The Secret to Earning Followers
Ready to get some followers? I'm going to drop some common sense word-bombs onto your eyeballs.
I know you're ready to make crazy money on Steemit, but the first step to getting paid is earning followers. On classic social networking, you just get followers without much effort, but on Steemit you most definitely need to earn them.
How do I earn followers?
You want to know the big secret? The Secret is 3-Fold...
1. Follow Others
Explore the tags you're interested in and find people to follow. Reputation score is a good indicator, but not the only thing on which you should base your decision. It's easy, and you can always unfollow someone later if they end up spamming your feed with some boring rubbish.
2. Read Their Content
This is pretty simple, and there's really no way around it. You just have to read. It's the respectful thing to do, and that's what you would expect to be done with your own content.
3. Comment on Their Posts
This is why it's so crucial to read the entire post (not just the title). This is the most important step in earning quality followers. Find something within the post that actually speaks to you and make a real comment. Sometimes quality comments are multiple paragraphs. After all, you get authorship of your comments on Steemit. Occasionally you'll get substantial upvotes on comments that add value to the post or discussion. This is how you're going to find your followers.
They're out there
There are actually people out there who are interested in what you have to say. Maybe not everything, because frankly, some of it is quite boring. On Steemit, there are so many quality people out there just waiting to follow you and curate your content. It doesn't even matter what kind of weird stuff you're into. You just have to work a little to find them.
Final Word
I hope I didn't get too technical, as I was intending to write this for the new user. The bottom line: You need to participate in all of Steemit in order to maximize what you can get out of it. That means not only creating quality content consistently, but always spending time reading your peers' content and commenting like you mean it. They deserve it.
That's me. Other images were created through Bitmoji.com.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Get out there and comment like you mean it!
Chris, I loved your tips.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to read the ENTIRE post before commenting and comment on something SPECIFIC in the post that spoke to you as an individual. I think that is probably the most practical tip you gave.
I've written around 30 actual articles here on SteemIt, and made several hundred comments. Nothing irritates me more than people who leave generic comments like "great post," or "that was really good."
It's obvious that they didn't take the time to actually read what I wrote, and I find it insulting. If you are trying to increase the amount of followers you have, that's definitely NOT the way to do it. I guess it might work for some folks who are just looking to trade a "follow" for a "follow," but I want people to follow me that will actually engage with my content.
As far as I'm concerned, where it pertains to followers, QUALITY definitely outweighs QUANTITY.
Thanks for the tips!
Hey, I just barely skimmed your comment and noticed that you used the word "SPECIFIC."
Even though I've only been the Specific Ocean a few times, I think that the west coast is beautiful and I'd love to go back. Your story about the Specific Ocean as expressed in your comment really hit home for me, and it makes me miss it. It must be nice to live so close! UPVOTED!
Hahaha the specific ocean. You made me really laugh.
I know this doesn't add anything but I still like to say thanks for the laugh:)
That was an example of what can happen when people don't really read what they are commenting on. I've seen too much of it!
Ah specific océano is beautiful 😎
Very well put! It does feel a little insulting when someone is expecting to be rewarded for proving via comment that they didn't even read your post.
My wife and I get a kick out of all those comments. The best one I think I've ever seen is "Thank you for all your advises. Here is a bunch of token." (I was given no token.)
I guess all we can do is give those folks a good example to follow; maybe they'll figure it out before too long.
BTW, later today I'm actually planning on writing a song using those comments as the lyrics. They're too funny not to compile into a humorous music video!
"Follow for follow, upvote me I upvote you, great information, check my blog out." LOL
Thanks a lot for your feedback! That's the way to add value! :D
Too funny! I thought about that in a post a while ago. https://steemit.com/comments/@papa-pepper/the-lost-art-of-making-comments-on-steemit-friends-forever-all-your-upvotes-okay
I was trying to top the ones that I had encountered with my own, and this was the best that I could do:
"You my friend forever. Please upvote my posts for your happiness."
"This post is another example of how your posts benefit all who have ever lived and make the world shine brighter with each passing day. The only way to even attempt to improve it is by upvoting my recent post."
"I have followed you for two days now and you never upvote me. I no longer follow you. resteemed."
The last one was my favorite!
" I no longer follow you. resteemed." Hilarious! Yeah, the last one is gold.
I was writing some down from the trending pages yesterday...
" Bcak me vote and flow plzz"
"Nice post I am votes you please votes me all time anynews and I following you."
