Quality Comment Creation For Maximum Follower Gain - How To Win Followers And Influence People On Steemit - Part 3
![Followers 3 0.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSFoUZQzSXJCk3qT5kwiuDQV8HtHXAmHeo1ZiyEzq4jon/Followers%203%200.jpg)
There is one simple, but potentially non-obvious, rule to earning your first round of followers on Steemit:
You might think that putting out the absolute best content and trying to promote it is the way to gaining followers, but you still face the problem of having no audience. You can try an "If you build it, they will come" approach, but it's simply a lot more efficient to take your product to where the people already are - the "Hot" posts of the most popular authors on Steemit.
![Followers 2 7.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmbD5Z8x45eRpCKoBYu3VbYmNDQRnfXvuuxSoJoS4KfL8A/Followers%202%207.jpg)
I can't stress enough how much more efficient comments are for gaining followers than posts. Even now, at over 1500 followers, I regularly gain 2-3 followers for a quality post, and 20-40 followers for a spirited comment-discussion in a top Steemian's blog.
Before you start, double check that your blog is setup - quality content posted, avatar (especially important, make sure it is visibly differentiated from others), cover image, tag line, location.
Without further ado, here are some guidelines to remember.
![Followers 3 2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmX9YujU1yWHSVgddWKcL1ZST9g232cwXtyxqv7wKaZ2jW/Followers%203%202.jpg)
You should generally try to be positive at first. I am not saying you need to become a sycophant, and if kyriacos is out there somewhere, I think he'll at least agree with me that I am not endorsing that. However, complaints from strays that just wandered in are not universally loved. Be sure any objections you make are rock-solid and be ready to defend them without falling back on logical fallacies, particularly the dreaded ad-hominem or straw-man.
If you can't be nice, you MUST be right. Remember, everything you say on Steemit will live in the block-chain. Be sure you are willing to stand by your words once the heat of "battle" has subsided. The feeling of re-reading and being embarrassed by one's own words is not a pleasant one.
![Followers 3 3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmTHcTtDHEjoLAGzDj4XSFB9z7CBztouK4PfRMt9foUMRB/Followers%203%203.jpg)
If you add too many users to your feed, it will quickly become an untenable chore to look through, and you will stop using it. This may be inevitable, but try to avoid it as long as possible.
Keep your feed usable by only following those:
- That you interact with regularly
- Those whose posts you particularly like.
- Those who author posts that you can provide great value in the comments for.
- Those who have authored posts you have had great success in previously.
![Followers 3 4.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSwGYkgeKUSnZrnFdjwodzk9ZtrfDVHcABKPHKuXHc2uF/Followers%203%204.jpg)
This is another key reason why keeping your feed clean (and free of serial resteemers) early is so critical. It really helps to have a single page you can refresh regularly to see new posts immediately.
However you do it, find a system that works for you to keep on top of the posts where you can provide the most comment value. This is going to require a lot of time for most, and there's no easy way around that.
Note that you can mute someone that a user you otherwise like following resteems too often, and then not see those resteems in your feed.
![Followers 3 5.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmP7ogEqzEPbJZp8imwW4LiKt4mf44Ms9vnQhS2wkY89HR/Followers%203%205.jpg)
"Trending" is usually too late to have substantial active discussion ongoing, however it can be useful to find out who has been posting reliably popular articles in the last week. Sticking to the "Hot" section and sorting by tags where you can add value is your best bet. The more value, the better, but if you are forced to move on to more generic pastures, aim for the most popular tags - Steem, Steemit, etc.
![Followers 3 6.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbsdeRaTP9titdN8JaXx2Y21W1JaDpWmzLHdRj56oc5Ja/Followers%203%206.jpg)
Try to take advantage of your specialties and knowledge. Don't follow whales into tags you are not an expert in, or better yet, don't open up your mouth (in the non-inquisitive sense) if you don't know what you are talking about. Heck, while we're on that topic, don't ask others to answer your questions in the comments if they are Google-able - look them up and post the answer for others!
Find anywhere your abilities allow you to post faster and better than others, increasing the chance you get near the top of the comments list, and do so.
