Do you know that in 1975 a man became a multi millionaire just by selling stones?

Your voice is worth something. That is one hell of a tagline of Steemit and I completely agree with that idea. You must have heard people saying

“Ideas are dime a dozen and execution is everything”.

I strongly disagree with that opinion. If you try to reason, the execution part also requires some out of the box thinking and great ideas to stand out and be successful.

The Idea

In 1975, Gary Dahl, a California advertising man was having a conversation with his friends about how cats, dogs, and birds are too much trouble and cost too much money. He came up with an idea that brought the cheapest pets in the market with zero maintenance. The idea of a "Pet Rock”.

The Execution

Dahl spent the next two weeks writing the Pet Rock Training Manual - a step-by-step guide about taking care of it and how to train it (pun unintended). He went to a builder's supply store and found a Rosarita Beach Stone that sold for a penny. He packed the stone in a box shaped like a pet carrying case along with the book.

The Success

The Pet Rock was introduced at a gift show, where the store, Neiman-Marcus ordered five hundred. After a news release showing Gary surrounded by boxes of his Pet Rocks, Newsweek did a story and within a few months was shipping ten thousand Pet Rocks every day. He even appeared on The Tonight Show twice.

By Christmas that year two and a half tons of rocks had been sold, three-fourths of all the newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories. A million rocks sold for $3.95 apiece in just a few months making Gary Dahl an instant millionaire.

The Learning

So how is this relevant?

Let us analyse the current Steemit environment. There are around 5000 heavy users on Steemit. Please read this insightful post by @dragonho for more details http://bit.ly/29ZUv1J. Not everyone is popular and many of them (including me) are trying to get the attention of few who really matter (aka whales). Even they must be finding it difficult to locate a good content in such chaos. They want Steemit to be great. It will only happen if great content is discovered and appreciated. Let us help them by being a bit creative.

So, to be successful here we all need a pet rock. Not everyone may succeed (I wish everyone succeeds though). But, in your pursuit if you remember this great example and execute it well, you will increase your chances.

The Advice

Analyse the farm

Look for pain points. What are the types of content that are lacking in this platform? For example I didn’t find a post which explains this kind of material with a relevant story. Find the pain points like pet rock owner found about people with pets.

Bring a blue cow in the farm

Visualize this; you are driving along a country lane. You see many trees and animals. Suddenly you spot a blue cow. Holy Cow! You can’t ignore it. You have to know now why this cow is blue.

Same goes with your content. I hardly saw anyone using stories to bring home a point. I am trying it. Maybe it is a blue cow; maybe not. I will fail and try again. Another lesson, keep experimenting.

Decorate the farm

In the pet rock story the guy just sold a penny worth stone for more than three dollars for one simple reason. He packaged it well with a manual. You need to figure out how you will sell your pet rock, I mean content. Design it well. Observe all the trending posts and see the designs of the posts. Just reproduce the design.

Bring it on

Need I say more..

I wish you have all the success you deserve on Steemit. If at all this post helps you in anyway and I play a small role in your success, do let me know. That will give me more happiness than money.

References - http://petarock.homestead.com/1970craze.html
Image credit - www.bluecowcafe.com/images/header3.jpg

P. S. - Your feedback is welcome in the comments.