Hello Steem World,
After I read a post in German by @jedigeiss and some discussions on steemit.chat or discord, I was thinking to start posting regularly(not weekly, maybe every 2 weeks) tips for minnows that have heard about Steemit and newly joined the platform. I promised a minnow that I write him tips after I told him I don't give upvotes on request.
I think the tips will be much more valuable in the end than some votes from my side.
So, here you are on Steemit, lost, seeing the trending tab with hundreds of dollars in potential rewards. I will put it shortly, ignore the trending tab, never watch it as a minnow. Most posts are over evaluated and are voted for curation rewards. Yes, you can make it also there, but it takes time and patience. Remember this, patience is a virtue which most of us don't have, but there is hope as it can be trained. I also had to learn it, as I'm not a very patient person and which likes to have results now. One of the Steemians I like in here, told me: babysteps win the race
Try to interact with others and write comments on the post you like, it does not matter if it is the post from a whale or not. If you look at it, all are minnows in the end with the potential to become a whale, the only difference that it is between becoming a whale and staying a minnow is the choice you make. If you start spamming with mindless comments you will definitely not become a whale and if you are unlucky you might receive some flags which diminish your reputation and your rewards.
Another really good tip is to post original content, don't copy pictures from the internet and tell us that this is yours. It is not a good idea, why? Mostly you will get flagged. People like to see original content as they want to build a relationship with you, your account and what you post. It needs the personal touch. Nobody cares about things copied from Wikipedia. You might share the WindowsXP image background, it has the same result.
You should post every time a picture and also write more than 200 words next to it. 200 words shall be the least decent amount of your posts if you are not using zappl or some challenge without words. Also, pay attention to the format of your posts, make them readable. It is very painful to read a post with a lot of grammar errors, without a structure and as a whole block. Might start using hackmd.io to prepare them and get a better feeling on the markdown code.
List of tips summarised:
- ignore the trending tab
- have patience
- interact
- comment, but don't spam
- post original content and try to make it entertaining or educative
- make it from your personal view
- pay attention to style, errors
- use the markdown code
I also started mentoring minnows on the private chat, at least with some guidance to get a grip on the platform. I have at the moment 3 accounts whom I'm directly helping due to the limited time. If one minnow will get it, I will be happy.
By the way, if I see a comment like: great post, good content, follow me for great... or some link to check on I will add you to this miracle site: https://steemcleaners.org/abuse-report/
Great post and highly valueable for me. Thanks Alex
Ich hoffe du warst jetzt ironisch unterwegs :)
:-D ja natürlich ! Ich hatte mal eine Zeit lang einige Komentare wie z.B. follow for follow! - War richtig nervig sag ich dir! Steemcleaner ist dafür eine gute Sache!
Thanks for the tips @alexvan! Our group is fairly new to the community and we're doing our best to maximize interaction with people of the same interest.
Do you hapen to know a community here in Steemit who is more into producing videos geared towards entertainment?
Reading the whole post and then saying thank you for this wonderful post is a way to go.
I have started to write on a daily for a week now, I will start to the integrate rest of the tips too.
Who knows, in the future I might become a whale and upvote your post. JK.
Patience at @cptn.naresh.
This is so revealing. I'm glad I read it through. Patience is really an important virtue.
I've learnt now to ignore the trending tab and that will I do.
All I even do there is look for worthy accounts to follow anyway.
Thanks for the heads up
Good advice. Resteemed :-)
Four months ago I discover steemit.com and become little redfish, a little fish that keep on swimming upstream. Yes its hard to go up where the whales is. There's a lot of distruction and new knowledge too.
Since you're a user with so much steem and a great reputation on this site, I really appreciate you taking the time to give us minnows some tips. I think one of the most important things is actually putting thought into your comments. The "follow me please" comments are just ridiculous. People just need to make an effort to talk about the content there!
exactly, I agree with you @alexvan, I see daily the cheap and fast comments from beginners just to get a upvote.... that is not the goal. I like your idea.
