
To start with I converted 0.1 bitcoin to get steem power. I had around 180 SP
After a week, I was so into it, I converted another 0.3 btc into steem power.
At this point I have a bit over 900 steem power. (95% bought, not earned admittedly)
Those are my stats. I don't feel like they are particularly great, but not a bad two weeks.
What I can tell you is that it's not what I expected at all.
You see when I started Steemit, I expected to immediately be getting $25 for every post. I thought it was that easy because I saw so many crappy posts making hundreds of dollars. I had no idea about all the rigging and scamming going on in Steemit. Let's be honest, it's well documented. There are a lot of whales with dozens of accounts just upvoting themselves and their friends. It's not hard to find if you look for it.
Soon after posting a few posts I began to wonder what these other guys are doing to get so much money for their posts. It didn't take long to see that a lot of those $25 posts had paid a vote bot $24. It didn't take long until I was disenfranchised and wanted to quit the whole thing. The more I dug into it, the more fed up I was about what was going on. Not only did I think getting these results was impossible legitimately, but I also could barely find content that I wanted to read myself.
Then I'd read about people who were posting good quality posts everyday and after several months they were getting traction and making a bit of money. I started figuring out how to find good posts to and people to follow. I was energized again figuring I can keep this up and see if I can get a following in a few months. I mean, I put a lot into my posts, not that I think they are spectacular, I just literally put a lot of time and effort into them. Therefore I was thinking, how long can I spend so many hours per day doing something that isn't giving me a return?
So, again I settled on the fact that I do really enjoy it, so I'll keep doing it. Maybe I won't spend so many hours a day on it. I think for me that's best and should hopefully keep me from getting disenfranchised with the results if I'm not working so hard for little notice. One thing I can say for sure, is that you need to be yourself and post and comment on the things that interest you in a way that feels natural to you. Just because you need to comment a lot and make web friends with a lot of people to succeed, doesn't mean you need to be out there acting like a marketing rep for yourself. You'll just feel even worse about yourself when it doesn't work. Just be genuine and you'll find your crowd. You have to believe that or you're wasting your time.
I believe I'm actually starting to get the hang of writing posts, although I admit my follower count isn't really growing as fast as I'd like. I've started getting more personal in my posts instead of just providing facts and information as I started out doing. I didn't think anyone would care to hear from me, I just figured they wanted useful and helpful facts and information. Now I think users want to be entertained and hopefully get some useful information while at it. At least that's starting to be my shtick.
A few bits of info for the brand new Steemians...
Fist, everything you read about succeeding on Steemit is true. There are no shortcuts. Interacting with others is the only way to success. Finding interesting posts and commenting and upvoting is what grows your followers. All this is assuming you have quality posts, because you can't fake that. No one wants to follow you with crappy posts. So, if you are here to make quick money pumping crap into steemit, forget it. Unless you brought a literal million dollars worth of steem with you. In that case you could probably double it with a ton of work, but that's not what we're talking about here.
Let's talk vote bots...
Buying votes is one of the first things I read about while trying to learn how to grow my following. As I read and understood it, not everyone liked them or agreed with them. But, there seemed to be a gray area that I was OK with. It was explained to me like a tip jar. Have you ever seen an empty tip jar? Probably not. That's because its a proven fact that people aren't as likely to put money in an empty tip jar. They need to see that someone has already tipped. I think votes are similar often times. I use vote bots often, but in very small amounts (usually 0.5 std per post) and usually within a few minutes of posting just to ensure it starts out with a bit of traction and doesn't get immediately buried. I'm still honestly not sold on how well it works, but it seems to be slightly above 0% profitability so technically it doesn't seem like it costs me anything to use them in the long run. I hope to not need them in the next couple of months. Once I have a good following I should be able to get few upvotes pretty quickly after posting. (Here's to hoping while working hard for it)
Now, what I think of as cheating, even though I've thought about it briefly, is spending a couple hundred dollars to try and bot upvote my post to the trending page. Then possibly it would get real traction and make an additional $50 or so. I can't bring myself to try that for several reasons.
I have learned a ton on Steemit in these two weeks! I did almost quit on several occasions, but I've decided that I enjoy it so I'll keep on keeping on even if I don't get the results I'm looking for right away. If it becomes like work, I'm sure I'll step away some, but I seem to be drawn to it now. I'm not sure, maybe it's more like an addiction? There are times it definitely feels like it as I'm refreshing my steemd page looking of updates!
What are your thoughts? What' keeps bring you back here? What nearly drives you away? Addicted to it yet?
You perfectly describe my first week. I'm sick so I have unlimited time for steemit. I got some big upvote action but than again.. Some great articles got zero...
Thnx for boosting my motivation
Thanks. Strangely enough I received a huge whale upvote yesterday. It's awesome but seems like luck so I have no idea how to recreate it. I guess we just keep on keeping on.
I stay off the trending pages for the most part, and then I don’t get annoyed when I see crummy posts getting hundreds of dollars. I’m here more for the company than the dollars (I’m one of those “all of Mommy’s friends are in the computer” people), though of course I’d like to increase the dollars over time—overall, I don’t mind growing slow and steady.
