The Trouble with Writing "Long Form" Posts...
... of course tends to be that they often make people think, and then you get long responses!
And that is definitely NOT a bad thing!
I have often written that one of my primary objectives here is to stimulate engagement. And that definitely remains true. I consider a post that gets 50 comments a successful post.
So Why am I Writing This?
Well, we had the kids stay for a couple of days-- middle son's 29th birthday.
Sunset
This evening, I have started going through the posts I have not made it through to comment back on people's thoughtful responses.
And it takes time, because I take this seriously-- "this" being the interaction; the dialogues; the engagement.
When someone takes the time to pen a four paragraph screed in response to something I wrote, it's only fair that I take the time to reply appropriately.
Anyway, it's also why it's sometimes a long time between my visiting your blogs; when something is going on in "life," I simply run out of time.
@onceuponatime asked me a few days back how I could possibly keep up with following 500 people. Truth is, I can't. I may say that I "follow" 500 people, but fact is that two-thirds of them are only sporadically active to not active at all. But I still keep them on my "list" because I really enjoyed their content at some point, and if they become active again, I want to see their stuff.
Fuchsias in bloom
In general, I assign higher priority to answering comments on my own posts than to visiting outside content... at least until I feel caught up. And — at the moment — I am running behind.
I am not on Steemit "full-time" or anything that even resembles full time. I do this mostly as a time-gap filler because much of what I otherwise do involves periods of activity punctuated by dead space.
I am grateful for the fact that a long time ago I was very active as (at first) a "sysop" on BBS systems, later as an active admin and "board owner" in multiple online forums. At one time, I was admin/owner of 13 web groups as well as keeper of 19 blogs. While working 60 hours a week... and I was really good at it.
I'm older and slower now; I like to sit and watch the grass grow more often.
The idea of churning out 10,000-12,000 words a day in blog posts, comments and forum posts has lost some of its shine, so I take it a lot slower now.
Which is another way of explaining why I may not have commented on your post for a few days. Or even my own.
A Minor Epiphany
One thing I did realize — as I started catching up with comments — is that I have found my "voice" again, from a blogging perspective.
Our peaceful gazebo
My many years of "writing ARTICLES" seems to be fading into the background, and whereas I still feel quite capable of passing along information, my writers voice has become far more "conversational" and far less "journalistic" than it was, even six months ago.
Which is kinda cool, because it was a format that originally helped me build a very widely read and pretty popular blog.
So there's that.
One last thing before I hit the sheets: If you have a couple of spare minutes, you should go check out my friend @lucylin who has formally joined the ranks of "starving artists" on Steemit. Well, not exactly, but he's joined the ranks of courageous souls who write and serialize their books here. He can use your encouragement. And upvotes. Send upvotes...
Over and out...
(I'm pretty much incorrigible. This was meant to be a "quick update," @zappl style... and I'm already over 600 words. This happens ALL the time....)
How about YOU? How do you prioritize your Steemit time? Do you answer comments on your own posts before visiting others? Or vice-versa? Do you have "enough time" to do everything you want to? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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Created at 180409 00:42 PDT
Hi denmarkguy. I am new on steemit, as in today new. I am mostly focusing on commenting and following folks that make a good first impression. I have never blogged before but am eager to learn, to find a way to communicate with words and imagery that will be conducive to this platform. I must say I am surprised at how many long form posts I have come across so far. I was under the impression that most folks do not read online anymore and are making videos and/or uploading photos with a short descriptive caption. There seems to be a strong writers community on steemit and I look forward to reading good content.
Well, welcome to Steemit @blackant, glad to have you as part of the community! There are still quite a few "old school" bloggers (like myself) out there, and many joined Steemit when it came into being. Whereas a lot of people ARE making vlogs and memes and stuff... I happen to prefer the written word, story telling and people who share glimpses into their humanity.
Anyway, hope you have a good time here... you haven't written any top level posts yet, but I checked some of your comments and I think you could do really well here. You're taking a good approach, to be sure.
I like taking time to put together longform posts. It's more enjoyable on the creative side. For earning money I am not so sure, I think unfortunately it's probably better to churn out a lot of 500 word posts that people can read in a few minutes.
