Hey Steemian.
‘Sup?
You got a nice little blog there, buddy. Really.
Good entries you wrote, nice pictures you didn’t steal, recipes you worked on, reviews that are insightful. And I know what you’re thinking.
“How come I’m not getting more than $0.03 on my posts? Seriously, WTF? A guy posted a meme that he lifted from the bowels of FailBlog and picked up, like… $83.90? Really?”
So I’m going to drop some knowledge on you that’ll be original for the 18 seconds it’s on the Steemit/New page before some other curmudgeon posts a rendition of this kind of post, or someone finds one another 20 seconds of scrolling downward.
If you came here with nothing, and you’re not buying in, it’s going take a while
You know the Whales? The people whose asses all the newbies try to kiss? The people about who everyone screams at each other about every 10 minutes on here? Those are the people who either came here with bank, are OG/early adopters, or bought in and gamed the living Hell out of the system. The only thing I’ve seen that’s consistent is that all of them are considered in one way or another to be pricks, selfish, greedy, assholes, take your pick.
Now I want you to listen to me for this next part, because it’s important:
They. Don’t. Care.
I’ve met people on here who believe if they write enough cheerleading articles about crypto, a whale will bless them with a $500 upvote.
Let me walk you through the kind of scenarios where that would happen:
- The whale, while scrolling the feed, has an epileptic event and clicks the mouse over your entry while their muscles seize.
- The whale, after their fourth bump of cocaine, is so high they mistake your post for one of their buddy’s.
- You’re a forward-thinking sex worker who realizes that blockchain payments are a good way to both explain your income and keep your profession on the down low.
- You divorced the whale and this is just how they’re getting around alimony.
If you’ve still got that initial 14 delegated Steem Power, it’s time to go to work.
If you believe $.01 is enough because it’s more than ad-clicks…
If you came here to be “true to your art”, I’d ask why you aren’t on Wordpress or Tumblr or Instagram, where you’d reach a wider audience, and gain that all-important exposure. You came here because you heard you might get paid for your work, because even if you’re a creative, you want to be compensated for your time. It’s a simple concept called “sweat equity”. You’re investing your time and talent in this site to give people more to look at than just memes and pictures and gaming streams and yet another goddamned cryptocurrency article, and you want to be paid for your time, or at least compensated with connections, feedback, networking, or exposure to a wide audience.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be compensated. You’re giving this site your time and creative energies, and you want something back. And keep being creative. Absolutely. But you need to look at the money-making possibilities in a different way. The whales see this site as an ATM. Everyone else sees it mostly as the lottery or a slot machine: Post an entry and pray for a big payout, or at least your investment back. (In this case, the worth of your time.)
So you need to stop doing that. When 
You have to do the things the purists say cheapen the site and the content
The purists, mainly the people who’ve been around a while, believe that there is a simple roadmap to reaching Steemit fame and riches:
Just post every single day, you’ll build a brand, and eventually you’ll build up the following you need!
Think of your Steemit wallet as your savings account, and your post returns as your paycheck. Keep it feeding it and it’ll be awesome! Maybe you might even get curated and get a big bonus!
I’m not saying that doesn’t happen. I’ve been upvoted by @Curie twice, and it felt great, but for all the upvotes those posts got, the only person who read it were the people who nominated them. The rest were just following a curation trail. I’m not counting on a third vote.
What does this have to do with you? I put all of the SBD into Steem Power and sold my upvotes on Smartsteem. Why? This is how my Steemit wallet earns “interest”. Using auto-voters to follow curation trails doesn’t pull in anything unless you’re well over a few hundred Steem Power, better if you’ve crested 1000. Selling my upvotes provides a small, but steady steam of SBD. What do I do with SBD?
That’s where the bid bots come in. There’s always a cheap auction with a decent ROI (return on investment) about to end that you can throw some of your SBD scraps at, and get a little back, and maybe attract another upvote or two that’s not from a plankton. It’s an investment that’ll pay the following week, which you can invest in a bigger upvote, or just pump it into Steem Power, sell your votes for a little more, whatever floats your boat.
The “downside”? Some Steemians don’t like it, because it feels like “cheating”. Like you’re getting votes and money you don’t deserve. Considering you’re sacrificing vote power and coming up with steady content for the beast that is Steemit to consume, you’ve earned it.
You aren’t breaking rules. You deserve it. Don’t forget that.
Granted, this is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s going to take a while to get set up, start earning “interest” you can see, and you’ll have to keep pumping it back into your Steem Power, or investing in higher bids. It will take weeks. Months.
After that? Upvote your own posts and get paid for your time. And don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about it.