In an effort to give encouragement to some of the smaller accounts, I thought I would put together some keys to success on Steem that I find helpful.
Of course, success is a relative term. If one is on here simply looking to have some fun while making some connections, then great; much of this might not apply. However, if one is looking to gain some Steem Power to take advantage of the tremendous upside many of us feel exists with not only STEEM, but all of crypto, then this is for you.
Be Dedicated To Steem
This is crucial. We have a lot of people who sign up and leave. This is common across social media and the internet in general.
Nevertheless, if one is going to enjoy the massive benefits, commitment is required. This involves the time to learn about the platform and all that it entails. Steem is different than what most of us ever encountered so there is a major learning curve. Dedicate yourself to it.
Take The Long Term View
I have the picture of Vision 2025 at the end of each post. I do that as a reminder that we need to focus long term. It is easy to concentrate on the ups and downs that take place on here. This is new technology. There are going to be obstacles.
Also, Steem is designed as a compounding machine. Everything one does builds upon what went before. As one gets more followers, the number of upvotes will increase. This most likely will lead to larger payouts making one's own account worth more. This translates into a more valuable upvote which further rewards one's followers.
Consistent Action
This is not a place where you can post one day, take a week or two off, and then return. Well, one can do that but it will not be very successful. Success requires activity on a consistent basis. Personally, I post an article twice a day. For others, they prefer once daily. Whatever is decided, do it consistently.
Consistent action ties into long-term thinking. Accounts grow over time. I have yet to interact with someone who was consistently active and did not see their account growing. Month after month, there is always more SP than at the beginning of the month.
Use The Applications
Steem is one of the leading blockchains for applications. This is being verified by it's ranking on the DApp sites that post that sort of thing. Not everyone is a writer or a blogger. Steem now has an assortment of applications that can appeal to a large cross section of people.
A few of the applications also have a decent amount of SP delegated to them. They support users of their applications with upvotes. If you account is small, this is a great way to have it grow. Use 
Also, an interface like Busy.org rewards posters with an upvote on some of their posts. This is a viable alternative to the Steemit application.
Buy Some STEEM
For those in a financial position, now is a great time to take advantage of the drop in cryptocurrency pricing. There are some who believe that buying Steem is not part of the system. I completely disagree. There is a large section of the White Paper dedicated to the importance of people who do this.
Having Steem Power increases one's standing on the blockchain. The system does not separate how the SP was acquired when looking at Voting Power. This is a way to move up the rankings in an instant.
Even if one is not able to buy a lot of STEEM, I found that when one puts some money in, no matter how little, the mindset changes. We instantly have an "ownership" mentality and a vested interest. There is a psychological difference in how one looks at an account. For example, one will view 50 SP differently if it was bought as opposed to earned. The former makes it much harder to walk away from.
Be Patient
This leads to optimism and overcomes negativity.
We are in a very immature industry. The technology is still being developed and real world uses just starting to show up. Few people in the world are involved in the entire sector at all. As humans, we tend to want everything now, which is not going to happen.
Accounts tend not to grow overnight (unless STEEM is purchased). One does not arrive on Steem and instantly get rewarded with hundreds of SP for a post. It could happen but it is rare. Since this is a system that compounds, time is an important factor. Do not look at things over the course of a few weeks, but in terms of years.
Do Not Buy Into The Negativity
This is crucial.
Yes, there are problems on the Steem blockchain. There are challenges and situations that need to be worked through. That cannot be denied. However, to post each day about how horrible and unfair things are does not but show how little one truly has to offer. It is also one of the dumbest things one can do.
Think about it. Why would you be holding STEEM and want it to go up in price, then turn around and post, in an immutable blockchain, how this sucks and is doomed to fail? Do you think that is going to get some big player to dump $100K on STEEM?
In my time on this blockchain, I saw people complain about many things. The reality is most of what they were whining about is no longer a problem. The situations were resolved. Certainly, there are still some hanging out there which require attention. As I said, Steem is not perfect. There are a lot of really smart people on this blockchain who are committed to making this place a success. They are the ones I trust over the naysayers.
Temper Expectations
This is another one that is vital.
Steem is 2.5 years old. Many of the applications are around less than a year. This is far from a polished product.
I see many talking about how DTube is not up to the standards of YouTube. Well, no kidding. DTube is less than two years old. YouTube was also founded by a company who had billions of dollars. In spite of that, the YouTube of today was not like that at two years.
Decentralization is not technologically up to par with the centralized systems at this moment. That is the price one pays for being an early adopter.
Steemit Is Not Steem
Too many, to our detriment, use the term "Steemit" when they mean Steem. Steemit is a private company that develops the blockchain. It also has an interface that people can use to post on the blockchain.
Steemit is NOT the blockchain. Nor is it the only interface. Steem is much bigger than Steemit and will carry on no matter what Steemit does. All of the applications on here (except for Steemit.com) are not tied to Steemit in any way. They are projects done by individual people or teams.
Saying Steemit is Steem is like saying Facebook is the Internet.
Have Fun
This is social media. There are a lot of great people on here. Interact, joke around, and enjoy yourself. There is enough misery in the world, we do not need to add to it. The mainstream media does a great job of pointing all that out.
There are just a few pointers that I hope will help people to enjoy more success on Steem.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and resteem.
