The Secret To Success On Steemit: It Isn't Posting Article or Re-Steeming (For Dolphins And Minnows)
See if this looks familiar:
Excited blogger joins Steemit.com with the expectation of making money from writing about what he or she loves. Said blogger puts up a wonderful post worthy of mention by the local Historical Society, gets no upvotes, complains the system is rigged, and leaves to grace some other site with his/her presence.
Have you ever noticed something like that happening on here?
Of course you have. It is a daily event.
For whatever reason, we all believe that posting article is the most important aspect of steemit.com. Certainly, without content creators, we would have nothing to upvote so it is crucial. However, at present there are over 20,000 daily authors so content is not our problem. Certainly, more is welcomed and your content should not be omitted. Steemit is going to get hundreds of thousands of content providers in the future which is wonderful. However, unless one comes here with a large following from FB or another site, content creation should not be your primary focus.
Also, as much as I discuss upvoting being key, the truth is with low SP, your vote carries little weight. This is compounded by the fact most newer people push their voting power down to single digits so even a 1 cent vote becomes worth almost nothing.
Alas, where is our newbit going to make an impact?
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSECqDL1iGXk1fJCWDVF1j2ZVzkhcurqDHaGXXTeeqYVj/image.png)
The other day I wrote a post about the value of commenting as it pertains to Google rankings. My understanding is that the Google bot cannot separate an article from the comments. It is only focused upon content and the keywords in that content. Therefore, I suggested that it is best for all of us to leave as many comments as we can. This will help the ranks of Steemit.com which creates a snowball effect. The better the ranking, the more organic traffic received from the search engines, further increasing the ranking.
Obviously, something is working. Last weekend Steemit.com hit 1, 000 in the US in Alexa ranking.
Look at it now:
That is very impressive. This site moved up 221 spots in roughly 6 days. Another few months should see the ranking closing in on the top 100. With 20,000 authors a day posting content, the size of the site is growing exponentially. That said, we still need commenting from each person for the site to really leverage all it can out of each post.
Each week, as being part of @fulltimegeek's delegation committee, stats are compiled showing what each person did. One change in the past week was the addition of length of comments left. In the writeup sumarrizing the week here is what @abh12345 had to say:
@taskmaster4450, who has written comments totaling a humongous 128,915 characters - amazing!
Here is the full article:
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQma6vg5zKfJbkiPK6XraTsXNeHy4SDueLhmWZ4h11tsmaR/image.png)
I bring this point up, not to brag, but to stress the importance of quality comments. There are so many writing "great post, thank you", that is gets a little frustrating. While any comment is appreciated, it is best to put a little time into it. Now, I do acknowledge that many who are commenting come from places where English is not the primary language and, for that, I do love all your comments. However, that is not true for everyone.
So why do you want to spend the time writing quality comments?
To start, especially if you are new, you want to be seen. This is how people will get to know you. Remember that epic post you wrote that nobody voted on? Odds are few even saw it. The primary challenge with being new is you are not on anyone's radar. Hence you need to "piggyback" others. Commenting enables you not only to garner the attention of the author but whatever following he or she has. This expands the number of eyeballs who potentially could be draw to your blog.
The second benefit is interaction can take place. While I cede that the commenting on comments tends to be poor on here, it is something that some of us do engage upon. It is really how "conversations" take place. Again, the goal is to be known and start developing the interactions which will be lasting. It takes time and repetition. Simply because someone commenting on what you wrote does not mean they will head over to your blog. In fact, there are many that I comment on their stuff, they reply, yet I do not think they ever read one article I wrote. Nevertheless, they know who I am (partially because there is a chance my comment is longer than the article itself 😄 )
Finally, quality comments mean MONEY. This is crucial to understand. People will upvote comments, hence earning you SP. When we look at the paradoxical cycle we find ourselves wrapped up in on Steemit, I help others by increasing my SP which raises my Voting Power. By commenting I enhance a person's article which helps them and possibly earning myself some extra SP which can be used to upvote others. Therefore, the money you were seeking for the marvelous article you wrote did not arrive because it was paid in the comments section. There is a lot of gold hidden there.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmcYHbyPBmpwiVAyro6hXVbWVf2h745nw2cQez6Dj8WdtC/image.png)
There are a couple schools of thought on this which I need to explain.
