I was no stranger to Steem when I made my Introductory Post. My account was 2 years old, but I had never posted or even commented. I knew enough about Steem to know how important the #introduceyourself post is. But even though I had read up on how to make a good intro post, I still got tons of things wrong.

     There are several Steemians who have helped me along the way and encouraged me to keep going. I made it far beyond a minnow, and I'm still swimming. I hope to keep producing more and better original content, and I am enjoying manual curation under #newsteem. I think this new HF21 is bringing a lot of positive changes for newbies like myself.

     The list of people to thank that helped me reach minnow status is too long to share with you. I hope with this post just to share some details of my journey to +500SP, and a little bit about the communities and people I have met along the way. This information may be of use to any newbies, and also might be an interesting read for more experienced Steemians, at least in regards to how the minnow journey is made under HF21. Something that surprised me is that sometimes an upvote from an individual user can be more powerful than being curated by an entire upvote trail.

     I recently onboarded my first Steemian, Hive account@chrisinphuket, a good friend and blogger I've been begging for months to join Steemit. Also, thanks to Hive account@azircon for delegating me 500SP just as I reached minnow status. This came as a very welcome surprise, and apparently just because he likes what I'm doing on Steemit and wants to support me. 🙏🙏🙏

     One of my first comments with some solid advice, and a community I am still with, came from Hive account@ecotrain by way of Hive account@artemislives. This community uses the tag #ecotrain, and is overseen by both Hive account@eco-alex and Hive account@artemislives. EcoTrain supports eco building, sustainability, and people who make the world a better place. They are a friendly bunch with members from all around the world.

     Hive account@c-squared's goal is to help good authors get seen, and therefore curated by other curation groups as well. Then the admins here go through all posts brought in by the community and try to pick 10 “daily picks” that are featured in the daily featured post on the Hive account@c-cubed blog. Hive account@c-squared is overseen by Hive account@justineh, Hive account@carlgnash, Hive account@markangeltrueman and Hive account@randomwanderings.

     Hive account@joshman was another user that commented on my #introduceyourself post. Not only did this Steemian give some much-needed wisdom, he also delegated 50SP to help get me started. He has helped me with the Steem learning curve, and helped me to understand a lot of the terminology. Hive account@joshman is still my go-to Steemian when I have any questions/concerns.

     Hive account@ocd is a curation guild for undervalued, quality posts by newcomers. It is overseen by Hive account@acidyo & Hive account@anomadsoul. This curation community has upvoted and rewarded my content from the shadows since my very first post. It is a quite modest team, and I only became aware of they have been rewarding my content recently. Hive account@ocd looks for quality original content posting with the tag #oc.

     Hive account@canadian-coconut is a Steemian which discovered me from my #introduceyourself post. She has been silently rewarding my content from the shadows, much like Hive account@ocd. I only recently became aware of all the help she has given me, and I am super grateful for the boost. Hive account@canadian-coconut is the co-founder of Hive account@familyprotection.

     I added my #introduceyourself post to Hive account@steemitworldmap, which allows you to share your travel stories with other travelers all over the globe! Just visit SteemitWorldMap.com to generate a code that you can include in the body of Steemit post, giving your posts a geotag. Hive account@steemitworldmap is overseen by Hive account@livinguktaiwan.

     I knew about the #travelfeed tag before ever writing my first post, so it's one of the first communities I discovered on Steem. However, I didn't know about Travelfeed.io, a global community of independent travelers, where it’s easy to meet new people and find information, and you can even post from here via a user-friendly editor. This community is overseen by Hive account@jpphotography & Hive account@for91days.

     steemitboard.com is the place where you can view your achievements on the Steem blockchain. This is how I found out I was a minnow, thanks to Hive account@steemitboard. This project is overseen by veteran Steemian Hive account@arcange.

     Hive account@crowdmind gave me a curation visit on my second post. Crowdmind is a Steemit community project dedicated to finding, supporting and rewarding initiatives that harness the key of four primary crowdsourcing categories: crowd wisdom, crowd creation, crowd voting, and crowdfunding. I still don't know much about this community, and I wasn't quite sure if my post was related to crowdsourcing in any way at all, but regardless wanted to share what little I know.

     Hive account@helpie gave me a curation visit on my second post. Their mission statement is simple - "Providing help where we can." Use the tag #helpiecake to help this manual curation team find your work.

     Hive account@innerblocks paid me a curation visit midway through my journey. I looked into this community and found an encouraging group of friendly Steemians. This community is overseen by the lovely couple Hive account@freedompoint & Hive account@freedomtowrite. There is also a frontend at theinnerblocks.com. Hive account@innerblocks is about quality self reliant content measured by personal experience. Use the #innerblocks to help this community discover your posts.

     Hive account@vegansofsteemit is a community the Steemian Hive account@plantstoplanks introduced me to. The name is pretty self-explanatory. Hive account@vegansofsteemit has some fun contests, and is a great place to post recipes and all other things vegan related. This project is overseen by the Steemian Hive account@evecab.

     I discovered Hive account@qurator by way of their Tasty Tuesday Competition, for which my Kofta-Inspired Ultimate Veggie Burger took 2nd place. Qurator is a curation service that helps users who pour their blood, sweat and tears into content creation to get noticed and rewarded for their efforts. You can use the #qurator tag to help them find your content. Hive account@qurator is overseen by Hive account@scrooger.

     Hive account@curie is a meritocratic, voluntary organization which supports the development and growth of new and existing authors on the Steem blockchain. They are focused on helping new authors and undervalued posts get more exposure. My early posts were boosted by Curie until I discovered by many other curators and communities.

