Let's Talk—How Did you Discover Steemit.com?
It was the summer of 2016 and I was working on a couple of web projects and hunting for domain names for one of them on NameSilo. I was basically planning to add a website on crypto to my portfolio, seeing as how the market was booming.
I had a few extra hours in the day and I thought it would be a great idea to get more involved in this space and monitor the markets and write about it in general in addition to investing some extra bucks in a few crypto projects. I also ran an editorial consulting firm at the time for my regular income.
Using a domain name generator I had come up with a ton a of good names. A few didn't fit with the project I had in mind at the time. It was when I was looking up a particular name, it led me to a press release or an article about Steemit on Yahoo or similar news website. I'm pretty sure it was Yahoo...Anyways
It described what the project was all about and I felt it was interesting. I visited Steemit and saw a whole lot of crypto and crypto-anarchy stuff that dominated the platform in it's early days, not to mention the insane payouts that went along with it. But I truly felt that Steemit was another one of those scammy websites or ponzi scheme and the payouts weren't real.
I also couldn't quite understand how it functioned but I found out that there was a slack channel for users interested in learning more about it so I signed up and forgot about all of this for a few days.
It was mid-June 2016 and I decided to re-visit Steemit Slack channel and find out more about how Steemit works. I found out about an ebook that was on it's way and started conversing with some of the users on the slack. @donkeypong along with few other well known users of our platform had authored Steemit 101 and published it on Amazon. As a voracious reader I decided to give it a read. It opened my eyes to the long-term, potential of this platform on a global scale!
It was around 25th of June that I had read the ebook and by then I was already in conversation with a few people on the slack. @sean-king, @riverhead and @smooth were some of the people who went out of their way to help me understand how this platform worked economically, algorithmically and I learnt quite fast. I enjoyed the slack conversations a lot those days. We were about 100-150 people at the time when the 4th of July event happened!
4th of July 2016 was quite an incredible day and I couldn't believe what I was seeing on the exchanges! It was insane watching Steem price rocket to the moon! Those were some of the busiest days at the time and I still had no account to use.
I kept the conversations going and I think it was the 7th of July 2016 that I finally signed up. I was one of the first few Indian users on the platform as well. I loved the discussions in the community very much and engaged with a ton of users. I didnt have a single post published at the time but networking with other users made me very happy. I felt I was connecting with some very cool individuals from across the world, who wanted to change the way things were done and as I progressed on the platform, it came to be true!
My first post was authored towards the end of the month and it made less than $20 while make-up posts, plagiarised content and identity thefts made thousands. It was one day about a week or two after I had written my introduction post that @berniesanders showed me some love and it rocketed to the moon. @summon joined him a few days later and took it up a notch. It was my first post payout and experience of a whale vote!
By payout day, I had made about $400 or so on my introduction post, while everyone was making 10-15x more. But frankly I couldn't have been happier watching my work being rewarded after two weeks of seeing it live and I'm grateful for the same. Those days we had 30 day payout period after the initial 24 hr period and I had 10SP in my account when I started. I didn't write a lot those days and stuck to building the community on Steemit.Chat. I probably authored 20 posts until my accident in February this year.
Looking back, I think I've stayed true to my word of sticking with the platform and after 1.5 years, I am Steeming away full-time. I'm glad I set aside my project on cryptocurrency and spent those extra hours on Steemit. It was one of my best decisions ever.
Dear readers and Steemians, How did you find out about Steemit? What brought you here? I would love to hear your story in the comments below.
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
- Steemit Mentioned In: How to File Tax Returns in India for Your Bitcoin Profits—My Latest Feature In TheQuint!
- 4 Tips For Steemit Account Recovery & Wallet Security!
- Steemit.Chat Contest #7 + Contest #6 Winners Announcement!
I was researching the concept "Universal Basic Income" and had something about it on my Facebook page. A friend of mine posted a link to an article about the "Viva" project, which of course is a crypto-based initiative... so I went and checked it out. That article just happened to be posted on Steemit... so I looked at other articles on the topic here and realized that this seemed like a somewhat "smarter" type of social site.
I read a bit about Steemit next... and the idea of getting rewarded for blogging appealed to me... I'm a 20-year blogger and content writer, but I was deeply skeptical. But I decided to sign up.
By some stroke of fortune, a couple of "big fish" saw my introduction post, and it was even sent through the Steemit twitter... and about my 3rd or 4th post was picked up by @curie so I ended up getting off to a fast start. The rest, as they say, is history.
Its not just US getting rewarded, its that the ad revenue DOES NOT go back into big CORPS hands or allows control by them, so far lol. it really makes sense, the people watching the content SHOULD get rewarded along with the developers it levels the playing field, just look at the mess that is youtube for an example of corp policies at work lol! hint: (no freedom of speech)
I just saw it on Facebook. Still not sure what I'm doing here.
Get involved. Look around. Post your life away lol
I found it via youtube, one of my favourite journalist switched to steem because youtube kept censoring him and labelling his videos as "not appropriate" we all know how youtube and google are attacking alternative news media. Good to see steem flourishing.