Thanks for the insightful tips for minnows like me, actually i have just wrote a post about the agony of being a minnow on steemit. The whole point is to bring value, patience and persistence.
In my last post , it was all about thanking somebody who did for me exactly what you are attempting here. 99.9 percent are not professional bloggers. Anybody can learn. I hope people take heed.
Thanks for the post. One of the more helpful ones I have come across for getting started. It is not necessarily intuitive.
And as an unusual side note, my 2 sons are named Alex and Van.
Following
@ohicklin
Hi, I am new here, I wrote 2 articles already and spent a lot of time on them, it was fun to write them and I would love for people to discover them and interact with me, but I don't get how is that suppose to happen? I feel no one sees them, how do you get started, I feel I'm doing something wrong. Any advise?
Hi @alanwurman,
let's put it this way, you need hundreds of articles and comments to get noticed. But don't be discouraged and just keep on trying. I see you are a composer for film music. There are some tags for different challenges regarding music. Participate in thoose. The music community is huge here on steemit.
Thanks sooooo much I really appreciate these words it got me I was guilty of spamming. With this I think I can stop and focus more on hearted comments. Thanks once again
I would come up with some ideas:
I think you'll do a post by adding new things.
Thanks for helping us! useful advice! thx @alexvan! cheers
I guess a whole interactive tutorial would be amazing, if one hasn't already been created.
I am still relatively new here and keenly aware that comparison is futile.
Each of us is on our own unique journey and some of us are the Hares whilst others are the Tortoise.
Both creatures are beautiful.
As is the community spirit to be found here on Steemit.
Thank-you for the tips.
I wish you joy and success for 2018 and beyond.
xox
I wish you the same! Of course everybody is different and that is the beauty.
This are general tips to have a decent start on steemit.
It is ironic that after saying that you would send the rubbish comments to steemcleaners, many user have done some of this "upvote me please" and "nice post" comments, I belive that it is because they have not read the post.. really promoting good quality content and good quality minnows is a must to Steemit to rise to the moon. Lots of spammers come to Steemit every day and steemcleaners are doing a hard work, we should flag all this kind of spam, in post or comments to help them..
Yes, the first comment landed there and it is ironic. Sending one to steemcleaner a day helps the platform to be clean. I do take the time to explain them that this is wrong, but sometimes I loose patience.
please enlighten me on the use of markdown codes
You are doing it already ;)
If you write in italic you are using it
oh...lol thanks
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitguide/markdown-and-html-code-guide-for-beginners-that-includes-5-useful-tips-to-edit-posts-and-comments-using-the-raw-editor
And I was just gonna search for this after reading people's comments. Handy that, thank you, for this link and the whole post too. So far I am loving it, accept the Bernie haejin battle. Trying not to pick sides so I don't get flagged by them, if I mute them, do they still see me?
I would say this is one great idea you have there, keep going it will help us alot of people. Im new here joined like two weeks ago. I just thought of making a blog of our longdistance relationship with my significant other. Thanks for the tips.
Do it, it will help you and also your significant other. it will show commitment from you side and also will renew your relationship strength.
Indeed will do because it is something that I enjoy doing. I see that this community likes to read this kind of thing and it makes me happy to see that they enjoy it. Thank you for the support.
Goodluck to you and a greeting fromus both
Great idea and support for new user :)
Can you Upvote my last post please, i need some support thank you so much :)
This is a very good post
Thank's for sharing @alexvan .
Thanks a lot. I found this really helpful.
lol you are good to writing! thanks for your advice!
These are some good tips Alex I just started on steemit today and I hope to be as successful on the platform as you are. Also is it possible for me to get personal assistance in your private chat as well?
Thank you for this essential guidance.
Some excellent advice here, I'm going to go and look for the next articles in the series, straight away, to read.