Reflections on the benefits of upvoting the comments section of my blog...steemCreated with Sketch.

in steemit •  7 years ago 

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Introduction

Hello dear followers of my blog.

I've been doing some thinking about all the benefits of upvoting the comments section of my posts and the more I think about it, the more excited I am about what seems to me the best way to operate my own blog.

Today I will upvote at 50% of my voting power any comment that can add another legitimate benefit of upvoting the comment section of my blog

Here are some of the direct benefits I found...

Benefit #1: Incentivize Participation and Views

Writing a thoughtful comment before the last hardfork wasn't rewarding monetarily. When one had the choice to write their own blog and get upvotes versus writing comments, most people would have chosen the former...

But since then last hardfork, the tide has changed.

If I was a new user today...

If I had to restart from zero today, the first thing I would do would be to follow people who upvote generously their comment section and then truly engage with them. By doing so, I would gain respect and reputation from whales as well as make more money than trying to compete in the new/hot section of steemit.

Overtime, I would gain followers and enough SteemPower to upvote my own blogpost enough to make it to the hot section.

What's in it for me?

The benefit for me to be upvoting the comment section is that it incentivize participation. I make sure to reward well the comments that are engaging. Today, a few comments made over $10 on my previous article. By doing that, I'm creating a loyal following of people who read my article enough to write a thoughtful comment about it. Which segway into the next part.

Benefit #2: SEO

All of those comments are creating additional content on my articles which in turn will help me rank for certain keywords if I try to rank. As I mentioned in my SEO series, Steemit is a juggernaut when it comes to SEO. If I wanted to do affiliate marketing, it would be the first place I would think of to rank articles.

With all the comment, it easily add another 1000 words to the article that I do not even have to write myself. That's pretty cool.

Benefit #3: Secure higher payout down the road

This one is not guaranteed but it make sense hypothetically . Everytime I upvote a comment, I am making that author more powerful on the platform. Since I write at least 5 times a week. A good commenter could potentially make $30 a week commenting on my blog alone. Few months down the road, that person upvote would have went from $0.01 to $0.25. Multiply that by 100 people and that's an extra $25 of payout on every single post I make. (That is if they upvote the article they comment on)

Benefit #4: Higher engagement is a good motivator

To be honest, I put almost all of my payout in SP for a long time now. I already have a job and I really like what I do. I rarely take money out so at this point, the money is not the number one motivator of my participation on steemit.

I am here mostly because it's fun and because I get to interact with cool people on my blog.
I like all of your comments and I am going to do my best to engage much more in the comment section of my blog.

Conclusion

Today I will upvote at 50% of my voting power any comment that can add another legitimate benefit of upvoting the comment section of my blog.

Steem on!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
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Hello @cryptoctopus! I am actually one of those who have received some great comments upvotes from you these last 2 days totalling about $13, which is nearly 10 times more than when I make a post where i spend hours in putting it up!

I'll break down my answer in 2, one talking abt your benefits and the 2nd part for the benefits of the people commenting.

YOU
I've just checked on http://steemit.deadfollowers.info/ that you actually have 4223 followers with 1365 dead ones, which finally brings you to 2858 true followers.
It's still a big amount of followers, but when I see the upvotes on your post, it's usually around 200-275 per post, around 10% of your true followers.
On the comment side you have around 25-80 per post.

So with the system of upvoting valuable comments, you'll surely start having some real true followers who are sincerely following you and always looking forward to your post.
It is better to have 10 real followers than 1000 who only follow you just for the sake of follow!
And with these real followers, maybe you'll discover some very interesting ones which you will like to follow too

Comment writers
Not everyone can make a good content post, this is the truth, but many of these people do have some great passion and your posts maybe of great interest for them. So instead of writting a post which will bring near to zero rewards, it is just great that they drop a valuable comment here and get some nice upvotes from you.

Secondly it would be great that users from third world countries also come here and earn some votes from you, that single vote can actually make a whole family live.

So in a big picture, Sharing is Caring and I think this is what Steemit is all about!

Thank you and sorry for this long reply!
@progressivechef

Always there with a meaningful and thoughtful comment. Your point about having more true followers is right on. Even if I have over a 1000 real followers, I only get around 150 views per article.

In fact, many can only dream, at least like you get around 150 views

Thanks so much for appreciating my comments and point of view @cryptoctopus. I have actually changed my way of steeming these days, like i am only engaging with people who comments on my post and those who reply the comments that i make on posts that inspire me.
I just don't want to have a huge amount of followers who are never there appreciating my post!
Wish you a great productive day ahead all away from Mauritius!
@progressivechef

That is the biggest lesson I've learned over the years. An engaged base is way more valuable to everyone than just pure numbers. I can't tell you how many conferences I've been to related to YouTube talking about sheer numbers and we're finally starting to see marketers realize the value of smaller engaged audiences. Of course so have all the big producers, which is why Disney and so many other traditional media sources are getting in the game. I can't wait to see how these concepts play out in steem.

Great comment @progressivechef I enjoyed reading it.

I feel like when I first started that was my goal too , because when Dan created this platform , he wanted to spread philosophy and peace among one another . Ever since my first day two and half months ago, my motto was "comment comment comment" that way I made great friends that have helped me to work harder and not give up on my dreams . Upvoting gives you a way to show people that you value what they have to say , and that you like their concept , this gets them to come back and share more of their opinions with you without being judged .

