Why do you do the things you do?

in #dlive6 years ago (edited)

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Many people come to steemit and give up almost immediately because they find it hard to work with?

What they fail to recognise is that Steemit is not Fakebook or Twatter. Steemit is a blogging platform and most people are not bloggers or in the case of Dlive vloggers.

Let’s define exactly what blogging and vlogging is.

Put simply blogging and vlogging is a daily or weekly record of what you have been doing in your daily life

There are of course as many variants of this basic description as there are people and each will have it’s own unique flavor and style.

You will have to ask yourself some tough questions if you want to make it in this very competitive steem ecosystem.

Why do you do the things you do. For example, on steemit. Do you even want to make a blog? What will your blog be about? Or on Dlive what will your vlogs be about?

In my video I explain exactly what I do and why I do it. My motivation.

These are key questions to understand if you want to make progress anywhere including steemit and Dlive. Whether it is blogging, vlogging or photography or any aspect of your life.

If you can answer honestly. Why do you do the things that you do and what it is exactly that you do. You will make faster progress.

What is your objective. What are you trying to achieve by your blogs, vlogs and photos? Be honest.

These would seem on the surface to be very basic questions that anyone should be able to answer but as we all know, they are not the easiest questions to answer.

Let’s think about blogging for a minute.

Many people think that blogging or vlogging is very easy but they find out very fast that like any creative activity.

It is a skill that you will have to learn and it can take a very long time to become a ‘good’ blogger or vlogger

When you write content, you must be sure to think about your audience. You must get to know your audience (KYA) and use language that they can access easily.

Using long words may make you sound intelligent but if it is lost on the audience you are wasting your time and theirs.

I’m not suggesting that you have to dumb down what you write but you must bear in mind who you are writing for.

Many of your readers may have English as a second language for example.

Not everyone is a coder and writing long lines of code can look like gibberish to many people.

Making the bridge between technical writing and writing for the general public is a skill in itself

When you write your blog about a topic. What sources are you using to back up your claims? Are your sources of information trustworthy, legal and legitimate? In the absence of knowing the ‘facts’ about a topic.

Don’t write about it or if you do, state that this is just an opinion. Write about things that you do know a lot about.

I may write a course on the rights and wrongs of writing for public consumption but that is beyond the scope of this article.

So, what about vlogging?

Vlogging is not a new thing. The term vlogging is fairly new but people have been doing monologues to cameras since the invention of the movie camera. The same questions arise as in blogging. Why are you doing it and what is it exactly that you are doing?

You will see many copycat vloggers doing the same stuff as each other on many platforms including Dlive. Don’t copy other people. It just doesn’t work. And worse you may paint yourself into a corner that you really do not like.

The advantage to you is ‘you’. You have your own views and opinions about the world and it is up to you to share ‘your’ views on whatever it is that you find fun, interesting or useful.

The chances are that if you found something helpful, useful or interesting there will be other people who agree with you and find your content interesting too.

There are well over 2 billion internet connections on the planet. You will gather an audience. It’s just a matter of time and helping them to find you. When you create a piece of content. Make sure that the title directly relates to the content.

The search engines will pick this up and present it to those people that are searching for that kind of content.

It’s not rocket science…it’s computer science

Do what you feel comfortable doing and know something about. That way you will find your motivation to continue producing content that you are happy with. Do not compare yourself to others as that it a fruitless and soul-destroying way to go.

Not everyone is a blogger or vlogger and both are skills that have to be learned by doing it. So, don’t wait until you have all the right gear. Work with what you have and your skills will improve with practice.

It is never to late to learn a new skill. I have been taking photographs for decades but it is only very recently that I have begun to learn about photo composition, framing f/stops, ISO and aperture and it is a lot of fun.

Will I ever become a great photographer? That is the wrong question. I’m just enjoying the journey as should you.
Figuring out your what and why will save you a lot of time and grief.

Hope you found this post helpful.

My video is at DLive

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Hey @molometer! great to see you are doing well! I was wondering if you are interested in creating some content for us in return for a few upvotes:
Hello I hope all is well! Please ready the following, we think it might be in your interest!
Oracle-D has a lot of work coming up for content creators!! We plan to reward Steemians who create high quality content for high profile projects. We specify tasks that you complete by creating content and then up vote you if your content meets specific quality criteria.
You have been chosen to be part of a special team of high quality content creators to help us with an important task! Yes, we have seen how hard you work and how good your work is. Your reputation for high quality work precedes you!

