Why you should STOP voting for your own posts? - From one minnow to another
Seeing how HF19 made us a bit selfish, I started an experiment 5 days ago: I stopped voting my own content.
Why?
Let´s face it, if your vote is worth $.20 you are not getting any richer by voting for yourself. Even if you post ten times a day and upvote each post with a 100% of your SP, then wait 24 hours for it to recharge and repeat the process, you´ll end up with 2 more bucks a day.
Here, I am not lying, you can also check steemdb to see I didn´t cancel my upvotes. I just stopped. Fifteen posts without my vote.
Instead of upvoting my own content I decided to share the love with my fellow minnows.
You see, we care so much about our own content getting those precious dollars that we forget about the most important thing: We are a community. The members of a community are supposed to help each other, to have each other´s back. To lend a hand when we need it.
My vote is worth around 32 cents when I am at 100% SP. It does not matter if I vote for myself or not, sometimes my posts make 2 dollars and sometimes I fall off my chair when I make $50.
I started to get $50 dollar posts when I changed the way I look at Steemit. I even wrote an article about it and then my fate here changed, that post made more than all of my previous posts together. Why? Because I changed my mentality.
I started to think of me as a whale and I started to act as one.
I am nowhere close to being even a small piranha but my attitude towards the community changed. I became a whale in my mind.
You see, whales read a lot of posts, evaluate the quality of each of them and then decide which one they should curate and with how much percentage. They get INVOLVED, they reply with quality comments and reward those who deserve it. But the most important reason is the WHY.
They do this because they care about the community, they have so much money invested on Steemit that it is in their best interest that the platform keeps growing. If Steemit grows, their investment grows.
Wait a minute, aren´t we all in the same ship? Don´t we all want the community and the value of Steem to grow?
Then why are you upvoting your own content?
The moment you stop voting for yourself you end up with a lot more SP in your hands to share with other people thus you read more content and reply more often to more people, then you get more involved and people start to become close to you, and sometimes, when you post, they will upvote your content.
Stop the shameless auto-vote! Be a whale, at least in your mind. It doesn´t matter if your vote is worth $.10 or $10.
Read posts, reward the ones that deserve it, comment on them, reply with more than just a smiley face and a LOL.
Forget about your usual reply "good post, upvoted, I follow you let´s help each other, follow me at @Iamsoselfish"
So what are you waiting for? Get that SP recharged and vote for you community, reply for your pal´s growth, resteem for steemit´s health.
And when I upvote your content, I don´t ever want to see your username on the list of people who upvoted.
Not a single time.
Do you like this idea? Resteem it. Or better yet, Make your own post about it. Steal my phrases and thoughts. What the hell, plagiarize the whole article I don´t care. The point is to make all of us minnows aware of this and they get on board!
This makes sense and I'll consider it.
May not make sense if you invest your coin in SP, to accelerate one's integration in the community..
But the vibe is what should be respected.
We are all in this together, or we perish together.
It depends on the game theory aspect. Will your SP increase faster if you use your votes on yourself, or to foster a community around you?
Like the chain theory right? The chain is as weak as its weakest link...
It might be related. Game theory gets quite complex. It explains various behaviours in terms of games with various rule sets. This includes everything from the economy and international relations, to things as mundane as group board games. I'm no expert in the theory though, so I'm sure I'm giving a 'bluffers guide' description... ;)
Yess, that last phrase man, that is what steemit is about (at least in my mind). Maybe this is comming from a minnow who got a lot of support from the beginning therefore I think like that (check my privilege huh? hehe) but hey, we are all free to do whatever we want here, I just happen to think this is the better behaviour in order to break the bubble and grow, at least it worked for me :D
I don't understand what you mean; please elaborate.. "Break the bubble and grow", how? How did it work for you?
Seems to me, I paid a lot for some SP, so I want to use it to my advantage, when I take the time to read other's work and comment on it... if I feel I have put in a lot of time, I want to be paid for that time, to contribute my focused attention on the community. It feels fair to me.
And it's an entirely different thing, a different part, of steemit.
There is posting, then there is commenting and curating, they all get paid out based on different metrics.
What I mean by that term is: I´ve seen some great authors that post regularly and have great content "get stuck" between 200-400 followers and not getting a lot of rewards. Every time I see a post I really like I go into the authors blog (I navigate a lot the tags travel, photography, nature, spanish and life). I enjoy, when I have the time, to read some posts from the author but I also get into the comment section of the blog.
