When I first joined Steemit I sat and thought about what sort of persona to create. I'm a simple chap really, but there were still many ways I could develop my profile - some of which would lead to success, some of which might not.
The quick and easy buck would be to post porn, or at least pictures of girls in bikinis. It's a time proven method of making money and all I would need to do is troll the Interweb for bikinis and post links to them. Dead simple.
I'm not good at dead simple.
I could post memes, and a bunch of mindless stuff, like stolen quotes from famous people. Or I could post links to videos on YouTube that I watched. All of this requires little effort, and with bots voting on my posts I'd be making enough for it to be worthwhile.
I'm not a meme fan and I'm not good at mindless either.
I could come in guns blazing, posting controversial content and really get people stirred up. I've thrown a few verbal hand-grenades in (mostly flat earth posts) but only for entertainment.
While I like a good argument, good argument was not what I was getting. So I stopped doing that. I'll still drop in a loaded question now and then, just for fun. But mostly I let their posts pass me by now.
I tried to find out what worked and what didn't. Photos worked really well, until they didn't. I posted sort stories i had written ages ago. They went quite well, so I posted some more, and got nothing.
I posted some code related stuff. That sort-of went ok.
I posted long articles. I posted short articles. The pay-out, votes, views and comments bore no relation to the content i posted. Stuff that I worked hard on got nothing, while a random photo got a good pay-out.
So I stopped. I just stopped.
I stopped wondering, I stopped trying, I stopped dreaming of the big payday, I stopped trying to succeed. I started just writing whatever I felt like at the time. I spent more time commenting and reading and trying to survive @papa-pepper’s games.
So what sort of Steemian am I?
I'm the chilled out Steeman. I write what i want to and post what I want to, because that's what I want to do. I'm not bothered by the pay-out. If i get a good one, awesome. If not, i don't care. I posted what I wanted to say, and that's the end of it.
I'm not chasing whales, and I'm in no hurry to be a whale. It will happen in its own good time. Being chilled out means I can actually enjoy Steemit so much more because I'm here to have a bit of fun. This is not my livelihood. I'm not desperately powering up or powering down, or desperately searching for the hidden secret to making millions..
I like being on Steemit, but that does not mean that it owns me. I like Sola too. And it will be interesting to see how the two platforms develop over time.
I'm happy with my strategy for doing well on here - be nice, engage, be positive and supportive. This is the path that i think will be the most rewarding. I don't ask for votes or follows (although i think i did on one post that was soooo close to earning a dollar, early on). I try to be someone that you would want to follow, that you would want to read and interact with.
In that way, I hope I will be attracting followers who are like me - people who I'd like to meet one day in real life. And if you ever did meet me in real life you'd see I'm just like the guy in your feed, only shorter.
So what sort of Steemian are you?
Check out my stories here on Steemit
Running Deer
Running Deer - part 1
Running Deer - How legends are born
Charlie Rabbit
Meet Charlie Rabbit
Charlie tides up
Charlie Rabbit and Margery Mouse
Charlie Rabbit and Margery Mouse make music
Little Peppers Adventures
Runaway Rabbit and the hungry fox
Maybe and the land of purple rainbows – A Little Peppers adventure
How Pappa Pepper and Monster Truck the Pepper got their wild hogs - a Little Peppers Adeventure
Dark Angel Regiment of the Space Marines - Mission Files
First Squad Sniper Elite - Zaresith mission
Other stories
Also don't forget to check out my Dad's blog
Who else can tell you stories about impersonating an officer, stealing a military aircraft to go on a booze run, or steal military aircraft and go on an unsanctioned bombing run - and that's all before he turned 18!
Check out @len.george and find out what other madness he got up to!
Are you new to Steemit and trying to figure out what it's all about?
Head over to: https://www.steemithelp.net/. It's the best place to get a handle on what the platform is all about.
@trevor.george I'd have to say I am a chillaxed steemian myself also. I want my impact on this community to be value adding. I find myself frustrated by the posting of copy and paste content and images that people don't even have rights to.
I would love to see people generating there own content and injecting some of themselves into the community instead of trying to shill a few buck out of everyone with cheap thrills.
Great post by the way mate.
Thanks for that. Sola seems to be the place to post other people's content and get away with it.
I think with the value of STEEM and SBD being high at the moment we can all put up good content and get something back for it. So maybe this will help drive the efforts of original content creators.
Thank you, I am so glad I came across this. I'm new here and part of the reason why it took me so long to engage was because I was so worried about which direction I would take, which might work the best... please the people... I finally posted my introduction last night when I said to myself 'screw it I just want to write.' It soothes my anxiety about the whole thing to see other people on the same resonant frequency!
