[STEEM-BOUNTY] are You Actively Promoting Your SteemIt Posts?
Blog post promotion... Some people are spending hours on it, and some couldn't care less. What about you? That's the @steem-bounty question for this week.
Source
Blogging Success
Whether you have an external blog, or you are blogging on a platform like SteemIt, there's one thing we all have in common: we want our posts to be read. There is nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of blood, sweat and tears on a blog post, only to find out it no one reads it.
Having a successful blog all comes down to the number of people that actively engage with it.
Audience
When I signed up for SteemIt, I remember there was a line in one of the advertising campaigns that said; 'No need to search for visitors, the audience is already there' (or something alike).
With that sentence, they were referring to all people on SteemIt that were actively searching their feeds, or the tag feeds, that would eventually stumble upon your post and read it.
Another lie, just like the statement that you could earn good money here.
With thousands of posts made on the SteemIt platform every day, the chances they are just going to bump into your post are pretty small.
There's just too much going on for your blog to already have an audience when you start.
Steem-Bounty.
As you could read in the title of this post, I set up a @steem-bounty on this post.
The Steem from the @steem-bouty will be shared among all people who comment with a valid answer to the question below.
Source
How Does That Work?
Everyone who leaves a (top-level) comment on today's question with a valid answer will get an upvote from me. The more valuable I think your answer is, the bigger the upvote will be, and the bigger share of the bounty you will earn.
A small part of the distribution of the bounty is also determined by the upvotes of other community members. If a lot of others upvote your comment,
your share of the @steem-bounty will grow (a little) bigger.
You can see it as an exercise in writing quality comments. Just like last week, there is no right or wrong answer. All I want to know is the answer to the question, and an explanation of why you act like that.
If you want to read more about how @steem-bounty works, or find more posts that will reward your comment with a @steem-bounty, you can visit their website at https://steem-bounty.com.
Bounty Question
So here's my question to you this week:
Are you actively promoting your blog posts or not?
And if you do, what kind of promotion techniques do you use?
Do you just publish your post and wait for people to come and read your post?
Do you use name tags to draw the attention to your posts?
Do you use community tags?
Do you network in order to get people to visit your blog?
Do you promote your links in Discord channels or not? If so, how and why?
Do you promote your post outside of SteemIt? How do you do this? Where do you promote?
...
All of this and more is what want to hear from you this week.
If you've been following my latest posts, you'll notice I started a series on ways to get your blog seen. I will definitely share more techniques that can help to drive more traffic to your blog, but - curious as I am - first I want to hear if and how you are handling promotion of your posts.
Source
Because there is a @steem-bounty set on this post, I'd like it to be fair for everyone. So:
* Comment upvote bots are not allowed!
* No Self-voting
If you break the rules I'll make sure you are disqualified.
An upvote, followor resteem.is not required to enter this contest. However, it wïl allow me to run more contests anf giveaways.
Payout
During this week, I'll be going through the comments and give every valid answer an upvote. The size of that upvote depends on how valuable I think your answer is.
(Don't worry if you don't do any kind of promotion. If you give good argument why you don't, and let us know if it works for you, your answer could be just as valuable as any other.)
When this post reaches payout, @steem-bounty will do all the math for me and will send your share of the bounty directly to your wallet.
Share Your Secrets
So let's get started: I want to hear all your promotion techniques, or why you don't have any.
This is a golden opportunity to learn from each other and maybe uncover ways to make your blog (even)more popular.
So please don't hold back and tell us everything!
I might even have a secret bonus prize to give away...
Join us @steemitbloggers
Animation By @zord189
Dear @simplymike, thank you for the bounty you set, you know after this HF20 it is so difficult for me make anything, post, comments or upvote...
Anyway now i am almost not using any bot, just i use minnowbooster because i do not like to see my posts with 0,xx but this is not at all an investment.
After i discover steem-bounty i cannot stop to use this wonderful service.
You know, there are many people which argue about stupid comments or spam, but in my experience i saw very few people do it, the rest are really good people and expecially @knircky is the best whale in Steemit, because he is not selling his power as upvote bot as many others do, but he is giving all the effords for the growing up of this community. You are the members of our family, i see you are addicted too like me to make bounties, so i am very proud to do my part in this wonderful community.
Would that be 'no' to the question?
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Do you think that Steem-bounty is not post promotion service? And minnowbooster? I think is yes, of course as i can...
If I can give you a tip for the future: try to answer as clear as possible. Don't add more information than is asked for, because if you do, your answer is hard to understand, and you might be taken for a bounty hunter who only hunts, and doesn't contribute.
