Reflections on the benefits of upvoting the comments section of my blog...
Introduction
Hello dear followers of my blog.
I've been doing some thinking about all the benefits of upvoting the comments section of my posts and the more I think about it, the more excited I am about what seems to me the best way to operate my own blog.
Today I will upvote at 50% of my voting power any comment that can add another legitimate benefit of upvoting the comment section of my blog
Here are some of the direct benefits I found...
Benefit #1: Incentivize Participation and Views
Writing a thoughtful comment before the last hardfork wasn't rewarding monetarily. When one had the choice to write their own blog and get upvotes versus writing comments, most people would have chosen the former...
But since then last hardfork, the tide has changed.
If I was a new user today...
If I had to restart from zero today, the first thing I would do would be to follow people who upvote generously their comment section and then truly engage with them. By doing so, I would gain respect and reputation from whales as well as make more money than trying to compete in the new/hot section of steemit.
Overtime, I would gain followers and enough SteemPower to upvote my own blogpost enough to make it to the hot section.
What's in it for me?
The benefit for me to be upvoting the comment section is that it incentivize participation. I make sure to reward well the comments that are engaging. Today, a few comments made over $10 on my previous article. By doing that, I'm creating a loyal following of people who read my article enough to write a thoughtful comment about it. Which segway into the next part.
Benefit #2: SEO
All of those comments are creating additional content on my articles which in turn will help me rank for certain keywords if I try to rank. As I mentioned in my SEO series, Steemit is a juggernaut when it comes to SEO. If I wanted to do affiliate marketing, it would be the first place I would think of to rank articles.
With all the comment, it easily add another 1000 words to the article that I do not even have to write myself. That's pretty cool.
Benefit #3: Secure higher payout down the road
This one is not guaranteed but it make sense hypothetically . Everytime I upvote a comment, I am making that author more powerful on the platform. Since I write at least 5 times a week. A good commenter could potentially make $30 a week commenting on my blog alone. Few months down the road, that person upvote would have went from $0.01 to $0.25. Multiply that by 100 people and that's an extra $25 of payout on every single post I make. (That is if they upvote the article they comment on)
Benefit #4: Higher engagement is a good motivator
To be honest, I put almost all of my payout in SP for a long time now. I already have a job and I really like what I do. I rarely take money out so at this point, the money is not the number one motivator of my participation on steemit.
I am here mostly because it's fun and because I get to interact with cool people on my blog.
I like all of your comments and I am going to do my best to engage much more in the comment section of my blog.
Conclusion
Today I will upvote at 50% of my voting power any comment that can add another legitimate benefit of upvoting the comment section of my blog.
Steem on!
Hello @cryptoctopus! I am actually one of those who have received some great comments upvotes from you these last 2 days totalling about $13, which is nearly 10 times more than when I make a post where i spend hours in putting it up!
I'll break down my answer in 2, one talking abt your benefits and the 2nd part for the benefits of the people commenting.
YOU
I've just checked on http://steemit.deadfollowers.info/ that you actually have 4223 followers with 1365 dead ones, which finally brings you to 2858 true followers.
It's still a big amount of followers, but when I see the upvotes on your post, it's usually around 200-275 per post, around 10% of your true followers.
On the comment side you have around 25-80 per post.
So with the system of upvoting valuable comments, you'll surely start having some real true followers who are sincerely following you and always looking forward to your post.
It is better to have 10 real followers than 1000 who only follow you just for the sake of follow!
And with these real followers, maybe you'll discover some very interesting ones which you will like to follow too
Comment writers
Not everyone can make a good content post, this is the truth, but many of these people do have some great passion and your posts maybe of great interest for them. So instead of writting a post which will bring near to zero rewards, it is just great that they drop a valuable comment here and get some nice upvotes from you.
Secondly it would be great that users from third world countries also come here and earn some votes from you, that single vote can actually make a whole family live.
So in a big picture, Sharing is Caring and I think this is what Steemit is all about!
Thank you and sorry for this long reply!
@progressivechef
Always there with a meaningful and thoughtful comment. Your point about having more true followers is right on. Even if I have over a 1000 real followers, I only get around 150 views per article.
In fact, many can only dream, at least like you get around 150 views
Thanks so much for appreciating my comments and point of view @cryptoctopus. I have actually changed my way of steeming these days, like i am only engaging with people who comments on my post and those who reply the comments that i make on posts that inspire me.
I just don't want to have a huge amount of followers who are never there appreciating my post!
