To gain followers prove easy for some and extremely difficult for others. Here are some of my opinions and things I noticed while on my journey to eventually leave the minnow pool. Keep in mind I am quite the stalker here on Steemit, always checking everyone's following, join date and wallet. Here are some things I noticed.
The Good
Steemit is for bloggers, creators with good content can create while earning some Steem. There will always be writers and there will always be readers. Creating quality content that gain you a following is by far the best way to go. This is no easy task. Some people are only starting out now and the progress is painstakingly slow. This is not the case for everyone. There are people out there with such a natural talent for bringing new fresh material out, they don't really need to promote themselves. They just post and they post hard! Amazing quality that contributes to Steemians and leaving the readers wanting more. An example of these users who are Steemian rockets are @rafalgar and @jerrybanfield . @jerrybanfield joined on May 22nd and go look at the quality of content in his account. He is a true Steemit rocket!
Another good way would be to befriend as many new people as you can when they join, but is that really the way to go?? I feel welcoming someone is important to the Steemit community, asking them to following you is fine too. They are new and eager to follow someone for the first time, this does not mean they will stay on Steemit. We have lost a shitload of new users who come here because they hope to make a quick buck, not all new users are like this though. The easy money seekers see it's not as easy as they might think and then they bail. This leaves many users with empty followers. No use having 200 followers if half of them are not even on Steemit anymore or never upvote your content simply just because the topics doesn't interest them.
The good is to come up with quality content and post, if it's really good your following will increase. Coming up with this quality is hard though. Think and work hard, plan and then execute, most of the successful bloggers spend hours per post. See what works for you and move a way from what doesn't. If you are good you will get noticed.
The Bad
Many of the new users just come here to make some fast cash, posting everything and anything. Spamming the chats with their links of all kinds of random stuff. Some users have also started posting links from YouTube that isn't their original work, thus copy and pasting others hard work. I am still not a fan of this, even if it benefits the Youtuber and the Steemian. In the end I don't see it as a long term strategy. The users do get followers though, posting that cute cat or funny skit is familiar to the new Steemians and they follow. It is a way to get followers but for the long run I don't think that cute video or picture from the interwebs will get you to Whale status. You will only get minnows voting and following. The pool may dry up eventually.
Follow for follow, I still don't get this. Follow the people who's content you actually enjoy and then upvote . If those followers are going to post content that they don't actually want to read they will just skip over it fast and easy thus gaining an empty follower. This tactic might work if you have over 500 followers gained by follow for follow, some of your content might dribble through to interested readers. If you go for the masses, it might work, but I still feel it might not be the right way to go... Follow what you are actually interested in, the good stuff.
The Ugly
The ugly truth of it all is that there will always be the users who are here only to make a quick few bucks. Doing anything to get those extra followers. Resteeming every 2nd post they come across, follow for follow, greeting and following all the new users relentlessly. I'm not saying this is completely the wrong way to go, it really does work for some. But shouldn't we try to focus more on quality content and followers. Having so many empty followers spamming each other with links and depleted upvote strength votes... It just makes the minnow pool grow larger and larger, eventually they push each other out, frustration sets in and we lose new users.
In conclusion
Use any tactic you like, whatever works for you. Try to think about the long run though, the new users and the Steemit ecosystem. Instead let's work harder to create quality content, something that not only the minnows will vote on but a dolphin or whale as well. Some users are great at this and are doing really well. Others are swimming around in the minnow pool creating waves and flushing out some users...
Just my 2 cents, please correct me or educate me in areas where I might be wrong.
Thank you for reading! Steem on Stemians!
Great article I have two admit it I put in a few sports videos that I did not create myself but I like to watch them as a fan
Yeah I guess a few is ok. Just meant a user must not be doing only that. That's what Youtube is for =). Guess if you write ideas and opinions about the videos it still counts as original content.
