On January 2nd, 2017, I logged into my steemit account for the first time and made my introduction post.
Steemit looked like an incredible platform. I knew all about bitcoin and had been hoping to get more directly involved in cryptocurrency… so a place like this, where I could post my music and earn some tokens, was a perfect way to get started.
I was nervous… Would it be possible to earn some money for my content on Steemit? It seemed too good to be true. But I saw other people doing well on the site, so why not try?
Steemit Delivers
My first year on Steemit and within the broader steem ecosystem has been nothing short of incredible. All of my wildest dreams have come true!
It turns out that the community here is amazing. There are so many free thinkers, talented individuals in fields as diverse as programming and visual art and homesteading and a million other things. The music scene is pretty good and getting better by the day.
Most importantly, the whole platform is growing fast. When I first joined, the entire music scene here was supported by Open Mic and some Curie votes… now we have Illuminati, Steemit Music Alliance, a new eBook steem-marketing project I’m working on, Sndbox for those lucky enough to get in, Steemit Songwriting challenge, The Cut, and much more!
Sometimes this growth is slow and steady. Other times it is dizzyingly fast. I went from financial desperation to success in like one month from November to December lol, it felt like a make-believe story it was so fast and weird.
So much stuff! And that’s just one year, and leaving out SO much - like joining @sndbox, @curie, @ocd, and @illuminati-inc all within a six month span o_o, and making tons of friends everywhere.
Alexa Ratings: Climbing to New Heights of Popularity
We cruised up to a good altitude on the Alexa charts, being the ~2,000th most popular website on the entire internet (up from rank 20,000 back when the site started). That 2000 rank proved hard to beat, and we got stuck for a while.
People thought it would take Hard Fork 20, with a faster signup mechanism, to get us higher on Alexa’s charts. However we proved that wrong and are making progress again :-D
Check it out:
wow. source = @penguinpablo
Each rank is harder to attain than the one before it… 1,634 is astounding. Especially since in my opinion, we are still in the very early days of Steem.
My Own Progress
Steemit has been good to me. There is still a long way to go, but so far I am very happy with the results:
Within striking distance of 2,000 followers.
been like this ever since SBD first pumped
My earnings will of course go way down as soon as SBD resumes its old value… and besides that, I will only have direct vote support from @sndbox for about five more months. Without sndbox I would have maybe 50% of these earnings each week…
The point is, this is a full income for me right now. I am still maintaining other income streams and will do so for a long time as a risk mitigation strategy - but, if Steem does as well as I think it will, I honestly believe that this can be my new full time job. Today it is a bit risky and requires some caution - but within the next few years it is possible in a sustainable way.
Just like many people today earn a living off of YouTube, Instagram, and other social media… many are now doing it on Steemit. It’s incredible.
Goal for the Next Year
My main goal for this next year is to help grow the Steem platform. I am going to pursue projects that will directly lead to more musicians signing up and becoming active on Steemit. (like this one)
That’s the beauty of a decentralized system - synergy. What is good for me is good for Steemit, and vice versa.
And I’m lucky to have the support of Sndbox which is greatly amplifying the impact of everything I do. That’s one of the most important projects on Steem and I am pumped to keep working with the first official Sndbox Cohort between now and May 2018 :-)
source
I no longer feel the need to try to get larger rewards - I’m being supported fairly for now. Thus I’ll be able to focus on sharing Steem with as many other people as I can. THAT IS SO COOL.
Thank you so much to all of you on Steem who have made this possible for me. It’s been one hell of a first year. Here’s to the next one, and many more thereafter.
Cheers!
Hey Matt! Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed your perspective of the platform from someone that knows social media, crypto, and tech in general a lot better than this travel blogger. What makes you so convince the SBD is going back to it's original value? One dollar? I hope it goes to the moon.
Thanks for sharing my friend. Snbox and steemit in general have been very very good to me as well, and that's from someone who's been here about half as long as you. Happy New Year buddy, and may 2018 be all you wished for and more! -Dan "World Travel Pro!"
