Maybe the Key to Happiness on Steemit is Low Expectations...
Is it bad to have high expectations when we start on Steemit? My thoughts on this lazy Sunday afternoon...
It seems like once every couple days I get sucked into a vortex here on Steemit reading hours of negative posts. Posts complaining about bots, raping the reward pool, the constant garbage on trending, and complaints about lack of upvotes.
There are people who are for bots, there are people who hate them. There are people that are for the whale wars, and there are people who think that it's a waste of time because this is how Steemit was originally intended to operate and so the system is fine. We have super high expectations of Steemit and it's future.
People join this site with crazy dreams of how they are going to make hundreds of dollars on a post, even though they've never written content before. I never wrote content before I started here 2 months ago, and I wouldn't even consider what I write "content" exactly, its just whatever pops into my head at the moment.
This ecosystem has a unique "hurdle" at its core, and it's why people get disappointed and give up so easily. The incentive to join here is solely based on greed. It says it right on the sign up page.
Your Voice is Worth Something
What makes Steemit special? The fact that you can supposedly make money by posting good content, finding content and discussing that content in the comments section. This concept is new to the world. When you sign up on Instagram, or Facebook no one promises you jack sh*t. No one who is new to Instagram assumes that they will ever make a cent from it. You might think your opinion or the photo of your dog is important enough to share with the people that you know. You just don't assume it has value in a monetary sense.
It's quite possible that Facebook and Instagram do have something to do with the high expectations people have when they join here. For years we have all been sharing moments from our mundane lives for free. If someone usually gets 10-20 likes on Facebook on average and then comes to Steemit they might assume they will get that amount of attention too. We are so used to sharing every thought and opinion that we have on Facebook, we assume that inherently our thoughts matter....when they really don't, and if they do, its to a tiny group of people that care about you. So when they land on the Steemit page they think "You are right, my thought's do have value! My Aunt on Facebook likes all my stuff, why won't everyone on here too?"
Maybe Steemit should change their motto to something more...realistic?
Your Voice Might Be Worth Something
Steemit is a blogging platform, or at least that's the way it was supposed to be. But most people (including me) are not bloggers! In fact, I learned how to do basic Markdown and HTML specifically for Steemit. Most people don't want to learn anything new. Most people don't even write well.
We have been giving details of our lives away for free on Social Media for years and then all of a sudden we land on the homepage of Steemit and read one line that says "our voice is worth something" and assume we will make money.
Maybe We Need To Lower Our Expectations
When I started here two months ago I was blown away by the money people were "making" on their posts and for a millisecond I thought I might be able to as well. Then I started to dig deeper to find my dose of reality. I read for about 48 hours straight before I posted a single comment. In that time I went from "I will make money on Steemit!" to "I might make a little money on Steemit, someday...possibly."
I no longer assumed I would be successful here, but I did know one thing... I knew that Steemit was a revolutionary concept, and if they were successful... anyone who took part in Steemit during this early stage would benefit massively from it down the road. I still feel this way now.
I made myself a promise. I promised that I would try my best on Steemit for exactly one year, and re-evaluate after that. It's been 2 months since I made myself that promise, and so far its working out well! I am not disappointed with Steemit, in fact..I still really like it here regardless of all the "problems" it has.
We Might Have a Warped Mindset From The Start
Most of us found Steemit because we are interested in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency/decentralization/blockchain is highly intriguing to everyone who believes in it. We have the unique problem of being able to see into the future and know how all of this will change the world, and at the same time we are the most impatient, eager investors EVER! We want the moon, and we want it now...but not literally right now because we need to buy more crypto before it does moon.
Do you see where I am going with this? Steemit is new, sure the website just celebrated it's 2nd birthday a couple day ago, but the concept is new! We want the most perfect version of Steemit now. We cannot understand why its taking so long to make changes to this ecosystem. Everything is going to Hell on Steemit at all times because progress isn't happening fast enough. We are all too "invested" even though 90% of us won't spend a cent on Steem Power. And while most people wont "invest" monetarily, they are emotionally invested. Because of crypto we all dream way too big.
We do not know what the future holds for Steemit. A year from now the entire thing could be completely revamped, but I am sure that we still won't be satisfied with it. A new "issue" will bother us. And round and round we go.
