The Worst Mistake I Ever Made on Steemit

in steemit •  7 years ago 

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Here it is. The best advice I can give to new Steemians.

I made a HUGE mistake early in my Steemit career. This error held me back in a big way, resulting in a loss of potential reputation points, followers, earnings, and opportunity. Let my mess-up be a lesson for you and don't repeat my mistake!

I joined Steemit in August of 2016. At first, I was posting every day and seeing practically no success from my effort. Then, gradually, I started to gain followers and earn some Steem! I was ecstatic.

I've always loved to write, and I'd put in thousands of hours over the years to improve my writing ability. But trying to write for a living seemed impossible. I got rejection after rejection from the magazines I sent my stories to, and blog posts I'd spent hours crafting received fewer than 20 views. But on Steemit, once I'd put in my initial few weeks of effort for little to no return, I started to get a lot of views. And those views corresponded with a major uptick in votes--even some nice, fat whale votes. I started to think that maybe I'd found a way to actually make my living from writing.

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Steemit was my dream come true.

I redoubled my effort. I networked with more people on the platform. I published more posts, and I tried to narrow down a niche that would eventually become my Steemit specialty. The niche I chose was humor, and my humorous short stories and articles were generally performing quite well, earning me enough money for three straight months that I considered quitting my job to focus solely on Steemit.

But then, the price of Steem took a dive, and payouts went down with it.

Posts that had previously been earning me $60 - $200 were now bringing in less than $5. Even so, I kept at it for awhile, thinking that this dip in profitability would pass.

But it didn't take long before I grew discouraged. I had a lot going on in my life at the time, and it just didn't seem worth the investment of time and creativity to pump out all of these stories and essays, only getting pennies in return.

So I stopped posting.

At first I told myself it was just for a few days, so I could take care of some other things. That would've been fine, if I'd kept my own promise to myself. But I didn't. Weeks went on. Months. It was always in the back of my mind to get back on Steemit, but it's not easy to pick an abandoned habit back up. I posted only three times in half a year.

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I came back to the platform in May, and after a few weeks of reentry by fits and starts, I finally resumed my habit of posting (almost) every day. I even (very recently) started to reassert myself into the funny tag. But I've spent a lot of time kicking myself for staying gone for so long.

If I'd kept posting regularly, even when I had so much other stuff going on (I could've cut down to three posts a week instead of stopping completely) I would probably have quadruple the number of followers and steem power that I do now. My reputation score would be much higher, and I would have a firmer grasp on all of the new innovations and initiatives that have come to Steemit in my absence. Plus, while the SBD payouts were low, so were a lot of other cryptocurrencies. I could have been building my portfolio by bits and pieces the whole time. Perhaps most importantly, I would have been able to build and nurture so many new connections and friendships by sticking around. Even though the payouts were low when I quit, I would have benefited tremendously from making a different decision.

Here's where I went wrong:

I was looking at Steemit the wrong way.

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At the time I quit, I saw Steemit as a way to achieve my dream of becoming a full-time writer, getting paid well for what I love doing. And it's not that Steemit can't be that, it's that I was expecting it to happen--or to continue happening--quickly and without bumps in the road.

That's not how Steemit works. In fact, I doubt that's how anything works. Steemit is a market. It has peaks and valleys, and it's only if you're in it for the long haul that you can really reap the benefits. I had joined Steemit during a peak, and the earnings I received in my first two months gave me unrealistic expectations of how things would be going forward.

If I'd been more reflective about my choice, I might have seen this. I might have also seen that there is so much more to Steemit than just the payouts. As a content creator here, I'm not just earning some money for doing what I love. I'm also contributing to the decentralization of money and social media, taking part in a daring experiment, building relationships, and growing an audience. Those should be my primary motivators for being on the platform. The earnings are secondary--because, for one thing, they aren't a guarantee, and for another, they only come as a result of the primary things I mentioned.

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It looks like Steemit may be entering a new slump, of sorts.

After a record high, the price of Steem is correcting. And the heady days of HF19's massive upvote increase are drawing to a close. Payouts are going down, and Steemians are being more conservative with their vote percentages.

