For the benefit of those who are just now joining us, I look over my last month, which I consider fairly successful
Why I joined in the first place :
In the early 1960s, when I first heard of solar energy panels, I literally ran home and told my Dad and excitedly predicted that we would all be producing our own electricity, that cars would run on hydrogen derived from water and that mankind would experience a never ending Utopia of productivity and freedom. He said, "Well, son, I hope you are right." At the age of 7 or 8, I can perhaps be forgiven for not recognizing the sad but correct lack of real hope in his voice.
Since that time I have always advocated, encouraged and worked for distributed systems of all kinds. I joined, then formed a new branch, of a small educational and farming community in the 70s. I distributed underground newspapers, wrote editorials to the main stream news and spoke up on local radio stations when I could, I talked about taking our individual power back from the state and the corporations on a local cable channel when those first started up. I worked for health food co-ops, helped to start a small wholesale health food production business, I used organic gardening methods myself to produce food and I worked with small volunteer groups in community gardens and sustainable living experiments in the 80s.
It's been like throwing sand at the incoming ocean waves, an exhilarating exercise with no discernable effect.
Then the internet happened. I was online with BBS software early on, and nearly cried when I saw my first www.page.com. Now, I thought, Now we would see some folks taking back their power from the State!
Sigh. There were ads on my internet before anyone actually took back their power. Now the NSA reads everything we write.
It was money. Money is the problem. Money is why the State wants control over us, money is why the corporations want control of the state. Green US Dollars either real or digital is what was binding our hands and feet and forcing us to do the will of "the Man".
Well, now people really do have some solar cells of their own, some folks even have electric cars. And now people are making their own forms of money! Money the State can't touch. And they are talking about it in a forum that the corporations can't censor!
Of course I am all in! 100% Power Up! God, please don't let this be a scam!
What? I shouldn't have said that? Of course you should realize the possibility, how can you make an educated choice to do this if you don't understand that a few people still hold control of the process? It's on the verge of becoming much more distributed (if I understand the news about new UIs for the blockchain), but one of the risks in any coinage is that the backing organization can be destroyed somehow, as people with Confederate money in their family vaults certainly recognize.
What happened
Well, I made about $200. As I said (but you may have missed), I invested it right back into the process. That's what power up really means. It means I want to encourage the process more than I want the money. But if I took all my money out, it would be about $200. You are welcome to look at my progress here
That's $200 more than I have made in the previous 25 years of typing furiously at the computer keyboard in various Bulletin Boards, usenet, web forums on compuserve, prodigy and AOL, MySpace, Google Groups, Wikis, User forums, comment sections, Facebook and Google Plus.
I got nothing from them. Well, I take that back, there are a few folks I met online that are still my friends, some of whom have followed me here, but are not ready to join in. So friends I got, but money? Not one red cent.
How did I do it
The first thing I did was read. I'm a fast reader, so about an hour later I put up my first post, then I started looking around for people who could help me. I know one thing about online forums, and that is that there is always a group of people who are more than willing to show you the ropes. I found them at steemit.chat as well as just a staggering amount of daily and archived lessons on Steemit itself. You can't swing a cat without hitting someone who will tell you good solid information about how to use Steemit.
So in answer to my own question above, I simply did what people told me to do. I wrote as high a quality post as I could, I included photos where appropriate, I promoted them when I could. Then I read other people's posts, voted for them if I liked them, commented on them if I had something to say, and reposted (resteemed) their post if I really thought other people would want to read them. After that, it's all luck. It's hard to read everything posted, and so my posts sometimes get overlooked. I wrote a post about that last week.
So, from my vast experience of one month, let me tell you what to do (we need an irony font). Find the people who know more than me, and do what they say to do. Read and post. Vote and comment. Learn to improve your posts, both for your own sake and for the improvement of the community. Remember, this is now your business. If the floor needs to be mopped, you mop it. If the parking lot needs repaving, you get that done. If you want people to come to this forum, to invest their votes in your work, then make it the best work you can do. This post took an hour out of my life (I wasn't really going to do anything else but watch Netflix) and will probably not be a big vote magnet. But if it helps you make better posts, or encourages you to learn, then a year from now my posts will earn more money because of this one. Because this is my business now.
Good luck, work hard.
To improve the community and the value of STEEM,
Post and vote for creative, original work that you like.
Please try my Future History stories - Enmity
Looks great. Thank you for the help as well as your encouragement. Let's keep improving SteemIt and helping everyone we can.
Well said!
I like how you refer to this as our business. I am starting to feel like I am running a small business with my posts. It is exciting!
And you are exactly right -- a person who takes Steemit seriously should always be trying to improve their writing, editing, format, and visual appeal, along with trying to build and maintain relationships by commenting on posts and engaging with their audience.
The one thing the "Free Market" lost that it needs the most, is personal ownership. When corporations take over, it's no one personal business anymore, and no one is really invested in their performance. Steemit is one-on-one, personal responsibility, free market at it's best.
I find that I violently agree with you.
welcome aboard (from a much older, much wiser veteran of a whole three months on board and possibly as old as you are or older - I'm 66)
It turns out that there's a lot of us old relics on here! A perfect way for young and old to work together.
I'm retired.
I have two hobbies.
Hah! I might be the spring chicken at 52 then. I'm pleased to see 'old men' making a difference.
Another good post.
Thanks! I do what I can...
That was a good read after your welcome in the chat :) Upped and followed!
Well written article. I just joined a few days ago and trying to understand how Steem works. Your article gives me some food for thought. Thanks.