I have been deeply looking into the Steemit platform for quite a while, and because of this thought I would share some tips that I have found so far while using this platform, in hopes to help get you the most value from your posts and overall Steemit experience.
If you have any other Steemit success tips please share them in the commends below as they would be much appreciated!
1. Find Your Purpose On Steemit
There are 2 ways to go about this. The first option is to go for a broad approach to your content and aim for more of a mass appeal, which can work well but risks being lost in the crowd. The other option is to go super niche in hopes to try to dominate the smaller niche area as much as possible, which can also work well but risks not appealing to enough people. How you decide to go about this is up to you as the risk vs reward between the 2 options mostly cancel out, but since the number of users on Steemit right now isn't that large the mass appeal approach may work best in the short term, however dominating a smaller niche may very well pay out more in the long run.
2. Understand The Steemit Audience
Ask yourself, what type of person uses Steemit at the current time? Although it is impossible to know for sure, we can make an educated guess that right now in its earlier stages of development the Steemit user base is mostly people who are in the world of cryptocurrencies. I am sure there are probably a fair amount of people on here that may not fall into this group, but something tells me that the current user-base is far different then the average YouTuber in this regard, especially since Steemit directly ties to its own crypto itself. If we assume this is true then it allows us to know certain traits about the majority of Steemit users, such as many are likely fairly new to Steemit and are still trying to learn more about the platform and find their place as they go, many likely distrust the currently accepted failing fiat debt-based financial systems of the world and the corrupt governments & banks that back them, many likely strongly stand for the right to free speech and despise the selective censorship which many other social platforms force upon their users, many are likely into what are seen as more non-traditional investments such as cryptos, gold, silver, and alike, many are likely into conspiracies or at least have a much more open mind about them then your average person, and many are likely people who love to travel and are just trying to enjoy life as much as possible despite all its chaotic uncertainties. Am I wrong?
3. Cater Your Focus To The Steemit Audience
Now that we know who we are likely talking to, try to give them what they want. Make your content stand out above the crowd whenever possible by making it unique, helpful and interesting, while discussing the main topics that interest your audience. Found a sleeper crypto you think might moon some time soon? Think you figured out when the gold/silver suppression will finally break free? Got a sensitive topic to discuss which is usually not openly accepted on censorship platforms such as Facebook? Have a feel good story about your family, pet or recent vacation? Got the inside scoop on the next big conspiracy theory? All these topics would be great and would likely strongly appeal to the Steemit audience in general. And when in doubt, talk Steemit, since many users here are still quite new and are still trying to figure this thing out, so ask questions, give answers, help Steemit users out whenever you can, as doing this will not only help you and the person you helped, but will also help the Steemit platform as a whole. Win/Win.../Win!
4. Pick An Eye Catching Title & Use Plenty Of Visual Aids
OK so we are on to some of the fluff now... Eye-candy. Sure, the titles and images/video you use in your post may very well be the least important element to you as the author, but remember on the other side of the coin those things are one of the most important elements to your users. If you don't catch their attention (eye-catching title) and then keep it for any length of time (visual aids) then they may never see your content in the first place, or may leave much sooner then they may have otherwise done without really reading what you had to say. Make sure to pick a title that screams "CLICK ME" to every user that sees it (although don't go YouTuber click-bait overkill... "never go full retard") and then also make sure to dazzle their eyes with visual aids (especially early on in your post) to help keep their interest longer. Always remember that you have a large amount of competition, so don't slack on the easy stuff and keep your content looking appealing and clean!
5. Write Your Content For Your Kid Or Your Grandma
So I know what your thinking, WTF does that even mean. The reason it didn't make sense is because you took what I said literally, but for the record I am not talking about age groups here. What I mean is either write your content to be short and to the point (something a child would read, since most children have almost no attention spans) OR do the polar opposite and write your content to be long and in-depth (something an old lady would sit an hour reading if it interested her). It is best to do this as many times when you write your content somewhere in-between those 2 extremes you tend to cater less to each different group of users (people who are in a rush and don't want to read a long post VS people who got no place to go right now and want to really dig into a specific topic of interest). While short and sweet is always the safest path to take due to having a larger mass appeal, it is worth remembering that sometime a big long juicy post can also become a star and when it does may very likely stand out well above the rest.
