14 Months Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away...
When I first got started on Steem in May 2016, steemit.com was a completely different thing. At the beginning we couldn't follow or mute someone, we didn't have a feed, the curation algorithm was completely different and the rewards were...juicy to say the least.
Why? Well...imagine a giant jackpot being given everyday and only a 1000 writers to compete for it. It was glorious, I have to admit. Some people may complain about that fact but that's not going to help them climb to the top. Complainers never get anywhere...winners find a way and get to work.
In fact, in June 2016, not a single article has had payout yet because we would only get our first payout on July 4th. Only those who had faith and took massive action got to reap the reward of their hard work. I even presented steemit to someone I knew back then and they simply given up after 2 posts because they didn't believe it could be real.
There is something about being the right person, at the right time and the right place.
If I Was a Minnow Today on Steemit I Would...
That is the question I am going to answer for you guys. I see in the comment section that a lot of you are brand new, some of you are overwhelmed, some of you are confused about what to do and some of you may even get discouraged because your posts didn't make money yet.
I understand that. If it was as simple as Facebook or Twitter, this thing would probably have millions of users by now and that means that you are still a early bird...and the early bird gets the worm!
You have much to gain by investing your time and energy to understand the game we are playing here. STEEM as a currency could easily be worth $10 overnight...making you much more money that you've ever made by any other means. But it requires a bit of L.U.C.K (Labor Under Correct Knowledge.)
Step 1: Understand the Game
The basics of steemit are simple. People write posts and comments. People upvote and flag content. That shouldn't be too complicated for someone who used social media or blogging in the past.
You don't need to go in depth of how the curation reward or author reward function but a basic understanding will go a long way. A good place to start is https://steemit.com/welcome - If you get overwhelmed by the amount of information, please read my remedy for information overload here.
But more important than to understand the technical dynamics, it's the social dynamics that will make or break you.
Understanding the social dynamics
Much like reddit, steemit has etiquettes. There are certain things that are a big no no and that will get you in trouble. It's especially true because money is involved...and when people recognize a cheater or someone who looks like a cheater, it's doesn't take long before that person is flagged out of existence.
THE DO NOT DO LIST
- Never beg for upvotes
- NEVER BEG FOR UPVOTES
- NEVER BEG FOR...you've got the message.
- Do not copy and steal other people's content (from within or outside steemit.com)
- Do not create duplicate comments...it makes you look like a bot
Step 2: Get Busy Commenting
The "New" section of steemit.com is crowded. There are thousands of articles in there every day and it's difficult for us big holders with big upvotes to find the needle in the hay stack. Fortunately, the curation reward changed and made that process more feasible but still, most of us don't have 4hours a day to read articles to find the 5 or 10 articles that are worth our time.
Commenting is an easy way to get traction, make friends/followers and rewards.
When I upvote at 10%, it sends about ~$1.57 USD to someone who comment on my blog. If someone write a well formatted, thoughful and engaging comment, I will sometimes upvote up to 50%...which mean between ~$10 and $15 USD.
I'm not the only one who does that. More and more big author/holders are doing the same thing to incentivize participation on their blog. @jerrybanfield is one of them.
Once you are over 1000 SteemPower, you can start thinking about curation and rewarding the people who write comments on your post and it will help you get more upvotes over time.
Step 3: Consider Investing in SteemPower
I understand that it is not a possibility for all but if you can, it's the best place I could ever think to put one's money. This is not investment advice, only my personal opinion. But I was talking to my bank yesterday and he tried to sell me on a saving account with a return of 1.90% APR. I laugh silently because I didn't want to be rude.
Apart from capital appreciation which is a strong possibility in the years ahead for STEEM. The ability to upvote yourself allow you to make a good return as well as helping you climb into the "HOT" section much easier. From there, other people will start noticing you and start following you.
Conclusion
Well this isn't a real conclusion because I will go into much more detail of the plan of action I would take if I was a minnow. I hope you've enjoyed this article. Please let me know if you want more of them like it.
Your article can be entitled - "Practical handbook of stemmit . Vol 1. Level -Minnow" . A very well covered article. I totally agree with all your advice on dos and donts. Blogging is very new for me- as i do not have any socia network accounts.I find it very limited. Facebook tries to elaborate on what everyone else is upto and confuses on your primary priorities and twitter - i cant even write one full sentence on it. You sometimes want to share the most important thing that may mean everything to you yet it faisl to reach the intended audience. To contemplate from your picture in this article- those social networks make us fish in a small pond.I cant even imagine writing a similar blog like you in a year being on those networks- forget about once upon a time ina far far galaxy. :-) But here, while i post from Nepal, i see someone commenting from half way across the globe - showing appreciation and advicing. Your story your blog touched someone.This is what steemit is all about and this is what inspired me to be here. Its a common mistake that every human tries making money from anything they see its easy. If it was just for money we would never have people have Musk, Gates or Job. Although i am just a starter, i would tell it to the face of the people who are focused on asking or begging for upvotes, i think there are better places to beg at- which will probably earn you more than here. Share. Sharing is caring. Show that you care.Regards. Anadi
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The sharing and touching is what has made me stay...it is an amazing platform ...well said!
have a wonderful day all!
Rose
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I agree with you @anadikc that although Steemit is about money, it isn't about money. The people who are interested only in making money are struggling so hard to crack the system that they are not getting their times worth.
I am here to earn money and may work read and commented upon by people who are experts in the things that I write. It is easy to grab someone’s attention here on Steemit than anywhere else.
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@cryptoctopus I'm agreed with your points commenting is important It encourages people to work hard on their content because receiving feedback, even negative, creates better users who will strive for improvement. It also creates a sense of community. Community is equally important because when people feel they are a part of something greater than themselves, they learn to put aside their differences and come together to create. It's what we as humanity have always done when something inspires us.
It's so amazing, the Internet. You can literally choose the "5" people you surround yourself with, that are in a position that you dream to be in. Those are great mentors. Another option in my opinion would be books, because you can think like the author by knowing what they've done. The last would be utilizing someone else's time which they have so very little of, even to get them on the phone. People are busy. Having control over time is a major key.
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Your comment is close to what I want to say, except that we don't even have a chance to get constructive feed back (negative or positive) because of the sheer number of posts added every second.
As @cryptoctopus, this makes it hard for the established ones to look for the needle in haystack that is worth their time. And time is money too.
