Hey @abstract-reserve! Let me try to answer some of your questions. The pay-out from your posts is depending on two things: people upvoting it and the price of steem. There are three "kosher" ways to increase your rewards:
- Write good content
- Be consistent
- Increase your followers by engaging with the community
You want to engage with many people in a meaningful way. So look at some artwork and share your impressions. I would also recommend to get engaged with other minnows in your niche and grow together with them. Steemit rewards you if you engage with the community (and that is kind of the point of Steemit).
Personally, I do not think upvoting your posts is bad, especially when you are a new user. If you get to the higher steempower levels, when your upvote actually is worth something, people expect you to upvote new users and not upvote your own content. However, you can do what you want.
As for upvoting strategy: there really is no single best way. If you upvote 20-30 min after the post, you will get a higher curation percentage. However, if you are one of the earlier upvoters and the post goes trending, you will get a higher curation reward. The best strategy: upvote content you enjoy.
Also, disregard these "follow me I follow you" or "upvote for upvote" comments. They are not legitimate most of the time. Engage with people who actually read your post.
I hope this helps you out a bit.
Cheers!
Great - thank you so much -all that you say makes perfect sense @lesshorrible -- and make things much less horrible :)
Absolutely! I think I heard that you are an artist. So maybe start writing more about your life as an artist and share some of your work. It is a competitive tag though. But if you start to get in a group you should be more succesful and you should also enjoy the platform more. I am sure you heard this but "come for the money, stay for the people". It really is true! Anways, good luck and cheers!
Yes! Thanks. I think it is one of those zen koan kind of things like -do what you love and the rest will follow. So it is sort of a mind trick I have to play on myself to give my best and don't worry about the rest. :)