That Time When ...
If you've ever wondered why your posts don't earn as much as other posts, even post you may consider to be inferior, like a one liner or simple TFW GIF, the issue may be your timing. Posting late at night or in the early morning generally will yeild lower payouts versus posting during the daylight hours (in the United States).
Here's a good example. The other day I questioned a post titled "5 years addicted to heroin - my story told in pictures", that was making $5,000 at the time, and called it out as being fake. At the time everyone was upvoting the post and telling OP what a great story it was and thanked them for posting.
Heroin Addict Scam Post
When I first saw the post the one thing that struck me was the quality of the images, which were taken by an obvious third party and they were professional quality images. This drew a red flag immediately. I then searched for one of the images online and found where the story originated. It was originally posted back in January on Refinery29.com. I then compared the text in the article to the story being presented on Steemit and discovered it was pretty much identical outside of being changed to a first person point of view.
I didn't want any retribution coming my way for calling out OP as a scammer, so I used the "adm" account some of us use to downvote plagiarism and made a post asking OP to provide proof they were who they claimed to be. I followed up with the "tuck-fheman" account to give the adm claim some more credibility with the community.
I spent a lot of time researching this making sure I was right before calling it a fake. I then notified as many of the top whale upvoters as I could. I wanted to try to get them to remove their upvotes before the payout rewarded the account that was plagiarizing someone else's content and deceiving fellow Steemit users into upvoting, by tugging at their emotional response system with a sad story.
I then followed up with a post of my own, calling out this scammer, trying to get even more people's attention so they would not upvote the scam post. It took a few hours work, but after all was said and done I was successful in reaching enough whales to get the post total down to $0.00. A big thank you goes out to all of the whales who either removed their upvote or changed their votes to a downvote (especially @nextgencrypto who was the nail in the coffin).
After all of that was finished it was time to get some sleep as the sun began to rise. I wasn't expecting a huge payout for my efforts, but I also would not have turned a huge payout down! :)
When I woke up later that day, the first thing I noticed was that someone else was rewarded over $5,500 for pointing out the community effort in flagging the post as a scam.
Lesson Learned
All of my time and effort for being the first person to publicly question this scam post, finding the original article, contacting all of the whales and saving $5,000 (or likely a lot more) from being paid out to a scammer yielded me $80, while someone else profited $5,500 for posting about my efforts. Again, I'm not complaining. I'm pointing out how timing is everything, so that the rest of you don't make this same mistake ... if you want to earn the big rewards on Steemit.
Timing
If you want upvotes from Dan & Ned and most of the whales, your post should be made between the daylight hours in America. There was a chart here many months ago showing when most users were participating on Steem. It basically showed that you need to post somewhere between 9AM - 5PM EST, or during daylight hours in the United States, to receive more upvotes.
If you're not able to post during these hours, another trick is to reply to comments on your post every few hours. This will essentially push your post back to the top of the Active feed each time you or someone else makes a comment on your post. If your post has not received any comments, you can simply click EDIT and re-save your post to push it back to the top of the Active feed during these prime Steemit hours.
My post earned $80 because I posted it in the early morning, and by the time most Steemit users awoke to view the feed, it had already been pushed down so far that few noticed it, especially the whales. However, the other person posted theirs during the peak hours and Dan and other whales noticed their post and rewarded them heftily for bringing up my work.
Quality Content Does Not Defeat Bad Timing
You may spend hours working to help the Community and even more time writing about your efforts, but that doesn't mean you will be rewarded as much as a silly meme. Someone else may see your post making very little, because you posted it when most people aren't on Steemit, and they will capitalize on your quality low paying post by simply restating what you posted ... and do it at the right time!
Timing is sometimes more important than the quality of your content. We've all seen a simple regurgitated meme posted at the right time earn thousands of dollars, while a very well thought out post made at the wrong time will earn a few dollars. In most cases, you can solve this by waiting until the peak Steemit hours to make your post. Wait until the Founders (Ned & Dan) are awake and most of the whales are browsing for original quality content to upvote. I think you will find that you will be earning a lot more by following this simple rule.
Other Tips To Earn More
- Post during daylight hours in the United States.
- Tag your post appropriately using no more than 3-4 topics.
- Use images to break your post up and make it more pleasing to read.
- Use Headers to break your post up into sections.
- Reply to comments on your post every few hours or refresh your post.
- Join the Steem Slack and make yourself known by helping out new users.
- Post your article links in Slack's postpromotion channel after they are 15-30 minutes old.
- Befriend a whale or two.
- Post on a topic that's new to Steem that's popular to most people elsewhere.
- And most importantly, be nice to Dan & Ned. ;)
Rule Breaker
With all of that said, I'm going to break the rules I've stated above. This post will be made at 3:05 AM CST, while most everyone is asleep. Why? Because I want those of us who are up during these unfortunate (as far as rewards go) hours to see this post at the top of the feed. I want those of us who miss out on the big payouts, due to our schedules, to benefit from this very key information.
