Steemit bloggers: Hive account@sweetsssj, Hive account@stellabelle, Hive account@mynameisbrian

Recently a lot of people have been asking my advice on how to be a successful blogger on Steemit.com, the decentralized social media site that pays its users to participate. I decided to just go ahead and write the ultimate guide to blogging on Steemit for those who are serious about it.

STEP ONE:

Know yourself and your strengths.

I chose three bloggers, Hive account@sweetsssj, Hive account@mynameisbrian and myself for very specific reasons: we are all very different and we don’t hide it. Perhaps most importantly, we are all prolific bloggers with idiosyncratic world views. We all live on different continents, too. We write a post at least every other day and sometimes two in one day. Each of us offers readers a different menu but we’re all very passionate and don’t really follow the worn-out self-help guru meme that still seems to be infecting the blogosphere.
Brain (Hive account@mynameisbrian) is mostly a comic artist now, but he used to write about other topics. He also is a programmer who built the ultra useful Steemit tool, Dead Followers. But there are tons of programmers on Steemit, so creating hilarious comics was a wise move because there still aren’t a lot of active comic artists who are as good and prolific as Brain. At one point, during Steemit’s lowest point, Brain was about the only reason I logged into my Steemit account. I am most likely his biggest fan.

Hive account@sweetsssj documents her travels, cuisine explorations, social life, hi-tech toys, and gives us a peek into the world of the thriving and dynamic Chinese youth culture.

She has a sizable following on other social media platforms as well. Steemit's hottest robed crypto-trader and my personal man-muse, Hive account@tuck-fheman, is convinced that Sweetsssj is a robot pretending to be a Chinese woman. I had the same hunch, and we both are still not entirely convinced that Sweetsssj isn’t some kind of android. Look at the size of her pupils and her ivory silicone baby-butt skin:

But the Steemit community loves her and she’s killing it with her blog (probably because she actually is an android). And the CEO of Steemit loves her, too. He actually met her in real life, I forgot what Asian city that was in.

Then there is me. Unfu*able but with a mind on fire.

I'm drunk right now and in the middle of either an epiphany or a manic episode, but in a nutshell, I am like water and I'm constantly changing. I also have breadcrumbs and an obsession with Hive account@nakamoto.

My strategy is radical & creative experimentation, volume and authenticity. (Hive account@papa-pepper is perhaps the master of this technique).

Svankmajer, Nikola Tesla, Vandana Shiva, Dali and Frida Kahlo are my heroes.

It took me 47 years to figure it out, but it’s clear to me now. I’m all over the map as far as what I like to create. I tend to focus on: crushing emotional pain, science, art, technology, decentralization, steemicide, shitposts, dark humor, communication, people, social media and how to’s. I created a video series with puppets, Steemicide Hotline, a decentralized service, Secret Writer, fun contests, and an interactive community thing called the Steem Gnome. In short, I’m a wild card and no one, including myself knows what I’ll come up with next. I love GIFs like they are crack cocaine, and I built a library of Steemit and Dash themed ones on Giphy. One thing I don’t do: filter my ideas. People rely on me to create something different and look at things with a passionate and critical eye. That’s the attribute I use the most: unfiltered ideas that get to be developed and tried out on Steemit.

For everyone who tells you to niche down and stick with one topic, I say,

“Nope.”

I’m a big believer in experimentation and the human imagination.

People will give you the feedback necessary to determine whether your writing sucks or not. There’s no need to hold back creative ideas anymore. Especially since Steemit exists. It feeds off of creativity.

STEP TWO:

Write every day and stop caring what other people think of you.

Two years ago I wrote a book. It is a lot like this pink pile of poop with a crown on it. The crown just means I finished it and now you can buy it on Amazon. It’s not that great. It kind of sucks, actually, because it was my first attempt. It was the hardest thing I ever finished, with the exception of giving birth to a human. But my life wouldn’t be where it is now if I hadn’t finished that book and self-published it. Why? Because it taught me not to be afraid of what other people think of me anymore. And it worked. I stopped caring to a large degree. It was my “radical self-acceptance” move.

STEP THREE:

Only write about things that make your heart race or you feel might expose too much of yourself.

I first heard this terrifying advice from James Altucher and it scared the crap out of me. But then I started doing as he advised, and it changed me, in a big way. Fear is telling you something you need to hear. Go towards your fear and let it spill out. People only want the good stuff, so if you feel that your writing is not tapping into something that makes you feel a certain something, throw it out. Only write when you have that nasty little urge inside your guts.

STEP FOUR:

Let yourself go and read a lot.

Let your mind wander where it wants to go. Explore new things and read a ton of things that are interesting to you. I read constantly. I want to know what the future will be like today. So, I keep up to date on AI, machine learning, electric cars, solar power, independent artists, global trends, new projects, systems, art and social movements. My primary concerns are: creative freedom, monetization of creative energy and re-wilding the planet. I have a global perspective of reality since I lived in Japan and speak several languages besides English.

It doesn’t matter what the topic is, just dive deep.

For me, I love new technology that incorporates decentralization. I researched Nikola Tesla last year and I’ve also been on a lifelong quest to solve this one problem: how to turn creative energy into money in a sustainable, fair way. I’ve spent 7 years trying to figure this out, and it appears that decentralized ecosystems are the answer. I feel like the luckiest artist alive since I finally found a way to get rid of my gatekeepers. I’d like to share this newly found information with the world in the hopes that it can improve both humanity and the planet, both of which are suffering massively right now.

STEP FIVE:

Comment on other people’s posts like your life depends on it.

Steemit is a community. It’s not Facebook, so your little stupid gripes about getting the wrong kind of latte at Starbucks isn’t going to cut it on Steemit. And superficial food porn shots won’t really help you gain followers either. If you write an entire soliloquy on a certain kind of food, or make fun of yourself for posting food porn shots, you’ll do fine. Take things to the next level. Steemit is Facebook 5.0. It skipped several versions.

When you first join Steemit, no one will know you. You must seek out people you like or respect and communicate a lot with them. Stroke their egos if you must. Gush about how cool they are but don’t bug them to read your post. Be creative, make a puzzle that your favorite Steemit blogger must figure out. Do something unique. Pestering people, begging and whining for attention are bad strategies. Don’t do them. It will get you nowhere. Lifting others up is the best way to get followers. If you do this, you won’t have to worry about anything. I did this a lot when I first joined Steemit and it paid off big time.
If you do these things, you should find success in Steemit.

Good luck!