Greetings fellow Steemian,

I created my #IntroduceYourself post before I even knew how Steemit (and markdown) worked... so that was a pretty shitty post! I'm thinking, Steemit should really impose some sort of waiting period on introducing oneself on the platform... first impressions and all.

Anyway... so in addition to touching on a little of what I've learned from Steemit, as well as giving you an idea what you can expect from my Steemit blog going forward... this is also my 2^nd attempt at a making good 1^st Impression 😃

edit:: I started this post some time ago, and had planned to post it on my 1-month Steemit anniversary, but I seem to have found myself going down the Steemit bot-writing rabbit hole, and it's been consuming all my time... literally almost every waking moment... but more on that a bit later (p.s. scroll down to "Bot Games" lower down if you can't contain your curiosity)

Who is BraaiBoy?

Well... that's me/my alter-ego ;-)

OK... so let me start by reminding non-South African readers that a Braai means grilling in South Africa.
Note: Not 'barbecue'... When I talk barbecue, I'm referring to American-Style smoking (aka 'Low and Slow').

I'll keep this short for the Steemians that have already heard my story. I'm your average South African dude, that REALLY likes to braai. Most foreigners think we're a little obsessed with our braai, and it's not unusual to find households braaing 3 or 4 times a week, however I've taken it to that next level crazy, and I've been braaing every single day for the last ~9 years.

If you'd like to know more, or haven't read it before, then you can read more on my website and here on steemit, and/or connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Braai Videos

I originally joined Steemit just to share my recipe videos with a new audience. I've been pretty active on social media for several years now, and between YouTube and Facebook (and twitter, Instagram etc. etc.), I've built up a nice little following for myself. However, the ever changing algorithms are forcing me to SPEND more and more money reaching the audience I had already spent so much time and money building in the first place. WTAF?!?!

So when I heard Steemit wanted to PAY ME for uploading content, I thought I'd stumbled into Utopia. SCORE!!!

I'll be uploading a new recipe video every week, and I've got some cool ideas for @dtube exclusive videos too (the YouTube crowd is a little stuck-up, so I've never been able to launch those projects over there). So if nothing else, please bookmark my @dtube profile:

- it's an easy way to find JUST my videos if you have no desire to follow me and hear about my other adventures (and the occasional rant) ;-)

Please visit my DTube channel and show it some love.

Life as a minnow (well... plankton, actually)

That moment I got the mail saying my account had been approved I jumped right in, wrote a post or two, "liked" every single person that happened to comment, and "liked" a few other posts... and then BAM! ... "Bandwidth Exceeded"!

Welcome to Hell!
There's a lot of fun going down, but you're not allowed to play with.



Say what now??? There's nothing wrong with my Internet... why is Steemit telling me this?

The next two weeks or so, I spent the majority of my time on Steemit waiting for my bandwidth to recharge so that I could reply to a comment and/or UpVote something. Frustration kicked in and so I traded a small amount of ETH for STEEM and powered up. Problem Solved! WRONG AGAIN!!!

I'm not going to bore you with all the details over here, but I've made a lot of mistakes and here are some pitfalls to avoid, and even a few tips to get ahead (especially if you're still new to Steemit).

• Forget Curation Rewards - why your vote isn't worth shit!
• DON'T POWER UP - You just end up losing it
• Let me tell you about GINA

I've got a few more posts about how to properly resize images, where to find free upvotes, which communities you should be joining and a lot more on "Surviving Minnow Hell" in draft, so make sure you follow me and I'll post them as soon as I'm done coding my game bots. Or hit me up on discord BraaiBoy#4913 if, like me you are impatient and need answers NOW :P

For the heavier stuff, you'll have to read what some of the more veteran Steemians have to say. There are many of them, but these are some I've bumped into the last day or two: @ilyastarar , @timcliff and the guy that literally steered me in the right direction in those first days: @finnian - forever in your debt dude!

Bot Games

What's the deal with these game bots I keep referring to?

As with everything in my life... it's a long story.

But I'll to try and summarise it: While I was still in Minnow Hell, I was fortunate enough to get a large UpVote or two from the @dtube bot, and that gave me the motivation to continue. All my YouTuber mates gave up after 2 or 3 videos, laughing off Steemit as a circle-jerk for veteran users. Some of these guys are on the 200K+ YouTube subscriber mark, racking up views in the millions, and after I'd convinced them to join Steemit managed to garner a miserly 0.10 SBD payout (this after struggling for hours to even get the video uploaded to @dtube in the first place)....