I've been on steemit for two weeks and I only put comments on the blogs that are giving valueable information. You are my favorite of all, whether you upvoted my comment or not. It seems like every blog you make, is adding some value on me and other people. I really like your blogs. I really do. I'm not commenting just to got an upvote from you, I'm just commenting to tell you that I hope you'll never get tired of posting valuable stuffs. Thank you again and have a good day. 😊

Thank you, you are right. You win a 50% vote on that one.

It's an honor !! Thank you :)

I have been here for a month now. I felt very lost for at least a couple of weeks. Its my first ever try with cryptocurrency or blogging. I never even had twitter or instagram accounts and my facebook account is populated by family members that I am running away from so I never use it.
It is hard at first to be able to focus on quality contents because of the many posts/sec added from all around the world. I tried visiting my followers (few everyday) but then I would get lost or don't remember who I visited and who I didn't. But lately I made my goal to check the new, trending, hot and promoted tags and go read random posts, then comment if I find something to say.
This is how I stumbled upon this post and I am happy to hear that the strategy I started using is actually the correct way of steeming.
Thanks again @cryptoctopus and thanks @journeyoflife. I hope to learn more of your amazing experiences :)

Voice your opinion ! Don't voice in hot or trending , go to new . It's where it all starts

Ahh. Thanks a lot for the advice :D

For upvoting only the meaningful comments on your post you are separating your true followers from the ones who spam. And commenting on someone else's post is good because you can interact with people, share opinion, and bring value to the Steemit network. Another great thing for me when I comment on some post is the fact that I can practice my English skills in a friendly environment with people from all around the globe

Decrease impact, and likely hood, of spam/bot voting. Because spam and bots generally target original posts, the curation pool on thoughtful comments are pretty free from them.

Also:
Growing new users. New users have a super hard time growing SP/reputation/etc. But, if they're making solid thought out comments and they get rewarded for them they grow faster. The faster they can grow (provided they're genuinely contributing) the better it is for the community at large.

Good one. I started flagging comments that are made my people who make comments that make absolutely no sense, that are duplicate or spammy. You'll get my upvote! (after the 30min period)

Problem with flagging is that most users who do that stuff are already pretty much rock bottom... And it still costs you VP.

@cryptoctopus part of your comment here doesn't make sense: "I started flagging comments that are made my people who make comments that make absolutely no sense". This sentence was copied from your reply. Can you find where you don't make sense?
Just wanted to show you that I am reading every word you are writing. I am loving this :D

first language is french. Sometimes, I jumble words ;-P

:D

Thanks for the vote btw. Got distracted putting the kids to bed, lol.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Actively looking for posts that engage and reward their readers is exactly what I have been doing these last couple of days. I got kind of sick trying to compete with my articles and barely seeing any views. Now I noticed the true power of communicating and actually doing the reading myself! In these few days I probably made more money than I would have made in a few weeks of posting on my own blog. Getting new followers seems to go a lot faster as well! Besides, I love building these connections with people that have same mindsets as me! :D

Great comment, I upvoted and it looks like my vote is worth three cents. I have only been here for 3 weeks. Posted a number of articles which I also shared on my social media platforms. Steemit is certainly interesting but I am still trying to wrap my head around it, and understand how it works.

I think what's gained me over 10k followers just on Facebook is my level of interaction with people on my posts. In addition to having very informative posts and articles as an independent journalist, I also interact with as many people as possible. Of course, there is no payout for this but it has built me a very loyal following, who eagerly read and share the content I put out.

People know that I am very busy and they greatly value when I take time out of my day to like, comment, and interact. I am trying to figure out how that works here as well. I think you pretty much summed it up in your comment. Thank you again! @droucil

I've added you to my votes. Please write more often, I like your articles.

Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate your encouragement. I will be adding more articles here. I have written over 70 articles just this year lol. Keep up the great work as well!

Oh, you probably meant the original comment lol sorry if I misunderstood. I do have a question though, any idea what difference it makes if you choose the default 50/50 versus the Powerup 100% when you make a post? @cryptoctopus or @droucil

I am still fairly new here myself (circa. 2 months now) but all I did, and I think most people do when first coming in contact with Steemit, is to create ones own content. It did help me a lot personally, but currently it is overflowing with creators. Some people also see this as something like facebook where u post short messages multiple times a day. I can't say there is anything wrong with this, but it does make it even harder to find actual valueable posts. So the best way I see to actually get urself some more notice benefiting both u and the Steemit platform, is to engage others. And it seems u have a lot more experience than me when it is coming to social media interaction. I never liked facebook, twitter and those alike, this thing is actually still very new for me.

That makes sense, I generally write long in depth articles with pictures, videos and a ton of hyperlinks on my site but I think a shorter version would work better here. That's what I have been doing with my posts here. I am just happy that the feedback here hasn't been anything like on Reddit. Which I only used briefly after noticing that people were sharing my articles on there. The thing I disliked the most about that experience is that people flat out hated what I had to say because it goes against what they thought was true, but so far my experience here has been really positive. So I am hoping things continue in that path. Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it :-)

Upvoting comments is like making money back on your post and investment via curation rewards. Wait 30 minutes before upvoting ;)

You are right, I often forget to wait 30 min before upvoting the comment section. You win a 50% vote since you are right, the curation reward is a big benefit of upvoting my own comment section. I will upvote it in 27 min ;-P

Thank you sir. It needs patience to wait and come back after 30 minues.

Hmmm... Why wait 30min before upvoting? and what is curation? what does it do? and how we can use it? I read about it in FAQ but never understood what it meant (small brain :P)
I am learning so much here.
Thanks a lot :)

When a post pays out, 50% of that post goes to the voters (split up). BUT there is a "reverse auction" for the first 30 minutes that pays a percent BACK to the author as well.