I try to do both, but I admit I wish I was spending more time on the longer form, more effort-intensive writing. Hoping to shift towards that as time goes on
I try to do a little of a lot. I tossed out some @zappl posts for a while and got some really excellent engagement, but I don't like that you can't create titles on Zappl any more. I have done a couple of Steepshot photo posts... they have't done much, but I haven't given them that much of a chance.
I generally don't do video because I generally don't watch video unless it's music or a travelogue. Listening to someone drone on into a mic is just not my gig... besides, I can speed dread about 5x faster than someone can talk and I just don't have that much time on my hands.
Besides, I just enjoy writing... even if there are ways I could get better rewards doing something else. Which I guess just goes to show that I am still more of a blogger than a profiteer.
Wow! Thank you matey - very much!
Now that you're part of the Guild of Starving Writers... if I can help, I'll be glad to.
I'd help anyway, but still.
It's sometimes difficult to have enough time to do everything I'd want to do here. Some days I have about four different things to write about but I also have comments to reply and I have thoughtful posts from people I follow like you to comment on. Therefore it's not really easy to keep up and sometimes I end up making only one post out of the planned four but I think what I spend my time on is worth it, most of the time
Which is pretty much how this slightly "odd" post came about... I just ran out of time to do the things I hoped to do (and I DO work full time at a "real" job!) and just decided to "fling something out there" because it had been a while.
We do the best we can... and if we end the day being able to say "I did my best" then I am OK with that, even if it was less than I had hoped.
It is very inspiring to see people who is much like me, not doing this full time yet can be very valuable in this platform/community.
I like how you contribute good quality to this platform by providing real engagement, and original, high quality contents.
Thanks @arnel; just trying to do the best I can with the pretty limited time I have.
lately I have been focusing on my own posts and then replies and then reading my feed and commenting on other's posts. To be honest though the lousy steem prices have made this place seem like a ghost town lately.
My strong point has so far always been to read, comment. I try to work out some sort of post once a week. I am not big into putting effort into something other people aren't going to read because of status (low man on totem pole), waste of time to put energy into that, at least for now it just doesn't pay. Most the time I go to replies then onto other people's most and comments.
I think that can be a lot more efficient especially for building followers. I have enough where I can count on at least a few votes when I post. The great thing about posts is using the bots. Everything here is much less than it was when we started and STEEM was worth like 4x as much. Fewer posts, fewer votes, fewer comments, you have to work a lot harder to make less but when the STEEM comes back it should pay off.
I've actually found more followers through my comments. I've found that people are hungry to engage on here and like it when people are willing to take the time to read a post, read the comments and constructively engage with thoughts and ideas. Your strong point is your knack for writing, your have a tremendous sense of humor that also helps.
yup, too many chiefs and not enough Indians, thanks for the compliment.
Early in the running, following solid and interesting content and commenting intelligently can actually work far better than publishing original posts. I remember some of my early days I'd struggle to get more than $1.00 in rewards for a post... but at least a couple of times a week I'd have a $5-$10 comment somewhere. You just have to stick to it.
That must have been real early in the game....it's rare but I do see some comments that actually earn that kind of money, usually on a top post article with a lot of comments/participation.
You're right about that... it has been somewhat slow around here. In a sense, though, it's an opportunity as there is less competition to be seen. It's all a matter of perspective.
I think it causes people to be stingy and self upvote more to make up for lost revenue, the percentage of the reward pool I have been getting is down as well
Replying is often a bigger job than actually writing the post and it does take more of my mental energy.
That definitely can hold true for me, as well... especially on days after I just published three pretty good top level posts in a day; I tend to keep track of my activities here... sometimes I will end up writing 40-50 comments without even leaving my own pages. And yes, that can be a bit draining.
It sounds valid to consider a post which has 5050comments as a successful post. But then, the commentscomments has to be original and not some random spam work. Do you think any differently ?
Agreed, spammy comments don't really count... that's why I tend to "curate" my own comment sections so "real" comments get towards the top and "empty" ones get left at the bottom.
Well, I would take that as a bless that you have countless comments to respond to.