When I first joined Steemit, I was amazed at the number of articles that were produced per day. Almost everyone had something to say. That everyone has something to say, however, doesn’t mean everyone deserves to be listened to.
My concern is for those minnows/planktons who put in quality time and effort into producing good content. They slave away merging creativity and hard-work, with a focus on creating something that gives value. It could be a story, poem, article, video or sound. What matters is that these individuals have invested so much effort. They say a man reaps what he sows. If that’s true, these individuals should at least receive a commensurate value for their effort. We all know that isn't true for Steemit content creators.
[Image Source: Wikipedia Commons.]
Everywhere you go, I bet there is one minnow/plankton who is discouraged already. She looks at the meagre cents on her posts while other basked in the torrential pouring of ‘whalish’ upvotes. I know that whales and dolphins have the right to distribute their upvotes as they see fit. I am only angry with the lie we tell ourselves.
The Lie We Tell Ourselves
We keep on repeating the mantra of ‘keeping posting good content, someday, you will make it.’ This creates a false hope. Let’s face it, those who have made it mostly do so because they have a personal connection with someone who knows someone or are a member of a community. Quality content doesn't matter on Steemit. ‘Quality’ relationships do. This relationship is a one of give and take (upvote me and I upvote you) and slavish cult following (you have so much to give so I live to please you)
The entire Steemit structure is centred around the upvote reward system. The power of your upvote determines how many followers you have, how many mentions you receive and how much people are willing to upvote your work, regardless of its value. Where does this leave the minnow who joined with only the delegated steempower in wallet? In the darkness, silently bidding her time to die from neglect and obscurity.
The Downfall Of All Geniuses Is Their Demand For Attention
Lets face it, the more creative a person is, the more attention she needs to keep going. It is the reason why the greatest masterminds, good or evil, are always known. The great writer needs a wider audience with each astonishing piece. The great opera singer needs an audience to be lost in her rendition. The evil genius needs people to wonder how she was able to pull off incredible feats. Starve a creator of an audience and you gradually eat away at her sense of importance and self worth. And that is what we are gradually doing to content creators on Steemit.
Of course some content creators never experience this. Through some stroke of luck, their posts get noticed by a whale/dolphin who then often visit theor blog with upvotes. But have you thought about the ratio of whales/dolphins to minnows. Last month alone, more than 200,000 new accounts were created on Steemit. Just how many do you think have more than 20 steempower at the time of this piece. My guess? Less than 10%.
What We Are Doing About This
On my part, I ran #thegraycontest for four weeks before I ran out of steam. Every week, I gave away 3 SBD to quality content creators who produced pieces centred around a theme chosen for each week. #thegraycontest is on a break and will coming back soon.
Right now, in collaboration with 
I also recently convinced 
My Other Plans
I plan to run a curation trail very soon. I’ve been reading all bout leasing steempower so I can give value to those who invest time and energy. However, I don’t have the funds to pay for the kind of steempower I desire so I might have to ask those who are interested to a subscription fee. If things began to brighten up on blog, I won’t ask for any fee
What You Can Do
First, build your credibility. I learned this the hard way. People only follow success. I’m sure that if I’m the one running the free resteem service with my rep score of 49 and over 300 followers, I’ll be taken seriously. Find something doing. Build yourself, be a creator of value.
Collaborate. So I ran the #thegraycontest for four weeks but I wasn’t the only one involved. I had 
Do it for the love. It is easy to plan to score some gain for oneself as she tries to help the minnow/plankton community. I honestly have no problem with it; although I like to keep it clear to myself when I am trying to help out. For instance, the prizes for my contests are fixed regardless of if I get a single upvote or not. My primary gain is putting a smile on someone’s face. The financial gain is jut by the side.
Together, we can all achieve more. That happens when we support ourselves. I am not talking about blindly upvoting everything that comes your way. I won’t do that. I am talking about supporting those who are making significant progress and really need an helping hand. Those who sweat and toil and deserve a refreshing cup of water or upvote or SBD.
If you have any ideas that can help the minnow community, kindly let me know. I am opened to ideas. Like I tell people, everything we have is just a gift. We brought nothing into this world and we certainly aren't taking anything out. We are simply stewards.
Thanks for reading
Blessings.