Not everyone will be able to change their schedule just to make a post, but hopefully by combining some of the other tips above more of us nightwalkers will be able to one day reach the big reward payday like we were a hot woman that creates makeup tutorials while traveling the world talking about Steemit! :)
Yea noticed this as well - IMO there should be a seperate funding pool for people who actively observing and noticing this kinda content thefts/scams - also same thing we should consider for the bug bounty .. if for example a hacker is noticing a serious security bug etc .. he should get a really huge reward ($50k and more) so we can start turning blacks into whitehats maybe over time .. with this new recovery system - account theft etc. shouldn't by such a big topic -
Giving a choice!
if you not want to get bounty, so to tell us about the bug .. etc and so we are able to fix it, then i will get nothing as we will freeze this account then before u would be able to transfer funds
Excellent idea! I'm all for it. Who wouldn't want to take an easy bounty versus being hunted down by the FBI? :)
Yes! Also would give steemit users another way/opportunity to add value and get rewarded.
Great information! And good attitude about the scam post payout situation. I love this place with or without rewards but I agree I wouldn't turn one down
Wow- I upvoted that junkie scam post! Doh
Good catch, and now you've pointed out the obvious regarding the photos I can't believe I didn't spot that too
Well done, and great advice here - thanks a lot!
Hi tuck, good advice. The thing is the slack channel is in maintenance so can't join.
Also, Europe is up and running now as it's about 11am in most of it.
Appreciate the effort! Have a good night! See you in the am.
Thanks, this will be helpful, i've been a bit slack in timing my posts, as well as with my use of tags, i'll be trying to amend this in the future thanks to your post!
Just found this now and I'm definitely glad for it, i live in New Zealand which is like 9 hours different from est i think so it always seems like the big posts go down when I'm not around.
That said I've only been here for 3 days, but yeah i did notice these patterns too so it's great to see an experienced user lay all the cards on the table.
I'll be checking out that steem slack too since i didn't really know what that was, not to teach but to learn.
Thanks for the info us nightwalkers gotta stick together.
I for one appreciate your efforts. It was following those efforts that made me a believer.
I've upvoted your post because it's truthful and informative.
But I think it sends the wrong message.
What you are saying about timing is a very USA or at least Western Hemisphere centric point of view. While I agree it applies to the right here and the right now. That's only because this community is still rather small by internet standards and is not very geographically, or monetarily disbursed.
The bulk of the money and therefore the upvoting power right now is sitting in the USA. As it spreads out across the globe, this effect is going to go away.
Hell I live in the USA and while I'm no whale yet, I don't intend to change the hours I keep, once I am and I'll bet a largish portion of other night owls will feel the same way.
There are other fundamentals coming into play soon too.
Europe, especially the Netherlands will probably end up outbidding the current whales as soon as they understand the potential here. This place fits much better with a European mindset than it does an American mindset, because in a way it functions as a social safety net. Social programs are for some reason much more appealing to those across the pond than they are to the rugged individualist mindset so prevalent here in the states.
Europe isn't the only story here either. We all know what happened with bitcoin as soon as China caught on, and this place is perfect for people that live under a regime that is heavily censored and tightly controlled. More especially because it does give them a dollar pegged asset with a huge potential growth.
My point is, give it a couple months, the part about time of day won't matter so much. Once it stops mattering though this post will live on and people will keep trying to post content during US business hours because they won't really understand the fundamental dynamics at play here. So would you mind adding a caveat?
Excellent points and this means I get to write another article when things change! ;)
Good points here. I agree that as more people around the globe join Steemit it will not matter so much about the time you post. On another platform, I post photos for the Western side of the world during the day and a photo sometimes at 1 - 3am for all of my friends on the Eastern side of the world.
Yes....timing is not only important on Steemit but very important in life. I think as the population grows on the platform there will be groups & loose sub communities that will naturally form around the routine timing of posts.
But for the TIME at hand this post is enlightening for the current structure for upvoting and the hours that profiles that carry more weight on the platform are active.
Great article. Some valuable tips! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks Tuck, I really enjoys your post
bullionstackers
So true Tuck! I told a friend of mine not to post something yesterday a.m. UK time, as Tuesday's are slow and America don't really get going on Steemit till much, much later.
He didn't listen, and made about $4
There's another timing issue... but you'll have to wait for my article to read it; hee, hee.
PS. I'm gutted that you didn't get the fat payout, you deserve it, we need people like you.... next time
CG
Yeah that sucks. Thanks!
I enjoyed this post, very informative for me a newbie. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!
Thanks, I'd posted about this yesterday at 3 pm Pacific - oops, too late for whales!
https://steemit.com/steem/@bradvanceauthor/run-some-numbers-let-us-all-know-optimum-posting-times-for-different-types-of-content
You've answered some of my question, but I'm still wondering as noted in my post hint hint if certain types/tags are more popular at different times, i.e., hot girl at 2 am Fapping Standard Time vs. philosophy treatise at 3 pm.
Timing 's the key ...small thing in the right timing can become Big!
I just followed some of these tips on my own posts. I already am getting additional upvotes! Thanks for this post, I would of never have realized this on my own!
I also up voted, well spotted!! There's no way to prevent this I guess?
"Very good information and well done!" I voted for this post.
