My First 45 Days (or So) on Steemit
I wandered onto the Steemit website in early August. Intrigued, but rather confused, I roamed around the site for a while. Didn’t quite understand the whole steem, steem dollars and steem power concept. Then again, cryptocurrency was a mystery too.
Making the Connection
What connected was this was a site to post original content and potentially get paid. There was some people getting paid some serious dollars too. Very interesting. I’m into writing and who isn’t into getting paid? The rest of this stuff, well I could learn.
Sign Me Up
So, cautiously, I started doing the signup process. That wasn’t too hard to do, other than those big long keys. That is what the lord made copy/paste for. Don’t have to memorize them.
Okay, so once logged in I start to look around. There is something called a wallet.. That should be like where money goes, trust me to head there first. Didn’t take long to figure out that the amounts on the posts were in steem dollars. Took me longer to figure out that the amount in steem dollars could be withdrawn in full but once they get moved to steem power, then a person needs to power down in 104 increments.
You Don’t Wear Vests Here
Still haven’t quite got my head around steem and vests. I do know that vests on this site are not those sleeveless jackets I’ve worn on occasion. Vests seem to have something to do with what would be like my share in the site. The more vests I have the greater my presence on the site. That apparently has to do with my voting power and reputation.
I don’t have to know how the car works to drive it, so I guess I can have a few mysteries. I did move some steem dollars to steem at one point and then to steem power. Man, I felt so smart when I figured that out.
How to Grow on Steemit
Continuing my exploring, I found that I need to build followers and steem power to grow on the site. To get people seeing posts, you need followers. The more steem power, the more your upvotes are worth. Okay, so how do I get steem power?
More exploring, well that was just too damn easy. Post your work, get upvoted, earn steem dollars because some of those steem dollars shown on the posts, they go to steem power. Or I can just transfer steem dollars to steem power. There is also an option to buy steem power directly, that’s too complicated for this little brain, yet.
Reading Before I Leap
Now, the concept here is to write original content. Sort of may be a good idea to have a look at what has been posted. What topics seem to be of interest. I spent some time reading, not just the Trending posts but newly posted ones as well. I read posts about the site. Lots of posts about the site.
Some of those posts were really helpful in that they gave me some idea of how to get along on the site. Others were people complaining about how the site worked. What’s a site without people complaining, eh? I noticed what they wrote but decided I’d find out for myself. So, motoring on.
Time to Try Writing A Post
Okay, so the concept seemed to be to write an introduction. That seemed like a logical place to start. And wow, look at this intro posts making good money. Show me the way!!
I click on “Submit a Story” and look at the editing screen. Ummm, okay, I see a few things that I’m familiar with but what is this markdown stuff? Where do I upload a picture, cause they seem to want pictures on posts? Oh dear.. This is going to be hard.
I explore some more. I find out that I can use SOME, not all HTML if I don’t want to use markdown. Okay, I know a lot of HTML. And that I need to upload my pictures to a place where I can get a direct URL to make them display. And don’t forget to put sources on the pictures, cause they really stew about that.
For the record, the pictures in this post, they're mine. I'm the source
Maybe I wont worry about a picture on the first post. Baby steps. Back I go to the editor, and I write my wonderful prose. Click, um wait, I can’t click the Post button. Now what did I do wrong? OH, I need tags, no sweat. I enter them, still no luck. Okay no commas allowed. Still no luck. Eventually I sort out that the tags need to be lowercase and just a space between them.
VOILA! I get to post. Then I wait and watch. I get a few upvotes and a few comments. The post makes 5 cents. Not a rocking start. I go back to reading.
Didn’t Give Up
Over the next few days I tried a few more posts. I was getting more comfortable formatting them, and had, after some trial and error managed to post pictures. I only made a few pennies on each post but I did notice that I was getting a few followers and a few more votes on every post.
Okay, maybe income is not a good indicator of success here. Oh, maybe I should start following other people. I found Steem Chat, that was interesting. Being a really good lurker, I watched where convos were going on.
Commenting, I need to do commenting on posts but not just junk comments, meaningful ones. Okay, will try that. Curating, I’d been reading about curating before I joined Steemit. I need to learn that more.
Oh, wait, curating on Steemit has to do with who votes up a post first. To stop bots from profiting from curating, there is a 30 minute delay built in before you can get anything from curating. Okay, so a race but a slow race, maybe. My friend confusion came back.
Somewhere in there was a hardfork, who they heck ever heard of a softfork, of course forks are hard. Oh wait, this one isn’t for eating. It has to do with updating of a blockchain site.
This one brought about a feature which showed me my reputation. Imagine, my reputation reduced to a number. Mine was like 34, I knew that had to go up, but how? Post good quality content I’m told. Okay, I’ll see what I can do.
Trying Something Different
About a week into my time here I tackled a biographical piece about a Canadian war hero I had known. Now, that one did really well. Well, really well for someone who had not yet broken a dime.. I hit a couple of hundred on that one. I was pumped! I had arrived!
A week later, I wrote about The Tragically Hip’s final performance. That hit less than $100 but I was pleased, really pleased. Like, let’s dream about this great future here pleased. I did another post on my mother’s experience with Essiac Tea. That earned a few pennies.
Wrote a few others. They only scored a few cents each. I have to admit. I was feeling some discouragement. This wasn’t going to go as smooth as I thought. I wondered if I should put time into the site, but you know, I did enjoy reading the articles.
Opportunity Shows Itself
It was while I was reading a bunch of posts on September 3rd that it finally struck me what I could do. Since I enjoyed reading and some of those posts I really liked and had some thoughts about, why not write a daily journal and include commentary and links to my favourite posts that I’ve read that day?
It seemed like a natural extension of what I was doing, reading. It would be real curation, not a race to be the first voter, but passing on links to posts I like and commenting on what I liked. I was giving it a try.
Steemit Ramble is Born
So, I posted my first journal later that day. I decided to try to write like I was telling someone the highlights of my day and the articles I liked. I shared the link in some of the promotion channels on Steem Chat and I waited. By the next day, the post had made just over 50 cents. One of the pleasures of really small returns.. When you make ten times what you’d made before, it’s a win LOL
Then Came the 30-Day Challenge
I enjoyed doing the post. My reading now felt productive instead of just burning time. I decided I needed some writing discipline. Why not challenge myself to keep this up for 30 days? I accepted my challenge.
Like most goals, you need to make them public to make them real. So, I’ve been very public about the challenge. I have day 17 sitting in production as I write this. I’ll be posting it before long.
Something I have found while doing this is that not only is it a challenge for myself, it is a way for me to help others. Some of my favourite reads have not had much attention. By including them in the ramble, they get some attention. I also try to take note of the criteria of some of the initiatives on Steemit to help struggling authors and bring them to their attention.
Where Am I at This Point?
Well, I’m doing something I’ve always wanted to do, write and get paid. I haven’t made enough to even pay a few bills at this point, but you know what? I am making some every day. I’m growing every day, my reputation, my followers, my steem power and my steem dollars. It might be less than a dollar a day, but it’s growth.
I know it is going to take me time to build momentum, but I’m willing to do so. If I don’t succeed, it will be because I gave up, not because of Steemit’s failing.
So, if you have the fortitude and determination — stick around on Steemit. If not, well, maybe it just isn’t a good match.
Subscribing to My Posts
In addition to following me on Steemit, which I really appreciate. If you want to be sure to know about every post, you can subscribe at my other blog. I’ll send you an email when I post.
Just thought it fits here...
interesting :) thanks