**FINDING MY NICHE: THIRTY (30) DAYS ON STEEMIT…THE JOURNEY SO FAR!**

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Eureka!
This word alone should be enough, right? Wrong! I could use a thousand words to describe my encounter with steemit and yet it wouldn’t be enough.
Yes, I found it! I found something I never knew was exactly what I needed the day I found steemit. Or rather, the day steemit found me.

Like I mentioned in my introductory post, steemit found me through a phone call but I was being such a jerk that I almost passed on this great experience. Okay, maybe’ jerk’ is a rather strong word to use here but skeptical or rigid was my middle name. When my sister @cwen first mentioned steemit, my first thoughts were get rich quick schemes, internet fraud and the likes.

“…it’s a social media where you can post those your stories and get paid for it….” My sister was telling me.

Yeah, right! My thoughts and response were heavy with sarcasm.

Now, don’t blame me. I’m from a country where internet fraud and other fraudulent schemes thrive. I’m also a young doctor, undergoing his internship program at the time. The later meant I was busy as I could ever be.

Anyway, fast forward to five months later. I was on the verge of completing my internship program, I was dissatisfied with medical practice in Nigeria, I was frustrated at my inability to really do what I loved doing most – writing. I was scared my talent was leaving me as a result of disuse.

For fear of repeating my introductory post all over again, I would just refer you to it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@uc-phoenix/freedom-to-create-introducing-myself-on-steemit-doctor-writer-and-dreamcatcher

My point is, I was looking for something different. I was looking for the freedom to create. I wanted to be free enough to draw my own world and paint it in colors I love.
It was in the course of thinking of a way out and looking for this freedom to create that I would encounter steemit again. I saw it next time on facebook. I was just idly going through posts on facebook when I saw it mentioned again. This time a chord was struck inside of me. Why not find out more about this? I would call my brother @gerald.knows to tell me more about steemit, I would speak to @cwen about it again and I would search the internet about it. Soon I would pretty much work myself into a frenzy borne from the prospect of everything steemit potentially offered.

Expectations….

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Now, my first expectation from steemit was getting paid for my writings, obviously, eh? The second was meeting or creating a group of genuine creative writers that would help each other hone their skills better. The third was growing in reputation and making more money, still obvious right?Lol…. Lastly, I want to one day to be in a position to help give others this same opportunity to create and earn.

Testing the waters/ my first forays….

My introductory posts would take me a few days to write. After watching the videos made by the likes of @jerrybanfield, I decided I was ready to make the post which I painstakingly did before running off to work that Sunday afternoon. I kept my fingers crossed and roughly six hours later when I returned from work, my post had just made about 6.7SBD. Wow! I was elated. If I could make this much after just six hours then in seven days it might be at least triple that sum, right? Lol…very wrong! At payout, it would be $4.75 and thus my first lesson on steemit: Never pay too much attention to how much your post was accruing. Just keep doing what you ought to do.

My Approach….

So, I had to keep doing what I ought to do. I watched videos, read posts and articles targeted at helping minnows/newbies and I discovered what I would like to call the 5Cs approach – COMMENTS, CONTESTS, COMMUNITY, CONSISTENCY/CONTENT CREATION AND CULTIVATING FRIENDSHIPS.
Now, don’t get me wrong I didn’t have all these figured out at the onset. The initial excitement just made me keep reading posts after posts and watching a few videos as I gradually stumbled upon them one by one.
Allow me to tell you the story of how I discovered these 5Cs.

COMMENTS

You see as a newbie, if you care to read a little on other steemians advice to minnows, one thing you would notice they keep emphasizing on is making meaningful comments on other people’s post. I followed this advice and it didn’t take long before I got a few upvotes here and there, the first two being from a fellow Nigerian @tojukaka and from a predominantly Nigerian community @airclinic. Now, remember I laid emphasis on meaningful comments. Please DO NOT SPAM!!! Example of comments that are considered spamming are: well done, nice work, thank you, thanks,…. Like really? Isn’t it obvious that you didn’t read the above post. Whale or not, whenever someone takes the time and effort to put up a post, he/she would really want someone to genuinely read it and make sound inputs and not just patronize. So, if you aren’t going to read it, please no need commenting. If you don’t have any interest in the topic, please do not comment. Don’t force it. One of the first things, I discovered on steemit is that with a little effort, you eventually find posts that interests you as a person. So just take your time surfing through steemit and don’t fret. You will eventually get there. Lastly, on comments, like in other social media and in real life, doesn’t it sound nicer if you make a comment and the other party replies? It sure does, right? In other words, we can agree that like commenting on people’s post, replying to comments on your posts is equally important.

