Why Complain About Whales? - Catch Them Instead!

SteemIt is a new ecosystem and we're all still finding our way through it. Any new experiment is bound to have failures, successes, hecklers, supporters, and above all complaints that the system isn't what was expected. Like any experiment, I propose we learn from our failures, celebrate our successes, ignore our hecklers, thank our supporters, and attempt to resolve complaints by looking below the surface and figure out what's really going on.

—❦—

How to Catch a Whale

Novelty is adulated on SteemIt. If you are reposting content from elsewhere on the Web, it's my opinion you ought to be adding value to the original poster's content. Hive account@quantumanomaly has shared that sentiment in a few episodes of Steemit Talk Podcast. If you simply want to share content that you believe stands on its own merits, then select Decline Payout.

^{Hardly a common interest betwixt us.}

Aside from ensuring novelty in your articles, you can take several steps to help ensure your posts get seen. Different people are interested in different topics. Whales are no different. Have a look at the topics on which Hive account@smooth votes. For example, with tags like art, photography, story, food, and steem-meme this whale isn't in my target demographic. This doesn't mean that I'm going to change my content to try creep onto his radar. Doing so wouldn't be true to myself; it wouldn't be authentic. Unlike much of the world, authenticity is another key to success on SteemIt.

Instead, having this information means that I should look to a different whale. After all, I already have in mind what kinds of people are in my demographic. Most of them will be minnows. But for more minnows to see my content and to feel more rewarded for my work, I'll look for a whale that is interested in what I'm already interested in. In this way you can establish a kind of silent patronage with a whale. This also doesn't mean I will eschew whales who are outside of my demographic. Never burn bridges. I specifically use Hive account@smooth as an example because even though he's outside of my target demographic, he has still upvoted some of my posts.

^{Find people who care about what you care about.}

On the other hand, have a look at Hive account@dantheman's most voted tags. Some of these, like philosophy, economics, steemit, and steempotential are things I am interested in. I have yet to write any articles on philosophy, but several have been brewing. Knowing there is a whale out there that is also interested in this topic makes it more likely that I will write about this interest sooner. This doesn't mean I am kowtowing to the whales. As a curious human being I have many topics in which I'm interested. This technique simply helps me better plan which topics to write about next.

Good posting isn't just about topic, though. It's also about time of day. I'm not into fishing myself, but I heartell you catch more in the early morning than you do in the afternoon. So, once you've found 3 or 4 whales that have common interests with you, look at when they comment and upvote.

^{Post before they usually vote, not after. All times UTC.}
@dantheman upvote graph by day

^{As with all social media sites, certain days of the week see more activity than others.}

As you can see, the time of day this very article is being posted is pretty good. This makes sense as evening is just setting in here in the States. If I wanted to maximize the potential for reaching Hive account@dantheman specifically with this post, I'd be posting on a Sunday. There are, however, other factors at play. For example, my previous post got some decent attention, so I want to ride that wave as best I can.

As I said above, we are all experimenting in the sandbox of this new paradigm. So, let's experiment constructively! Let's build each other up, so we all succeed via the blockchain!!

One final note I feel is regrettably necessary to make:

DO NOT DM PEOPLE, WHALES OR OTHERWISE, FOR VOTES!

It's awkward, it's rude, and a flood of them is a pain in the neck. Have you ever just stopped using an email address because you have so much SPAM? Well, consider that the next time you are thinking of messaging someone. Certainly DM legit questions, especially when people advertise how they can be contacted. But, whatever you do, do please do not drive people from the SteemIt by contributing to the filling of their inboxes. This is covered as part of

Hive account@thecryptofiend's wonderful unofficial Complete Steemit Etiquette Guide.

Thanks go out to the SteemIt Talk Podcast for alerting me to the presence of CatchAWhale.com via SteemTools.com.

Edit: It's not always easy to post at the day or time we most desire to. This is why I agree with Hive account@sykochica we need a Hootsuite for SteemIt. I'm looking at you Hive account@faddat 😜

All proper respect goes out to Hive account@blueorgy for creating Catch a Whale.

^{Attribution:

Balaenoptera musculus:
Source: NOAA Photo Library
Licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic
Color retouched by me, Rubellite Fae.
All other images clipped by me, Rubellite Fae, from machine generated images at CatchAWhale.com}