Top 6 Mistakes Minnows (New Steemit Users) Make

Minnows have it hard on Steemit, most get eaten before they have a chance to become a dolphin. This guidance will save minnows some time and effort in their journey to becoming a dolphin. If you are already a dolphin or whale, then some of these may not apply to you.

1. Think Steemit Is A Get Rich Quick Scheme

Unless you're a YouTuber with several thousand followers, you aren't going to show up on Steemit and automatically start making posts worth hundreds of dollars. And by thousands of followers, I mean around 100k followers. Let's take a look at a few YouTuber as examples:

• @JerryBanfield: YouTube 180k subscribers
  • The one and only Jerry. He is entertaining, seems very open about his life (income, trading strategy, taxes, past alcoholism, etc), and has a ton of followers. His videos are super long, but entertaining. Jerry joined Steemit less than 2 months ago and already has 6 thousand followers! His posts are averaging close to $1k. I think he mentioned he made around $15k to $20k on Steemit in his first month. This is not normal!
• @DollarVigilante: 102k YouTube subscribers
  • Jeff's videos are a little propaganda-ish, but they are entertaining, structured, and usually 15-30 minutes long. Jeff joined Steemit about a year ago. He has over 9k followers. His posts on Steemit are averaging around $1k.
• @BoxMining: 22k YouTube subscribers
  • I like his videos, they are informative, but a little monotonous and strictly business. The good thing is that they are short, so I can get through them. I'm sure he will figure out the secret formula eventually. But for now, his YouTube following hasn't translated into Steemit dominance like the two above. He does have 1k followers in the 3-4 months since he joined. His posts generate only $20-30 on average.
• @Craig-Grant: Only 6k Youtube subscribers, he may be an exception to the rule.
  • Joined Steemit a year ago and has over 4k followers. Generates around $100 per posts, but posts a million times a day. And most are videos. Some are Craig just straight chillin on a lawn chair or at a pool talking about stuff. He has an incredible following on Steemit, so he's doing something very right. Not really my style, but have to give him props for what he has accomplished.

I'm sure I'm missing many other successful YouTubers on Steemit with a lot of followers like @crypt0, @HeidiTravels, etc...but hopefully you get the point. Unless you have a LOT of YouTube followers or have the magic formula like Craig, it's going to take some effort and hustle to build up a follower base. I would also assume the YouTubers above didn't get that many followers on YouTube on day one. They had to grind to build up that subscriber base.

2. Posting Too Much

It's about the motion of the ocean, not the size of the boat. I do like big boats though! Let me try again...It's about the quality of your posts, not the quantity of posts.

If you're writing thoughtfully and providing some form of value to the reader then you have high quality posts. If you can do that 1-3 times a day, you are on a path to potential Steemit dominance. If you are posting 5-10 times a day, then I would question if they really are quality posts. Most quality posts probably take some time and effort to write, review, edit, add images, reply to comments, etc. Unless Steemit is a full time job for you, you probably can't make 5-10 quality posts a day.

Why is quality so important? People follow you because you're providing some value to them. The value could be new information they didn't have, an engaging discussion, humor, or some other form of entertainment.

3. Not Writing Thoughtful Comments

The bread and butter of Steemit is actively participating in the community. To participate, you have to read posts written by others and write comments that relate to the comment.

• If you are using a bot to auto-vote, it does not help you as a minnow.
• If you reply to posts with, "Great article" or "I agree", you aren't adding any value to the post. Those comments won't start a discussion. So, it doesn't help you grow from a minnow to a dolphin. And it's also really boring!

I'll share an example of what I mean by a decent comment. @JerryBanfield wrote a post a day or two ago about his strategy on buying new crypto currencies. I posted a thoughtful response and I happened to post it very soon after Jerry posted. The comment I posted is below and a link here: https://steemit.com/eos/@financialcritic/re-jerrybanfield-best-time-to-buy-eos-or-any-new-cryptocurrency-20170704t141055754z

"Our problem tends to be thinking we are smarter than other people"

Beautifully said Jerry. Too many YouTubers telling their viewers to buy this ICO or that ICO without any research whatsoever. Too many people thinking each and every ICO will make them rich....or thinking because they missed the Ethereum ICO, they will "catch up" with EOS.

