Steemians friends and fans, greetings. We are here again and I do welcome you wholeheartedly. What's up with the just past weekend? Hope it was fun-filled for us all. Welcome. Before I go into the business of the day, I want to quickly say something...
For the past few weeks, I have been revealing many approaches we can adopt to succeed here... And at the end of each episode, people usually beseech my privacy to ask for links to most of my posts on different topics bothering on success in Steemit. So I think it would be better to categorize these lessons by assigning them different numbers for easy access. Hence, what we have today has been labeled Lesson 1.
Having said that; today...we will be looking at one of the most effective tools for succeeding on steemit, which is your "Following list", and how we could use it to our advantage. By definition, "Following list" is a tab where the names of the people you follow are recorded so that you can access them and edit accordingly whenever you have to. The works of this people will be displayed in your feeds and be visible to you whenever they update their blogs. This is why you must be careful on who you follow...
There are a lot of reasons to follow people. Maybe someone is a new steemian but highly active on your blog, that may be good enough reason to follow the person. Another reasons people follow people maybe because they introduced them to the community and feels obligated to follow them; others include friendship, organizational ties, marriage, etcx. Again, there are many Steemians, mainly among new members, who discriminately follow people because they are yet to grasp what "following" tab really mean.
Whoever you choose to follow, have it in mind that whatever that person does on his page, you will be seeing them on your feeds.
Maximizing your "Following" list
Consider working with the following points in order to maximize your following list:
Be choosy on who makes your list
You need to be extremely selective on who makes your list in order to gauge what appears on your feeds. Any author, no matter his SP, who doesn't engage people by replying to (or upvoting) comments should not make your list. Likewise anyone who is not active in the community but only writes and dumps links in post promotion channels for God's-know-who to curate and comment on. Also included in this are authors that resteem substandard posts, unless such posts are #introduceyourself posts.
Between your list and postpromotion channels
A lot of folks don't know how useful their following lists could be to their success. They pay no attention to it, but would rather go to various postpromotion rooms at their convenience to pick posts and curate randomly. Unless you are already popular and successful, you can never succeed engaging in this type of untargetted approach. Because when you do this, the people you curate and comment on their works today may not be the same you would choose tomorrow. And the result is; everyday you are new to different people. And so establishing a connection becomes impossible.
Pay more attention to your list than postpromotion channels. I am not advising total disregard of post promotion channels; no. Because curators still make use of them to select good posts. And so when your post isn't there, you risk missing out completely. Simple strategy to adopt is... Before you drop a link on a specific post promotion room, first look around and pick works of serious authors you know; comment and curate, and possibly follow them so that their works would begin to appear on your feeds. And then drop your link.
Unlike post promotion rooms, unless it is a resteemed post, don't skip any post you see in your feeds because it must have been coming from someone you followed, especially when you are still new. Work with your following List as closely as possible and consistently too. To be consistent with your list, you must review your feeds every 4 hours in order for posts not to be buried and missed.
Consistency wins the race
If you hope to improve your earnings here and attain a level of popularity, then you must be consistent with your list. I had said this before; without being consistent with people you choose to work with, even if you spend 2 years on Steemit, they would never know you. And hence would most likely not return your visits. You have to be consistent to register your name in their conscience. And the best way to do this is commenting objectively on their posts repeatedly, and not by sending them direct messages.
When you work with your list consistently, a significant number of those in your list would follow you back and in time you would begin to enjoy their patronage.... Be consistent! Thank you
Follow 
, the Steemit's Witness Voting Advocate & Host, Show Us Your Witnesses Weekly Contest. Follow 
, An International Support Scheme For New And Struggling Steemians
, the Steemit's Witness Voting Advocate & Host, Show Us Your Witnesses Weekly Contest. Follow , An International Support Scheme For New And Struggling Steemians**Join us on Telegram through the below link:
Don't Exit Without Voting For Witnesses!
No Witnesses = No Steem Blockchain; If You Truly Love Here, Vote For Witnesses NOW!
Click This Link To Vote Now
Witnesses are equivalent to life and blood of steem blockchain. Without them, the blockchain will seize to function and we will all be stranded here. Click here to read more on why it is important to vote for witnesses