It's Sunday, I was looking for a post to use for Showcase Sunday and I choose this one because I wrote it over 3 years ago... When I had never been on the Trending Page and it didn't seem like I ever would be.

I've never considered myself a content creator, I just enjoyed Steem and loved to talk about it.

A few funny things about this post, at the time I wrote it.. A trending post made a few thousand in rewards and we had a lot more users.

Still there are parts of it that are true.

Hey Everyone, you know how no one voted or commented on your last post!

More bad news, most of us will never get to the trending page.
We just aren't that entertaining

*pixabay

Now that I have offended you, let's talk about it... The biggest rewards on SteemIt are sitting there on the trending page mocking you. You wonder how long it will take you to get there, after all you have been working hard for 12 days and you haven't hit the trending page.

Here is the thing:

How skilled at writing are you? How funny are you? Most importantly, how entertaining are you? What makes you think out of 4k author's each day your post should be included in the top 10 or 20? I am not saying the trending page represents the best work on SteemIt. I think we all know it does not.

We could talk about the trending page and how it is fixed, and yes it is fixed, and yes, it can be annoying... But..

Focus on what you can control

That doesn't stop you from improving your work, generating a following and getting some votes each day. Please don't tell me how hard you worked on your post (maybe you are just slow) and how Bobby only uploaded a photo. In life success is often learning what is rewarded in the system and learning how to make that work for you. If you spend your time on SteemIt worrying about what everyone else is doing that is taking energy you could put into figuring out what you can do better.

Don't be a blockhead...

*original photo from pixabay and edited by @whatsup

Like anything else in life, success is a combination of hard work, good timing, luck and networking. So, improve your skills, ask someone you know in the real world to read your work and give you feedback. (not your mom) Start making friends by actually engaging with others, and improve your luck and timing by being here.

Don't quit your job unless you can afford to and understand the risks

Remember posting on SteemIt isn't about earning a wage for most of us, it is about speculation of where the price of Steem will end up, and we are simply mining Steem in a unique way. For real content creators this is a great opportunity and a chance to launch yourself. If you have decided to live off your SteemIt income, more power to you, but as recent events have shown us, SteemIt changes all of the time and trying to estimate what you might earn in the future can be tough.

So, although most of us will likely never make the trending page, there is a lot of opportunity to be found here. Don't give up... Keep looking for your niche. If you can't feel successful without hitting the trending page, assess your skills and if you have them, start marketing them.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share in the comments.

*my own bad art

TL:TR version.

You suck, earn anyway!

https://steemit.com/trending/@whatsup/so-you-haven-t-made-the-trending-page-yet