People Rarely Talk About Their Failures and the World Only Celebrates Success.
I think it is a tragedy that no one likes to tell the world about their failures. I think this sets people up for an unrealistic view. It does not matter whether it is blogging here on Steemit, having a successful business, being a recognized artist or a respected chef everyone has had to fall on their face to get where they are at.
There are so many new faces on Steemit. These new folks are looking around at the size of some of the payouts and I imagine they are thinking they could do the same with little effort. This is so far from reality. I want to give you my back story in blogging to bring all the new folks back to reality.
I started blogging back in 2011. At the time I was scared to death to put my thoughts on the world wide web. The fear was palpable. The first time I published a piece on Google Plus I was literally shaking. I was so worried about what people would think of my writing. I know I am not the best. For over a year the clicks would trickle in first 10, then 50, then a few hundred and then a few thousand. Guess what, I did not earn a penny.
At the same time I began to build my following across social media. Now six years later my accounts have a little over 500,000 followers and my personal brand accounts have around 150,000. I was also paid nothing to do this.
Over time my blog began to gain traction. At one time my personal blog reached a rank of 140,000 in the world. I was writing blog posts 2-3 times per week. My topics included precious metals, Panama and social media. Yup, you got it I earned nothing.
I built relationships across the web with other bloggers and influencers. We followed each other and shared each others content across the web to leverage the power of community. No one paid me to share their content.
What This Means for Steemit Users.
If a person tells you that you can get rich quick on Steemit. I want you to remind them of people like me who have written hundreds of articles prior to Steemit, over 200,000 posts across social media and have a few hundred thousand connections. Then realize that most of the people who are doing very well on Steemit were early adopters. They had the foresight to jump on the platform early. I was actually a few months late to the party. I still regret the decision to not join up earlier.
If you are joining the platform now you have to put in the work. Steemit is a free market economy. This means showing up, blogging, engaging with other users, commenting on other posts, sharing content across social media and overall being part of the community.
My Article, "How a Social Media Pro Joins a New Platform and 9 Tips for Success."
If You Fall on Your Face, Get Right Back Up and Move Forward!
You Put the truth on table. I myself have seen many people getting irritated for not earning money on steemit, where they have only joined it about a few weeks ago. Some have even made posts saying that only a few people gets paid on steemit, they will never earn it. On the other hand, what I have seen to be successful everywhere is what I am Adopting here also. I am not a blogger. I have written a few articles on other social media platforms, but never blogged. I only Focus on Improving my writing skills, so that what I write, the viewer will understand it correctly. The second thing I always focus is growing my followers. I keep the money out of my mind for almost a few months If I want to be successful on steemit and blogging. Thanks for sharing your thoughts @hilarski
Just keep repeating the cycle and it will pay off. @Sandstorm is a perfect example.
Thnks for suggestion.
Similarly you could say:
"Even if you fart, you are still contributing something"
Thank you for the deep thought.
A very sound mind is required to think of that.
You said it brother! 👍🤝
Every "Overnight success" story is usually about a decade in the making...
My congrats on your success, your posts are always a worthwhile read 🥂
Cheers to you 😊
Aaaand...success is not a lovely diagonal line on a graph. Circumstances change constantly, even if you work consistently. Though a consistent work ethic allows you to roll with the changes. Life was never meant to be easy, however would we learn if it was!
Very true...The more you fail the more you learn and the more you understand , then only you can enjoy success more. Success always starts with failure . If somebody has never failed then have something to learn and may not cherish the success very well.
Sidenote: sharing my failures and the whole naked creative process on Steemit is one of my favorite things. I know that not all of my posts are perfectly polished and immaculately perfected, but they're the true and raw creative version of myself...and when I talk to people about Steemit, I always mention that it's such a blessing to be in a community who truly values seeing the process behind a creation...the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's all part of this beautiful creative journey...and we don't all succeed all the time. It's sometimes a crapshoot...but it sure is a beautiful gamble in the end. I love Steemit so much.
It used to feel like a lottery when they payouts happened in 24 hours but now with the 7 day payout the opportunity for new people to the platform to succeed has gone up.
Wise words from someone who's "been there, done that!"
I'm pretty sure that if you look at the web's most successful bloggers, they all have in common a long path of hard work, failures and restarts, perseverance and stick-to-it-iveness. And that's what it takes. There's no "easy money" here.
As an aside to your own history, my oldest (still going) blog started in 2002... and it was not until 2009-- SEVEN YEARS-- later I got my first $100 check from Google Adsense. Everything up to that point was entirely for free.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to paint this as a "I had to walk 8 miles uphill barefoot in the snow against the wind to get to school" story-- and I'm sure @hilarski isn't either... just saying that blogging is not some magic pill that gives free money for nothing.
i used to walk 8 miles up..... and now i cycle 25 km to and from work each day, but at least its paying these days, while my blogging career kicks off eh? ;)
I agree with the post.
Excellent post dear friend @hilarski congratulations for this admirable job
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your blogging journey! One of my favorite sayings (to the annoyance of my children) is "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Tales of failure and attitudes of a "keep moving forward" mentaility are super motivating to read, and very much appreciated by this writer. Speaking of writers, you are a very good one, and I'm glad you overcame your fear of the "not good enough" and jumped into the blogging and social media pool!😊
there is no one who haven't made a mistake and we don't need to be afraid of it. we must to learn of it
Well, maybe people also forget, you got to give to get something in return. Isn't that the purpose of a community?
Good motived post! UP!
I literally just finished my first post and this couldn't have helped me more. Thank you!
Welcome! Followed and Upvoted.
Thank you, sir! It truly is appreciated.
Very motivating. Thank you!
Just what I needed! I've been caught up in the intimidate success of things and quick payouts but that's really not how things work. I know what my next blog will be. Thanks @hilarski!
Great input Randy! I can only imagine the disappointment many new users must feel when their first post doesn't bring in hundreds of dollars and votes. Tempering expectations is key to keeping a stable mindset.
I have no idea what you are talking about. The payouts have been great thus far :) haha. LOL I'm just playin I know it takes a lot of commitment to the Steemit Community in order to get the bigger payouts.
Thanks for your insights!
True, the is to never give up :)
Life is a marathon! You have to pace yourself to get where you want to go. Patience is truly a virtue and this article is a perfect reminder. Thank You!
Very true. Dreaming of becoming an instant hit on a new platform is almost a sin. You will have to work hard and that too consistently. Thank you for your guidance!!!
So true mate. You have to put in the work and plug away, engage and not give up. You get out exactly what you put in!
This article is appreciated because it put things into a realistic perspective 👍🏾.
Good advice!
I appreciated this post I can agree 100% Great Post. Upvoted!
Try and Try again!
you need to fail to be able to learn.
There are smaller and sometime bigger fail - but you always grow from them!
Great post! It is not easy to get noticed in Steemit these days unless you are really lucky, or provides amazing posts that people want to read more about. However, we are still in the early stages of the platform, and I am sure that anyone who puts in a big effort will be able to become successful here! :)
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@loperslop/5f95xm-i-am-so-happy-to-see-you-in-this-occasion-well-my-name-is-desi-ilham-sianturi
A lot of motivation I got from here, thank you for the encouragement @hilarski.
I regret not getting into it earlier. I actually joined back in Sept. 2016, wrote one piece, didn't get a vote and figured I just didn't have what it took to make it on here. I wish I had stuck with it and put the time in back then to learn how Steemit works and get involved in the community. Oh well, I have decided that it is better to start now than not at all. I think I am actually becoming addicted! I love Steemit! What a great community! Thank you for your "face the facts" post.