I'm going to divulge some secrets how to make more money as an author and curator of steem. #2 of a 5 Part Series
LESSON #2: ENGAGEMENT
6. BE SEEN - ENGAGE WITH OTHERS
Being SEEN is the hardest part of being a STEEM blogger. How do you become seen? How to you rise to the top among hundreds of thousands of other bloggers?
That's easy: DO WHAT THEY AREN'T DOING
What do most people do? They write blogs. They go to steemit.chat and promote those blogs. They might even feed SBD money to 
...and then they wait "to be seen"
Being seen means, you're repetitively in people's faces. You keep popping up on their screen. Like a person waving a flag. "Hey!! I'm here? Do you see me?"
I have one thing figured out about how the most predominate steemians got seen (like 
They ran around non-stop commenting on people's blogs.
Back then, I saw them lots. I replied to them. They replied to me. I upvoted them, and they upvoted me back. Then something happened. They spent more time, and got more popular that I had time, and next thing I know, I'm stuck at level 65 and they're reputation level 72, level 74 and skyward.
They did the work "to be seen" and I didn't. That's why they are more successful than me and I admire them for it.
7. Engage your commenters
Someone shows up on your blog post, writes a meaningful comment. They read and liked what you wrote. What do you do?
A: Most people reply and say "thanks"
WRONG.
The people visiting your blog, upvoting your post, and spending the time to comment are looking for two things usually:
- They want an upvote from you, for a good comment
- They are hoping you'll either follow them for their insightful comment, or at the minimum visit their blog too and upvote one of their posts
The worst thing you could do is NOT recognize your comments, and NOT upvote good comments and NOT go visit their blogs.
You can get 100 upvotes, but only 12 commenters. Those that take time out of their day to comment on your stuff, if it is a good comment totally deserve an upvote and reply for doing so.
These same commenters visit lots of blogs, and give lots up upvotes. It is only when you strike a special chord or emotion in them, that they want to push the reply button and say something to you. When they do, reward them for their efforts and go see what they've been doing on their own blog.
8. CHURNING YOUR OWN CONTENT LIKE A MACHINE
Don't do this... it is very tempting to write blog post, after blog post, and see how many upvoter fish you can catch.
People see through it. They might upvote 5 of your blog posts and if you churn them out too frequently, they'll soon realize "why do I keep upvoting this person? They never visit my blog. They never reply to me, or upvote me. Screw them. I'll spend time upvoting someone else!"
If you forget rule #7 (Engage your commenters) and you keep posting things without roaming around curating other people's content, you are seen as a competitor for pool rewards who only wants to make money.
9. Discord, mumble, twitter, facebook, and more
What off-chain websites and communication methods are you using? Do you use any of them in a regular basis?
Don't know about it? Never tried it? Well most of the dolphins and whales of STEEM have. They spend the time to create social media accounts that allows them to talk live or make special appreciation for their twitter followers, or people who can use a microphone to talk to them on the voice channels of discord.
Yes, it is true. You can't "just" promote who you are, or what you write on steem / steemit alone. You need to socialize with people on discord or other systems outside of steemit.
10. Being present on website forums like bitsharestalk.org or et al..
Your steemit alias is transportable. This means, if you're known as 
When you close your steem windows and browser because you are done posting and curating for the day. Where ELSE on the internet is your name seen? Do people know you? Have they seen you in multiple venues? That helps you.
I'm on day 16/30 of my positivity challenge.
I have more to divulge in my next post... wait and see. Only one way to get notified when I do... you probably know how.