There are more variables that determine your "cut" of curation rewards also, like place in line, how many voted after you, your steem power, etc. It's very complicated.

Hmmm. Thanks for answering though. It really helps :)

actually I believe its now a 75% to author and 25% to curators. But other than that you've got it. Curation is a game that can only be played profitably by people with more SP...not minnows.

Weird, the ui still says 50/50

or you can split after 15 minutes :)

looks like he decided to split. :P

But what about the downside?

  1. Comparing your voting power against the average user will result in your upvotes ranking at the top of your article. Resulting in "lost" content that you miss out but other users might value.
  2. Behaving like a benevolent dictator, but still dictating user what to read (first).
  3. Narrowing down the comments (which is also a good thing!) might discourage user to write opposing comments.

I do see the benefits, you and a lot of comments made that pretty clear! But there are always two sides of the same coin. :-)

I'm not sure to understand #1. Can you clarify?
For #2, dictators use force and coercion...I don't. I use incentives, just like steemit does.
Good legitimate opposing comment will get my upvote since they are sometimes more valuable but I see what you mean.

On #1. Comments are sorted by default as “trending”, i.e. users will see the comments first that are upvoted by you (as you have a lot of voting power compared to an average user). Anything you miss out will be “lost” in the bulk of comments. But overall you probably bring more order into the chaos.

On #2, fair enough!

Oh I get it :-)

Thank you for posting @cryptoctopus.

After reading your post.....there is nothing bleujay can think of adding.....it is the way of it.....and really the best part of being at Steemit....conversing with fellow Cyber Steemians.

Compose, curate and comment....the three C's of engagement and experience at Steemit.

All the best to you and yours. Cheers.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

when i knew about this platform i had no idea what this is and i once left it as it was of no use as it looks to me but again tried to give it a try and someone said to start from the bottom by engaging in conversation with people whom work you like or in the interested topics you like this will help you and the community to grow and i guess that one line did work for me i made some very cool friends here and they also enjoyed my post's and i too its like a daily dose of happiness to me :) keep steeming on

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

@crypoctopus This is good advice... thank you. My husband ( @beardo ) and I are both new to Steemit and we are looking for ways to improve the stay here. We were invited to Steemit by @dwells and @essentialoilmom and sometimes co-host The Steem-Pocalypse Show with the two of them. It's a lot of fun... just some friends talking about @Popa-Pepper 's game. That's the extent we have of knowledge of Steemit. So I really like content that teaches me more. Thanks Again!

This is awesome advice!

After reading a couple of articles i started self upvoting my comments as ive become a content consumer rather than a producer, at least until i can build up a big enough following and steempower to make content production worthwhile. A comment can take me 5 mins and earns the same amount as an article that takes over an hour.

true. It's better use of your time at the beginning.

rewarding comments in your blog rewards and encourages e gagenent and discussion. I see far too little engagement with posts on steemit. One off comments yes but no threads that discuss the topic and evolve as more people add to the discussion. Hopefully with the use of rewarding comments, this can be encouraged.

Big discussion tends to be around controversial topic where people butthead I think...like politics or religion. I'm not sure incentivizing the comment section further would bring more genuine conversations.

The trouble with political or religious discussions is that you have a number of opposing views but it's rare for anyone to change their view, regardless of the strength of the opposing arguements.

I don't know any other benefit from upvoting comments, but for me as a newbie this post is very beneficial and taught me a lot. Many of your posts should be in the FAQ section!

Thanks man. That's a great compliment.

I've also been voting on comments, not only on my posts, but on those that I follow also! Glad to see others writing about this.

I like your #3 reason. It makes a lot of sense to build up your followers, because in the end you will also benefit from stronger followers.
I think it is a good strategy to get followers, even when they have low rep and stay with them for the long run, overtime you will all grow and become stronger.

Every blogger comes here with hope that he/she will write some good quality content and post it after that he will receive good payout on #steemit but the scene is totally different therefore he then come to make comments for to get reputation and SP.Now I think when i will reach to 60 reputation i will set my goal to start blogging on daily basis to share quality content,I see some whales which are very kind,appreciate and make friends minnows like us,you are one of them @cryptoctopus but unfortunately the number of that type of whales are few,I know my upvote have no worth for any whale but whale have power to bring me to achieve my goal with their upvote.

I read this post which really show love for all of your followers and minnows,so i liked it and resteem it that other minnow take some benefit form your precious post and efforts,

Thanks for the compliment. We are only a few whales after all. Less than 100 at this point. I like your plan, I will be writing more about what I would do if I were to start from scratch today.

Thank you @cryptoctopus for appreciate,you are doing well we are looking forward.

@cryptoctopus Those are great reflections and ver refreshing for you to be so forward about what is in it for you and as well as your followers. If I am completely honest, I upvote posts that I believe are genuine and have either triggered my interest or reflect my own thoughts/views/situation etc. And it's very important to acknowledge that it's the contents that make me upvote, and not the reputation of the person or their steem power. I did that the first few days when I joined to a particular whale, but his contents were so poor and he was so self-centred, it made me realize that if I wouldn't respect or acknowledge him in real life, then I shouldn't do it on steemit for monetary benefits. As for you or others who write truly engaging content that I can relate to (and that I would've read on any other platform) then upvoting your posts is a natural step. So to answer your question, I believe another legitimate benefit of upvoting your comment section of your blog is that you do read the comments and respond when necessary. I think that's as valuable as you upvoting because it shows genuine interest in what your followers think/believe/say etc.

upvoted. It would fall into the category of "engagement" for me but I truly appreciate you sharing your experience on steemit and part of what you wrote may make it's way to my next post. Thanks man.

