For those New to Steemit

Every time I convince someone to try out Steemit, I always get the same feedback.
“I am only earning a few cents with my posts, what am I doing wrong?”. A lot of new people quickly get disappointed and stop being active much to soon. Here are my tips to avoid disappointment and frustration.

Don’t compare yourself with trending authors

These authors have been at the game for a long time. They have been building a large following for a long time and have invested a lot of time into the platform.
For the most part it is their loyal following and interesting subjects that keeps their posts trending. They are experienced on Steemit and know how the game is played. You will also learn my young padawans but it will take time.

Realize that Steemit is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

It takes a lot of hard work and time. Never underestimate the time you will have to put in to get some success. It starts with learning the tricks of the trade, let’s call those the technical skills. You will need to learn how to post, which tools are useful and how the platform works.
But also you will have to develop your “soft skills”, which topics are popular, who to follow, how to communicate with the other Steemians. After you think you have learned all there is to Steemit, you will find that there is still tons that you don't know.
Keep learning, improving, strife for quality and most important, while doing all of this….have fun.

Don’t get discouraged….ever

All Steemians (well, with some exceptions) have had moments when their posts weren’t doing as well as they liked. It happens to all of us. Most people on Steemit aren’t making hundreds of dollars on everything they post. If you joined Steemit just to earn a quick buck...well chances are you might get frustrated real quickly.

Give it your best...

That’s all that is needed. Not all posts are high quality literary masterworks. But if you are enthusiastic, dedicated and believe in your posts, trust me...it will show and people will notice.

Don’t get angry...

....Just because you spent hours on a brilliantly written post only to find that it got about 4 views. When you start out you won’t have many followers yet and this means that your post will be only visible for a short time. Think of it as practice, a way to improve your writing skills. A tip (I wish someone would have told me when I first started) is to write shorter posts when you first start. My first posts took me a day or sometimes days to write. Imagine my disappointment when no one upvoted or commented on my 1500+ word posts.
Remember writing longer posts don’t automatically mean that they are better than a shorter posts.

Remember that here is no direct relation between quality and payout

This also goes for the length of your post. Even if you are a experienced writer who can write a blog like it’s nobody’s business, doesn't mean that you will automatically get high payouts.
It might seem unfair to see someone else’s generic post trend and your well researched and written post ignored but that’s all part of the game. Getting good payouts depends on a number of factors (luck being one of them). Just keep posting the good stuff, if you are confident in your writing skills ( or vlogging, photographic, musical prowess) then someone will take notice. There are a lot of good qurators active on Steemit who are quite skilled in sniffing out talent.

Don’t underestimate....

Let me stress that, Don’t Ever Underestimate the importance of curation, commenting, engagement and supporting the community. Interacting with the Steemit community will have a direct impact on the height of your payouts.
These are important activities that I underestimated when I started and wished I had done differently.

Follow experienced Steemian and see how they do what they do.

Engage with the community by commenting and always reacting to people’s comments.

Support the community in every way you can, you can invest in community projects for example.

Don’t copy others but be your own person.

But most of all….HAVE FUN!