How do you build a following on steemit?

When you first start off on steemit you will struggle to be seen in the news feed and most of you initial posts will sink into the blockchain with little or no votes. What you need is a following and the temptation to mass follow loads of accounts should be resisted.

Don't just follow anyone or someone because they followed you.

We all made that mistake and you end up with your feed just as cluttered with posts you have no interest in as the new post feed.

Use the tags to find posts that you are interested in and steemians that post similar things to what you will be blogging about. Pick out post that catch your eye an follow their author. You don't need to start big, just go for over a week or so building up to following about 50 steemians to start with. If you English isn't very good search for post in your native language, it will make the next step easier.

Next comes the harder part as you need to get these people to start to notice you and in turn your posts.

The first step is to vote for their posts and to begin with the number of upvotes you have is limited each day so choose post where the author interacts back with comments.
The next step is making a comment and there is a right and a wrong way to do this.

Don't make a pointless comment, just saying great post or something equally bland, it will get you ignored.

The aim here is to make a friend.

Read the post, really look at the picture and then make a comment that showed you did take the time to read the post. Point out something you liked, be positive as you are not here to pick a fight. Once the author starts to see you interacting in a positive way over a few days there is a good chance they will check out your account. Never ask them to do this or post a link to your own posts.
Once they check out you blog and if they like what you post and it's something that they are interested in there is a good chance they will follow you back and when they see your posts in their feeds they will know the name and give it an upvote.

This advice isn't a full proof way to get noticed but I've found it to work for me and making 5 to 10 friends that vote for you is better than 500 followers that don't know who you are.

Good luck and I hope my advice helps, in a small way to build a successful account here. The hardest part is making original posts that will interest people.

As for picture, use your own or give credits to the owner of the image.

Image is mine.