For example, you could have just answered somdthing like: "Yes, I'm using @steem-bounty to attract more visitors to my posts."
That would have been enough. Nice and clean, with little chance there will be a misunderstanding
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By the way, can you explain how your hard to understand answer manages to get 7 votes?
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I already figured it out. The rules were clear: no self-votes and no voting bots. You broke one of those rules. As a result you are not entitled toreceive a reward in this @steem-bounty hunt. The only way I can make sure you don't get rewarded is by flagging your comment.
Let this be a lesson for next time.
Dear simplymike, first of all sorry for my english, i understood that i write in a way for you was unaderstandable.
As you can see from the imagine, i am doing day by day a fighting with my RC.
I am contributor of @Steem-bounty from the beginning and you can ask to @knircky if you do not believe it.
So i am not a bounty hunter! I am a contributor like you.
Ok i understand you rules to not self upvote, this is what i hate, but regarding other people votes is the only chance i have to grown my SP and then my RC.
It's a pity you downvote me with your 100% power, it was enough to do it with 1% to let me not get your bounty...
I'm sorry, my mistake about the 100%. I didn't notice I could bring it back to 1%. Sorry for that. Bjt you've got to deserve your upvotes from other community members.
By keeping it short and to the point, your chances on upvotes from others will grow. For now I've removed the flag, but let it be a warning for next time
Dear @simplymike, you are an active member of steem-bounty and for that i consider you as one member of my virtual family, if i keep strong to stay in Steemit is thanks to people like you that are in this family and help to grow all of us
Hmm, interesting the way you promoted steem-bounty here. Kind of makes me want to do a tag search, just to find current posts with an open bounty. I have been trying to think of ways to sort of "sell" my comments to people who want them on their posts. Steem-bounty does a good enough job of advertising to everyone which people are willing to pay good money for comments, and makes you compete for it.
What magic technique do I use?
Charm. Authentic. Honest. Relevant. Question. Clincher.
I try to use a combination of these personality traits in all of my posts. As long as I communicate clearly, with minimal typing and grammar errors, I don't have to worry about being poor quality. Write about any topic, and people are sure to be interested in reading it.
People appreciate reading text much more if it has a narrative style, from a person with a real voice and personality. Anytime I can sneak in a personal story into whatever I am sharing, the better.
Charm is easy. Never talk like a sales-person, commercial, or a boring instructor who gives the same lesson every time just like every other teacher who teaches the same lesson. Be slightly weird, hyper, strange, nerdy, narcissistic, or any not-normal personality to slightly enhance your writing persona. This will heighten your personality to a less serious tone, which makes it easier to add your own sense of humor too.
Always include a question, or ask for help, because it connects people together. Everyone wants to have a purpose and feel generous that they can help. So I like to make that offering every time.
A little bit of kindness and courtesy goes a long way, by briefly acknowledging gratefulness to everyone who has volunteered to view, comment, or upvote. Don't be repetitive and use the same words every time. Be genuine, and express your thanks in a regular flow based on how you actually feel in the current moment.
The only thing I never ask for in my posts is for people to upvote and resteem me, because people generally won't do that unless they want to, not because I ask for it. Some people even refuse to upvote anyone who they feel is begging for upvotes, because it is a big turn-off to them.
A clincher is a nice bonus to make your post leave a memorable impression. One last Hail Mary to earn an upvote! It can be an emotional photo, a quote, a joke, or a life lesson learned from the post. Anything positive to contribute to leaving the reader better off than they were before makes a good clincher at the end of the post. Be original and mix it up every post, so that the followers will continue to appreciate following your posts.
I don't have any tricks for promoting my posts to get more followers directly. I gave up on bots and I never give permission for voting services to autovote for me. Sometimes I write posts with certain lucky tags, and it attracts a lot of upvotes because related communities enjoy getting new posts from new writers. Some people like to find out which posts are getting big upvotes from @Curie, and focus on writing related posts that use the same tags as those posts. I don't do this, but I try to post about a variety of subjects each time, to try out a few new tags each time, and continue using one or two tags I think are popular. Just make sure your content is actually related to the tags you choose, otherwise people might get angry and flag you.
Okay, can you see I love giving advice and being helpful? Viewers don't have to take my advice, but it's there if they want it.
Thanks for sharing this steem-bounty @simplymike. That is very generous!
Thanks for your advice, @creativetruth. There was actually such a lot of good advice that I started wondering if you would ans,er the question too. But you did, in the end, lol.