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I think your comment is dead on. Yes, there is the opportunity to earn $ here but belonging to a community that one enjoys participating in is the real payoff for me. THX for your great post!
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@cryptoctopus there have been tens of thousands of articles on this topic, but this is the first one that I feel fulfilled it's creation. Direct. Succinct. Informative. There isn't so much information that a person gets overwhelmed, but not so little that it is just a "good luck, guys" type of post.
Staying tuned for similar awesome posts!
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Yes, I read at least one article each day that supposedly teaches us how to become a Whale but never seems to work out well.
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Such a deal! 😜 The last time I checked, my credit union was offering a 0.15% rate. And several European countries actually have negative interest rates. Paying a bank to hold my money is simply insane. No wonder banks are doomed.
Right now, any extra fiat I have is going one of three places: Bitcoin, Steem Power, and silver.
Steemit has great potential, perhaps immense.
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I'm with Tangerine, an online bank. They have the best rates yet it's such a joke compared to SP.
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I do not make much money and I do not have much in my savings account but I am pretty sure my bank gives about 4% and about 8% for term deposits.
@cryptoctopus: Have you heard about the Crypto coin Royalties? They say that they will give 1.25% per month.
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What country do you live in? It's been decades since American banks paid that much interest.
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I live in India.
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High interest rate means higher inflation.. Probably 10 times interest rates of banks
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Unfortunately, the people who would need the information from this post the most, won't read it. I am thinking about all those "Upvoted. Follow 4 follow!" posters.
I do not want to be racist or anything - but the large amount of those people comes from poor countries and just thinks that money is given away for free here. This might have been true in the past - and even to a small extend today. But it's not a free spring of wealth anymore. Sure, a post can still earn xxx$'s - But a lot of things have to be right fort this to happen - content, publicity, timing, and a lot of luck if you aren't as popular.
I hope that your post will help many people to go from spamming to giving away quality stuff. As in most parts of life, the saying "Quality > Quantity" also applies to this wonderful platform.
Really looking forward to where steemit is developing :)
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it's not racist, it's just a culture clash. :-)
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True - In our country we are always a little bit cautios with statements that might be concidered racist - bad history, you know -.-
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Braunau?
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yeah :/
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@theaustrianguy ,this is unrelated to Steemit tho, but the mentality might be similar,I hear what you're saying about anything you say is considered racist, it's like that in Canada too. we have a flood of illegal border crossings from folks who face deportation from the united states trying to claim refugee status, and those who don't believe in helping the "Trump refugees" are considered racist or bigots. Those illegal border jumpers are given free tax payer money (700$, more than a person on disability receives) yet complain it's not enough free money and we are also racist for not wanting to give them more or asking our government to better protect our borders. It's just scratching the surface of what is going on here. I don't find your comment racist at all we come from a culture where we work really hard and go thru many struggles for what we have.
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You're a wizard at this!
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Hahahahaha, let me relieve you. You're not being racist, just not ... quite looking at the full picture. I am from one of those poor countries so I may be able to give a bit more perspective on the matter. See, those follow4follow types are simply operating under a combination of ignorance about Steemit and a belief that they do get how it works because they've been involved in -- let's call them, cryptocurrency earnings opportunities -- in the past.
They learn -- eventually or they see that Steemit doesn't match their particular skillset and they go do something else.
Me, I see my coming from said poor country as an advantage. For one, to you, 10SBD is nothing. To me however ... hahah, it's a nice little chunk of folding cash that can pay for haircuts (yes, plural) and transport and food and-and-and-and-and.
So you see, it's not all bad.
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Interesting thoughts - never thought of vote4vote as an expression of despair.
That of course is awesome if smaller amounts help you guys even more :) Got another 11c more from my upvote!
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Sweet. Whale-dom, here I come! :D
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Good luck on your further way :)
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I don’t think that these people are from poor countries, they are from all around the world.
And it is not only Steemit that has such kind of individuals, but there are many on each and every platform where there is no monetary compensation. I have seen people begging to like their page or posts on facebook and follow for follow on twitter.
No matter what, people will always try to fool the system and try to earn a buck. Some sites sell Facebook likes, Twitter follows, retweets and now here on Steemit we have Whale Bots who sell Upvotes and websites that help you with Upvote exchange.
On one side of the world where there’s a woman seeking donations and help so that she can see bury her father and take care of her children who suffered from Chicken Pox. And on the other side of the world, there’s an elderly man who said he is forced to power down because he has expenses and his posts aren't getting him much.
As a community, we cannot ignore them both. We need to help people in any way we can, I am trying hard to educate people about Steemit and not beg for Upvotes. Instead, comment, post compelling content and let people Upvote us voluntarily.
I hope some day soon people will learn this and stop spamming this incredible platform that has helped build the Steem Park and improved so many lives.
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True words, true words! Unfortunately we will not be able to demolish all unequality on earth in the near future! :(
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LUCK is of course a factor here and timing is important as well.
A travelogue of mine earned $114, and the second part of it failed to get an audience and upvotes. But one should not get demotivated for that and should keep publishing his original contents.
As you said about "people from poor countries", well, I am from India and our economic position is very low compared to certain countries. But what I strongly believe is, its an individual's thought process and a citizenship of a country has very less to do with it. Having said that, can't disagree with you when it comes to a comparative ratio.
I would like to ask you your thoughts about conceptualizing a Steemit Anthem with a message of global unity.
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What thoughts of mine are you asking for? Don't get it ;)
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Here is the link to the post I was taking about:
https://steemit.com/steemitanthem/@mathworksheets/we-need-the-steemit-anthem
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After reading the norms of the steemit back in two or three weeks ago, i did not beg for upvotes or followers. It has been exactly 30 days and i managed to gather 90 follower only, but i know that these followers will be loyal and give me benefits in the future. Also it is better to have few loyal rather then hundreds of disloyal ones.
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Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by scorpionking from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
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This comment has received a 3.13 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @scorpionking.
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I think the best plan for a minnow is to invest into some Steem. Once you have several cents voting power you can then get noticed a lot more and the viral effect can kick in.
I'm trying this with 400 Steem right now, will see if it's going to be enough or not to get a kick start on Steem.
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true that. :-)
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400 Steem Power is good I guess, you get some enough cents with your Upvotes to get you noticed.
While my 1 cent per upvote doesn't, do much good, but I am producing content that is giving me good returns.
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From my first week of having a 6 cent upvote, I would say that even 400 might not be enough.
