You’re a minnow on Steemit and you want to make what you do work on here. You want people to read your articles, watch your videos, and share them. That’s great!

In order to do that and be successful, there are four keys to making it work on here.

We call them “The Four Cs To Success”

What are they?

Content
Community
Commenting
Commitment

That’s it!

I’ve been uploading content on the internet for over 10 years now and a lot of what i’m about to tell you are basic fundamentals to whatever success is to you.

What I have here holds true for a lot of successful people here on Steemit and any other platform on the internet.

Let’s go further into this!

1. Content - Is your content good?

Too many times, people get started and think if they upload something, it’ll be viral automatically. This COULD be true but 95%, it won’t be. One can put a lot of time and effort into making something viral but one can’t just MAKE a viral video or blog on the fly. If that were true, then EVERYONE would have viral content and it wouldn’t be all that special. Content creators starting out fail to realize that it’s important to make GOOD content. If it’s good, it COULD go viral. BUT! In order for something to go viral, there are three methods one has to consider:

a. Zeitgeist - Is what you have so crazy, so unbelievable, that it it’s interesting?
In early 2016, I made a video where South Koreans in Korea react to an episode of Family Guy on Korea. The video has been up almost 2 years and it’s at over 767k views. No one in the world did what I did! To this day, I STILL get comments on the video talking about how "racist" and "offensive" that episode was. This year, I wrote a blog post on how I overcame my porn addiction

b. Timing - A lot of what’s shown on the news is bad and people want an escape. If something is interesting, happy, and newsworthy, it’ll get a lot of attention. Family Guy got a LOT of attention around the time I made that reaction video. It wasn't anything that would make one's heart sink or cry, it was something entertaining and fun. Speaking of...

c. General - This is a fancy word for how relatable it is. YouTube channel RDCworld1 makes videos on one thing everyone could relate to: cartoons and sitcoms. Their content is presented in such a way that's relatable, the viewers go "I feel the same way too!". My Family Guy video invokes the same kind of reaction! While Family Guy is loved all around many English speaking countries, the fans felt the way the Koreans felt about the song!

d. Innocuous - This is a grey area only because a lot of videos that are viral are either innocuous or not. RDCworld1 videos usually have a lot of bad words yet they go viral. On the flipside, Casey Neistat’s video on a $21k plane ride was super innocent and something EVERYONE could watch without being offended by swearing or images.

2. Community - How involved are you in the community your content is related to?

From July 2016 until May 2017, I was under 1000 followers on Twitch after being consistent. My content was really subpar and limited. From July 2017 going on, I went up to 2,450 followers within two months! What happened? I got more involved in the community!

On Twitch, my bread and butter is IRL (In Real Life). While I lived in Korea, i’d constantly go out and showcase the country from my point of view! I also got involved with other streamers in Korea and other countries by helping them on their stream, donating, sharing their content by hosting or on social media, and being ALL ABOUT THEM. Community is NOT about what others can do for me; it’s about what can YOU do for others.

The most successful streamers are involved in community because they not only care about making great content but they care about their community and how to build others.

Many successful Steemians are involved in the Steem community through social media and message boards. They post their content on a Steem discord, they look at others content relating to their own and comment (which i’ll get into next). Community is the driving force to success.

My best friend “Big John” has been involved in the retro video game community for years. He has a love for collecting retro games and he’s always providing value! Whenever he goes to a convention for retro games, people are always happy to see him! They ask him for advice, they take pictures with him, they want his autograph, they want him for interviews! These days, he’s taking his involvement in the community to the next level by making a podcast with his friends.

3. Comment - Do you have thoughtful comments on other people’s content?

This is a criminally overlooked aspect to being a content creator. This relates to community but let’s go into this a little more. Steemit user @taskmaster4450 wrote a blog post about being involved through comments. Sure, you get comments on your content but you can judge how serious someone is in a community through HOW they comment. If you get someone that spams your comment section by begging you to “follow [them] and [they’ll] follow back”, 10/10 they’ll have really crappy content themselves and are not all that involved. I also like to call them leeches.

User @jedau has a post on treating other users as investments while being someone worthy of an investment. One of the ways to do this is through commenting. Do they follow the first three rules of this list? Are they interesting enough for you to want to know more from them? If they comment on your stuff, do they leave fascinating comments relating to what you wrote/vlogged about? There are a number of other factors to consider but if they comment and cared enough about your content, chances are, they’re good people. The same can be said for you when you go and comment on others.

4. Commitment - How committed are you in making great content and being involved?

Anyone can create content. We live in the best time to do so! There are so many content creators out there willing and wanting to make blogs, vlogs, livestreams, whatever. But how many of them are committed to sticking with it? Making content isn’t always fun. It has to be treated like a full time job. There are a lot of down periods where no one is looking. You sometimes question your ambition, your santity, your desires, your mission. “Is this all I have to look forward to?” is what you ask yourself. In the word of R&B Singer Frankie Beverly, “Joy & pain is like sunshine and rain”. Both are a necessary balance to growth. If all you get is joy, you won’t know where your weak points are.

This year, I made sure to stay committed to my YouTube channel. I pushed through failure and failure until I found a method that worked! When I started Shaun On Site, I wanted my channel to be about a positive outlook on a black man’s life in Asia. I was constantly frustrated by the fact there were other YouTubers covering the same topics and they were getting numbers. I later realized doing what everyone else does wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I had to be committed to trying new things and failing until I found something that worked.

In early 2013, my first viral video got over 500k views in a month thanks to what I adhered above. Back then, I didn't know why but looking back, I see how it all makes sense. I have to be committed to giving people what they want!

WHAT MY AUDIENCE WANTS: REACTION VIDEOS. HINT: LOOK AT THE NUMBERS!

I'll be honest, I HATE doing reaction videos but it's what my audience wants and it's getting me the number I want so i'm going to be committed to giving them what THEY want.

My reaction videos I got over 4k subs THIS YEAR. By the end of 2018, I plan to get to over 100k on there and on Steemit. This year, i’m committed to HELPING OTHERS through my videos and words instead of being all about the money (which is why my growth has been slow).

Stay committed where you are and work with what you got! Make sure you strive to improve and be open to learn from others. Stick with it until you find out what works and what does not. It’s okay to quit when something doesn’t work but it’s NOT okay to NEVER give up!

Family, I hope this gets you excited for what’s to come in 2018. Instead of waiting until January 1st to take care of your business, DO IT NOW!

Peace and love!
Shaun