@ cryptoctopus Thanks for the feedback. I look forward to seeing what part might make it into your next post!

And the commentators that you have raised, in turn, will further comment on you and vote for posts, thereby increasing you too :)

Well, am very new in steemit and was very happy when I once commented on a post and the author upvoted my comment. It actually made more sense to me and since then, I have been only writing comments to authors who upvote or at least reply. Anyway, thanks for this post, am learning alot. Following you for more

My pleasure @mamady, I will be writing for people like you in my next series I believe.

I think commenting and upvoting comments are a great paring, almost as good as cheese and onion.

I have only been here for two weeks, and I want to show people that I am genuine and that I am interested to hear from the people I follow. None of this "follow for follow" nonsense. I follow the people I like and I want people who like me to follow me if they want!

Because I only follow interesting people, I enjoy reading their blog. And because I enjoy reading their blog, I have an opinion. So I like to express that in the comments section.

If the author then upvotes my comment, it means to me that they appreciate me reading and commenting. I love that as I already feel like part of the community here after only 2 weeks.

That's awesome @coffeehub and you are write. I might start a series about what I would do if I were to start from scratch. You seem to be doing the right thing so far.

You should do that.
Us newbies would definitely be interested !

Great introduction/instruction. The truth is that the content and willingness to share the benefits somehow goes hand in hand. I started following people with good content and only afterwards I realized that they upvote my comments which brings benefits to me.

a fat upvote always gives me (and I guess other people?!) a smile. So you give the gift of happiness. What's better than that :P

Thanks for gift 😂😂😘😘

Well hello dear @cryptoctopus

I've been doing some reading about all the benefits on commenting on other peoples posts and the more I think about it, the more excited I am about what seems to me the best way to get started on my own blog.

I am a new user...so the first thing I will do today is follow people who upvote generously their comment section and then truly engage with them so hopefully I would gain respect and reputation from whales as well as make more money than trying to compete in the new/hot section of steemit.

Am I gaining any traction?

I hope you dont mind me taking your words literally to heart? ;-)

Off to the new/hot section of steemit!

Awesome! I'm glad you took my advice to heart.

I think it's the best way for you to establish loyalty from your followers and for us(now one of your many followers) to really read the content of your posts. This makes it more interesting...

Hmm interesting I never thought about this. TBH, I struggle to follow all the intricate system "gaming" and am amazed at the people who can actually figure all this out.

Please forgive but what you are saying in basic terms is that it's financially beneficial to upvote "followers" comments on your blog post 30 minutes after they are posted while also having the bonus effect of more engagement with your followers?

Hmm..I am trying to figure out if there is a limit to how many posts you can upvote in a day, if I understood correctly your steem power goes down if you upvote too often? I would love some clarification on this, if possible @cryptoctopus Thank you!

I have heard multiple answers to this question ranging from 8-11 votes per day or not letting your voting power get under 92%.

Ah ok, where can we track our voting power?

You can track it on https://steemd.com/@********* (Stars being your username.)

Also while you are at it, you can check https://steem.makerwannabe.com
which is great for seeing who has followed/unfollowed you recently

Awesome, thank you so much for the information! I greatly appreciate it.

once you have enough SP, you get a sliding scale. For example, I upvoted you at 10% above...which sent around $1.50 instead of $15 if I voted at full power.

Curation "for profit" is a complicated game. I wouldn't advice people under 1000 SP to get into it. That way you don't waste your time and add to the confusion. Basically, it's a reverse auction. I wouldn't venture to explain it in details but I believe you can find more information in the welcome page.

More engagement is not about the 30min of curation, but simply rewarding my loyal followers.

LOL. LOL. I love your post @cryptoctopus. It is so honest yet entertaining. I feel like you are saying to us "here..here..fishies, I will make you fat to feed me better later". But still I find myself following the bait only wanting to be full. "What the heck, I live only once." A minnow said once.
Unfortunately my voting power is so low, but I will still vote and follow.
I honestly was interested to read every word you wrote because you sounded very honest, and I appreciate honesty.
I should be honest too! Okay if you insist. here I go.. "Of course I want your 50% upvote." No let me correct that, "Actually I will even take 100% if you insist. I totally want to become an obese fish :D :D :D."

Thanks for the post and Keep up the good work ;)

honesty builds trust :-)

Thanks for upvoting my comment so generously. I never made that much in a comment before :)

ye its nice that you do , because some people only upvote them self and dont engage with their readers:( ye i was lucky enough to get ~ 8$ so i appreciate your strategy.
Wanted to ask about SEO of steemit, is there any specific algorithm in this platform ? As i get comments are ranking too in article ?
About 50% voting power im not sure its wise, because you cant regen in 1 day all that energy, so if you taking day off than its ok

No problem my friend. The algo is Google's and other search engine. What makes steemit so powerful is that its a top 2000 website in the world that provide dofollow links. Things rank fast and easy when you blog here.

About me upvoting at 50%, it's only for the top comments...not every single one. For the average comment I upvote at 10%.

