Finding Success on Steemit in 5 Steps
Step One: Know Why You're Here
Why are you here on Steemit, what's your motivator? Are you here to make money to pay off your debts? Do you post in order to entertain others and show off your talents? Are you here just because you wanted to try out blogging and writing? Did you come here to learn new things? Or teach others? Are you here because you want your posts to reach a wider audience than you're getting elsewhere?
If you look at any successful person, and ask them for advice, a lot of them will tell you to define your motivator. When you make mistakes, or stray off the path to success, your motivator is what will keep you going strong, or put you back on the correct track. Even if your attempt at something is a complete flop, your motivator is what will restore your inspiration and willingness to succeed because it helps you remember why you're doing the things you're doing.
If you don't know why you're here on Steemit, how will you ever know where you're going?
Step Two: Networking
Interacting with other people and forming friends, bonds, and business relationships with people is necessary outside of Steemit for success, but on Steemit it's absolutely crucial.
But first, let me be clear about something: Sending whales on Steemit small SBD/Steem transactions in order to promote your post is NOT networking. It's spam, and I can almost guarantee you they probably find it irritating. I won't mention any specific names, but if you take a look at some of the whales' profiles you can see their transactions are littered with this incessant garbage.
Efficiently networking with other people on Steemit involves a couple things; the first two of which are upvoting and commenting (duh), but there's a specific way you should do it in order to maximize your social circle.
Don't spam upvote everything you see. Only upvote content you actually find interesting. The main reason is this; your Voting Power drops every time you vote, if you spam 50+ votes every day your votes will carry less weight, meaning less contribution to the author, and less curation rewards for yourself.
When you comment on an author's post, your comment should be valuable. Don't just say "Yeah great post!", add something to the discussion already present in the comments, start your own, or ask the author a question regarding the post. Believe it or not, I've had whales and large dolphins visit my blog just purely from good comments I've left on other people's work. It does make a difference, because sometimes this is their very first impression of you, and you want to make it a good one. This also helps you attain higher visibility besides just creating posts, and the author will appreciate the genuine feedback and interaction as well.
The Follow system is also vital to your networking. Follow people that post content you're interested in. You are not required to follow everyone who follows you, that notion is absurd. Do you think YouTubers with millions of subscribers are subscribed to millions of people? Hell no. Can you imagine trying to find good posts in your Steemit Feed when you're following 250+ people? I'm sure some people can manage it, but it's probably not pleasant. Spam following people only lessens your visibility of their possibly fantastic posts.
Do you every wonder why whales here get massive amounts of upvotes on every single post they write? Maybe even wondered how and why that's fair? It's because they gathered tons of followers through networking before they ever came here, they've already been taught to network efficiently.
The last thing I wanted to bring up in this section is making your presence known in the Steemit Chat! It could be in the post promotion channel, discussion channels or even channels just meant for fun! This is a great way to meet other Steemians aside from Steemit itself and find new content. Anything that increases your interaction with other users is an increase in your social network.
Step Three: The Content of your Posts
A LOT of people have already written posts about this, so I just wanted to touch on it briefly. The first piece of advice is stop creating posts with the intention of making money. A great post that teaches you how to do this is written here on Steemit by @klye. It's almost as if dolphins, whales, and even fat minnows can smell when your only motivation is money, and it's a nasty stank. When you're writing a post, it's okay to be excited about it, but try not to let your only thought be "man I'm gonna make so much bank with this post". Some of my best successful posts were ones I wrote thinking "this will never make any money, but I'm going to post it because it's something I like", a prime example of that is this post.
When you produce content on Steemit, it should be about things that interest you. Write posts that you would click on if you saw them. If you wouldn't click on your own posts you just finished, why should anyone else? If your post would interest you enough to click it and give it a read, there's a good chance it'll do the same for someone else.
Formatting is another crucial part of posting. If you write giant blocks of text with no pictures, headlines, or formatting of any sort, people won't want to read it, as they'll likely want to gouge out their eyes. Mix it up a bit. A fantastic post written by @minion gives you tips and tricks on how to do it. Don't let that Raw HTML button scare you!
Step Four: Perseverance
Another key ingredient in the baking batter of success is never giving up. When you become a success on Steemit, it's not luck, it's skill. If you end up on the Trending section of Steemit, it's for a reason: because you've networked and have a massive following, because you've impressed someone, you've taught people something, made them laugh. You might say "Oh I was so lucky these whales upvoted me" but Steemit is not gambling, posting isn't spinning the slot machine in a casino. Your success in posting comes from achieving one of the previously mentioned reasons.
