ALL IN on Steem with now 100MV!
Am I crazy to have sold every other investment I had to go all in on Steem for 100 mega vests equal to 48,671.384 Steem Power today valued at $64,048.63? Steem is 100% of my retirement plan as well as the majority of my savings and checking. Still, I have invested just enough that if it were to be all lost I still have enough to pay the bills for a few months and we already have enough food in the house to eat for months without buying any more.
Over half the value in my Steem Power is from what I invested in Steem with the rest coming from our generous author rewards! 100 mega vests was my first goal which seemed far away at less than half of that getting started. I am very excited to have reached this in less than 90 days from starting here!
Where did my Steem Power come from?
Nine months ago I thought had no money to invest and feared I would go out of business in 2017 or have a really bad year. This was really embarrassing after being banned in June 2016 from a website where I made over $600,000 teaching online within the two years before it. The profits quickly disappeared into taxes, paying off credit card debt, personal loans, student loans, and the first new car I had bought in ten years. By December 2016, I was looking at running out of cash within a few months.
After I read Money Master The Game by Tony Robbins, I accepted the help offered in the book and changed my belief about what the year would bring. I had no idea what my best opportunities looked like until they were right in front of my face and it took a big leap of faith each time.
Here is what I spent and sold to put this much into Steem.
- Dash masternode bought for $11,000 which was everything I had after years of "investing" in crypto which I sold at $87,000 to buy Steem in May 2017. About one third of the sale I put into Steem while I used the other third to pay tax on the sale and put the rest in my checking account to pay my bills for several months with the rest. Today that same Dash masternode would be worth $188,000.
- Cleared out my TD Ameritrade account including selling Google, Facebook, and Walmart stock while paying a 10% tax penalty plus regular income tax.
- Sold my Vanguard solo 401k (Roth) which had after tax stocks and bonds.
- Spent about $7,000 on contract labor for transcriptions from my videos and edits to those transcriptions to create about one third of my posts available for the first time in written form on Steemit!
Is it easy to just start using Steem and make a lot of money?
No. It is very challenging to start here without investing anything and then earn a good income because that is what almost everyone does! Probably less than 1% of those that try to start with nothing succeed in making $100. The best chance for building followers and earning income with Steem comes with the product of investing money in Steem and investing time/energy in making great posts. Multiplication means the more you invest of both, the more the results multiply which makes it very hard to do well without investing anything or with a big investment absent of time connecting with the community.
I hope this clears up any misconceptions that it is easy to just log onto Steem without investing anything and then start earning good money on every post! Reading the comments I have seen many authors frustrated with earnings and views. What most share in common is not having bought even 1 Steem which is $1.30 today.
I am very grateful to be a member of our community and am ALL IN on the future of Steem which I think is bright! We could fail in probably a 100 ways that I am aware of from price crashes to Google banning us from search to bad regulations plus many more ways I am not aware of. In that case I will still be happy about the journey together!
Love,
Jerry Banfield
Well my friend Jerry, I follow upvote and resteem everything you do, you (and everyone else) are not returning the favor. As a minnow, I have been on Steemit for 3 months and for example, wrote and performed an original song a few days ago, and if you take out my own upvotes and bot hits from my own funds and self promotion, I have netted about 4 cents. I could see why you are so excited about Steemit, I mean everything you do goes to at least $200 - and yes you deserve it because you are providing excellent content, but as a new user, I am not sure this platform is truly sustainable. It appears to me that 3% of the users like you are gaining 98% of the money. I have about $1000 worth of SP and I am powering down in frustration. I would not advise investing everything in Steemit, I like the platform, but it doesn't seem very fair to new users and I don't see it being around for the long haul without some major structural changes. Good luck to you with your investment, and thank you for your videos, you seem like a genuine good guy and I am glad you are experiencing such success, but be careful putting all your eggs in one basket, a basket that looks a bit like a ponzi scheme to me. Don't get me wrong I do hope Steem goes to $10 or higher, but..... I could also see it failing as it is a strange lopsided social media platform. If I can't experience a bit of success, here how can I convince my Facebook friends to come over? For what? To be completely ignored by the community? If you care here is a link to my 4 cent post that has made me decide to power down
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cryptoted/original-song-i-wrote-today-called-stuck-on-my-nano-just-2-min-pls-give-it-a-listen
You're complaining that you're giving all your votes to the whales so you're pretty much part of the problem. Instead of doing that why don't you start interacting and voting on posts of users the same size as you, then you'll form relationships with those people and you can up vote each others posts.