Waaah. If I become too annoying I will probably not get any food T_T
Okay I am going away now. See you in another post.
Thanks again :D

Hey @cryptoctopus glad your doing this I have also been trying to do this on my own blog you can check it out yourself as I feel that by doing this your spreading your wealth to others that can possibly in future upvote you with a stronger vote so basically by helping others grown you are essentially helping yourself. Unfortunately I am only a minnow so I cant really give much but since the last update its given me the chance to help others grow were I can. One way of thinking is its like a investment its a great way to get new users to join your blog if they see that people are often getting rewarded it might just entice them to follow.

Patience and perseverance my friend. You'll get there.

Its hard for new users as whales tend to stick together,
Commenting can help them gaim there trust and be part of the circle
Plus it is also fun to comment and get upvotes

I wouldn't say we "stick together". The incentives for voting for popular author when you have a lot of SP is great. It requires much more effort to vote for minnows and sift through the junk of the "new" tab.

I agree with you if being active in steemit is not about money...truly, i started uploding article only to get money, but now i belive that the money itself will come if i have fun with steemit and as long as i share the benefits of everything i have to all over the world....besides, by being a steemian, i can learn more how to write a better article and become almost a good writer.

Yes man. Be yourself and persevere. Believe me, it will pay off.

Yes.. i will.

Followers are always checking your posts and its a motivation for them, how to write they get to know lots of things from your posts.
I am the one who learned the structure , marking style, the way to present. And it really helped me alot.
I hope for the sake of helping community and the newbie you should maintain it.

Thanks, I'll do my best to keep the good content flowing. :-)

i, too, try to upvote the good comments that get left on my articles. it just seems to be a decency thing. plus it does incentivize people to keep coming back (hopefully).

True. It is common decency, especially when steemit's comment section is so much more agreable than Youtube.

When we have to deal with people who are not motivated to do the best job they can. We need to give them some form of reward in return for their best effort. This is how it works "Reflections on the benefits of upvoting the comments section of my blog" @cryptoctopus and I must appreciate you for your innovative ideas. Thanks for sharing with us

My pleasure. Thanks for the compliment.

I acknowledge you are very helpful. Hope things are goin well for you

I like how you're always thinking about SEO on all of your posts.

Its always on the back on my mind.

If I had to restart from zero today, the first thing I would do would be to follow people who upvote generously their comment section and then truly engage with them. -----you are very much right @cryptoctopus . I have done the same but not getting much attention (upvote) . Your content is always worth reading and thanks for your valuable support. steemit needs the people like you.

Thank you. Keep at it. It will pay down the road.

Thanks

I have built a rocking blog @cryptoctopus through the magic of blog commenting. It's really nuts, in a way, because publishing my opinion for free on high profile blogs has been the backbone of my blogger outreach campaign.

Of course this will work beautifully on Steemit too. I just recently hopped on the network. I have done limited networking until now but promise to pop in and share a few in-depth comments on engaged accounts at least once every 1-2 days, to keep the engagement train going and to build more friendships here.

Ryan

Read you around, fellows!

An interesting idea @cryptoctopus, I am because I prefer a new user, I will do as you wish, that is by following people who want to reply to my comments so that I can also interact with them, thank you for sharing

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

comment writers are mostly newbies, or people who do not or cannot post blogs of their own, and upvoting them means sharing with those who otherwise may not take a part, isn't it one of the core principles of blockchain to decentralize assets? upvoting comments, and others, minnows is a way of achieving that goal

Added reason: when you upvote comments on your blogs... people know you are not another bot... it gives you legitmacy to being a real person they can engage with

There are so many bots running around who put out so much randomness... and the 1 true way to know you arent dealing with a bot.... they upvote you and interact with you

very true all what you are saying! And i really like reading your post aswell they are all very interesting! you will have my vote for days and years to come!

If only people realized this instead of begging or posting a picture/youtube video in hopes of getting an upvote worth a lot.

It's funny because I almost do those exact things whether its just posting a pic or a youtube video but I add some decent context to it. I also come in with a minnowbooster after an hour or days later and have it upvote my post a dollar so anyone who upvoted me before hand will make some change.

Well let me start i don't comment anyone for the upvote. I do however appreciate the upvote whenever i get one. It means the author of the original piece either enjoyed my comment or appreciates the time i took to read it.

Then to answer your question.
I myself am plankton. As you can see in my wallet everything i earn goes back into raising my voteing power. At the moment i only upvote for 0.02$. What benefit could you have of upvoting me? I would come back to read more. On the other hand if i don't like a post i don't comment it. But i am shure alot of the steemit users do. So in the end you would make more money in the long run. But if you would vote on yourself you would be getting even more.

What i believe is the best insentive is that people keep using steemit if they get a great upvote once in a while. Meaning users who would normaly quit after a week now keep on commenting and creating great content, as a comment or as a blog post. So what you are douing by upvoting is keeping the community active and present on steem. And lets be honest that is the best reason to upvote people. To interact and keep them busy and happy on steem.

They might come back one day...

I don't have an spectacular comment, so i'll just ....

Thank you for this post! I have certainly learned quite a bit and from the comments as well. Lots of great information. I am going to be sharing your post with two friends that recently created accounts here after I mentioned the site to them. So that they too can get a better understanding of how things work. I have only been here for 3 weeks and have noticed that 1. the community here has great positive energy. 2. some of my posts have performed quite well. 3. there is still so much I need to figure out and understand but I think with time I will be able to fill in those gaps. As an independent journalist that goes very much against mainstream media news my content is either loved by those who have freed themselves from mental slavery and decided to use critical thinking, ask questions, and not blindly follow what their media and politicians are telling them, or they are negatively received by those who still suffer from cognitive dissonance. On reddit for instance my posts were frequently downvoted simply because peopel didn't agree not because they were not correct, factual and informative. I have a large following on Facebook.. over 10k followers and another 5k on twitter and ig.. so I am hoping to be able to grow a decent size of interested readers here as well and interact with people like I do on my other social media platforms. I will be following you because I found your post very informative and I upvoted it as well. Thank you again @cryptoctopus

Interesting post

Thank you for the news or information we hope to be able to do business together and achieve success .. hopefully we can be well-secured by sharing good news2

I really enjoyed your post, thank you for sharing with us. Enjoy the vote!