Don't reduce yourself to believing that your success all just came from luck. Don't discount all your hard work and effort, because if you've succeeded, you've done something to earn it.
Step Four ties back into Step One, motivation gives birth to perseverance. If you're struggling, if you've spent weeks writing posts with no results, remember your original motivation, and use that to inspire yourself again. If your motivation comes from someone around you, spend some time with them to get yourself back in gear. If it comes from something you desire, like a fancy car or a mansion, look at pictures of them to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing.
Step Five: Expand Your Knowledge - And Everyone Else's
One of the biggest reasons people click links and read posts on Steemit is to learn something. They want to learn about the newest famous person they joined, they want to learn what it's like to walk on fire, they want to learn how to draw an ear, or make a recipe, or what it's like to live in various countries.
People love to learn new things because of the human trait of curiosity, and your mission as an author is to not only help them learn, but also to teach yourself.
If you haven't written about something you recently learned about or want to gain knowledge of, I highly recommend you try it. Do some research, get your facts straight and your sources compiled, and whip out one hell of a cool learning experience. I recently wrote a post about a process I learned about a couple years back called Steganography, and it did exceedingly well. You never know what you might learn, and what other people would be interested in learning if you shared it.
The last advice I have for the final step is to also learn from the successes of others. I'm not saying go copy everything that's on the front page of Steemit, I'm saying read their work. Understand the way they write, how they format their posts, whether or not they seems interested in what they're writing about. Judging posts on Steemit is a lot like judging someone's character when you first meet them. If you met someone extremely successful like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, wouldn't you want to know how they act and what they do?
![](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/http://i.imgur.com/YSt1Mis.gif)
There were many good points in this post. One of the best is to streamline your follow feed. I started by following my followers. That was a mistake. I reset my approach with this post An Open Letter to My Followers I had come to some of the same conclusions you have...Great minds think alike. ;P
Exactly, I always see people offering follow for follows, and all it does is dilute your Feed. You should really only Follow people that create content you're interested in - that's the whole point. Thanks for the feedback!
Yes in a "working" system that would be the case, but we all know that bot's play a important role in those posts and "vote betting". Great post tho, what I would also like to add is:
Pick a flavor and go with it.
That means to focus on specific subjects and make posts only about those, a crowd that knows what to expect is a happy crowd. Don't make completely random posts. Would you expect Mozart to play something on a Metallica concert? Focus on one or several subjects/things, but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't make a "random" post every once in a while. To conclude: focus on a specific subject/thing or a few and pursued those, but don't forget you can "slip" something other than usual in there to keep it "fresh".
I do agree with you on the fact that bots play a role, but what I meant by what you quoted is that those people have already succeeded elsewhere, so bringing their experiences, successes, and wealth with them to Steemit has made their success that much easier. It wasn't necessarily about just the upvotes.
And on your second point, although you make a great argument, I'm sort of in the middle. As the kind of person who posts about lots of different subjects, I've found post success in topics I never realized would even get popular. I genuinely enjoy posting about different subjects, I don't just cater to a crowd, I'm catering to myself. If I wrote posts about video game or music or something all the time, I'd probably be bored and people would be able to tell through my writing that I've lost interest in the subject.
That's just my personal opinion though. I do really like and appreciate your feedback and the points you made! I'm sure for some people focusing on one subject is a good way to really streamline their content. :)
lol, I have to quote again :)), truth is only a few of them "brought their following here", that's what I've also meant with that, but now I realize it might came off differently.
About the 2nd point, truth is I'm somewhere in the middle as well, since "I'm a person of many interests so knowledge is ultimately my passion", I'm a person who lives to the fullest and who's in a constant learning process. If I wrote about all the stuff I'm interested in and have knowledge about, it would've been a complete mess, hahahahaa. So what I am doing is I'm focusing on my "biggest passions" and the stuff I have most knowledge about, and writing about that, but I do make a post every once in a while of something "non expected". If you'd ask me, I'd make that "mess", but that'd probably result in less long term interest. Look at all the youtubers for example, each is focused on one specific thing, that made them so successful... But even tho I'm saying all this, I'm still in my mind somewhere in the middle...
Exactly! I think sometimes it takes a bit of wandering before someone finally settles on a select passion or two, like the YouTubers we've mentioned. But even still, there are some YouTubers that don't focus on certain things, they have multiple playlists for all kinds of subjects. I'm with you 100%. Thanks for all the constructive comments! It makes me happy when people get engaged in what I write.
