If you're new to steemit, take a look at my blog, my wallet, my curation rewards. I'll explain why.. If you look at all of those things, you will see @intelliguy is a work in progress.
This is what it looks like before you're a dolphin... I'm not the only example, because there are hundreds of people just like me on Steemit. Want to know how many times I want to submit a story, and I go through the following?
a) I'm not in the mood
b) What I want to write will take way too long to research. I don't have time today
c) What I want to write will need a lot of pictures. I don't have time to take them or find them.
Writing is a craft, and I only do it when I'm in the right frame of mind at the right time. Right about now, you're probably wondering... What's his problem?
MAKE TIME.
That's a misnomer, you can't actually "make time". You can get better at time management yes.. but the reason I only have spurts of time, is because I'm working myself thin.. I do a lot of work for people, that includes friends and family, and a lot of people who simply can't afford to pay me.
In my circles, I'm known as the smart computer geek who knows everything. I don't know everything, but what I do know is how to learn things and put it to use. I use google to learn what I don't know, and I reguritate it to my friends that are shocked on how much I know. I try to explain to them I learn by searching the internet, and when I say that, they look totally dumbfounded.
When I do make posts...
I put my heart and soul into some of them only to find that people find them after the payout period, even with the 30 day payout period, most people don't upvote at that stage. That's ok. It happens to everybody. That's why I'm telling you this... I'm pointing it out so you know it's not just happening to you.
I'm not complaining.. I am affected by the same steem rules as everyone else. Fair is fair.
So it's my mountain to climb, and I'm still climbing.. I do know though, that I want to reach Dolphin level. I want to be able to vote someone up and give them 50 cents when I curate. Maybe if I could even give someone a $1 or two, I think that would be really cool.
I want lots of followers, but I don't want to ask for them, because I believe if someone wants to follow you, it is because they really like the way you write. They like your opinions and they can identify with you.
Lately I've been meeting people on a BeyondBitcoin mumble radio show. On it they talk about Steemit, bitcoin, Bitshares, Peercoin, Gridcoin. If none of that interests you, they also talk about wearable computers, or how expectations of users to weed through complicated user interfaces need to get easier.
If you want to hear the latest one, done September 9, 2016 (yesterday), I'll provide a link. I won't link to it yet, because you're still reading this.... ha ha ha....
That's right. I have your attention. You're probably one of 9 people that is going to see this, so please don't leave. I just no longer want to be a lonely soul on here. Ahhh, I know what you're thinking now. I'm sounding kind of pathetic. Well.. I'm in a weird mood. So this is what happens on rare occassions... I sound pathetic... and it's okay. I can air out my dirty laundry here. (not literally yet).
I have some big stuff planned. I've got notes and partial research done. Stuff you may like... So if you see my name @intelliguy again, don't worry -- I will have some real nice blog posts coming.
It's been a whole week since I last wrote. I had to demand my fingers get use to typing again. I have to force myself back into the mood. That's how I wrote this... and you know what... it really wasn't that hard, for one reason. It's what's on my mind, and it's how I feel. Now it's on your screen, and I no longer have to keep that bottled up. :)
So thank you very much for reading this... and if you're new to steemit, you can watch me grow S-L-O-W-L-Y into a dolphin. But maturing into one is a one-way street. For some, it's quick. For me, it's going to be slow, but I'm up for the challenge.
Here's the audio link. I start talking at about 1 hour, 55 minutes in somewhere in the radio archive. So now you know what I sound like.. :)
But if you listen to the whole thing, you will find that there is a lot of great neat stuff discussed in Fuzzy's BeyondBitcoin "every Friday" radio show. :) Don't miss the next one if you like it. I'll probably be there, and maybe I can see you in text chat, or hear you if you decide to talk too.
All of you voting this up, I'm going to keep track of each person that helped me regain my confidence, and I'll make a point of visiting your blogs too. To prove it, you'll see me make a comment on one of your posts at some point. I will return the favor. :) If it goes viral, and I end up with 450+ votes I'm going to print a list of 450 people I will visit and check out.