well in theory you are correct, however this is an unusual game, and the game most play is to only "upvote" posts early on that they expect to go higher, and therein somehow obtain "Curation rewards" sort of like daytrading a bit, so people are hesitant to give upvotes to people that are new whose posts won't increase after their upvote, becaue by doing so they would be losing money, but if you catch a Jerry Banfield post at $20... heck yes maximum upvote that sucker! that's how Steemit works - so while I agree with you, I am part of the problem that I am complaining about... its a catch-22 isn't it?
and agreed I am attempting to network with users around my size in my areas of interest, I am also trying to work out cross promoting through different platforms. It takes awhile, I have canceled my Powerdown for now but I am watching this thing closely trying to figure it out. thanks for responding
The problem is though I believe that a portion of up votes within the first 30 minutes go to the author and not the curators so catching one of Jerry's posts straight away and up voting it won't actually lead to a high curation reward. It only works if you find a post that is good, doesn't have many up votes and was posted over 30 minutes ago. All of Jerrys and other popular users posts will already have received a lot of up votes within 30 minutes so voting on their posts is not actually the best strategy for getting curation rewards, I don't think a lot of people know that
hmmm thanks for that information, no I don't totally understand it obviously, I am trying to learn the best strategy to gain traction in between my posts. Simply responding with a kind and insightful analysis to a post with good content and a solid following has probably earned me more steemDollars or (whatever?) Steem power or Curation rewards? than my actual posts themselves. If you have any insight on the best strategy for creating value in between postings please let me know. Our friend @mbg11 is also interested, and since I don't really understand it I can't explain anything really useful to him with his question above. If you understand it please share. I will maximum upvote your information and share it with other users who are also feeling their way in the dark here. Thank you @captaincanary for writing back to me and giving me such a generous "upvote" cheers... @cryptoted
I'm no expert but just try to spend as much time here reading posts and commenting as you can. Not just any comments though, good comments which show that you've read the post and thought of something useful to say. Even if you disagree with what the author is saying share your thoughts and chances are other people who read the post will share your opinion and up vote you. I've got over 500 followers but none of my posts have gone viral, I've got them all just from commenting and interacting on other peoples posts. The most effective way to get somebody attention is to write a few good comments on several of their posts, that way they will almost definitely check your blog out. Lastly there are contests on Steemit such as the Open Mic which is for musicians, and other ones for photographers etc. This is a good way to be judged on your quality of content rather than the size of your following and there is usually prize money up for grabs
https://busy.org/curation/@liberosist/mind-your-votes-ii-a-guide-to-maximizing-your-curation-rewards
This is how it worked before fork 20, not sure if anything happened after, I think it is still 2% though per vote
I'm so confused how the voting system works. Can you give me a link or something to look it up? thanks...
yes so am I... I wish I had something insightful to share with you on this topic. I have asked @captaincanary for more information, although he has already given good insight with his response. Hopefully he will hit us with some more tips or insight as to how this voting system does work. thanks for your inquiry. take care
https://busy.org/curation/@liberosist/mind-your-votes-ii-a-guide-to-maximizing-your-curation-rewards
There you go ...9 cents! Don't give up yet, I'll follow you.
thanks bro i appreciate that... not giving up, just powering down until I figure out how to play this game. Why do i have $650 SteemPower? to give to the whales who are already killing it? No more... thanks again
nice .....Give and get. Go, Go, Go!