By the way, before I forget:you don't have todo a tag search to find bounties, you can see them all at the @steem-bounty website: https://steem-bounty.com/
Using the right tags is a strategy I see more people mention. I don't really have so many options, since my field of interest, knowledge and skill is pretty limited. But maybe I should try it once: choose a tag before I write the post. Might be interesting... or nothing at all :0)
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I have to tell you @simplymike, I was honestly just going around and commenting on all of the steem-bounties available that looked easy enough to participate in. Most of them looked innocent enough, so I took advantage of the opportunities to build up some engagement with others, and potentially earn some extra rewards.
Unfortunately, there are some people, I later on discerned, only running the steem-bounties because they want to earn the 100 Steem prize being offered for those running a steem-bounty contest. One of those I ran into started harassing me with judgements, and insulting my misfortune of being born from lower forms of life (paraphrasing). I am not easily offended, but I feel bad for anyone else who might fall victim to predators out there looking to lure in comments, only to spread hate and negativity to innocent contributors.
Can steem-bounty creators hijack their own bounty to collect extra rewards?
Thank you @simplymike for being such a helpful steward to others here on Steemit and elsewhere who are sometimes a bit clueless on how things work. It is very dissatisfying to ask a question about something that is causing frustration, and have people write back that you don't deserve an opinion on technology you don't operate or understand.
What? Did this really happen?? Perhaps it is something hou should the guy behind @steem-bounty, preferrably before he pays out his 100 steem., so he can take those people lf the list of valid entries.
Hosts of bounty contests normally get nothing. But with the 100 Stedm bounty contest that is running now, they get an upvote of app 2 steem when they set up their contest, and they will get a share of the 100 Steem.prize pool. So at the moment, there's a lot at stake. (This 100 steem bounty contest is just a form.of promoting the service. It will be gone again soon, and things will get back to normal: host simply pay for the prize money themselves, and the steem-bounty service takes care of deciding who gets how much of the prize pool.
If you want to, I will message him.in the morning, telling him what you just told me. Could you send me the link to the contest (if you prefer Discord, you can find me there as simplymike#5957
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I think the author I engaged with is kind of a wacko conspiracy theorist, and full of hypocrisy, but dangerous enough to dox people based on other posts I am reading. Arguing with him is not recommended, as he does not play by logical rules.
I do not support censorship, obviously. However, I hope he isn't using this contest to be a predator on others in order to grab a prize from people more deserving.
If you are going to change the rules because of abusers, I do not want to be held accountable. I'm just reporting my experience.
https://steemit.com/steem-bounty/@justmeagain/why-i-do-declare-it-s-1861-in-the-steem-world-social-experiment-and-a-civil-war-is-unfolding
I think everything that has happened has little to do with Steem-bounty. The guy is just... (I don't want to write down yhe words I'm thinking right now)
I think you handled that conversation really well, I wouldn't have gone back for seconds. But you did and stood your ground. Very well done.
I think the conclusion should be: stay away from controversal bounyty post by ****** people, lol
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Damn, i managed to lose my very lengthy reply. I'm not going to retype now, I got to get some sleep, but if you send me the link to the contest, I'll let the guy behind @steem-bounty know about this and make sure she doesn't get a reward.
@jmhb85, maybe you should already read the comment above this one in which @creativetruth has been obviously a victim of @steem-bount abusers
@creativetruth, send me the link, if you want to, feel free to use Discord. You can find me there as simplymike#5957
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I used to work with voting bots quite a while ago but stopped completely.
Now I'm happy when I have the time to finish a post, and answer to the incoming comments. Unfortunately comments re becoming more and more seldom these days.
Never used discord to promote my post, somehow I feel that doesn't make sense of all.
When I used steem-bounty engagement is much higher, of course the bounty is lurking people to comment.
Recently I'm more and more wondering if the whole platform is doomed to fail, I can't see any reason now for new people to join. Especially after HF 20.
Time will have to tell if SteemIt will survive...
Hiiiiiiiii your awesomeness!! ❤
Great question! We do need this now more than ever.
Hmmmmmm.. i actually use bots to like my posts but on a minimal amount only because i dont have much. Though I am not really after the payout but i am rather after the growing of my SP.
My posts do not earn much and i do not mind because its really hard to get noticed these days.
However, the one thing that I do to promote it is by getting the crowd in! The more people come in and keep commenting down that is what matters to me. I love it when people engage a lot in one post. Through it, somehow your post gets promoted for free because friends who comment in sometimes resteemed it.
