“Help!!! I wrote an amazing blog but nobody read it???!!!” Words of encouragement and guidance for newbies.
It’s really tough when you are starting out. You can write brilliant, well composed, excellent works of art on which you spent many hours. Then nobody reads them.
It’s sickening.
You can’t force people to read your blogs. Advertising a blog will just get you flagged.
I know how tough it is for newbies. I was there.
If you take the time to look at any of my early blogs, I am sure you will agree that they deserved much more than the 7 views and 1 cent.
After months of blogging my breakthrough came when I wrote a humorous, “tongue in cheek”, blog called “Cooking lessons for men. 1. How to make a fried egg sandwich. (Special bonus: how to find the kitchen)”. I had not realised that the cooking section was so popular.
That earned me $5 and 4 followers. Wow! Now I thought was on the way to be the king of blogging!
Don’t be lazy when you blog or comment.
Slap-dash quickly composed blogs and comments will get you nowhere. All of my blogs are long, detailed and hardwork. My comments, are never of the “amazing post bro” type.
If you want to prosper, then you must work to write excellent comments. You need to participate intelligently in the debate on the subject.
Short pointless blogs or low quality comments will lead to followers un-following you, muting you, or worse.
Bad comments - spam comments
The worst thing a beginner can do is write lots of short meaningless replies trying to attract attention. Comments like
“Amazing post about dog poo. Upvoted, followed and resteemed. Please look at my blog”,
reek of insincerity and are more likely to be flagged than attract any follower.
Hard work pays off in the end
My persistence in writing quality content eventually paid off. Slowly the followers came. Then they started to come a little faster.
Steempower gets your blogs looked at.
The next leg-up was when I passed the $1000 in steem power, (having bought some steem and converted it).
If you have reputation and you have steempower then people take you more seriously. They are more likely to follow you, more likely to vote for you, and more likely to comment on your blogs. It’s the same effect as being a film star or the office manager. You get respect. Nobody bullies you.
The steempower gets your blog looked at.
Repeat: “steempower gets your blog looked at”.
Buy some if you can. It’s still very cheap and really good value for money. It’s not going to stay this cheap for long. Owning just $1500 of steempower already puts you in the top 1% of steemians.
Now I have 960 followers and my next few blogs could well increase that to over 1000. Followers follow followers. Steemians with high reputation and lots of followers sometimes re-steem my blogs. That brings more followers.
If you want to prosper on steemit, you can’t expect any fast tracks to success. Only hard work and skill work.
Steemit guides to success.
Everyone should read some of the many excellent steemit guides. Here are some examples:
Finally, if you hope to do more than just make friends, that is, if you want to earn money, I recommend everyone read this:
I encouarage all beginners to keep writing quality blogs for pleasure. You will earn nothing for a long time, but eventually your followers will come. A high quality comment on a popular blog may get others looking at what else you wrote. They want to see high quality interesting blogs, not short things with little substance.
If you make a comment that deserves a wider audience, think about posting it as a blog.
EDIT: As an afterthought, I am adding a photo of the first seven blogs I wrote. Each of them was long, a masterpiece, and each took me more than a day to perfect. Look how much I earned from the first 7 blogs: Just $0.09. Nine cents! How many comments? Less than a dozen across 7 posts. As a newbie, nobody looks at your blogs to start with. Then slowly the people come.
Here is the photo of my first 7 posts:
As you can see from the above, my first seven posts got an average of just 3 votes each, (including my own!!), and earned an average of 1.5 cents. Ignoring my own comments on my own blog, I was lucky to get a single comment per blog.
How’s that as a reward for toiling 12 hours on a single blog?
I repeat the advice to new steemians. “If you write quality, sooner or later they will come”. You just have to be patient and persistant.
Life teaches us many thing and steemit has also taught me many thing in my short tenure so far.
Everything can not be stretched unnecessarily. For example if steemit is allowing end number of posts per day every 5 mins, then that does not mean that one should post shit post every 5 mins. This I am saying because I had a talk with a fellow steemian and he was showing me a mathematical equation to how we can post 20 articles per day and earn 1000s of USD. Initally I was laughing at him and just tried my best to make him understand that steemit is not created for that.
Very nice and deatiled explaination by your dear @swissclive and this article is a must read for minnows.
I have my own experience in steemit and based on that experience I have emphasized on the following parameters to make my quality post work and gain attention from the mass in this community and let me tell you I have succeed to some extent with this.
Decent SP
We should understand that the most important parameter is the SP size of our account. It influences people to look our blog, follow us and read us. If one cant afford big amount of SP, then I think delegated SP can also fulfill the purpose.
Hard Word
There is no substitute to hard work and this is the truth not just for steemit but for every aspect of our life. So take some time to analyse, read and gather proper information from multiple sources before posting a blog.
Participation in other's blog
This platform is not just about writing own blog only and we should also participate in other's blog based upon the category of interest and make a productive debate by commenting. This way not only the purpose of this platform is fulfilled, but also passively we can bring the attention of others to our own blog. So this way we are making steem friend here.
Quality Content
This is something which can bring unconditional upvotes from potential curators. And this is something like... if you have a Mercedes car, then the people will definitely have a look upon it.