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My girlfriend and I have recently joined up on STEEMIT; and at a very momentous time in our lives. We've quit our kitchen jobs and are heading to Mexico for a fresh start.
I've always wanted to write and blog; and I'm having a fun time doing just that! We really appreciate the genuinely helpful and enlightening efforts that many good people have contributed to help us get started.
I've never been even remotely interested in "Investment"; But there's just something about this platform and the content here that has persuaded me to finally get involved. Thanks everybody!
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I would Love to see more articles like this and maybe some more stories from the Early Days of Steemit. I Had NO IDEA Oo Sounds like it was a real Wild West and pretty much everyone I have come across that got in early, stuck with it and found their niche are doing JUST FINE. ... and are all excellent examples for newbies to learn from. Did you Invest right away or were you into Crypto already? How long did it take for you to invest in the platform beyond posts and time? Still on the fence about putting in real money but one idea I had was to purchase things for friends already into Crypto and have them pay in Steem. I hear the trading sites are a bit awkward right now, so it might be a while til a new 'normal' is found. Do you use any other tools for Steemit? Streemian? Busy? DTube etc? I am a minnow reincarnated. Decided to make a personal account to keep separate from my project @ecoknowme so I am taking my other account for walks in the comments sections... ;) Great stuff @cryptoctopus ! more please!
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I invested all that I had in bitshares into steemit about 1 day after I started. It just made sense that it would be the way crypto get mainstream.
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That's awesome! I think you will be proven correct. I am interested in how to make Steemit more usable OFF steemit. My buddy wrote this and maybe if you or someone you know would like to participate. I am in India and can connect people with spices, incense, yoga books, coffee etc and there are lots of things from afar that are tricky to get here. If you know of any other projects other than Peerhub and the like, I would love to know... I always feel like Steemit is a Monster Truck driven like a Tricycle. Time to off road!
https://steemit.com/challenge/@stortebeker/homesteaders-steem-around-the-world-challenge-preparation-2
Just a thought. Thanks for the boost man, you singlehandedly kicked me up a whole rep point! Maybe I should invest!
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Hi @cryptoctopus, a very good explanation, thanks alot for posting!
Honestly it already feels overwhelming what happens on this platform and more and more people are joing this everyday.
I can only imagine how it must have felt in the early days when one could really read most articles that have been created.
I think we need to invent more sophisticated ways of ordering information of being able to find the relevant posts to oneself. Just by scanning, searching, crossreading and so on this mass of information is simply not manageable any more.
I certainly would be interested in more posts our of your view and iam looking forward to see the next posts you are already hinting at in the not so concluding conclusion.
Until then !
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Gets busy commenting and does not beg for upgoat. Nice tips for minnows. Very good point about capital appreciation. I call it as paying interest on your investment.
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right on! I personally can't think of a better investment.
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Yes agree and people complain about it. Instead of complaining they can buy some steem and do the same stuff.
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It is unfortunate that not everyone can buy some Steem.
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There isnt for real inves your time in information and the truth will set you free from the bonds of debt/slavery
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That's exactly what we are doing. Putting up nice content. Interact heavily with people by commenting and invest money in steem. :) it works for me now. But not quite for my husband. Hopefully it would work for him as well eventually.
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This is the place to be in 2018 i feel it usd gonna crash information is the future truth is the future
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@cryptoctopus,
One of the great educational article for minnow! Really appreciate the way you discuss things! I am a minnow too! Know how hard it is! But Whales like you do helping us to be dolphins, sharks and whales is a greatest thing ever. Yeah never beg for upvotes, but I believe, if I do something correct, if I write something valuable, it might bet rewarded!
Really appreciate your effort and guidelines! Thank you very much for sharing your great experiences with us!
Cheers~
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This does help. I get the feeling it takes a little while to find out how all this works. I hear there is more development coming and I look forward to watching and growing with Steemit's evolution.
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To be honest this is going to be very helpful to me personally as you have the experience from the start and you have seen lots of Changes that have gradually occurred on this platform i will keep these points in my mind everyday when i will be on steemit and will try my best to follow this as a principle i have always tried to see others stuff first and encourage others by commenting and by up voting the deserved post's will try my best to invest wisely in steem power as that is something to treasure as you said steem could be of 10$ and i too believe in that never ever begged for up-votes if people love they will up-vote for sure so there is no way of asking as it will only lead to flag ,on the ending note just want to thank you again for writing about this post which will help lots of new people on steemit Thanks a ton again for sharing
Have a good Day : ) cheers !! @cryptoctopus
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Thanks blazing, I would suggest that you learn how to use punctuation...it's difficult to read a 150 words sentence.
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oh sorry i will work on that thanks for reminding me about that :)
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@cryptoctopus thank you for the advice and breakdown for information is the currency always was always will
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This is great advice but i ve one general question because as i write this now i feel i am struggling to get that genuine quality or that natural flow of giving someone my opinion i mean i am doing it but its a struggle and i feel it simply because i know there is value in my opinion now before it was just intrinsic now its real you can hold it
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Try to find a way to ask a question that would engage the author into a conversation as well as adding to what he wrote about.
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I agree 100% with you. I did not put in a cent, but now have 11000 Steem in a year, where will you get it anywhere else? To comment is basically the best way to get noticed and get followers, specifically comment on people with the same interests as you, as they will also find your posts interesting.
I also tell new users to comment on other new users as they will normally, follow you easier, and then grow with them over time, helping each other to grow.
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One of the best posts I've read for beginners so far in the short time I've been active on Steemit. Your description of commenting percentages was very insightful and helpful.
Thank you @cryptoctopus I'm very much looking forward to your posts in the future and reading your older posts as well.
No hesitation on following you after I read this.
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I like the simplicity of your post. You can make a way where there is none. However, I have been around for a while and what you posted is true. Hard work at Steemit is the key. Once other Community members notice you, support flows naturally!
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I guess that's a really positive way to look at it. We're still in beta after all. :)
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Nailed it. With a title like you have here mmmm thats a great way to catch attention too. It sure got mine... yet again :P
Your L.U.C.K. acronym is great too, never heard that one before.
http://imgur.com/a/YaT8Y
Excellent DO NOT list for anyone reading here wanting to know what not to do here on Steemit
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This is good advice. I think if more people with a lot of SP upvoted well-written comments, it would do a couple of things. It would gain a larger audience for the post author's future posts. It would also build morale for anyone who's comments are rewarded with money. The people who make serious moiney on Steemit are the early adopters and whales. When they upvote their posts, they can make a nice return on their own votes. But that won't sustain Steemit. Helping minnows to succeed will grow the platform into the future imo.