Great to read that it was a journey for you too and you are now succeeding! That helps staying motivated. Do you think that the people joining now have a harder time than you a year ago, because of the amount of people?
Let's see what my own story will be in 11 months from now :)
On one hand, there is more competition for rewards now than ever. In that sense it could be harder... but in my perception, honestly, I don't think so.
There are a lot of new users, but not so many that it is hopeless. It's not like joining Facebook or Instagram and being completely insignificant - you can still make a big impact within 6 months if you join here and work hard.
Also when I first joined, lots of people were saying it was "too late" lol - people always think it's too late. On Jan 2nd, steem was worth less than $0.20 btw. So it felt a lot more like a small little experiment, and less like this huge amazing thing that it is becoming now.
I hope you'll stick with it, and I look forward to reading your anniversary post in another 11 months.
Hanging in here! Happy anniversary ;) (waiting for the drunk party video)
lol
Hi Matt - congrats! Your eBook is great for a beginner like myself, and has been a great help in these my first days on Steemit. Chapter one anyways ;-)
Awesome!! That is great that you are enjoying it as it comes out. Hopefully chapter two will be done soon -- I've been thinking about it the last few days. Thanks @askeb
Yep. 547k accounts now and 421k of them (77%!) were registered in 2017 :)
Congratulations on your anniversary!
Can you say exponential growth?! If we keep that up for another year....
Happy Steemaversary! Enjoyed reading your last few posts, opened this one last https://steemit.com/philosophy/@heymattsokol/the-end-of-the-year-is-a-good-time-to-reflect :) Just before bedtime, gonna stop for today and do some reflecting! Keep Steemin'! :)
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for stopping by @matejka
If you got off debt then you got rich big time, I'm six months older than you on the platform but I'm still struggling, I'm neck deep in debt, but I'm seeing the possibilities now, I actually stopped steemit a few months cause I got disheartened, but then the promise made sense to me, now I've made a few bucks solely from posting and that's huge in terms of what has been possible before from the Internet
Nice dude. The key IMO is to set a consistent posting schedule of at least one time per day, with all original content and at least 300+ words and one image per post. Anybody who meets those guidelines and also spends some time reading + commenting on other people's posts can make a lot of progress I think
Matt! Continuing to enjoy your content on here as one of my main dudes I look to as a DIY steem success. Was legitimately interested in sndbox after reading how helpful you felt it was in building your following. Is this something that I can get into preemptively before I post my ridiculous modular synth #introducemyself video that i've now put close to a week into (and no, this is not the amount of time i forsee putting into every post, just randomly had a week cancellation at the studio and well, here I am.) Just looking to maximize impact on something I've worked super hard on, and sndbox seems legit.
Happy Steemiversary! We've seen so many changes in that year. I'm so glad you have done so well here. Keep on rocking!
cheers
Nice man, I can't wait to see where I am in one year... recently joined steemit in late November, so have a ways to go, but I know how fast time flies, so it will be here before I know it... gotta make the most of it while I can!
Respect from @conradsuperb
Thanks mate good luck as you get started.
Thanks @heymattsokol I appreciate it!! Good luck to you as you continue your journey as well :-)
hey @heymattsokol congrats on your milestone dude.
1 year is no joke, and a lot of stuff has happened. Be proud of what you have done already, and to what will come up. My 3 months adventure is just the beginning! 2018 is going to be OUR year
Thank you @karinxxl! 2018 is gonna be great.
Cheers! It is also my one year!
Sweet! Happy anniversary to you too :-D
Grats dude!
thanks!
Congratulations man!
thank you dude!
Very cool! Awesome story. I'm a musician myself, and will be following your story and content. I'm new to the platform and think it's awesome. Cheers!
Wow, very impressive Matt!!!!
Thanks @roused!
HAPPY STEEMIVERSARY friend! <3
Thank you @dayleeo!!