Let me start with the phrase "Life is not fair".
Welcome to steemit all newbies, i am barely 2 months old on the steemit blockchain and i am still trying to break even here on steemit.
Before joining steemit, I heard all the good things steemit had to offer "blogging and getting paid". It all seemed unconditional "remember going to heaven itself has series of conditions".
As time went on i started feeling frustrated (i was blogging everyday - mostly short post, without depth), i wanted to get paid fast.
i learnt as time went on and through my own personal experiences, i would give you some good advice that will ensure you a smooth steemit journey.
A) You have to blog quality content. Quality contents doesn't always get an upvote but increases your chances of getting one, at least 15% of the time and also depends on how far your post gets. see below for discord links that will help
Let the truth be told, you can research for 3 days and write a post 5000 words and get $0.005 and someone else will take a photograph of the food he or she ate with less than 50 words and have around $600.... This is due to the fact that the person has a strong voting power or have a team of people with strong voting power that upvotes their post
B) Engage with reputable steemians by commenting on their post. You do not have to rush, take your time, read in the comment. You do not have to rush, take your time, read and give a satisfactory reply in the comment.
comments like "wow" "nice post" "follow back" "upvote back" could get you flagged
C) Look out for contest and challenge. A whole lot of steemians give out SBD and STEEM every week through contest.
Begging for upvotes and follow is frowned upon. Interact with like minded steemians through comments & you are sure to get followers and future upvotes
D) Furthermore, you can interact with big steemians through discord channels. This people have set out to support minnows to make steemit enjoyable.
Join the following discord servers for support
@PAL - https://discord.gg/nBx7SXu
E) Finally, it is pertinent for us newbies to understand that steemit rewards uses with STEEM and SBD which is a crytocurrency like bitcoin and etherum. To be big on steemit quickly, you need to invest in STEEM like people who invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.
Most of the big steemians (whales), are people who have invested their money into the steemit blockchain waiting for the value to rise for them to cash in on it
From the last point of, note that whales do not owe anybody an upvotes neither are they under any obligation to give anyone an upvote. Although most of them find time to reward other newbies, some simply upvote themselves ten times a day (i wouldn't want to mention names to avoid being flagged) reaping a huge chunk of the reward pool.
THE FIVE POINTS ABOVE IS SURE TO GUIDE YOU AS YOU JOURNEY NEWLY INTO STEEMIT. AS YOU GROW OLDER, YOU WILL ALSO LEARN OTHER SALIENT RULES AND TECHNIQUES TO SUCCEED ON THE STEEM BLOCKCHAIN.
Am still learning.
Thank you.