I see many posting about how STEEM is rigged and that people cannot be successful on here. That is completely untrue. In fact, I believe if one does not succeed on STEEM, it is that person's fault. There is nobody to blame but oneself.
Now before some people get up in arms, I am not one of those people who believes that a lack of success in life is due to the individual This is especially true in the financial arena. I am well aware that 95% of the people are screwed before they exit the womb. The present system is rigged against the average person even in the advanced countries. In the third world nations, forget about it. There are only a select few who are fortunate enough to be in positions to succeed..
That said, STEEM is a crypto-economic system. It requires only a few things. The path to success is very simple albeit not easy.
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So let us dive right in to what is required:
Foresight
One of the keys is the ability to see what is going on without it being overtly obvious. Technology is an interesting animal which provides glimpses of the future while maintaining a great deal of mystery and uncertainty. We never can know how things will evolve hence we make projections to give us an idea of the possibilities that exist. In other words, we are seeking a range where we believe the technology will go.
STEEM is no different. I cannot tell you what will take place going forward. I can look at what is occurring to get an idea of what is crucial. Since the first of the year, the development on here accelerated. That is a key barometer to watch. The advancement of different applications is what is going to help awaken the masses to what STEEM has to offer.
If STEEM had 100M people utilizing it, then it would not be the opportunity it is. Seeing things after the fact is easy. The question is can you see what is taking place here before it happens. Approaching this with the expectation that it operate like the other centralized, social media sites is not exhibiting foresight. In fact, it exemplifies a complete inability to distinguish between the two. This is one of the reasons why so many people came and left.
Proper Expectations
No, you are not going to make thousands of dollars off your first couple posts. That is misleading and is foolish for people to say. This is a long-term process with many ups and downs. It is a technology which means nothing goes 100% smoothly. There are going to be a lot of things happening, both positive and negative.
One of the biggest mistakes the STEEM community makes, or I should say certain members, is to set up people with unrealistic expectations by espousing nonsense about getting rich in 90 days off STEEM. That is no likely to happen. There is one way to make a quick million off STEEM; it was told to me by a guy in the oil exploration business.
"Do you know how you get a pile of money in the oil exploration business? Start with a bigger pile of money."
The proper expectation is long-term consistent growth of one's account both in terms of SP and interaction.
Understanding Social Media Success
This is a social media site. I do not get why so many do not understand that. Naturally, this is something completely new with a different user base than anywhere else. Hence, when one joins, he or she is basically starting over.
Those who left did not excel at social networking on STEEM. Interaction is the key. Too many people come on here wanting everyone to upvote their content without doing anything to develop a following. Then they slam STEEM for being a corrupt system where those with SP don't care about them. The truth is that most with SP do not even know those people even exist.
Hard Work
This is something that almost everyone who left failed to embrace.
Success on STEEM requires a lot of hard work. This is not something that is likely going to net huge results in the first month. Yes, one could find a huge SP account that likes what is posted and gain a powerful follower. If that happens, wonderful. However, the more likely path is many hours put into this blockchain.
It might require posting 90 articles, few that get above $.05 payout. This is how it works. There are many successful people on STEEM who did not get much in reward for their first hundred posts. What did they do? Posted another 100....then another 100...and so on.
STEEM requires a lot of hours like any other business. Many fail in the "real" world simply because they will not put in the time. There are many who have great ideas at just the right time yet fail to follow through. This is a key component.
Consistency
This is vital. One needs to be consistently on here, like every day to generate a following. I do not care how good your content is, if you are not constantly tending to your flock, they will leave. In short, you need to operate like you are forgettable, because you are.
Sure, there might be some who ask after a couple months, what ever happened to so and so. But the truth is that the online world churns people like no place else. If you are not consistent on here, you will disappear from their attention span. It is really that simple.
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So there you have it. That is what it takes to succeed on STEEM. There is no magical formula. Many say that those with SP are lucky. Perhaps a few were. During my time on STEEM, I witnessed a lot comment how the early people were "lucky" to get STEEM for 10 cents. Certainly, that is a help. But we need to realize these people also took advantage of the opportunity to get STEEM at that price. Look at the price today. Many were saying how lucky people were to get STEEM at 80 cents. We are there now and how many of those people are buying?
The steps that I outlined can be followed by anyone. If you disagree with me, please state it. But before you do, let me tell you what I will do. If you say that STEEM doesn't work, I am going to look at your account. If you have under 7,500 posts, I am going to call you out on it because there is no way to be a failure with 7,500 posts or more.
