50 Reputation points in 49 Days! SquareLink Newbie Blog #10

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First Goal = 50 Rep in 50 Days

In one of my first Newbie Blogs, I wrote about the importance in making goals when starting out on the Steemit venture. After learning a small bit about how the ecosystem worked, I decided that I wanted my first goal to be getting to 50 Reputation in 50 days.

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Why Reputation as the first goal?

Reputation is really fundamental to the entire Steemit project. From the Steemit FAQ

Most of the authors that you see earning high rewards are users that have spent a lot of time in the network building followings, making connections with others, and developing a reputation for bringing high quality content.

The key phrase here is developing a reputation for bringing high quality content. This is why reputation is important. After the post title and graphic, reputation is probably the next thing that Steemians want to see as it is a quick way to determine if the post might be worth checking out.

Consider this, would you rather read a post about content creation, or some other Steemit strategy from a person with a 30 rep, or with someone with a 60 rep?

Your reputation score is very visible as it shows beside your name in any post you make, or even any comment:

Everyone starts out with a reputation of 25, and it is important to note that this number can go UP or DOWN. People that steal content from others, or are some other infraction. It is a good idea to read and follow the Steemit Etiquette Guide by @thecryptofiend to stay on the right side of a good reputation.

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What I did to get 50 rep in 49 days

Keep in mind that I did this as I was learning, so I'm not suggesting this is the right path for everyone, but only that this is generally what I did.

1. Try to post once a day (twice is better)

I did not do great at this honestly. Everyone has a different situation, and in my case I work full time and have a family to boot. Finding the time to make posts that are hopefully increasing in quality is no easy thing to accomplish on a daily basis.

2. Try to make attractive posts with real content.

I spend time looking for good creative common images to fit the them of my post. This helps attract readers. Also, I read, research, and try to make some kind of contribution with each post. This investment of time produces a quality that hopefully gets noticed and appreciated.

3. Limit quick posts like pictures.

Of course, this depends on your audience. If you wish to attract followers that for example, are part of a photography group, then you probably want to avoid too many WORDS, unless they are related! In my case, my goal will be to build a community that reads and interacts with content that I've thought about, researched, and then written about. For my therefore, posting too many quick picture or twitter like posts might be detrimental.

4. Spending some SBD on votes and resteems.

Now I know this is a controversial topic, however my decision to use these services was based on two factors. First, I have no previous following, and I could write content for a long time that only gets viewed by 3 people. This is a lot of work for little return. Second, is that almost everyone I got excited about following, appeared to be also using these services. Honestly, I think I will reconsider this approach after I am able to reach enough followers to engage with my content and drive a reasonable reward stream.

5. Technically, the only thing that raises your reputation: getting likes from Steemians with a higher rep that you have.

This is my challenge, and yours as well. It is easy to progress from 25 reputation to 30, because a great number of Steemians will have a higher reputation than you do, and their votes will raise you up. Now that I am at a 50 rep. It is going to be much more work to raise my reputation, because there are far fewer people over 50 reputation that might vote for my content and raise me to the next level. This is one of the key drivers of quality and I am excited for the challenge to make better and better posts that those with higher reputations will find are contributing to Steemit in a positive way.

Mission Accomplished!

Using the above practices, even though I made mistakes and was not as consistent at publishing as I wished, I was able to achieve my goal!

This information can be found by going to Steemd and putting in your own username.

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*SquareLink Newbie Blog #10: 50 Reputation points in 49 Days! *

@phaazer1 [SquareLink]
If you can Dream it, you can Steem it.

Please add any questions, comments, or other ideas below, I would love to hear from you.

Also, Your Up-votes are always appreciated if you appreciate the work! First comment gets an upvote as well.