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Great comment. The white paper which details the methods and purposes of Steemit makes the same points you do.
Most folks are unaware that Steem was mined just like BTC or ETH in the beginning, and the majority of Steem extant today was mined then, rather than produced thereafter. Those initial stakes remain the largest whales on Steemit, and few of them do much curation as the white paper stated was the purpose of rewards.
I get that these folks are busy, and their fortunes are as secure as Steem is, so they have no need of improving the success of minnows to improve their own fortunes. Worse yet is that by self voting, or voting in collusive cliques, they are able to 'mine' the rewards pool for far more than they could get by curation, which is also a lot of work.
I suspect that the amount of work required to maximize rewards is exactly why HF19 reduced the number of votes required to expend VP by 400%, as reducing the number of votes cast by minnows is demonstrably bad for Steemit, by decreasing the interaction between those users most benefiting the platform.
There is a lot to be said for hard work and patient persistence, and I know folks whose present accounts are due to nothing else. As for me, I just sorta ignore money altogether, and focus on discussion of interesting things with people whose thoughts I find valuable. I find it difficult to cope with the VP decay, however, as I really do tend to comment around ~100 times/day, and feel really awkward that I can only vote ~10 times.
This has caused me to actually greatly reduce how much I am on Steemit. I'm looking forward to some improvements to the interface the devs are promising to reveal soon, and hope that they will then fix the VP decay curve.
I hope you aren't offended to not get my measly $.02 vote, as I am trying to let my VP recharge, but really wanted to let you know how much I agree with your comment anyway.
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This post is really a very nice follow up on yesterday's one concerning upvotes! Being a minnow here, I just recently joined in mid June, i do believe anyone can make it here given you make great content posts on a consistent basis.
It can be that you will not get noticed 6 days out of 7, but the only day you catch some attention will cover all the efforts made in the week.
I've seen quite a lot of minnows who are getting quite successful and the reason is consistency!
Investing in cryptos and powering up is also a great way to achieve success, but the problem is that i have been trying for nearly 2 months now to buy some bitcoins, but the trading platforms just does not work in Mauritius!
Thanks you for all the useful tips and looking forward to the next part!
@progressivechef
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I am glad you are encouraged to work hard and consistently, as that seems to be the basis for the success of some folks on Steemit I know to have been unable to invest their own funds to increase their SP. As your location in Mauritius seems to be a barrier to buying more SP, your decision to be consistent in posting and commenting is the best solution to your situation.
All great tips!
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Thank you so much for appreciating my comments @valued-customer! This will be my only message to all those who are willing to succeed here on steemit , work hard and be consistent success will follow surely.
Wish you well!
@progressivechef
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Great post, good information. I've been following the "get busy commenting" model once I started posting daily (that's another thing, I see that being consistent and putting in the work helps).
I haven't really been upvoting my own posts, but I guess I'll start doing that.
I don't feel that trolling whales for comments is the most moral thing to do, especially if they seem to have no interest in your content (I have more of niche blog going here), but when I do comment on a whale post, I do see some payout.
I'm investing all my payout in Steem Power, and most of my dividends from other cryptos in Steem, Lit and actual gold.
Thanks for the info. You're doing a service to the minnows and the platform!
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It is really hard at the bottom of the ocean. Sometimes we get frustrated because days pass and we've made like 50 cents. People get discouraged and abandon the platform( thats why so many ghost accounts these days). Anyway, you are among rare people with a high steem power that actually creates wealth for other too. Most of the whales spend their upvotes on them and their friends while collecting poor minions cents that add up to a few tens or hundreds of $ per post. If i ever get at the level you are now i will also create weatlg for minnow. Thank you for not forgetting where you once were!
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of course. I wish I could give more to be honest. It will probably be much more once Steem increase in price. But by then, I would have given my followers so much SP that their vote will be worth $$$ :-) Win Win all around. Just persevere my friend. You are still early in the game.
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This! This is how Steemit can usefully grow to not only replace Fakebook, Twatter, and similar propaganda and censorship mills, but can positively impact folks, particularly those whose environment precludes their economic participation in honest industry, or the uninhibited discussion of ideas.
Imma hafta follow you now =p
Thanks!
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Thank you for this. It is a confusing pond to swim in, but everyone is so helpful and welcoming.
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Thanks for the insight cryptoctopus.
I never considered the strength of my comments being a way that I can leverage my minnow weight. I always commented on articles I they caught my eye while scrolling through and it engaged me somehow. Purposefully scrolling through the big gun's articles only would be a change.
As I read your article I considered what you were saying and thought of a possible negative drawback to focusing on only responses to high powered writers. I know you are not saying to only focus on that but here is my fear.
I only have so much time to look through and participate on here.
If I begin to focus my comments on high powered blogs that will consume my time on here. It means that I will not have the time/inspiration/writing capacity to comment on the underpowered blogs. I see this as a negative thing because a lot of great writers who are just starting out are definitely not here for the quick riches. They make their 3 cents a blog and move on to writing the next great piece for us. A lot of them say that what drives them is the responses and interaction their posts create. If I (and presumably others) drop that interaction as we focus on the high paying responses we run the risk of losing those "young" writers we are starting to attract.
Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of being rewarded for my comments and your advice will change where I spend some of my focus. I would just encourage your readers to remember the little guys as well. This goes along the lines of people who save their votes for high paying articles and don't "waste" their votes on low value yet well written content.
We have to balance things so that the entire ocean rises.
What are your thoughts on this as I have inconvenienced enough electrons in this long winded reply.
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I reckon you have succinctly stated that there are more valuable rewards than $.02 votes. I have pretty much followed the same course you outlined you have, and I have no regrets, as I have become introduced to many good people, and their ideas and posts by that process.
I once had a post that generated <$100 in rewards, and that surprised me to the degree that I suffered no little cognitive dissonance, as the post was quite critical of the rewards system and ways that Steemit is designed that encourage financial manipulation - exactly the opposite result of what I expected to get from the post!
As a result of that I learned that just speaking my mind was probably every bit as potentially financially rewarding as pandering to whales, and, frankly, I am simply unable to long make pretense of interest in matters less valuable to me than fascinating ideas. I hope you find the same to be true, as your interactions with authors you like is exactly (IMHO) what social media is about.