Folks who joined during the past one to two months may have gotten accustomed to earning, or seeing others earn, pretty darn good cryptomoney from their content creation. And now the payouts are going down. How low can they go? Does it matter? Will you abandon the platform if it doesn't continue to conform to your initial expectations?

Will you repeat my mistake, and forfeit six months worth of SP, followers, and relationship building?

Undoubtedly, some will. A lot of new Steemians are going to repeat my mistake of December, 2016. They're going to get discouraged and give up.

But you don't have to.

You can do the opposite of what I did. You can hang in there. You can remember that we Steemians are riding a badass rollercoaster--so just enjoy the ride. You can keep participating, if not for the big fat payouts, then for the love and community and for the thrill of being part of this radical new thing that is going to change the world.

Keep on Steeming!



I love you, Steemit!

Hi! My name is Leslie Starr O'Hara, but my friends call me Starr. I live in the mountains of North Carolina and I write humor, fiction, musings, and essays here on Steemit.

Upvotes and Resteems are amazing!

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@lesliestarrohara


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The part that people don't understand is that we earn the same amount of Steem even though the Steem value in Dollar terms dropped. So when Steem dropped to $.10 I continued to write and earn that Steem. Then when the price went up I was able to cash out a nice chunk of change. For a few months I was in the top 5 earners because there were so few active users. Our persistence in the end paid off big. People will do the same thing all over again if Steem drops under $.50. It saddens me but it is the truth.

This comment by @hilarski is so critical for people to understand, nothing is changing under the hood with regards to how payouts and rewards are being given on the platform, it's just that the market value is lower. Keep on earning 'til the value rebounds.

Yes, it only makes a difference when you go to cash out. And many newbies here think that's the ride - get rich quick.

Exactly right. It took me awhile to figure that out!

This time, on the upswing it looks like Silver and Gold (#steemitsilvergold) will be in play almost in parallel with crypto. My goodness.... Silver is so rangebound right now, so firgging beat into submission. It will not, cannot go lower.

Move into bitshares, lock into bitSILVER , and hold onto your bitshares as you follow the price of silver up. You will not regret it. They will move in tandem up to silver at $100 per ounce. Magnified awesomeness.

Excellent post. I was fortunate to figure out early on that the true currency of steemit is relationships. Because of that, I've been consistently posting for over a year now. Ups, downs, and everything in between. I even kept posted after the hardfork which demolished almost all the rewards for a time. That was interesting.

Thank you for sharing this important perspective.

I'm glad you're back and posting again. I missed your INTERGALACTIC CLICKBAIT stories. :)

I missed writing Intergalactic Clickbait stories! I just published my first one in over 6 months a few days ago, and it felt SO GOOD!

The price of all cryptocurrencies is going down right now. But the general expectation is that it will climb again. So no worry about that.

Yep. It's all good. It will continue to fluctuate, you've just got to hang on during the dip and keep building for the rise.

I have a very similar story. Most of my early posting was when steem was around 10c, I didn't really have much traction when steem was coming down from $4, but it's always been about the followers for me.
I kept putting off posting, for about 4 months. Other stuff going on, change of employment etc. Wish I'd kept posting, but I'm also good with not pumping out low grade stuff just to stay in touch.

Yeah--that's another thing to be aware of. Taking breaks when you need them, especially if not doing so will negatively impact the quality of your content. We'd all like to be "on" all the time, producing fabulous posts every day, but sometimes that's just not possible, due to other life stuff.

Yes , consistency is one of the keys. I've been noticing at least with my posts that those with any steem power are voting at 1%, 5% and not many at 100%.

Are you sure it's not about the money tho? Damn. Why am I here? Lol. I'm actually really digging the content on here.

The money is secondary to all the other awesome benefits of Steemianism!

Your post points important thing! Money shouldn't be a primary reason to write, first of all is fun of writing. Every new person, I'm one of them, should read it :)

thank you for sharing that!:) It is good to learn from mistakes, this is the best school of life. My motto is: never give up! I am happy you did come back here! I am a new steemit user and still learning what it is about and I like it so far!:) greetings to everyone! Have a wonderful day!:)

Upvoted 100% and resteemed. What you wrote resonated with me so strongly. Your story is so similar to mine.

