Your favourite bad teacher is here, listen up kiddos!
Let's scratch the life part and concentrate on Steemit!
This is a post I’ve been crafting for quite a while already; my tips and tricks to help you make it in Steemit!
Without tooting my own horn too much, I think I have earned some merit in here to be giving other people advice; being a full time blogger, and not living in my parents basement while doing so. From time to time, people also approach me, asking for advise. Taking all that into account, I have been slowly writing my biggest tips into a one big ass post.
This won’t be a guide to how to actually make a post if you just joined, this is made more towards people who already have some sort of idea how the platform works. I see a lot of talented people in here, many of who aren’t getting the attention I think they would deserve, this post is mostly made for them, if they wish to advance in Steemit.
Whether it is money or attention you want for your blog, here are some tips I think you might find helpful:
Be a hot girl
That’s it, and all there is to it. Class dismissed!
I’m kidding I’m kidding, relax. Ans also, not kidding all that much. There is no way around it, being a hot girl helps, in life and in Steemit, but if that is all you are, it’s not enough. And if you are not a hot girl, or a girl at all, it’s not the end of the world and it will not prevent you from getting that coin. But you know, if you are, it does help to post a selfie here and there so people will know that there is a hottie behind the good blog.
Have a niche and show your passion
What are you passionate about? What do you want to show people? Don’t tell me it’s cryptocurrency and market analysis, because I will tell you right now, DON’T! The place is flooded with TAs and nobody gives a shit, not really. I don’t think there is any way you will stand out by doing that. Unless you are hot girl and live stream talking about crypto naked, I don’t think anyone has done that yet. I’ll take a percentage of your earning if you use that one.
Are you an artist? Do you like philosophy, sports, or maybe you are a health freak and you want to write about it. What ever it is, show your passion for it. Don’t try to see what everyone else is doing and copy it. What ever your passion is, you are not the only one that likes it, there is space for everyone and all your freakiness. True passion and talent is quite easy to spot, much harder to copy.
Sell yourself
You are a brand, you have a persona and you have something you are passionate about, use it. You need to sell your ~~soul~~ personality to people for upvotes. If you have a great, fun and interesting personality, it doesn’t even matter much what you post, because people will like YOU. A lot of people will think of the personality behind the post when they push the upvote button, and not just whether the post is quality content or not.
Learn English
That is the language of the internet and if yours suck, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to get the support and exposure to your posts.
Sure you can hang out in a community that speaks the same language as you do, but that will limit your chances quite a lot. Google Translate comments and posts don’t work either, they are shit. Often times if you are not good at English and use translators, you will miss the humorous or sarcastic vibes of the post and completely misunderstand what the other person is talking about. It doesn’t matter if you are not perfect in English, but people need to be able to understand you, and you need to understand them.
Be active
No, I do not mean spamming, which you can’t even do now because you don’t have the required RCs for it. I mean posting, commenting, upvoting and chatting regularly and with meaning. When I first started, I was online for almost every waking moment.
Pay attention to your first image and title of the post
When people scroll through the feed, you have a millisecond to catch their attention. You title and first picture are the most important parts in that, so make sure they are good. Use a horizontal image because most people are on the desktop and vertical images don't work as the thumbnail, for reference, check the thumbnail of my previous post.
I break this rule from time to time, but I can do so because I already have a following. When you are just starting out, you need to pay more attention to it.
Know your audience
Pay attention to the time you are active and posting. What market are you tying to reach and when are they the most active. If everyone is asleep, your post will go unnoticed more easily.
At the beginning, I tried a lot of different times to post, and lurked when people who might be interested in what I do, are the most active. For me, what I think works the best, is when I post around 10pm UTC +2.
Consistency!
It doesn’t matter that you do one amazing post, not even if it goes to trending. You need to be able to put out interesting posts on a regular basis. I would start with one post per day, and make it a good one. When you do that for a while, when people check you out, they will immediately see that you are actively putting out good content and will be more interested in following you. If you just post once every blue moon, people might not want to follow you.
Get to chatting
Steem.chat is an essential place for you to be if you want to be something in Steemit. You can start from #general and changes are, you will find likeminded people and they will point you to other rooms that might suit your interests. Another important place where you can make friends and connections is Discord, where you need to be active too if you really want to get yourself noticed.
There are a lot of big users either active or stalking in chats, and you can easily get their attention if you are a cool dude/gal!
Don’t be a minnow
In my opinion, being a minnow is not determined by your Steem power, it’s a state of mind. I was never a minnow. You wanna be a big fish? Be one, but don’t get cocky! Dress the part, act like you belong here. It doesn’t mean that you have to know everything and that you can’t ask for help, but to be confident in what you do. You just start and be like a fish in the water. See a great post by some Steemit superstar, go comment like you are equals, not like you are a fangirl on Instagram whose comment will never be read by anyone. Start making posts like you are a pro, you don’t need to explain yourself, just get to work!
Do not buy votes or ask for votes!
Ever. No. Never ever. No bit bots, no follow4follow vote4vote. Not if you want to do this right and have a sustainable way up, there is no elevator to the top. Or there is, but the fall back down will be just as fast. If you climb your way up the stairs, possible drops won’t be that drastic.
I will go as far as saying that you shouldn’t even say that “maybe you want to check my post about blabla”, even if it’s related to the other persons post you are commenting to. If you make a genuinely good comment and show that you are interested in the same topic, changes are, they will check you out without you having to ask. And if they like what they see, you get yourself a follow and an upvote. Rinse and repeat.
Buy your way up to Power
"But you just said not to buy votes!"
Yes and this is not about it. I’m saying don’t buy votes, buy Steem Power. This is something most people who want to create content won’t do or don’t have a chance to do, I didn’t either, but it will help if you can.
People who come right off the bat with a lot of Steem power, will have a leg up. First off, you can give yourself a little something something by self voting your posts, which everyone else does too, it’s not very frowned upon. And if you do some research, you can see that whales who have never made even a single post, have a lot of followers, and it’s purely because people have looked into their wallet and seen that they have power. If those people ever decide to post, they already have a following.
Power up!
For at least the first few months on your Steemit journey, power up everything you make, even if your end goal is to live off of Steemit. And even after gathering a good amount of Steem, make sure to always have a proper amount of Steem power left. If you always power down and your vote is worth 0.01cents, it shows the community that you are here purely to take out what ever you can get, and you don’t care about other people.
Have a sense of humour!
Nobody likes a stuck up cry baby, period.
Woosh, I think that is it! I could go on for hours and hours, getting into all the little details and tricks, but ain’t nobody got time for that. These were all of course written from my point of view and what I have learned in the platform, other people might see things differently.