I'm with you. The sad thing is, the first few times I looked at steemit I didn't think much of it because all I saw was the trending page and it wasn't worth looking at to me. It wasn't till I searched on a few of my interests that I realized their was good interesting content with great folks on here.
Thanks for stopping by and letting me know you thoughts.
Totally agree! Some Steemit blogs are actually quite interesting. There are many good writers on this platform.
Totally agree! I have been discovering a ton of new people joining every day that write about similar topics. I think that people should think of this more like they do Reddit or Facebook and focus on just enjoying and learning from others, rather than just looking for money. That being said it is very hard to become part of the community without doing a little bot voting, or investing to build power, or just bringing followers from another platform.
Haha you're definitely not alone @qberry stick with it! I'm new just like you are. I haven't payed for any of my steem but have started to really make some good earnings over this past month. Trust me it is a LOT of work but also well worth it in my opinion. I'm not sure how I feel about bots either to be honest but I do like your analogy to the tip jar. I've used them a couple of time and like yourself I don't seem to see that much of a return but yet again I'm still learning also so theres a very real possibility that I just don't know enough about them yet to really have it worth my time to be using them. Hope to see you around more tho. and looking forward to your next post :)
Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm sticking!
You look like you are doing great here! I hope I have that many followers in another month.
Oddly enough this is already my most voted post. Not the most money, but definitely votes so that's a good sign I guess. I don't want everyone to think it's the ONLY reason I'm here, but it's definitely a big deal to get that needed positive feedback.
As for the vote bots, I don't feel like they helped me very much at all, however I do see that they provide a monetary return since I almost always get back more than I put in them. I really don't feel great about using them and don't think I will for very long though. Thanks for stopping here.
Thank you @qberry it definitely take A LOT of time and effort believe me, especially as I already don't have much extra free time on my hands as I'm in grad school and on my clinical rotations getting ready for residency. However, if you look at my older post you'll see they didn't make much at all either. Especially at the beginning. Shit some didn't even make anything lol but stick with it and the money comes as well. Just write about the things you like an interest you and people will come and just try to help others out along the way as well as everyone on here as been in your shoes. So when you're successful just remember that but keep with it an success will come its only a matter of time + effort :)
Those are great words. I appreciate it. I guess I need to ensure I'm not falling into the trap of looking at the finance aspect as my measurement of success, especially now that I'm enjoying it.
I bought the majority of my vote power as well, for a number of reasons but mainly because I have a lot of faith in this platform! Steem on and you are right, be yourself seems to work. There is enough fake people on TV.
Thanks for the confirmation. I had no worries bringing btc to change for steem because I wanted to get some other cryptos anyway and I'm sure steem will grow tremendously in value. I'm a long haul crypto guy at this point. I sold a ton of btc in 2014 that I'd held since early 2010. I'm keeping everything I have now for the long haul!
I'm into this for two and a half weeks, started to feel the same way. What triggered me was someone was commenting me to do more posts like a previous one, all the while having 2 bots upvote His comments... That's keeping it classy :D
Wow, I haven't seen that one yet. I wouldn't be surprised. Someone was complaining earlier about bots spamming their comments with "Nice Post" all the time and I'm over here like, I'd be ok with that. Send me a few of the spam commenting bots :)
I feel you. When I first found out about the bots, I was both intrigued and pissed. Everywhere you look, people with more friends and more money always find a way to take over the real game. But Oh Well, I can still do a little something and scratch the surface.
Steem is going to be worth holding on to.
Thanks man, yep I came to the same conclusion. For all the negatives i've found, I've consistently found positives that outweigh them so I'm sticking around because I enjoy it. It has just shaped my mindset quite a bit. Knowledge it power though.
keep up the hard work and you will do fine! maybe not straight away but Steemit is growing fast so in a year everything will be different
I agree with you. Thanks stopping by here! Keep those festival posts coming.
I'm gonna invest as well, as soon as I manage to actually buy crypto. Man, it's such a pain in the ass nowadays! Or maybe you know a way to do it without the hassle of proving your identity and address?
Mining which I don't recommend will get it anonymously, otherwise something like localbitcoins.com where you can buy directly from a person wanting to sell and they could care less who you are. I believe there are also places that will still take a credit / debit card where you can buy a gift/visa card that isn't attached to your identity and use it. I've had mine since 2010 so I haven't tried any of that admittedly.
I might try localethereum.com, but I'm not sure everything will be ok since banks are always fucking me over, no matter what I'm trying to do. And I still need a way to get exchange it for fiat eventually. What the hell happened to crypto...
don't stress it. It's been going on for 8 years now. It's always back and forth with the banks and legislation. Now that it's cooled down now I think it will get easier again. When the prices were so crazy banks knew people were getting screwed and didn't want to be responsible so many of them didn't want to be involved.
Come on, it's only excuses. They know that crypto is a threat to them, as much as it's a threat for the govts. They are afraid to lose power and are trying to suppress it. We'll see how it plays out.
I believe that is also true, but I believe those banks that stopped allowing their cards to be used to buy crypto will reverse that decision before too long.
Thanks for this authentic and seriously funny post! Especially your memes (I love the Archer one!!) made me laugh... So let´s hope you don´t get ants and a lot of STEEM instead! I follow you!
Thanks, I really appreciate that!
This post has received a 25.00 % upvote from @spotlight thanks to www.resteemit.com.