I think the biggest risk is similar platforms that are in the works. When they r released especially the ones that take a middle of the road approach in centralization vs decentralization might have an impact of steem prices. Donot expect a platform without competition!!! So I woudn't bet everything on steem where as I would bet a higher amount on graphene based block chains and may be EOS
The news members upvote whales ... the whales upvote whales...No reciprocity
exactly, that is how it appears. it seems awfully hard to get started. good luck to you i will follow you
This is absolutely true, very well pointed it out !!!
ALL Whales SHOULD/MUST support, upvote and comment on the work of new/budding Steemians, if they want this whole thing to get bigger, better and wiser and the price of Steem to rise and achieve newer heights and greater dimensions.
I have broad shoulders and I carry whales. My muscles will one day make me a whale......I hope.
Steem pennies add up!
If I was a whale I would spread the love to the shallow water dwelling minnows and remember my roots.
So well said. Hope the whales are listening.
Cheers
amen brother, following...
Not everybody has found you :)
I'm still starting posts and deleting them before I submit because 1) I'm not used to talking about myself 2) I'm always just a little worried that I will offend someone
I've stayed away from opinionated writing for this reason. I'll follow you @cryptoted, don't give up!
the most important in steemit is to not give up, I understand you, I am also about 3 months here, jerry is earning because he has a lot of subcribers on youtube and he is very famous in crypto world, + he is investing a lot in advertising steemit, he invest not a lot of money but a lot of time also ! we have to learn from him and try to do like him ! good luck I will follow you and I will try to support you with some upvotes !
I agree with you. I don't think most newbies realize how, ironically, the power/influence of this platform is decentralized in the hands of the few. I hope this can be addressed because when mainstream media finally discover Steem, they are going to, wrongly but understandably, use incorrect hyperbolic phrases like MLM, ponzi etc.
Thats true really and its not the best content that is always rewarded that depend. That why everyone should be free to do what he wants...
here i could only upvote 0.01cent. dont give up keep it going. please follow me too.thanks
I followed you my fellow 0.01 center.
click my button
Unfortunately, the only thing I can say is that everything in life is like Steemit. Life isn't fair, it challenges and pushes and shoves you down. If you're one of the lucky ones, it doesn't stuff your nose in the dirt and spit on you. If you are strong enough, you can overcome those obstacles and still make something from next-to-nothing.
As a fairly new entrant myself (since late May of this year) I can honestly say I was super-frustrated, but then I found the PAL network and Discord... from there I have learned some nice techniques (although they don't always work well) that have increased my earnings somewhat. I figure it this way, really, if you post enough comments to make $.20/day, that's $.20/day more than you had before. Then, when you have the unique high-value post, it's just icing on the cake.
Just stick with it, keep posting solid content, find your niche, and (I know this is going to sound rude, so I apologize in advance) stop blaming other people. It's not their fault that they've succeeded and you haven't. Sometimes it's as simple as being in the right spot at the right time.
That's my 2-cents-worth.
Exactly. Every other social media platform gives you nothing and people have been using them for decades! - Every dollar or a cent compared to that is a welcomed change. I've been using Reddit for around 5 years and I've gotten 0 cents out from it.
Thanks for your best comment. I really appreciate your patience to write such a meaning full and lengthy comment. Keep up with good work. :)
I followed you my fellow 0.01 center.
click my button
i have upvoted you pls do the sme please help me get there @rogerblu
thanks i appreciate that, i wish you success, hang in there i am following you and upvoted even though it is small, i wish us both success here...
@jerrybanfield and others whales please can write article on how to become witness on steemit and what it takes to become one. Please help we minnows that have not gain much on this platform. The whales are taking the profit away. The motivation of writing good content and not getting visibility is annoying. I think something should be done about that.
By whom? People like cryptocurrency because its decentralized.
Thanks
Steemit will be a disappointment for people who come here just for money. Either they have to be very unique or very talented in something or they'll bite the dust trying. But for those who treat it as a social platform that has an added bonus of making upvotes/likes actually represent something tangible, it can be fun for sure.