Ask yourself, if I was this author's assistant, how could I add value in the comments as they exist currently? Then do that, repeatedly, and ask for nothing back. Are there questions that need answering? Did the author ask for discussion? Would a line by line agreement or rebuttal provide useful talking points? Did the author wish had had data or research he was unable to produce or find?
![Curate 3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmXGboJgUmQr1tZsveP932CNqPDu1GkVnDKk16CfEMfokD/Curate%203.jpg)
This will be controversial, and indeed, this is dangerous and conditional advice. But I will simply tell you that having tried it both ways, there is simply no comparison in results. I rarely need to use this tool anymore, but the smaller I was, the more often this was critical to a comment's success via increasing visibility.
Even a small upvote that provides under 1 cent in rewards will get you above many other comments (specifically, all those with 0 votes). Many popular posts have a sea of bot, spam, and low-effort comments; if you do not self-vote ever, you will be beneath them unless the author or someone with arguable OCD comes along, reads until the very last comment, and then upvotes you. Comments with the same value, if not sorted, are ordered by reputation, further handicapping new users. The end result of an arbitrary rule to never self-vote your quality comments is that, unless you are one of the first 3-5 comments on a Hot post, your comment work will go unrewarded.
![Followers 3 7.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUaYe537FmrJM2xLg4k9zEPBZWCF5CqwffLytVgYQoSgM/Followers%203%207.jpg)
Few will notice minnow self-votes, and frankly, I personally do not care at all where the rewards on a post or comment come from. If the comment seems fairly rewarded in the context of its quality and location, the source should be irrelevant. Anything less is some degree of appeal to authority, and what constitutes "fairly rewarded" is subjective.
Having said that, flags are not an impossibility, but nobody will launch a campaign against a minnow over a few self-voted comments.
This is yet another reason why buying some SP when you start at Steemit can be very helpful. However, do not use this to reward comments unjustly - use this power to order comments in descending order of quality, hopefully placing it where yours can be seen.
Importantly, do not forget to also reward the quality comments of others.
Every user will have to judge for themselves what is acceptable. I try to judge the comment thread from as objective a point of view as I can muster, and if I must upvote my comment (note: something I do well under 1% of the time) because the comment thread is already large, I attempt to move it up only as far as its quality dictates. I try to avoid muscling off the top comment, either - I generally aim no higher than #2. The rest of the audience can move my comment up, if they so choose.
On this point in particular, please be judicious and careful. If someone wrote a post highlighting your vote, could you defend it?
If you are in doubt on this point, please feel free to open it up for discussion in the comments.
In part 4, I'll share a comment that, while it might appear initially to be a throwaway, was actually a very carefully crafted and successful comment that garnered me some 40+ followers and $20+ in rewards.
![PAL Logo.gif](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmRSmRyg4MdRdiKsWTMbfyiAG673K1yP65MoUTbCXGp9Xi/PAL%20Logo.gif)
We also have a Radio Station! (click me)
...and a 4800+ user Discord Chat Server! (click me)
Sources:@dollarvigilante, Pinterest, AZQuotes
Copyright:RealMonstrosities.com, @chdasher on Linkedin, White House Press Photo, europosters.eu, Freelancer's Union Blog
I'm a little late on this post, but better late than never. This post is absolutely awesome and touches on a very important, but under-appreciated area, which are comments.
I HATE that there is this stigma about upvoting your own comments. I actually just posted about this exact topic tonight on my blog. If your comment was worth writing you should upvote it and there should be nothing wrong with that!
Also in some cases the comments can actually provide more value than the posts themselves, and I would love to see more rewards paid out to comments rather than posts. My go-to community other than SteemIt is Hacker News, and the reason is 100% for the comments. I can read the news stories anywhere, but there the comments are amazing.
For everything that is posted there are people who are intimately familiar with whatever type of science or technology the post is about who had so much additional information or perspectives in the comments.
I wish that the same thing will one day happen here, and one way to get to that point is to have everyone start upvoting great comments as much - or more - than they do for posts.
I agree with everything you've said here.