So I stopped posting.
At first I told myself it was just for a few days, so I could take care of some other things. That would've been fine, if I'd kept my own promise to myself. But I didn't. Weeks went on. Months. It was always in the back of my mind to get back on Steemit, but it's not easy to pick an abandoned habit back up.

This part describes my experience exactly. I intended only to take a few days off I didn't post anything for four months, then after one post I left again for another month.

I sometimes think about where my blog could be now: how many followers I could have, how strong my reputation could be. It doesn't matter now. Even with the market in another down trend, I won't make the same mistake again.

Never quit, Never surrender attitude :)

Yuuuupppp, I made exactly the same mistake, I kept posting, but it fell down to once a month, and I didn't really bother to engage; I won't be making that mistake again.

Oh, and add to that, I powered down when the price was cheap (arrrgggh).

Ho-hum, we live and we learn...

Cg

Thanks for the advice. New-ish to Steemit and crypto in general. I think it is just normal for any market to have dips and highs. And I do agree, if one jumps into Steemit thinking it's a quick road to El Dorado, then one is about to cry a river. Even Rome wasn't built in a day. The earnings come after one has established an empire of friends.

Thanks for the info. I wish I was able to resteem this. Great article.

Starr, thanks for the excellent post (especially for newbies to Steem). I started posting about a week ago under the name Chaos Monitaur, and saw my views, votes and earnings pick up and then rapidly drop off. Not the surest cause for optimism.

At the same time, I actually enjoy composing my posts, and believe that I have much to offer as a content creator. Having worked as a teacher, writer, and editor, I will try to produce content that is informative and easy to digest / understand.

So, I'll just continue plugging away, continue creating more content, continue enjoying the work, and continue "riding this badass rollercoaster." Wheeeee!

Just keep plugging at it. You'll likely have some successful posts and some flops, if you're like most of the writers on Steemit, and it'll be difficult to identify a formula for better performing posts. But if you stick with it and put in consistent effort, you'll do much better than if you post sporadically.

Appreciate the encouraging words / advice. I'm plugging away and will continue to do so. After losing my job last February (working for morons, y'know the story), I thought I'd retire, or take semi-retirement. Now, I'm working 9–10 hours a day ... for myself, and loving it.

Besides Chaos Monitaur, I have 3 other initiatives / subjects that I can develop into regular daily posts. Then the only concern will be limiting my working time to, say, 5–6 hours / day.

Hard to like this enough. Perfect analysis and great (and funny) story. Glad you're all the way back with us. I'll be mentioning you in Best of Steemit tomorrow as an example of how you do the Steemit community right.

Sweet! Thanks, @cristof. Glad you enjoyed the post!

I love the advice from older members of the Steemit community. I've been here a week. And it's hard work but I feel like I found something special. Like I'm part of a secret club. That for some reason I want to tell everyone about who I think will add something special to our network. I hope I can follow your advice and stick with it!

And wait...Intergalactic Clickbait? Oh, I'm in love.

I feel your pain and your joy, now that I am back. Always excited to see another voluntarist here! Up-voted and followed!

I know the feeling. I was gone for a few months. Have been back here for a month now, and producing a post a day. Getting back into the swing of things.
I think Steemit is long term, so I try to keep a long view of things when it comes to posting, commenting, interacting, etc.
Glad you came back.

Thank you for the encouragement Starr!

I'm just now reaching a point where all of my posts just break the $1 threshold. Some days it can be discouraging, but I found a few niches I love so I keep writing.

I agree wholeheartedly that Steemit needs to be approached from the perspective of blog what you're passionate about, be grateful for the reward but don't expect it!

This strikes a chord with me on many levels. Like it's been said so many times - we don't regret the things we've done, we regret the things we didn't do. I'm certainly 'guilty' of having given up on many projects and goals for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe for fear of success and then letting people down. Maybe for fear of failure and as a way to justify my victimhood. But enough dime-store psychology from me, for now. I'm glad I stumbled upon this post. It certainly added value to my day. Glad you're back on the bandwagon. Keep on steemin on!

