I've written a few posts that have done extremely well, getting me just over the 1000 vote mark and winning some awards and author showcases. The feeling has been amazing. Being a writer, receiving recognition for writing is wonderful, showing that the time we put in writing the article was appreciated and worth the effort.
I've been receiving a few direct messages on Facebook and Discord asking how I manage to achieve it. And even though I've directed them to a few posts which speak about quality posts, they just don't seem to really aid others out there in being rewarded for their amazing posts. Sometimes it's not just about writing an fantastic post, but also the presentation, distribution and the communities you are a part of.
You must be wondering why I would be willing to share this with you, especially when I explain to you how 
So, if you've been writing your heart out on posts and feel disheartened by the lack of support, I'm going to share some Steemit secrets here with you, based on how I do it.
1. PRESENTATION / LAYOUT
I am starting with the presentation of your post first, since that is one of the many reasons why I sometimes don't read posts on Steemit. Many steemit posts look like a dog's breakfast, with text all over the place and images placed haphazardly throughout the article. I cannot express how much I, and many readers, cannot stand that sort of layout.
Most of our brains are programmed to read things in a logical manner, mostly because of our education. When articles are neat, and presented in a pleasant manner, it immediately draws more readers in, and makes them comfortable reading your post. I've seen posts where there are capital words WRITTEN RANDOMLY IN WEIRD PLACES TO GET YOUR ATTENTION. Or posts where writers randomly make words bold or italise them, because they think it makes their post look interesting.
Maybe in moderation.... but not all over the place! Like litter all over the street.
Those techniques have their place, but make sure you aren't using it all over your article in excess. This is one of the worst mistakes you can make, no matter how many online posts tell you that you should. I've stopped counting how many times I have seen writers emphasise sentences or words, and wondered why on earth they chose those words to emphasise.
It needs to be logical and make sense.
People also like to see breaks in writing, especially when the article consists of loads of text. As a rule of thumb, if your articles is over 1000 words (hell, I'd go as far as 500), I would start breaking up the text with images and divisions. When you compartmentalise and organise your words into structured divisions, like small chapters, readers will be more interested in reading your work. Also, it is easy for readers to move to a specific section again if they want to come back to it.
So go ahead and add some images to your articles. But once again, in moderation and where it appears logical. Don't write about the puppies that were born 5 weeks ago, and then paste the image 5 paragraphs down. It needs to be in the correct place where it is relevant to the topic. As you can see, I usually stick my images at the start of each section, just below the heading of the 'chapter'.
2. CONSISTENCY IS KEY
By now, those that follow me and actually read my feature articles, are used to how I present my work. Sure, experiment and try different things. But once you have your layout and setup going and the readers like it, try and keep it consistent. I've been on Steemit for just over a year now, and it took a few months for me to find a manner to write articles that I not only enjoy, but my readers too.
You don't have to worry about it becoming stale over time. That's something you should only worry about when you have a huge steady following already and you are ready for the change. To build up your reputation as a writer and to obtain that following, I strongly recommend finding whatever works for you, and then consistency pumping out the same quality posts.
3. GIVE YOUR AUDIENCE SOMETHING ELSE TO ENJOY IN THE MEANTIME
For those of you who really put in effort into your quality posts, you will know that this sometimes takes a huge amount of time, if not over an hour or two. Bear in mind, that your readers also take up time reading that post. If you are going to continuously be pumping out long posts, you may lose your audience's interest. Writing long quality posts every day not only saturates the Steemit feed, but also affects
So do yourself and your readers a favour. Spend some time inbetween long posts sharing your own images, sharing other interests, or just sharing something that happened in your day. This builds a relationship between you and your readers, so that when you publish that long quality post, they will be interested in what you have to say.
And it is becoming easier to post random images and posts now. For instance, 
CONTENT OF YOUR ARTICLE
So here is the crux of the matter: the topic and content of your article. How do you know if the readers will even be interested in what you have to say? It's time to write your next quality post, but what should you write about today?
Your topic should always be of interest to others and really grab their attention. I've read so many online articles about quality posts tell us to check the 'Trending', 'New' and 'Hot' sections of Steemit to grab ideas. See what is really doing well, and then write your own take on it.
Sure, that's a good idea. But if everyone followed that example, we would find a 1000 articles on "Cryptocurrency and the shark that ate its tail" (sarcastic parody on some popular posts), with only a few getting a thousand votes... and yours only receiving about ten.
