3 Minnows That Rocked Steemit From Scratch & Making the Pareto Distribution Work For You
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Introduction
There are some people that may feel like steemit is unfair and that it is impossible for a new user to make a decent amount of money participating on the blockchain.
I don't blame them, at the end of the day, it's much easier to blame the system than to question our actions or simply persevere...and the reality is that it is unfair...but that shouldn't stop you from succeeding.
Understanding Normal Distribution VS Pareto Distribution
After watching this video, you should have a better understanding of that graph...
Beware of People Who Promise to Make the System "Fairer"
There are well-meaning people who think that we can flatten out that curve to make the system "fairer". We should pursue that as much as that can be pursued without destroying the platform BUT believing that we can make a system that doesn't create a pareto distribution is foolishness. Blame it on God if you want but we will never be able to get rid of that natural phenomena.
What You Should Do...
What you should do is to embrace reality and do what those who are climbing on that distribution does. No need to reinvent the wheel, be activists or lobbying for a different system. Basically, don't do what most people do and do what the few successful minnow did.
Examples
There are hundreds of people who joined last June 2016 and succeeding at making a decent income from Steemit. Here are some examples:
@progressivechef - Joined June 2017 - Account value $20,713.79 US
ProgressiveChef use to comment a lot on my blog, enough for me to keep tabs on him and see what he is up to. This guy has some has one thing going for him: perseverance. The guy was relentless at participating on the platform. He could have quit many times but he kept networking. Now he does the STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 which is quite popular and cool.
@dontstopmenow - Joined June 2017 - Account value $25,425.08 US
I noticed @dontstopmenow a while back when, even with his minnow account had the highest % of return on curation. This guy has been all in from the beginning and now he's making a living with steem and trying to help the people of Venezuela through Steemit.com
@malicered - Joined June 2017 - Account value $1,940 + ~around $20,000 US that he is trading
MaliceRed is a really cool dude and he is also a serious hustler. Not only is he an amazing graphic designer but he is involved in @privex, offering server for witness as well as pioneering the STEEM MARINES project which aim at advertising STEEM within the Warhammer 40k community.
Conclusion
Most of those people didn't see results for a few months after joining the platform. They got to know people, found ways to add value and persevered all the way until they've achieved a relatively comfortable level of success.
Looking forward to your comments...
Nothing is a bigger turnoff than when people I'm surrounded by complain that everything is unfair. They blame all of their problems in life on their family, the government, whoever. I remove those people from my life immediately. There's a serious lack of personal responsibility for ones actions that I'm seeing nowadays and it really bothers me at my core.
I just joined Steem this month.. well, actually this week. So I'm very late to this game compared to you and those you listed above. I still see a ton of value and room for growth in this platform - hell, Steemit only has about 50-55k daily active users, in terms of social media that's nothing and would be considered a failure compared to other platforms.
I see an undervalued asset in Steem (yes, even at $5-6) so I'm going to keep investing trading profits. I see opportunities to earn Steem and grow my presence on the platform, so I'm going to dedicate the time to creating content and building relationships.
I appreciate the post because where others may see your list and immediately jump to "well, they got lucky because ..." creating a million reasons why they can't replicate the success - I (and hopefully many others) see the list and think "damn those are good returns for 6-7 months on Steem, will be back in the fall for my shoutout post @cryptoctopus" ;)
Also, Jordan Peterson vid = instant upvote.
Thank you for introducing me to So You're Saying (I guess I've been under a rock the last week) and making my night. Jordan B. Peterson strikes again! :D
And I agree with your points. As someone who joined just over a week ago, I've been inspired by the successes I've seen on this network - they demonstrate two key things: that work is required, and that work is rewarded. At the end of the day all a reasonable person can ask is to be rewarded for effort. The people I see who are really putting in their time on Steemit are reaping the benefits, and to me that's as fair as it gets.
Excuse me fellow minnow, I'm stealing that meme. I actually cracked out loud in here.
That said, I was actually wondering about that very same thing. Am I too late for the party? Are all kegs empty already?