I get the frustration... so I had the (admittedly naive) idea that I would write a little bot, throw some SP behind it and then it would use all of it's profits and spare voting power to UpVote these YouTubers looking to move over, giving them the kickstart they needed and motivation to continue (myself included). Writing the bot was easy enough, but finding someone to lease me the SP I needed to power it was impossible. The cherry on top came when the STEEM I bought to fund the lease was done at near record highs, and after 2 or 3 weeks of failed lease requests, the price had tanked to the point where even if I did figure out how to get a lease matched, it was going to get me so little SP that the bot wouldn't have the desired effect and be dead in the water after just a few months anyway. Not one to give up so easily, I put @Incubot to sleep, and I started on Plan B.

Plan B!

Generate that SP myself and then give it to the incubator bot in a few months. The plan: Give away all the SBD generated to people that play the game, keeping all the SP for the bot.

Again... terribly naive of me. It's probably gonna take a few years for @PlayDice to generate the SP that @Incubot needs, but it's been such an awesome ride learning to code again, that I've decided to persist and there will eventually be 5 or 6 games that I host, each getting more and more complex as I learn, and then in 20 years from now my son can use the SP that was generated to buy himself a couple of beers :P

Come check out what's happening at @PlayDice

So besides Braai Videos & Games, what else is there?

Cool Cars!

My main focus will always be lekker, out of the ordinary, braai recipes, but a mate and I are (half-heartedly unfortunately) trying to get another series off the ground called MotorMouths TV. Steemit might just be the platform/motivation we need for us recommit to that project... so if you want to see two clowns driving around in old/classic cars and then having a drink and some chow after, all the while talking kak, then stay tuned... there's a good chance we'll be bringing that one back to life.

Travel

Another of my passions is travelling (I'm fortunate enough to spend nearly half the year out town/country), and while I'm travelling there's normally too much to do to still blog about it as well, so beyond twitter, those stories have mostly gone untold. If I can find a good enough "Steemit on the go" app, then I'll be sharing those stories with you too. i.e. If anyone is reading this, and is successfully using Steemit via mobile... PLEASE let me know what you are using.

Who's joining my next trip?

I've got some awesome road trips and festivals planned this year, and while I have already been to many places, I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there though. I have, however, been in Sane (they don't have an airport and so you have to be driven there). I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too big on physical activity anymore. I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often. I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenaline flowing and really gets the heart pumping!
So Yeah... let me know if anyone would like to join me in Cahoots. I'm sure we'll get some epic pics.

Lekker Tunes!

Music \m/!!!
When I'm not making videos or travelling, a lot of my time is spent at music festivals, and I've made a fair amount of muso buddies over the years... and they don't all suck :P
I'm working on a plan to get them to co-star in some videos, and if I can find any of them with the balls to do it, we'll be doing some live shows as well. Speaking of balls: I experimented with the idea on FB live a while ago, and I had some lamb testicles on the braai. You can catch that video here (Unfortunately I can't embed it, so you'll have to click through to FB: https://www.facebook.com/BraaiBoy/videos/1404249956281417/)...also... apologies in advance. It's low quality and 33 min long, but you get to see me vomit at least :-)

Competitions and giveaways

I attempted to run a competition giving away 10 SBD and upvotes for a week (which in hindsight, at 0.01, probably made people laugh so hard they forgot to enter), but all 3 people that entered ended up winning. So... once I've got a few more followers and have built my SP up a bit, I'll be doing weekly product giveaways etc. (unfortunately you'll need to be based in SA or pay for shipping yourself to start, but I'll work on some ideas to give away something for winners outide South Africa's borders).

Smile Baby!

... and last but not the least... always have a good laugh. Tell a joke, do something stupid, but make sure you have a smile on your face at least once a day! I think I'm hilarious, but I'm often the only one laughing at my own jokes... Who Cares! So... be that as it may, I intend subjecting you to some really lame jokes (probably on a Friday). If we're lucky, a few comedian mates will be doing the jokes, otherwise you're stuck with me.
My 2 cents: Probably the simultaneously best and worst advice I love sharing with people: If it ain't fun, then don't do it!, and that's what you can expect from my blog here on Steemit. It's probably not a great long-term life strategy, and a lot people judge me because of it... but it's been one helluva ride so far... that I can assure you!

So... hop on, click that follow button if you haven't already, and come join me on my adventures!

Connect with me on Social:

Steemit: https://steemit.com/@braaiboy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BraaiBoy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/braaiboy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braaiboy/

Some recent posts that might also interest you:

• Happy Steak & BJ Day
• My Own Beer coming soon
• Santa in the Summer

and please don't forget

• please check out @PlayDice: https://steemit.com/@playdice

footer by @bearone for #TeamSouthAfrica