The "Ugly" Truth About Steemit Posts.

in #steemit8 years ago

Here's the story..

You spend a few seconds, minutes or hours writing a post. As I'm not native in English or a professional writer, it takes time for me to write my posts. However, that's on me. - I could have studied more English or whatever..

  • The truth is..

That I am not alone.. And in reality, it doesn't matter where I'm from. Swedish or not. Sure, writing skills probably matters a bit but the best part of Steemit is, that anyone can earn.

Another fact, is that you'll end up with pretty poor results. For a long time.



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Let me share some details with you..

These are my three most recent posts.

And while I'm being honest.. - I definitely believe they all deserve more than the potential rewards they've got so far.

Especially the two most recent ones:


hours.png


I work hard..

These two whiteboard animations alone took me hours to make. When I was done, I uploaded them and made a post about it here on Steemit.

Not only that, I also shared them in steem.chat.

  • Despite all that, I've got these potential rewards so far..

And now, some of you're thinking: "So what? I'm doing exactly that with less results!"

Meanwhile others won't even bother to read what I have to say..

  • And that's the reason for this post.

I want to tell you exactly what I'm doing..

So you can take advantage of that. So you can learn & perhaps even implement or avoid some of the things I do.


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Let's go!

First of all, people live in different time zones. - At first glance, things like that doesn't really seems to matter..

  • But they do play a major role. At least for me.

I need to write a quality post, that will be considered to be of enough quality for others to upvote it. - That alone can be challenging.

The second thing to keep in mind, is when I publish my post.

  • I need to make sure that I publish my post during the best time, so as many people as possible will see it.



That's obviously a hard nut to crack!
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And why does that matter?

Because votes will give you rewards but not only that. If your post reach a handful of people you'll have less chance of gaining new followers compared to the scenario where your post reach hundreds of people.

  • And why would you care about followers?

Followers are vital for success on Steemit. You could obviously hit the jackpot with your very first post, but most likely, you'll end up with rather poor results. - You need to be consistent and build up a following.

That's vital in any type of business.

  • Followers = more eyeballs on your posts.
  • More eyeballs = more upvotes and potentially even Resteem.
  • Resteem = even broader audience.
  • Broader audience = New followers, more upvotes and more rewards.

That's basically it. Nothing fancy. Just hard work.



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  • That's also one of the reasons I'll start to Resteem on a regular basis!

I could give you several tips..

But instead of doing that, I'll leave you with the most basic things I can.

Interact - Have fun - Blog - Vote - Resteem - Earn.

It's easy, in theory. - In practice, you'll need some luck, but you'll get there! :)

However..

One awesome thing on Steemit is the 7 day rule.

  • Sure there's people who doesn't like it at all, and even though I can see their point.. - I still like it.

Want me to explain myself?

Even though most votes will come during the first couple of minutes from the time your posts is live.. There's still a chance of getting upvotes at a later time. - Personally, I got an upvote during the last day, before payout. That vote alone increased my potential reward with $10 or so.. - Which is a big deal to me.


Help me, so I can help you, so we all can help each other.



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Pay it forward. It's easy, even though many people doesn't seem to understand the point of it. Or at least, they underestimate it.

Take me for instance. I have 400+ followers. If and when I Resteem a post, that author will have a higher chance of gaining more followers and getting higher rewards. - And it works even if you have only 1 follower!

That one follower might have missed that specific post.. Until you Resteem it!


That being said..

Nothing will come to you easy. No one will give you a bag full of money for nothing.



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No matter how many times you'll end up with poor results, just continue. Go the extra miles, each and every time. - Keep pushing it. - Sooner or later, you'll be reaping high rewards!


One last thing to remember..

  • Life is not fair.

You'll probably see hundreds of posts each day, with more rewards than you ever made..
And not only that.. You'll most likely even see a handful of posts you could've done better, with higher rewards than you can imagine..

  • I'm sorry to say the obvious here.. But that's life.

Even Bill Gates said it...



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Sort:  

I think a lot of us are in the same boat. And it's definitely frustrating seeing the same few "big names" get hundreds of upvotes, then you look at the post, and many of these big payout posts with hundreds of votes only have a few actual views (you know the little eyeball counter next to the comment count icon).

