I have been on Steemit for around 8 months now. At first I was writing a few articles here and there, but this was before the follower system so it was quite difficult to get any traction. I had a couple of > $10 posts and a lot of $0.00 posts. So coupled with that lack of progress and the fall in value of steem I ended up not posting much for a few months.
Recently I came back, reinvested in steem and started writing again. Most excitingly (for me) I started to do a history series where I post short stories about a 'Cool Moments in History'. I am really enjoying doing these and it has, in my eyes, been successful both by making a small few dollars and much more importantly by gaining me followers. tangible progress, you got to love it.
So it was after doing these regular history posts that I noticed something. Which is what I want to talk about today.
The importance of the cover photo
It can be difficult to judge your own posts, particularly their value. When any stray whale kiss can catapult it to hot where it can earn and be seen for hours, versus new where it has at most an hour of visibility.
So first impressions matter they can make or break a post. What I noticed in my history series was that 2 of my posts performed much worse than the others. Sure it could of been a number of reasons but what I think it was, was the cover pic. For both the underperforming posts I had used a cartoonish cover pic. Now there is nothing wrong with a cartoon as your pic, hell in many cases I dare say it make your post more noticeable. But is it right for a history post?
Know your audience
Bright, colourful and loud is all well and good but it has to be appropriate to your post and to the people that will likely read it. Don't make the mistake of trying to please everyone.
My history posts that were more successful had a boring black and white picture of the person or the thing I was writing about. Nothing showy but ask yourself if you like history and are going to read a history article, are you going to pick the one with a black and white picture or the one with a cartoon?
Picture references
https://pixabay.com/en/welcome-come-in-welcome-home-home-1185856/ (edited with steem logo)
nice post
Yes, the cover photo is always important. It is a psychological issue. If you are scrolling through Facebook you will most likely notice videos and photos first.
By the way; is there meanwhile a way to not self-host media here on Steemit?
Not sure what you mean by self host. For quick questions like that I reccommend steemit chat if you are not signed up all ready
Well written ...
This is a great point, aside from the title the picture can mean something.
Preformed. Performed.
Well my posts are a bit shorter than others. Thanks for that edited it
Just doing my part as, That Guy.
It's a hard thankless job. You helped my spelling so I thank you for that
It seems any picture is better than none. I have lots of my own on Google Photos, so I often use one of those.
yea was thinking of adding that. I think a lot of people, me included, skim through until a picture catches your eye and only then read the title. Not all the time of course.