Sometimes this authors have only been here for a month and sometimes they´ve been here for almost a year. For those who I noticed they´ve been for a long time i´ve seen one common denominator (and again, this is only based on the sample I´ve seen, I am no expert and this is my opinion which can be wrong and if with arguments you make me see my mistake I am always up for a good sicussion): They post good content and they reply to comments on their content but I´ve seen so few comments in other people´s content.
So to answer both of your q´s. The bubble one and the correlation of success in writing with no voting for your own content:
The moment you stop autovoting you find yourself with a lot more SP than when you were spending 10 or 15% of your total SP (bearing in mind that you have around 20% daily to always have 100% the next day)... That means you have more SP to spend on other people. If you are a minnow like me, that means you have like $5 more to vote everyday on other people´s content.
With that in mind, you navigate your feed and your favorite tags to find good content and actually read the content in order to see if you vote for it or not. When you read more content you comment more and engage more. By engaging more you gain more visibility, that people that you voted for and commented in a meaningful way might see your blog and if they like it, they may follow you. That means more visibility again. So when you post quality content you have an exponencial growth because you have more viewers and potentialy more resteems and more votes.
So yes, in my humble experience, saving your SP to vote for other people´s content, gives you more SP to interact with other people and gaining more potential upvotes, more followers, more visibility and you become a "regular" in other user´s content. And then, you break the invisible bubble I´ve seen some people stucked in, the 200-400 follower and 10-20 reward posts...
For me it started when I wrote a piece about "why you should follow and upvote small accounts" about a month ago. Thinking about that subject before writing it, it changed my mentality and decided to engage more with other fellow minnows in a meaningful way. It gave me like 450 followers and my posts went from 5 SBD to 20-25 in a matter of maybe 3-4 weeks. Just that mentality change.
Again, this worked for me and I wanted to share my experience, it doesn´t mean it is a rule for succes or to live by and it may not be the same for other people. But I can sincerely say I do believe it is one way to grow, and of course I don´t consider myself big deal or an example of success here, but i do think I am doing good with these 3 things: Trying to make good content, giving rewards where rewards are due and engaging as much as possible, not only with replies to my content but also replying in a meaningful and helpful way in other content.
Thanks for asking me those questions, I don´t know if I expressed correctly but at least you made me put into words what I didn´t include in the post.
By reading your comments I can assume that you are an investor with some serious money and obviously we might think differently because I have no investment here, my SP is no big deal and It didn´t "cost" me anything so I can relate to your last comment, the onse about being paid for that investment and time... I totally understand your point of view and is as respectable as any other, primarily because we come from different neighbourhoods. You could say i am from the gheto trying to make my way into corporate, and you are an investor in that same company, so obviously our way of thinking about Steemit can have some common ground but I am seeing it from the stairs, you are seeing it from your office with a view :D Of course we might disagree in some points but the important thing is as you said, we are in this together, or we perish together.
This is a very good post.
"Be a whale, at least in your mind." Great line! Very interesting concept, and well written. Not sure yet if I completely agree or will do it, but I appreciate you putting the idea out here in the community for us all to consider and then make our own decisions.
Thank you the compliment on the line and the piece :D I know, not everyone has to agree with it, maybe I have this train of thought because it wroked out for me and that is one of the reasons I broke some barriers in followers and rewards but I guess it might not work for everyone and I respect if people prefer another way to use their SP :D
I don't understand how you directly relate "not voting for your own comments" with the success your writing receives from your followers?
You are directly relating this as cause and effect, how?
resteemed!!!!
I curate poetry with the tag #onehumanbasket
Find out about it here where there is also a poetry dice challenge!
Self-voting is also bad game theory. If you spread your votes around, people appreciate it and you are more likely to attract multiple upvotes from others. I've been starting to think this way for a while. I haven't fully adopted this strategy yet. I rarely vote on my own comments, and I have autovote turned off for my posts. But I have been upvoting my posts after a few days. I may stop that and try and share more of my upvote with people I follow.
You just summarize my post in a paragraph. Thanks for that, uptvoting to take it above. Thanks for jumping on board mate. Also followed you, you have some serious posts, I couldnt navigate to a magic post, can you link me to one?
Nothing for over a week on #magick by myself, so here is some from my archive...
This one is more alchemical symbolism than magic: https://steemit.com/painting/@antonchanning/chemical-serpents-illustration-commentary-hen-to-pan
It has links to the first chapter of my second book (published 2012). I intend to start sharing chapter 2 tonight, or later this week. So if you catch up on chapter 1, you don't have to dip into the middle! Although it can be read out of order.