The first is how I approach it. In my articles, I upvote every comment. The amount will vary based upon what I feel was put into the comment but each one gets an upvote from me. I came across a number of authors who do the same thing (that is where I got the idea). The ones not voted are those which are seriously over the top AND those by people who comment regularly, upvote themselves yet do not upvote the article. Those people are just scalping upvotes from me. Outside of that, I feel that every comment is worth at least a couple cents for the effort, which does add up over time.
Another approach is often used by those with some serious SP. They are not spending the time going through upvoting every comment. Instead, they only use their VP sparingly which means higher vote percentage each time. This is where some serious money can be made. I have received upvotes on comments paying $6, $8, even $11 just for that vote. Now I admit it isn't a regular occurrence but it does happen.
Would you like me to let you in on something? There are many whales who read the comment sections of posts. I will tell you there is a much better chance of someone with a lot of SP finding you there than him or her coming across your post, especially if you are new.
In conclusion, yes leaving quality comments takes time. It is often difficult to read and article and then add to it. At the same time, most of your comments will go unanswered and not upvoted. There are only a small percentage that get any response. Accept that as part of the routine. Ultimately, you are posting not for a comment back or money, but to add to the original article. The rest is gravy.
I will relate something that happened the other night. There was an article I read which I commented upon written some a long-time member on here. He had a rep over 70 (which isn't the reason why I commented). After leaving the comment, I went about my business cruising around Steemit. About 30 minutes later I check my replies and he posted something. So I went back the article and commented. This went on for about 90 minutes containing a 5 or 6 post by each "conversation".
That part I really want to emphasize is that was a night where I had some VP left to use up before I went to bed. Thus, I was voting at a decent level on each comment. It turns out I was upvoting each of his comments at 28 cents apiece and he was hitting mine at 18 cents. As you can figure out from the math, I took in a buck while he reigned in $1.50 for the exchange. While neither of us got rich off it, with SBD being inflated, my payoff for that exchange is roughly $6 since the price of STEEM is over $3.
Not bad for a few paragraphs.
There is a lot of gold (STEEM) in the comments section. Go mine some for yourself.
If you found this article helpful, please upvote and resteem.
Pictures by Google Images
Great post my dear. One really needs to get interactive on steemit.
+1, it's a great post. We also need Steem to be used for web3 payments on Poof for more popularity https://www.poof.io/
Poof - https://www.poof.io/
Poof Checkout - https://www.poof.io/checkout
Poof ECommerce storefront - https://www.poof.io/ecommerce
Dear @taskmaster4450 I’d like to first say how much I enjoy your writing and I mean that sincerely. I am not a butt kisser and I’m honest. Secondly, I’d like to say how helpful and such a great asset to the steemit community. Please never leave.
That said, I’d like to tell you that I was just having this conversation with someone yesterday and instead of giving me the basic answer it was more like a flippant I’m here for the wrong reason. Well, that wasn’t the case at all. I was actually asking about the breakdown you do kindly supplied in this post.
Kind regards, Casandra
Thank you @eaglespirit....there are a lot of people on here either who dont know or who do not care. Either way don't let the response of others get you down...you appear to be on a good path to success.
Thank you so much for answering me in detail and giving me more information to look up. It seems like a never ending maze sometimes but it will usually always lead me to good sources and people like yourself. Happy Holidays! (:
I saw you in comments, before I ever saw a post!
IT WORKS! Also, upvoting comments in other people's posts is a great way to get exposure. I also threw out some "seed money" but that was mostly from BTC and ETH gains from outside investments. It is going well!
Whoa thats crazy!! Were you answering me or @taskmaster4450? What is seed money and the investments are going well? Thank you @underground!! xx
I saw you upvoted something of mine from the SteemNow site. LOL My head is doing flippy flops.
