One Month on SteemIt and I Could Not Be Happier!

No tricks, no gimmicks! I just do what I love to do!

When I first heard about SteemIt from a friend, I didn’t know what to think. Well that’s not true. I did know what to think. I thought that there’s no way this could be true! I can get paid to write blog posts? Without submitting all sorts of credentials and personal information? Without catering to a few pompous editors? Without depending on readers clicking through advertisements?

What’s the catch? Do they want one of my kidneys? My first born child that isn’t even born yet? A cheek swab and my internet history for their customer database?

I was interested but a little hesitant too. I learned that SteemIt was based on a cryptocurrency. That was also intimidating. Crypto was scary to me. It's complex. It’s unstable. It’s shady. It’s hated by governments around the world. Would I be hacked? Would I be targeted for tax audits? Will I be unwittingly tied to the drug trade or human trafficking?

My friend never joined. After thinking about everything involved, I also decided not to join. That was around the beginning of September. For a few weeks I just observed.

I watched the trending pages. Not too impressive. But I did learn a lot about the site. There were lots of posts about SteemIt.

I watched the comments being made on posts. People were very polite. Many of the discussions were good. They were in-depth conversations. That was impressive even if I didn’t understand the topic.

I watched how scams and plagiarism was handled. Some people were doing a pretty good job. But it looked like there were a lot of accounts trying to make money by copying anything they could find on the internet. They mostly weren’t very successful.

I watched the payouts. Some were very big. Most were very small. A lot of good posts made nothing. This was a little troubling. Would I be one of the people who made nothing? What if nobody read my posts? I’m not popular on social media. I don’t even have a Facebook account! Who would follow me?

I thought about joining and testing the waters for myself. I decided that there wasn’t much to lose. I was getting paid to join anyway! So I did it! I joined SteemIt!

Never looking back!

It turned out that I was one of the lucky ones! I earned over $70 on just my second post! I was ecstatic! I wasn’t hacked. I wasn’t arrested. I didn’t accidentally purchase a pound of marijuana or an angry Russian bride. Things were looking pretty good!

I checked my Steem wallet to make sure that this was real. And there it was. My very own digital pile of Steem Power, Steem, and Steem Dollars. I felt like a millionaire! Like I just won the Powerball lottery! I had to try this again, so I did!

My next post earned about $1. Depression temporarily set in. But I wasn’t about to give up. I reevaluated my writing, my presentation, and my entire life. Then I decided to try again.

Jackpot! The payout for my next post was over $48! I had figured out the formula!

I eagerly posted again, hoping to keep the revenues flowing.

It was a bust. The post made less than a dollar. I couldn’t figure it out. I thought it was great. It was a wonderfully crafted parody. I guess everyone else disagreed. But this taught me a valuable lesson. I should not expect to make tons of money every time I post. And this was still a new website so rewards might not be consistent or even make any sense.

So I just decided to do what I do. And what I do is humor. I write it almost exclusively. That’s my niche in this blogging market. I don’t care to write anything else for now. What have been my results?

These are my statistics for my first month.

Reputation of 60.7
About 250 posts
Almost 100 followers
Over 1300 Steem Power and Steem
Over $92 in SBD

I don’t know if this is typical. It doesn’t look like it is. So I’m very grateful for the support that I’ve received. I delivered the goods and SteemIt has delivered on their claim that I can get paid to blog. I’d say that it’s working! And I should have joined sooner! My friend still hasn’t joined.

It’s like that old saying. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t drown them in it if they refuse to drink. It’s mostly frowned upon."

Where do I go from here?

I plan to keep writing for now. I enjoy writing my humor posts and I think the community enjoys reading them. I hope more people will eventually find my blog. I like the feedback and funny conversations. We could all use more smiles and laughter. If we’re not enjoying our time here, then what’s the point? Join me in lightening the mood of SteemIt! I hope that I don’t disappoint!

I have an idea for a collaboration with another user. If you don’t know who @littlescribe is, then you need to follow her right now! She has been pumping out some great advice and I would love to be able to do a “Good Advice, Bad Advice” column with her. With her wisdom and my humor, we could really make some SteemIt magic here! If you happen to read this @littlescribe, please let me know if you would be interested.

The rest of us need to pressure her into doing it! Come on, @littlescribe! You know you want to!

SteemIt has been really fun for me. I can’t say enough good things about it on the blogging side. Does it need more work? Sure it does. It’s still in beta at the moment. But how promising is that?? If it’s this good in beta, I can’t imagine how good it can be when it’s ready for a full rollout! And I plan to be here for that! Maybe I’ll have a lot more influence by then. Maybe I won’t. I know I’ll enjoy my time though!

If you’re reading this and you haven’t joined SteemIt, then what are you waiting for?? Come on in! The water is warm! And I’m pretty sure it’s not pee!

If you’re already here and you haven’t had much success, then keep at it. Make some changes to your presentation if you need to but don’t change who you are. Be passionate! Blog about things that inspire you. Write about topics that you know. Strive to be the expert in your own niche! That seems to work best for me. Maybe it’ll work for you too.

Thank you to the SteemIt community for such a kind welcome! I’ll do my best to pay it forward! Now let’s get back to the funny!

SGL

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I have opted for the 100% SP payout since this is a post about SteemIt.

All images attribution-free from Pixabay.com

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