I think one reason the comments are under-utilized, at present, is due to the prevalence of auto-voting at the moment. As a result, many posts have far more votes than actual views. I think we will need to change how curation works to encourage human interaction again. We need to see a result much more like the average Reddit post, where the comments are actually very relevant.
I have never seen anyone post "Came for the comments" on Steemit.
Thinking about how to potentially solve this problem. A lot of the issues here seem to be around the fight to get on the "trending" page. I wonder if they changed the trending algorithm to weigh the votes on the comments of a post as well as the post itself if that would encourage more discussion and push the good discussions to the top.
Do you know how the trending page algorithm works?
"A lot of the issues here seem to be around the fight to get on the "trending" page."
I would tend to agree.
"I wonder if they changed the trending algorithm to weigh the votes on the comments of a post as well as the post itself if that would encourage more discussion and push the good discussions to the top."
I've suggested something very similar to this, but crafting the formula itself is no small tas.
"Do you know how the trending page algorithm works?"
I think it's a straight up, per-tag ranking of pending rewards. More = better.
WoW !! .. the cat is OUT of the BAG ! - )))
Thanks ALLoT .. i still feel "new" after reading this (sad face )
ha ha - ))
SteeM has so many facets, curves, and PLAYS !! - ))
.. thanks for letting US "in" - ))
NoW .. i'll go read #1 and #2 = the more i kNOW !!
lovelovelove )))
greb'Z )
reSTEEMed - ))
and ... i just added you to my steem voter - ))
77% on two accounts ... 77 = G.ood G.ame - ))
ps .. any advice on auto voting "timing" would be great - )
i know the basics .. and you're set to 20 minutes - ))
thanks again for the advice - ))
Thanks buddy, I appreciate it very much!
"any advice on auto voting "timing" would be great"
The truth is, I have experimented with vote timing in the past but did not really take the time to track my results well enough to draw conclusions. Now, I simply upvote whatever I see that I think deserves it, when I see it, and I basically forego any attempt to maximize curation rewards. I actually do not use any auto-votes on anyone, although I am beginning to think I may need to as I am failing to support everyone I wish to.
As for timing, I would think you might want to move closer to 30 minutes. Maybe just a touch before to jump ahead of the line. You get 50% more curation rewards at 30 minutes than you do at 20 minutes. Maybe 27-29 minutes could be a good game-theory spot? It entirely depends on how many others are doing it this way, and I haven't looked closely at the timings.
I experimented with not voting on my own posts until well after 30 minutes, to try and help my voters get more curation rewards. This, I actually tracked, and it backfired. Many of my posts didn't make it to "hot" (or, more rarely, "trending") anymore, or quickly enough, and the total rewards went down lower than before, which hurt all my voters curation rewards. I also think it slowed down the rate of follower gain, but I can't control for the quality of content I released at the two different times, so that is an unchecked variable.
Thanks again for your support, hope to see you again soon!
Adding valuable comment and insight is the 'silver bullet' on Steemit that many people do not utilize. On days when I don't write blogs, I typically just go through my blogs reading interesting blogs and adding valuable insights...in areas of background that I am knowledgeable about, I found it to be much easier to add information that may be miss or add further depth to the discussion...I believe it is one of the areas that should be given much more focus for new users rather than trying to write two or three blogs per day and it helps to get those upvotes from higher rep users as it also helps increase your own reputation, in fact one of the fastest ways to raise your reputation is by simply commenting on higher reps and being rewarded for your insights...I learnt one thing today that I would add to toolbox and that of utilizing the 'Hot' section...
I think you just managed to summarize my article much more concisely.
You've definitely got the idea.
I noticed in the first few days that some of my comments were getting liked and were valued at higher than my posts. I've been trying to engage with helpful content like this series of yours to learn. Please keep putting out these pieces.
Thank you for the encouragement!
"some of my comments were getting liked and were valued at higher than my posts."
Yep, as they say in marketing, it's all about the eyeballs. If you look in the lower right corner on your posts, and then on the comments in question, I bet you'll find the views number is a lot higher on the latter.