The best one I've seen is one I got a few months ago: "Thanks for all your advises. Here's a bunch of token."
As far as the song, I remember your post from awhile back. I'm going to take my time with this one; I think it could be really funny. For now I'm just writing down the best comments I see. I don't need to look much further than your posts. Maybe we can create some collaborative hilarity.
Thanks for commenting!
Writing a song using those comments as lyrics is a great idea. I'm sure it's going to be hysterically funny.
You'll get a kick out of this...
A few weeks back there was a member who had a rep of "1." He was going around to lots of articles written by members with reps over "60" and doing what I like to call "Steembegging."
I don't remember exactly how the comments were worded (and it's not worth my time to go back and check), but it was something to the effect of "Can you upvote me? I am trying to repair my reputation because I made mistakes but now I have learned."
Anyway, in one article that he and I were both commenting on, I noticed that the article writer asked him politely to stop "begging" or else he was going to downvote him. Well, he persisted with his crap, and I had enough of it, so I downvoted/flagged ONE of his "begging" comments.
Now, I am not a downvoter. It takes a LOT before I will downvote/flag someone.
The next day I notice that this idiot has gone and downvoted just about every post and comment I'd made in the last two weeks. Furthermore, he began stalking me and downvoting all of my comments along with making snide and insulting remarks and false accusations.
I just sat back and laughed, because his downvotes didn't hurt me at all. His rep was going back and forth between "0" and "1," and I also noticed that I was not the only one who had flagged him. There were a couple of other members he had decided to start a war with also.
Anyway, sorry for going off on a rant. The point is that begging is not looked upon too kindly on SteemIt. One thing I really like about SteemIt is that respect and authority has to be earned. It's not always easy, but it's rewarding when you finally get there.
I'm begging now! Please! Please notice me!
@contentking I find your post hilarious.
It's a love/hate relationship between you and this steemian.
Nonetheless I enjoyed everything you said and every bit. All I can say are good adjectives on how much I enjoyed it, but I don't think every steemian who has a one liner comment is just saying so for the purpose of it. They're not just as expressive as you are.
Even I'm guilty of that. I read each post but I believe that for a few of us, we just can't put our thoughts in order to communicate a much bigger thought.
I also think, that a tiny bit of, "Lovely, amazing and great," can make someone do more amazing work. :) Just my thought though. ^^
Cheers!
Trust me, I have absolutely NO love for this idiot. He's a complete moron who should take a course in how to behave on a social site. He's rude, crude, and abusive.
That's crazy! Yeah, that poor guy. If he'd only known that he could have been earning rewards instead of wasting his power on petty downvotes. I really do trust the way this was built.
I have a little story as well. About a week ago I did a little post in which I shared a poem and some philosophical thoughts about death and the day of the dead. The post was getting some attention. When I checked under the category tag, I found that another user had copy and pasted my entire post and posted it as his own.
What concerned me the most was that this imposter post had received a substantial whale upvote. My intial thought was, "holy crap, the whale is in cahoots with the thief!" After some discord investigation, we found that that particular whale was just mistaken; he meant to be upvoting my original post.
The user who stole my post had a whalestorm of downvotes, making his reputation negative in just a few minutes. Then the whale came to my original post and gave me a roughly $50 upvote.
This experience was a great example of "Bad things do happen here, but we can trust Steemit."
Your comment is telll how to comment and increase followers thanking you .pls tell how to find best topic and best content and i losy my reputation also 35 to 11.how to do to improve this .
Your writing is just like words of wisdom. Thanks for that. But I have liked others writeup and even commented but just four out of many liked my posts. I'm even following about 87 or more people but I only have 30+ followers. Is it that I'm new to steemit or what is really the brain behind it.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, it's absolutely that you're new here, nothing more.
Go ahead and get that #introduceyourself post done, you'll be glad you did. Tell a little about your life and why you've come to Steemit. People love to support and resteem new introduceyourself posts.
Don't get discouraged, friend. The advice I wrote in this post a couple months ago is now as true as ever. Just keep reading and commenting. To find posts that you can comment on, you could check the hot and trending posts in any category in which you're interested.
You're doing great! Just do more of the same, and be as consistent as you can. I promise, it'll start to pay off.
Quality comments is definitely where it's at and what does the best to help get your name out there. This is great advice for all new Steem users looking to grow.