So with all these four pillars, UPVOTE to our blog becomes a natural reality and when something gets natural then the development becomes real and sustainable.
Thank you @swissclive for writing such a phenomenal article and guiding the minnows as a mentor.
These four pillars are great things for all. Everyone on dteemit should understand and respect their importance.
I find it very interesting and I would like to share the content in Spanish, I need your authorization. thanks for sharing
This is a great post that hits plenty of good nerves in the community, while offering a success story and plenty of advice to help people find some inspiration.
Your hyperlink at the bottom is broken and needs a quick edit at the end (remove the space).
People should also recognize that writing the best posts in the world will likely not get seen until you have a reasonable amount of followers to see them in their feeds. I'm personally saving my best content for when I have 1,000 followers, and will then shower them with longer material they may actually want to see because I've recruited, engaged, upvoted, and retained them with my shorter stuff. I want my effort to be seen, so this is my strategy to not run out of content when I potentially do become popular. In other words, I've earned their respect so they'll hopefully WANT to search for my material. I've seen this in the #punchline and #funny tags in recent weeks, which has a very supportive community that appreciates humor, or by a daily fitness challenge designed to help each other stay healthy and motivated. -- All to keep me actively blogging, but not spending the hours I used to for virtually no views, and a lot of disappointment.
I recommend going easy on major blog posts until you've generated 100+ followers from actively writing engaging comments wherever you genuinely feel inspired. Don't force it and don't forget to upvote to show your appreciation. This will give your material a fighting chance to be seen and rewarded by people who will see it somewhere in their feeds.
I also recommend focusing on 2-3 key high-engagement niches so you can be recognized and earn a reputation more effectively. From my experience, spreading yourself all over the place may water down these efforts.
Resteemed.
@swissclive and @steemmatt thanks to both of you for an amazing blog and an equally heartening response.
I was feeling pessimistic about this whole thing since today morning as I read a number of blogs about the infighting within the community about self-voting and auto-voting abuse and reading it all made me feel that there's no way a newbie can make any good here on Steemit.
Your words of advice finally gives me some inspiration and motivation to carry on.
@steemmatt A good reward from me for some excellent points I didn’t make:
“Don’t force it”
“focussing on 2 or 3 key high engagement niches”
Thanks for spotting the broken link (now corrected).
Thanks for the resteem.
You get 100% upvote for this. Newbies could do well to learn from your example. Please help us all in guiding them.
Thank you very much! Yes, Sir.
Pls wat does "2-3 high engagement niches mean?
It means 2-3 topics which already have proven to have high engagement. He's saying we should stick to writing and curating 2-3 niches.
yup, especially like your second point. I am beginning to see the wisdom in 'saving the good stuff'.
Great wisdom, experience teaching, highly impacting indeed.
Thanks for this input.
The funny thing is that, when I started, my most simplistic publications received more than the most elaborate ones, but an initial pair exceeded the $50 barrier and it motivated me enough to stay.
If you want to see exemplified how easy work does not bear fruit in Steemit, you can see the user "a-a-a", he follows you and me too, follows practically all the Steemit accounts, with the goal of following him, but as his followers are not real, despite having 23,000 of them, his publications do not receive much reward.
Nor do I have anything against him, but it shows perfectly how you will not go anywhere using cheap tricks.
I loved this line of yours:
Hi @swissclive, This is a very useful post, I have to resteem it again.
I've said a number of times that INTERACTION is the secret of steemit community.
If someone write a lot of good posts but no one read them, they may incur in excessive waste of time.
I agree with you, first of all, newcomers may try to write good comments strictly related to posts content. This will help to increase their followers numbers and to take some upvotes.
When the followers number start to grow, they can start to write some interesting posts to see how it's going.
Everyone can find their way on steemit if they write well. It just takes time and effort.
Not everyone wants to work hard to get paid for all their effort. It's easier to ask for upvote but this is the virtue of losers.
Me, you and other thousands of users worked hard to become someone and this is the only way to grow in steemit community.
That's a most useful post. I laughed at first because I thought you were complaining your post didn't get read when I read the title.
I'm working on bringing a whole lot of homeopaths to steemit via a homeopathic practice building group I co-admin. We've maybe got some 20 to come across already. So I've posted them this post so they don't get disheartened and know how to get on.
Thanks for saving me writing it for them! You did a great job! haha.
You can still write your tips. The guides - of which many get written) tend to last a few weeks before everyone fogetes about them so we need new people constantly sharing their tips with newbies. People will enjoy your original thoughts and original opinion.
True. 😄.
I thought what you’d listed made sense though as it’s what I’ve found to work on steemit. It’s kind of easy; just be authentic, comment on what you are interested by, be a bit open minded, be authentic, be yourself. I can’t much be bothered by any tricks that will get you there. Slow and organic is the way forward for me. I get a little miffed by people grabbing bigger shares than they should have but on the other hand the libertarian/anarchist in me says “hey ho, they worked the system out”. Probably ignorance on my part as I’m guessing they can destroy the platform or corrupt it but I don’t see how at this point. It seems to work well with what’s in place and I’m guessing when it doesn’t then the community will find a way to intervene too.
