Minnow Misconceptions:What I've Seen After 6 Months Of Using Steemit

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I'm going to start off by saying that this piece while it is mostly advice, it's opinionated advice and I'm not going to do a ton of sourcing of evidence and such to "prove my point" rather, I am presenting an idea of what I felt when I started with Steemit 6 months ago and what I've seen a lot of minnows saying and what we can do about all of this.

I also wanted to thank everyone as I'm currently the 360th most followed account on Steem which is super cool!

Anyways, I can confidently say it's been 6 months well spent and at the end of it I stand a witness with a relatively good reputation and some decent SP accumulated.

This Is Mostly What I've Heard
Why aren't I earning much money?
Why is no one seeing my posts?
I wrote a quality post and no one saw it. What do I do?
I thought Steem would make me rich, what's happening?
I'll address these now

Why Aren't I Earning Much STEEM yet?

First I'll say that while $2,298.9 is a decent sum of money. Not only was I paid for work and invest myself, but I did a lot of conversions between SBD and STEEM during massive fluctuations. I did many things to earn this money and realistically for 6 months of being on almost every day, it's not a lot. It's actually not worthy of being a side hustle because I wouldn't afford rent. Mind you I do a lot of other things rather than just try to make money here. I'm actually not "trying" to otherwise I wouldn't write for my mostly minnow audience. The point is it's not an easy solution, but we are working to make it easier and more accessible to be a partial solution. If anything it solves issues of censorship, security, transparency, and allows you to do some monetization on your otherwise zero dollars value social media content.
There are many reasons, but the simplest is you haven't tried it out long enough. First ask yourself these questions

Have I really gotten to know this platform and its functionality and community?
Do I know how to promote and market my posts?
Do I know how to properly format my posts?
Are my posts meeting a high standard of quality and or value?
Are I posting to the right niche?
Am I genuinely contributing or trying to make money?
Work through those and if you can't say yes to all of them, then maybe Steemit won't be your full time job, but you can always still earn some money on here as a side hustle.

Realistically you won't earn all your money here unless you pursue it as a full time job. Many people do earn a living from Steem and many never will. You may just be an average joe who wants to just share random pictures of your food on here which is totally fine, but you aren't going to get rich doing that. If you are genuinely aiming to make a living on Steem you have to treat it like a full time job and get serious about it.

Why Is No One Seeing My Posts?

Firstly go and check the check list I just made above, secondly start to learn more about marketing and how you can push your content. I'll give some quick pointers here and will go more in-depth in another post.
Post your posts with meaningful, useful, and informational tags
Write a compelling title that isn't misleading
Use a great image for your post
Share on all your other social channels

Use proper formatting for your posts and make them look visually appealing
Use a decent signature that has your information
Tag people, give shoutouts, show love
Promote your post using the promote feature
Pay a small fee for bid bot boosting
READ MY EDUCATIONAL POSTS ;)
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I Wrote A Quality Post And No One Saw It
This is slightly different from the last section because I assume here you took the majority of the advice above and then still had struggles with your content. There are 3 answers to this, they aren't all easy to swallow.

Your content really isn't as good as you think it is.
You haven't hit your stride or found consistency (you've only tried a couple times)
You aren't willing to invest anything
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The first is self-explanatory. The second is basically that most people find their audience with consistency and returning fans. If you post randomly, very little, or just in a way that alienates your followers, you will struggle. I don't want this to be the case, but more or less the easiest way to do anything on Steemit is to invest a bit of money into bot boosting with your posts so you can get some awareness. Thinking strictly in terms of practicality, it makes sense. On a traditional platform you pay money and get promised engagements and you hope it all works out and maybe you'll earn enough to continue. Given you don't get flagged, on Steemit you can invest into a boost, earn some money as profit, plus get awareness, then earn back your original investment. In terms of dollars and cents and reach, it's a gold mine and it makes a lot of sense to capitalize on!

I Thought Steem Would Make Me Rich, What Happened?
Well if you'd paid any attention here, then you've realized that you get what you put in. If you are willing to put in the works and invest into Steemit with your time and money, you'll get more out of it. It is very challenging to start from nothing and work your way up, but it's possible.

Because Steemit is still so small comparatively to other platforms, you still have so much opportunity to grow and do more here. Let's be positive and push for a better Steemit together! Let me know your thoughts in the comments and share anything you think minnows need to know!