Hey Steemians!
In a fit of inspiration on our 123rd day on Steemit (yayyy!) I want to share a few tricks I’ve learned! I actually don’t think these are our secrets (that’s just a click bait title 😁), but I do believe in what I’m about to share. Take my advice or leave it, but I think I have some good tips of what can up your post creation game into getting more
Curations & Resteems!
First off, let’s make sure you’re in? Do you want to create content that people want to Resteem?
Want to have your work caught by the likes of @curie or resteemed by @ocd using the #ocd-resteem tag? Read on if so! If not, turn away now as I’m gonna play it straight!
I also curate @the-hearth and I’ll tell you what I look for as a curator!
First, a little story.
Ini and I seek to make quality content daily. That’s a lot to ask. Sometimes we make posts we’re really in love with, only to see them kick the bucket!
One night, I was feeling discouraged. I was grappling with the question:
What kind of posts does my audience like?
I wondered if I was being too acute in writing specific how to articles, plant profiles, posts about plants no one had heard of!
I said to Ini, Let’s make the most simple, relatable, mainstream post we can think of about our life! This is the post that came of it, and you guys loved it!
Why We Homestead | Through Thick & Thin
In this post, we just stuck to the essentials! We spoke from the heart and talked about our journey.
We started the post off like this:
Our homesteading journey hasn’t always been easy. We’ve lived without running water (not even to mention hot running water or a shower) for 2 years and have built everything on the land ourselves (with help from some friends).
Start with the hardship and people want to know more!! Overcoming struggle is a theme we’re all attracted to!
If you’re savvy, you’ve likely just stumbled on my first tip 😉, which is twofold.
Know Your Audience & Share About Yourself
Concerned that you don’t know what your audience likes? See which posts have generated the most interest in the form of upvotes and comments. The data doesn’t lie!
Be Relateable
Also, people love to learn more about you. What makes you you, the stuff close to your heart, your opinions, quirks, hardships, etc. Don't be afraid to share it and, even more so, believe you have something to share BECAUSE YOU DO! 🤗
The posts where you share your heart and hit on all the stuff that makes us human ARE THE ONES PEOPLE RESTEEM and come back for more!
Gorgeous photos always help to break up the text. I took this photo of a narcissus last night as evening approached.
Why do you resteem a post?
Perhaps it touched you, you learned something new, you thought others would enjoy it, you’re sharing it to “bookmark” for later, etc.
Step out on a limb, brainstorm these posts you could write from your life that touch the universal human experience! You may surprise yourself!
The 1, 2, 3s of Quality Content
Post Length
All curators look at post length.
All curators look at post length.
I had to repeat myself; it’s that important.
You know the #1 reason I don’t resteem things @the-hearth, even if the content is good and there are good photos?
Yep,
Post Length
If I can scroll through your post and there are two photos and 4 paragraphs, your post isn’t long enough to be curated.
Curated posts all have 1 thing in common and that’s post length.
I like to use at least 6 quality photos on average and put a few paragraphs in between each one, as a rough guideline.
I don’t ever keep word count, but I have a general feel for when a post is finished. If you’re not sure if it’s long enough, look through some recently curated posts by @curie, peruse @the-hearth’s resteemed posts or check out our blog posts @mountainjewel. If in doubt, add a bit more.
Oddly enough, this post turned out to be a great length, so you can look at it as a good example.
Hey, How ya likin’ this post so far? Not too baaaaad, eh?
Photos & Written Content
I’m putting these two together because I think they always need to go together for highly resteemable/curateable badass posts!
A photo post without written content and a written content post without photos both have one thing in common: They won’t be curated!
Photos, while they can be the centerpiece of a post, need some beefing up with words to make a curateable post. If you’re a photographer, try writing the story behind the subject you’ve photographed, the story and context leading up to taking the photo, etc.
If you’re a storyteller or writer, make sure to add complementary photos. Of course, cite well and don’t use copyrighted content.
You likely won’t get resteemed or curated for sharing others’ content also, so always keep it original!!
Can’t get more original than spinach in our high tunnel!
Diversity of Formatting
Which is easier and more pleasing to read?
Ingredients
Salt
Carrots
Napa Cabbage
Daikon Radish
Chili Powder
First chop the vegetables and place them in a salt water solution.
-or-
Ingredients
- Salt
- Carrots
- Napa Cabbage
- Daikon Radish
- Chili Powder
First chop the vegetables and place them in a salt water solution.
(Making kimchi)
Now formatting may not matter so much in whether you get resteemed or curied, but it encourages people to actually read your posts (and nice-looking posts encourage the curator!).
If you break up text and add headings, it’s easier on the eye and people know where to look, where to go next, etc. Big chunks of text are difficult to take in! I won’t go into the hows of formatting, but a quick google search will help you in this. Banners or pictures (as I’ve done below) also help in breaking the text up, as do putting things in italics or bold as I did with this sentence.