Wish you a great productive day ahead all away from Mauritius!
@progressivechef
That is the biggest lesson I've learned over the years. An engaged base is way more valuable to everyone than just pure numbers. I can't tell you how many conferences I've been to related to YouTube talking about sheer numbers and we're finally starting to see marketers realize the value of smaller engaged audiences. Of course so have all the big producers, which is why Disney and so many other traditional media sources are getting in the game. I can't wait to see how these concepts play out in steem.
Great comment @progressivechef I enjoyed reading it.
I feel like when I first started that was my goal too , because when Dan created this platform , he wanted to spread philosophy and peace among one another . Ever since my first day two and half months ago, my motto was "comment comment comment" that way I made great friends that have helped me to work harder and not give up on my dreams . Upvoting gives you a way to show people that you value what they have to say , and that you like their concept , this gets them to come back and share more of their opinions with you without being judged .
I've been on steemit for two weeks and I only put comments on the blogs that are giving valueable information. You are my favorite of all, whether you upvoted my comment or not. It seems like every blog you make, is adding some value on me and other people. I really like your blogs. I really do. I'm not commenting just to got an upvote from you, I'm just commenting to tell you that I hope you'll never get tired of posting valuable stuffs. Thank you again and have a good day. 😊
Thank you, you are right. You win a 50% vote on that one.
It's an honor !! Thank you :)
I have been here for a month now. I felt very lost for at least a couple of weeks. Its my first ever try with cryptocurrency or blogging. I never even had twitter or instagram accounts and my facebook account is populated by family members that I am running away from so I never use it.
It is hard at first to be able to focus on quality contents because of the many posts/sec added from all around the world. I tried visiting my followers (few everyday) but then I would get lost or don't remember who I visited and who I didn't. But lately I made my goal to check the new, trending, hot and promoted tags and go read random posts, then comment if I find something to say.
This is how I stumbled upon this post and I am happy to hear that the strategy I started using is actually the correct way of steeming.
Thanks again @cryptoctopus and thanks @journeyoflife. I hope to learn more of your amazing experiences :)
Voice your opinion ! Don't voice in hot or trending , go to new . It's where it all starts
Ahh. Thanks a lot for the advice :D
For upvoting only the meaningful comments on your post you are separating your true followers from the ones who spam. And commenting on someone else's post is good because you can interact with people, share opinion, and bring value to the Steemit network. Another great thing for me when I comment on some post is the fact that I can practice my English skills in a friendly environment with people from all around the globe
Decrease impact, and likely hood, of spam/bot voting. Because spam and bots generally target original posts, the curation pool on thoughtful comments are pretty free from them.
Also:
Growing new users. New users have a super hard time growing SP/reputation/etc. But, if they're making solid thought out comments and they get rewarded for them they grow faster. The faster they can grow (provided they're genuinely contributing) the better it is for the community at large.
Good one. I started flagging comments that are made my people who make comments that make absolutely no sense, that are duplicate or spammy. You'll get my upvote! (after the 30min period)
Problem with flagging is that most users who do that stuff are already pretty much rock bottom... And it still costs you VP.
@cryptoctopus part of your comment here doesn't make sense: "I started flagging comments that are made my people who make comments that make absolutely no sense". This sentence was copied from your reply. Can you find where you don't make sense?
Just wanted to show you that I am reading every word you are writing. I am loving this :D
first language is french. Sometimes, I jumble words ;-P
:D
Thanks for the vote btw. Got distracted putting the kids to bed, lol.
Actively looking for posts that engage and reward their readers is exactly what I have been doing these last couple of days. I got kind of sick trying to compete with my articles and barely seeing any views. Now I noticed the true power of communicating and actually doing the reading myself! In these few days I probably made more money than I would have made in a few weeks of posting on my own blog. Getting new followers seems to go a lot faster as well! Besides, I love building these connections with people that have same mindsets as me! :D
Great comment, I upvoted and it looks like my vote is worth three cents. I have only been here for 3 weeks. Posted a number of articles which I also shared on my social media platforms. Steemit is certainly interesting but I am still trying to wrap my head around it, and understand how it works.
I think what's gained me over 10k followers just on Facebook is my level of interaction with people on my posts. In addition to having very informative posts and articles as an independent journalist, I also interact with as many people as possible. Of course, there is no payout for this but it has built me a very loyal following, who eagerly read and share the content I put out.