Exactly, we completely understand each-other on that one....
This type of engagement made me realize that we are like-minded , at least when it comes to this subject and made me a follower!
"I genuinely enjoy posting about different subjects, I don't just cater to a crowd, I'm catering to myself." That's a choice I also made soon after joining Steemit. For my freelancing business, I write the business-generating content my clients need. For my info business, I write the "how to" content my freelancing students need. Here, I can write a fairy tale one day, a recipe the next, about my trip to Fiji another day, etc. - and each day, I approach the challenge of writing something that pleases me and engages whoever stumbles upon it with excitement because even I don't know what I'll write about until I sit down to do it.
That's awesome! That's one of the things I really find enjoyable about Steemit - You can write about pretty much anything you want, and as long as it's tasteful and genuine, it will usually garner at least some attention. The freedom to express yourself is very pertinent here. And people getting engaged in my work is probably what most excites me. :)
Good read man. I appreciate the shoutout and link to my post.
Keep at it. Your writing is getting better. You'll be on the front page before you know it!
Thanks a bunch for the support @klye! You've done extremely well too! I always try to give shoutouts when I can to people that have made a difference for me or taught me something. I think I'll always be indebted to you for showing me Steemit, now I'm addicted, haha. :)
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
― Pablo Picasso
“I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”
-Mewtwo (Pokemon, the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back!)
At one point I owned about one thousand Mewtwos!
Didn't know this one!, Thanks for sharing, I like it! :D
I'm glad you like it. :)
When I first started out my motivator was money. I've moved past that and now its to learn to write better. I think I have my networking down too.
That's good! It's okay to have the money as a motivator, you just don't want it to be your ONLY motivator. It's awesome that Steemit was able to help you write better as well as expand your social network. :D
A nasty stank ... lol I think sometimes people don't understand how wise and experienced people on Steemit are. They can spot stanky content in a moment and won't pay it any mind. I never realized how stupid I really am until I jumped into the Steemit tank :)
I know, right? It happened to me, and then I just had this sort of epiphany that it's the same as everyone else that has experience. If you go to huge in front of a bunch of investors and suggest a business idea with a shady intent, most of them will pick up on it and choose not to invest. It can apply to anything really. The best thing to do is just be genuine. Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you liked that little tidbit I threw in! :)
I only write posts to educate people, if they make money fine, if not fine. I am more interested in minnow upvotes and people reading then the money part. So you summed up my opinions in steps 3 4 and 5. Write, teach people something, and keep at it. Peoples enjoyment of the work you make is its own reward.
Also, cite your images and gifs if you can. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you agree! And yeah, I apologize, I usually try to cite my images but this time I kind of forgot, and whenever I edit my posts in the Editor, it removes all the formatting I added in the Raw HTML and makes me start over. :( I usually do, I just kind of spaced it. Next time for sure!
Pro tip: Add sources of the images the same way you link the follow button to your profile ;)
I have been noticing a lot of people using this graphic. I even used it in one of my posts yesterday. Definitely a good one. LOL
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://ipfs.pics/ipfs/QmZBqwx77Z7cjHi6oZEzMrPUAiQH9dieJgDPXfWsWmQUgz)
Haha, I didn't even notice. xD I just saw it and thought it was good. Next time I'll have to dig a bit deeper for something unique. I just googled "knowledge" and that's what showed up in the image search. It is really nice though. :)
I think that's what I looked up also. LoL
That's probably what everyone was looking up. xD
What if your motivation is a little bit of every one of those factors you mentioned? I kept reading and trying to find one that DIDN'T match my motivation--they all did. The one thing I've been dragging my feet on doing is joining SteemChat. I don't know why, exactly. I think maybe I've been thinking that everything I need to know about Steem and SteemIt is available right here in a blog somewhere. If I can just find it.
Thanks for the article. You do good work.
P.S. I only got to read this article because I started "following" you about a week ago. Glad I did.
Aww, thanks for the kind words, I'm glad the post resonated with you! And it's perfectly okay if a mix of things motivates you! The more motivators, the better, in my opinion. The Steemit Chat really is a great way to interact with other members, besides just in comments here on the site. I would highly recommend that you join it, and I appreciate you following me! It means a lot and I'm happy you were able to find this post because of it. :)
I do not think that I will be able here that to earn I like to make comments on posts, because I like to communicate. I will follow you I hope, it is mutually
Thanks for the feedback and follow! :)