Gaining some rewards for doing it is just icing on the cake. I bend nails and smash my thumbs for a living, and expect to continue that until I finally am too physically broken. Hopefully by then Steemit will have matured to the point where the rewards distribution is far less concentrated, and what little I need will be forthcoming.
Until then, interaction with agile minds and innovative folks is my dearest reward. Hopefully that is also preparation for that future when I can no longer work construction.
True dat!
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It is better in my opinion to focus on accumulating SP so that down the road you can help the people who are stuck at the bottom. As a minnow, you are not in position to help other minnow as much as you would if you had 1000 SP.
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Work hard ! Because anything you can dream of is possible if you work hard . I came here with a dream and I want to accomplish it . I wouldn't ever beg "follow for follow" "upvote me" stuff like that is really unattractive and people don't really like these things
My thing from the start has been "comment comment comment" because that way I could interact with people that already know everything , and they would be able to guide me .
The upper whales and people over 1000 Steem power have guided me so much and I am very thankful .
I love to learn from others by reading their posts which leads me to interact with them on deeper levels , this is very important to me . I have made great friends on this platform and I very thankful @cryptoctopus
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I will talk as an individual here ,commenting has helped me get known and made some friends.
The other beauty of commenting is this,your reputation score increases if a person with a higher score upvotes you.
I saw my score increase drastically after i began commenting.
The comments have to be well thought of and not just the generic thank you,nice post etc.
The comment MUST contain your personality in it.
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Thank you for the article and please do keep them coming.
As a 1 month old minnow I do see a deep need for the more experienced bloggers to help mold the minnows into being good and responsible members of the site.
I want to be successful on Steemit, and I want Steemit to be successful. I'm looking forward to my generation of minnows becoming dolphins and whales and helping the incoming minnows learn the ropes.
The greater degree that everyone invests their efforts (and possibly $$) the greater this platform will become.
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Therefore, as a little guy on steemit instead of competing in hot or trending position, the best possible way to earn some dollar is doing more comment, comment, comment. And while you are still a small fish, instead of cashing out those earn money, its a good advice to invest it first to the system and strengthen your SP to gain more reward in the future. Because the reward system is depend on your SP, the higher the SP you have, the more reward you made through self vote or curation.
And the right time to invest is now, while steem is as worth as 1 usd. Learn to embrace and ignore FUD's.
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Looking forward to this series, if you continue it & I'm one of the folks that hopes you do.
The social etiquettes part of joining any platform often leaves me frozen, not wanting to unintentionally be rude. I'm often hesitant to comment simply because I don't want it to look as if I'm fishing for upvotes & not just genuinely appreciating the content. It's a fine line for a socially awkward woman like myself!
Definitely agree with the capital appreciation, especially because it seems like an investment in myself. My friend was big into pushing Cryptos & the reason I was drawn to Steemit is because it was the one where I could really put my money where my mouth is & add value to the currency by being willing to put in the work. I dig that.
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whenever money is involved there will always be the people that ask for upvote / follow / share / resteem / same with the vote for me in a competition posts .
make sure you stand out be creative be original, i'm a bad writer but know how to handle a camera , and that works for me .
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Interesting title If i was a minnow on steemit,I learn something new form your post and your right that don't Beg for vote and ask for comment steemit is platform to use and you can learn more about other social media platforms like how to care about followers and keep them engage.
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Hehe :) It is sad I have found out about steemit just recently. I guess you guys (early steemers) felt like you found a treasure and everything was allowed to you :)
On the other hand, I really like steemit as it is, I like competition, it drives you to do better and learn more. I am sure it will change with a time and I really hope to the better and then we will be one friendly family.
The only thing that bothers me is giants like facebook, twitter etc - they are different animals, but you never know, they are showing all the time that they can adjust. And in case they adjust, I hope it will not ruin Steemit.
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Great post and so many points for all of us to remember no matter how long we have been on Steemit.
While the several posts I have done have received only a few dollars I have reminded myself that this is a community building process and, unless you have arrived on Steemit with people that have followed you on other platforms, you will need to start from scratch building your network of "friends" who will eventually get to know your work and up vote it.
One thing that I think should be foremost in our thoughts is that, while it is human nature to be attracted to the rewards, Steemit is a "social" platform and that we should behave as is acceptable socially.
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Heard several posts about the commentimg strategy but investing in steem power
First time am seeing that
And also upvoting your post with a greater steem power can get you into the section
Thanks for the information
I learnt
I want more of it
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Good on you for joining early. I still curse not posting in July 16... then not in Autumn 16!
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I think easiest way to grow if joined late is investing. Nobody upvotes if they don't see other people upvoted, no matter how good the article is. Great post btw.
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Great advice @cryptoctopus
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Wow! So many replies that I don't know how you can reply to each one! Thank you for this informative post! Yes, we are a charity and we are new! One thing I have going for me is that I am a Tsu veteran where @papilloncharity had almost 5000 followers and so I know how to post authentic (original) stuff! The finances however is a cat of an entirely different color and I will exhort you to take your articles step by step, as you did in this one! Thank you once again! Regards, Stephen.
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You've seemed to have gotten a firm grasp on the steemit process. Learning the process if curating is a simple concept but the time and effort it takes us what the majority of us minnows lack.
I on the other hand have a ton of time to spend here since I'm locked into a dungeon of a mediocre life.
Steem on.
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It is a great feeling to know I am still an ealry bird. But I must say that when i would have joined steemit 1 year earlyer I would have been a dolhin by now for sure. The jackpot, the interest on steempower.. and it goes on the list. But hey I doubled my steempower in 2-3 months and indeed if steem is worth 10$ overnight or even 20$... That would make me a much more wealtyer person haha. You say: if you have 1000sp you can start earning with curation, what do you mean? I have a big feeling voting for myself gives me a quicker grow then curating :( . And what are your toughts on what price steem could easily reach in wich timespan? I am looking forward to the big announcement they gonna make for the big addition they gonna make for the steemiteco. Very curious what thet will be. I think we have to wait to next wait to know for sure. Any toughts on this?
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I just discovered you and your post, and this is exactly the post i would like to read : helpful!
You gained another follower ;p
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You are sharing very very good knowledge for us.... Thanks
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WE WANT MORE
I feel that I am the right person, at the right time, and at the right place. You got me hooked @cryptoctopus
Am I the only one?
