How I Survived My First 14 Days On Steemit

There were a lot of milestones that I passed these last 24h. I crossed the 100 follower mark, wrote my 100th post (including comments) and survived 14 days on Steemit. After those 14 days I can only say one thing: Thank you so much Steemit!

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I have had way more success than I expected or anticipated. There were many awesome comments on some of my posts and I met some really interesting people. I have gotten tremendous support from the steemstem and science communities. After 14 days I can say that I am here to stay and that my motivation to contribute to Steemit with quality contents is stronger than ever!

I Want to Share Some Things, That I Believe Helped Me To Succeed

1. Find your nieche
   To me, this is science. My posts about my personal research efforts have gotten a lot of attention and it does not take me much effort to write about my work in the lab, because it is something I truly enjoy. Steemit should not just be about making money, but to share something that you really enjoy.
2. Participate Actively
   I started Steemit by going to the science tag and search for new posts that sounded interesting to me. After reading them, I tried to leave thoughtful comments. A lot of people write something like "nice post". That is not a thoughtful comment. If I read a post, I try to ask a question relating to the post, or make a suggestion, or share a personal experience or opinion (in a constructive way). Because you want people to follow you, I end every post with an individual greeting and my username. If I commented on one of your posts, you know I always say "Cheers @lesshorrible". It just makes your comment more personal.
3. Be Relevant
   Again, my posts about my research have been my most succesful once. Nobody is doing the work that I am doing, so I am adding something unique to the Steemit community. Think about something you do, that is very unique. For example, do you play an unusual instrument? Are you an athlete? Are you making huge sandcastles? There are billions of people and billions of stories out there. Share yours and not that of other people.
4. Value Your Supporters
   I was very fortunate to get huge support from some more established Steemers. Everyone who commented on my posts gets an upvote and a comment (unless its just a "good post" comment). Sometimes some really interesting conversations arise when you follow the comments on your posts. I also try to go and check out the channels of the people who comment on my posts. If they were interested in my post, there is a good chance we have some common interests! I also try to actively follow my feed. You do not have to upvote everything by everyone who ever upvoted you. Upvote what you like, but you should at least check out your supporters' channels. Also make good use of resteem. If you like something, your followers may like it to. It is all about connecting with each other.
   5)Power Up
   I know, a lot of people want to make money on Steemit as quickly as possible. However, unless you want to make five bucks and leave, you should really invest your first rewards into Steempower. First of all, your upvote gets more valuable (it is ok to upvote your own posts). So when you upvote your own posts, it has a better chance of hitting trending. Also, if your upvote really become valuable, you already have a set amount of money you make on every post.

Some Channels And Guides To Check Out

I joined at almost the same time as @davemccoy. He goes out of his way to help new members and has some great posts about how to get started on Steemit. I highly recommend checking out his channel!
Steemit Help has a lot of very helpful information for new and not so new members. Steemit is very complicated and checking out some guides will help out a lot.
Steemd can give you very useful information about your Steemit account, like your voting power or who upvoted your posts.
Use the FAQ. You find a lot of things that are very helpful. I highly recommend checking out the etiquette! Remember, you are joining a community, so you should play by its rules!
There are a lot of tools on Steemit, like the chat and some other functions. Check out the Steem Tools section to learn about some of the fantastic developments of dedicated Steemers.
For pictures, which you will want to include in all your posts, you can simply use google! Goodle search a topic in images, then click on Tools and then select Usage Rights and set those to Marked For Reuse. That way you can find pictures that you can use without copyright infringements. Also, always cite the website you got the picture from. Citation links can be done like this: [What you want others to read](the URL of the picture).

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These tips helped me as a freh minnow. Again, I have been here for only 14 days, so I am still a minnow like you, but I am enjoying my time here and I believe you will, too.
Steemit can be a lot of fun and a very rewarding experience! Just remember to write about what really interests you and anticipate people's comments. I hope this was helpful!

If you have questions, just write a comment and I will answer them if I can!

Cheers @lesshorrible!