I took a break for a few months, after joining mid last year, and things are looking better at the moment, but it seems there's still a lot of boy voting, or sheep voting (people just voting for what ever is already getting attention). This isn't always the case, but more often than not it appears that way.

Thank you for your reply. I do agree with you. In every aspect. I'm glad for others and their results. I really am, but it sure is lame and boring to see the exact same people over at the trending pages. 7 days a week. - It's just like I said in a reply to berniesanders a couple of days ago.

"It was easier for us 'nobodies' to compete for a spot at the trending pages "back in the days", when 1 single upvote by a whale was worth a few hundred dollars." - It's a shame.

I love steemit and even if I can see tons of improvements.. There's still things to fix.

I'm not sure what kinds of improvements are in the works, but I think some sort of "groups" or "sub-steemits" would help the littler guys.

I'm thinking that if the groups become like sub-reddits then the bigger players in each of those smaller ponds will start getting paid more instead of having to compete against the biggest fish in the biggest pond.

Does that make sense?

I can't say that I understand exactly what you're trying to explain. What I do know, is that the upcoming hard fork will make it bette for us "little guys" to have an impact with our votes. At least that's what they've been saying.

It will, considering that those whales will upvote our posts :)


Nice to read your storywelcome @Hitmeasap

Great read. Thanks!

You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it :)

I hear you.

Took weeks to get right, and made 2 cents. I picked up a couple of followers though.
Snowballs move slowly at the summit. You just have to keep pushing :) https://steemit.com/life/@mattclarke/learning-sudoku-without-any-numbers

Yeah, never give up. That's the motto for success on Steemit. :D


I've spent lots of hours on some of my recent posts; most notably my post summarising experiences and lessons learnt from a year on Steemit that felt like it wasn't very well received.
I have been looking at some of the, community created, tools such as Catch-a-whale to try and get an idea when the best time to post is. I mostly try to aim for that sweet spot in the evening UK time/ afternoon US East / morrning US West coast with the hope of catching a whale's attention =)Great post @hitmeasap, this is something that I can really relate to as well.

Thank you very much!

In all honesty, even though you'll probably end up with decent results every now and then by trying to publish your posts during the "best time" for whales to catch it.. - You'll at the same time, miss out on potentially hundreds of other eyeballs. - Eyeballs that could be worth way more than one whale.

Don't take this the wrong way. I did what you're doing. I've done it several times during the time I've been on Steemit. - And frankly speaking, I'm still trying to publish posts at various hours, in an attempt to reach a bigger audience. - That being said, I find it easier & more lucrative to publish my posts whenever I'm done writing them.

At some point, people will see your posts. They will resteem them, just like @ausitbank did with two of my posts, and he alone is the man behind the results on those two. Due to his followers.

He found them and he resteemed them. Which I'm incredibly happy for. If he, like so many others, would've missed my posts, I would miss out on several upvotes, new followers and resteems. - It really is like a wheel.

You publish a post.

  • Someone Resteem it.
  • Their followers will see it.
  • The followers will upvote you, resteem & follow you.

And the wheel keeps going round and round..

So, instead of trying to find the "best time" to post, (which most likely 'everyone else' is trying to do), I find it easier to compete with myself instead of others. I already know from the beginning that I won't have the same results as others on my posts, so why should I continue to reach for those results when I can reach other, perhaps even better rewards myself.. - That will be more valuable to me in the long run.

Keep at it, you'll reach great success! - Just don't give up :)

Hmm, nail on the head.

Upvoted and Followed

Thank you very much! :)

This is a great post. I just started yesterday or the day before, I don't remember exactly. I wish I could bookmark this post so I can go back to it.


and i was expecting a huge response after working on it for hours and sharing my experience recovering from drugs and prison. But its all good. Thank you once again.I just uploaded my introduce yourself post https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@sneakgeekz/hello-steemit-this-is-my-introduce-youself-post

Thank you very much. You know what? - I'll be the first to do my part of this whole "pay it forward" thing I'm talking about. - Consider yourself Resteemed! - Now I'm off to watch your introduction video!

Checking out your intro. Good on you for your fight to recover your life. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the encouragement.

Fascinating post; it depends, right? If you have the option to make $20 per hour, or you have the option to write a SteemIt post with a video, which takes 2-3 hours and you earn only $9, I'll take the former option.