Another example: I was reading some posts by Steemit authors recommending Synereo just this week. Or putting Synereo in their top 5 list. I asked them a simple question, "Have you tried the Synereo product that just launched?" Every answer I got was "not yet". People do no research, but just think they are smarter than everyone else. They'll be right eventually if they keep guessing!

Jerry writes long ass posts. But I find him entertaining, so I read it, quoted something from it, and responded with what flowed out of my head. I didn't force something, I just said what was on my mind. By quoting something, it showed I actually read his extremely long post and I appreciated the effort he must have made to write his post.

What were the results? My comment got 14 up-votes, including from the Jerry himself! I feel like I have a celebrity crush on Jerry. But more importantly, it started a discussion and I probably got 5-10 followers just from taking part in that discussion.

4. Follow Every User With Over 2k Followers Or With A Lot Of Steem Power

Blind following or auto-voting those authors won't make you money or get you followers if you are a minnow. You should follow authors that you find entertaining or interesting. For example, if I am not interested in cats, then I probably have no business following the top 20 authors in the cat area of expertise. I won't be adding any value commenting on their posts, because I just don't care that much about cats. Dogs 4 life!

You have to find authors that interest you. I click on the tags on the right of the main Steemit page that interest me and check out what's new, hot, and trending. Then I read some of the posts and comment on them. If I comment 10 times in a thoughtful way and never hear back from the original author, I un-follow and move on. Maybe the author doesn't think my comments are thoughtful, maybe the author doesn't comment on responses..who knows...either way, it's not a good fit for me or the author.

5. ReSteem Too Much

If you resteem more twice a day, then you're probably resteeming too much. Even two a day is too high for my taste. If the original post really is amazing content and it fits with your portfolio of posts, then by all means, go ahead and resteem. If your blog is full of resteems because posters asked you to resteem in exchange for a follow or 0.01 SBD, then WTF do you think you are accomplishing? If 0.01 SBD is so important to you, then you're missing the bigger picture of trying to grow your follower base. That should be the end game.

6. Not Focusing On Followers

The whole game is about getting followers. And you want quality followers that actually like your content. If you get followers by the "I'll follow you if you follow me" strategy, then those followers won't really add any value. If your followers aren't truly interested in the subject of your posts, then they probably won't comment and add to the discussion.

The common variable with whales on Steemit is that they have a ton of followers. Some took a year to get those followers, some did it very fast because they had followers on YouTube or a blog or something other venue outside of Steemit. As a minnow, you should focus on writing quality posts in an area(s) that truly interests you. If you do that, you'll build your follower base over time.

Why Listen To Me?

I have almost reached 400 followers and I joined 3 weeks ago. I'm not a YouTuber with a ton of followers. I'm a nobody with 0 followers before Steemit, but after research and trial/error, I think I have figured out the formula.

I have tried lots of things on Steemit to see what works...from "follow for follow", upvoting to get 0.01 SBD, contests, minnow support channels, randowhale, whaleshares, post promotion$, self up-voting, not self up-voting, writing bad comments, writing thoughtful comments, writing good posts, writing bad posts, writing irrelevant posts, etc.

In the end what works is just keeping it simple. I enjoy reading, researching, posting, and engaging with the Steemit community on the topics that interest me.

Conclusion

If you already have 3k followers, then you have already put in the effort to get to the top of the mountain. You can do whatever you want...there are no rules! With 3k followers, you can post a picture of a wall and get up-votes!

For the rest of you minnows, you probably can't post a picture of you looking out of your hotel window and expect to make hundreds of dollars on every post like that. If you don't already have a ton of followers outside of Steemit, then you most likely (99.99%) will not make $15k in your first month on Steemit like @JerryBanfield. It takes effort for minnows...a lot of effort to get to $15k a month...or even $5k a month!

Follow these basic rules and you'll get to 1k followers....then you can ignore these rules and do whatever you want! When I get to 1k followers, I'll be posting a picture of a wall and let you know how that goes.