Achievement Unlocked: 1,000 Followers!

^{This charming caricature of me courtesy of the talented Laura Lemons}

What a wild ride it's been. One year on Steemit, and a thousand followers. Four digits! Where does the time go? Where did all those profits go? I really need to save more, which I've begun to. What a distant dream this seemed when I first started out.

I remember the long, slow grind up to 100 followers when I started last July. I remember how excited I was when I first managed to withdraw a paltry $30 and spent some of it on a burrito. What an incredible thing it was (and still is) to have generated real money that I could spend on real things, just by writing the sort of stuff I would anyway.

I would like to say I earned it all, but that's a cognitive bias. There's a tendency to selectively ignore the role luck played in success, especially once you've made it. The truth is, you can be the most talented content producer on Steemit but still get nowhere if nobody notices you. I languished in obscurity for long enough that I know what I'm talking about.

I have nice things I didn't before, and I'm not just keeping my head above water. I am surviving comfortably now, my goal at this point is to start saving. I should've started much sooner, but better late than never. Ideally I want to get to a steady $200 per day since I can only freely access half of it. $100 per day is about what I used to make doing Xbox tech support.

I haven't forgotten what it was like to be a minnow, however. I'm generous with my upvotes and always on the lookout for detailed, well researched, high effort content so I can follow those who produce it. I've helped my friends first, but I make no apologies for that because many were in desperate situations.

I'll now focus on helping others out of that pit of obscurity that I was trapped in early on. I'm the type to send down the ladder so more can climb it, not cut off the bottom rungs to prevent anybody else from joining me up top. My own success is not enough to satisfy me. I want everybody to succeed.

There will be some changes, now that I've reached 1,000 followers. Because my audience is now more than double what it was when I last posted my short fiction, I plan to repost it, but properly divided into parts like my last few stories. Besides stretching it out over more posts for obvious reasons, it's more readable, as most do not have the time to sit down and read fiction for several hours per day.

Don't imagine it'll all be rehashed content, though! Those of you who have already read through my oeuvre, not to worry. I will also be posting two original articles per day, and if my earnings continue to increase as they have been over the past week, possibly three (for a total of four articles per day).

That's the same level of output I was managing last Summer. It's a larger workload but writing is the easiest thing in the world for me, and given how handsomely Steemit rewards my efforts, I find it difficult to restrain myself. My deep thanks to all of you, my beauties, my dedicated fans, for putting me where I am today. I will not forget that help, and will continue adding my upvotes to the rising tide which is said to lift all boats.