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Everyone on Steemit seems to have their own strategy for becoming successful on the platform. For instance, some individuals find success by posting only a few high quality articles each week, others post many smaller articles daily and still other individuals become successful by curating, promoting, upvoting, and resteeming articles produced by others. Though each of these methods holds merit and leads to success in its own way, I personally believe that one method stands out above the rest and that is:

Commenting!

I’ve come to this conclusion by observing my own experience of commenting on others work as well as by observing the comments that others have posted in various trending articles. So, with all of that being said, this article outlines why I believe that commenting is important to the Steemit platform and how it leads to success on the forum.

Commenting Builds Networks, Communities and Relationships Among Individuals

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1. Commenting shows interest: When someone shows interest in another person work, they are telling that person that they might have a similar belief system as that person. Generally, people tend to gravitate to others who have similar interests and belief systems as they do.

2. Commenting leads to discussion: People like to discuss their ideas because it validates their perspective and outlook on life.

3. Commenting brings others into the conversation: There seems to be a snowball effect with commenting in that when a lot of people comment on a post, many more people begin to make their way to the conversation and pretty soon, several different conversation threads have broken out.

All of these factors lead to the formation of groups and networks on Steemit. In general, people tend follow others who have similar interests as their own so you can build a following by creating relationships with others.

Commenting Leads to Votes

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1. Individuals often vote for people who leave meaningful comments on their posts. In general, people try to encourage others to come back and read and upvote their posts in the future, so they upvote comments as a method of encouraging others to come back and see them.

2. Other Steemit users often read the comments on posts and they often vote for the ones that they agree with. Sometimes a comment on a particular post will receive several votes from other members who agree with what that person has to say.

3. Curation rewards are often very small, so the votes that one receives from commenting are often worth more than what one would receive from individually curating other posts. Some votes for comments are even worth more than what we would receive from our own personal articles so individuals can earn quite a bit simply by commenting on others work.

Commenting Shows Appreciation and Encourages Others

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People appreciate that their voice is being heard and that their opinion is being validated and when people feel good about themselves, they will continue to produce good content and give back to others. Encouraging others on the forum ultimately strengthens the Steemit platform by creating a strong sense of community, by producing quality entertainment and by bringing in new users. Ultimately, if Steemit grows, we all do better.

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All in all, each of the factors listed above results in the commenter being noticed by the original poster as well as other Steemit users. Many individuals build a large following simply by commenting on other posts.

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Guidlines for Commenting

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The following are some general guidelines for commenting on posts. Though these are only my personal opinions regarding comments, I believe that these views are shared by many community members.

1. Read the article: This is self-explanatory. If you didn’t read the article it will show in your comment and your comment will ultimately be meaningless to the original poster.

2. Upvote the article: Sometimes people make comments about how good an article is but then they do not give it a vote. This comes across like you do not actually care about what was said in the article and that you are only looking for an upvote yourself. In general, people do not appreciate that sort of behavior.

3. Make meaningful, quality comments: Demonstrate that you read the article and that you actually value what the individual has to say. Otherwise comments come across as superficial and largely meaningless. They do not benefit the forum and they often do not lead to upvotes by the original poster or the Steemit community. Spamming comments are frowned upon on the forum and can even lead to flags, or down votes. Generally speaking, avoid copy and pasting several comments to several users (these are easily recognized). Also avoid comments like "Nice article!" or "Please follow me" or anything similar. Ultimately you want to demonstrate that you actually read the article and not that you are only looking for an upvote.

4. If the original poster provides a follow up comment that asks a question or seeks to clarify what you are saying then respond back. Sometimes people post vague comments on posts that are meant to sound deep but that are actually not relevant to the article. Sometimes they do not actually make a lot of sense. If the original poster asks for clarification and you ignore it, that demonstrates that you are just looking for an upvote and often you won’t receive one.

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And that's it. I encourage everyone to comment on posts that they find interesting or insightful and to build relationships and networks on Steemit. Ultimately, commenting can grow your following and add to your success on the platform. Good luck!

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Thanks for Reading