I've actually very much followed your lead in this.
Every post I make, I 100% upvote all of my thoughtful comments and reply with my own thoughts and ideas. This often leads to conversation, but at the very least it fills out my posts with appropriate Googlable keywords that will help bring new people to the platform.
I really want to encourage people to come to my posts and chat, and I really like the small community I've found around me. At this point I very much make more money through commenting than posting, but eventually that will turn... and then eventually after that I'll make more curating than posting.
I would easily spend 90% of my time on Steem commenting, not to make money, but because I'm actually super interested in the articles and photos people post. This platform is easily one trillion times more interesting to me than the emotional and negative posts on FB and Reddit, and the highly curated images on Instagram. I honestly feel like Steem rewards effort... and I really like that about this platform.
P.S) That photo at the top is pretty hilarious. I've seen millions of people look at their phone, but never quite that joyfully.
They are reading about the Vice token. LOL
Hahahaha, that's the best!
I am glad you are here aussueninja.
I think your experience is reflective of what is being created here. There are so many who had similar experiences on those sites that I think this is a welcome relief. As we grow, I only hope that it isnt ruined by the trolls that will inevitably arrive. The one saving grace is people who are here earlier will have the SP while the trolls wont be able to amass much. Anything they do will be downvoted competely.
You are right to focus upon community and commenting in my view. The money on the posts will come as time goes by. Month after month, you will find what you did builds upon last month's activities. Couple a few of them together and suddenly you find results.
It honestly takes effort and work, but the overall time, in terms of months isnt that great. It does take a lot of hours on here interacting. But it beats going and spending hours on FB or the like.
Exactly! I spent so much time on Instagram just feeling down on myself because I wasn't as good as the people I was watching or as popular as others... there really is something evilly addictive and it feels like everyone is chasing that impossible pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. "I'll be happier when I have 1000 followers on Insta", etc.
The community here is so supportive and so engaging. All my friends here aren't making anything, but we love each others work, and eventually it'll work out.
I've actually been worried about the attention span of the younger generations... all those other social media sites encourage fleeting attention... but Steem actively encourages everyone to put effort into their work. That is the most amazing gift it can give the world.
That is the magic here...there is a ton of quality content. Unlike other areas of the web which is just a lot of junk. I mean everyone loves cat videos but how many of them does YouTube really need? There are millions on there.
We see people actually putting together quality stuff on here that exhibits their knowledge and creativity.
I take exception to this. They werent making anything on instagram and other sites...here they are making little....FOR THE MOMENT. Even when an empty account, there is some value in the upvote. And one comment that is upvoted by another , receives some SP, no matter who small.
And from there it grows.
I have been here 5 months and am amazed at the people who think they should go from a zero account to 10K in 30 days. What ever happened to giving a year to a venture before pulling the plug? If this was a business (if we used that mindset) wouldnt one be more involved and willing to give it a longer time frame?
I guess the old adage that if there is no skin in the game, it is easy to walk away.
Of course you're right. I've actually made more here on Steem than I ever thought possible. It's hard not to compare yourself to the Whales who make hundreds of dollars per post... but it's easy to forget that they were building up their followers and their SP while there was no one on the platform and they were never sure if they were wasting their time or not.
Not only did I make zero dollars from Instagram, but I was also advertised to constantly.... very, very easy to walk away from that platform. Same with Twitter. I'll probably never get rid of FB completely, it's got a decade of memories...
$$$ made from first post... $.03
Social Media without Ads....Priceless.
Yes I tend to defend the whales...few seem to recall what they went through. People want to point out that they could buy in at 6 or 7 cents....yeah but would you if the price went from $2 to 6 cents? I saw people on here saying that when the price was 85 cents...do you think they were buying? Nope just complaining.
People think it comes easy...the whales had an opportunity and they took it. Just like there is opportunity now for everyone who is on here. The question is how many are taking it.
Based upon the numbers about 50K taking advantage...550K missing it.