Just over 2 weeks.... That's how long it's been from seeing the youtube videos stating how much they made in their first post on steemit to now. That's what made me come here. What I found was a new land populated by a wonderful community of individuals.
Before I let you know the experience I have had thus far, let me bend your ear on a quick rundown of how it happened from the start. Disregarding how I once liked, and then loathed and quit Facebook many years ago, I had been on Youtube for about a year and a half, two channels intermittently on the go. Both were in a niche market, and so weren't growing fast, but you try and do what you love in the hope that one day you might make a living at it and do it full time.
Sure, I could join the growing number of 'tubers screaming at video games, making vines and memes with that annoying punch of distorted base underlining the 'joke' and destroying speakers around the country, but that wasn't me. No, I would plug away, making content when I could, whilst working and juggling life.
The channels were growing evenly, and had reached about two thousand views each with a group of subs you could count on 2 hands (OK, maybe a foot as well). I had made my first two cents in exchange for mine.
Then came the restrictions. Adpocolypse, censorship by exclusion and no ad revenue unless you had over 10,000 views, hit in quick succession. There was nothing to stop further restrictions in the future. A while back I had heard about a site called Minds, and had started putting some of my stuff there and had many more followers in a much shorter period of time, a hundred in a couple of months, and the fact I could get no revenue was overtaken with the realisation that some were not only listening, but thought I was worth checking in on from time to time.
Then I saw the video. To get there I had clicked on something about new social sites, then deeper to sites making money, and then found myself curiously waylaid by a female screaming goat, only to rest on an obvious spruik and a lame tutorial on how to make $150 on your first post. I kept watching some of my favourite goats until, at last, the algorithm kicked in and more videos about Steemit caught my eye, some informative and others just plain confusing... so there's steem power....and steem dollars....and reputation.....
That's when I began to take notice and stopped following the bouncing ball letting me know the pronunciations on the video 'screaming along with Enid'. Maybe there was something to this. I duly signed up for a site believing it to be a mix of Facebook, Youtube and Reddit, only the people actually wrote interesting stuff and different genres were welcome!
After waiting for confirmation for a couple of days, I found myself clearing part of a block, hung my shingle in 1c self vote city, and began to type. The steep learning curve was cast before me, and a new study of sea life emerged. In two weeks I have seen minnows savaged by whales, thousand dollar posts with little to no content and a ton of people who care about others and want to help. I see some who started close to the time I did becoming familiar faces in the groups, and ironically faceless friends at the same time, with the willingness to help and support one another.
I even got a kick in the pants from a follower who told me not to be down about thinking I had written something half descent, only to see it languish for a couple of cents. Use it as an excuse to do even better! They wrote, and of course they were right. It had taken me a year and a half to have that carrot dangled by the 'tube. I had got to the same point in the first week on Steemit!
So here I be, another Steemian doing whatever it is they do, and loving it. I still only get a few cents a post, but I don't care. The people here are phenomenal.
Who knows, with the way Steemit is structured, maybe one day the thing I love doing may just earn me an actual living.
Lastly,
A heartfelt Thank You to :
Who's frankness , support and wonderful posts, have made me strive to do better.