     Hive account@curangel is a curation service searching Steem for original content and rewarding curators and delegators while benefitting the whole Steem community, created by the long term witness Hive account@pharesim. Curangel discovered me, and for that I am grateful.

     Hive account@creativecoin accepts all creative content. You'll find many of my posts here. There is curation, a frontend at creativecoin.xyz, a token and much more. Post from their frontend or use the #creativecoin tag to enter your post into this community and generate CCC tokens. CreativeCoin is overseen by Hive account@swelker101 and Hive account@isaria.

     Hive account@steemterminal is the project of Hive account@thekittygirl, Hive account@brittandjosie andHive account@xcountytravelers. The sole purpose is to help new Steemians with the learning curve. Check them out on Discord. This recommendation came by way of Hive account@oheyo, and I am glad I discovered this community.

     Home of the Hive account@minnowsupport project, "Peace, Abundance and Liberty" is the motto here. PALnet.io is frontend from which you can post to the Steem blockchain, or alternatively you can add the #palnet tag to your posts to claim PALcoin and make your content visibile within this community.

     Hive account@photostreem was a community I discovered by way of a happy accident. I was simply using the #photography tag in my posts, and I was curated by this team. photostreem.com is frontend you can post from, and this community also has their own token, the PHOTO, which you can acquire via the #photography tag.

      I was picked up by Hive account@tenkminnows thanks to a recommendation from Hive account@joshman. They've rewarded my content and helped me climb to 500SP.

     This one of the newest communities I have discovered, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is a niche community, so not every post is gonna fit in here, but do check them out. Hive account@naturalmedicine has a frontend at naturalmedicine.io, the LOTUS token, received by way of the #naturalmedicine tag. This project is the work of Hive account@riverflows.

     Hive account@reggaesteem is another newly discovered community I wish I had found earlier. Perhaps the friendliest community on Steem, reggaesteem.io is frontend for posting about all things Reggae, Jamaican, Caribbean and Rasta-related. The #jahm tag will make your posts visible within this community, and also generate JAHM tokens. I am working to cultivate the #ital tag within this community. This project is the work of Hive account@dmilliz, Hive account@donald.porter and Hive account@miyard.

     I read several posts concerning how to best make use of one's #introduceyourself post. I got a lot of things right, like the photo with my Hive account@username and the Steem logo. As much as I got right, I had no knowledge of markdown or understanding of the tagging system, and thought I could include them in the body of the post. I also added a bunch of tags at the end of the post, which I now know are useless, and I have since deleted them in an effort to clean up that hot mess.

     This intro post also received visits from reputable Steemians Hive account@novacadian, Hive account@skramatters, Hive account@tryskele, Hive account@chekohler, Hive account@aleister, Hive account@robertandrew as well as Hive account@brittandjosie who helps with Hive account@heyhaveyamet welcoming new users to Steemit, Several users could see, depsite my mistakes, that I was trying to bring quality posts to Steemit, and rewarded me quite handsomely. It was very encouraging.

     I was very much encouraged by my #introduceyourself post, so I spent a lot of time preparing a really good quality second post. The payout was tiny compared to my intro post, and it was bit disheartening. I now know the #introduceyourself is heavily watched, and this is quite normal.

     After the discouraging payout of "The Great Ecuador Exodus Pt. 1," I thought maybe I had done something wrong, and thought it wise to post a bit of a call for help. I wondered if my tags were wrong or worse yet, perhaps my content was no good. Luckily I got some encouragement and wisdom to continue my Steem journey.

     With renewed vigor, I dropped "The Great Ecuador Exodus Pt. 2." I was no by means posting with confidence yet, but felt this was a learning curve I could conquer, and I began experimenting with the smallest amounts of markdown and formatting. I was little more pleased with the payout on this one. This post won Hive account@invisusmundi's Travel Writing Contest No. 1.

     With maybe too much confidence, I decided to dabble in D.Tube. At the time I was learning how to use Shotcut, so thought I might as well release the video I had been working with. I tried to make a custom thumbnail, but didn't know the proper dimensions at the time, so it was cropped, and the lesson was learned.

     I decided I was brave enough to turn what I hoped would be a strictly travel blog into a hot mess and/or life blog. I felt the need to try and post something just from the heart, without worrying about what audience I would target. I still didn't know an optimal image size for Steemit yet, but I was getting somewhat confident with my markdown skills.

     I wanted to see if there could be any real-life connections I shared with any other Steemians. I didn't know if the post would be well received, but I ended up learning that Hive account@skramatters and I have some mutual friends by way of a conversation about Dave Thomas, Wendy's and some potentially stolen Greek square-burger technology.

     I have had this conversation abroad so many times, and received a lot defensive feedback from westerners living abroad. I decided Steem might be the right place for this dialogue, and I got some interesting feedback from you Steemians.

     I made this post for the #fruitsandveggiesmonday contest, thanks to Hive account@vegansofsteemit, Hive account@lenasveganliving and Hive account@plantstoplanks. I think this was the first post I created specifically for a contest entry. I still hadn't mastered or figured out the optimal thumbnail size is 800x480 and how to set one on Steempeak, but I won!! It also won 4th place on Hive account@invisusmundi's Travel Writing Contest No. 2.

     I submitted this post to Hive account@invisusmundi's Travel Writing Contest No.3, and it was the first post where I noticed my markdown and formatting skills had dramatically improved. Also, I learned the perfect thumbnail size (800x480), and with this knowledge I made my first click-bait thumbnail.

     This post has been submitted to Hive account@invisusmundi's Travel Writing Contest No.4, still awaiting results. I wish I had found the ReggaeSteem.io community before I released this post, as it was perfect for their platform. This post remains one of my most successful, and I'm quite proud of it. I was a little surprised to see I only got 50% of the rewards on this one.