We are about to undertake trial where we want to ask you to produce 2 weeks of high quality content for a specific project for which you will be rewarded with Steem. If this trial is successful the project we are writing about is likely to invest significant amounts of money into the Steem blockchain to further reward you for the great content you write!
This model really has the potential to bring a lot of investment into the Steem block chain and help ensure sustainability for the long term.
We have a meeting on discord where we will to explain to you exactly what the tasks are and how you can write content to help this initiative and get rewarded in Steem.
Join us on the following link where @starkerz and @anarcotech will be broadcasting live and answering your questions:

Discord link: Oracle-D – Pro-Creators - https://discord.gg/uQ9pfR
Date: Thus 12th July 2018
Time: 1900 hrs UK Time
Project period: 13-Jul-018 to 27-Jul-2018 (14 days)
Pre reading:
Please make sure you read the following before attending. Oracle-D Content Creation General

  1. Guidelines Video:
  2. Oracle-D Content Creation General Requirements and Guidelines - R0 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/465908576553271306/465991325406199822/Oracle-D_Content_Creation_General_Requirements_and_Guidelines_-_R0.pdf
  3. DECENTERNET - Task Instructions 1 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/465908576553271306/465989877113028619/DECENTERNET_-_Task_Instructions_1.pdf

Thanks @starkerz for your warm comments, the offer and the upvote. Sounds like an interesting project.
I'll see you on Thursday's discord.

Great idea! @molometer this is a great way to reinforce what we've read, what we've experienced, and more. I find it really good to use video to create documentation for myself and my clients on how to perform certain procedures.

Thank you for all the positive contributions to make to our DLive and our Steemit community. Much appreciated, mate!

Terry

Hey @terrybrock, good to hear from you buddy. Looking forward to steemfest3?

I find video is an essential tool for teaching, cataloging ideas and thoughts. It's like a personal assistant that is always available.

I use video when I'm teaching as many students are visual learners and it is always handy for them to go back and refresh their memory of a particular topic.

Thank you for your warm comments Terry much appreciated. Keep well mate

Michael

You bet, Michael! So nice to hear from you.

Yes, looking forward to SteemFest 3 and getting more info on it. I'm sure that @roelandp has some good he's cooking up for it. I'll look forward to seeing you there, mate, and sharing a few pints.

Terry

The first one is on me Terry. It is exciting thinking about where steemfest 3 will be and you are right. @roelandp is sure to come up with something special...no pressure Roland ha ha

Michael

The cool thing about being you is that you never run out of content...well until you die maybe, lol.

Yes on the video! I love to look back on my pics and vids. For example I was on vacation only a week ago. Looking back on the pics allows me to relive it again. I had already forgotten many of the small details. Pics and vids are really time machines. I love them.

That's it exactly Paul, I'm the same. Sometimes when I've been somewhere on holiday or whatever the thing comes more vividly into focus when you look back on the videos or photographs.

It may have something to do with the level of distractions that can surround us while 'at' the place?

And later we have, like hindsight perfect 20 20 vision?

As for after death. I'm pretty sure we won't care...too much? ha ha

The sad truth is that the world seems to have become very attuned to the idea of "money for nothing" and life having an "easy button." Neither of which, of course, really happen...

I honestly thought you were going to break into Dire Straits , the sad truth is you're correct.

This is it exactly. Anything worth doing takes effort and time. This instant gratification drip feed that has been fed to the masses has put a spanner in the works as far as work is concerned.

As Queen pointed out. 'I want it all and I want it now' attitude is everywhere.

Hey we've got a musical in the making here lol

It's great to see you enjoying your books and making video memories that you will remember! Always enjoy a peek into someone else's bookshelf ;)

My bookshelf holds many good friends. :) Most have been well thumbed as you can see ha ha.

@molometer, you have it right! Same here we are who we are. People can take it or leave it. I happen to like who you are. Your Vlog is wonderful letting us look into your mind like that. I feel the same way. I like reading about everyday life and blogging about it.
**

Everyday life is what we have at our disposal, unless you want to write a novel or two lol. I'm no longer a fan of fiction. Real life is so much more interesting. The more mundane the better in my view. Its real.

Love this. resteemed. I feel the same way. :)

Thank you both lol how are you managing this double act ha ha. I have enough trouble running just the one?

Here is what is up. I have the writing blog...whatever I want to write.
Now I have the photo blog. This means I can enter lots of contests and focus as much I want on photo. and my friends into photo. , while keeping the writing one focused on writing.

Really the same amount of work. I am pushing a little to the photo. blog being new. I need to get the rep up so people trust her. Think of it as my alter ego. 😃

That's a brilliant idea @rebeccabe and makes good sense. Hmm! You have given me something to think about.

I believe it will make your life easier .. get #esteem by @good-karma and you can toggle between accounts or have one account open in esteem and one open on the browser>

We can now buy accounts through blocktrades click on the word Steem at the top, on drop down click buy steem account. Transfers out of your account. @molometer

That is a good idea. I'll look into it.

Many people arrive think they can make a quick book (see what I did there) by replicating or plagarising content, such as copying and paste-ing even if it is posted somewhere else, website, review site.

In that vain it's not OC and shouldn't be rewarded as.

I understand complimenting content with your creation e.g a video embed like we do.

It takes time and thought to create something great. Many people sadly refuse to put that time in and find short cuts etc, however rarely does that work.

Boom boom Basil Brush would be well impressed with that line ha ha. Yep the copypaste brigade are simply misguided. I'm sure they learned this crap on fakebook where it was normal.

Creating original work every day takes a lot of work and effort. Your videos are excellent. I know what it takes to make them and it is a full time job.

Mixing the two together blog/vlog is a very good idea. I do see some people just throw up a video with no explanation? Baffling to think that it will engage anyone.