I have made my promise to stay here and meet new people. I am going to keep that promise. If Steemit is successful, by that time I will have bought and maybe earned a decent amount of Steem Power. Enough to be ahead of the rest of the population if they join here.
And that's all I can do. I am not technologically advanced. I cannot change the way Steemit works. All I can do is keep trying to make connections on here, and write the best "content" I can. And if Steemit collapses into nothing, at least I can tell myself that I gave it my best shot. When I had my doubts about starting here at all before I signed up I asked myself "Would I regret not taking this chance if Steemit does become wildly successful?" and the answer is, yes I would....forever.
Emily
Do you think we would all be happier if we lowered our expectations a bit? I am always looking forward to connecting with you in the comments section below! Thanks so much for reading my post! Steem on!
Here's the funny thing to me regarding rewards. Like you said Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest pay us nothing so ANYTHING we get from Steemit is an upgrade from that.
I think what gets people's expectations out of wack is when they see some posts making hundreds of Dollars, those are typically people have have been on here a long time, made a lot of connections and have a lot of powerful people who like their content helping them out. It's not typical and not something that is going to happen right away.
Here's what I find funny though. People are willing to jump through a ton of hoops to earn credit card rewards which are worth next to nothing. People will waste their time taking surveys online, watching videos for pay, doing Bitcoin faucets. They'll literally spend 5 hours doing boring repetive tasks to earn 0.04 cents worth of Bitcoin, yet they turn their nose up at Steemit because they are only making XYZ amount of money which I can pretty much gurantee is going to be more than anyone is earning from taking surveys or clicking on Bitcoin faucets.
I think another important thing about Steemit is despite it being sold as a blogging platform where your paid for content, that's not what it is. Steemit isn't about content, its about commenting, curating, and making connections. That's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but that's what it is.
I think people need to stop comming on here thinking I'm just going to create great content and make money, Steemit, at least at this point in time isn't about creating content, its about making connections and being active in the community via contests, using bots, curating others content, and building communities. If your going to have any success that's what is going to do it and only after you have that part down can you actually make money off your content
Haha, I used to fill out some of those surveys until I broke it down and said "why the hell am I wasting my time doing this for 10 cents?!" I agree that its all about making connections on here, I think most people just initially get the wrong idea when they sign up here. I know that Ned and all of the guys at Steemit Inc know all this already, we just have to hope they implement the changes we think are necessary, and if they dont...Dan will, lol
For some reason Steemit is being really glitchy for me and not letting me upvote stuff at the moment so if I don't upvote this comment that's why. I actually delegated all my Steem Power away and its not getting me much in the way of returns so thinking about taking it back and doing my voting myself.
In regards to Steemit, I think anyone who's going to put some serious effort in on Steemit should also setup a blog or something off Steemit. If your doing all this work just for a Steemit payday it may be a bit underwhelming, however if your also building up content on a wordpress blog or Medium or something you can probably find a way to monetize your content in several ways and your killing two birds with one stone.
Lol, its ok! Your voting power is at 40%... and when you delegate your SP, your voting value goes down because you dont have that power anymore. Who are you delegating to? minnow booster?
I delegated to minnowhelper. Early on it was doing pretty good but returns lately have been pretty poor.
LOL stop upvoting until you reach 90% + voting power or youll never recharge :)
lol, I've never been one to pay attention to voting power, if I see good content I wana reward people, although I do realize as I deplete my voting power that reward becomes less significant. A while back I decided to see how long I could run my voting power so ran it down to 0% and your right it took FOREVER for it to build back up
I think the temptation of making money so easily on Steem is what actually liberates me more from my limiting mindset.
When you are trying to strike it big and be like some of these creators that always get $100+ on the post, but don't, it triggers an emotional release. When I allow myself to feel bad due to expecting an upvote from a whale a not getting it, it brings me back to reality and I can find ways to improve.
As you said, most people don't expect to make money on Instagram and that's why people just post what they want. That attitude is good because it allows us to be more authentic but when we expect money, we will try to game the system.
Personally speaking, if I give myself permission to feel bad for not getting my hard work upvoted, I seem to be free from the enslavement of trying to please or get noticed by a whale. As a result, I become more assertive with my content and promote it as I see fit instead of being in a submission position like "hey guys, check out my blog."