So sure, you can try to game Steemit but then you have to really work for it and be realistic.
Hold onto your SP. This is a long game. You will one day be encouraged by the return on your SP and in the meantime, just keep encouraging people, adding value and slowly gaining followers. We are only at the very beginning of the blockchain renaissance. Trust me, this time next year, the Market cap for Crytocurrencies will go from $80B to over $300B. The institutional money is starting to find ways to get in and if you have coins now, you will have big gains as the entire sea level raises. Buy SP and forget about them for a few years and don't let yourself get frustrated.
thanks i can always rebuy them, I just have $650 in steem power that I am just giving to the whales and getting nothing back. no more - and I do agree with you about the market cap of crypto, I have a nice portfolio that has killed so far this year even with the severe corrections, you are probably correct and yes I am getting frustrated on Steemit but holding it is probably not a bad idea. thanks for the reply
Well at least you won something to tell the truth ... that's good ... I hope some whales read our comments
I'd like to add some evidence to my original comment. Today my position in ANS (NEO) that cost me $1018 back in March is now worth $48,591.95. You only need to buy a little and hold on. Buy a little bit of the platform companies and definitely buy ANS the next time it corrects.
wow congrats, I do have about 126 ans, mostly purchased between 7-8 bucks each, I am stoked today and excited about what is to come. You may wind up doing extremely well, I mean you already have, but I think this thing ANS is just starting, good for you. For the record by some miracle, or my complaining my 4 cent song has gone to $18.80, and I checked, pretty sure nothing from Jerry Banfield, although there are 2 upvotes i can't see, maybe he did, some whale hit me hard, if it was you Jerry, thanks. And i did cancel my Powerdown - I also rode 200 eth from 18 to 363, so I am praying for the same action from ANS that would be crazy to have 2 in one year, peace, and thatnks
Pretty much mirrored my moves there. I also rode ETH up and am now riding NEO up. Glad that the upvotes on your song have also gone up!
Hi cryptoted, as far as I am aware by holding steem power you actually effectively diminish the power of a whale's vote albeit by very little.
However the more steemers power up the more voting power get's distributed.
By just holding steem, you actually give your voting power back to the whales whilst increasing inflation.
Just so you know 😄
well I don't completely understand what you mean I have cancelled my plans to powerdown, for now at least, give it a few months... good luck thanks for the insight, i will think about it
as far as I am aware, the total amount of steem power is a bit unbalanced and will probably stay unbalanced. However the more people that power up the more the total amount of total steem power is shared amongst all users so effectively reducing the amount of share the Whales have.
Basically every new steemer that powers up pays for a piece of the pie.
Whales will always have more of the pie but it will be less overall, is what I mean.
right, I am not powering down after all, I am going to keep plugging away and gaining traction here on this platform and try and build my SP higher even. take care
true, steemit has made me doubts the ''centralisation'' but it's something bit. it has gained 100.000 accounts in a month.. in 2 years it's as big as over 5 million maybe or even more.. so for that time you have plenty of strategy's to build a following like jerry did. if you post consistently or just try to post every day it may be something... but like most of us who are here struggling we do have a job and not enough time to maybe write... this may also be a factor there are a lot of shitty posts.. atleast that counts for me. since everything he posts gets upvoted anyway you better spare your voting power to yourself or so... at least youself can be a upvote for yourself if your account is small
That song was touching and struck a chord with me. You have true grit my friend. I wish you success. I shared my 1 cent upvote with you. How do you get all the way up to 4 cents?
the most important in steemit is to not give up, I understand you, I am also about 3 months here, jerry is earning because he has a lot of subcribers on youtube and he is very famous in crypto world, + he is investing a lot in advertising steemit, he invest not a lot of money but a lot of time also ! we have to learn from him and try to do like him ! good luck I will follow you and I will try to support you with some upvotes !
I think using Steemit for money will become similar to trying to get a lot of followers on Twitter. Only the top x number of accounts will have millions and hundreds of thousands of followers. For the rest of its users, the rewards will be small, but the benefits of the community and the fact that we are now getting a return for spending time on social media are what makes us stay.
