You must think I'm mental right? Why keep posting if the financial rewards do not match your effort? Well, there are a few reasons I would like to share with you and hopefully they will motivate you to keep on going even when it feels like you are wasting your time...
1. You Can Make Friends
Steemit is a community. Yes, there are spammers and s***posters, but for every robot there is a real person just like you trying to connect with other people. Take the time to have a look at other blogs who post about things that you are genuinely interested in. Worst case scenario you find out early it's another robot and move on, but there is a large chance that if it is a person, they are going to be interested in you as you both have similar interests. I have already made 5 friends on Facebook through Steemit alone. Who knows, that random person on the other side of the computer could be a close friends of yours one day...
2. Extra Avenue Of Income
It is disheartening to see some people make serious money on here and even though you put the effort in yourself, you see very little return. These people are obviously doing something to unlock that income, but don't focus too much on that. It could literally be anything. So focus on you. Most people in life don't ever make good money on one thing in their life unless they work for someone else, so simply see this as another source of income. I write books, articles on Steemit, have my own blog (https://sirlewisofclarke.wordpress.com/) and I have a work permit in Thailand. Believe it or not this is me being lazy! When you have multiple income streams (and they don't have to be massive) it is far easier to shift focus on things that are working at that moment in time and not feel deflated about things that aren't...
3. It Improves Your Writing Skill
The simple answer to 'How do I improve any skill' is to practice. I used to do football freestyle tricks, but that wasn't just luck; I would spend a MINIMUM of 3 hours every day as a teenager honing my talent. People used to say that I made it look so easy. Again, this was through practice, hard work and setting the highest standards for myself. Even if you don't make any money on Steemit, you are getting invaluable experience for future ventures. Maybe you want to do article writing, travel writing, or blog posts? It can also be a good tool to simply enhance your vocabulary and keep you mentally sharp.
4. Gaining Knowledge On Subjects That Seem Alien To You
I said to a friend of mine tonight that it really frustrates me when I ask questions about cryptocurrency; because I usually get an answer that involves eight words that I've never heard before, and I feel like I understand it even less than before. Everyone seems to get it, and seems to be on the ball. It's like your first day at work and everyone is running around doing something while you are just standing there panicking. For every nine explanations that use pretentious words that make you stare blankly and say "...Yep, I understood 0.1% of that..." - there will be one explanation that explains whatever you need to know much more clearly. I have gained so much knowledge about crypto over the last six or seven months. Some through asking and some through trying it myself. Sure it's scary, but you never know if you don't try. And if what most people on here say about cryptocurrency becoming the norm is true, then we will have far more experience and information on this than the average person going into this blind...
"I don't know what seven of those words were..."
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5. A New Audience
We all have our various reasons for being on here, but the main connection we have is to share our lives and what we are passionate about. For me, I have sold a few more books on here and have generated genuine interest from people I would have never met otherwise. But it's not all about us; like I said before you can find other people and what they are interested in sharing, people all over the world that can connect with us through a mutual interest of leaving the doors open for others to share your life. This audience can lead to infinite possibilities; including work, love, friendship, a new town/country to live in... Why not explore these things? They may lead to nothing, but they may lead to something incredible...
6. Steem Fluctuates Like Crazy!!!
Like most cryptocurrencies right now, Steem is fluctuating like crazy all the time. In fact by the time I have finished this blog post Bitcoin will have probably gone either up or down a few hundred dollars. Point being if you are fixated on the money side, $1 SBD (the Steem dollars you get paid in for your posts) sometimes has an actual value of $12. So if you do only make a dollar, it is actually worth a lot more. The problem is psychologically we look at small numbers and assume the worst. However if you keep calm and watch the charts, you can exchange your Steem and SBD for a nice tidy profit at the right time...
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