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@khudgabbar,

  1. make a post
  2. view the post and you will see that there is a small "promote" button at the end of the post on the lower right just above the 'reply' button.
  3. when you click on this it will give you the option of promoting the post with whatever amount of Steem Bucks you want.
  4. if you don't yet have enough Steem Bucks (seems like it takes 10-25 to get much results, but you can enter any amount), start making some posts and hopefully a few of those posts will get you some Steem
  5. Give up votes to good comments like this one! ;-)

You've spent $35 and gotten $1.03. Post Promotion obviously works!

@missioncontrol I agree at the moment the post promotion is not coming near having its cost paid by the post payout.

  1. post payout still has 3 more days to go. If picked up and promoted by a few influential whales, the post payout would skyrocket overnight
  2. I have picked up some quality new followers and become follower of quite a few as well. You could place a numeric value on that, or you could say it's good investment in the future, or you could say it's part of the intangible fun and community building that is what we are here to do
  3. I think generally you have to take the big picture of the positive opportunity for exposure and what you would enjoy contributing and exploring long term.
  4. yes I agree it would be nice to score a good "payday" but the Steem I would get I would accumulate. And use a small part of it to promote, do contests and giveaways.
  5. In my experience you can occasionally get lucky with a high paying post but you can't evaluate each post solely in terms of payout. I say try to get good payouts, try different things to promote, but keep in mind the creative and social elements that draw you to the site and keep those goals and activities front and center.

Plus there is some minor but not insignificant payout from comments. That's an overlooked aspect. I encourage everyone to give plenty of upvotes to comments and make intelligent or relevant comments of your own. It adds up!

@billsurf it doesn't really seem to be working out...

You'd get more lucky with a minnow though...

Minnows are some of the best supporters and they grow bigger over time!

what is a minnow? is that new members like myself?

Correct @allthatmoney! People who have been on the site for a relatively long time gradually acquire more voting power. So the payout is not a direct function of the number of upvotes for a post. "Whales" are high influence people whose upvote carries more value. This post has gotten lots of good minnow response probably because I did The paid post promotion which got it in front of lots of new people. That's why I said that you couldn't evaluate a post or a promotion solely in terms of its payout. This post has reached new people and increased the number of people following me and interested in the stories, so I declare success! We all start as "minnows" and it's great to be one. In fact, there are giveaways and post promotions which are open only to minnows if you search for "minnows" or "minnow help."

Many thanks very helpful. I dont have any steem dollars to promote atm. How to get more steem?

@khugabbar, a great way to get Steem and to involve in Steemit and get experience is to look for contests. There are contests with prizes of Steem, even just for participating. Search for "contests" and "giveaways." I got a little Steem from giveaways, but usually it's not much. But I got some good Steem for participating in OpenMic as a musician. Sometimes a post will do unusually well and it will give you more Steem than you expect. Most of my Steem has come from successful posts but supplementing that with rewards from contests and giveaways is a good idea.

Example of a juicy contest is the one I just resteemed today which is about writing a real supernatural experience you have had:
https://steemit.com/steem/@jerrybanfield/mr7z0qvr

It looks like if your story fits the criteria you will automatically get an impressive award of Steem. I will probably enter this contest myself.

I have thought about running a small contest/giveaway so keep any eye out for that.