As a get near the 100th follower milestone it is a good time to take some lessons from my first month on Steemit. Here are a few unexpected facts I learned.
Fact 1: up to 25% of the Steem I make is from my comments.
This is something that surprised me but some days I'll write a fairly long post and earn 5 cents, then later in the day I make an insightful comment on a popular post an a earn 50 cents on it because a few people with high Steem power liked it.
Fact 2: commenting can bring you more followers than posting.
There are days when I do not have the time to post but I can still find the time to read a few post and provide a few comments. I noticed that those days bring me as many followers if not more than the days I write posts. Apparently Steemians will follow you if they like your comments and when you are new on Steemit more people will see your comments than your posts.
conclusion
When you start on Steemit commenting is critical to building your follower base and will still bring you some Steem. I would advise to initially spend up to 75% of your time commenting and 25% on writing new posts. As you get more followers you can increase the new post ratio, but I would continue to comment. Also make well written and relevant comments. These are effectively the advertising for your work as a writer!