background artwork done by the fabulous and talented Hive account@cass!

It takes a lot to provoke or impress me. I consider myself to be a critic, a misanthrope when it comes to art, writing and creativity in general. I usually find myself gagging when someone sends me their poetry or half-assed stories. I may appear to be a friendly Orca, but when it comes to art, I'm as cruel as Simon Cowell from American Idol.

I'm continually amazed by the lackluster attempts on this platform. I'm equally appalled by the amount of whining and complaining about no traction. But, I'm a human, and I would have to agree that there exists a mounting problem with supply and demand as far as blog posts go. I do, however, have some solutions for those people who continually see a $0.00 on their reams of blog posts.

I'm going to break things down for you by using the story of Hive account@sirwinchester, who happens to be a minnow. He's not an early adopter, an "insider" and he's not colluding with me or anyone else. By the way, "colluding" is an absurd claim, because I am a collaborator. I work with people who like to share and do things together.

Hive account@sirwinchester came in alone, I believe with, I'm guessing zero friends, nothing. True, he's an entrepreneur and an artist in the outside world, and he has a following. However, I want you to look at how he managed to provoke me, make me curious and ultimately end up with thousands of dollars on his most recent post. If you look at his posts, you will see that many of them didn't generate money. I think 3 of them did, so 3 out ten is good. And his last post generated the most money and I'll show you why. He's a rising minnow for sure, and I'm following his every move.

Here's the post that generated $2,000: https://steemit.com/steem/@sirwinchester/a-steem-island-adventure-how-the-king-of-the-ocean-destroyed-my-fishing-boat

Ok, let's first start with how he managed to capture my attention in a non-annoying way. Every day I am now bombarded with people who want me to read their posts and upvote them. I am not complaining, as I consider Steemit my place of employment, but it does get a bit tiresome and I don't have time to respond to everything, actually. I am very busy these days, but I'm not an asshole, so I want to help give some tips to help you and this platform succeed.

1. HOW Hive account@sirwinchester CAPTURED MY ATTENTION IN A NON-ANNOYING WAY:

He read a Secret Writer post (which everyone knows is my passionate baby) and then wrote the following comment:

"Very inspiring life story - It's amazing how through all of these ups and downs, you still managed to get back up.
But what really shocked me was the fact that when you came to the US, not even Latinos were speaking your native language with you?! They were embarassed.. I can only imagine how that must hurt, especially as a young kid. No wonder this got to you.
So did you finish your College in the end?
For my parents, education has also always been a top priority. It seems like your parents are very good-hearted and hard working people, that really wanted only the best for you.
So all in all, I am very happy to read that you have made it to a better point in your life. Look at it this way: Now that you've seen the bad sides of life, you can appreciate the good aspects even more. So maybe you should see your past as a blessing, and pass your life lesson onto your kids.

And at Hive account@stellabelle , this is once again a nice big bait you threw from your fishing Yacht ;) I just wrote a story mentioning you, so you might need to read it to understand this analogy!
https://steemit.com/steem/@sirwinchester/a-steem-island-adventure-how-the-king-of-the-ocean-destroyed-my-fishing-boat"

Let's break down his method:

First, he writes a very lengthy, thought-provoking reaction comment. This shows he cares. He cares about the Secret Writer. Him caring about the Secret Writer makes me care more about him, because I care about the Secret Writers.

Secondly, he has taken the time to write some analogy of me, and has included a tidbit about a yacht. He doesn't say an annoying thing like, "Hey, check out and upvote my post. (I rarely will even check out a post if it's said in this way, that put zero thought into it."

Conclusion: Hive account@sirwinchester's thoughtfulness combined with his creativity in giving me hooks like: analogy and a casual, "you might need to read this" approach, make me feel curious, in a non-demanding manner. He's speaking from a position of abundance by giving me the "option" to read his stuff, but he's not desperate. This non-desperate approach is really the reason I followed the link (I rarely follow links in my blog comments.)

