The Minnow Dilemma

I’m closing in on my 2nd full week on Steemit and I’ve discovered that as a Minnow I’m conflicted with how I want to proceed with my account and posts. I feel like I’m at a crossroads and I’m left with two choices. Pursue this endeavor as a financial opportunity, using my time spent to increase profitability or to to get lost in the community aspect and focus on meeting new people and making enjoyable connections.

Looking at the financial opportunity and the ways to achieve it. I’m discovering that when I make a post it quickly gets buried no matter how much time I spend on it and how well written it is. Initially I get upvotes and great responses, but in a matter of minutes no one would be able to find it. I can’t even find it without clicking on my page.

To boost my posts I’m using upvote on Discord and Randowhale. This makes my posts at least worth something. I’m focused on this though. I don’t want to post except once every 12 hours because otherwise I would not be able to upvote my post.

When I’m not posting I’m going to the introduceyourself topic and meeting as many new Steemers as possible so that my follower list will grow, but deep down I’m wondering how many of those people will be gone in a week. I’m joining Facebook groups with a goal of making money. I’m upvoting and relying on accounts of the big dogs. I am seeing results, but very slowly and I know I won’t be able to continue using this platform at this pace. I keep thinking, once the honeymoon of this wonderful new platform wears off will I really want to keep doing all this knowing that someone who makes a $10,000 investment is lightyears ahead of me, even if the person can’t write content to save a life

This leads me to the second road. Enjoying this platform as a unique social network and making connections with people I share interests with and not worrying about the financial aspect. I love creating content. My main image for this post I created using a vector program from scratch last night and loved every minute of it. There is no way my potential 99 cent profit from this post is worth the time it took financially, but the creative outlet was worth way more to me.

My first attempt trying to chat on the Discord channel to meet new people and try and increase my follower list did not feel very welcoming. I went into the general channel and it felt like I sat at the lunch table with all the cool kids at the high school. Last night I read a post about writing and I discovered the #fiction-workshop channel. I logged in and typed, “Just stopped to say hello.” I was expecting the same experience as before, but this time was different. I was immediately greated by @rhondak, who welcomed me to the channel, let me know where all the resources were, and made me feel like I had been in the group for months. Everyone else there was just as welcoming. Thank you @mk40 and @stitchybitch and everyone else in the channel. I was also introduced to a writing contest with a 5 SBD prize (Maybe I can have my cake and eat it too).

https://steemit.com/contest/@rhondak/msp-fiction-workshop-50-word-challenge-story-starter

My best moments so far on Steemit revolved around the things I enjoy. I love baseball and there is Fanduel league every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. First place is $5 SBD. I won last week and promptly received my prize.

https://steemit.com/sports/@fantasy.sports/daily-fantasy-baseball-contest-for-7-7-2017-free-to-play-usd5-sbd-to-the-winner-plus-potential-usd5-sbd-bonus-fan-duel

I’ve truly enjoyed creating content. I’ve spent extra time making sure all my images look great and are error free. I feel like I’m learning new skills and learning about the new world of cryptocurrency. I believe I finally know my way around here. There are still things I don’t know much about like delagation, hard forks, and vests, but I’ve come a long way in two weeks.

Already I’m thinking of the financial aspect of this post. Should I create more images? It’s been 12 hour, I can upvote. I have enough in my account for @randowhale. What should I do next? Do I write part two of my post about Google’s tool to help analyze cryptocurrency?

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@legosnjoysticks/analyze-cryptocurrency-with-an-awesome-feature-of-google-sheets-part-1

Maybe I should just post this and leave it alone. Reply to the 5 people who get to see my post and comment before it vanishes to the Steemit abyss. I noticed that some of the curators, who are looking for great content are choosing posts with reward values under a dollar. My posts would be excluded and the only reason they are worth more is because of boosters.

The struggle is real. I know I am not alone. The light side is pulling me and I’m closer and closer each day to abandoning my hopes of making it big on Steemit in favor of just enjoying a great social network with some truly great people, but alas there is that voice in my head telling me to boost and not worry about more pictures because that will take time. That I should get this post out there and then try and promote it as much as possible. There is a voice telling me to tag this for visibility and exposure. I’m conflicted as all minnows are. What will be the outcome of minnow delimma?

If you read this far, I’m impressed and thank you. Please upvote if you enjoyed this post and if you are interested in more content like this follow me @legosnjoysticks.