400 followers! 5 key lessons I have learnt
steemit·@conradt·
0.000 HBD400 followers! 5 key lessons I have learnt
Hello Steemians! Just logged into my account and noticed I have just ticked over 400 followers and I have been on Steemit for 44 days. You are all amazing and I thank you all ☺. I thought I'd share some insights with you as to how I built my following and what I have learnt.  <h1>Learn how Steemit works</h1> Like most new people on Steem I jumped right in and started blogging. Looking back at it I think it would have been much more valuable if I had spent a few days reading how to guides and getting a better feel for how things work. It can be overwhelming at first but it does get easier! Ask help from others - the majority of people on here are really helpful to newbies and will help or point you in the right direction. <h1>Be social!</h1> Remember, Steemit is social media, and you make friends by being social. I spend alot of time commenting on blogs I like - and I mean comments that see thoughtful and invite discussion. Spend some time thinking about how your comment can be interesting and engaging - do you agree with what they are saying? Do you have similar interests to them? Additionally I try to reply to anyone who comments on my blog - at the least it's being courteous, but it's also about opening up new discussions. It amazes me how many people don't do this!!  <h1>Discord and steem.chat</h1> I started off on steem.chat and have met some wonderful people on there! Not only are most people super helpful if you are new, it is also a good place to network and get to know people who have similar interest. Also it can be nice just to talk completely random topics with people. I have started on Discord which has taken me a bit longer to get my head around but there are some really cool niche communities where you can engage in more specific topics. <h1>Engaging in communities</h1> There are so many fun and interesting sub communities on Steemit - colorchallenge, freewrite and Steemit poker league just to name a few. I try and do an entry for freewrite everyday and it has been such a fun community to be a part of with so many fun and interesting people. There are also loads of contests on steemit you can join - including mine, #captionthis! Contests often turn into their own community to where you can meet and engage with new Steemians.  I am also starting my own community #musicdiscovery, as a way for Steemians to share and discover new music. So far it is going well with new people starting to use the tag and new discussions about music discovery atarting up every day. <h1>Let's talk about bots</h1> When I joined steemit and realised there were upvote bots I thought they were wonderful. I went from having my posts make a few cents to a few dollars overnight! However as time goes on I have realised a few things: - They generally aren't profitable - They may bring your blog more views, but a lot of them aren't meaningful connections and won't end up long term followers. - Alot of people don't agree with bots and will judge you for using them. So I am to the point where although I wont say I have stopped using bots, I will definetly use them more sparingly (probably for this post!). If your post is more niche I dont see the point in upvote bots, but posts like this that can benefit most people on Steemit are more where I see benefit in using the bots.  Since cutting back on using bots all alot of my posts I have started to see the payouts for my posts are also slowing increasing over time, as I spend time engaging and building a genuine following. I also have tested the resteem bots and have come to a similar conclusion, but still use them from time to time to give my posts a bit of a boost. Again I thank every one of my followers - next stop 500 followers!!! 