Hey I am Yacin. I am 26 years old and have recently started blogging here on Steemit. I am not an expert but i am still learning everyday trying to improve myself and my blogging skills. I'm also not an expert in English writing since i am not a native speaker but i think writing good quality post everyday will be like killing two birds with one stone because in this way i'll improve my English also.
Besides Steemit my interests are Music producing , DJ'ing and videogames. I will address these topics later on!

Before i continue my blog i have to say i had to take a break from Steemit for the past 7 months. I had a pretty draining day job at the Volvo factory in Ghent and most of the time i was to exhausted to even think about doing something creative.

Now 7 months later i return to this awesome platform and i'm here to stay. It makes me happy being able to write content and keep people reading. I would like to write about how my Steemit experience has been so far and give you guys some tips that helped me. I'm not saying i'm an expert but i have read upon alot of articles here on Steemit and it all comes to wanting to learn and having patience.

!!!!!!!! PATIENCE IS KEY !!!!!!!!

These tips will increase your followers:

1. Posting original content

Many times you hear people say 'You need original content', but what does it mean exactly ? And why is it so important ? I can't stress this enough but posting refreshing and creative content is really important. Don't underestimate the power of content uniqueness. I know it is very rare to write about something no one has ever written before so a good idea might be to publish something that already has been published but coated with your own idea or opinion.

Don't just copy other people's content but make it better. Content comes in many different forms so dont be afraid to use them all. You can use text, audio, film, images or a combination of it all. One more important tip is to never EVER copy somebody else's content! Plagiarism is hated upon by the Steemit community and will be punished with downvotes! Also Steemit has a smart bot which can tell if you have copied an article or not. And if you see that people are stealing your ideas or copying your content, don't be afraid and don't let this discourage you!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery -Colton

2. Love what you do and do what you love

If you are on this platform solely for the purpose of making money then u might want to reconsider your options because it wont come overnight AND you will not make huge money from a single blogpost. It's all about consistency. And consistency comes forth from loving what you are doing. Write articles on what you are passionate about and you will see that it all comes naturally.

I can take myself as a perfect example, i'm still fairly new to this platform and my following is not that big, but i love to write and it does not matter to me if this post has been viewed by two people or if it has been viewed by thousands. Doing what you love will automatically let you keep moving forward and its important to keep this in mind.

3. Improving HTML and Markdown skills

Markdown is a coding language used in Steemit to create and edit blog posts. There are numerous guides on Steemit going in depth on this and i recommend checking them out. I will post a list of helpful guides i have read and the ones which have helped me. All blog posts on Steemit support the Markdown code and if you are a newbie i recommend looking at this because it will improve your blog ALOT!

Here is a list of helpful articles about Markdown and HTML:

*https://steemit.com/steemit/@thecryptofiend/markdown-basics-for-beginners
*https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitguide/markdown-and-html-codes-tutorial-how-to-center-align-images-links-gif-s-and-text-bold-italic-and-headers
*https://steemit.com/tutorial/@sndbox/markdown-tutorial-steemit-blogging-tips
*https://steemit.com/steemit/@blevley/an-extensive-markdown-guide-with-tips-and-tricks-you-may-not-know-yet

4. Interact with others for the right reasons

Being able to show support by upvoting, commenting and resteeming is what makes Steemit into this beautiful community. I recommend doing this as long as said article or blogpost is really interesting to you.

What i don't recommend doing is interacting with people for the wrong reasons. By that i mean putting random comments under posts like for example : 'Nice photo!' or 'Good post'. Comments like this may have all the good intentions but are not really constructive and do not show real value and sometimes lack sincereness.

I guarantee you will have a much better experience with others if you just support the stuff you really like. This way you will actually have something valuable to say about the subject which in its turn helps out the person who put out the original content.
Don't make friends just for upvotes but make friends for sharing mutual interests.

The last tip i can give in this section is don't upvote everything. It is fun to upvote and it gives you the feeling you are supporting everyone but your voting power will diminish and eventually tire out. So be careful what you vote for!

5. Be consistent!

Try to put a pattern in your blogposts and try to set goals. I'll use myself for an example again. I have challenged myself to write a good article about something i'm interested in every two days. This is an achievable goal for me and i find this a great way to stay consistent. I'm not saying you have to post five articles a day.

Posting a solid good quality article every five days can be better than five quickly finished articles a day. Remember its about quality not quantity. Another good tip is to try to write about content around the same lines. For example if you have written a post about coffee, the followers from that post will want to see more coffee posts. This goes for every subject and this will also increase following. Don't switch topics all the time but try to stick to the same flavors.

So these were my 5 tips for increasing your followers here on Steemit. I thank you all for taking the time to read and i sincerely hope it was helpful.

Special thanks to the people who wrote the articles about markdown and HTML.

• https://steemit.com/@sndbox
• https://steemit.com/@steemitguide
• https://steemit.com/@blevley
• https://steemit.com/@thecryptofiend

If you have any ideas don't be afraid to put them in the comments, in that way we can help other and each other and make the community grow.
If you have liked reading and if you are curious for more then give me a follow yourself. See you guys soon!

Cheers!