If there is one key that I found works well for everyone, it is commenting. For those who truly want to succeed, post thousands of relevant comments. Spend hours adding to the STEEM ecosystem with relevant thoughts to other people's posts. As we all know from the stats, STEEM could use a ton more commenting.
I am approach 12,000 posts in about 13 months. Doing some simple math, this is in the neighborhood of 30 posts a day. And these were not garbage posts like "nice post, thank you". @abh12345 use to run some blockchain stats. There was a time when I was posting 80k-125K words on STEEM per week. I did this for months on end. This comes under the category of hard work.
Do you think that you would get noticed posting that many words, 80% of them which were comments? Are you posting 30 times a day, every day?
Now, many become a success on here doing less than this. If that is your story, terrific. Of course, I have to say the word success is relative so it will vary with each individual. However, we can presume many would like to increase their payouts on the posting they do.
Source
Success on STEEM requires getting involved and contributing to STEEM. If you want to get the attention of some of the heaviest of hitters, let us say some of the orcas (those with 50K SP or more), then read their posts and leave some relevant comments that add to the conversation. Many of those people will give upvotes or, occasionally, start following you. It most likely will not happen with one comment but do it consistently, and you just might find you have a follower with some heavy voting power.
One final thought: when you put up a post, you just never know who might wander by and see it. Have more stuff up there, especially in the comment section of articles that get a lot of views, only increases your chances of being noticed.
So, if you want to increase your rewards, start today by leaving 20 comments in addition to your regular posting activity.
Do that for 6 months and then tell us that STEEM doesn't work.
If you found this article informative, please give it an upvote and resteem.
Love this comment thread, many more comments with substance than the usual hollow comments.
Make good content, be consistent, and be a good marketer. Sometimes you just have to abuse the upvote bots.
I always feel like I need to up-vote a post if I'm going to comment, and the only time I don't feel like I'm not doing right by the poster I'm addressing by not up-voting, is if I don't agree with the poster's personal views. I mean, is it really okay to write a comment without up-voting the post, if it's a good post? And how are comments alone worth anything on their own when we make them? I only ask about this because I don't yet have the option of setting the percentage on my up-votes, which limits how many up-votes I can make per day, and by which most people also are limited until they can adjust their vote %.
I really agree with you totally though, that succeeding here on steemit is absolutely possible, but no one should expect it to be so easy to get there. Nothing that's worth it ever is!
Hey @free-reign! There are front ends you can use that will give you a slidy bar regardless of how much SP you have. You could try Steempeak, Busy, and Partiko to have one. But, what i see is an issue is that my 100% vote right now is .02 which doesn't meet the dust threshold so I am cautious of voting comments. Unless i know the user is a dust sweeper user. Best wishes to you on your steem journey!!
Even if your vote doesn’t meet the dust threshold, there’s always a chance that someone else might upvote the same comment and that the combined strength of the two votes will push it past that point.
True! Though i am not trusting enough to rely on that method. But, saying that i upvote comments when i see the same situation. Thanks for dropping in @preparedwombat!
Oh well, I guess it's time to check my following list to remove the quitters. It'll be way easier on here if we get to read some positive posts such as this on a regular basis. I'll try my best. Since steem reduced in value, I've found more reasons to do other things then stay here. But somehow, I always come back after a few days
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@taskmaster4450 I really enjoyed reading this post and in the over 2 Years I have been here I consider it a Blessing. I saw my account early this year when it was worth $10K and now its worth $2K and I am certainly not going to Give UP when I know how Quickly Things can turn around in the Crypto Market. You are right anything in Life is only of Value if you are willing to put effort in each day................
Seconded. I hope this counts as a good comment.
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Everyone is looking for a quick fix - thank you for pointing out that there isn't one. Just good ole hard work! You are an example of this so folk would do well to follow your example - myself included... I try to post daily but 20-30 comments/posts per day?! That's going some.
Great post, thank you for reminding us on what it takes :)
Hi @taskmaster4450. thank you for highlighting the obvious and I hope they pay attention. Hard work is the only way along with consistency. It takes time and effort and one will be rewarded eventually.
I agree with the points you've made on here. Success on Steemit may seem difficult on the surface but with consistency, especially making meaningful comments on the posts of others, success will be achieved.
PS: Whenever I feel like giving up on Steem, a visit to your blog is always a revival. Keep the good work up.
Pretty good summary.
