Top 5 takeaways from my SIX weeks on STEEMIT - Minnows, listen up!

STEEMIT is a great community....if you have a community that follows you.

Photo source: http://vmwareinsight.com/Tags/TIPS-AND-TRICKS

I have been on STEEMIT for about 6 weeks now, and I have just under 100 followers; I have played around with quick posts and more thoughtful posts; I have inserted pictures and kept pictures out (having a picture gets more views, btw); I have followed some people with few followers and a lot of people with a lot of followers; I have upvoted many posts and resteemed a few articles; I have left comments and replied to comments left for me; I have promoted my articles (which is a total and complete waste), and I have left them alone.

After these first six weeks, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of the platform, and I am starting to understand the best ways to get paid (although the calculations of payment are still bizarre).

But I am still not sure exactly why STEEMIT exists.

In my short observance and participation with STEEMIT, I am beginning to think there are ways to game the system.

New, fresh, and informative content is actually pretty hard to find.

And the site is not very intuitive. Most articles are opinion based on stories from the news three days ago that you can find with a quick Google search. And those that aren't regurgitation of CNN of FOX really don't add much value.

So here are the top 5 takeaways I have made over the last 6 weeks on STEEMIT:

1. To make money, you MUST have a following.

   
   How do you get a following? Well, unless you have sources to get your breaking news, your articles probably aren't that interesting. It may take you a while to research and write, but without a following, you likely won't get the recognition that you think you deserve based on the time you put in to write.
   
   To get around this, you build a following by perusing the "hot" articles and following the authors who have big payouts. Ten times out of ten, those authors have hundreds of followers and if you follow them, you get on their feed. Why is that important? I'm glad you asked...

2. UPVOTE popular authors EARLY.

   Be careful how much you up vote, but by up voting early on an article that is written by a popular author, you are getting extra curator rewards. For example, if you are among the first to up vote an article that gets hundreds of up votes after you during that first week of publication, your curation rewards are significantly higher than those who vote later in the week.
   
   So, what do you do after upvoting? Good question....

3. RESTEEM the articles from popular authors.

   By RESTEEMing, you are essentially creating content. People who see your "content" will notice that you have access to articles that are heavily voted upon. In turn, they will follow you.
   
   But you don't want to just share a bunch of content; you want to contribute as well, right? In the early days, to add thoughtful content you should...

4. COMMENT on the articles!

   Here's a dirty little secret: You don't even need to read the article. Sometimes the title of the article tells you all you need to know. Either way, the earlier you make thoughtful and/or provocative comments on a popular article, the more views those comments will get. The more views you get on your comments, the more potential followers you will get. AND you can get up votes on your comments...which means more $$$ for you.
   
   

5. Once you have a following of a few hundred people, you can post anything you want

   and make a good amount of money per post. Why? Because most of your followers will be doing steps 1-4.
   
   In fact, you will get to the point where you can post an "oops" article like this one and still make 30 bucks!!

So you see, STEEMIT is run by people with followers. Almost like a dictatorship ;). The content is mediocre (no breaking news or life-changing perspectives) and most everyone here is creating that mediocre content with one thing in mind: making money.

If you don't get your status up, you are just wasting your time, and you'd be better off blogging on your own site.