I commented below but something I find funny is how people jump through hoops to make peanuts with Adsense or Bitcoin faucets, yet get upset with Steemit when they don't make $100 per post. Steemit pays more than most other smalltime hustles like that do.
I do think an important thing for noobs to realize is posting quality content only matters after you've build a following, made friends and engaged the community. Prior to that your writing for nobody because nobody is reading your posts. I think if people came in with that knowledge they would focus more on the communit aspect before spending time and effort posting stuff nobody is going to see andthen getting frustrated over that
True, for me at least, I wanted to write well to improve my blogging skills. The time I spent writing blog posts that nobody read still allowed me to write and format my blog posts better. If your only goal is to get a high upvote, then yeah, you will get frustrated.
You're right though, Steem pays you a whole lot more than any other blogging/video platform yet it creates the highest expectations and frustrations.
@rulesforrebels, you should post videos on DTube. You have a better chance of making money there.
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Emily - I love your post so much! I love that you are aware of everything that you can change and what you can't change -- you can really only change things in yourself to make YOUR experience better - you can't redo the coding or ramp up the timelines for certain new features that are needed. I also love that you are giving it a year. Because slow growth doesn't happen over night, it happens slowly, things are in progress. You inspire me to keep going too and give it a year. I'm not even a month in and sometimes I want to give up because it seems like so much work....but then I say - stick with it, take little baby steps - a little bit at a time. So kudos Emily, stick with it and I'll be here hopefully along side slowly growing with you!! - Ellen
Hey Ellen, thanks so much! I appreciate it! Yes its important to realize that we really cant do much here to implement change on Steemit other than voting for witnesses and hoping that Steemit inc does whats necessary to make this platform successful. I think they will though, eventually. I think a year is enough for me to say that I gave it my best effort and i think by then we will be able to tell if Steemit will be a success or not :)
The primary goal should be to have fun, learn something, and grow as an individual....
But I think I'll leave this here too:
I see the same thing in the world of Entrepreneurship. Someone has zero experience making money online, tries to start a shopify store or roll out an Amazon FBA product, doesn't make $5,000 their first week and gives up. Things take time to build. Have small achievable goals to keep you motivated onthe road to those bigger goals
haha I love that quote ....its very much "me" :D
You have a lot of the same opinions I have about the platform. When I signed up for Steemit, just two weeks ago, I committed to myself that I would make at least 30 quality posts in my first 30 days. I figured that one month is very little to give in the grand scheme of things, and at the end of that month I would reevaluate and see how things are going. I wrote a bit of an update at my halfway point in my most recent post today. So far I couldn't be happier with the way things are working out.
Just upvoted your other post. I think a big focus before posting content needs to be finding a communit of likeminded people, interacting with them, making friends, and get that done before posting, otherwise your posting stuff nobody is going to read and I think thats why many people get frustrated and fizzle out
Emily,
I found Steemit by chance. I was looking through posts on Google+ and found a link to an article on Steemit. So I came, saw that it's a blogging site that pays for posts and comments and "likes". The money was certainly attractive, but I really like to write.
So I joined and ignored it for a few months. Then I decided that I was tired of working so hard for a few cents on Blogger. I have a respectable following on Google+ and Twitter. Facebook is just beyond me. I decided that I really needed to dedicate time and effort to Steemit and I am doing just that.
I have low expectations. I only have to look better than the scammers to make some money here. It's not a living yet, but I see some people I admire and they have built a sizable holding of Steem, Steem Power and some SBD. If Steem goes to even $20, they will be set for awhile.
One thing about my writing though. It's a habit. A very consistent habit. I write something every day, without fail, even if I don't post it for public consumption. Daily practice is what makes me good. Practice will beat talent every time. If you have a talent and you don't practice it, well, get crackin'.
I also have determination. Since I already like to write, I don't mind writing a draft and polishing it for a couple hours over a few days. Then when I post it, I have already had my fun because I like to write. If there is money at the end of my post, that's a bonus.
I don't worry about the reward pool rapists, the scammers, and what have you. I just do what I do, post it, promote it with bots and resteemers and whatever else I can find. Commenting on other posts is also highly effective for getting attention to your own posts (hint, hint).