And we agree, commenting is one of the most important thing here :)
And yes... you are never answer, any of my comments, what i wrote to you :D It was'n so lot, and maybe i dont remember, but i think, never :D
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I agree with commenter @gandhibaba, though i tend to read your blog quite regularly, i don't wait till i feel bleh about Steem to visit your blog. Your constant positivity about the coming age of abundance is a refreshing perspective that i agree with wholeheartedly. Have a wonderful day ❤🎋☕
I think this is great advice as I have seen the benefits of consistency and engagement since the first #minnowuprising initiative. This helped me realize that I have a great opportunity of succeeding given my ability to buy Steem and power up over time. While I have done that, I have also found through my interactions the great communities being formed to support the development and growth of the ecosystem and its members. This has forged a path for me to believe it what could become a life changing decision for me to engage here. As some say here, you start for the money but stay for the relationships!
Good to see you here again.
Posted using Partiko Android
That is awesome!!
I agree, the more active we are, the more likely we are to be followed. You can also use apps like SteepShot or Actifit to diversify your action on Steem and increase your chances of returning ...
No doubt about it, persistence is key to success here on Steemit. I suppose some people may have a huge online following to begin with, but those people don’t grow on trees.
I’ve had a few friends join Steemit, but after the novelty of posting wears off, and they aren’t making a lot of $$$, they get bored and split. It’s too bad. I suppose I’m just too stubborn to go back to posting on Facebook!
I think you're quite right in your claims. I've forgotten when exactly I have joined Steem but I had a long pause in the beginning of this year - something like a month without posting a single post.
But also I had quite a success with 1 of my posts when I used the right tag following a multimedia contest themed "your country's culture & tradition". I applied with a long article enriched with my original text, photos & videos. In only 24 h I earned more than 100 $.
But then after that, even thou I've written many similar articles, I never got anywhere close to that amount. Many times I was disappointed but still I'm not giving up!
Thanks for your text & positive approach! I upvoted & reblogged! 😉
Glad you speak the truth. There's plenty of ways to be successful and for me I think comments is a way to go. You may not be a conten creator but being part of a discussion and adding in your own perspective is what this platform is all about.
Hi @taskmaster4450!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.543 which ranks you at #515 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 388 contributions, your post is ranked at #35.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
i think that isn't exactly the case. I totally agree that steemit is affecting each country differently and for a long time now i am saying that although it didn't had any major impact in our lives it had and still has in people that live in third world countries.
I agree that if you come and go let's say for 2-3 weeks a month or so then you never gonna have success but there are way more factors that this. Even if you post daily and have somewhat of quality posts (not only single pictures or copy/paste articles) then the progress can be only tiny. I will be more specific though.
I recently made a post about that, things that frustrate me in this platform but i will not post a link here, if you like you can check it for yourself and in that post i mention the bad interface, the old post reward system and the manual curationThose are factors that not only don't help us but also are against us.
I will take myself as an example cause i can't talk about others and i am gonna say that for a lot of time i used not only to make 25-35 comments per day i actually read every single post of the ones i followed while at the same time find for new ones as well as new people.
This included the time to make my own posts and reply to the comments had taken over 8 hours per day. The progress or the outcome was basically the same. I earned some loyal followers but those were either exactly like me in terms of sp or a little bit above (1-5k more or 1k below). The ones with high voting power no matter how much i commented never took the time to check my posts, only upvoted my comment (not even replying in most of the cases) with max 0.20 cent( most of the times 0,02-0,03) and we are talking about dolphins and whales not that were obligated though.
From what i saw a bunch of people don't actually curate manually, i won't blame them though cause i don't know their cases. Thus and add the interface too it is nearly impossible someone new see your posts. the fact that basically no matter what you do the same and same people will upvote your post and 1/50 times a new upvote-comment will appear is just sad.
I liked reading your post.
It basically boils down to being patient and to persevere. Many of my posts are only getting like pennies and many times not even. But I just tag along. I was kinda lucky the first month or so I was here. I posted something that I cooked and it did made a good payout because one individual with a gigantic sp voted for me. At that time I didn't know about it or how to know if the person has a lot of sp. Overtime I read others' posts and that's how I found it out. So, I followed that person. A month or so after that I made another post on cooking again and that same person voted me for it. So, I was and I am grateful for that. Understanding that if you do good work, someone somewhere out there will recognize it.
I think you don't just leave a platform because you're not getting what you want. Just keep plugging along and try the best that you can or that I can. There are so many things to learn here on top of everything else. So there's plenty of time to test the water before actually quitting. But who wants to quit anyways?