People know that I am very busy and they greatly value when I take time out of my day to like, comment, and interact. I am trying to figure out how that works here as well. I think you pretty much summed it up in your comment. Thank you again! @droucil
I've added you to my votes. Please write more often, I like your articles.
Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate your encouragement. I will be adding more articles here. I have written over 70 articles just this year lol. Keep up the great work as well!
Oh, you probably meant the original comment lol sorry if I misunderstood. I do have a question though, any idea what difference it makes if you choose the default 50/50 versus the Powerup 100% when you make a post? @cryptoctopus or @droucil
I am still fairly new here myself (circa. 2 months now) but all I did, and I think most people do when first coming in contact with Steemit, is to create ones own content. It did help me a lot personally, but currently it is overflowing with creators. Some people also see this as something like facebook where u post short messages multiple times a day. I can't say there is anything wrong with this, but it does make it even harder to find actual valueable posts. So the best way I see to actually get urself some more notice benefiting both u and the Steemit platform, is to engage others. And it seems u have a lot more experience than me when it is coming to social media interaction. I never liked facebook, twitter and those alike, this thing is actually still very new for me.
That makes sense, I generally write long in depth articles with pictures, videos and a ton of hyperlinks on my site but I think a shorter version would work better here. That's what I have been doing with my posts here. I am just happy that the feedback here hasn't been anything like on Reddit. Which I only used briefly after noticing that people were sharing my articles on there. The thing I disliked the most about that experience is that people flat out hated what I had to say because it goes against what they thought was true, but so far my experience here has been really positive. So I am hoping things continue in that path. Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it :-)
Upvoting comments is like making money back on your post and investment via curation rewards. Wait 30 minutes before upvoting ;)
You are right, I often forget to wait 30 min before upvoting the comment section. You win a 50% vote since you are right, the curation reward is a big benefit of upvoting my own comment section. I will upvote it in 27 min ;-P
Thank you sir. It needs patience to wait and come back after 30 minues.
Hmmm... Why wait 30min before upvoting? and what is curation? what does it do? and how we can use it? I read about it in FAQ but never understood what it meant (small brain :P)
I am learning so much here.
Thanks a lot :)
When a post pays out, 50% of that post goes to the voters (split up). BUT there is a "reverse auction" for the first 30 minutes that pays a percent BACK to the author as well.
There are more variables that determine your "cut" of curation rewards also, like place in line, how many voted after you, your steem power, etc. It's very complicated.
Hmmm. Thanks for answering though. It really helps :)
actually I believe its now a 75% to author and 25% to curators. But other than that you've got it. Curation is a game that can only be played profitably by people with more SP...not minnows.
Weird, the ui still says 50/50
or you can split after 15 minutes :)
looks like he decided to split. :P
But what about the downside?
I do see the benefits, you and a lot of comments made that pretty clear! But there are always two sides of the same coin. :-)
I'm not sure to understand #1. Can you clarify?
For #2, dictators use force and coercion...I don't. I use incentives, just like steemit does.
Good legitimate opposing comment will get my upvote since they are sometimes more valuable but I see what you mean.
On #1. Comments are sorted by default as “trending”, i.e. users will see the comments first that are upvoted by you (as you have a lot of voting power compared to an average user). Anything you miss out will be “lost” in the bulk of comments. But overall you probably bring more order into the chaos.
On #2, fair enough!
Oh I get it :-)
Thank you for posting @cryptoctopus.
After reading your post.....there is nothing bleujay can think of adding.....it is the way of it.....and really the best part of being at Steemit....conversing with fellow Cyber Steemians.
Compose, curate and comment....the three C's of engagement and experience at Steemit.
All the best to you and yours. Cheers.
when i knew about this platform i had no idea what this is and i once left it as it was of no use as it looks to me but again tried to give it a try and someone said to start from the bottom by engaging in conversation with people whom work you like or in the interested topics you like this will help you and the community to grow and i guess that one line did work for me i made some very cool friends here and they also enjoyed my post's and i too its like a daily dose of happiness to me :) keep steeming on
@crypoctopus This is good advice... thank you. My husband ( @beardo ) and I are both new to Steemit and we are looking for ways to improve the stay here. We were invited to Steemit by @dwells and @essentialoilmom and sometimes co-host The Steem-Pocalypse Show with the two of them. It's a lot of fun... just some friends talking about @Popa-Pepper 's game. That's the extent we have of knowledge of Steemit. So I really like content that teaches me more. Thanks Again!
This is awesome advice!