Stunning native Cherry blossom on our land.
Subject Matter
This one is of course subjective depending on your niche, but the main points are to choose a subject that interests you and dive into it.
People can feel your passion (or lack thereof).
Tap into what makes your blood pump or gets you up in the morning and if you can’t remember what does that, write a post about that! Write what is Alive and relevant for you. Write the truth, especially if it scares you!
Tone/Voice
My favorite posts all have share a similar trait:
The person writing them shared a piece of their self.
Use your voice! As relayed above, you may surprise yourself that people come back for more of that!
Dry posts that could’ve been written by a robot will not gain you follower ship or resteems.
Be quirky, humorous, go on a rant, speak the truth... these are all ways to hit a chord with others. Others resteem things that have hit their chords!!
Ring my bell, Ring my bell!
And last but not least!
Community & Connection
This one is a mainstay guys. Ya gotta be a friend to have one! Get out there and comment on other’s posts, join a few discord servers that align with your interests, resteem others’ posts!
You won’t succeed here on Steemit in isolation. Your connections are where it’s at. I’ll leave it there.
Our sweet pup Luci on a walk yesterday. She prefers her pack too!
Alright Steemians, what have I missed?
Please share your tips with me!
As a little recap, many Steemians make posts that have a great content or subject matter, but they just don’t have enough photos or aren’t long enough in content or details! That’s actually great news because the ideas part is down, it just needs to be longer!
I’ll say it again, when curating for @the-hearth, that’s the #1 difficulty- The Almost Posts. So beef those posts up, go all in! Study the curated posts and try mirroring certain elements in your own way!
This is the prettiest and most useful post of tips I have read thus far. I find the images hilarious for their lack of connection to your content he he.. well done. Man, I am going to have to pull out all the formatting stops now!! Eek!! Love you guys, thanks heaps for always stopping by and reading my work and being enthused.. its peeps like you that make the platform a great place. 🖤🖤🖤🌱
Aw thanks for your ⭐️Stellar⭐️ Comment and kind words 💖✨ really glad you’re here! I like your content and that is why I stop by ;) first and hardest part is engaging content and you’ve got that down; the rest builds over time! Xo 💕💕
Thankyou!!!! Ah 🖤🖤🖤 all around! 🖤🖤🖤🌼
You’re so cool 😎🖖💛
Aw stop it you gorgeous thang 😍🙈💋
Very good information. We should not be looking for quantity but rather quality in posts. One GREAT quality post can garner 10 times as many upvotes as 100 poor quality posts.
I do have a question you might can answer for me. I find discord to be daunting to use with my vision problems. I cannot read or find anything on it. Yet it seems all groups use it as pretty much their only form of communication. So I am not active in any groups.
Is there another solution? There are many groups I would love to participate in, but it is to the point I don't bother to try anymore when the first instruction is "join our discord group".
I know not being involved is hurting my earnings, but I am at a loss on finding a solution to the problem.
Fernowl, let me think on your problem. I assume you can’t zoom in on the discord or up the font size? You probably tried all that... I’ll think about it!!
There is little for me to zoom in on. The only way I know there is more than a few words on the page is if the mouse moves over something and changes shape. I can pick out the occasional letter or word, but the gray on black is close to looking like a blank page. White on black is fine, but the darker the gray...
hey fernowl.. how bout if you have an important article you want me to share on discord, you can just alert me of it? i hate that you can't access it. to be fair, i really am not very good at discord and don't interact too much in the chats... doesn't really come naturally to me, but i do read and also post in the #postpromotion channels and i can share your important works here as well :)
I appreciate the offer but, in this account, I will probably only be posting 2 or 3 times a week. My post today I spent 3 days writing, lol. But there was a LOT to be said on it (over 2600 words). Most posts from this account probably will not be about homesteading and I am switching to doing most of that over on the sotall account so I can get it built to have at least 500 sp.
I am not giving up on getting discord so I can see it. There has to be some way of doing it. Some body will have an add on or something. Heck, I just thought, I haven't tried resetting my screen to lighten it up drastically. I keep it turned down because blue light (what we see as bright white) is horrible for the retina.
I'll have to try it first chance I get and see. That might solve the problem.
Thanks for trying and once again, you made an idea pop out of my head when I was up against a wall!
Glad to hear it!! Good luck with your solution 💚!!
I agree with most things you mentioned. The only thing I'd add regarding post length is: don't make it too long either! A post can be super interesting, intriguing, exciting... but if it's so long that you can't finish it in one sitting, you won't ever get to the end of it, where the upvote button is, let alone the resteem or comment ones. I think 1000 words is a good rule of thumb, which I tend to go over or under every time. But at least it gives me a point of guidance.
Fantastic point!! I’ve come across these types too lol!