Thanks for your reply. Just write what you want to write and find your audience that way. Put up a good number of posts and be active commenting on other posts (as you have done here). That will often lead people to check out you blog and vote, follow, comment on your writing.
And that's how you grow :-)
Your blog is currently open in another tab and I'll check it out as soon as I wade through all the comments on this post ;-)
I too am like what you see on here. I think I have a lane. Then I get super insecure and want to run away and hide. I tend to stay away from people who belong to the sub groups bc they are not too inclusive unless you "belong". Or at least that's how I take it.
I'm not here to be a whale. I don't even fully understand crypto. I put up a few posts with my photos, talk about stuff that happens and chat here and there and go about life. So I guess I'm like you that way. I'm not eager to climb the steemit ladder. I don't usually engage in arguments or debates. I don't do many contests and .... that's about it. Pretty
boringchill. :)hehehe not boring, just chillin'. A community takes all sorts, and if everyone was a whale it would be a pretty boring community. I like to think we are the ones in the background making the community tick along, making it a nice place for people to be, the welcoming wave to new people, the helping hand to those in need. And the smiling face when it all turns to custard that reminds you it's all just a game and you're here to have a bit of fun and nothing more. ;-)
You must have trained me well, I haven't learned how to take anything out yet, you haven't shown me. Until you do I will keep putting the history on permanent record for the future. Enjoy chatting with people and having a little stir occasionally. Trying to help when people write what they are doing and I know that it can go wrong. Generally having fun.
I love content that is raw, authentic, and creative - this and your style meets the criteria. To be honest, I just got on here not knowing too much about cryptos and am mainly lurking to generate depth of understanding towards practitioner-ship. Looking forward to more entertaining posts from you, Trevor!
Thanks. And welcome to Steemit :-)
The best way to move forward it to put up an introduction post and then a few other posts. That way when you comment (as you have done here) people will go and check you out and see if they might want to follow you. If there is nothing in your blog about you, there is a good chance they'll skip past and not follow you.
So far you're doing the right thing, by getting involved and engaging. (and not begging for followers) Keep it up and you'll do well here ;-) Best of luck.
I never realised you were a flat earther - did you see my post last week where I said the earth was flat? - (not really)
I always do my best to ignore payouts and just post whatever I feel like.
Ironically I now have 1000 followers and have just made more $ in the past week on Steemit than in the past 18 months
Oh I love the flat earthers. they are so much fun. But my wife has told me it's not nice to kick small puppies, and telling flat earthers that they are wrong amounts to pretty much the same thing, so...
Yes I saw your post, but I was on holiday and driving, so didn't really have time to participate. (and the wife was with me, so.... yeah)
I think we have a very similar approach. I'm just being myself and it's working out okay for now. I don't have a big agenda or a marketing plan. I'm having fun and making a nice extra income. It will be interesting to see how things change as steemit grows
Yes it will be an interesting year indeed.
There is so much going on now that I think I'll be happy when Christmas rolls around again ;-)
Hopefully we'll see more people like us, and less spammers (although they have mostly died down now). If the price of STEEM and SBD consolidates somewhere nice and friendly I could be planning a much bigger holiday next Christmas ;-) Maybe even as far as the UK. You never know ;-)
Maybe I'll make it back to NZ. Extra income from steemit could open some opportunities
Hi mate - I've just read your post following my entry into your snakes & ladders comp - my very first interaction on Steemit - I think I'm in the same place you were when you first started. Struggling to figure out what type of poster I want to be and why.
As a 42 year old mature student, I'm also not chasing a buck but instead want to create something meaningful while still being broad enough in my own content and comments that I can have some fun (and some controversy) along the way too.
I like your approach, it's honest and well meant - that's enough for me - followed :)
Nice to have you on board.
Ok, the first thing for you to do is find @papa-pepper and follow him. The dude is an awesome example of how to do it right here on Steemit.
He started just a little bit before me and has done really well, by being open and honest and putting up good content. And his content is all over the place. He posts all kinds of things, so you don't have to limit yourself.
Be nice, be generous, be helpful and the community will embrace you and give you the votes. ;-) He is the living proof of that ;-)
Thanks for the reply and the head's up! I'm still at the 'finding out what does what' stage on here - hopefully I'll find my feet soon and will be making my first introductory post.
I'l l pop over an have a look at @papa-pepper and his content - I also like the idea of random topics, however I'm going to try to keep mine structured around certain topics of interest - I'm fairly eclectic as a person anyways so I should suit me to the ground.
Be good :)