On the 07th of January 2018 at 10:55:33 this incredible journey started

That is what steemd.com says - to be honest, I do not even know which time zone they use :)
This was only 4 days after STEEM hit it's all-time high of USD 8.19.

_Source

Did I join because of the all-time high?

No - I had no idea what STEEM or steemit was all about.
I liked the idea to get rewarded for posting content. That's cool I thought.
But what should I do? What are these steemians waiting for?

My very first post actually was a dtube-post

If you like to laugh take a look: Impossible to get the ball - not for Marley
Including my self-vote, there were four votes coming in - and I kept waiting for the money coming in :)
I would like to thank @smarthamster72 for his 1% vote. @danny-1k84 and @zaisal gave 100% !!!

Why was my first post a dtube-post?

Well, that's because I found STEEM/steemit via @sempervideo.
I'm following @sempervideo for years already on youtube and when he posted this video about dtube at a time when there were major changes on youtube I was fascinated.
This youtube video was how I found dtube and later that day steemit.

Waiting for the votes

After uploading more videos and some nice photos of @dog-marley I was waiting for the votes.
Hey, photos of pets always work - people like that!
Of course, nothing happened.
I had no followers and the posts disappeared between many others.

How to say "Hey people, I'm here!!!"?

After some more investigation, I learned that I should introduce myself to the community. Pretty obvious but I had no idea how things work here on steemit at that point.
I thought: "I already made some posts that simply disappeared between all the other posts on steemit. The same would happen with my introduction, wouldn't it?"

After 22 posts I wrote a post that was more a cry for help

I wrote Wondering about Introduceyourself ... where I summed up all my thoughts and doubts about what I could bring to the platform. This was two days after @psionic-tremors also joined steemit and we discussed this hot topic #introduceyourself.
This "cry for help post" was recognized by two fellow steemians who invited me to their radio show on @msp-waves.
These fellow steemians were @globocop and @disarrangedjane.

Hey, I just arrived some days ago on steemit, wrote this post, and they invite me to their radio show?!?
I was struggling - what should I do? They are having a professional radio show with steemians being on the platform for a long time and invite me a total newbie?
What could I add to a radio show like this?!?

After a short discussion with @psionic-tremors it was clear: this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!
She gave me the equipment to have my 10 year old laptop ready for the show.
The show started a on Saturday 01:30 AM CET and after hard working week and I was waiting for it to start at this old laptop hours before.

Well, if you ever get invited don't be as nervous as I was. These people just want to help you to get recognized.
15 minutes of fame ... and these 15 minutes are really helpful!

Looking back at this time I'm pretty sure if my post was not found by the right people from @msp-waves who were then and still are supporting newcomers I had left steemit quickly again.
A coincident? I'm not sure.

Only two days later I had my first successful post on steemit.

With the help of these fellow steemians from @msp-waves, I received a kick-start. They are the reason why I'm still here.
What an amazing community - yesterday on Jane's Chaos Show was my first post with a for me serious payout.
The following posts showed me what the community liked and what not. I had posts with no votes and others with really nice votes.
I was in the state of learning what is appreciated and what is not.

I believe in STEEM

Call me crazy but I believe in STEEM, steemit and a lot of other Dapps. That's also the reason why I created an account for our lovely @dog-marley on 22.05.2018.
When you start on this platform you are facing some challenges. You start with a debt which you have to earn before you start your own earnings.
Especially after HF20 it's hard to build up a serious account. Normally you would start to comment on posts but your RC mana will drop soon.
When I started my journey on steemit I did not have that problem. I had enough bandwidth to comment on posts I liked which helped me to gain followers.
But still, I wanted to get rid of the debt asap. I chose the easy way: buy STEEM.
I bought STEEM for $4.50 but also for $0.22 (and some values between these two).
229 posts and 1539 comments: that is 4.4 posts and 29.6 comments a week.
614 followers of which a lot are gone/inactive already again or bots. This is something I have to work on this year: more active followers.

Do I regret anything?

No, not at all.
This is an incredible platform with incredible people around. We have writers, poets, musicians, crypto-maniacs, etc., etc.
So many interesting people - so much to learn.

I did not mention everybody in this post who's supporting me because I know for sure I would forget someone!

Exceptions: the persons who where there from the very beginning

• the voters of my first post
• @globocop, @disarrangedjane and @msp-waves because they gave me this kick-start
• @psionic-tremors and @dog-marley because they are family

I want to mention some Dapps most of you might know already but perhaps not all

@esteemapp: an app you can install on your device (even PC) which makes posting a lot easier. They will take a percentage of your income but you also got the chance to receive votes that will cover the cost easily!
@steem-ua: delegate 25 SP for one vote a week, 50 SP for two votes a week, 100 SP for 4 votes a week, 250 SP for an everyday vote, or even more to support this great project.
@steem-bounty: set a bounty on your post. You are in control who will receive a part of your bounty by voting on the comments you receive.

There are many, many more!!!
Check e.g. https://www.stateofthedapps.com/rankings/platform/steem for more available Dapps.

There were and are so many people supporting me here and I want to say:

THANK YOU ALL!!!

HAVE A GREAT 2019!!!

STEEM ON!!!

If you love dogs you might want to take a look at @dog-marley's stories.

If you love music you might want to take a look at @psionic-tremors' blog.

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