I think that upvoting the Comments portion of your blog can help morale and build a mini-community that revolves around your blog. For new people, in particular, it's hard to find financial rewards on Steemit. You would offer them the morale boost of a little money, along with the opportuntiy to share comments with other of your followers, So it would boost morale and community.

Just on the second paragraph of your forst point, how do you identify who upvotes their comment section generously, this sounds to me like an impossible task. I welcome comment on how this can be done.

Wow, this is very exciting. Thanks for sharing your post.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Upvoting your comments won't just incentivize participation but it will also mean that you will maintain your followers. Nothing is more frustrating than upvoting someone's post and attempting to engage them in conversation and succeeding only to have them not upvote your comment at all.

When someone spends time and effort commenting and they don't get any respect in the form of an upvote then they might consider unfollowing. I've unfollowed a few people that I thought were treating me, their faithful reader and upvoter, rather unfairly. People that get treated fairly though....... those people remain followers.

Nice post @cryptoctopus sir, Comments do have grave power and when you make them meaningful, i also like to say that ones goal is not to be a successful commentator, but ones goal is to be a valuable commentator. so all in all very nice decision sir, i appreciate your thoughts.

Very valuable information for a newbie like me. Hadn't considered this option seriously before. Thanks.

I've been careful to upvote every legitimate comment on my posts. And at least one reply to my comments. @ironshield

Nice Analysis , ..and writeup...steemit is more about engaging in social qulity discussion

As a noob on Steemit, I have earned everything (all my SP) from participating. Over time though, I've learned that just participating is not enough, ie., upvoting just to upvote, commenting just to comment. Engagement is where it is at and you are right about that. I personally get tired seeing the participation approach as like trying to hook a fish. Well thought out comments that increase produtivity is what we should all be seeking. It's why you'll never find me on the "Baking" channels, involved in those topics that really interest me. And I have learned also to not upvote comments on my posts unless I feel it is deserved. Thanks for putting it all in perspective.

Even on other platforms I've always tried to interact with people who take the time to make comments. I'm still pretty new here and not entirely up to speed on how the voting all works, but I'm learning as I go. I look forward to hopefully adding value to the people who find and follow me and my artwork on this platform.

I think this is a great idea, and I recently read about someone else doing this and it worked out very well (I forget who!). Something I wanted to point out though, is that just upvoting will often go unnoticed. If someone upvotes my comment, but doesn't comment back on it, I usually won't notice, unless I'm revisiting the post for some reason, or looking in my own comments list. These things I don't normally do. It's the engagement that really keeps people coming back, I think. The upvoting is like icing on the cake, but I think the commenting back to comments is the actual cake itself.

I like this post. It promotes engagement and social interaction, exactly the opposite of all these social selfish bots that you have to pay to get upvoted, and they use your blog to advertise their service.

By sharing my personal opinion and insights on other steemian post that I find valuable to the community is a my main source of follower's and as a little red fish commenting is also my way to get heard from the crowd. In fact, I comment a lot than posting an article.

Thank you for the suggestions for the people like me who just started using Steemit

I think one of the real benefits of a thoughtful engaged comment section of people naturally drawn to the way you may write is how just one small idea or turn of phrase can really inspire a whole slew of ideas that may create even more articles & creative people can play off each other while still giving credit & financially benefiting. I really love that there's a way to acknowledge that. Symbiotic is the word that springs to mind.

I'm just starting out & thinking ahead to how I want to brand myself & engage with future commenters. I tend to get lost in my own world & fear alienating people because of my social awkwardness or inspired moments. Plus, I'm just really picky about who I let into my world to influence me.
I've got a million bubbling thoughts & don't want to go on & on, but I'm definitely curious to see how your thought trains will evolve.

im just new here so im into reading things a lot.... i just read comments here... i learn new things..thanks for posting.... just learned that aside from learning things your earning when you got to share your opinion over a post... just saying

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Most important benefit - you encourage good comments with bigger reward and spam comment with flag and average with average reward, so people will work more on quality comments than comments like " just follow me and upvote:)"

One more friend, why now people are vying to get upvote from some comments on some blogs, in my opinion and this is real happening in my place,

  • Because their posts do not get upvote from their friends or curators.
  • There is also a opinion by commenting on the account of a great reputation, and when getting upvote, then he will be proud.
    He does not care at all without any reply to his comments, which is important get upvote. There are also mengupvote his own comments, it is clear that his comments rise to the top with the aim of the blog owner will upvote because he considered his first comment, thank @cryptoctopus

Benefit #4 is my fav. I've come to the conclusion now that the money will come... but not after a lot of hard work and dedication, thats what drives the platform :)
Thank you so much for your support on your last post, I appreciate it beyond words mate... Things like that give me motivation here on Steemit :D

#5 MORE FOLLOWERS. when people see that you upvote them they follow you , so they can read and comment you in future.
#6 Helping newbies with first money . Usually who are successful and whale they prefer to make posts, but newbies like to comment because they have chance to gain first money.
#7 Natural upvote . By this i mean no mass self voting and steemit will work stable and evolve into platform of future. Because this abusers of selfvoters dont bring anything into platform they just suck reward pool and no engagement nothing.