Real Steemerians want quality posts that are different. So among the thousands of articles on the Crypto Tail-eating Shark, let yours be about the galactic battle for the epic bonsai. Dare to be different, but make sure your post still stands out.
An important element of the content of your post is using proper language grammar. I have seen horrendous posts with improper sentence structures, massive spelling mistakes and a simple disregard for the English language. It's like they simply typed away at the keyboard and didn't care if any of it made sense. If you are unable to write properly, please ask a trusted friend to check and edit your work. Trust me when I say this makes the world of difference.
@CURIE and COMMUNITIES
So why is it important to write quality posts in order to get a huge following and thousands of votes. If you look at my Steemit Blog page you will see I only have 584 followers. Yet, my latest post on "How Sexual Obsession and Compulsion Can Destroy Lives" received double the amount of votes.
At best, my posts usually reach about 150 votes on a good day. However, when my quality posts really get recognised, they hit over the thousand. And there is no secret weapon or bot system that I used to achieve this. It simply comes down to the communities I am a part of and the wonderful, fantastic
Let me explain.
You see, many have their Steemit accounts set up to either automatically vote on curie voted posts, or follow
Which is why quality posts are important.
But just because Curie hasn't voted for you, doesn't mean that you don't have a quality post. You see, they have some criteria for voting for quality posts. The articles need to meet some requirements, many of which I have already covered in this article. More importantly, curies have it as a rule that they will not vote on a quality post by a writer that has recently been curie upvoted. They not only look at quality, but also how unique the post is, how valuable it is to the Steemit community, and if the writer has recently been curie voted. They hunt for those new writers, those few who are not recognised that really should be.
Which is why you should not be disheartened if you have not been curie voted.
However, there is a way that you can get their attention. Curie has a Discord server whereby you can see how they work. In that channel, they have a channel for self-promotion. Before I joined this server, I was lucky if they even saw one of my posts. I mean, they did, but the chances of them finding mine amongst the millions of daily posts was minimal.
With this self-promotion channel, it is easier for them to find quality posts to work through. Which is why I recommend you join them.
But know that, if your post is curated and thousands of votes stroll in, the chances that many of them are actually reading your post is... well, in all probability non-existent. Like I said, many of them are conditioned to simply vote on a curied post, or have bots setup to do it for them. Why, you ask? Because of the curation trail and rewards. If you vote on a post, then you will receive a curation reward after 7 days when the post is paid out, based on the curation percentage, number of voters and amount received for voting. So many times, they are voting for you for that curation reward.
Which sucks for true writers, since you actually want your work to be read. But you will know who really reads it by those that put quality comments under your post. They are engaging with you on your work, which is always rewarding. It is great to actually chat about your topic with your readers, which also improves the popularity of your post.
This is where Communities come in. I am part of many Steemit Discord communities. @Schoolofminnows, @TeamSouthafrica, @Adsactly and 
Finally, participate on Steemit. Go around, read some articles, vote and comment. Making friends on steemit is key. When I got out and follow Steemarians and comment on their posts, I find I make new friends who in turn will comment and vote on my posts. Interaction on steemit is the most vital aspect to becoming successful here.
NON-QUALITY POSTS THAT RAKE IN MILLIONS OF VOTES
So... you've spent hours on that awesome quality posts. You've followed my guidelines and published it. After day 2, hundreds of votes pull in thanks to curie. Yay! You now have maybe $8 STU attached to that post.
And then you go to Trending, see some image someone posted with one sentence under it, pulling in less votes than you with $600 STU attached to it. Trust me. We've all seen it. It makes us all sick.
It doesn't mean your post isn't worth that much in theory. It's just that you still have to get there, and so do I. They've got all the right followers with the huge Steem Power to make those posts worthwhile.
It's been an issue on Steemit for as long as I have been here. They just have more power to back their posts. I don't want you to focus on that. I want you to focus on your own posts and getting your own powerful following. I have been reading the latest changes in Steemit management, and the new community-driven orientation, and I have a strong feeling that this imbalance is about to change.
Or rather, high hopes that it will.
So my message to you is: don't be disheartened. Don't give up. Continue writing those quality posts and make Steemit a place worthy for readers to come to.
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Kind regards
Shaun M Jooste
Joint-Owner: AIR Entertainment (https://airentertainment.biz)
Director: Celenic Earth Publications (https://celenicearthpublications.wordpress.com)
Author, Screenwriter, Gamewriter, Journalist (https://celenicearth.wordpress.com)