Where do you buy steem? Withdrawals are frozen on Polo and Bittrex.
nice post jerry. keep doing what you are doing!
Indeed nice.. you are also not doing bad yourself..
Wow! I never would have thought I'm in the 1% of anything. Having started from zero, with determination and hard work, I have reached almost $200 in account value in less than 2 months!
There is a method to earning on Steemit. Investing in yourself by putting money into Steemit is one way. This has been part of my investment, I used bitcoin from a faucet to buy about $6 of my Steem Power and reinvested some of my SBD into Steem Power by buying it in the "trenches" at close to $1 per Steem.
Regardless of initial investment, Steemit requires work. I have worked at it. Writing about things I am passionate about has been a great boon. Posting high quality content 4 times daily and being involved with the community created growth for me.
I aspire to reach similar heights with you @jerrybanfield but I have no capital I can sacrifice, so I will continue my build from zero and try to stay in the 1%!
Very nice work getting to over $200! Still putting in even $6 from a Bitcoin faucet is more than most do!
you definitely work hard
Thank you. My goal is to develop Steemit into a full time income to realize my dream of opening a coffee-house and establishing a sustainable homestead. I'm up to roughly $12 - $20 per day with my four posts, but I'd love to grow to the kind of following Jerry has!
You will mate!
guys please help me get there @rogerblu
You will fulfill it
I gotta say, I'm with this guy. I don't have the resources to buy in so I will just have to do it the hard way. Grind grind grind all the way :D
Don't just grind, work smart.
Steem On!
Thanks, I agree. Working smart (and learning to work smarter) is the grind 👍
guys please help me get there @rogerblu
@timeshiftarts you will make a real good coach. These tips are very valuable.
Thank you. I have a goal to be a Professor of Entrepreneurial Business, so it's wonderful to hear that I am a great teacher.
These tips are worthy of their own post if you haven't turned them into one already.
Thank you. I followed that advice just now.
Eres una inspiración preciso hacer lo mismo una pequeña compra con mi Faucets
de nada mi amigo
Congratulations on arriving at this point in life ;) Balancing on the edge I mean. It's both the most exiting and rewarding place to be, though "risky". Most people never even dare approach it. Anyway, I wish for you to get the life you want from this! You deserve it.
There is no-one else on here that deserves it more than this guy he has given his all.
@fisch thank you for joining me here and appreciating the view!
I usually give you shit Jerry, but this was a damn good post. I am both worried and excited for you, and I hope it all works out for you in the end... good luck! 🐳
So glad you came to Steem Jerry!
Crazy, no! Courageous and insightful - YES!
re...Is it easy to just start using Steem and make a lot of money?
You hit the bloody nail on the head! no, it is not easy. I have been waiting to build up a "little bit" so that I can do precisely what you advise. I am doing this elsewhere (on hash nest to be more specific.) and I intend to plough every ounce of it into steem, but in the interim... it is quite interesting as well as challenging to see what I can do, without it :)
As always, love, love LOVE what you share! You really are like my guiding light here on this platform and what I love most about you is that you very CLEARLY LISTEN to what people are saying around you because you always seem to address and give answers as well as solutions to what people want and need to know!
So thank you SO much!
and although I did thank you directly on the post - I am doing it again, because it meant that much..... thank you SO much for adding me to the #upvotabe 14.
Yesterdays post that you commented on "tanning tea bags and all...lol" inspired todays post. ... Would GREATLY value your input - as always x
https://steemit.com/life/@jaynie/have-you-ever-met-yourself
Please keep on being as fantabulous as you are!
@jaynie thank you first your thoughtful comment here and continuing to share the newest of what you write with us! I am taking a look at your post now!