Such encouragement! Great post for all of us to learn from. Your posts do follow these rules and they excellent! Thank you @mountainjewel! Loved your pictures. btw you took those pictures of narcissus last night WOW! Beautifulll!!!!
😘😘😘 thank you mamita ✨💖 those are Narcissus YOU gave me~~ the magic lilies I think 😎🌿💚
Definitely some good tips for people. I hope the word spreads :)
I am being too hopeful in asking whether Luci was the dog who went missing, but is now home again??
Thanks lady 😊🌿💚
Sadly no this is our remaining dog. No sight of the other 💔 life goes on but we sure do miss him. Thanks for checking in.
Great tips! I can definitely work on my post length sometimes.
Thanks! We all have areas of improvement for sure!!
Good advice! I totally agree with so much of this. Guess I need to work on formatting things next! :)
Thanks! Best wishes! It’s actually pretty fun once you get into it ;) i didn’t do it for the longest time and just kept saying hmmm, I winder how that person did that thing! I still have more to learn! Xo
I think I am doing my best. I get lots of minnows engagement, and lovely feedback. And I try my best but it is somehow a little bit discouraging to see so many underrated and overrated content. Some balance would be nice. Not ranting, trying my best thanks for the advice.
Totally hear you on this! So many ARE creating fantastic stuff, but the game isn’t weighted in our favor. Keep up the great work!! 🌞🎈 as more of us minnows keep at it and gain power, we can keep boosting each other up and up and up!
That sucks as you are one of the most interesting people I follow!! @yidneth
Great post! I've found myself so confused by the posts of mine that end up getting curied. They seem to be such random posts that apparently caught someone's eye, but they are always definitely posts where my true self is coming out. Oftentimes things I ALMOST didn't post because I think, "Who on earth cares to hear this boring thing about my life???" and then those posts do GREAT.
Thanks for the details. It really helps!
Awesome!! So good to hear your experience! Isn’t that funny how that happens? Just be yourself to the full and you’ll get rewarded for it! Seems like these curie folks must have a thing for authenticity 😉 way to go @byn! 💖
Well, I am always authentic. I don't know any other way to be ;) I'm too forgetful to make anything up!
The dog and the donkey did it for me. The post was good too :) Great suggestions, especially about putting some meat between the photos. Have to put a little work in, I think, to fairly expect reward.
yes! great points. glad you loved the dog and donkey :) <3
this is lovely, thanks alot for sharing
Thank you. Glad you found it helpful 😉
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You have to care how you write and write about what you care - It's always obvious who puts the time and effort in - and you have - Thanks - Great post x
Hi bro, great content, no doubt, but i have a question. Don't you think that apart from all the tips you shared, which are undeniably true, the tags you use also matters as to the upvotes/likeness your content gets?
Thanks a million @mountainjewel. I was actually going to look up what the role of the curator is (again - some things don't seem to be fully absorbed sometimes :)) when I came across your helpful post in my feed resteemed by @hopehuggs (many thanks to her as well)
Interesting how some photos don't relate to the post like other tips I've read:
But why... ? Can we just be ourselves and include whatever pictures we want to whether or not it's related to the post? Glad you just did!
this is great, really good advice, thanks so much for sharing this with us all. It is always evident how much work ye both put into your posts.
Thanks lady 😘 preciate your kind words and comment 🌿💚 have a good one❣️
Hi @mountainjewel, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Join us on Thursdays for Pimp Your Post Thursday at 11am EDT or 7PM EDT in the Steemit Ramble Discord or:
If you’d like to nominate someone’s post just visit the Steemit Ramble Discord
Thank ya! Preciate the mention 😉🌿💚
Another thing I remembered mentioning, after sending out my comment, is regarding tags. And this part I'm still figuring out myself! Tagging a topic can be tricky: it shouldn't be too specific, but not too general either. The idea (in my opinion) is for the post to appear in a list of similar articles, so the readers who may not know you, but who are interested in that subject, can find the post. We are give five options, which should be more than enough, but sometimes it's still not as simple as it sounds...
This was really helpful information since I am new to Steemit and have been wondering what I should be posting, what people would most like to know more about, and you have provided a wonderful example. Thanks :)
Most excellent and super helpful. And also very pretty.
When I finally wrote the first bit of my big fiction project the other day I really struggled with whether or not to put pics in it. When I read fiction, I don't want pictures interrupting my super active brain, but I wasn't sure how others felt. In the end I put one pic in and left it at that. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I think I'm putting chapter 2 up tomorrow.
I love this! Learned a LOT! re steemed!!! We appreciate you mountainjewel!
Great tips, I would love to resteem this one, but thee is not an arrow to click. Does that mean it’s already been resteemed too many times?
This is full of helpful information. Thank you!I used to write in long form and over time realized that most people are not literate or get bored easy or have short attention spans or something so I adapted to meme culture and tried becoming more concise. I am glad to find that is not necessary here!