"If you want to prosper, then you must work to write excellent comments. You need to participate intelligently in the debate on the subject."
I noticed that with you very well, you don't actually post for wrong reasons or pointless post. Your last post was 9days back which was exactly on the 7th of January and i was wondering if you travelled or what, because i do learn one or two things from you when ever you post. Like few post back, when you used the word "finney,"! In one of your posts, immediately, i went online, i just had to, just to have a broad insight of what you were trying to say.
"A finney is half way between a satoshi and a bitcoin. It is equal to ten thousand satoshi, or one ten-thousandth of a bitcoin."
I wouldn't want to say much because you already know what i would say based on the word "finney." I like learning new things every day, not because i should, but because i learned it the hard way that education is the only legacy i can pass unto my sibblings, my love ones, my yet to be married wife and most especially, my unborn kids. So, can a man give out what he doesn't have? Nay! So that is why i'm always opened for corrections and learning because knowledge acquired can't be taken away. I so much enjoy your post each time i read them. I was even going through one of your posts, https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@swissclive/satoshi-the-bitcoin-billionaire-who-never-spent-a-penny. I was just trying to get settled before making a comment on it, with 7 votes, 5 comments and 96 views with no earnings, i just wondered why?
You are such good content creator that get me more motivated to go beyond my present level of understanding that ought to have been part of me, but thank God for steemit meeting a consultants or someone like You for free by just commenting at their pace for free. I will really take hid to your advice @swissclive and i must confess, i have learned enough from this post alone and prepared to go to any length with you when it comes to knowledge, thank you.
Greetings friend, I am very happy that you share this type of publications, there are many new steemianos that have another mentality about how the platform works, and they think that when they enter, they will generate many votes and a lot of money.
Seeing his capture and everything he tells, I live with you all my beginnings, because part of my beginnings was knowing him, I remember very well when I commented on his baby's post, and I apologized saying that he thought I was a woman because of his profile picture , I know this is not worth the case, but I am very happy to be part of its beginnings that were mine as well since I joined steemit in August 2017, and I was lucky that in 3 opportunities as a rookie I voted a whale, it was Something that drives me and my desire to continue working in this network increased, today I thank God for giving me the opportunity to meet you, he is one of those who has supported me greatly and I am very grateful, I remember clearly when he told me a pot, which already had a vote worth $ 1, was very exciting, it was an accomplished achievement, and nowadays it enjoys those benefits since it gains more visibility because of its high sp, and its generosity to vote the comments, is not something that Does anyone, is worthy of admiration, and I hope I can learn a lot from you every day.
Thank you for being as it is, and for helping the new ones to be original, creating quality content, to maintain the spirit, not to be spam.
Thank you friend, God keep blessing you, I hope you have understood this translation!
Thanks for the kind words @karlin.
As you spotted, I am indeed a man. Not sure anyone would like to see my legs, hence my wife’s pic.
@karlin, When you write, try to separate topics into paragraphs. It will make it more readable.
I had not noticed the length of my comment, I wrote it directly from the Google translator, for the next I will be more aware of doing it better, we have been working on construction of the house these days, I was very tired, and I edited it before going to bed, today is another day of movement.
Oh, and surely if you put a picture of your legs you will call more curious followers and many hahaha. Greetings, friend!
I looked at your posts and I see that you are giving generous support to your followers - I really appreciate this
You give the right advice that works here. Your posts are direct proof of your advice and that - they really work
I will work on myself - because labor pays off at the end, the main thing is never to give up.
The main thing is to choose your niche and develop it. At the moment I am learning everything and supporting other users.
In the future, I have big plans and I want to implement them.
thank you @swissclive for your wonderful competitions that you periodically conduct (I will participate in them) and thank you for your work
The worst gesture in steemit is to say "Can you upvote my post please"
Just imagine we never used to be so desperate when it comes to facebook or twitter or quora, we just let our post do the same and if our post has that charismatic effect then likes or upvotes will be so natural.
Then why not in steemit.....yes this is a complex question , because there are numbers of attributes to that, because some people see steem as an investment, some people see steemit as a means to earn those steem but somehow in the pursuit of that, they ended up spamming at times and dried up quickly in this platform.
Some new users are even dissapointed with the price of SBD at 4 usd, and I have seen this price at 0.8 usd when I entered here in steemit and I was too happy with that even, people need to understand that the main thing to do here is quality blogging and once that happens persistently then at some point of time, the reflection could be seen in the form of good upvotes and earning.
Everything takes time and one has to give that time and once that period gets matured, then the recognition will be there and that will be first milestone in this community and once that milestone is achieved then the follow through milestones will get achieved very easily.
Thank you @swissclive for writing this article.....steem on and stay blissful.
It's absolutely hilarious when people comment vague things like 'This is amazing! Thank you for sharing.' or 'Nice and inspirational post.' I don't know whether to laugh or cry. If you go to their profiles and check out their comment section, it's 95% of the time the same stupidly optimistically written comment on several posts.
If only people realise that writing a well-thought-out comment that adds something of value is infinitely better than copy-pasting, they might have a better chance at success here.