Success belongs to those who use their time wisely.

That's a good point!

However, for starters, I don't publish posts on Steemit instead of working. I also don't publish posts on steemit for the money, even though it's obviously a superb bonus. Secondly, I publish posts on Steemit when I have time to write posts, during the time I have a free time & if I can make money during my free time, I'd definitely go with that.

  • Imagine this scenario..
    You work and you earn $20 per hour. That's great, however, during your lunch break, you publish posts on Steemit and you make another $0,90, $9, $90 or even $900.. - Wouldn't that be pretty awesome?

And sure, it might be that you can't finish writing a post during your lunch break. Perhaps you'll need 2 or 3 hours to write your post like you've stated above.. - If that specific post gives you $9 .. That's rather poor I do agree, if you think about it as salary.

However, I don't count my potential rewards on Steemit as salary. I see it as a bonus. Huge or small. - But hey, I'm just human, if I got only two options, $9 or $20, I'd go with $20 every time too. - But that also cuts away the chances of growing your account on Steemit. - And if you cut away those chances, then you'll also minimize your chances of making more in the future. So I would create my own, third option.

Success belongs to those who use their time wisely.

I do agree with you and it's a great statement. Although, if I spend 100+ hours writing posts on Steemit and end up with $10 or whatever in total from all those posts & hours.. Then it would be a waste of time, in terms of money for the posts I wrote... I definitely agree with you.

  • But the time I spent writing the posts, would increase my chances further on, as I probably would get more followers and more visibility to my future posts. - So to me, it's obvious.

I'm in this long-term. I will walk that extra mile as many times as it takes. I know what I'm going for and I will reach it.

-Thanks for your comment! :)

i,too, am grappling with exactly why i'll be posting to steem. right now i think it's mostly so i can hone my ideas on a variety of topics in a public forum and learn and grow from the feedback, etc. if i actually make anything from this activity so much the better ;)

Good post... and as it is with life, highlights that your network is really important. Probably the only way to earn decent consistently.

As a newbie without much of a network, i find the earnings vary significantly on similar posts. There's a bigger luck factor involved.

Funny you would say something like that. I was just now, reading 2 similar posts. One with about $1 in potential reward and the other one have $62+ at the time I'm writing this. - Both of them cover the exact same thing. Both of them are rather short & tells their readers the same thing. - Even so, one of them is highly rewarded and the other one.. Well, not so much. - Both of them are also from the same day. Just an hour or so between them.

Luck? - Sure, it's luck involved. Definitely! - But I would say that it comes down to their followings. A huge follow-trail will bring you high rewards. It's an easy equation. Thanks for your reply!

Definitely, @hitmeasap. having a huge follow trail takes luck out of the equation. Hopefully quality posts and quality interactions over time will build up that trail.

Well, consider me to be follower #120. If you keep this up, I bet you'll reach 300 followers in less than 2 months from now. - You're totally right so far, and I know you've got some great things to share. I look forward to reading them in the future. :)

Great post! Thanks!

I'm glad you liked it! :)

Very interesting post, @hitmeasap You just became my first resteem post, upped and i'm following you. Pay it Forward!

Thank you so much, I'm honored! :)

This a pretty interesting post and point of view. I fully agree. You have a new follower ;)

Thank you very much, I appreciate it :)

Excellent post with timely advice. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and keep at it lol.

I'm glad you liked it and yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. That's the approach you need on Steemit. - Sometimes you'll reach great rewards rather easy, due to luck. Other times, you'll end up with more work and really hard work, but at the end of the day, you'll be one step closer to reach the rewards you want by doing that.

An excellent post. You will help many people with that. I follow, upvote and resteem! Keep up the good work! See you around!

Thank you very much for your kindness. The fact is, that ever since @ausbitbank Resteemd two of my posts, I've gained multiple new followers and got several upvotes.. - So what I've said in this post is definitely proven to work.

  • Resteem works and will benefit you and the authors.

I appreciate every single RS I've got so far. I appreciate all the kind comments and the upvotes I've got. You guys rock! :)

Its the same story with everyone ...I share a lot of my photography works but it doesnt seem to reach the audience ..
Thanx for the write up 😊

Just keep going. You'll get there! :)

A little bit of effort doesn't hurt. So I also try to put time in my posts so people will enjoy reading. Also English isn't my native kanguage but that does not matter. When people value your post they'll understood all english well enough.