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I got in just when the rewards seemed to be dropping. Just in time to see the posts in Trending make even more than they do now. I remember seeing pretty much the entire Trending page full of $500+ posts, where it kind of tops out at $200 now. It sucks.. I feel like a lot of early adopters got a free ticket to become a whale because of it. The experience is very different from when the big whales entered the game last year, I believe. It is no longer possible to become a whale I think, if you don't bring in a pre-existing community of Followers from other platforms (like Jerry Banfield).
The biggest problem on Steemit as I see it, is that it's so hard to reach anyone through the massive shouting-contest that is the New post category. The only chance you have as a minnow, is to pray that a big whale will follow and hopefully upvote/resteem you one day, so you may get exposure to his followers. If you don't... well, without a whale vote you'd need about 100x more upvotes.. that's simply no competition..
And honestly.. whales don't follow many people at all. You'll usually see whales having 3K followers, yet they will be following only 50 people (also high ranking whales, not minnows). In essence whales are following/upvoting other whales it seems, only making the entry point for minnows even more harder.
I am hoping they will implement better community building tools. Personally I would love to see the tags being improved to work more like 'groups', similar to Reddit. If we can create mini-communities surrounding our favorite subjects, this would allow people to stand out much better within these communities, instead of all of us trying to shout the hardest in the chaos that is the New/Hot/Trending pages.
I would love to see discussion-per-subject too.. Like, topic starter opens a topic and in the comments discussion ensues. And the longer discussion continues, the longer the post stays on top (again, similar to reddit). Right now, we have new posts quickly killing the old posts... Content on Steemit is 1-3 days old, and anything older than that is simply ignored and forgotten. As a result we see the same topics appear over and over, instead of seeing the best post regarding that topic. It feels like the focus is more on quantity+followers rather than quality+qualityfollowers.
Personally, I kind of stopped playing the game of competing for money entirely.. Yes I came here for the rewards, just like anybody else. But TBH, the amount of effort it takes to get rewards is crazy.. I completely understand why active users/posts is going down and why Steemit has a low retention rate of users. Not everybody is as crazy and stubborn as me, to just stick with it.
This got rather long, sorry!
To return to the topic at hand: Currently the best way as a minnow to swim along is indeed to comment on other people. It's not omgawesomemegaprofits either though, and besides getting you that 0.50$ upvote it doesn't actually help you much along in the long run. I have made over 800 actual comments (honest ones, no spam, etc.) and even though this has gotten me over 300 followers, there is still a 95% chance that any post I make will get less than 10 views (not even talking about upvotes) and disappear into the abyss of the New section unless I market it heavily.
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I think this is the general problem I foresee with these token economies. The free market doesn't always work in the ways it is intended and the entire intention of the community/platform can be broken because of it. This is where regulators would step in for a normal economy and prevent monopolies or tax the top earners in order to create an economy that has more mobility in it. Tokens can play a great role in facilitating micro-transactions as it is doing in Steem, but they can also serve as a disincentive to participation when they are not being distributed in a way that is fair.
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Yep.. and not to mention the fact that selling Facebook-likes and followers is a relatively big industry, I can only imagine how many abuse in ways of selling Steemit upvotes/followers will ensue. It's already happening in plain sight, with people selling their upvotes/resteems for SBD, but it's pretty limited still. What happens when the scale enlarges and this takes over the entire system on Steemit?
We all love decentralization, right? So why are we supporting/allowing a new kind of digital centralization through whale-accounts which we all have to use in order to get noticed? We hated this about banks, but now we are paying fees to intermediaries again..
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From the Steemit white paper:
Selling votes is undeniable financial manipulation, and there are various other mechanisms that are as well. Voting by bots is just breaking Steemit. I feel such manipulation is the primary reason that appreciation in Steem price is limited. It is impossible to prove that this or that particular issue is the more weighty, but my review of the concerns of posters in my 90 days here has revealed no greater concern by those indicating concern. Further, the amount of posts and comments either focused solely on money is pretty high, and blatant pandering remains an unpalatable and huge proportion of comments on the posts of those with substantial holdings of SP.
When it comes to using voting bots, even those with all the good and altruistic intentions in the world, I just don't. I am only interested in the opinions of people (well, except dogs. Dogs are the best people I ever met.), and just have no interest in the opinion of algorithms.
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Great find from the whitepaper!
And yes, I agree on your points. I sometimes do use randowhale even though I'd prefer not to use it. Like you, I care about real people reading my posts. But the simple fact is that right now, if you don't use a bot to upvote you, you simply don't even get seen, let alone be read, by real people. I'm seeing so many minnows making super lengthy posts in the New section.. sure they are a bit noobish, but you can tell they put serious time into writing it. It's just so sad to see it drop into obscurity with 2-3 total views. I can almost feel their disappointment.
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LOL I so resemble that remark!
I just posted a lengthy screed for which (my memory is poor, and I didn't pay much mind anyway) am getting less than $2 in rewards.
I just am not posting for financial rewards. What really disappoints me is the lack of criticism. I depend on criticism to straighten me out when I'm wrong, and absent eyeballs I don't get straightened out.
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Good insight! Particularly in view of the fact the the most substantial holdings of SP were mined, not generated by curation/creation, or purchased on the open market.
Personally, I expect this will be the issue that decides whether Steemit succeeds or fails, in the long run.
This:
has to change.
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I'm not going to say you don't have valid points. However, it sounds a lot like complaining and Complainers never get anywhere...winners find a way and get to work. you can do it :)
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Well, I am making it work. But I would say I am part of the 1% of people who are crazy enough to keep at it. 99% of the rest will not do that. I suppose it depends on how big of a platform we all want to make Steem/it.
Complaining sounds rather negative, I'd rather label it as 'pointing out flaws'. Besides, I'm not trying to get anyone to follow me by commenting here anyway. I stopped really caring all too much about maximizing my profits and walking on hot coals, I'd rather stay real :)
People who don't understand it... I kind of want to challenge big whales who got in Steemit last year, to go and make a new fresh account today and, without using any of your old contacts, try to see how the experience for new users is currently. You yourself are only a month older than me, so I don't consider you to be one of the really old timers. Yet, I did notice that right when I got in, price-per-post dropped significantly. I looked quickly at your blogposts, and did see a bunch of your earlier posts (one about naps and one about guitars) netting 70$ of even past 100$. I would be really amazed to see a relatively new account today performing this same feat. My point being: it is now exponentially harder to get anywhere on Steemit than last month, and last month it was exponentially harder than the month before. If this keeps up, there will eventually be no incentive for new users to join this platform after a while. I'm glad I got on last month, because if I got on later with even bigger challenges/lower rewards... I'm not sure I'd bother.