I'm talking to YOU lol
"Seed Money" means I just gave some away, but like I said it was from the BTC and ETH run up, I was just lucky to have it. I'm just keeping some cash in the safe bet coins and HODLing. Then I moved it to steem right before it tripled. Lucky, LUCKY! But it seems to be a repeatable pattern. Steem lags BTC and the big coins, but the losses are not as bad with Steem either, during the correction phase. That is not investment advice, just telling the story of how I got lucky so I could do the seed money thing. Ever notice how the resteem bots send you like .001 SBD? It's "seed money" but also they get your attention with the memo ;) I mostly used Discord
Okay, the emoji face is a bit more extreme than what mine actually was, kinda. Thank you for explaining Seed Money, that in actuality means you made a Shit Ton. I am happy you are giving back to the community, since I am seeing after nearly 6 weeks there are all kinds. Do you have a bunker too? Anywherez near Colorado? I may come visit. Just kidding!! We have been in the know for a few years now, but its tough out here. I'm lucky enough to have a good job, but if Sh goes down, I'm out here with my booty sticking out (okay it sticks out even without pure chaos.) No worries on advice, I would accept it willingly. I have only jewels and some Silver, even old First Nation Silver and blankets, a 3 month supply of food, gas and water. I'm about to purchase the gas masks and kevlar vests. I still need land! Guess what I got for Xmas, a Crypto Wallet that looks like a USB stick, yeah, with no investment on it .. yet. So if you have any suggestions for crypto Im all ears. And, em yeah the .001 SBD is sooo exciting that I'm running to work all day to get that Doh Re Mi. I actually like Discord A Lot. I'm learning brother, I'm learning. Thank you for sharing and giving. Big Hugs and Happy New Year!! xx
LOL!
You must have found a "prepper comment" I made somewhere... I have a good friend in LaJunta, have not visited him there yet. He has a lot of stuff and SkillZ, for survival. Might end up there if the SHTF gets bad enough. But I am, for the most part, "Bugging IN" in Indiana. So glad you are in this here 1kSP Program, I am also shadowing you a bit since that is what TaskMaster suggested! It's also great that you are following Max, he's a very accomplished blogger and I am learning LOTS from him. He states many truths about how steemit works, and I'm just amazed that he picked it up so quick!
Do you do Discord, EagleSpirit? It's so much easier than this blog-tag we have been doing :D lol
I am @undeRGRound#7534 on Discord
I just went to steemnow.com for the first time... I'm confused by it all... I'm a newbie.. So I ain't rich.. Should I vote less?? Or more. Votes is good? Thanks to both of you for this exchange of valuable information by the way.
Also I'm not giving any financial advice but if your sitting on any sbd think about exchanging to steem on the internal market and powering up in order to gradually increase your vote value.
@shai-hulud can you please clarify how the vote value benefits me as opposed to the person i am upvoting?
Thanks
@temitopebanks first your on the right blog to learn those things.
First have a look at the rest of @taskmaster4450 posts, along with @hitmeasap and @fulltimegeek they all have some great articles to help you understand steemit.
If I had to answer I would say vote value is win win for both people.
Let me put it this way if I had the power to reward your question with say $1 does that make you more or less likley to want to engage with me again?
I'm going to guess more likley right which increases my chances of you seeing my content and hopefully something you like and up vote.
See win win its incentivised comunity and content
Thank you thank you!! I will look into all of this more in details. There's so much to learn! I like it. Heheh
@cloestjean thank you for your comment and thanks. I'm glad you were able to gather some info from this post and I wish I could help you with the figures. I'm having a hard time myself. My scale just showed up and that confused me even more. LOL! I'm sure people like @taskmaster4450 will help us.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmWncwknzLUW5hhmpymAuXBHrYgC1KSZPCdQyhnvHms7FJ/image.png)
Hi @cloestjean @taskmaster4450 put this up a few days it should hep give you a better idea of how voting power effects vote value.
Pissing Away hard earned steem or you can check out my wifes article What I learned Today which is her minnow take on voting power after having read the original post.
I am just a couple months ahead of you. Your points are valid, there is an element of "rigged" here but it is livable. Just hang in there, keep being "real" and it will pay off. Following you because of your thoughtful comment, so... you are doing the right thing!
Awww thank you so much @fishculture! I truly appreciate your honesty and encouragement. It's posts like yours that help. I'm happy that there are people who appreciate being Real. Happy holidays. xx
lol this bitmoji cracked me up haahahhahahhahah @eaglespirit
I'm glad you got a kick out of it @temitopebanks! These emojis crack me up too ... xx
"rigged" is just perception, but for most, Perception = Reality...
It is just like real life, one has to figure out the ways and means to get what they want out of it. So in that sense, I guess it is rigged, as much as real life is. The real trick is to figure out how to get noticed! ;)
Please guys, I still do not have any idea how comments generate Steem and how to get more "Steem power". Would anyone care to explain? Cheers!