That my friend, is totally correct. - Just take a look at the trending pages. - Sure, most of them are great writers, but many of them are not native in English. - The best part of steemit is, that during the time you publish your posts you'll also train and become a better writer.

So along with the rewards in terms of resteem, upvotes, comments and money.. - You'll also reward yourself with more knowledge and writing skills.. - That is a great investment for the future!

Resteemed for future reference. Thanks!

Thank you very much for your kindness! - I appreciate it :)

Thanks for this post. Really hit home.. I am at the end of week one and all of this rings true. I've had a suspicion time zone is important.. I'm in Aus so we are pretty well back to front from everyone else (explains the craziness) But It's all a fun ride and a learning curve and we will get there in the end. Thanks for your great tips. Upvoted resteemed and followed

That's amazing, thank you very much! - I appreciate your kindness :)

  • And yeah, time zones might affect you. The best thing you can do, is to try to figure out the best time for you. The time I publish my posts might not work as well for you, so it's a guessing game really.

Great post and I agree entirely I've written articles I've researched for hours if not longer and earned a penny! It's frustrating as I've never been resteemed even though followers are at 120ish
Steemit has given me a platform to say my piece to the world though so I won't give up and while pay off is nice that's not why I started. I needed an outlet so I didn't rant to my friends and family constantly. It's only been 12 days so I need to be patient I guess.

12 days.. And you've gained 120 followers during that time? - You my friend, are doing something great!

There's people on Steemit who've been here for months, half a year, almost a year, with less followers than that.. - Sure, perhaps you haven't reached $1000+ posts, yet, but I'm positive that you'll reach great success as long as you don't give up.

I appreciate the support dude upvote and followed.
I've been silent for years never having used any kind of social media platform. But Steemit changed that for me and I just want to get out a message of truth as I fear most of humanity are sheeple waiting for the slaughter.
See what I mean a simple reply turns into a rant 😆 Sorry dude if got a lot of pent up stuff,! Also it's my 50th today and I've had about 10 drinks already 😜

That's the best part of social media! - Anything and everything, can go huge and become an awesome discussion. - Happy birthday! - Let's go for that 11th drink! :)

Just cracked beer!

Dude, I will never give up.

Resteeming now s0n!

Thank you very much for your kindness, greatly appreciated! :)

I feel the same from time to time, but all i can say is that i really like the community and thats why i'm putting in all the effort. For my most appreciated followers to read it.

Offcourse i love to see those rewards but i think that if we just keep posting quality content everything will turn out fine. By making this post you atleast got my 0.05c upvote and gained a follower ;) keep it up!

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! :)

Success isn't reached overnight. It takes time, hard work and a bit of luck. - We will all get there eventually! :)

I love your posts! Nice blog!

Wow, thanks @teamsteem, I appreciate it! - When it's coming from you, it means a great deal too me! :)

Keep it up!

Wow.. You're crazy man! :D - Thank you very much for your kindness (regarding all the upvotes on my posts) - I really appreciate it!

  • No worries, I will. I will push myself forwards to reach that 10K SP goal of mine. - To begin with. The sky is my only limit. Just wait and see! ;)

Nice post mate, I've resteemed and upvoted this and your life of a steemian vid :)

and RS, and not only once, but twice. You're awesome!Thank you very much @ausbitbank, I greatly appreciate your kindness! - Both upvote

No worries, it really frustrates me seeing good stuff people have put time and effort into going unrewarded. Hope the resteems to ~1600 people help you get some more views and follows :)

Your resteems most certainly brought me multiple follows, encouraged others to resteem and I got several votes. - For that, I'm grateful!

And yeah, it's a shame that tons of good, quality posts disappear amongst all the new posts being created each minute.. But fortunately, for me & for several others, people like you exist and dedicate yourself to bring these posts to the surface.

I joined Steem not long ago and am still trying to understand what makes a post successful. I'll go to the high earner posts and ask myself "Why did this do well?"