The magic and potential of steemit is often misunderstood, and even I am learning it with you. Thank you so much.
OK, so you and I are in a similar boat and have almost the same amount of Steem Power. Yet, I noticed that you don't post very often, don't follow many other people and yet you want to build something.
This is how it works online.
Oh I did the first 4, and still do... and I had some huge popular posts in the month of July as a result. They've scrolled off my blog now. :(
A good example, is that I was one of the first ones to create the Steemit FAQ after steemit went public beta July 4, 2016. No one really knew me then. It is still a good read, if you want to see it.
Titled: Steemit (FAQ) Frequently Asked Questions, Common Myths, and Misconceptions
The only thing I'm leary is "the repeat" part. When I have something to say, I'll do it. I don't want to dominate the feeds all the time. I will write more about that later... :) I'm not knocking anyone that does.. but I really want to see other people get a chance. Sometimes just reading and curating for me is fulfillment in itself.
I have noticed your comments on several posts, including some of mine. Thanks for that!
We're both very similar in our "power" here. One thing I've learned from you by this post is that the number of posts isn't a major factor in a user's power. You have 7X the posts I do but have less (monetary) value overall. I too follow the general approach of only posting when I have something worthwhile to say. However, steemit offers us both incentives to think of other interests we can write about, and also like you I get a lot of enjoyment / value from reading and curating.
Unlike you I have more time available to create content basically being retired. For me it's more about being inspired and meeting the challenge of writing quality content. The feedback I've gotten about my writing is actually pretty good, but I am not a fast typist (plus I am a bit of a perfectionist) so it takes quite awhile to create new material. I tend to re-edit my posts quite frequently to get them "perfect".
There's a great deal about how things work here on steemit I do not yet understand, but I do like the ideas steemit is based on and love the people it has attracted. Most of my Internet "Idols" are now posting on stemit, and I think that's truly awesome! I have noticed some of them posting less frequently now, and I'm not sure if there's any reason other than balancing priorities and lack of time that play into that. I hope not. Actually I just began to think I could rely on steemit as my first media stop to get news and other interesting content rather than using youtube, which is becoming filled more and more with plagiarized echos from my authors of interest. Use the keywords "anarchast ep", "corbett report" or "stephan molyneux" in the youtube search box and see how many hits show up of people reposting other's material or trying to tap into the audience those authors have. I'm not saying that's wrong if they add something of value to it (and recognizing everybody is clamoring for attention), but it does make it more difficult, weeding thru all the secondary posts to get to the original source material.
Anyway, glad you're here. We'll climb the ranks towards dolphinhood as the market and our dedication to our own growth permit, at a proportional rate to those factors.
Thanks again intelliguy!
@hilarski , can you emphasize on point number 4 , that is engaging with your followers?
His name was Robert Paulson
I've been following you for a little while now, and I really enjoy what you put out there. Do it for yourself, be yourself, add value, and followers will come. Steemit's real currency is relationships and it sounds like you're building some. Keep rocking it. :)
By the way, I love a lot of your posts too. If anyone sees this, consider following lukestokes.
Thank you! :)
I feel your pain, brother. Still a medium sized minnow here. Patience and persistent effort is the way of the faithful
it happens to everyone at some point. Most of the big name authors who never left the trending pages (rok-sivante, cryptoctopus, donkeypong, etc), really don't have whale dollars supporting them too much anymore. We've all written about this phenomenon of varying amounts. This fact leads me to believe that it is the relationships that are the most important things, not the payouts. It is so hard to think of this though, because the dollar sign always influences our moods. I think if you focus on what you want to share, and it's passionate, people will indeed come....
Glad to see you stella... :) A lot of people know you, and for good reason on your SECRET WRITER posts.. Glad you saw this one. I really wanted to share, and glad you stopped by.
Interesting enough to make me wonder what you will write next... I followed.