As to expectations, well, I'm agnostic about everything. You can read more about that here in an article I wrote called, "Being positive is a skill". I talk about expectations in that article and I think you might relate.
I've learned to deal very effectively with negativity in myself and others. So I shared what I learned in that article. I use all that I learned as a way to buttress my determination to succeed here. Consistent effort over time will pay off eventually. A thousand paper cuts...
Oh. I just wrote another article in this comment. I just starting writing and one thought leads to another, and a few hundred words later, I have to stop.
I hope you enjoyed this post, your adventures on Steemit and that you keep going. Without regard to the outcome.
Ill have to check out your post! Thats great that writing comes so easily to you after practice, I think I am getting the hang of it a little bit!
When you watch a video about steemit, they show how much people make on trending page. Again when you go to the trending page, you see people are making huge amount of money from their post.
It just takes time to realize that they (most of them) paid huge amount of money to bots in order to go to the trending page. So, it's not that amount of money they make that you used to think. Looks like you can literally make any post on trending page (regardless of the quality of the content) if you can pay enough to bots. It's kinda disappointing!
Since Steemit is still in beta version and it is a new concept, it will fix its shortcoming. We will see a decentralized world.
What you bring up is I think what bothers a lot of people on Steemit. It's almost more a game of knowing how to play the system than it is about creating quality content
Hope Steemit will fix these issues in the next update!
Yes, you're right. That's what, we see every single day.
I don't like the term "low expectations". This does sound negative. Maybe realistic expectation is how I would have written it down.
The problem is that people do think that it is a quick rich scheme and if they write a good enough introduceyourself post, this will only feed this idea.
One, who writes a good introduction post, will easily get some upvotes and and post which is worth something. This increases the motivation. But them the next 10 posts will have a pay out around, uhm, 0 (zero). Bye bye motivation.
But it is hard to set realistic expectations. This will differ for everybody. There are people here, who really are excellent writters or photographers, other are so so, and others are just bad :)
Each of these persons could have the same expectations, but this is not how things work around here. If you are a great commenter, there is a chance, that even a lower quality post will have a higher pay-out than one of a really good author. This because he/she will have a much bigger network and other Steemians appreciate him/her, which could result in upvotes.
I do see Steemit as a concurrent for wordpress or blogger. Not for facebook (yet). The content placed on Steemit can better be compared to the content of both blogging site and not with the content on facebook!
Let's talk after a year and check if we are both still here and how we did fare!
Interesting point you made about intro posts. People have realized that intro posts do well and spammers either introduce themselves 3 times a week or they tag every post with introduce yourself. We Steemians I think try to support new users and get them engaged so we try to support the introducemyself and introduction tags by upvting, restemming, etc. People have caught on to this and really abused it I actually made a post about this issue the other day
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rulesforrebels/cleaning-up-steemit-or-introduceyourself-the-most-abused-tag
Emily, what strikes me abput this post is not so much the content (although I like what you have to say and am going to stick around because of it) but that you are a really good writer! You say you havent written content before, but you are clearly adept. The sheer quality of your posts make me want to read them. Also, I am going to have to start learning mark up and basic html because damnit, i want a bold subheading...!!!
It's pretty easy if you do a couple minutes of research and learn a couple basics like headline, italics, etc, etc, etc. I think there's actually sites/tools out there that give you a markup editor for faster writing and then you can just copy and paste your content over
This is awesome information. Thank you so much.
Aw, that means a lot @riverflows! Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Hey, if you wanna try to format your posts using markdown try stackedit.io You can play around with it when you write your post and then copy and paste it into Steemit (or to busy.org) You can do headers, blockquotes, and all that good stuff and you can see the what its going to look like. Once you get used to it (all the commands) you can just write directly into Steemit. Hope this helps!
Cheers!! Hey, I just CENTRED my photos and type!! And I wrote a line in BOLD!!! Woo hoo!!!
Thanks for the link, I'll have a look!
And my comment was genuine - I'm getting so pissed off at posts that are 'trending' yet the grammar and content is just awful!!! There really should be a better system where things CAN'T be promoted unless they are proofread for these kinds of things!!
Awesome!! Yeah, the trending page is garbage and theres no way that they don't know that (they meaning Steemit inc) I hope they do something to address it soon, I know its in the best interests of everyone if they do.