This is more or less my situation as well.
Hilarious!!!😂
hahahahaha
oh well so sorry @dhn0411
ugh, how did I miss this one - with ginabot installed as well!
Sorry about that.
Of course i agree whole-heartedly with the points raised, and it's great to see the focus on the alexa rankings, and how the google search engine will boost Steemit as long as we have plenty of active commentary.
Thanks a lot for the mention, that post did seem to gain some traction throughout the week :)
Cheers!
Asher
Good day @abh12345
I could say the same to you...you were the one who posted the article first with the mention in it for me.
Yes it does appear that some people took the article to heart and started commenting...at least here. Hopefully, they get in the habit of taking that practice to all other posts they read. It is something that will really enhance the site as we move forward.
This is spot on, I just joined recently and after my intro post all I've done is comment, even though I have some posts close to ready. A couple tips:
Overall just post and upvote on things you are interested in, enjoy, or have been helpful to you. If you spend a few minutes with a comment both authors and readers will be more likely to upvote, converse, and follow you.
Nice article tasky
Thank you for the extended comment @jakeybrown.
Since you came on here I am very impressed with what you are doing. At least with my posts, you jump right in. That is wonderful to see. You will be extremely successful on here.
Thank you for the kind words and good topics, your posts have really helped me out
Is Jakey your protégé, @taskmaster4450? I hope so, I will shadow him as well!
I need to do that for @overkillcoin's new kid also :D
Yes he is....doing my best to get him to 1000 SP while the SBD are still paying something.
That would be greatly appreciated.
spot on @jakeybrown comment on post you enjoy not just for commenting sake
Holy beans. I found your post because I'm still somewhat new here and trying to figure out the dynamics of everything. I spent my first month-ish just trying to post daily and commenting/voting on other people with similar interests (or things that I am interested in, but not good at writing about!)
Some of these posts are so technical that I just feel immediately overwhelmed by all the information. I know this is a bit of an older post, but I wanted to thank you for it anyway!
@taskmaster4450 - the truth is that a lot of steemians do realise that commenting on trending posts do fetch them author rewards and post the most mundane stereotype comments (copy and paste literally). Therefore, in a trending post, half the comments will be worthless spam out to earn a quick buck.
Lot of times, I do feel that quality newbies with good post get sidelined and ignored because they don't know how to get better exposure and because of that steemit has a huge divide - the whales who get spammed with a gazillion comments for every post of theirs that earn 100s in rewards, and the poor newbies, many of who jsut feel underappreciated, get nothing for their hard effort, feel disillusioned and leave.
I have personally posted more than 2-3 dozen quality articles I wrote (each of 1000 words or more) and I'm somebody who's had a pretty decent run as a published author - and yet all my earnings on steemit in 3 months is worth less than what a single trending post often earns :) .. that's the irony of it.
Anyway, these days, I do take time out to post more comments than post articles in the hope I get more followers so that when I post articles, I get decent readership. It took me a couple of months to realise this though.. better late than never... :)
THanks for the insightful post btw.. enjoyed reading it..
Watching how this site is, I think that what you said is a core problem that the devs are going to need to fix. It reminds me of the reply girls on YouTube, and then the fake giveaways. What I always wonder is what will happen next after they fix it, and what new issues will arise.
This post is excellent advice to newbies and I completely agree! Let me throw in my support:
The way to success on Steemit is to find some people who write something that you like, read it, and indeed engage with them in the comments section.
Even after months on this platform, I still don't make much from random visitors to my blog.. the retention rate is really low from randoms too. The main source of my income is definitely a select group of followers who are in fact the exact same group of people who I talk to a lot on this platform.
It's all about making some friends, and supporting eachother as friends and the very best way to do that is to make some great comments and get some conversation started!
The irony is that if you're doing this solely for the money, you will fail. But if instead you try to have some fun, make some friends and have some laughs, you'll find that it works a lot better and is a lot more fun! Stop handing out your upvotes to people because you think it'll make you money. Instead, give it to those who you connect with online and scratch their backs, so they may scratch yours. Community is key!
Great post @pandorasbox.
I am doing this for the money...well the SP....I need my SP to keep growing so I can have more VP. I gets addicting to get the reaction from someone relatively new when I give them a 100% upvote. You would think they won the lottery....that is where my motivation comes from.