6. Make "Friends" And "Pay It Forward"
Although that may sound like the title of a bad Haley Joel Osment movie sequel or another failed Matt LeBlanc spinoff series, I am actually referring more to the social etiquette on Steemit that for the most part is naturally followed by the large majority of Steemit users right now and will hopefully also hold true "In Time" as well. The idea is to be friendly, don't troll for the sake of trolling, help someone in need and if someone helps you try to "Pay It Forward" and help someone else, help promote other peoples content you find valuable so it doesn't fall into a "Labyrinth" never to be seen again, follow people you think deserve it and if you do you likely won't have to be "The Negotiator" to get many of them to follow you back, upvote content and comments you like to help keep content with subsistence at the top of the page while sinking bad content like the "Titanic" down to the bottom, and comment on peoples posts whenever possible to try to keep the dialog going beyond the original post. Basically don't allow this place to become just another heartless and vulgar troll pit like YouTube has become over the years. Set a good example for others to follow and help keep Steemit as enjoyable as possible for all users. "Can't we all just get along?"
Sidenote: Aww that last one wasn't a cheesy Movie/TV reference like the rest, I guess I'm loosing my touch...
7. Talk With Them, Not At Them
Most people don't really like being talked at, in fact the wide majority of people would much rather be talked with, as it helps make them feel like they are an important part of the overall conversation, which they are. Because of this you should always try to include your audience in the discussion whenever you can, not only to help keep them more engaged in your content, but also to help keep the conversation going, which in-turn will often directly benefit you as well. Ask questions, admit when you are unsure of something and want other peoples input, and basically involve your audience in the conversation at every opportunity. Do you now understand why doing this is so important? See how easy it is!
8. Slap A Name Tag On It
Since Steemit currently only allows for each post to have up to 5 tags/categories, it is important that you take the time to maximize these on each of your posts, as it can make a huge difference in your contents overall success. Try to pick popular relevant tags/categories in all cases to help get as many eyes as possible on your content. With this remember that the tags/categories on the Steemit homepage are the most prevalent ones that will likely pay off the most, so make sure to try to include your content in at least 1 of those whenever you can. That being said, make sure the tags/categories you pick are relevant, don't just toss your content talking about your distrust for banks into a category like travel just because it is popular, as doing that will only annoy some Steemit users, which really isn't a great idea. There is a time and place for everything so just make sure you pick tags/categories that will help maximize your contents success, while not going out of the way to annoy other users who may not necessarily be interested in the topic you are discussing.
9. Manually Add ALL Your Posts To Google
Surprisingly at the current time many of Steemit users posts do not appear on Google naturally, and if they do they take a fair amount of time before they are listed (at least several days after being originally posted). Because of this it is important that you try to manually add all your new posts to Google yourself to greatly speed up the indexing process, which is something that only takes a few seconds to do but can GREATLY increase your posts changes of success by helping to get it in front of more people who may be doing various searches using the Google search engine. To manually add your posts to Google, simply create or log into your Google account and once done go to the following link https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=/addurl, and from there simply input your posts url in the empty field and push "Submit Request". Once done Google will index your posts url within seconds, instead of waiting days/weeks/months to find it naturally. I know it can be tedious to do this, especially if you have 100 posts already done and need to loop back and do this for all of them, but trust me it is worth the time/effort as doing this can really help deliver a lot more results/visitors to each of your posts. Anyways once done, to check if it worked simply go to the Google homepage and input your posts url in the search field and see what happens (before pinging to Google you will see "no results found", while after pinging a post to Google you will see that post listed at the top of the search results, which tells you that your content is now available for the public to find via Google going forward).
Anyways, I am sure I could probably think of a few more tips if I had the time right now but unfortunately I don't, so if you have any other good newbie Steemit tips to share please let me know in the comments below!
About The Author:
My name is Brandon (AKA TruthNow88) and in live just outside of Toronto in the Great White North known as Canada. I have a 1 year old Cocker Spaniel/Golden Retriever crossbreed named Barkley (otherwise known as Monster... I swear this dogs so hyper it may very well be the key to zero-point energy...). I am a Search Engine Optimization specialist, website designer/analyzer and amateur blogger by day, and a coffee drinking, weed smoking, crypto trading conspiracy theorist by night. I love things that get my brain pumping and am really into politics, economics, world events, conspiracy theories, and more recently cryptocurrencies, as well as TV/movies, travel and I am also a huge fan of comedy in general (as they can't make the world go to war if everyone is laughing). I am somewhat new to the crypto world and Steemit in general but recently decided to try to jump in with both feet and see what happens. So far I am loving the people and concepts that Steemit and the crypto world are creating for the future, and I feel honored to be part of its infancy. Anyways I guess that's about it, and remember let nothing hold you back... FULL STEEM AHEAD!