If You Want Steemit To Provide An Income, Approach It Like A Business
It's hard to watch sometimes, the people that come here thinking they're going to be rich in a month (OK it IS funny sometimes too).
Champagne flowing like a river to the beautiful people on their Mega-Yachts while their butler polishes up the Bugatti.
And all they have to do is puke all over their keyboards and hit POST.
Oh yeah, this shit is gonna be EASY!
You see them in the chat rooms, talking about "I'm gonna do this..." all the while not actually doing anything but hanging out in the chat rooms.
Actually what's hard to watch, a lot of the time, is the endless parade of drivel that comes through the "NEW" feed.
If you want this to work for you, approach it as though your votes and the time you're investing in it is your FUCKING BLOOD.
You can't slice open an artery and bleed very long before you go into shock, lose consciousness and die.
Your time and your votes are your Capital treat it like the precious commodity that it is.
In all my life, I have never seen a business like Steemit, and it CAN be a business, that has instructions all over the place.
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone's instructions, just like these, that tell you how other people have done it.
Study them and then find your niche here.
Don't waste your time chasing the "popular kids".
Image Source
You know, the ones who's selfie posts shoot up to $100 in the first 4 minutes.
It's not that they don't like you, they just don't care about you. They've already heard how cool and beautiful and how smart they are from thousands of people who got here before you. Your congratulations mean less than nothing to them because they've already got hundreds of people who are saying that about every post they make. They might occasionally respond and say, "Thanks" but they don't care about your 0.001 vote and they're not going to share any of their money with you.
Don't believe me, it's the blockchain, go through the comments and see how many people the poster has upvoted.
Then check their other posts and see if it's the same people who's comments get upvoted time after time after time.
Get over it.
Don't bother following them or their circle of friends who all upvote each other and don't waste your time or your votes on them.
If you're not an expert in some topic, find a topic that interests you and study it.
Sometimes you can get a hefty reward just for asking an intelligent question!
Sorry, Cryptocurrency is already being covered ad nauseam and unless you have some kind of super-extra-smokin-hot body, skip the bikini yoga posts too.
I would suggest, like so many successful people here have already suggested, that you start out simply commenting on posts.
Build relationships with people and gather some followers ORGANICALLY.
No, "I'll follow you & you follow me back".
Just having a lot of followers does not get you anything, your group of 100 engaged and interactive followers is far more valuable than 1000 people who have all agreed to do a follow4follow.
I can pretty much guarantee that you will be really, really disappointed when that first post you write (that is so incredibly fucking awesome because I spent like 6 hours on it) makes $4.62.
You're going to be really disappointed when you look down through the comments and see where someone made more money with one comment than you did for writing the entire post.
And you're going to ask WTF????
The F is engaged followers and you have to earn them.
My point in this post is that being successful here means applying the same discipline you would if you were opening up a FroYo Shop or launching a company that builds invisible flying cars.
Do your homework and approach it like a professional, the easy money was made last year, we've missed it.
If you just want to have fun, jump in and start posting.
If you want to build a long lasting cadre of friends who actually care about each other, like a community, you have to give something of yourself.
It doesn't have to be money; like I said your time, your votes, and your commitment to Steemit will be the investment that pays you the dividends.
I'm not showing this to brag, but this is my accomplishment after about a month here (I bought about $120 worth of SP a few weeks ago):
If you enjoyed this post, upvote, comment, resteem and follow @theblindsquirl then go on over and Tell Me What You Think of This Post
I agree whole heartedly. Good solid investment in other people will pay off in the long run. It's just like any business in that sense. I have a hard time staying consistent on here, but I can tell that daily quality effort makes a huge difference. There is little doubt in my mind that a professional attitude can be self sustaining on here.
That "professional attitude" is what most people are lacking these days.
I think it can be nurtured though.
I was raised amongst a bunch of boys, I'm the only girl. The best advice they ever gave me was quit whining and do it.
It works to this day haha
Couldn't agree more. Comments have been my highest ROI since joining. Since I've been in crypto since 2013, I think my perspective can be valuable but like you said, there is so much cryoto talk it's going to be hard to stand out. Daily reports about Steemit seem to work. I'm exploring a few ideas.