Thanks for reading! I was hoping when I wrote this that it would continue being seen for months, maybe even through Google searches. My newbie self had some pretty decent advice ;) Though I have been slipping on my comment/curate game lately....
Happy new year!
Agree
Only active and hardworking user get rewarded
Yep! And the rewards are fantastic!
Read their content: Your dead right on that one!
So many people (& bots as well) seem to just think that if they throw a couple of words to show how great your content is then this will bring them rewards beyond their wildest dreams.
Example "great post". Its like well, err, yeah, thanks would have been better if you had not bothered.
What can we do about it apart from ignoring it? Any tips would be welcome but after reading about the keyboard warfare that seems to happen if you engage with these people it all seems pretty harsh...
On a purely separate note I like your name "Renaissance Man" reminds me when I used to go out to a club with two DJ's Sasha and Digweed who together formed the night Renaissance...
Thanks for commenting! It's true. A little incentive to comment makes for a whole lot of lousy comments, of which I get plenty. Usually I just ignore them, but sometimes the more amusing ones get used in creations. ;)
Here's a song I wrote a couple weeks ago about just that, called "Shitty Comments."
Just keep giving those people a good example. Some of them will eventually figure it out, but some will keep doing what they're doing forever.
Yeah I see the similarities to the emoji but where's the hat?
By the way I agree on your statement to the read entire post ... if I do not i do not comment.
Have a nice day!
I know! It was heartbreaking, but bitmoji didn't offer a hat that looked anything like mine. I wear that hat all the time. My wife, @carrieallen, is really good at designing those things.
That's a great rule! You can get yourself into trouble even if you comment after reading 75% of the post.
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting!
4 - Write good content
Most people I know are not going to follow if the content is trash or a reposting of a YouTube video. Followers should not be the end goal of a blogger but the value we put forth. When we make the content our focus the followers come naturally and in increasing rates.
Good post! Everything you said is 100% correct. I just wanted to add that fourth bit since many people are new to blogging and need to be in this for the right reasons.
<3 J. R.
Absolutely right!
Yep, I didn't really address creating content that much in this post; my main point is obviously about commenting. I just keep seeing the same story. New-ish accounts getting burned out because they aren't making enough, don't have enough followers, etc. But then I look at their page and they obviously haven't been curating and commenting, all they do is post.
Of the three C's of Steemit Success (creation, curation, commenting) I think that creation is the only one that can't stand alone. It's definitely best to do all three in equal frequency, though.
I had so many pieces of advice I wanted to offer to newbies, but I'm always on the lookout for packing too much info into a post. I'm getting better at distilling them down to a main idea.
I really like how Steemit works at weeding out plagiarized content and garbage content. I didn't really want to address those issues either, though they are a problem. I think that's one of the best reasons to find engaging quality content that you're interested in. I'm happy to have gradually built up a list of followers who are all real people who write good stuff about what I'm into. I also flag and report unethical behavior. I take it personally, like most of us I imagine, when I see someone trying to abuse this wonderful system.
Thank you so much for adding some value to this post via comment! ;) That's what I'm talking about!
Of course content is key! Great addition there.
Great advice!! Work work! ✌🏾
I will keep working hard! Accumulation time! :D
Thanks for commenting.
Couldn't agree more @chrisroberts, well said. I started off on here 3 months ago clueless but just glad to have a place to encourage me to write after a long period of the creative blues. I just started reading and commenting on all the quality posts I could find and it encouraged me to start posting. Then I found that the same people I had spoken to started commenting on my posts. Without realising it I had taken the best path to engagement on steemit.
Too many people get caught up in a kind of desperation when they start off and see their posts making 20 cents and seem to get in a fever of trying to get followers by any means. Turning up on one of my posts saying gr8 post, follow/upvote me back just ain't gonna cut it with me. What I try to do with these people is politely advise them to read, comment what you like about it, and get in a conversation. 9 out of 10 people (including myself) will go look at that person's profile and follow them, if the posts are any good.
"Without realising it I had taken the best path to engagement."
That's exactly what happened to me. At first it was tough getting into the swing of things, so I used that time to curate and comment. Now I'm extremely satisfied with the quality of followers I've found.
Thanks for your contribution!
It's just about being an active community member, not just pumping out post after post and expecting things to happen on their own (which honestly can happen but it's hardly predictable).
You need to find people who make content you're authentically interested in so that reading and commenting doesn't feel like a chore, but a pleasure.