Sometimes you do read something interesting in a newspaper, sometimes which can be turned into a post. Today was such a day!
On the career pages of the local newspaper, there were 7 things you should have know when you did start your career. After reading those tips, I did wonder if they were also applicable on the career on the steem blockchain!
Here is the link to the original article: https://www.jobat.be/nl/art/carriere-had-je-deze-7-dingen-maar-eerder-geweten/?branding=hbvl&utm_medium=content&utm_source=hbvl&utm_campaign=home-blok2 (It is in Dutch)

So let’s find out together.
Edit: if you really want to know what I do find important, just go to the last chapter of the post! That one describes what I am looking for and what I do think is important for the steem blockchain! It only dawned to me that this post gave me an answer on what I am really looking for. That is why the title of the article and the first part of the post, not really are aligned. But I will leave the post like it was written, because it was more or less the discovery for myself! Feel free to agree or not to agree! I really love comments and do reply on all genuine ones!

1. Set your own targets or content!

Well this one is obvious I guess. It is important to know in advance what your professional passion is. This makes it easier to work towards a goal. People do easily choice for security and an stabile income.
This one is more or less also applicable on steem. It all starts with your username! This immediately can attract interest or give people the impression that your content will not suit their interest.

This is an error I made. It is best to have a neutral username or a username which reflects the content of your blog. My username gives the indication that my blog only has betting related content, but I don’t think that 10% of my posts were sports betting related. To bad, the only thing which can’t be changed on the steem blockchain is your username.
Also in the beginning it isn’t a bad move to keep focusing on one or two topics and expand when your blog has an audience!

2. Take responsibility!

Well this one is harder to related to the steem blockchain. One can say that responsibility at the moment is using the free downvote you do have per day, to fight reward pool abuse, wrong topics in a tribe and so on. But this is extremely hard to do when you are not an icon on the blockchain or do have enough SP power.
I do think that lot’s of people just aren’t using their downvotes because they are afraid for retaliation.
On the other side, if you do get a flag, don’t take it personally because in 99% of the cases this isn’t the intention of a flag!

But responsibility is also performing some fact checks! Which type of content is doing well on your blog and which isn’t. Try to learn from this and don’t be afraid to adjust some things! While we all love to write, we all also love the interactions with the audience and yes also the upvotes!

3. Networking!

Well if you do want to make it on the steem blockchain, networking is important. And not only on the steem blockchain but also on the side chain called discord!
Networking does create chances. Networking is about interaction here. Each genuine comment you write on a post you read can be seen ad advertisement about you and your blog!
I am not saying that one should do some whale hunting. Also the small upvotes do matter (okay after HF21, they do matter a little bit more if a big and juicy upvote doesn’t hit your blog). But if you do see an article of a bigger account, just don’t be afraid to leave a genuine on topic comment! They also like comments, believe it or not!

Don’t forget that a good network should be beneficial to all parties involved. It is about exchanging information and ideas. This network (here) can result into a resteem, giving your post and possible bigger audience. But also it does teach you some tricks!

Don’t confuse a network on the steem blockchain with a voting circle. I do know that this is important here be don’t be afraid to step out of the comfort zone of your network and try to discover new potential networks! We small fishes all blame the bigger accounts because there are upvoting each other on a regular basis, but they all were also small once, most of them did work their way up on the steem blockchain, by writing great post, interaction via comments or on discord or creating great dapps!
We all have some accounts we do support regardless of what they write about! So why shouldn’t they be allowed to do the same?

4. Principles!

We all have principles and should stick to them. But there can be reasonsor evolution which should make you to have another look at your principles again! While most principles are there forever, some can be bend and tweaked even discarded! This is called evolution!
Take flagging again as example. Yes, we did had the flagging wars around a year ago, but before HF21 flagging posts, even for the correct reason was not done. Most people did have the principle to not downvote a post. But HF21 is more or less a motivation to use those free downvotes you do have!
So, some major accounts did change their principle about flagging and we are all happy with that!

5. Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses!

They is valid in the real world as on the steem blockchain. Being aware of these things does create a better self-impression. Some weaknesses can be turned into strengths but some will be weaknesses forever!
Now with the tribes popping up like mushroom on a wet fall day, people do ran into their weaknesses. Take for instance in my case the CCC tribe. This is community based around creativity. While I am creative in finding solution for the daily problems at work, I will never be able to write a poem, a story or make a great drawing. So there is no use for me to join the CCC tribe!
But one of my strength is writing down my opinions about sports (at least I do think that this is one of my strengths here on the steem blockchain) so it is for me more rewarding to focus on the sportsocialtalk tribe!
And luckily I do see more opinion posts about a topic. People do understand that just copy pasting articles from the internet isn’t working anymore! While I am still skeptical if HF21 was a good think for the steem community, it for sure has some great side-effects!

6. See yourself as a brand!

Well you really should. A brand should be promoted and this promotion is done again via the interaction with others. Again this can be done via comments or discord. But also be creating great posts about a nice!
Compare it with a store, you can be a sports store or even more specific a golf store or so, you can be a plumber, you can be clothes store or even a supermarket which almost sell everything!
But just like in the real world, dare to innovate yourself and your brand. Don’t become the blockbuster story but try to be more like Netflix, who are constantly evolving!

The most important to being a brand is to have an opinion and the nuts to dare to voice your opinion! The best articles I did read here do have a personal opinion about something! Regardless of the topic! Of course do voice it with care and remember point 2 of the list. If you do have an opinion, you have to take responsibility for it!
Also articles with opinion (not the extreme ones) do give readers a platform to interact. And interaction is what we do need here on the steem blockchain! The more interaction the better. If people would give me choice between the most upvoted article of the day or the articles with the most comments, I would always pick the comments one! I will probably never have the possibility to life from my steem incomings (o man, I would starve to death) but the comments are my fuel to keep on going! To keep on interaction and to keep on trying to write articles which does give my audience (how small it is) to interact. Not only with me, but also with other commenters!

7. Be genuine!

But above all be yourself! Regardless what that is!

Oops, maybe this is the most important part of this post!

While writing this down, I really feel again what is missing for me on the steem blockchain. People with opinions about the things in life they do find important. I do like to read articles where people do give their own viewpoint about something. This could be a sport game, an evolution, an invention or something general in life! Those are the articles do get my 100% manual upvote and a long genuine comment! These articles should be the fuel of the steem blogging platform! These articles could open the doors to attract more fresh blood!
And if I write an article with a personal opinion, I do love to get reactions from both sides. The ones who do support my opinion but also from the ones which don’t agree with my opinion. This can only broaden my knowledge and shed a new light on my opinion, maybe even changing it!
If you do know authors with an opinion, feel free to point me into their direction! Becuase I do need more of those in my feed!

If am I am the #sportstalk tribe, I do want to find an article why for instance Genk got crushed or why Real Madrid wasn't able to shoot at least one ball on the target!
If I am at the #spt tribe, I do want to find articles about the investments into steemmonsters, how people are balancing their deck and what their approach is, not a 5 line post about their pulls! Or why they did loose a battle!
If I do want to read an article about steem, I do want to read opinions about the hard fork and what could be changed so that it will involve. I do want to read how people did build up their brand and how they did get there where they are now (@tarazkp really would like to have a post about this from you, just like from @abh12345 and consorts). This also give a better insight to the people which are envy on the progress the bigger accounts all made, it will make them understand that this is also possible for them (okay the golden days are over but still). Maybe more bigger accounts would have to do this!
I can write down many more examples but I do think you all will get the point! And if not, you will never get it!

Maybe I should have put this on top of the post. But I will leave it here at the end this way only genuine readers will discover this gem!

Cheers,
Peter

What I am really looking for on the steem blockchain!