As I was reading your comment, the thought of communities came to mind. I think that will really help eliminate the need for "randomness" since, like you said, it is low retention rate. Communities could well put together strong groups of like minded people who are interesting in the same subject. Even within their "community" they can keep upvoting and commenting on each other to the point where their accounts will grow nicely.
Hell, there might be a post somewhere in what I just wrote. I will have to give that some thought.
Yes! I'm so looking forward to communities! I'm doing okay now, but a few months ago I was really struggling and being able to stand out in smaller communities would've really helped me. I think this is key for small minnows and will allow them to exist, grow and even thrive perhaps. Right now they just can't get through the shouting match that is the Hot and Trending pages. All they can hope for is a random passerby from the New section.. and how many dolphins and whales sift through that? Almost none... But in communities the whales and minnows would easily mingle and meet!
Especially if it evolves like Reddit, where /r/btc is the go to place for Bitcoin news.. We need Steemit Bitcoin communities where people come to visit to read the latest news! Even a newbie could make a valuable contribution and get noticed, just like on reddit.
And yes, making money while socializing is totally addictive. I too kind of get a kick out of doling out upvotes even though I can't give too much yet. Sometimes I get hit by a whalevote and my mind is blown.. right now I have one comment that three whales upvoted to $10 and I'm like "Whoa!!" and even moreso with today's SBD prices. I mean, whoa!!
I believe that communities will be similar to Reddit, from what I understand. It might be supposition on the part of some but I believe I was reading a post by the developers who talked in that manner...in fact, it cited Reddit and their userbase...so I feel it will be similar...
It is hard in the continually moving stream to get noticed. Communities will eliminate that completely.
Steemit being the defacto news source for people would be amazing...you arent the first person who mentioned that to me...it is a wonderful idea.
This is great discussion man, I do think people underestimate the value of a good comment. That's always my advice to new users. I think you hit the nail on the head about long and quality comments.
I think it's important to leave them on things your passionate about and interested in, it will come through.
There's nothing worst than lame comments on all the whales posts, use them to add real value to the conversation and open discussion.
"Good job, interesting read" are always so lame.
Thank you for the comment @phelimint.
Obviously, I agree completely. Quality comments show appreciation for the work of the author. I surmise that most of the comments you refer to are by people who do not even read the article. I mean seriously, I can read an article on a subject I know nothing about and at least re-phrase something the author wrote. Not saying that is a quality comment but it does at least show I skimmed the article.
There are a lot of vote seekers...those who troll comment sections seeking upvotes since a lot of authors reward those who comment.
Yeah don't get me started on the damn vote seekers, I can't believe the bot algorithm that make comments on some posts, they somehow extra some text from your post and reword it as a question or soemthing. It's getting to be so much.
I must agree with your views on this. I find for myself that I LOVE the interaction that I get on posts. I get more value out of that then the upvotes. With that said, it has equated to more upvotes, traffic, awareness and friendships.
As with anything in life, how we interact with people results in prosperity for those involved. People notice those who engage, ask meaningful questions, are respectful and genuine. It is difficult to express our feelings through an interface such as this, which makes face-to-face interaction the most meaningful. However, by spending time to articulate how we feel and what we think can make an emotional connection to others which helps build the bonds we need to be successful on any social media platform.
Our capacity to connect with others is where the importance rests. Our willingness to give and help others also works very well too. I know my own success took a shot upwards when I started being way more generous with my steem, time and words.
I think your views here are accurate. Thank you for articulating the ideas to help others.
As always thank you for your imput @wwf.
Interaction is the key for this entire platform. Commenting is one of the ways that we not only read what someone took the time to write, even a comment, but also that we appreciate it.
So many seem to think it is about them...when it is us. Communication is a two way street.
On Steemit.com, givers get....
Indeed. This platform functions on the prosperity model rather than scarcity model. We have had conversations about that in the past. The more we 'give' the more we 'get'. But if we are looking to receive, it won't come nearly as quickly or abundantly. This platform helps teach this paradigm shift which we can then bring into our lives in other areas.
This is a microcosm of life itself...as above so below.
Starting to conduct ourselves on a higher level on here is good practice for us to apply it to other areas. When we think of others, we set the natural laws of the universe into action....
The way the world has operated thus far is ass backwards....