Fully Charged and Upvoting Resumed
So yes, I use an Auto-Voter. You can call me lazy if you want but I’ve got a lot going on and I don’t always have time to stay on top of my feed to manually curate all my Favourite Authors. I do also manually curate and I do check now and then to make sure my Favourite Authors haven’t resorted to putting up shit-posts (like this one) but I’m comfortable with the idea that my Auto-Voter stops me from dropping the ball when life gets a bit busy. Anyway, my big Delegation finally came back and I'm charged up to 100% so I reconfigured my Auto-Voter and turned it back on.
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I’ve wound back the Vote Weights just to try and stop my Voting Power from draining down to 17% like it did last time. I’ve been on here for almost a year now and I still don’t really know whether I am wasting my time, but I am getting an idea. I’ve started looking at my 17/18 Financial Year and it’s pretty grim. I’m looking at probably the worst income year for several years and that’s a concern, especially since I’ve been heavily into Cryptos and they were on a massive pump for the first half of it. Probably I am spending too much time on Steemit and not taking enough care of business. A few of my old side hustles are looking seriously dilapidated. I guess that is what addictive bloody social media does for you….
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Anyway, I am re-assessing where I am at and what I am doing once again. If I haven’t been voting or commenting on your stuff as much as I used to, I apologise. I’ll try and catch up over the next day or so. Got some big decisions to make over the next couple of weeks but sustainability is a big issue for me and I know that what I am doing right now is not really sustainable.
http://comicbook.com
http://byanyother.name
Yo buggs, i hear ya... $ earned •/• hrs put in = shite
But there is a lot of entertainment and snazzy pics, and going fwd this could help you reach sustainability — and you are a huge asset to SSG.
Take care of No. #1 and fam first, but look to the long game 🤘😎
With many blessings and thanks — TD
Thanks mate. I'll get the balance right one of these days hopefully :)
⬆️What he said....
Do what's best man or win the lottery.....
Hey! We've all got to do what we've got to do, so no need to apologize for taking time to recharge and reassess. We've all got our own personal situations that need to be cared for.
And I wouldn't call letting people know what you're trying to do a bad post. I think it's good to let those who have been engaging with you know what you're up to and what you're thinking, especially if it ends up requiring a curtailing of Steemit because it's just not happening to the degree you need it to.
I for one appreciate the heads up. Onward and upward. :)
Thanks @glenalbrethsen you are too kind :)
I guess I am my own harshest critic when it comes to pushing something out that maybe isn't adding value. There are so many shit-posters on here I don't want to become one of them, but I'm struggling to justify the time I spend on here these days :)
I've decided that for the time being, while I'm in the process of audience building, that what I produce needs to have a two hour maximum to write, edit and format, or less. Any more than that, and I'm probably spending too much time on it and should think about waiting until there's enough SP voting on my things.
In my mind, that doesn't equate to low quality, though. The content still needs to be good, and it needs to be about things people want to see. That in itself is probably more of the key. It has to have value, it has to be well put together, and so forth. It just can't take several hours or more to put together, because it won't be consistently worth it.
In your case, though, I think you have a lot of options, which may include spending less time here and then coming in with something larger now and then. I really hope things turn out the way they ultimately should for you, and while you're here and posting, I'll still keep perusing your stuff. :)
Thanks, I kind of started out that way. Less frequent posting but with more emphasis on quality, but that didn't really work either. I could go full-circle...but at the end of the day it's still a circle :)
In the beginning I read one of the FAQs or etiquette pages suggesting I should comment a lot, vote some, post a little, but be consistent. I started to do that and got impatient after a few weeks and started to beef up the posting. I also started reading posts about what Steemit was meant to be, and what happened to it according to some, and so none of that helped.
Then, @themanwithnoname suggested I join @abh12345's Curation and Engagement leagues and after about two weeks I did. Found out that the advice I'd been given at the beginning was pretty sound, I just needed to do a lot more and keep at it. So, I've kicked up the commenting into high gear and sense I can spread my vote out more, I do that, and I try to post at least 10 times a week—sometimes a little more.
So, I don't know if that's a recipe for everyone, but I'm enjoying it for now. I'm afraid though that things come in phases here, and so I could be exactly where you're at when I hit 11 months. I've already wondered what am I doing here a couple of times. I can see it happening a few more times. I think it's just the nature of the place.
I'm still enjoying it for the most part. Maybe I am enjoying it too much :)
I'm glad you joined the Engagement League. I've seen it make a difference in your interactions here and I know that people have appreciated the insightful comments that you leave on their posts.
Make sure that what you're doing is sustainable as well. :)
Well, I already know from past experience that working 12-14 hours a day six days a week can't last forever. Either it works or it doesn't. However, the time it actually worked, I went from over 80 hours a week down to 12 with the occasional run for supplies or deal with upset reader or subject of a story. All the upfront work was well worth it by that point, and if I could have found someone who could do the layout for two newspapers as fast I could, then I would have hired them. Or maybe not, because I actually really enjoyed that part. :)
I did the math for the amount of time that I've spent on Steemit and I've been earning less than $1/hr. I could have gotten a part time job making $10/hr and had enough money to buy a lot of silver. That's just the way it goes though, and maybe one day this all will be worth more. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm still hoping.
Sorry you couldn't keep the newspapers going. I know from having talked to you about it before that you really enjoyed it. Hopefully either Steemit takes off for you or you find something where you can productively and make use of your talents and make some money!
I'd guess that a majority of all active steemians use an autovoter, so there's no reason to feel bad about it. It's definitely not a bad thing to keep the focus on real life instead of social media. Let's not make it all more complicated but use such tools to make life easier instead. It's always just a question how extensively you use sth. and for which purpose.
Well I use the auto-voter to provide consistent support to authors and maybe improve the chance of getting curation reward. I don't feel guilty about it, but I know many disapprove of using any kind of automation.
Can you cut expenses? You don't upvote yourself? I don't think I'll ever use an autovoter but never know for sure I guess.
I do self-vote on occasion, but it feels dirty. Mind you so does using bidbots and stuff, so there is no easy answer. If you take out my expenses I am probably back to earning $1 per post for 2 hrs work :)
You could at least use @dustsweeper so if I upvoted your reply it wouldn't go to 0 after 7 days because of the .02 payout threshold.
I am already using @dustsweeper
Thank you for all the time and effort you've been putting into SteemSilverGold. You're making a huge difference and I know the community appreciates all your efforts.
I totally understand the need to do things in a sustainable manner. If you can't do it consistently, then you will only see minor gains. It's better to do a little repeatedly than a lot for a short period of time.
Good luck on your decision-making process. Let me know if I can help, or if you just want an opinion. :)
Thanks for the kind words.
It will all seem worth it when steem goes up. Don't look at 5he numbers now look at them when steem hits 20 dollars, then you'll wish you put even more into it. I personally see people powering down and selling off now and wonder why they don't wait for at least 5 dollar steem
I guess you have to believe that STEEM will get back to $5 :)
There is a lot of potential here, but so many problems.
Glad to hear this :D
We have similar steemit problems: I use autovoters too and I keep having around 20% voting power, so I had to tweak my upvotes level several times. Our difference is that I am a retired man and I can occupy my time here in steemit as I like...
Ah the life juggle. We do what we can do. Hope things get back on track 💙
By using auto voting tool is not really a bad idea, but you also need to engaged with your followers by responding to their constructive comment thereby making your account more active which also gives your followers a sense of fulfillment knowing fully well that you also appreciate their comments and effort @buggedout