Very interesting that your post lost out vs a smaller fish. I guess that really demonstrates the power of timing! Actually I made a post last night (bad timing, doh) about the opposite happening (much more common):
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemgrindr/the-whales-are-swallowing-up-the-minnows
I am learning that the hard way. :(
I wrote my first original article about the potential of Steem which I thought would do really well. But the timing wasn't right at all. So 3 hours later, and it hasn't made even $1. Moreover I am not being able to join the Slack community and so I am unable to promote my content.
I generally don't do this. But if you all could check out my post, that would be a really big help. Do upvote if you genuinely like the post. Thank you :) :)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sauravrungta/in-a-dark-world-steemit-proves-to-be-a-ray-of-sunshine-originalcontent-a-steemit-original
Great post. I feel that you are spot on with this. In fact, I just wrote a post of my experiences, which seem quite similar to yours (I swear I didn't copy you though, I wrote it before I saw your post... I just waited to post... because timing is everything :D)
By the way, can you access the steem slack? says it's in maintenance for me.
The Slack signup page been down since the hack.
Beautiful. Great photography too.
Wow, you guys reversed $2800 before the 24 hour mark? That's fantastic! I am trying to get more moderators to post under the #moderation tag, so everyone is aware of cases like the (fake?) heroine addict post. I'm sure many others besides me missed it. If thousands of people work together in a central place, we could prevent shit content from making making money ever again. Wouldn't that be amazing?
It was over $5,000 at the time I started trying to get the upvotes removed. Within a few hours it was down to $0.00 and remained there. Whoever made the post is probably not very happy with me right now. ;)
Do you think the really high payouts have something to do with "Trending" being on the front page, instead of "hot". I understand that the "hot" page is based on pure votes rather than $$.
Not sure. Posting something that Steem hasn't seen yet (that is also a popular topic elsewhere) is also a way to earn a big reward, but you need to combine it with the practices listed to boost it and make sure it's noticed.
I haven't been here long, but I wondered if all these things made much difference on how many views a post got....
They do.
so soon there will be US based Steemian night owls who are Internet famous in Germany and Japan?
:)
Check some of the posts out there to see stats where most of the visitors come from. It's the US so obviously you would want your content exposed to the largest audience.
good job!
This remindes me on ebay. Same thing, if you start your auction somewhere in the night or, in the ebay case, during the day in the week, you lose money.
good read you got there... thanks
Why you being a bully whale.. check out what this BULLY wrote me over a down vote
https://steemit.com/whalebullying/@poias/who-is-the-mini-whale-tuck-fheman-why-is-does-he-threaten-minnows-flag-bully-alert#comments
Not really, check out our new post.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@cultura.bitcoin/steemit-decentralization-of-the-paradigm-of-writing
My hope is that as enough NEW people start hitting the Dolphin, and Whale phase their voting and replies and such will start helping with how top heavy things can see at some points now. This is in beta, so if there were not problems that would be unusual. Hopefully people like you will do well and eventually just by you voting at times Dan and Ned don't you will elevate other people. That is my hope.
Yeah there will be a lot more superhero's around in the coming months and the whole time to post thing should average out. All the cool people are on here at night, that's all I know. ;)
I was thinking that maybe the timing may affect your posts;now I know. Anyway the Steem slack link doesn't work.It's offline for maintenance.
Yeah, not sure what's up with the Slack signup. Hope it's working soon since there are a lot of people trying to sign up currently.
good info..thanks..now i can set time for my post !!
Love your work tuck
Thank you
:)
Thank you this post is very useful. Never really thought about posting time.
So I watched a video last night where @dan and @ned were explaining how steemit works and they said something that I had never heard before so I was hoping you could shed some light on it.
They said that you only have 24 hours after submitting a post to earn $$/steem dollars... But I am sure I have seen posts from other where the $$ amount continued to climb for days.
Am I missing something?
thank you in advance for any advice you have on this.
Payouts happen every 24 hours. So when you get your first payout, everything resets and you start over. Currently, the total shown won't change. It will always reflect the amount you were paid out on the first 24 hours. The exception to this is if a large stakeholder (a whale) upvotes your post in the final hours of the payout, that will then delay your payout a few more hours. You can get paid on a post infinitely, it's just unlikely most post will continue receiving more than a few pennies or dollars after the initial 24 hour payout period. But you never know!
Thank you for helping me understand this better. I am going to share your comment over on @dcryptogold - he did a post about this subject and I just want to help everyone else get a clearer understanding of how things work, after all, we're all in this together!
Befriend a whale is a good piece of advice. Please, be my friend
copied from
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I am a downvote bot. Contact @pharesim at slack if you think I am misbehaving. Please help fighting spam! Upvote this post to strengthen the bot, downvote the parent post if it has positive upvotes.
Copied from : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-new-book-steemit-101-free-now-leah-stephens with no attribution.
It's simple nazar. Stop plagiarizing other people's content and I'll stop flagging your post. Your account has been added to the downvote bot, so unless you stop plagiarizing or at the least post a portion of the article and give a link to the source, you will never make a dime here.
So there is a a downvote bot ? Awesome XD.
removed from their posts my office and we will have peace
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#butthurt