I agree, it is a matter of seeing Steemit in the right light as an opportunity to get your work out there and seen far too many fixate on earnings, I think that is wrong ... when I evaluate my posts succes I compare 2 things number of upvotes vs. number of views ... and in that respect it puts a new light to the posts exposure... maybe I have 10 upvotes and 11 views then it is succussful as most of the viewers decided to upvote = they found my content interesting, if I see 100 views and 3 upvotes I might need to reconsider if my content was interesting or not ...if I deem it was then maybe my title or tags attracted viewers that weren't into my type of content ... looking at the earnings as a newbie is useless ... yes you might get lucky and get a whale upvote ... but truth be told very few sees your content ... so in the start focusing on your content and your passions write and steem from your heart ... and do not measure your success on dollarsigns ... A lot of people don't understand the principle of working ones way up ... yes I have been here 1 month others have been here a year ... evidently they have more pull than I do ... and if I keep at it then I will be in another place with time and effort ... too many exspects too much too fast ....

That's a good idea--to measure the success of your post I terms of up votes vs. views, rather than by a metric of earnings alone.

yes I think so as it is easy to compare and realize thant considering nomber of views your post is quite possibly good ...

Glad to see you're back and hopefully here to stay

I'm in it for the long haul this time!

Ding! Ding! Round two!

If I will earn $5 from each post, I will be very happy )

Still far more than the $0.00 I've earned from facebook while they bury me in ads. 😁

@lesliestarrohara Do you have irish roots? Please do not be offended by this question! :D I am just new on Steemit, found your post, liked it and recognized both your surname and your connection - or let's say relationship - to fantasy. Therefore I just have to ask - and hope you will answer. :D

Yes, my parents are both half Irish.

Gotcha! :D :D

thankyou for that

You really have a talent to write, it was a pleasure to read that.

I know when you do a lot of work and get little back. But like you said, if you back up your expectations, you are also happy about small things. Sometimes one comment can makes me motivating to keep sharing my art.
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@bronkong

As a new Steemarian, I appreciate the tips given in this insightful article as well the comments from all you others. My hope is that I will be able to be as disciplined as some of you. :-)

I also joined August 2016 but I made so very little progress. I still don't know how to do things right though so hopefully I'd get my Steemit niche soon.

Keep plugging away. Take note from @lesliestarrohara, if you make a break, you will lose momentum. Sadly I also made the same mistake... TWICE!

Welcome back to the platform, I'm glad you got back into it. I am a complete Steemit Noob and think that it is by far one of the best platforms I have used to date. As a content creator there is far more interaction and motivation to interact than on other platforms like Youtube. Thanks for the great post and keep up the good work.

It's hard to keep up the same level of motivation towards a habit when you're not seeing the results and progress that you initially experienced. I know this from learning to play musical instruments. When you reach a plateau and stay there for a while you may loose all desire to go on with it. The only thing you can do is force yourself to stick with it till you hit that next breakthrough. It eventually comes though and is worth it!

Yes ur right Steemit is all about Relationship and friends , and I completely understand your feeling, but dont worry price of all crypto will hike soon..

BTW i am new here, I hve followed u , and upvoted for you wish to stay connected soon

@lesliestarrohara New here, so interested in reading up on other peoples experiences so far. Liked this post, so I upvoted it and am following you.

great job!!!

Interesting, I think the fog is starting to clear! This is my first shot at a platform like this and as a cryptocurrency normie with zero expectations I truly appreciate the advice. Keep creating!

You are not alone on this one @lesliestarrohara and I have done the same mistake. But the most important thing is that we're back, baby!

I intend to be in it for the long term, so there are gonna good and bad times, but I'm determined to stay the course

This was super helpful! Thank you! :)

Very interesting and insightful read! Thanks for this.

I am new to Steemit.. Thanks for suggesting me. Have a good day..
Upvoted, followed and resteemed.. Thanks once again..

Thank you @lesliestarrohara !

good post