Hello!!!
I am a brand new minnow who joined 9 days ago. In that time I have made over 290 comments(like 10-12 blog posts) and gained 84 followers. This is phenomenal growth!!! Steemit is AMAZING, everyone here is very friendly and lots of knowledge is gained through interacting with the community(that doesn't really happen on Facebook/Twitter/Anywhere).
First a little backstory
I am a former Youtuber who has over 3,000 subscribers and 250~ videos made in gaming. I quit doing YouTube because it isn't worth the time and effort put into it for so little money/rewards(though if you like doing that more power to you!). Don't get me wrong, it is fun to make YouTube videos, but there is a certain soul crushing experience that happens when you make pretty decent content and are only making 1 or 2 dollars per hour. To put that into perspective, I make $30 an hour posting on Bitcointalk forums in signature campaigns as I have a high ranked account, I can earn up to $100 to $110 a week doing this. That math is incredible, do I post on Bitcointalk for 3 to 4 hours a week or do I spend 40+ hours on videos a week for 2 years? Well, after 2 years I stopped doing YouTube specifically for that reason.
I am also a redditor who is sick and tired of toxicity of all sides and most subreddits. I heard about Steemit from some friends on facebook/twitter, of which I pretty much altogether stopped posting on as well. I started posting here and figured there might be some arguments or trolling or massive down vote brigade bots, NOPE! I was amazed... I still can't believe how great this community is. I rarely if ever post on reddit anymore and that site really turned into Dig 2.0 in my opinion.
Now, what did I do to gain an average of 9~ followers per day?
I have made comments mainly in areas/sections that I have knowledge on or on people I have followed from seeing their posts on trending/hot.
Making very long blog posts when you start off as a minnow is hard, especially if you don't have a previous social media audience to bring with you to Steemit. A LOT OF PEOPLE are creating blog posts right now, and that is a good thing to attract more and more people to sign up here. BUT there are not enough passive readers on Steemit right now to give you the boost in views. You can make a Blog Post and it will only get around 5 to 10 views if you have no followers, the newer incoming posts push your post further and further down the list so not many more will see it. Now if there were more people reading and commenting maybe you would get double or triple that, which would likely make it better to make blog posts first for gaining followers, but for now this is not the case.
Another thing I have done is to post onto my social media places like reddit and other forums letting people know to come follow me here. I have also convinced 3 other people I know real life to abandon facebook and use Steemit instead. I know these 3 people will largely be content consumers(which we really need). I challenge everyone to do the same, if you have friends or family in real life who don't like social media any more, well they might love Steemit, give it a shot!!
What else is recommended to gain followers you might ask??
Going into a section you have knowledge on or interest in(maybe News or Photography for example), click on the Hot or Trending tab once there. Find some people that look interesting and follow them. Watch for their blog posts and make some comments when you see something that was posted 1 or 2 or 3 hours ago. When you comment on a post of someone who has a lot of followers they are likely to see your comments and maybe follow you!!! Most people go into a post, read the post, then scroll down to the comments to see if there is anything else interesting being said. Make sure you put some thought and time into your comments so you have a better chance at creating a conversation with people, and who knows, you may even be upvoted by a whale and get a few Steem(I have before).
If you enjoyed my content I would appreciate a like and a follow, if not that is ok too! :) :) My hobbies include hiking, target shooting, skeet shooting(clay pidgeons), video gaming, cryptocurrency, analysis, and lots and lots of numbers!!!