I like to think that Steemit has just stopped breastfeeding and still has a wild journey ahead.
In many ways, the wealth distribution curve on Steemit reminds me of the discussions that the first Internet bloggers had -- 20% of the bloggers were getting 80% of the page views (the classic Pareto distribution that you mention), and the very biggest A-list bloggers were getting a very disproportionate share of the audience. The bigger you were, the easier it was to get bigger. And the converse is true as well.
These so-called "power laws" are, indeed, a phenomena in nature as much as on the Internet or blockchain... In fact, the first post I ever wrote on Steemit mentioned the Pareto distribution and wealth in a blockchain world. Haha - that post made $0.01. But I'm inspired by the examples of Steemit users that you cited who persevered, hung in there, and started to reap the rewards. Onward and upward!
Interesting, interesting.
What you are talking about is a pure reality. I watched the Video
And understood the chart.
Well when I am allowed to make a comparison from the profession I am in: professional Soccer I see the same. And as the man in the video sad it's an econmic law. There are people who lose, and people who win.
For example, only one team can win the Champion League, only one team can win the world cup but many are fighting for it.
In some of my posts, I am mostly writing about empowerment and psychological stuff I am always telling people to use the resources they have and try to make the best of it instead of complaining that the system is wrong and unfair.
Of course, some people had an advantage. But constantly crying and complaining will not make the state better.
Let's try to give our best with that what we have.
This is my opinion :)
That indeed is very encouraging!! Hearty congratulations to all these people for all the hard work and effort they put in!!
Yes well said @cryptoctopus, thank you for that encouragement, outside making extra cash on steemit, the community is a social media like you said where we ve got to relate with other steemians all over the world, it is hard for people to respond to chats simply because they think you want them to upvote you which is wrong and that isn't fair. I use my blog for music cover, i m not doing badly but i still need the help of others to get things right, but everybody is mute.
That's awesome. I've joined Steemit around the same time and I'm around $10,000 between the money I have on the platform and what I'm trading. I think I'm just now hitting my stride. I'm not a great writer or don't have anything I've been specializing in, but I think i've found my community and am hoping to catch and pass these individuals in the next 6 months.
I joined back in June 2017 in the hopes to change my life up, it was a bate getting to where I am today but my hard work is sleepless starting to pay off . As of today my account balance holds at 27K and of course I took 3-4 K out when my son was born . Every time I want to give up, I remind myself that I am doing this for him.
Even though I never get 100$ on a post , I hope I do one day
@cryptoctopus
One can't achieve everything in a day, so we have to be patient and kept on working sincerely. It's really encouraging and congratulations to these Steemians. I think steemit is not unfair. I think we all have posted a lot of good content on Facebook, we haven't earned that much that we have earned on steemit. So keep calm and work hard.
1st time ever i heard about pareto distribution & jordan peterson well described it, then i understood how these people made that success. it's an impressive success. most of us blame to the steemit platform & reward system. but these people changed that history & provided a nice lesson. a well motivational article & valuable topic to discuss. you are a very helpful whale. otherwise no one will share the secret behind those success stories. @cryptoctopus
@resteemia
@cryptoctopus - Sir after watching the video I understood what's the relation between Pareto distribution & Steemit success stories... Creativity, Presentation ability, Knowledge & Innovation, Sir I think those are the success factors of you mentioned peoples' stories... Inspirational video & article Sir... Learn a lesson... Thank you Sir...
Congratulations for the people who made a success story with this wonderful blockchain Sir...
+W+
To be honest, I do feel that Steem is pretty fair. Sure, a lot of articles probably took a lot of time to write and they might be very well written and still not get a lot of attention, even after having spent some time on the platform. Still, I am a firm believer that if one does simply engage in discussions and show appreciation for other good posts, then someone will check out your blog, and when they do, some of them will upvote your good posts and some of them will follow you. Sure, their votes might not be worth much, but as your account grows, so will theirs and so will their voting power. In the end, I think the solution is to just keep producing quality content and accept that success doesn't always come over the night.