First time I heard about Steemit was few weeks ago from a YouTube video of Jerry Banfield. In his video he showed how he earned $503 a day, simply by posting on Steemit. I could not believe my eyes! Then I visited his profile and found he was right. Most of his posts were earning more than $100. I visited to the Trending section, I found most of the posts were earning on average $500. This was shocking to me. I asked myself, "Is everyone becoming rich here?"
I started looking more about Steemit on YouTube. I found a video that was uploaded six months ago. The guy (I don’t want to disclose his name) was explaining Steemit and requesting people to join in his "secret" team. The idea was he would create a team of 50 people initially. Everyone would post one article per day and then they would upvote each other. He claimed, that way each person would earn $50 (!) per day.
That didn't seem right to me. I had a bad feeling that he was kicked out from the system for cheating. I quickly visited his profile and was surprised to see that he was not banned. Rather he was still posting and surprise, surprise, he was earning few cents per post. His posts didn't impress me whatsoever. I didn't see more than few upvotes in any of his recent posts. I think his clan quickly realized that it wasn't for them. I appreciate him for trying hard, and hoping someday he will discover the FAQ section, which I was also ignoring in my first week.
Slowly I discovered it was hard to earn descent money for so many people here. I noticed few similarities between them, they were rushing to get quick money. I found one video post where the gentleman showed how he got quick followers just by posting Follow Me comment on New section. I found it pretty cool. I did same right after I posted. They followed me immediately and voted within few minutes of my article posts. It ruined total earning.
I started digging into FAQ and realized that voting before 30 min shared income between Author and Curators. No one with good steem power voted on my last two posts, even though I thought I did better. I don't blame my followers, they liked my posts and upvoted. I was doing wrong.
If you go to the Trending section at any time, you will notice one thing common between all top posts. They spend time to produce their contents. They do not beg for upvote or for followers. The community rewards them spontaneously. I am sure writing those articles take few hours if not days. I am so amazed to see how Steemit was designed to recognize hard work and to punish poor contents. Of course there will be exceptions for some people. I also noticed several posts which were very short, but they generated couple hundreds dollar within a day. Those writers had big followers and most importantly they had good reputation points.
I was never a serious blogger or a writer. But I want to be a good one. English is not my native language. My thoughts are not organized, my grammars are not that good, my vocabulary is limited. But I believe one thing, if I can spend at least one hour per day for reading good posts and another hour for writing, I should see some differences after a year. My Steem power and Rep point will tell me whether I am doing right or wrong.
I want to conclude today with one quote from one of my teachers, which I believe is applicable for this platform too.
Do not run after money, run after good work, money will follow you.