The question is, how do you attract people to your post? For me, i try to make lively post, i avoid the serious talks and shits! Sorry! I like it more when you get to share your personal insights into the post and add a little humor. I use so much bitmoji to express my true emotions hahaha.. and soooo out with the boring posts too.
For me a quality post is promoted if people talks about it. Bots votes are just additional bonuses. Thank you! 😂🤣
Sometimes too tagging friends helps the promotion! Hahaha
Also, if you go around commenting to other people's post. They do the same to you. I think it is a mutual understanding to give back the love we give..
Hehehe..
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Writing a post that is nice to read is of course one of the most important factors if you want to get an audience. And so is networking. The more people you know, the more people will be looking out for your new blog posts.
yessssss... true! I am always contemplating what to write. Before HF20 I have so many ideas what to post. But after, I kinda slowed down a bit. Maybe because I am a little busy too at work. Slowly, my enery is coming back.
its very important to draw in the crowd. Its important too to keep moving around, I believe that it can be contagious.. hehe
I used steem bounty a few times and I saw a spike in quantity of comments that I received but not necessarily the quality. Bounty hunters just go in all posts tht have bounty and write some generalized comment.
Then it is up to the bost of the contest to not reward these generalized comments.
Only quality comments and valid answers get an.upvote from me.
In the past, people could post a spam post and use a comment upvote bot to vote on it. The system was too easy to rig - that's the reason I stopped using the service.
Meanwhile they have updated the system a lot. The upvote of the host is the most important facgor now. I think upvotes from the community only count for 5% now.
This means that as a host, you have a lot more power and you can give more complete, valid answers in which good arguments are used a bigger upvote than comments of low qualitt, which will reflect in the bounty rewards at post payout.
For myself, I decided to flag every comment that doesnt comply with the rules: self-votes or comment bot votes are forbidden.
Compared with 6 months ago, the system.is a lot harder to misuse...
Btw dus you see the easy going elephant?
Do you really do nothing else to get the word out about your posts?
Not really.
I dont do much. I try to use appropriate tags and I usually promote my posts in the minnowsupport discord channel.
I see that you use the smartvote banner. How are you related to this project?
I delegate a little to it in exchange for a vote
I have created a similar service, but that one pays 100% of the gains to the delegators: @zero-profit. If you are interested please have a look here.
When I first joined steemit, I used to use bots for my 'really great fictions'. Nothing big. Usually 1 Steem sent to smartmarket or minnowbooster.
Then I realized most curator guilds won't consider my stories if I use bots so I stopped. That was a good move as usually I get a major curie upvote once a month.
I haven't used the promotion tab coz I rarely even check it. Besides, using bots doesn't seem like a good investment these days.
The only promotion I do is to drop my links in post-promotion rooms on discord servers.
But that's just for me. I'm mostly a contest guy so I get audience from the organisers of the contests, other contestants and a few regular visitors
Congrats on getting a regular curie vote. Now I just have to go and take a look at your blog :0)
I generally don't promote my posts. Because i have been tooo poor! @Dustsweeper nad @moonbot have been the only tools i have been using. Oh and also a memeber of school of minnows.
I wll definately look into this now that my account is growing though! Any suggestions will be welcome!
Schoolofminnows is an awesome initiative to get the word out about your posts.
And there are some Discord communities that can be really helpful.
I suck at promoting myself, I want to join Discord but that place confuses me. I can't wait to hear how other people promote their work so I can use their ideas. I try to use good tags, but I'm pretty sure I'm not doing a good job.
The one thing I do do (ha ha. I said doodoo) is engage other Steemians as much as possible to foster reciprocation, and I enter contests.
Once you join one Discord server, it will become easier. It's the one thing I wish I did sooner.
I think engaging with other Steemians is one of the most important factors when it comes to internal promotion, so I guess you're on the right path :0)
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Very interesting article @simplymike, so good to read more about steem bounty. Good to know it's still running and strong. I wasn't really sure what it's all about and stumbled upon it several times. Now I know more. Definitely, a very good idea to have a post where people can engage and have fun.
Unfortunately, I never thought about a true marketing strategy. Never planned to have my blog successful in a way. My goal was to meet new people who are on the same wavelength mainly. Thus I search for interesting and unique quality content and comment on it. See who is behind. Engage.
I think my marketing strategy is to be honest and authentic .... mhhhhhh .... is this really a marketing strategy? :) lol
Have a great day, everybody!!!!!!