I hate that right now, success on this platform greatly depends on the charity of whales, basically.
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Call it what you like, I was telling you what it sounded like. Like I said, not saying you don't have valid points, but if you keep focusing on these issues, you make it harder on yourself. What you focus on is what you get. Change your focus = change your outcome. Just tryin to help
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I started on Part 3 and loved it so much I decided to start here and follow the rest.
Would you consider a signature at the bottom of the post saying please feel free to comment, post and upvote this if you enjoyed it a type of begging for a vote, is it frowned upon? I've seen a number of users use it so I had a cool animate gif for mine.
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This post received a 2.5% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @trumpman! For more information, click here!
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PART 2: IF I WAS A MINNOW ON STEEMIT I WOULD...
Great article, thanks for taking the time and interest.
I realize this was a 5 post's series and you back lined them i suggest you edit them to add navigational links.
Since I have the time I'm doing it for you in the comments to help others follow the flow and keep reading from 1 to 5
here is the code for a quick copy paste shall you decide to add it to your excellent series:
#### PART 2: [IF I WAS A MINNOW ON STEEMIT I WOULD... ](https://steemit.com/minnow/@cryptoctopus/if-i-was-a-minnow-on-steemit-i-would-part-2)Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
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This is a good read for a Newbie. I am curious about your thoughts on "Post Promote" is this a valuable service and have you used it. Also, the option of post promote on platforms like Discord, Slack, twitter etc. Also what are your thoughts about "Bots". I am relatively technology challenged as I am an older person, and I do not entirely understand the Bot thing but I would appreciate your thoughts. Sounds like a future post for you. Post Promote, Other sites for post promote, and bots. Thanks for sharing the wealth of your knowledge to the minnow world.
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Informative and detailed explanation...at the articles core just be active, social, and use the platform.
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discord and streemian should also be mentioned ,it is an integral part of steemit not many people know about, creating in a community in these can also be helpful
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I am doing pretty good on steemit lately for a newbie. Here are my tips:
i) Write good content. A 20 minute article won't do it. Most of my recent posts took at least 3-4 hours to write and up to 7. Exceptions may apply, but they are just that. Exceptions
ii) Ask nicely (don't beg, there's a huge difference) for help. If you deserve it there are great people here that will gladly give it
iii) When they give you, give back, whether it's to the same person or a newcomer you think deserves it. It's the least you can do. Karma, I am a strong believer
iv) Start from i)
In other words, the same that apply in real life apply here. Work hard and don't be an asshole, yes you might go unnoticed for a while but remember, hard work always pays of in the end.
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Forgot to add something. Try to have fun and socialize while doing i-iv). It's a social media platform after all :)
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Yes. I want you to continue this post and tell us more. I would love for my article to get more attention. It sucks that they pretty much die after a few days. What is the etiquette on reposting old articles?
So, to be clear, Steem loses value over time so you don't want to hold it. You should buy steem and power up, right?
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👍👍👍
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i think we minnow need more info about how to be in hot,trending lists , when to post, how to gain first connections with whales.
Overall you are right but its common and basic things in this article. .
More important is how to use discord,steem chat and other things to make connections, because you cant message private in steemit, and its hard to have personal connection via only commenting.
I support this minnow on steemit series, hope you will look more depth into this and continue to give us information :)
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you are right, this is really the basics. I will go in much more depth in the articles to come.
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Hi I am one of those new followers of Steemit and I suppose a Minnow and I have already made quite a few mistakes but I will come right and I already learnt a lot from your blog. I will keep my eyes open for more blogs like yours, from which I can learn more.
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Wish I had this piece of advice a month ago!
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Good advice you have given to us minnows, i really appreciate these kind of articles made me realized things i was not doing, gonna try that from now on and surely gonna update you how it profited me. Targeting from new tap to hot :)
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Good article Crypto minnows here need all the encouragement and advice they can get, commenting is the main way to get noticed and grow here, why I have over 800 followers in 3 and half months.. keep 'em coming..
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Thanks for tips
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Treat it like a business. If you're bringing value by 1. Posting 2. Commenting 3. Managing/curating. If you do 1, and/or 2, and/or 3 well, you'll be profitable on steemit.
If you're not doing 12or3 go home. Bring value get value.
I appreciated your other posts. Excited for more!
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Note Taken! Thanks for the tips!
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Although this post is 4 months old, thank you so much for explaining the details on how to become a profitable newbie on Steemit.
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Great article, Thanks for sharing @cryptoctopus! Lots of useful information for a rookie like me, and I would certainly be interested in reading more of these. Not ready/able to invest more than my time yet, but that is definitely something to consider about in the future. Winners never quit and quitters never win.
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Having it right at the beginning is what always make a difference. A minnow is a novice and as such i'm I. This post is an eye opener for me. Thanks
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Thanks for all the pointers to be successful on Steemit!
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UPVOTE ME PLS, lolz...
Nice to see you giving motivation to my fellow @minnow!
I also try my best with #steemit-help posts, and contests for them to win free SBD and @bellyrub!
I have to recharge my power, but take some juice NO PROB:)
Cheers! :)
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Solid advice @cryptoctopus.
Do you have any thoughts concerning the following:
As a minnow, I feel slightly unsure about the employment of this methods. I do engage folks a lot and can tell it has helped. Thanks for the helpful post!
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Stellar advice. I joined Steemit just over a month ago and spend an hour or two reading posts and then trying to make engaging comments. I've managed to actually have great conversations with some amazing people, met loads of new friends, and even somehow managed to gather over five hundred followers in a short time. I think it's like most things, the more you put in, the more you receive.
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i like post , please see my galery
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Wish I'd heard about Steemit one year ago, but, hey, as you say - it's still early in the game. And even without the big rewards it's pretty fun to be here and make new friends. Because, in the end, it becomes more than followers, we get to know each others a little bit.
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Right on. You can't win at a game you don't understand, plain and simple.
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I got so much solid information and knowledge by reading your blog .
