Pay attention to the Active Pages, and forget about the money.

I'd like to take a few minutes and go over some things that I've really begun to stick to, and which some of you might consider trying if you want this place to work in your benefit. This is also very much in line with a post that @sean-king posted yesterday.

1. First and foremost - FORGET ABOUT THE MONEY.

This part might be hard. Let's face it - that was the premise that led us all here.
If you're looking for a job, you should probably just go get a job. Steemit might not be everyone's best bet as a substitute for a good ol' fashioned, steady paying jobby-job. For some it might, but for the majority of us, don't quit that 9-5 just yet. BUT...don't let that be why you dislike Steemit, because there's a different mindset that seems to work better for it.

Here's the way I look at it:

It's Christmas.
We have the option to enjoy the experience of the whole day, have fun with friends and family, make great new memories with them, share great stories, look at funny pictures....OR...we can be whiny babies who decide we don't care about any of that stuff and just "Gimme my presents! Right now! I wanna open presents!"
Please don't be that bratty kid. I know it's tempting, but it's going to spoil Christmas for everybody.
I promise you don't want that.

I know some of you have said that you seem to get paid more when you complain about stuff, but that seems to be a rare phenomenon as far as I can tell.

2. DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT THE WHALES ARE DOING.

This is it folks. This is what we have. The platform is here, and I think we should embrace it and do what we can with it by creating a positively thriving community that is able to successfully run the system the way it was designed to be run.

The whales are going to do what they do.
Just like you are going to do what you do.

Just because you're both in the same room doesn't necessarily mean they're obliged to interact with you. They created this place, and suddenly 40,000 people showed up (and counting). Don't expect them to go around shaking hands and sticking wads of money in everyone's pockets. That's not how this place works. If they see something you posted and believe that it's worth that upvote, trust me they'll give it to you. Or they'll give it to someone else. Whether or not you agree with what they upvoted is irrelevant. Just like it's irrelevant whether or not you agree with what any other person on this site upvotes. It might be worth checking out what many of them seem to like to upvote and consider catering to those interests. Don't expect them to automatically like something you posted which you think is hands-down awesome. That's all subjective. You will never please 100% of everyone, even if you try giving away free money (which the whales have proven).

3. SPEND TIME CONTRIBUTING TO THE COMMUNITY.

This doesn't just mean posting content, but also mingling. That's what community does, they get to know each other. Get involved and start conversations and ask questions to learn things about each other so we can all grow together. There's more than enough topics here to find out your commonalities. Make friends, FFS.

For some of us - such as myself - this may involve switching gears from old social networks to this one. I used to spend hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and G+, and I can do the same thing here!

Think about that for a second.

If you already spend a lot of time on social networks as it is (which you do without compensation) , then you're already doing the thing which is the FUEL that runs Steemit. Don't let the idea of money corrupt that existing thought process or you're just going to leave quickly with not much to show for it besides disappointment.

Don't forget to be genuine when you post, too. That's important. Don't just pop in and say,
"Awesome post! I agree! Very informative! Keep up the great work!"
As we know from the actual bots, it's robotic and impersonal.
People won't know if they can trust that you're real, and won't find out for sure until they see your complaint post about how you didn't really make any money even though you "contributed".

4. STOP SPENDING TIME IN THE TRENDING PAGES.

If that's where you're spending your Steem time, no wonder you're getting disappointed. You're drooling over the success stories of Steemit. Those are the posts that get that rare bump up to virality, and if you see it in Trending, you've pretty much missed out because the piranhas have already skeletonized the cow. Move on.

I also recommend limiting time in Hot, New, and Popular. I spend almost all my time in Active. Here's why.

• All the stuff that's in those other pages show up in Active.
• Anytime someone edits their blog post, or anytime someone comments on one, that post gets bumped right back to the top of the Active pages of any/all topics and tags.

The Active Pages are where it percolates. It's the stock ticker.

It keeps you on the forefront of what's going on. I don't know if the whales use the Active pages the most, but that's where I tend to see them pop up.