This is my most favourite comment. Only because you acknowledge the mysteriousness of what I might write next. Even I don't know... but when I do... it funnels out of me so fast, I often surprise myself. I hope you'll like it too
I enjoyed the post and the way you write. Now you did say you have some stuff planed with notes, so come on and spill the beans and give me a clue on what you are working on next. ^_^
PS: To save you time don't bother looking for my posts as I have none and don't do them, I just laze around lurking and reading posts. Not everyone is a writer, I also can't seem to get my head around all the damn codes, stars,brackets , and everything else one needs to do to put a descent post up. I have yet to find a decent "idiot proof" post that explains it all, so I just can't be assed man.. Anyway there is so much happening in crypto and Blockchains that there isn't enough time in the day to keep up with it all. ^_^ That was my moan of the day!! Off to invest in another ICO.
You just did. You just wrote something. It wasn't a story on your blog, but it was your true feelings coming out in a comment. We need more of that here. Some people think this is nothing more than a money making venture. Instead, it's real people talking to one other and sharing their thoughts. Money is the bonus. Not the purpose. I'm glad you wrote, and I'm going to follow you "just in case" you do post your own story.
P.S. If I spill the beans on what I've been working on, surely someone is going to steal the idea. It hasn't been done yet. So I can't. :)
Thanks for your comments, and kind words. Maybe one day I will do a post, just followed back. ^_^
Damn it @intelliguy, stop stalking my home page with so many posts! LOL :-)
I kid, didn't realize it had been a week since the last post. I must be following to many serial posters...haha. Keep up the good work. We are on the same grind!
I try not to be a daily poster so others can have their time in the spotlight. I don't want to compete with any of you. I really don't. I'd just like some of my words to be seen sometimes, and this time, I felt it was the right time to wear my heart on my sleeve on how I was feeling.
True. I'm back and forth on how much to post. Some preach that in order to build a following you need to post daily while others believe you don't need to be as frequent.
It was an interesting read. I like that you believe in writing if you have something to say, as opposed to on a specific schedule. I agree that the relationships you build here have a lot of value. I'm starting to find that out myself.
I am in a similar position as you and so I can relate to what you write. Yes I do have my frustration but I have hope in Steemit. So I will continue to post more articles and comments
It can be hard work, for good reason. Spammers, scammers, and lazy people will never go anywhere big on steemit. That's how the system is designed, and with the reputation aspect, it pays to grow your reputation with people. It's an uphill road... but its worth the effort.
There is no short cut to success. I will continue to write and post quality articles and comments.
Like (almost) everyone here on steemit; I feel your pain :)
But more seriously: For a long time now, I've noticed that becoming a Dolphin is a stage we're all fighting to get to, but it seems that no one has defined how much SP you need to have in your wallet to call yourself a Dolphin. In a blog post where I talked about the difference between whales, dolphins and minnows I put the value of SP you need to be a Dolphin at 1 million SP but this was just a figure I dreamed up in my head and wasn't really based on any standard that's out there. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think this value should be. Or if there is any authoritative source we can use as a reference for how many SP you need exactly to be able to consider yourself a Dolphin.
A dolphin to me is someone with 25,000+ SP
...and since steem keeps rising/falling, it's best described as when you upvote someone's post, and you give 50 cents or more when its within the first 15 minutes or so..
A whale on the other hand, is someone that hits a post in the first 15 minutes and sends it instantly to $10.00
This is my non-official description.
Thanks. I start using that same standard myself - it seems more logical that the one I was using.
i thought it only took 500 sp.. but then i found out that it takes MUCH MORE lol still a long way to go for me!
keep steemin! nice post :D
I enjoyed reading your thoughts :)
Well, what an interesting read!
My mother always told me that when I wanted to communicate with someone using written words, like writing a letter, that it was always better to write as if you were talking directly to the the person.
I've always found that it seems to work and now in the age of technology, blogging, text messaging etc (etc means - all those other things I can't be bothered writing down) we are writing more and more like we are talking directly to the other person. That's why I liked your post. You were talking to me!
I want to hear more so I'll be following you.
Maybe you'll follow me, I don't post or comment much at the moment but I'm slowly getting used to talking with the written word again.