When I created my first post 3 weeks ago i checked the little box that automatically adds my vote to the post, should I unclick it?

That's a great idea. A very useful idea for everyone. Successful greetings for you and for all of us :-)

Comments are second-class citizens that are subject to deletion at any time. The reason voting is so restricted on comments is to encourage people to post answers or at least alternate comments instead.

I can't delete your comment and no, you are not a second class citizen...and voting is not restricted on comments.

Very interesting experiments take place on Stimite. And your undertaking for the Russian-language counterparts of Stimit golos.io would be revolutionary! I do not understand enough about the economy, I am motivated by the desire to communicate with interesting people. But if you can find a benefit in commenting on interesting texts, it's amazing for me!

. I like your post

I usually do that with the valuable comments, and I use the upvote now to close the conversation, if I have nothing to add, I don't write thanks, but upvote the last comment. I see it as upvoting a good post. I highly agree with your method.

I am learning so much today from the comments here. Having only been here for 3 weeks I am still learning how all of this works. Thank you!

I never thought of the comments adding thousands of extra words to your article as far as SEO goes!

I am coming up on my one month anniversary here. I have been very active in comments and I am having a hard time not upvoting!

Not upvoting you ask? Yep! I find so much to upvote that I end up depleting my voting power. The end result is that my vote becomes worthless!

Is this a good problem to have?

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

With us commenting on each other, without expecting a fee first, then we will be able to interact with one another, so that when the whales sees our active interaction with upvote and comment each other, the whales will automatically come to the blog Us, is not that my friend @cryptoctopus

This is a really great idea. I dislike people who come and comment on my blog then up vote themselves for a generic comment without even upvoting my article. For really great comments I have even used randowhale to show my appreciation and agreeance. I'm in the same boat of this being a side hobby on top of a job I love, I've considered just switching to 100% power up, is it more effective then trying to play the market to make more steem to convert?

I dislike people who come and comment on my blog then up vote themselves for a generic comment without even upvoting my article.

This is so funny because they'll be like "GREAT ARTICLE!" Like they expect me to upvote them for that without upvoting my article. They're probably bots.

Ah.. so you are able to change your upvote power? Is that something that comes after a certain amount of time? I have been here 3 weeks and it seems that my upvote is worth 3cents if I am not mistaken.. but to be perfectly honest I am still not sure.

If you go to your own blog and change 'steemit' to 'steemd' you can see the skeleton behind the user interface you see here. At the top you will see two bars, one is your 'bandwidth' which I seriously am not sure what it is, but I've only run out once. The other is your voting power, as you vote it decreases, regenerating at about 10-20% a day (honestly probably not the best adviser on all this) When you reach a certain amount of steem power, and your vote is worth more then an incremental value, you can choose to up vote with a percentage of your vote. So if your vote is worth 10$ you can upvote 2 articles at 50% to the same effect of 250 newb 2¢ 100% votes. I'm not exactly certain when the slider choice is unlocked, but you can see what percentage of an upvote you have gotten from a whale on steemd. Hope this helps.

They really don't make this easy on us huh? lol there is so much to learn... I am learning something new with every comment. Thank you for responding and I will look into the things you mentioned. Have a wonderful day :-)

You too. It is awfully confusing, but Steemit is still in beta, so hopefully more user friendly functions will come in time. The voting percentage scale on steemd is new as of the start of July. It is a continually evolving platform. Just do your best.

Any idea what difference it makes if you choose the default 50/50 versus the Powerup 100% when you make a post?

Thank you for the wisdom! I'm a hungry guppy

Great.........upvoted

I always try to upvote comments on my posts. Granted, I can't really give a lot of reward and I vote them with 1%, so I have enough left for all the posts I like... but I still feel it's important to show some appreciation to everyone who engages with my posts. In this big, bad world of Steemit, filled with bots and such, it's nice to find people who actually read the content!

Never really thought about things like SEO before though! Even more reason to continue doing this :D

Well, I am new to this platform, just second day here. I am already addicted but have lots to learn. Reading your article was really helpful in trying to understand how this all upvoting works. As a newbie I will be probably unable to add to the knowledge I gained from you. I start to understand that as an niche artist, I have small chances to create valuable post for people interested on cryptocurrencies especially with such a small power I started with. It means that I will stuck, or use my amazing opportunity to comment, build relationships and power up this way. Thank you for all your help in understanding it.

I totally agree with you.
Motivation on my level (red fish) is quite important. A lot of people give up since they write a lot of posts and get only a few SBDs. The starters should concentrate on interacting via comments before they write long posts. Just make some connections first. If they get rewarded for this the motivation will boost up.
Thank you for the post. 😊

I just came across your recent minnow post in my feed so this is only the second article of yours I've seen. Reading your stuff has given me a light bulb moment. Comments are like a foundation. You want to build a strong following, you need a solid foundation.

I think another benefit of upvoting your comment section is leading by example and hopefully will create followers who will do the same. This will not only give you a solid foundation, but it also strengthens steemit and increases the value of the platform and the value of steem. You have a new follower BTW :)

Thx for your post.. If you have to start new again... but you don't have to do that.. I think it is indeed hard for new people. But I agree your theory. It's starts with commenting and making relationships. What I like in your post is that you really look forward. The people you support most likely will be supporting you also in the future.. I would never forget the first whales who gave me some upvotes... It's really great... And indded you vote for them and give them nice feedback.

