As a long time veteran of Steemit—all of 73 days. I have experienced what, I'm sure, most people new to this space experience—anxiety, frustration, apprehension, guessing, second guessing, anger, bewilderment, excitement, elation, ad infinitum The full gamut of emotions. This is Steemit—emotionally speaking. Now, of course, this isn't Steemit, this is what Steemit elicits in someone when they post and succeed or fail in their posting. But what is succeeding or failing—upvoting and money of course!—or lack thereof! Let's not skirt the issue here. That's what we want, right?
I am a rather socially inept person over the computer or any electronic device for that matter. I remember when I started texting for the first time I would put the texts people wrote me in the wrong context and wonder why the person would say what they said. My friend, however, is very savvy in the ways of electronic social communication. I would have him translate the text into proper social meaning. He would say things like, "Naw, dude this person probably means this." And sure enough, he was right. Now, what in the world does this have to do with Steemit and my understanding of it? Everything!
Due to pressure from my family, I own a Facebook account and the only reason I have it is "just in case we can't reach you." I never go there. I don't care how many stitches are in Kim Kardashian's new underwear she bought today or where, ew, it chafes her—I could care less. I don't have a twitter account. Birds tweet, I don't—I don't care. And I never would have heard of Steemit if it wasn't for Bitcoin and blockchain technology. So, why would a socially electronically inept old guy get on a highly social electronic network? Like many of you—money! I wanted Steem so I could get more Bitcoin—of course. And it's free and, really, how hard can it be? Have you ever inadvertently discovered a hornets nest? Welcome to Steemit.
So now I'm going to get to my point—I felt a little backstory was necessary.
I went through the usual—I'm here now, what do I post? What do people want on this site? What will they click on, read and upvote? Now just to let you know, I was so naïve that instead of posting in introduce yourself I tagged it under 'new'. Seriously, who does that? I guess a socially electronically inept old guy.
In the beginning I just wrote about a little Bitcoin stuff as that's what I knew and I figured I would be informative and it worked out okay. Then I ran out of ideas—like five or six posts later. I then experimented and did stupid stuff with no response really and it wasn't my cup of tea either. While spinning in the Steemit vortex I began to read posts about how I could make $3000.00 a minute on Steemit and how to get 400 follows in ten minutes. I read all that stuff—some was good and then there's the rest.
So do I now understand how Steemit works with upvoting nuances and tipping and steempower and sbd and sp and vests and this and that? No—I don't care. It took me 73 days to understand what Steemit was—for me. Why it was so important? Why an electronically socially inept person like me would stay in such a place? It got me to write again! And not only to write again, I actually feel comfortable here and it is an opportunity for someone else to read what I write. And if I'm lucky, a whale might walk by and give me their thumbs-up—which has happened a couple times and it is very much appreciated and exciting! But in reality—It got me to write again! And I will continue to write and post in the hope I might write a piece someone would like to read.
When I first came to Steemit, I read this in the beginning and I ignored this in the beginning but in the end, I understood it.
Quick Start Guide
Earning on Steemit
The best attitude to have is to expect to make nothing. Have fun. Get engaged. Make friends. If along the way you earn something - bonus!
How could this be more clear, concise and truthful?
I may not make a lot of money here and that's okay. I tell you, there's some people here that are real good at this. I mean damn.
Another thing I learned is about followers. It's not how many you have, it's how loyal they are or how they share the same interests. I've seen guys with over 1000 followers get squat in upvotes—consistently. Yet, someone with a few hundred kick some butt—consistently. If you just had one follower—I mean just one—who was a whale who upvoted most of your posts... just sayin'. I follow those I want to read what they have to say and I will upvote the quality content. New posts is where I spend time looking for those gems out there. Some real good writers out there and those with real good content, whether it be introspective, informative, entertaining, or just plain funny, then there's the rest. I still have those I follow from the early days—you know, like a month ago, that I'm not really interested in but I keep them around just because. But I'm more particular now who I follow.
Just one more thing—something that will make life easier for others with regard to your posts—please edit and use punctuation and after you use punctuation, give some thought to sentence structure. Editing your own work is a bit difficult but think of it this way, the harder it is to get through what you want to say the more likely the person will click to another post. I have started reading some posts and—I tried—I really did, but they were so jumbled and incoherent, I gave up. And I was interested in the subject matter too. But I was pushed away with how difficult it was to read. You have to realize, there's tons of posts out there. If your post is not easy to read, people will move on. I doesn't have to be perfect—just readable. To use a current vernacular—Steemit is a hit it and quit it place. People want to, and do, move fast here. If they have to work hard to read, they'll leave for more palatable content.
There's what I understand and like about Steemit. It has been years since I wrote, or wanted to write, about anything. And it took something I could really care less about to get me to do one of the things I care most about—go figure.