News, Rants and Thoughts on Steemit!
First
I normally announce the winner in the morning, but I am told that we will be able to draw a name tonight. Seventeen hours from now a lucky winner will be voting with my Power (ower ower er er er )
I was 10% short and I like to give 100% (voting power)
As I write this, my staff is feverishly working qualify those who entered between Sunday and now. Sixty four Steemians are being checked to see if they meet the SP and Voting Power requirements for #takemyvotes number-5 (by "staff" I mean my teenage child who likes to earn extra Steem).
There are 38 who have between 50-20,000 SP, with over 80% voting power at this time.
The names are going into the hat...
The winner is...
Please accept the prize by way of comment or email. (htooms@protonmail.com)
if you are not available tomorrow afternoon for 10-12 hours (starting 17 hours from this post), please decline so we can choose another
I will post under "I'm not going to upvote you ๐ Do it yourself!" when the winner is finalized. That post also opens the way for new entries (via the comments of that upcoming blog).
Second 
I am a day behind because my voting power was not back up to 100% in time
But be prepared to be voted on tomorrow !
Sunday's winner
Last Sunday, spent more than six hours choosing his votes very carefully.
He even ran a contest that I was happy to sponsor. Look for his "thankyousteemit" post that I resteemed in my blog roll. Here is an email I got from him when all was said and done!
Muchas gracias por la experiencia amigo. De verdad me gustรณ mucho y he ganado unos cuantos seguidores.
Buena iniciativa.
Un saludo y espero poder contar con usted en algรบn momento para algรบn proyecto
Translated: Thanks for that experience friend. I really liked it a lot and I have gained a lot of new followers (28 actually). A really good initiative.
I wish you well and hope I can count on you again for another project.

These were some of the winners and this photo kind of tells what they were asked to do to win.
A good time was had by all.
Third 
Getting noticed on Steemit is the key to success here. I got noticed really fast and grew to over 300 followers in just two weeks, heading for 900 in three months.
This was mostly due to my outgoing way of presenting things. Call me a loud mouth!
Some was due to how much I invested in a very short time, though that was not the reason for my investment.
Some of the better ways to get noticed 
There are several ways to get noticed.
- Vote reciprocation
- Genuine comments - socialite(ness)
- Pre-voting
- Twitter, Minds, Gab, facetube and youbook
- Invest
Spamming
Did you know that you can see who is voting on you, right-click each name, and open them in a new tab - Then see if their blog posts are as worthy as yours is and vote them back!?! This is really important to do during the first 30 minutes after you post.
most income is gained during the first hour 
Comments are good if they are relative. Did you actually read their post? Say something genuine. Mostly, have fun and get to know people and they will support your blog.
After reciprocating - or better - during the same first 30 minutes, it's a great idea to hit the "new" link and pull up the latest posts. Voting on someone during the first minute or two since they posted is not the way to earn curation rewards. You get nearly nothing from it even if the post that you upvoted on goes to $1,000
What you do get is their attention. It they are watching the list as people vote on their post, they will see you appear first. I call this pre-voting. You are voting for them in hopes they they will vote on you. This is something that can be done for hours after your post, not just the first 30 minutes. But, you tend to run your voting power down if you are too loose with it.
Share your own posts on Twitter and said social media in order to bring people in to Steemit. Share other peoples' things that you like, and I am sure you will find that people will do the same for you.
Finally. Invest in some SP (Steem Power) so that all of the above has more impact! People tend to notice you more if you are wearing nice shoes. They always look at the shoes. (satirical: meaning they always click the wallet to see who they are dealing with)
Thanks for taking time to read and resteem! ๐
Twitter: @at_htooms
Long time ๐ turned ๐ to have a voice.
๐ You're invited to steemspeak ๐