My friend; I see you are having difficulty with the platform. I know it can be confusing and chaotic to understand at first; but here's some tips to get your Steem rep up quick and to get people to follow you/read your content:
- Post frequently; try for atleast one a day but if not than every other day minimum.
- Comment on posts frequently but make sure you include your opinion on the post in the comment there's nothing authors hate more than a spammer who will upvote you and leave a two word comment like "great post!" when they've spent a lot of time & effort creating that post.
- Be respectful, mature, and polite. Don't troll anyone; pretend this is the real world and not the internet. lol
- use the right tags! I noticed you put 5 solid tags and you have an idea on what you're doing but try using the most common tags if it applies to your blog: i.e. life, philosophy, steemit, news, blog, funny and others.
- Edit & spend time creating good quality content. If you don't care for how good your blogs are, than why should anyone else?
- Contrary to popular opinon: bots are counter-productive in my experience. The bidding/voting bots like @smartsteem are okay but not the "reach maximum follower" bots. you don't want to pay to promote 400 people with no voting power to upvote you. Trust me it does you no good. What's the point in having 400 upvotes if the post is only worth $0.33 cents? I'd rather have a post with 40 upvotes that's worth $33.00
- Help others! This is a complicated platform. Think back to the days when you first began navigating the deep end of the Steemit ocean. Did you have someone show you the ropes or did you have to research everything you know now like I did? Hindsight is always 20/20. It took me almost 2 months before my steem rep/posts/followers started coming in because I was a complete dumbass. I used the wrong tags, I didn't proofread or edit my blogs, I would not get the attention of whales but minnows who only decreased the value of my post wheneever they upvote it yes that can happen. you need to keep your voting power no lower than 80% (you can identify your voting power on steemD) but it's generally about 20 upvotes a day. That's the best way to maximize curation without it being counter-productive. So since you only got 20 upvotes a day, make sure they're worth it!!
- do not upvote your own posts I know this is subject is still upf or debate by many Steemians. However, in my personal experience, upvoting your own posts/replies/comments is always a bad idea. Even though you collect 100% of the curation since you're the author; the simple fact that other people see you upvote your own post deters them from upvoting your post themselves. It's like calling yourself the best comedian on Earth then asking someone to agree with you. People don't like pompous, cocky, egomaniacal douches. I mean if you put a lot of time & effort into the post and you truly believe it would provide value; than go ahead and upvote it. But I'm referring to the idiots who upvote all their posts because they're greedy: plain & simple. I only upvote my own posts once in a blue moon *(when I believe it's worth it; if it provides advise/help/information to someone who needs it and helps them out then why not? (like this one for instance)
- Research! There's so much content on this platform; that you can learn a lot from others. Don't focus solely on your own content & how to get people to upvote/follow your post/profile but rather use Steemit the way the developers and mods intended which is: respectfully and maturally learn new things and teach new things by networking with adults and not trolls/children like youtube or FB.
- Don't make posts too lengthy! I break this rule all the time. Hell I"m breaking it right now. But that's just because I'm an avid & passionate writer so I don't mind. But people generally have very low 6-second attention spans; so they'll pour over the images & skim a few sentences + read the title: but that's pretty much it and you can't really blame them either because there's not enough hours in the day and simply too much content for someone to spend hours reading a lengthy post.
On that note; I hope you read this lengthy one! The positive benefits of writing long posts is that the few people who do read it; love it, and that's all that matters IMO. If I can help people by teaching them new things or help them make money by providing TA; I don't mind. I believe in good Karma; what goes around comes around so I'll give away hours of my own research for free to strangers but at the same time don't expect me to do it in under 250 characters. If you want my advise/opinion or take on a particular subject I'll be happy to provide it: but it will be just as long as it needs to be (to get the point across) which many complain is too long but I disagree. I think our generation (milennials and below) are just entitled spoiled brats who grew up on wikipedia & google so they truly don't respect or admire the value of a good read. That's not to say everyone is the same; but that's also the same reason why I struggle to gain a large following; because I don't play the "money game" so to speak. I write my posts based on what I feel I want to share at the time & what I'm passionate about. If only a handful of people read it because it's "TLDR cliffnotes PLZ" than so be it. I won't compromise the quality of my work and time spent authoring posts/comments/replies just to satisfy your short attention span. Sorry if that sounds harsh but it's the truth so would you rather have me lie to you?
All in all this is a wonderful platform; there's some flaws & loopholes but for meeting new people, learning new things, and sharing your ideas: there's no better than Steemit. Nothing else compares. Because of the way blockchain works; the community polices itself to ensure there are no:
- trolls
- children
- spammer/ad bots
and the community is what drives this platform in the direction/roadmap it's headed. So far I believe we're doing a damn good job of it too!
I hope this helps bud. Enjoy your Day. Peace & Love.