Hey Steemians!

In a fit of inspiration on our 123rd day on Steemit (yayyy!) I want to share a few tricks I’ve learned! I actually don’t think these are our secrets (that’s just a click bait title 😁), but I do believe in what I’m about to share. Take my advice or leave it, but I think I have some good tips of what can up your post creation game into getting more

Curations & Resteems!

First off, let’s make sure you’re in? Do you want to create content that people want to Resteem?

Want to have your work caught by the likes of @curie or resteemed by @ocd using the #ocd-resteem tag? Read on if so! If not, turn away now as I’m gonna play it straight!

I also curate @the-hearth and I’ll tell you what I look for as a curator!

First, a little story.

Ini and I seek to make quality content daily. That’s a lot to ask. Sometimes we make posts we’re really in love with, only to see them kick the bucket!

One night, I was feeling discouraged. I was grappling with the question:

What kind of posts does my audience like?

I wondered if I was being too acute in writing specific how to articles, plant profiles, posts about plants no one had heard of!

I said to Ini, Let’s make the most simple, relatable, mainstream post we can think of about our life! This is the post that came of it, and you guys loved it!

Why We Homestead | Through Thick & Thin

In this post, we just stuck to the essentials! We spoke from the heart and talked about our journey.

We started the post off like this:

Our homesteading journey hasn’t always been easy. We’ve lived without running water (not even to mention hot running water or a shower) for 2 years and have built everything on the land ourselves (with help from some friends).

Start with the hardship and people want to know more!! Overcoming struggle is a theme we’re all attracted to!

If you’re savvy, you’ve likely just stumbled on my first tip 😉, which is twofold.

• Know Your Audience & Share About Yourself

Concerned that you don’t know what your audience likes? See which posts have generated the most interest in the form of upvotes and comments. The data doesn’t lie!

Be Relateable

Also, people love to learn more about you. What makes you you, the stuff close to your heart, your opinions, quirks, hardships, etc. Don't be afraid to share it and, even more so, believe you have something to share BECAUSE YOU DO! 🤗

The posts where you share your heart and hit on all the stuff that makes us human ARE THE ONES PEOPLE RESTEEM and come back for more!

Gorgeous photos always help to break up the text. I took this photo of a narcissus last night as evening approached.

Why do you resteem a post?

Perhaps it touched you, you learned something new, you thought others would enjoy it, you’re sharing it to “bookmark” for later, etc.

Step out on a limb, brainstorm these posts you could write from your life that touch the universal human experience! You may surprise yourself!

The 1, 2, 3s of Quality Content

• Post Length

All curators look at post length.

All curators look at post length.

I had to repeat myself; it’s that important.

You know the #1 reason I don’t resteem things @the-hearth, even if the content is good and there are good photos?

Yep,

Post Length

If I can scroll through your post and there are two photos and 4 paragraphs, your post isn’t long enough to be curated.

Curated posts all have 1 thing in common and that’s post length.

I like to use at least 6 quality photos on average and put a few paragraphs in between each one, as a rough guideline.

I don’t ever keep word count, but I have a general feel for when a post is finished. If you’re not sure if it’s long enough, look through some recently curated posts by @curie, peruse @the-hearth’s resteemed posts or check out our blog posts @mountainjewel. If in doubt, add a bit more.

Oddly enough, this post turned out to be a great length, so you can look at it as a good example.

Hey, How ya likin’ this post so far? Not too baaaaad, eh?

• Photos & Written Content

I’m putting these two together because I think they always need to go together for highly resteemable/curateable badass posts!

A photo post without written content and a written content post without photos both have one thing in common: They won’t be curated!

Photos, while they can be the centerpiece of a post, need some beefing up with words to make a curateable post. If you’re a photographer, try writing the story behind the subject you’ve photographed, the story and context leading up to taking the photo, etc.

If you’re a storyteller or writer, make sure to add complementary photos. Of course, cite well and don’t use copyrighted content.

You likely won’t get resteemed or curated for sharing others’ content also, so always keep it original!!

Can’t get more original than spinach in our high tunnel!

• Diversity of Formatting

Which is easier and more pleasing to read?

Ingredients
Salt
Carrots
Napa Cabbage
Daikon Radish
Chili Powder

First chop the vegetables and place them in a salt water solution.

-or-

Ingredients

• Salt
• Carrots
• Napa Cabbage
• Daikon Radish
• Chili Powder

First chop the vegetables and place them in a salt water solution.

(Making kimchi)

Now formatting may not matter so much in whether you get resteemed or curied, but it encourages people to actually read your posts (and nice-looking posts encourage the curator!).

If you break up text and add headings, it’s easier on the eye and people know where to look, where to go next, etc. Big chunks of text are difficult to take in! I won’t go into the hows of formatting, but a quick google search will help you in this. Banners or pictures (as I’ve done below) also help in breaking the text up, as do putting things in italics or bold as I did with this sentence.

Stunning native Cherry blossom on our land.

• Subject Matter

This one is of course subjective depending on your niche, but the main points are to choose a subject that interests you and dive into it.

People can feel your passion (or lack thereof).

Tap into what makes your blood pump or gets you up in the morning and if you can’t remember what does that, write a post about that! Write what is Alive and relevant for you. Write the truth, especially if it scares you!

• Tone/Voice

My favorite posts all have share a similar trait:

The person writing them shared a piece of their self.

• Use your voice! As relayed above, you may surprise yourself that people come back for more of that!

• Dry posts that could’ve been written by a robot will not gain you follower ship or resteems.

• Be quirky, humorous, go on a rant, speak the truth... these are all ways to hit a chord with others. Others resteem things that have hit their chords!!

Ring my bell, Ring my bell!

And last but not least!

• Community & Connection

This one is a mainstay guys. Ya gotta be a friend to have one! Get out there and comment on other’s posts, join a few discord servers that align with your interests, resteem others’ posts!

You won’t succeed here on Steemit in isolation. Your connections are where it’s at. I’ll leave it there.

Our sweet pup Luci on a walk yesterday. She prefers her pack too!

Alright Steemians, what have I missed?

Please share your tips with me!

As a little recap, many Steemians make posts that have a great content or subject matter, but they just don’t have enough photos or aren’t long enough in content or details! That’s actually great news because the ideas part is down, it just needs to be longer!

I’ll say it again, when curating for @the-hearth, that’s the #1 difficulty- The Almost Posts. So beef those posts up, go all in! Study the curated posts and try mirroring certain elements in your own way!

Thanks for joining me as I share the 1, 2, 3s on our 123rd day on Steemit! Let me know if I forgot anything you’d add!

Also, it doesn’t hurt to ask: What types of posts do YOU love to read from US? 😘