What I miss in your article is that there are some groups that always 100% upvote each other, no matter what the content is... Sometimes hard to deal with... but he when they know each other I would maybe do the same.

thx again

Good beginnings! I once tried also in my posts, encouraged to write comments, and unfortunately, it did not work out very well for me. You do it better, probably because you already have a great authority on Steemit. I also try to always respond to comments and vote, I also would like to have a lot of commenting. I hope I succeed. I wish you good luck in your endeavors!

I don't have a number 5 for you, but I really appreciate that you are putting out this information. The concept of a reverse auction for people under 1k sp is quite interesting. I am going to have to shift more of my efforts into quality responses rather than trying to create a blog following.

For me as a person who is not great and creating my own content I prefer actively engaging those who do write good posts. It costs you nothing to go read a few posts and leave a meaningful comment and interact with other users and this is how steemit will thrive in the future, with real interaction. I've only been around here for just over a month, but I'd say 95% of the time im commenting on others rather than writing my own posts, it has its goods and bads but I have made several great connections so far which make it all worth it.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I am too late for a bonus but I want to comment for the sake of commenting!

Quality comments create a conversation. Conversations are fun and stimulating. If you are lucky, your conversations can lead to amazing friendships online.

As an author, comments give you that warm and fuzzy feeling that what you are saying is being heard. It validates the time you invest in putting a post together.

I am enjoying your posts. You have another live follower :)

OK, worth asking: what kind of content is legitimately in demand over here? Seems most of the posts fail to get $1.00 while others over $100. And not seeing a rhyme or reason to what is valued and not as of yet, but I am new. I like the idea of what I see here and the Dtube project is what caught my eye to get me over here. But am I wrong to assume "reputation score" is every thing here? Where I might be wasting my time with out one? Been in crypto since 2010: I mine, I trade, host my local meet and great for users and enthusiasts, and grind away earning a living. Like the idea of both paying forward and getting paid to do it. But this space seems to be a 2 edged sword. Feedback and 2 cents welcome on the best way to not waste my time. Thank you.

@cryptoctopus i don't know any other benefit from upvoting comments, but for me as a newbie this post is very beneficial and taught me a lot. Thanks for sharing this typ of post.. its vry hlpful...

I feel obligated to write a lengthy comment to contribute to this post so I will try my best to fulfill your desire of having an engaging community who contributes to your content to create additional value to your SEO; however, I find it hard to find out how I'm going to contribute other than writing about how I feel obligated as mentioned previously. In my desire to help you, I continue to write and think of what I am really going to say that will be additional input to provoke intellectual thought. At this point I am lost, I do not even know where I am anymore. I'm at work, spinning around the universe at a billion miles an hour.

@cryptoctopus - Checking out your blog for the first time today. Wish I had read this when I first got on steemit. This information was very valuable and I have noticed so far that commenting has been a big way for me to reach people as well.

On a side note, one thing I really like about the commenting on steemit thus far, is because there is a monetary benefit to leaving comments - there is a lot less "bashing" and "you're a f@+#ing s---head because your views are differing than mine. People seem to take a lot more time to talk things through on a humane level. Which has been one of the most pleasant parts of this platform for me.

Congratulations @cryptoctopus!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:

  • Comments - Ranked 3 with 170 comments

Good one

This is really something that I have noticed that very fewo people upvote comments, and some people really leave such amazing and uplifting comments. I think this is a great idea, good on you and I hope you find a few very deserving people that leaves great comments. You are really an inspiration and I read some of your other posts and I think you have done real good on Steemit. Following and resteeming

Taking the time to read a post and to give a genuine comment is so important. I am not the best of blogger but I am good an noticing posts that deserve love!!! I get excited when I read a post that either fascinates, makes me smile or makes me hungry :) I am blown away when I see posts that get a lot of comments and debates going on. Recently I did a post to 'Thank @heart-to-heart' for a fun recipe recommendation she posted. Here is the post that I created and here is the post that she created .. You can see the importance in being genuine, acknowledging someones post and taking the time to comment. I like this post a lot cryptoctopus . As a minnow, I have found that I am a better commentor than I am at posting :( Thank you for what you do .. Love you Steemit Friend .. SUNSHINE247

https://steemit.com/food/@sunshine247/thank-you-heart-to-heart-your-smoovie-was-a-hit-avery-and-hayden-want-to-thank-you-they-had-a-blast-making-these

https://steemit.com/steemit/@heart-to-heart/a-real-steemit-success-story-and-guide-the-power-of-steemit-how-it-really-can-change-your-life

Please note that it is my opinion that the above post by @heart-to-heart is one of the best posts I have read on Steemit yet - so genuine and heart felt.

Thank you for this!

For me, Steemit is all about building community... and what better way to get that process underway than to engage and interact, as a good steward and curator of the content on our own original posts. There is much more to blogging than simply "publishing" and waiting for something to happen.... these blogs we keep; this content we create... it's a bit like a garden; it has to be nurtured and tended to.

I remember reading one of @stellabelle's posts a while back, in which she characterized Steemit as a "gift economy;" that is, a place where we all "give it forward." In a sense, that is also the essence of building community. And-- as you allude to-- paying it forward also adds value, both to the individuals who comment, as well as to the platform as a whole.

And it makes sense, even if we are ultimately "selfish" in our motivations... that is, we take the course of action that will maximize the price of Steem. And in a similar fashion, I'm more inclined to leave good comments-- and return-- to someone who rewards good comments. It builds on itself.

An interesting idea