Growing Minnows: A Beginner's Primer to Steemit

Instead of the prototypical introduction, I decided instead to share some valuable lessons I have learned from the successful Steemit and social media community as well as my own experience coming from a marketing and analysis background.

I am also a certified instructor and training program evaluator with fifteen years of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating training programs. I may just be starting out in the blogging community, but with confidence, I know I will build a great following and I know you can too.

Enjoy!

1.) Be Passionate

If you are passionate about what you are writing, it is going to show. The people who influence others the most are those who who have a deep fire in their bellies for what they are trying to sell. Be so on fire for what you are passionate about that others can't help but feel it's warmth and catch fire too.

2.) Be Positive

Let's face it, nobody likes a Debbie Downer. If the bulk of your content is a pity party, it's not likely to draw a crowd. In fact, that crowd will almost definitely run in another direction. Do you suffer from depression? That's not a problem! You can turn a negative into a positive!

Use your experience to help uplift others. Talk about how you got through a problem or a down period rather than just focus on how you dwell in the 6th level of Hades. No one wants to hang out in Hell, they want to know how to get out. Use your experience to help them.

3.) Be Patient

Many successful Steemit members have written great posts on how to be successful. They have excellent advice on just how they became successful. Follow it!

It can be intimidating seeing these folks with huge $$$ on their first posts and frustrating when your first posts net a penny. How in the crap did that happen?

Well, it didn't happen here and it didn't happen over night. Once upon a time, they had a blog and/or some other social media account(s). No one knew them from Adam in the beginning. They were happy when they got their first five readers. Happier when that five turned to ten, twenty, thirty, and so on.

It took time to get that kind of recognition and many other their followers came here with them. Ignore the $$$ of your posts and just keep in mind that you too will have to go through the same growing pangs. It could take weeks, months, or maybe even years. Don't give up!

4.) Use pictures

If you saw this on the shelf, you didn't look at it and say, "Hey, I bet they have some great articles to read." No, you were drawn to the image. Hot naked chicks? I'm in! Oh, look, they also have some words that seem to form sentences on the 80 other pages surrounding the ten good ones. Let's see what they have to say.

The fact of the matter is, human beings are visual creatures. It isn't by coincidence that advertising agencies spend huge loads of cash designing visually spectacular ads. Those pictures draw us into a product they are trying to sell.

Just like an advertiser, you too need to need to have pictures that draw people in. Find or create pictures that really sell what it is you are trying to sell: you.

5.) Keep it Pithy

Make your paragraphs short and easy to read. If you're finding some difficulty building a following, look at how you write. If your writing is not easy to read, odds are no one is reading it.

This is easy on the eyes, isn't it?

Break your content into smaller, more powerful statements. Short and simple paragraphs are so much easier to read than a post that looks like empty space painted with words.

Make sure these paragraphs also have strong content that draws the reader in. If the content is weak sauce, odds are you won't keep the readers attention. Make each line a hook that grabs their eyes from start to finish.

6.) Piss Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance

You don't need to be an expert, you just need to be prepared. Before jumping right into the cold, take time to observe the community first. Notice how authors use these techniques in their content. The most successful folks know how to market themselves. Learn from them. Read the comments. Get a good feel for what you're getting into.

Education is an investment. Education takes time. If you invest your time into the community and learn from both the successes AND failures of others, you're going to find the water to be much warmer when you finally do jump in.

Best wishes! I look forward to meeting and growing with you all in the future.

~Peace~