For those of you who don’t know about it, Shout-Out-Saturday is an initiative to promote or give thanks to special people you’ve met. This is my first Shout-Out-Saturday post, so I would like to list some of the people who have helped my Steemit blogging journey so far. I pride myself as a self-learner, however as we all know, being a blogger on Steemit a multi-facets job with lots of detailed technical aspects. With such complexity, it is normal to have teachers who guide us to navigate in this Steemit jungle.

Whether they are doing it directly or indirectly, the lessons that these people taught, had helped me so far. All of them are members of Minnow Support Project / PALnet, as that is the first Steemit related Discord group that I’ve joined. Without further ado, here they are in no particular order.

@lucy-and-dan has a PAL Discord name of Danny / Dan The Man. He used the Dan the Mandoot as lots of members were playing and joking around using their Discord names back then. As you can see from my screenshot, he helped me when I was just starting on Steemit. In a way, he is my first Steemit teacher.

Back then I was so happy that I finally got an increase in reputation from the starting 25 to 26. I shared that happiness with the group and Dan bumped my reputation to 27 in that same minute. Woah, as a newbie, I was flying high with happiness. Most people would just stop there and I would still be truly grateful for it, but he took the extra step and saw that I had been using the 100% Power-Up setting for all of my posts. As we all know, if SBD is priced above USD $1, it is always more profitable to use the 50%-50% setting. His extra attention and lesson saved me from losing my earnings. Thank you, Dan!

I’ve only chatted with @legendchew for several times. Well, it’s basically my fault as I rarely in the chatroom. Lol. Back then, however, like fate, one thing lead to another, I visited his blog and found his latest article where he shared the process of his writing. In that post, I found the golden info about Grammarly.com It’s free to use grammar checking service which is perfect for a non-native speaker like me. Also, if you want to check out his writing, he published a newer article focusing on the grammar tools here.

These next three teachers have helped me a lot here and there in my Steemit journey. The first one I would like to mention is @juliakponsford. She’s an artist, musician, and also a moderator on PALnet Discord group. She posted about The Ultimate Guide To Key Safety under MinnowSupport account.

As most of us can remember, there were scams and hacking attempts on rampant last couple of months. Back then I was still using my Private Active Key 99% of the time with the other 1% was me using my Master Key. She indirectly helped me big time with that post. Of course, she also directly teaches and help me by sharing her knowledge nuggets here and there inside the Discord group. Love you, Julia!

A little bit background about myself: I had worked in the Forex / Index futures market industry for 11 years. Usually, if you spend that much time on a financial industry, you will naturally learn one or two things on how to analyze the market. I joined Steemit not long after my exposure to the crypto market as a whole. Back then people were saying things like, “Throw away your old analysis. Crypto is a new beast, you need new rules to predict crypto.” I was dumbfounded until I met @scaredycatguide.

While chatting with him inside Discord group, listening to his radio shows, reading his posts, and watching his videos, I realize that all my past knowledge are still useable. What makes me comfortable is the fact that his analysis is the same technique that I’ve learned so far, and it can be applied to crypto market. BTC, ETH, LTC, EOS, Steem, etc you name it. He’s like the been there, done that in the crypto finance world. Thank you, Mitchel, for your teachings.

@crimsonclad sometimes uses the Discord name of The Bringer of Death... Metal, death metal! She is the host of MSPWaves radio show of Full Force Thursday where she plays heavy death metal songs for all of us. The death metal genre is not for everyone, but I love it tough. Thus, the nickname. I learn a lot from this teacher.

I’ve heard her saying “minnows should do commenting” multiple times, that it sticks in my head. As we all know, as newcomers or small minnows, commenting might be even more profitable than writing a whole long post. By doing it the right way, commenting could also help us build a network of friends and followers. That way we, the small minnows, won’t be singing the best concerto of our life, to an empty auditorium! (another one of her favorite quote)

She also showed it first hand on how to engage and chat with a complete Steemit stranger. She usually starts with the question “Where do you live?” and continue with “What do you blog about?” She handles the conversation gracefully that it becomes a three or five-minute conversation per user.

Of course, there are more people who taught me things here and there about Steemit. After all, Steemit is a very complex platform. I’ve just mentioned these five teachers because they came on the top of my mind while I compose this article.

How about you? Who are your Steemit teachers? Do you have somebody who teaches you a little bit here and there? Or do you have somebody who took your hands and taught you step-by-step on how to survive Steemit?