Congratulations on your story man!
wow that is a quick start.Hello I'm new to steemit and I want to check what kind of site is this.Never listen to this social network and I would like to check how it is.Could you give me some advice on how to start? have good content and that people see my post?
a greeting
Post and comment every day, maybe your first month will be hard but don'g give up, you will get rewarded don't worry
Dollar vigilante! I was spending too many hours watching left of field videos on youtube and boom.
Great Story, @firepower!
I was guided here by my good (online) friend, I'll just call him "Stan". He has been my crypto-mentor and got me into Ethereum when it was $12!
I made some huge gains in 10 months by investing in the DAO at his urging. If I had just stayed with his recommendations I'd have over $100k in cryptos right now, but "live and learn" they say LOL!!!
I am doing much better now, I have a lot in STEEM and it will pay off. In fact, I have tripled my value, U$D wise in the last 2 months. Partly in steem increases and part in extra input from my recent BTC gains. BTC is dropping back down and Steem is still rising :D I am timing it right! Not perfect timing, but I am gaining on it.
This was my initial idea 2, I feel like steem ks here to stay, above other forms of cryptocurrency.
I was on youtube when i saw one of Jerry banfield's ads for steemit. If any of you has seen one, you'll know what I am talking about. It pulled me in, I did an introduction post and then forgot about it.
Few month later I log in, I see that a comment I had made on a post received two dollars worth of upvotes. I thought "wow, this actually has potential" and began to actually research everything I could about steemit.
Conclusion? It is in my opinion the most undervalued cryptocurrency, and I have invested a lot in it.
Found it searching around Crypto market cap at the top 50 coins and then just searching for each coin and what it was about. This then stumbled me on to steem where I now happily connect with others all while making some decent change.
@firepower, I have been knowing this young dude, Let's call him 'M' since perhaps over a decade, say early 2000 when we used to interact a while in motorcycle related group like XBhp forums. This dude was a highly energetic guy discussing and debating that far belied his age at that time. Then it was all forgotten as I moved on with my mundane life and riding less often.
Well, he was on my Facebook friend's list and occasionally we crossed the path as I read his post on riding or other stuffs as it flashed on my home page. I would give it a cursory glance and click the 'Like' button and forget about it.
Sometime in late May 2017 this year I saw a steemit post by him in Facebook and I just happened to read it just say for passing my time. That was the first time I read a steemit blog on steemit site. I was perplexed to see the 3 digit dollar at the end of his blog and I was like 'WTF?' It can't be true. That's when I took time to read more about steemit on its FAQ page to understand it better.
But then I was never a blogger in my life. though I had a blogging page with a couple of articles with single digit visitors, I always felt i am not cut out for blogging. My English was bad and I lacked imagination and was not net savvy by any measure. Moreover I never had any stories to tell. I believed that blogging required certain special skills, the ability to weave a story and narrate it succinctly and create a magic world to hold the attention and garner appreciation from the readers. I believed blogging is not my cup of tea.
And then I read that you get paid for curating and commenting too. Well that sounded easy.. Well a few nice comments here and there and I could probably see some dollars. And that got me interested.
All the while I never had any basic idea of cryptos. I never understood what steem was and how this worked. So I started prodding 'M' for more information. And he was like, Just register and post.
So I registered and then did nothing. One fine evening after downing a couple of drinks, I posted a completely stupid post which only a drunk can post :) The next day I realized my folly and 'M' said You can't delete it or undo it. this is blockchain. And I decided to forego that account and start clean and fresh. So I created a new account and my first introduction post was on June, 16th 2017.
steemit caught me like no other and I got deep into it. life began revolving around steemit and I was on a roller-coaster ride for next 2 months. till August mid. And then a series of mishaps, and I haven't posted anything since last 4 months and this is my first reply in steemit in last 4 months.
So everything that I know about steemit or my subsequent experience in cryptos I owe it big time to 'M'. Even though we have known each other for over a decade, I am yet to meet him in person. Some day soon.
So, 'M', take a bow, You have indeed made a difference in my life and introduced me to this wonderful world of cryptos, always have been supportive, encouraging, guiding, advising and been there for me always.
Hope that made a nice story of my tryst with Steemit :)
One friend talked me about it, but at the start, i didn't even believed him xD
It was introduced in a WhatsApp group I belonged to by some crypto enthusiasts.
I didn't really give it much thought initially until July this year that a friend on Facebook wrote up positive reviews on it. I signed up a month later and it's been the the best decision ever.
@rok-sivante got me hooked and addicted to cryptospace 🤪🤩🐬 back in June 2016 in Bali. I went through a very difficult breakup and Steemit saved me in a way because blogging kept me distracted and busy. I relocated to Vienna feeling secured with some STEEM in my wallet. It’s for sure a huge life changing experience since then. @firepower you were one of my first followers and I will always be thankful for those encouraging comments. I never wrote anything before in public. 💜 to all of you who stayed loyal reading my life stories and articles.
I opened this profile as well to help resteeming
BTW, when I saw you unfollowed me I was really sad 😢 and still crying 😭
through @steevc