Now i try my best to be successful on steemit ...thanks
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Right on, that's pretty straight forward. I'm guessing persistence is also key?
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I want more. Trust me, am here to stay!
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Resteemed this! Thanks so much for sharing these tips. I am following your advice.. investing almost everything back into Steem Power
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It's very interesting post! This information can help me to grow up my knowledge on this platform, thank you so much for your great advices.
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amigo #resteemia at your service
'Never beg for upvotes' you are absolutely correct. this is the best guideline ever. you guided us well @cryptoctopus
ReSteemia
'UpVote ReSteem Comment'
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@cryptoctopus - Sire, you are a good man. I feel respect about you Sire. I love your post Sire.
+W+ [UpVoted & ReSteemed]
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I will... follow whales and make it an effort to comment in their posts :)
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I think being at the right place at the right time can be very important. I mean, the way I discovered Steemit was by being at the right place at the right time. Someone on reddit made a comment mentioning steemit, then deleted the comment hours later. So if I was a few hours late in seeing that post, I would have never been here.
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Ok wait, you mean I can't ask for an upvote? Really?
You don't address blog posting, yet I imagine you will. I think it is important to note you focus on commenting first. It makes sense, because it's a form of networking I suppose.
I can also attest that with the exception of 3 of my posts that had what I call "whale drive bys" I've had more rewards in comments than all blog posts combined.
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You can, and should, ASK for the upvote (it's a good call to action). You should not beg for an upvote.
The difference between asking and begging is the ask says "If you find value in this post, upvote it" whereas the beg says "upvote me", "upvote for upvote", or asks for the upvote without any other content of value.
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Ok, I should have said beg, it was an attempt at humor, referencing the top 3 of the do not do list.
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Ah ... yeah ... that and follow_for_follow ... are probably the best ways to get muted by every whale :P
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Muted, flagged and by more than just whales ;)
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"L.U.C.K (Labor Under Correct Knowledge.)" That is a funny way of translating it lol. Yes, commenting and engaging is the key as I so have learned this week :D Thank you for checking out my post (I can see how it was a little sketchy at first, commenting u, asking to have a look) but I am glad that u saw I ment with well intentions :)
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The thoughtful comment is, in my opinion, the most powerful tool we have on Steemit. I have always found it important to engage with the community whether minnow, dolphin, or whale (even that $0.001 vote is a vote).
Building up Steem Power is a bit of a tradeoff between money now and investment. I definitely encourage people to invest a little more than the 50/50, but I understand the perceived need for money now as well.
Often overlooked is the power of helping other Steemians grow. Interaction with other minnows helps to build a community where we don't need to be lost in a sea of 500 low quality posts to be noticed because there will eventually be 100-200 high quality posts and 50 or more exceptional ones.
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Well I did buy 1000 steem about 2 months ago but I have yet to be able to pull it off of Poloniex. I have now been emailing them with the support ticket for the past few days and they said they're going to verify me and then send it to me. I thought crypto meant secret so I don't see how they could possibly verify my name...... and that's all very frustrating. I'll never use them again that's for sure. You don't need verification when you buy something...... you only need verification when you actually want what you previously bought.
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This article should really be the first thing new Steemit users see when they join the site. Your points are good because it is common sense! Well done!
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Simple and Easy... put the time in and you'll benefit, to many people looking for quick return, have patience minnows 😬
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Yes, I am slowly learning this. Someone gave me a 19 cent upvote the other day for a long comment. I'm lucky if my articles make 2 cents.
Write good comments people, it might pay off. Use the commenting golden rule: write the kind of comments you would like to see written under your own article.
But here is another general tip. Write good titles for your articles people. Reading through hundreds of titles like - "Picture of Tree" is just not a good use of time. Steemit gives you a lot of room for long article titles - use those to your advantage. Make them funny or super descriptive of what your article is about. Please add some personality to them. Generic is seriously boring.
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Sounds good :)
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Coming up on 2 months on here I still am a relative newbie and appreciate when experienced members on here such as yourself write posts like this.
It really helps us to review how we are working here on Steemit and can give us guidance on changes we need to make
I am relieved to read the approach I am taking on here seems inline with your guidance so I will stick with it and continue to Steem on
Thanks again
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This is exactly I have been doing so far. To me, asking for an upvote or a follow is like begging for money on the streets. Apart from money, we actually don't think about the long term opportunities. Like we all have an opportunity to start a series on this platform, any fiction story or anything in episodes. We can then make an ebook on the same series and start selling on Amazon.
So being a small fish here, I am still not worried about the money, I have a good job, I spend my time here too and I know it will give me a lot in the longer run that will eventually help me quit my job!
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Every minnow should read this article. Clear and easy to understand. I did a lot of mistakes in the weeks, but I learned so much, and also learning now permanently. Not easy to write a good article (especially for people who has other motherlanguage than English - as myself), it needs a lot of efforts. The same with the comments. Not the quantity but the quality counts! And the appearance: well edited, high quality photos, edited and formatted text, highlighted links. In addition, challenges and contests are great opportunities to boost up steem.
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Minnows nowadays want easy money here. I think the time for making easy money is gone. Work smart and hard and you will get your rewards. Stop bitching about how much some people are making or self upvoting. They got here because they worked hard earlier.
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I think the best time for the greatest financial rewards is yet to come. Steemit is the primary driver of Steem price. Few technologies have shown the potential for rapid growth that social media has, and, once Steemit straightens out some of the flaws that make vote buying, botnets, and circle jerk collusion so profitable, I think Steemit will grow rapidly.
Few people will intentionally prefer platforms that censor, infiltrate propaganda, and keep all the profits (Fakebook, Twatter, Youtool, etc.) over Steemit. When Steemit grows to, say 100m accounts, the price of Steem will skyrocket.
We, as @cryptoctopus said, are the early adopters.
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gracias por compartir este contenido con nosotros te di un voto espero que te guste
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Minnow like me need to work hard on this platform. Many thanks for the tips
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I am interested in cryptocurrencies and I am currently trying to understand the steemit. I still do not understand how it can be profitable. There are no ads or anything that would monetize attendance. Can someone please explain me how it works?
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If I understand you correctly, you are saying that we minnows should focus on commenting on posts from whales rather than other minnows. Is that correct? If so, doesn't that put the newer people at a disadvantage since if everyone focuses on the whale posts, the new people won't get the attention that they may deserve? Or am I missing the point.
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