Definitely see that when comparing your replies to mine ;)
The importance of commenting on posts cannot be over emphacised. Authors like it when you add value to their posts. People always want to connect with someone who does more than just upvoting, but take their time to read and contribute to issues raised in their post... It's actually a win win situation, you comment, you get upvoted thereby also earning, and you gain more followers on the long run.
Thanks for these tips @lexiconical!
I agree wholeheartedly. It's a relief to know that someone is out there actually reading what we write, especially during these "slower" times on Steemit where a lot of people have gone "autovote-and-forget" for a time.
Thank you for stopping in to read!
My pleasure
This is a REALLY quality post and I can't believe there are no comments.....
HAHHAHAAHHHAAHHA how hilarious is that!
I couldn't agree more and there is a lot of valuable advise, however people are obviously not reading. To bad for them as this could help many be more successful..
Keep up the good work.
Best Regards~*~
Oh for some reason it didn't show any of the comments on the post, however for the quality and the content of the post it is still far under engaged.
Ah, phew, I was going to say - I thought it had some comments!
I think activity in the comments of Steemit is a little slow now. The price is not doing much (trending slightly down, if anything). A lot of people are using auto-voters now to increase curation rewards.
It is what it is.
Yes exactly. I just found it particularly interesting that such a good post about why commenting is so important hardly had any comments on it. When I initially saw it showed zero and I was like WHAT??? but then after it loaded there was a few.
Anyways great article, something people would be wise to read. To bad for them.
Ah, well, it's going to be saved in the blockchain for everyone to see! I hope others get use out of it, and now, I can refer others to my own posts when they ask me this question.
"How do I get more followers/rewards" is probably the most common question I get at the Minnow Support Group Discord.
Yes this is a PRIMO post to be able to reference for minnow support group!
Should get a lot of use, hope it does anyways.
Keep up the great work. We have a more successful community to build!
SteemON!
This is great advice regarding comments! And despite our just discussing how minnows shouldn't resteem, I'm going to resteem this on the @commentwealth blog. 😃
Thank you very much!
I wouldn't consider purpose-built blogs like @commentwealth to be susceptible to the same sort of rules.
I still cite to the comment curation guide written there, it saved me having to write a similar one!
solid post, for myself and my 61 day steemit experience I can say that the commenting on other posts and replying to the comments on your own posts seem to get me more followers then the actual posts (except the 2 whalevotes this week that got me a big jump in followers)
so in lue of the subject I have upvoted my own comment just to appear a bit higher in the list here (I know, cheecky, isnt it)´
but have also upvoted this post for my full 0,01 and since the stuff you write seems well written and thought out I have honoured you with my follow
Hah, it doesn't look like you upvoted this comment at all actually, but I will.
As I noted above, sometimes that's OK. You need to be able to stand by it, however.
cool thanks for your upvote then, another 0.27 cents but more importantly a little step toward better reputation and I would say that that is more important in the end and then the cash will follow anyway
This is quality stuff.
You are becoming a motivation figure! seriously, for me at least if not for others.
You are doing your best to help the minnows here on steemit.This platform needs people like you for the efficient growth.
Coming to the rewards, you might be earning less but trust me, in the long run your hard-working will pay off as quality is never wasted.
Thank you!
Your kind words are much appreciated!
"Comments with the same value, if not sorted, are ordered by reputation."
Thanks for that tip! I always wondered why I could be the first commentor and end up at the bottom, this all makes sense now and I can't believe I didn't notice that.
Glad I could help! Thank you for the tip!
Don't forget, if you are sorting the comments with the drop-down, this may not apply. Also, after you post your comment, it does actually go to the bottom. You'll need to refresh to see it ordered the way anyone who loads the page AFTER you comment would.
Hope that helps!
All very legitimate advice, of which much of it I will heed. I'll come back kick this to the wall later.
You might even be able to supercharge some of these ideas...
I'm imagining you leaving replies in improv'ed, lyrical form.
LoL...I've thought about that. Do you how hard that would be.? Hard. I'm a writer so I would literally have to construct rhymes for each reply. LMAO....I'll stick to the Jacking for beats.
"I'm a writer"
Oh, I know it. I wasn't implying it would be easy, few things are.