You've Got the Hustle, But What About the Flow? Developing Workflow on Steemit for Huge Growth and Profits!

Among my many talents, I swung a hammer professionally for over 20 years.

I started out when I was 18, working on a window installation crew, then came back to it at 24, in a high volume millwork building cabinets.

And that experience, has been one of the single strongest factors in my success as a writer, both in freelance and here on Steemit. I'll tell you what I mean in a minute.

Turns out, I was really, really good at building boxes!

We were about to have our first kid, had been working about five hours a day for a company that delivered lunches to offices, and realized, Hey, baby, you can't keep doing this once the kid comes, so I gotta get a real job!

My father-in-law was the foreman of a local cabinet shop, and needed a sweep up guy. I started at $7 an hour.

This was in 1995, when that wasn't a terrible starting wage here in Okc. So, I grabbed my broom and went to work. From the very beginning, I sat a pattern for sweeping the shop. My work flow made it so that I'd have the whole place clean twice a day, in under three hours.

When the boss saw I was serious, he asked if I could "Read a tape" which is carpenter code for, "not an idiot" and also means you know how to use a tape measure.

This may sound like a silly question, after all, any moron can stretch out a tape measure, right? But, it also involves doing fractions in your head, and making those calculations quickly and accurately enough to "Measure twice, cut once" as the old saying goes, to make sure you don't waste expensive material.

I could. I'd learned to do it right spending almost two years on the window crew.So, they put me on a saw and within a week, they handed me a nail gun and showed me how to assemble boxes.

As I went, I'd develop a unique work flow for each task, to maximize time and minimize mistakes.

In case you're wondering, this has a lot to do with what I want to share about steemit. Keep reading, I'll show you what I mean.

After about a month, Phil, one of the install chiefs noticed how many boxes I was building, and since I was the new kid, took it upon himself to scrutinize my work. No one could build that fast, without screwing something up.

But they were all perfect!

Word spread, and it painted a target on my back, that I didn't know at the time, would cause the boss's douche bag brother to get me fired eventually. But, in the meantime, I had a challenger.

Our project designer was a carpenter by the name of, no lies, Will Rogers. (there's a lot of those in Oklahoma) And he'd been the fastest assembly man in the shop for years. In fact, he'd challenged them all to build offs to prove it.

So, the day was decided when he'd have time to come out to the shop and the parts were set up. I was given a half dozen sets of parts for identical upper cabinets, and he had the same.

Mike pulled out a dusty stop watch (my father-in-law, and EVERYTHING in a cabine shop is dusty) and we were off.

In 18 minutes, I'd glued, nailed and screwed the 6 boxes together. Will, had managed 3. He dropped his nail gun in frustration, and went to the office, didn't talk to me for three days, when he took me out for lunch to say congrats.

So, what does this have to do with Steemit?

Everything. If you'd like to see your audience grow and move up through the ranks to dolphin, or even whale, you need to develop a work flow. If you don't, you'll waste time and lose followers and upvotes.

• You need to complete all of the checklist points (found here) for every piece!
• Making sure you engage with your audience is also a key factor.
• Missing even one step can drag your views down for an entire day.
• Not having a plan to get this done is a great way to fail.

Did you hear the one about the guy that shot an arrow at the sky? He missed!

Every shot you take without a defined target is nearly destined to hit what you're aiming at, nothing! So, here's a plan I'm instituting here on @dolphinschool and with my content on @markrmorrisjr

1. First, reply, reply, reply!

Audience engagement is free, and it's the single biggest thing you can do, next to writing solid content, to attract an audience!

The first thing I do when I login to work at Steemit, is check replies.

There are two easy ways to do this:

1. Use the nav button in the nav bar at the top, marked "replies"

Or, Leftt Click Your Profile Image

Clicking either of these will bring up any replies to your posts, or comments, or replies, in the order they were received, newest first. Even here, have a process in place or you'll waste a lot of time.

2 Scan the list for replies that haven't been replied to. If the title of the reply is dark, you haven't clicked on it. Under the reply, is a small dialog balloon, if the number next to it, is 1, or more, there has been a reply made.

3 Click on any replies that have not been answered. (trick for getting right to the comment, under this bullet list)

4 Read the reply and respond thoughtfully.

But going through comment threads is a pain in my A$$!!

Yep, but here's a tip that will kill it!

Right click on the title of the comment and choose "open link in new tab"!

You'll be delivered right to the comment, in a new tab! You're welcome!!

2. Next Post your content!

I should add a caveat here. If you can produce your content a day before, using an editor, to copy and paste it in, content building will go a lot smoother!

Once you've answered replies, it's time to add more content. Like your mother said, you've got two ears and one mouth, listening is twice as important. Besides, depending on what kind of content you post, it may inform your content for the day!

Be sure to optimize your content, using the checklist.

3. It's time to promote!

Unless you are already averaging 50 votes per post, do this!

You can look at the checklist for tips on this, but whatever your chosen method, it's time. As soon as you finish posts, do one round. Then, if you've got time, do it again! You might also add some other posts that haven't paid out to the list for additional promotion! You never know who will see it.

4. Curate those you support!

If you'd like a great method for finding out who your supporters are to return the favor, check out this post here!

Using the Upvoters tool in the Steemit Apps, is the single best way to track who you should be thanking! (read the link above for a complete explanation)

Here are some personal rules of thumb that I use!

• Manually curate your voting power. If you delegate it, keep enough to do some manual upvotes.
• Unless you are complaining, or correcting, never comment on anything you wouldn't upvote!
• Never comment on things you didn't read. Period.
• Use the resteem sparingly,unless your blog is a resteem blog.But, do use it for great posts!

Once you've visited the blogs you read regularly, or at least checked for new articles, it's time to branch out!

6. Make at least one new friend!

If you read the article linked in step five, you'll know how to do this. It's up to you. Do you want to find another follower, or someone to follow. Would you like to go after a whale for attention? Or help a new Plankton. All of these are great ideas, but if you want to grown on Steemit, make at least one new friend per day!

I highly suggest keeping these conversations on steemit, in the comments!

• When you approach someone in an open forum, be complimentary.
• Remember, others are watching and may follow up!
• Always, always, always, be prepared to add the @ tag, like this, @markrmorrisjr to every single comment, to create a link straight to your blog if they like your comment!
• Don't spam links. Period. Ever. If one of your pieces of content fits, share it, politely. Build a hyperlink, to keep it neat.
• Better yet, find one of the people you support and share their work! It will be seen as helpful, and may impress both the recipient of the comment, and the writer you're promoting!

7. Finally, check your mentions!

If you use this tip, from @lahvista, you can see every time you're mentioned on steemit, in categories that make it easy to respond!

From here, the world is your oyster! I recommend trying to learn a new trick at least a few times a week. There are so many wonderful tools on steemit and you'll never learn them all!

That's all for today! THANKS!