Hi Everyone!
I am new here (Post #2!) and have been reading through all of the wonderful tutorial posts here for the last several hours (special thanks to @hopehuggs and @valorforfreedom - you two rock it!), trying to get a handle on the best way to get started and truly be a contributor.
So I have come up with 5 questions that I would love to get the community's feedback on:
- How to Contribute: I've been earning a living online since 1992 - what areas are you still struggling with? I would love to be able to share my experiences (good and bad) but want to try to focus on the areas that people need help with.
- Apps: I've looked at the app repository, but at this stage of my 'newbieness', I am not sure which ones are really going to be helpful. I don't want to use anything that will be spammy, or get me off to a bad start with the community! So would love your recommendations!
- Now this one may seem silly but...what are Steemit members called? I have seen them referred to as Steemers, Steemians, Steemitians, and possibly a couple of other variations....what is correct or what is preferred?
- Length of posts: What's the best length for a tutorial style post? 500 words? 1000? If it's a long and detailed post, do you want to see it in one post or is it better to break it up in to multiple parts?
- Giveaways: I've seen some contests here already (really fun!) but what are the guidelines for giving away things like free reports or ebooks? I have several that I have written over the years, everything from dealing with toxic family members to adult coloring books, that I would love to share with the community. Is this okay to do?
OK, let me see if I can answer a few questions for you.
(1) I think you will know best what your skills are. It may take a little while to figure out how you can add value to the blockchain, but keep talking to people, making your following, and you will find it eventually. For example, a good friend of mine @cryptocurator is very new too, and his strength is statistics...something that I'm not so hot at, but he loves (bloody accountants!). He's now adding value to the blockchain by being able to present information that helps people to understand and explain where certain things in the Steemit platform are at.
(2) My favourite apps are steem.cool, steemnow.com and steemworld. There's loads of them, just give a few a try out and see what you like. Of course you might want to get into the thriving discord servers as well, and find like minded people to talk to in real time.
(3) Everyones style is different. Some just post the odd picture, others (like me) are a bit more verbose. Some are short and snappy, others prosaic. I guess I'd encourage you to write the way you like to write, but preferably in easy to digest sentences. I think often 100 words can be as powerful as 1000 words. And if you can, think Videos where appropriate, as they tend to get a much better response. In terms of imagery, I think the more you can bring visuals to your posts the better they will be received, as long as it's not just imagery for the sake of it. Perhaps experiment with your own style.
(4) this is the wild west. You can giveaway what you like. If people want it, they will have it. Be aware that advertising is a bit frowned upon, but you can put a post up with maybe a bit of info (for example about toxic families) with a link to your website which allows the download. I would be open and transparent about it, and tell people when you are doing things for a commercial purpose. There are no moderators here telling you what you can and can't do, but the community will reward great content and punish spammy and/or crappy stuff.
You might want to think about what you are REALLY interested in, and go find some of those like minded people. A good place to start is the MinnowSupportProject, and some of the other really cool things that are happening in discord channels.
It can take time to make your name on Steemit. But do persevere with it, and you will quickly start to see things happening for you if you are regular and consistent with what you do.
For me, I'm part of the core #promo-steem team, and we are trying to raise the price of STEEM as well as adoption of the platform. What's happening as a result is incredible, and not something we imagined would happen so soon. This has given me incredible focus, and I encourage you to do the same.
I hope this has given you some insights. Good luck with your Steemit journey, and if you think you might be able to offer something to #promo-steem, we would love to hear from you!
WOW!! I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to put together such a helpful reply! I WAS uber-active on LinkedIn but it is now been taken over by the suits, and although I work with a lot of large companies on the fintech side - I do not want to be part of that world on a daily basis.
I left the corner office routine in 1990, and have never looked back. I love the potential that I see here to help others get out of that same rat race, and truly want to be actively involved here.
Thank you again - you set the bar for all of us!
Thought I would say hi, it’s nice to meet you.
Thank you - any feedback on my post?
Your post is fantastic, that’s why I said hi. If you keep doing post like this, you will go far here. I’m sure you have researched on what to do and what not to do so my best advice for you is to have fun with Steemit and enjoy it!
Thank you! I love to write, and and hopefully, my decades of running online businesses can be of help to others here.
😊welcome!follow me, good
Thank you - but would like your input instead of just a request to follow you!
Hi Melody,
I've also wondered about your question: what's the best way to present how-to infoformation that's helpful, but not intimidating or overwhelming?
With large subjects or things that take time to learn, I would want my reader to feel that they're learning (and accomplishing things) as they go along.
That's probably why I'd break the learning process into milestones. By "milestones," I mean meaningful points of achievement that the reader will arrive it.
For example, if I created a tutorial series on how to write a short story, milestones might be: identifying a theme, creating a title, creating an opening paragraph, etc.
In other words, the tutorial would be broken down into meaningful milestones. Hopefully, when the student achieves these learning milestones, they'll feel a sense of accomplishment and want to progress further.
That's how I'd do it. I would probably also add images or video.
As for how long a how-to or tutorial should be, there are many variables. One would be how much depth you want to cover. Some "tutorials," may not be step-by-step guides, but rather, resources with links to where one can go to find the actual steps.
That said, if I were going to write a step-by-step guide, I'd try to keep things bite-sized and try to use very accessible, conversational language.
Great ideas, and I think you are totally spot on with your milestone approach. I've seen some VERY long-format articles here, and they seem to be well received, but I personally find reading 'multi-page' posts online to difficult to follow sometimes. Too much for the format, I guess.
Thank you for your input!
You might want to approach your writing tutorials similar to the way @valorforfreedom did with his Steem School.
It's nice to see someone else asking the questions that I would have asked if I had thought of them. As someone who is just starting this journey, your post and everyone's answers have been extremely useful.
Love colouring books anytime you feel the urge to share. :)
Thank you! And the more I explore here, the more questions I seem to come up with ;-)
As to coloring books - that's a great idea - watch for my post (probably tomorrow) on coloring pages, I will post a few of my images along with a download link that you can print out to your heart's content!
Actually here's a quick sample....
and another....
Love them
In response to your how to contribute question, I would suggest maybe a post about common mistakes people make or best practices for an online business. I think that a lot of people may not even know what they need help with to succeed. I believe that much of the marketing portrays on-line business as easy and that you can just sit back and enjoy life as the money rolls in.
If you wrote about common mistakes or the best practices, you could get a feel for what it is your followers need. This could be done by ending each post with a statement about your willingness to answer questions and that you are open to writing about suggestions you receive.