The video may not be yours but what you say about the video is; I've noticed people copy Entire articles and post them on here.... Def about to unfollow the ones I see doing that. Quote an article, or link to one; but don't just Copy and Paste lol; Great stuff here @scrooger - following you now
Thanks mate! Yes it is quite frustrating thinking they are just trying a simple copy and past method. Glad toy agree. Best of luck to you mate. Will check out your blog. =)
Excellent advice, as you point out, the right way is rarely ever the easy way. As a minnow trying to put some thought (and proofreading) into my posts, it is frustrating when you get zero or a few cents for a piece and then see spam posts collecting big payouts. I have to remind myself why I'm here and not on FB.
Exactly mate! So many other gain followers by the hundreds for nothing really. No real contribution. Its hard not to get a bit frustrated when we take so much time on our posts. I have spent well over an hour on some of my posts. Making gifs and editing pictures. It all takes time. Like you say though, it comes with hard work. Let's work hard and reap the rewards later. Patience and hardwork is key here.*
Just gave your blog a glance, see you set your payout to 100% steem power. I suggest you shouldn't. Go check out @papa-pepper blog. He will explain all in detail. Also a good guy to follow if you aren't following him already. Many useful tips for newbies
Thanks for the tip - although I joined last July I'm still feeling my way around.
Thanks, I'm still working my way through @pappa-pepper's videos. Thanks for the advice!
Thanks, @Scrooger, I agree with your advice. Some people might be gifted at making a fast post, but if we're looking for true quality content on this site then we should take the time to create it ourselves and reward those who make the effort to generate and post good content themselves. @jerrybanfield is a rocket indeed, and an excellent Steemian to follow (and actually read through to the end of his posts!). Upvoted, followed and resteemed!
Thanks mate, you have exactly the right mindset. I know it's hard to make quality content and we are all a bit guilty of posting something thats fast and easy in hoping it will make a few bucks. I'm guilty of that too. Trying to turn a new page and create only something really worth reading. Otherwise im spamming my own account with silly things. Not the way to healthy followers.
Aiming to be a healthy follower here :-)
This is a good article. I am really new here. I haven't even introduced myself yet ... All the more I am thankful for good advice to avoid at least some of the common mistakes everyone makes. Thank you a lot!
Welcome here! Your introduction post is really important so remember to put some effort into it, it really does go a long way!
This is very useful and can help a lot of newbies. I truly believe in writing quality content and quality is definitely better than quantity. So instead of 3-4 posts daily and bombarding your followers, concentrate on 1 high quality post and you will see the numbers of followers increasing, maybe slowly at first but surely. As they say, Rome is not build in one day.
Totally agree. Once you can make one quality post a day and you see a good following, maybe then you can try to get more than one out. Quality over quantity!
Defintely. Anyway that is the strategy that i am now using.
Really good article, speaking the truth! Looking forward to your next posts :)
Thanks mate! Appreciate it!
I agree, these two are rockets!
They truely are. We can learn a lot from them. We just need to want to learn.
I like you make it simple and clear
Thanks, have been thinking a while if I should write about it. Did not want to make it feel like I'm venting, but the new users need to know.
Hi @scrooger I'm a newbie (almost a week) to the steemit community, still trying to understand how it works. There are so many points to your post that are great tips for a newbie trying to find their way in the community. I have noticed the follow for follow, and unrelated to the topic links pasted in replies to other steemians posts and wondered if they even bothered reading the post that someone has given their time and effort to write. I also believe, like you mentioned that producing good quality content in topics and themes you have a passion for or are interested in, will increase your following. Thank you for your post, highly appreciated by this newbie!
Thanks for that, appreciate it that you read through it and got what I'm trying to say. Hope you have a lot of success here. I know it's hard and kind of discouraging at first but with time I think it will get easier. Have a good one!
Thank you, you too!
Excellent advice to a newbie like me. Thank you ;)
Glad it helped!
welcome to Steem :)