Lessons Learned

Hey Steemians,

I’ve elected to do a follow-up to my “introduce yourself post” from earlier this year and give newer users of Steem some of the best practices and lessons learned that I’ve found on my Steemit journey. I thing its paramount to the success of Steemit that new users are educated on the platform, how it works, and given as many resources as possible that help provide guidance on how to “make” Steem. As someone who has flailed around for quite some time (and still does on occasion) on how to find my niche; I’d like to share what I’ve learned to hopefully simplify the process for new users. This is by no means a perfect or complete list of best practices or ways to leverage the technology, but I think they are useful. Hats off to @paws1t1veev who has really helped provide some insight to me and pointed me in a better direction about how to use the technology. Here is what I think are three takeaways that I’ve distilled since joining earlier this year:

1. Create influence: Steemit is a social media platform where content creation is paid for in “Steem”, which is to say that users are paid for using the technology. I don’t want to get too involved in the different forms of Steem, but suffice it to say that when someone puts new content out on the platform they have the opportunity to profit in the form of receiving Steem based on how many people add value to the post. This is where new users need to understand the value of increasing their influence. A new user that posts on Steemit has a limited audience to view their content. This is similar to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter where the size of followers correlates to how many people will like or share the content. The bigger the population of followers, the higher the likelihood that your followers will upvote, reply, or resteem your post. New users are dependent on others to find their post, read the copy, and add their value; which is how Steem is added to a post. Here’s the crux of the issue though…most new users have very limited ability to post their content directly to user’s feeds, so their ability to have an audience read and like their content is diminished. With that said, there are ways to maximize what I’m calling their influence:
   a. Obtain a larger audience of followers (preferably including people that have large amounts of Steem – Steemit has a concept of fish size (users with small amounts of Steem are minnows, those with larger accounts are known as dolphins, the largest account are known as whales). Simply put, when a dolphin or whale adds their upvote or resteems your content the economics change for that post. In Facebook or Twitter, when an account with a large amount of followers shares your post, their followers see the content as well. It’s the same with Steem. As dolphins and whales they have more Steem power, their vote makes your content more valuable.
   b. Buy your way in – There’s no rule that says you have to start from scratch and work your way post by post, reply by reply to a large amount of Steem. You can just as easily transfer your other cryptocurrencies into Steem and use that to naturally inflate your Steem Power.
   c. Leverage other means to power your account – There are bots and other users who are more than happy to give you their Steem where you receive their Steem power in return for a payout of the proceeds of your post.
   

   

2. Figure out what do you want to do: Its vital to your success that you figure out what you want to do with the platform. Some people want to grow their accounts by creating rich content that is appreciated by others and paid for in Steem in return. Steemit can work incredibly well as a blog/podcast/youtube-like platform for those that want to generate continuous content. Others have invested in Steemit and act as an investment company by delegating their Steem power to others in exchange for a daily payout of the proceeds. Still others are using the platform where they will take a payout in Steem dollars in exchange for upvoting a post. I’d say that as someone who has been on the platform that each user needs to understand what strategy they want to use Steemit for and what tactics they are going to use. Its very important to understand is that there are a multitude of ways with no single right answer. Each user will have their own unique space that works for them. Find your voice, be consistent, and have fun. You can make Steem with whatever way you want. It all depends on your methods and where you want to take the technology. Do your research and find the way that works for you.
   

   

3. Understand how Steem work: This may seem like something that comes hand-in-hand with owning a Steem account, but I’d like to highlight how critical this is to your success. Each post or transaction has an impact to your overall Steem account (either in the number of followers that you have or the Steem that you receive for a post). Learn the rules and guidelines to make yourself more effective. Steem is paid out for each post, seven days later. This gives you a week to drum up the value of the post by getting people to upvote your post or add to the content, so think about how you can increase your audience or improve the value of that post. Content and the number of people that see and add value to that post matter just as much. Steem can be used as investments with delegations and transfers effectively inflating the amount of Steem a post creates. Read up on bots, delegates, witnesses, and dolphins/whales and begin to study what successful Steemians have done with Steemit. There is a roadmap for any strategy you want to take.
   I really hope this is helpful for you and good luck in educating yourself on Steemit. I really think this is the future where users can profit for their content as we drive the volume of users and actual content.

I really hope some of these simple instructions can help. It's the difference from continued, consistent engagement with new users and those who spin their wheels and give up after a couple of weeks of limited success accruing Steem.