A week or two ago I passed my 1 year mark here on the Steem blockchain, It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience thus far. Thanks for making it that way!
I bought Steem on a day trade whim only to have it go down from 1$ to 80 cents. Before I sold for a loss, I decided I would finally do my due diligence and research the coin. That is how I found my way to Steemit. Shortly after, I signed up for an account. Instead of selling my coins for a loss I moved them over here and powered them up. I have only powered up more since then.
My first couple months on Steemit were very slow going. I was lucky to make a few dollars a few times. I just kept posting and trying to make new friends here. One year later.. I can make 2$ or 10$ just for sharing my thoughts. Not very much I know, but in the worst post I have put up here I still made more than my best posts on any other social media website. Once people come here, they seem to forget that they never even made a penny from Facebook or Reddit. Coming here expecting to quit your job soon to become a full time Steemian is a mistake I have seen too many people make.
I have been here 1 year, I love blockchain technology and I am at least of almost average intelligence. Yet I am not a full time Steemian. Nor have I found a job in the crypto space which is my dream.. To be able to do something I enjoy for a living. Someday I still hope to find a place in this space for me to make a living. I don't expect it though. Who would want to hire someone that goes by Drpuffnstuff after all lol..
When I first came here the voting algorithm was different. There were bot armies of voters. because the more votes the better payout. After a couple months we had a hardfork and everything changed. The bot armies mostly disappeared. The voting bots, and the projects that pay for delegation showed up. Things have changed quite a bit. Once the next hardfork happens things will change again. Change is guaranteed here. Its just a matter of when, and if the changes are net positive or net negative.
SMT's were announced and I have had many internal struggles ever since. One one hand i feel like the launching of SMTs is like Facebook trying to take Googles job. I bought Steem and joined Steemit because it was a social media blockchain, it made sense. Now with SMT's launching it is no more the social media blockchain. It is a Decentralized application platform just like the other 50 blockchains that are doing the same thing. They went from having Library to compete with, to having Ethereum, EOS, Tron, NEO, Iota, and a plethora of others to compete with. I dont know that Facebook would have been so successful if they were trying to do what they have done, and what google does at the same time. I feel like this is why we have not seen HIVE or Communities show up. the social media aspect has been put on the back burner while they attempt to create a DAPP platform. Like Facebook canceling upgrading their site, because they are working on a search website to compete with google. What would the shareholders say if Facebook did that? As a shareholder of Steem I never had any say or any knowledge of the intent to become a DAPP platform. I would have been more hesitant about powering up. On the other hand, social media is just one market. So maybe SMT's are a good move in order to find other user/investor streams. I am just a firm believer in companies doing something really well, instead of doing everything mediocre. That is my worry about Steem. I feel like they should have focused on what people knew Steem as, the social media blockchain. I hope that I am wrong, and that they focused on the right thing.
Now I want to offer a few pieces of advice to people who are new to this platform. These are things that I learned at some point during my Steem adventure and I hope that they may help make using this platform and being rewarded easier.
Comments are the heart and soul of Steem, so comment often - When I leave a comment. I am introducing myself to the people who read it, I am acknowledging a post that someone else worked on. Often times I can make as much as I would from a long post such as this one, just by a simple comment. Also you shouldnt expect people to interact with you if you are not out interacting with people. the connections you make through comments are connections that will help you out later. Make some friends. Give Steem something it sorely lacks. Good comments.
Find a community - There are many small circles here in Steemit. Information war is a good tag to use if you are posting about news the mainstream media generally ignores. Steemsilvergold is a good tag if you want to talk about precious metals. Go to the discord, introduce yourself and hang out with the people you meet that you like there. Or do the same thing in Steemit chat. If you look back through my posts you will see the same people commenting in post after post. This is my community, these are my friends that i have met over my year here. If I had the choice to make 5$ and get 15 comments, or to make 15$ and get 5 comments.. I chose the comments. That is how much respect I have for the people I interact with here, and the people I will meet soon. It is only because of them that I still post.
Stay consistent - This is one part I have been failing at lately. Though when i first came to this platform I was making 2 or 3 posts a day. That output helped me a lot when I was first on this site. Post as much as you can, so long as the output doesn't cost post quality. Even better if you can find a few communities to interact with via posts every day. I have said many times lately that I hope to be posting more soon. I haven't though, I am going through a period of just feeling not interesting, or like my words aren't valuable enough to even post. This post is even a week behind. If i had kept posting as much as I did initially. Surely I would be doing much better here than I am currently. Haejin is one of the only one who makes 10 posts a day, sure they are TA and they suck.. however his consistency has garnered him many followers and whale upvotes. Even though TA sucks, he is probably the most successful Steem user so far. Shitty, but consistent.
Write about what interests you - Do not write about a topic just because it generally does well. Write about what interests you.. because if you are writing interested, your writing will probably be interesting, Where as if you post about something you don't care about, people probably will catch that and not care to read it.
This post is already much longer than I wanted it to be and there are things I surely forgot to cover. I kind of just started typing and lost control. These things happen.
Anyway, thanks to my nearly 3000 followers for allowing my posts onto your feed. Thank you to the people who have resteemed my posts, who have left good comments for me to think about, thank you to the Witnesses, to Dan Larimer for building this, and to Ned for moving it forward. Thank you to all my friends here, you know who you are. Thank you to the people running discord services, challenges, and contests. Thanks to the whole community. You are all appreciated!
Woot woot,