CONTESTS! CONTESTS!! CONTESTS!!!

You just have to take part in them. Contests are created for newbies!!
My first week on steemit was spent actively seeking out contests I could participate in and fortunately I ended up being a joint winner for my first ever contest which was a writing contest put up by @son-of-satire.
Now, let me tell you beautiful things about contests that you get to benefit even without winning.
You get to be read by the big fish who put up the contest, in my case it was @son-of-satire and @dreemit ( a co-judge). How does this help? You impress? Your chances of being followed by this dolphin/orca/whale shoots to the roof. @dreemit came through for me and I’m forever grateful.
Secondly, almost all contests I’ve encountered allow you to make a post of your entry on your blog and by doing so, you still get to earn from your entry whether you win or not.
Thirdly, it’s an avenue to encounter other brilliant minds also and like most cases in life where one thing leads to another, one contest actually leads to another.
Permit me to say here that a good chunk of what I’ve actually earned on steemit so far came directly and indirectly from contests. So you see my dear friend, the importance of contests cannot be overemphasized for newbies.

COMMUNITY

My first ever community on steemit was @air-clinic. Thanks to @nairadaddy my friend from med school and my siblings who were there to guide me. @air-clinic gave me my first home for which I remain grateful. I got to interact with like minds and several minnows like me from which I learnt a lot of things. The community’s importance to my beginning cannot be overemphasized, as they gave me a place to stand, from which I could then survey this vast sea of communities known as steemit. But for @air-clinic, I really could have been lost out here and I think a major % of my income on my introductory post came through the community’s upvotes.
Also, a more beautiful thing about joining communities on steemit via discord is the opportunity these communities avail you to make friends. Standing out in my list of friends I’ve met on discord and steemit communities are @jeffways, @eunireal1, @mariannewest, amongst others.
Oh! And haven’t I mentioned the community I have received the warmest welcome so far? @isleofwrite of course!! Thanks @jedau and @mariannewest for bringing me home. The #freewrite adventure keeps being fun and I hope to participate more often.
You see, I have discovered communities are key to having fun and making progress on steemit. I know I may sound a bit like I’ve gotten the hang of it all but that’s far from the truth. I’m just a newbie who is still learning the ropes and have only just decided to put down his observations.

CULTIVATING FRIENDSHIPS

Before I talk about consistency/content creation, let me spare a few words on cultivating friendships as this also relates to communities.
Another thing I’ve noticed on steemit/discord is the friendly atmosphere that helps to cultivate friendships.
You see, @jeffways has been an invaluable friend to me. Currently, he is walking me through various mindboggling activities on both steemit and discord and I couldn’t have wished for a better mentor/friend who has a way of making it all look easy. I quickly took to him because of his excellent and entertaining writing and his acts of benevolence and I must confess it’s been an amazing ride with him so far even as I look forward to making more friends like him.

CONSISTENCY/CONTENT CREATION

Now, I have saved this for last because this is one area I’ve failed in. Yes, I may give excuse that I was moving to another city and changing jobs and blah, blah, blah but excuses will always be excuses. Let’s not give them a chance.
You gain the attention of the big fish by creating quality contents, making good comments and participating in contests but a less tasteful lesson I’ve also learnt is, there are a lot of posts out there equally clamoring for their attention and you may lose their regular upvotes once you stop being consistent. So you only keep that attention, once gained by being consistent. Be in their face! Be like the proverbial fly who kept dancing between the eyes of the cow until it got its own share of the meat.
As someone who believes in practicing what you preach, I’d rather stop here and leave you with an advice from @jerrybanfield: one post a day!
Don’t learn the hard way like me. Do not lose what you have gained by being inconsistent.

Grateful heart and looking forward….

If you’ve stayed with me up to this point and have resisted the temptation to check my wallet, then allow me shock you a bit. In these first 30 days of steemit, I have barely earned a total of 15SBD . So forgive me if I sounded like someone already making hundreds of dollars from steemit. That’s because I’ve found a home in the system and I’ve got faith that I would eventually get there with time.
So this is me being grateful to the entire steemit universe and all who has been involved in my first thirty days of steeming(pun intended) adventure.

Thank you very much!

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