Stay on track and bring it hard
I wrote a post today about an idea to help whales find and upvote some quality content to spread the pool. I don't think too many whales cared about it, but there were a few comments about being here for a short time and being unwilling to put the effort in while things are slow or the rewards are limited.
This reminded me of something I wanted to bring up at some point and that is optimization. Many people are optimizing their Steemit approach to maximize their gains and protect their time. They are carefully choosing their upvote percentages and curation trails and holding back their best work until things 'improve'.
I completely understand their thinking but, I also question whether what they are doing is the best way to spend their time.
Curate for real
Firstly, the curation trail approach of 0.1 percent upvotes. Unless one has significant SP, this is not likely to return any significant amount but, from what I have heard is that it does annoy people to see 30 votes come in and then receive 4 cents. If looking to maximize curation rewards, find good content, give it your all and resteem it. Unless you are a bigger fish who can afford to take the 'cast a wide net' approach.
Think more about content
Secondly, if a little fish with low SP, the curation return is quite low. My highest so far has been just after HF19 and it got to 8 SP in the week. That was with around 2000 SP in the bank and a curation trail I was trialing (I do not use one now and only vote what I read for quality reasons). That same week (just after HF19) my post returns were over 500 SP and SBD. Currently, I have curation for the last week at 3.3 SP and author rewards around 70 SP and 100 SBD. Granted, I have been here about 6 months and have people that follow and some bots that upvote somewhat regularly. But, I also post relatively often and as high quality as I can manage at any given time. This takes a lot of effort, I will not lie about it.
Look deeper than the number
This leads to the third point, quality content. How I see this is that even though rewards are lower (still higher than when I first joined) quality content attracts the right kinds of audience. Follower count is something, but the depth of the followers is most important. If you have 500 followers who each give you 0.1 votes, you get 50 cents, if a cent you get 5 dollars. But, if you have one invested follower, that 5 dollars is a 5 or 10 percent vote from them but they aren't going to do that regularly if you post low quality content. To get the bigger voters, holding back the best content is not likely to do it unless your mediocre is really great.
Think long-term
Lastly, quality is important across the board too. Let's say you find some really great content that you want to upvote with all you have, be sure to leave a quality comment also as it increases your chance of getting a follow from someone that posts really great content and remember to share if you ant to maximize your curation chances. If things work out (fingers crossed), people that provide great content will eventually be found and earn well. In time, they are the ones that are the depth in your follower pool and since they are the ones getting paid, they likely have even bigger voters behind them. This means when they resteem your work, their deep-pocketed followers have a chance to see you too. But, high quality posters with decent support are not likely to fill their feed with low quality resteems, so without quality, access to their follower pool is denied.
Learn before optimising
What I am trying to say with way too many words is that if you are looking to get established here, bring your A-game. Do not hold back your best work, do not spend your time worrying about what returns very little. Rather, smash it out of the park, even for very little reward. The skills one develops in difficult times are better learned and more greatly appreciated and if all goes well and a bit of luck falls your way, when things do change (for the better) you may have quality supporters who trust your content enough to give you consistent upvotes and shares.
This is an investment into your Steemit future and this is the time to put in the hard yards as when Steem moons (or hits the sun) and you chose to optimize rather than to invest your sweat equity, you will regret it while others reap what they have sewn. This is not easy I understand as there is absolutely no certainty that any of this is going to pay off but, this is an emerging platform and in immaturity is not the time to optimize as what is getting optimized can change with any of the hardforks.
But, your skill at writing or commenting, your deep follower list and the relationships you build are safe from any hardfork for they are unique to you and cannot be as easily taken away. There are many changes that will be introduced over the coming months and hopefully years, being the best version of yourself provides the best chance to succeeding here, or anywhere for that matter.
Use the time effectively to improve and grow. By doing so is actually the best way to achieve what many are trying to get by cutting corners.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
This is not really advice, just my own thoughts on it at the moment and a reminder to myself to keep buying-in as I see the potential in the future. I am not a very good optimizer in the walking world and will always recommend improving the individual over attempting to game the system. This is even more so here as gaming the system early will kill it before most have a chance to realize the potential and get significant returns.
They are some good thoughts @tarazkp... and, as you might have noticed over the last few days, more and more of the serious content creators and curators are starting to flag/downvote the worst of the spam.
The most significant thing I keep coming back to is "time horizon." I always looked at Steemit as a long-term gig... IN SPITE of a long history of seeing sites like this fail in fairly short order. Inevitably (it seems) we end up at the same place almost every time... what I would call a battle of "short term profiteers" vs. "long term builders."
I look at Steemit, and content, and the community... and think to myself "HOW do we build and nurture this, so we still have a place to publish 3, 5, 10 years from now?"
Experience from other venues tells me quality content, consistent community engagement and an "organic" membership build. You "sell" the site not as a "money maker" but as a publishing platform that happens to reward contributors. You advertise for content creators, not for people looking to make a fast buck.
The long term effect is not only a stronger community that's more engaged... but also something that looks attractive to investors which is a direct benefit to those early-adopter whales who hold HUGE stakes. Trust me, they would rather have $10 Steem in 2020 than 1c Steem in 2020.
Problem is... NOBODY is looking at a long-term plan here. Sure, there's a "Steemit Road Map" but I can't ever get more out of that than it's a bunch of "short term course corrections" without an actual long term destination. Where in the White Paper does it talk about "Steemit 2020?" Where does it talk about "Steemit 2025?" It doesn't.
Don't have any really good answers lined up here... but much of "what we need to do" is outlined in your post.
I think that it is part of the current conditioning of society to not look long-term as it doesn't gel with instant gratification. There are however many that do look well into the future and make active steps towards their goals. Hopefully, a few of them are working towards something greater than where we all currently stand rather than where they stand. We shall see.
If this became a place to support and inspire creators, it would likely get investment from the few, but large big players in the world looking to improve the current mess. These types wouldn't look to constrain rather to open room for content across a wide range of areas.
I really hope this does last though as I both enjoy it and think it will make a positive difference to a lot of lives. A pretty good combination.
yes things in long term always gives profit 😊
not always, but the chances are increased.
lets see , what happens
Hi friend, very good !!!!!
You would help me with a vote in my Blog., Thanks !!! ;)
hi, I do not encourage spam cut and paste comments as I think that they are harmful to the platform. I don't often offer advice but you may be better off actually reading the posts first.
hola, lo siento si lo tomas a mal mi comentario , yo soy de Argentina y no se hablar ingles, uso traductor, no lo hice para que te sintieras ofendida, soy nuevo y trato de aprender., espero no volver a molestarte., que tengas un lindo dia, saludos desde Argentina.
Hello, I'm sorry if you take my comment wrong, I'm from Argentina and I do not speak English, I use a translator, I did not do it to make you feel offended, I'm new and I try to learn. I hope not to bother you again. Have a nice day, greetings from Argentina.
It is not polite to cut and paste asking for votes especially, without even reading the post you are commenting upon. People spend a lot of time developing their content only to have it hijacked by people providing links to unrelated content.
If your English is lacking, there is quite a lot to read in Spanish I think here. Try @por500bolos
Thank you, and inform me about bots, I'll try to interact more in my comments from now on, not to look like a machine, I'm following you, I'll use the full translator to read your series! !!, Greetings from Argentina!!!!
PS: You have my Vote