Sometimes the answer is obvious--quality. Sometimes it's not so obvious, and probably timing and just striking the right nerve with people (luck) is the factor. I wish you and be both the best!

You know what? - It could be literally anything that makes these posts go big. One of the things, which is a fact, is the following they have. Follow-trails, followers or bots. It doesn't really matter in the long run, as it's still their followers.

What I personally think is a bit sad, is the fact that some people spend several hours writing a super long post.. And they get $0,01 for it.. Meanwhile others are writing a few sentences and get rewarded with hundreds of dollars. That's unfair, but it's also life.

Wow @hitmeasap great post! Casually i was going around these ideas in my head, i also thought about the time to post, the tags and other stuff that can helpful to have more exposure.

And yeah life is not fair but we must go ahead and be constant!
I think that we also have to support what we think is good and not only based on profits, you think this will be more accentuated with the HF? because it will give more influence in fewer votes.

By the way thanks for that push reesteming my introduction i really appreciate it :D

Thank you @angelgarz, I appreciate it! - I'm glad I could help with the Resteem :)

I don't have much to say regarding the upcoming HF. I'll just wait and see what happens.

This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the first half of May 26. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $12.23 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.

See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: May 26 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.

If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.

great post, I feel the exact same way too. I upvoted you and followed!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it! :)

The great thing about this community is the honesty in posts like this. In this day and age of seconds of sound bites and the frantic lives we lead, we spend less time actually listening and hearing each other than we should. I actually read your whole article, and now I'm resteeming, and following. Thanks for sharing!

I'm glad you liked it and I'm honored for the upvote & RS. Much appreciated! :)

Two thumbs for your post.
Ww typed long artices carefully, serving the fact and evidenve, then we got 0.09. it's beginning for newcomers.

Well, in all honesty and also to be fair. It's not only newcomers having these troubles. - But it sure is newcomers that struggles the most. Thank you for your reply!

I spend a lot of time as newbie to make good articles and serving original pict inside. I try to motivate my self and the other newbie to keep patience. They ll do best in their posting. And keep original, cause @cheetah is best bot to catch em.

That was a very fair post. ;)

Good things to read for a newbie to steemit. Thanks!

Followed and resteemed!

Thank you so much for your kindness! :)

It's easy, in theory. - In practice, you'll need some luck...

Resteemed for acknowledging luck as a factor.

People mostly forget about luck and just say it is only hard work that pays.

Thank you very much! - I'm honored for all the Resteems I've got, yours included.

And yeah, sure, hard work pays off.. But I don't have a magic-stick, so I can't just point at my posts and bring them to life.. Which basically means that I need to work hard and hope that I'll be lucky. - Luck will always be part of business, life or whatever you do. However, you can minimize the "luck-factor" with pure dedication and hard work.. - But you'll never be able to erase the fact that luck plays a huge role.

Agreed: work for luck, not wait for luck.

Definitely. As long as you work hard you'll also increase your chances of getting lucky.

Thanks, very helpful

I'm glad you liked it! :)

following you

Much appreciated! :)

Never give up! Steem ON!!!

I will. Make sure you continue too! :)

You just deserved a upvote!

Thank you, I appreciate your kindness :)

Awesome post. This post deserves better rewards than 9 bucks :)

Thank you very much for your kind words libert, I appreciate it! :)

thanx for the advice! as a new steemer, i want the effort that i put into a post to be appreciated.

You are welcome, and yeah. That's what we all are striving for. We want to be appreciated. Either by upvotes, comments, resteems or $ rewards. All of us have different agendas.. But all of us have one thing in common. - We all want Steemit to flourish.

This had been a problem ever since and this was also the reason why lots of those members before are not inactive. Although there are good changes but still we could not hide the fact that those who have rich friends, good connection and famous are earning good rewards. And after the HF19, their rewards will be multiplied.

I totally agree with you..~!

I think the bright side of this phenomenon is that there is a clear way to climb up in the world ofsteemit, even of it takes a lot of effort. At least it seems so to me based on what I have seen. I'm no stranger to hard work, but it is the futility of other platforms that bothers me. A lot of times efforts to gain recognition elsewhere seem like a shot in the dark. Here, however, there is a real community with some shares values and if one stays involved, one eventually makes progress. At least that is what I keep hearing, and I am inclined to believe it.