T for tortoise.
When I was five years old my sister, 12 years old at the time, brought home from the library a book on marine creatures. It had lots of wonderful pictures and descriptions about sharks, whales and all other animals that lived in the oceans and lakes including turtles. It explained that turtles and tortoises are actually different species. One lives in water, the other on land, one has a smooth shell, the other hard and bumpy. Tortoises have short, sturdy feet while turtles have webbed feet with long claws. Tortoises also have a much longer lifespan than turtles with the oldest turtle having lived for 326 years while the oldest turtle was only 86 years. Armed with this knowledge, I set out to correct a grave error that was being taught in my nursery school.
An ABC chart hung in our nursery school classroom and it's pretty clear that from the description of turtles vs tortoises that it was a tortoise not a turtle in the t section. One day the teacher picked me to lead the other kids in reciting from the alphabet chart. She would often do this in the afternoons when it was hot and she was tired. I would go "A for Apple", like the teacher would do everyday and the other kids would repeat it after me. "A FOR AH-PPLE!", the other kids would shout back.
B for bicycle. "B FOR BICYCLE!"
C for Cat."C FOR CAH-AT!"
And so on.
"T for tortoise," I said, pointing to the picture when I reached T.
"T FOR TUR-TLE!"
"T for tortoise," I repeated.
"T FOR TUR-TLE!", they shouted back.
I tried a third time, "T for tortoise."
"T FOR TUR-TLE!!!" a third even louder reply that meant they weren't going to change their minds. To them it was a turtle.
Welcome to Steemit! It's got a steep learning curve, but it's worth it in the long run if you keep putting in the time! Just know that it will take quite a while before you start getting attention and followers. The secret to success? Keep posting high quality content regularly, and make sure to search out other people's posts, read them, and give relevant comments.
Tagging is extremely important. Always make sure to use all five possible tags, and to keep them relevant. You can always just tag something "blog" or "photography" or something else really general (so long as it's still relevant) to fill the quota if you need to- most of your tags should be established ones, though one or two less used ones are fine.
Posting more than four times a day can reduce your potential rewards, as well as turning off potential users. (I aim for one post per day most of the time.) Consistency is important, though, so you should try to post often.
Always make sure to attach a photo to your posts! You should also have a finished profile: Write a description, add a profile picture and a banner- neither needs to be of you, necessarily, but you should have something- and set a website.
There are a lot of really good resources out there for minnows (new users). You should check out the following groups and services, they offer a lot of valuable resources to new users:
@thesteemengine (Check this one out first- they're an extremely supportive group.)
@qurator (These guys offer an excellent liftime upvote to accounts that post consistent quality content.)
@originalworks (Whenever you write an original post, tag this account- they'll verify it's original and upvote you.)
@steembasicincome (Another lifetime upvote option.)
@steemstem (The biggest and best STEM curation group in the game. If you're interested in writing or reading about science, check these guys out!)
@geopolis (A fairly new science curation group, this one's dedicated to the study of the Earth.)
@ocd (A curation group that seeks out undervalued new writers.)
And, again, the biggest thing is just patience. Breakout successes are incredibly rare on Steemit- you've got to find your way there through perseverance and hard work. It takes time, but you'll eventually succeed if you put in the work.
Please feel free to repost this guide on the posts of other minnows you run into!
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