I hope you are right Jerry
you have choose best way, if i been as you, i will do same to invest all on steem and hold steem power. congratulation @jerrybanfield for your right choice
I commend you for your bravery and you will NOW be able to BRAG about that you put ALL YOUR MONEY into steemit! haha I am a rare person that only HAS money BECAUEE of steemit! or partly~! So its easy for me to be almost all in because steem GAVE me that money! I could powerdown ya and move my money but we should jhust keep it in steem, its GOINg to work out
SURE you could buy EOS and make even MORe money but why not just do both? These are BOTH going to be very sucesful but Steemit is already onlien and working! stem is able to show a working website that is social media off a bloclhgain and there are things like IOTA that are COMPLTE vaporware and yet have multi billion dollar marketcap and way more money invested in them thatn stemit!
What we need is a CAMPAIGN to GET INVESTORS into steemit! either to buy steem as an investment or to buy Steempower as a LONG TERM investment
some would cal what u did RECKLESS AND IRRESPONSIBLE hahaha
But i call it SMARt and FORWARD LOOKING because Steem is SET to go up to $2 now that hard fork is over and bitcoin survuived, peopel are seeing that when a nw bloklchain comes oiut, fiat money is pumped into it! aha they think "Nothing is free, the bitcoin cash mony will come out of the bitcoin marketap!" nop! it jut ame from fiat! and MORE fiat will POUR into steemit!
No but seriously I think EOS will make us moe money but Steem will be close!
But jerry for you, youre steem power will earn you FOLLOWERS and make you money MORE than just from thge price iof stem going up!
I KNOW steem will be $100 nxt year and $1000 in a couple years, because steem will ahve Viewly and zapl an al sorts of apps that let people jooin steem without even reaizing they areon steemit, theyll be using apps liekview.ly and just making money uploading videos and we will seee them here on steemit and they might not ever know about steemit! people will be joining these decentralized aps that interface with steem blockchain but allow them to just join steem bloclkchaion ON MASS like imagine SNAPCHAT levels of people!
mobile apps have probven to b able to onbaord Millions of people in a short period of time like Pokemon Go getting to 50 million users in a mater of days, so imagien when someone creates a Augmented reality game like Pokemon Go but built on the Steem Blockchain where u can earn Stem points for doing quests and playing games or u can battle friends and either win or loose your stem points, and people will later learn that Steem is an established crypto currency and it will be better than Gamecredits or mobile go! we wont need those things anymore because we will have steem for video games ! best in game currency bcause u only need a username to send or recive money! no crazy long bitcoin deposit addres!!
so lts remeber that jerry is going to win so hard, watch stem go to $4 in the next few weeks and jerry wil turn his $60k into $300k ....when steem is $10 jerry's $60k will be like Half A million dollars! See this si why you need to get at last $10k saved up everyone! with 10 k u can ride a wave tyo wealth so fast it will amke all your friends and family jelous but u have to get at last 10 k savd up to REALLy ide the wave! u MIGHt fiond a wave lik Bitcoin back when u could turn $1 into 1 million but those days are ovr, well not really, with steem u can still do tht once steem goes to $1000
also EOS get EOS and youll be happy
Wow, this was one amazing comment, and I really really really like your ideas on the Steem payouts for games.
If more games implemented the Steem currency system, not only will more people play due to the mass incentive, but it would be much harder for grinders and scammers to game the system.
Think about it, if Diablo 3 started out their auction house with Steem as opposed to dollars, it may very well still be standing today. I like your ideas, and hopefully some game designers will stumble upon this comment, and will actually do something with it.
exactly if scammers were forced to use steem all transactions being public would prevent SO much scams...anyone trying to launder stolen steem will get stopped at an exchange lol its awesome!
yeah well diablo was before steem but yah we need Steem ALSO because its so EASY to send and recieve money in a game, u just use the username! and with bitcob or gamecredits u need fuckin crazy adrrtsses which u cannot juist copy nd paste inside a gane, copy paset doesnt always work, u need to realy use steem as a screnmae allows anyone to send or receive money
The possibilities here are truly endless, and I'm actually very excited about all this!
I like your enthusiasm and thoughts on what's possible for steam. It's contagious!