My dad @bigskycustoms recently joined and he's been having a bit of gaining traction amidst the sea of minnows on steemit. His posts are about the custom figurines he makes and drinking craft beer, and I think most of them are pretty solid posts, but they only get a few votes and a comment or two. I'm sure their are countless others in the same boat, trying to post with minimal results even though their content is good. It's probably pretty frustrating, you put in a good amount of time and effort on a post, and then wind up with little interaction. That's why there are a few things I think beginners should keep in mind:

Photo by Mikito Tateisi on Unsplash

---

1. Commenting

I feel like a broken record here, but I do believe commenting is the easiest way to to earn steem when starting out on steemit. Not only that, but good comments will bring new followers and fans to your blog, and those new followers could be dolphins, orcas, or whales. I've gotten a number of new followers by commenting on posts written by people with similar interests as me. This is the key in my opinion.

If you're commenting on an article you have no interest in it will show through, but if you find something your passionate about, or even just curious about, you most likely will write a better comment that will engage both the writer of the blog, and the readers. This is the best way to get followers if you don't already have a good following. They might glance at your blog and see those quality posts you've been writing and upvote them or follow you. There is no downside to commenting unless you are using bots to comment.

One thing I think will really help in regards to commenting is communities. Once there are a larger amount of active users on steemit, communities will make it easy to find posts and people that we can find common ground with.

2. Posting Frequency

Posting is the bread and butter of steemit, it's what makes the site tick. However, posting amazing articles that take a lot of time everyday can be really disheartening. I don't recommend posting too frequently, unless they are going to be shorter posts. For example, on a blog like @bigskycustoms I would:

• Write smaller posts. For example, on a blog like @bigskycustoms I would do one post per craft beer that he reviews with maybe two pictures or so. And for posts on custom figurines, maybe multiple pictures of the process for each figurine or set of figurines with small blurbs of text describing the process and the athletes.

• Write personal blog posts. Personal blog posts, such as the intro post, will help other people really connect. While it's not necessary, and I suggest everyone do what they feel works for them, I do think it helps people see our individuality and make friends here on steemit.

• Write a few longer posts, A few posts here and there that are really well done, and have a lot of value are going to be appropriate once we have a few followers. This will help show the people who visit your blog a more complete picture of what we have to offer. I know I would be more likely to follow someone with a wide range of posting ability, and longer posts usually provide more value to followers. So even though we're just starting out, a few longer posts can be good if they are spread out. Once you get some more followers, more frequent long posts can be quite lucrative, especially if a whale votes them up or resteems them.

3. Community Involvement

Community involvement is something that I feel is widely overlooked. There are a ton of opportunities out there for people just starting out to gain followers, exposure, and steem. Here are a few I recommend:

• Minnow Support Project - @minnowsupport is a great community to get involved in. The easiest way to get involved is probably hopping on their Discord. Once there feel free to ask questions, upvote your posts using their bots, and learn how you can get resteemed by the MSP.

• Lucksacks Poker - Win SBD by playing in freerolls! I've made 20-30 SBD playing in these tourneys. Once you win one you can keep playing into the buy-in tournaments too. They also sometimes do giveaways and small poker lessons. Pretty great community, follow @spl, @tuck-fheman, @nicnas, and @bethalea as they are all pretty involved in different ways

• OCD - Follow @OCD and use ocd-resteem to have a chance at getting your post resteemed by OCD. Really awesome project, check out this link for more info.

• Whaleshares - Follow @officialfuzzy to have a chance at some great contests. If you have any skills in photoshop and the like you have a good chance to create something that could win you some whalevotes. There is usually at least one post a week with a contest to win some whaleshares and other coins that can be spent to get a big vote. Sometimes all you need to do is create a post!

• Contests - Go to the #contest hot and trending pages to find contests to win steem.

4. Learn Formatting and blog set-up

There are plenty of guides to format posts correctly, ONE, TWO, THREE, and I think it adds a lot to a post to have quality pictures, good grammar, and pristine formatting in a post. This is something I still need to work on, but every little bit helps.

The other important thing is setting up your blog page. Having a good banner profile picture, information about yourself, and links on your blog page can help users get a good picture of you and what you can offer.

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

---

These are just a few tips that came to my mind on how to find success on steemit. It can be a lot of work, a lot to learn, and a lot of time to put in, but I feel in the long run it will be worth it. We are all early adopters of the platform, with only 50-60,000 active daily users. There is room here for exponential growth as more and more people join, and that means getting as much of a head start now will help that much more down the line. This is the advice I will be giving to the people who I get to join here

This post is the advice I will be giving to people I get to join on here, so if you have anything to add or any questions, toss them in the comments below! And if you enjoyed this article be sure to upvote and resteem :)