Also started writing a series on how I got into the subject, starting with childhood experiences: https://steemit.com/dreams/@antonchanning/memoires-of-an-invisible-agent-part-2
That is part 2, has links to part 1.
I have one recent one that is more practical/artistic than writing, but it has a magickal intent to help out another magical steemian I met here on the platform: https://steemit.com/art/@antonchanning/coloured-success-sigil-for-joanna-whitney-in2itiveart
That is some serious talent my friend. I cant upvote and it is no use to resteem it because no one can upvote it... when you do a new one I will resteem it. Please leave a link to it in case i dont see it :D
Okay. Here is the next instalment as promised:
https://steemit.com/writing/@antonchanning/chemical-serpents-eggs-and-the-androgynous-child
Thanks for taking the time pal, just resteemed it. It is very good and seems that you put a lot of effort.
Very good post with a very good point. It is well thought out and well written. I would tend to think that this applies more to those that make more than just one or two post's a day though.
He says, then up votes his own comment on a post about not doing so. Lmao.
Ironic wasn't it.
And a little clever, I think I've wandered into an endless trap where you get a little richer each step.
That is not possible...It would be like having a perpetual motion machine.
Lmao tooo true, why dont we have groups or clans where we can constantly like each others posts?
There are many FB groups created to serve that purpose.
Last time I checked, the Mint doesn't run on perpetual motion. And I thought the whole point was to find likeminded individuals, build communities and pull each other up. Why would you make crap then, if your sharing it with friends instead of strangers? The votes are secondary.
You are probably right here, I don´t see any bad on autovoting your single daily post... but we have seen people that posts 8 times a day and on every one we can see his her name on the voting list hehe
Devils advocate, what is a good reason for upvoting your own post?
Since I've started, I looked at steem as a place where I can just write whatever is in my mind, or whatever question I have about different subjects... I don't have many followers, but it's ok for me... I am here for my mind peace, not for the bucks... If at some point I start producing any value, then so be it...
I also hate the "follow for follow" concept, wrote about that, but nobody gave a shit (or nobody saw it lol).
Also, it's the first time when I actually feel that staying on anything else then facebook and read different posts about different subjects it's a lot more constructive then wasting time on 9gag or other bullshit websites designed to waste your time and transform you into a mindless unproductive organic robot.
I never follow someone because they followed me.. I agree that makes little sense.
Just actively participating, commenting, and posting 1 or 2 times a day, seems to grow followers quickly enough.
According to some, having a lot of followers commenting can dilute what you make from your posts; so that's interesting. You don't want a bunch of bots following you, and you want people that will upvote, but not comment too much as well.
Yes a hundred times! We are not investors, if we aim to live off of steemit it´s like gambling in Vegas to become a millionaire... it is highly improbable to succeed. But if we look at this as gas money or grocery money or even diaper money and try to have as much fun as we can then we are in for a ride!
Most whales are doing nothing close to what you've described, and all you have to do to prove it to yourself is take a cursory glance at the trending page.
I have to agree with you... Most trending posts are always from the same people and with the same votes... but hey, not everything is negative... I actually did this post because I happen to know some serious whales like @acidyo @ausbitbank, @canadian-coconut, @neoxian and some dolphins like @mindhunter, @cervantes among others that actually make quality curation and live by their rules. Every post I make about whales I do it thinking of whales using them as example.
But yeah, there are some whales that act as you say... Oh well, every platform has both sides od the coin.
There are definitely some good whales out there.
A great and interesting read thanks for taking the time to share it
I blew out my upvote power in the first few days and since I am only on my 6th day still building it up and in fact being so new its not worth much at all, but your post has confirmed what I had planned to use them on others
I did the same, it was on purpose but still, getting it back was hard. I already have the bar to determine with how much SP I vote so I am making good use of that 20% daily :D
Yes! You might think you are losing your time, reading a bunch of posts and only giving 15 cents but really, making a habit out of it will pay off in the future and you might end up with some hidden treasures in your hands, there is a lot of underrated content out there.
You make some really valid points here! Way to make feel guilty for clicking the auto upvote on my post to give myself 8 cents, lol!
Hehehe nooo!!! I wasn´t aiming to make people feel guilty, I guess my drama levels are off the charts and I was overly exagerating! hehehehe
I don't disagree with you! I honestly hadn't thought about it since my vote is so tiny. Lol.