It's sad because a lot of the crypto-talk out there is drivel as well.
Everyone seems to think that whales are the Bill Gates of Steemit (and I don't think Gates is the World's Smartest Man either). A lot of them cashed in on being early adopters and some have just brought cash, bought a shitload of SP and are milking it.
Post your stuff anyway.
Very well said. I've been here a few months but I've done well only because of interaction. I did an insane amount of commenting my first days trying to find kindred spirits who were fun to interact with. Taking time to focus on building relationships is the key to success. Each person's profile is definitely like a business. Making good quality posts and responding to comments will help you in the long term.
Oh, there goes my Voting Power again. ;-)
I couldn't figure out how to work in the analogy of doing good quality SEO compared to the people who kept scrambling around to find new ways to game the search engines. That may be the topic for another post.
Thanks for being a part of my (and letting me be a part of your) community.
Squirrel, this is an awesome post. I think I like it as much as the one of you doing the happy dance in your shorts.
No, seriously-- this is excellent. I hope it gets a lot of resteems and a lot of reads.
Thank you.
Let's agree not to talk about that other post, it was done in a moment of weakness. ;-)
LOLOL! But because of a post neither one of us can remember, I will never, ever forget YOU. That's a good thing, right? :-)
I don't think you'll ever be able to "un-remember" it, let's just not speak of it. ;-)
LOLOLOLOL! You are awesome. :-)
"You see them in the chat rooms, talking about "I'm gonna do this..." all the while not actually doing anything but hanging out in the chat rooms." This!
Ever since I decided to take my writing seriously a few years ago and go professional so as to pay my bills with it, I have found SO MANY people who just talk and talk and talk about all the great and wonderous things they are going to do...
How are they even paying their bills?? lol
You must do Obiwan.
Just write.
If you write it, they will come.
Enough with the film references? Get the picture?!
I do get it, you do pretty good with words.
I've seen a lot, I dug pretty deeply into SEO and marketing. There are a lot of people who just keep buying info product after info product, never really doing anything with it. I read once where someone said you can sell 10,000 copies of a course that tells you how to do something, 1,00 people will actually try doing something with it and maybe 10 will work at it to be successful.
For them, the candy is the "next" thing.
The movie references were actually aimed at those "talkers" who I was referring to, the ones who read every how to and talk and read some more, but then just sit there and complain why they haven't made it big yet..
Hint: It's cuz you haven't even written a word yet, silly! lol
I for one HAVE to work. There is no not. I have several very large mouths to feed (Single Mom to three teen boys with NO child support- What's YOUR superpower, lol) and if I slack for even half a day there is trouble and a financial avalanche. Sometimes I wonder how all these single moms I see can go to the nail salon every week and purchase those Coach bags and take extended lunches and "another martini please". It boggles my mind! I have to conjure money, every moment of every day!
Ok, rant over!
Feel free to rant, after 17 years of marriage I have finally been schooled that sometimes, people don't need me to fix something, they just need to be able to let it out.
Not enough can be said about genuine interactions. I met you my first day here in the PALnet chat and I've been following you since. Genuine connections is what it's going to take for any of us to become whales, and those of us who are just here for the money wont last.
Great post!
Thanks, I'm following you too. It's the real secret sauce here, I haven't figured out why there are actually so many real connections here as opposed to the Facebook type.
I think that fact that those if us who stick around past the first week (once the get rich quick guys have left) are here to help to platform grow. We believe in it, and therefore care about the relationships we make here. Its rather incredible!
@theblindsquirl this was well put together and simple for users like myself that are new to steemit. Thanks for this. upvoted and resteemed :)
I'm nothing if not "simple". ;-)
I've heard it time and time again in the writing world that 1,000 genuine fans is all you need to make a living. Go after those 1,000 REAL fans. It will pay off for you much more than followers who don't care about what you write. And, maybe one day, you'll be one of the "popular kids" here, too.
Oh, I don't know that I necessarily want to be one of the "popular" kids here. I'll be more than happy having good friends and associates here.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by BlindSquirl from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.