MAIN TAKEAWAYS:

1. Do not appear desperate. (even if you are desperate, you cannot show this. Assume a non-desperate approach)
2. Operate from a position of abundance and giving people choices.
3. Use your caring and creativity to pique the curiosity of others.
4. Don't fake emotions. Use your real emotions to generate ideas and stories.
5. Pour your soul out.

Hive account@sirwinchester's story and how his innate creativity made me an instant fan:

If you analyze Hive account@sirwinchester's Steem Island Adventure, you'll quickly realize that he is from a place of immense creativity. His story weaves in humor, tragedy, beauty, reality and personal quirks of the whales and Orcas. And LOVE, let's not forget the love! It's clear that he loved writing this tale and had fun with it! Fun=success!

And, no one that I know of, (yet) has ever weaved in a more amazing story of the Secret Writers. He created a metaphor that is striking and that I may use later for a reward system: the Secret Writers are on my yacht and they are all wearing masks. This is an incredibly artistic and amazing metaphor and as Hive account@sirwinchester guessed, it pulled at every heartstring I have inside myself. He knows that the Secret Writer is my baby, it's my raison d'etre and it's the culmination of a long life of trying to find my purpose in the world. The only reason it turned into a business is that Steemit came along. I have severe ADD (i think) and I've failed at the last 5 businesses I tried to create. I think Hive account@sirwinchester knew just how passionate I am about the Secret Writer project.

His story was so well-written, and beyond that, so creative, and so full of passion, that I found myself becoming more curious about him. I then looked him up on Instagram, Facebook and everywhere else. I am a person driven by mad curiosity, once someone or something has taken over, I will not stop researching until my eyeballs fall out or I run out of leads. This is both my greatest asset and greatest weakness. It's exactly how I found Steemit though! I am driven by mad impulses one week, only to abandon them entirely the next. Curiosity slave. Creativity slave. They are the same.

Back to Hive account@sirwinchester and what really sealed the deal for me in assigning him the RISING MINNOW.
His Rising Minnow status (for me personally, anyway) was achieved not by his Bitcoin millionaire status. No.

His status was sealed in his Instagram writings. Here they are. He is a compassionate, intelligent soul. I'm sure on some subconscious level, his physical beauty is affecting me too. Beautiful, compassionate strong men who possess raw intelligence and creativity are well, how can I say, extremely desirable to me.

Here are his Instagram posts:

[All Images Copyright Instagram]

Instagram writings by sirtonywinchester:

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others"

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us."

"While we try to teach children all about life, they teach us what life is all about."

There are so many things he has written that really pierced through me, but I will leave you to discover the gems yourself on his Instagram account. The image of him with the snake was really cool too:

I realize people will be harping on the fact that Tony is a talented person already and that he has an advantage because he's already successful. But to discount him in that way, would be a disservice to yourself. Tony's strengths lie in his creativity, compassion and his access to his own imagination. That's why I chose him to be this week's (or month's) rising star. He dances too.......

MORE RESOURCES FOR MINNOWS FOR FREE CREATIVE COMMONS IMAGES.

I use Creative Commons Zero Image sources. This means you can use these images, even for commercial uses and you don't have to attribute the photographers. Here are the best sources:

1. unsplash.com
2. gratisography
3. My own images are creative commons zero on SteemImg

Artwork for Bullish on Steem done by the amazing Hive account@cass can be downloaded here on his original post:
https://steemit.com/wallpaper/@cass/wallpaper-inside-steem-experience-bullish-on-steem

ps- I wrote to giphy.com to ensure I can safely use gifs on my Secret Writer posts. I'll get back to you on this.
also note: I've got lots of new business ideas for people who are not good writers but who want to make money on Steemit. I'll probably start a new publication called:
STEAL THESE STEEMIT IDEAS (anyone can use the ideas that I put forth on that blog).