Friday Musings: What I've Learnt About Steemit so far
steemit·@shadowolfdg·
0.000 HBDFriday Musings: What I've Learnt About Steemit so far
 I am relatively young to Steemit compared to 99% of you. I joined on 30 January, so just over a month now. I was fortunate enough to receive 50 followers by 22 Feb, which was a week ago. I was told this was a great milestone to reach so quickly, but I wouldn't know. I'm new here. Fortunately, I was introduced to Steemit by a someone who knew how things work, and introduced me to others that could guide me very quickly from making any severe mistakes. Mostly those mistakes all newbies to Steemit make, like posting images without naming the source, or making sure not to copy posts from elsewhere without quoting otherwise the Steem Police would be on my as.... uhm, case. So among starting up as an [author, screenwriter, gamewriter, journalist](https://celenicearth.wordpress.com) and [publisher](https://celenicearthpublications.wordpress.com) who wanted to share my work and give writing tips on Steemit, I found myself having to learn the world of Steemit first. I'm still young here, and have so much to learn still, but the experience on Steemit has truly been amazing so far. There has been one valuable lesson I have learnt that I want to pass onto any of you who are still young here: network like hell. Network like your next meal will come from networking. I have seen trending posts upvoted by thousands of readers and earning thousands of SBD, while someone wrote about the same topic in their own way, receiving less than 5 votes and barely scratching the penny. In the beginning I often wondered how that could be. How can 11 votes by one writer earn them hundreds while 11 posts by another gives them barely $1? If you look at that at face value, you can become extremely frustrated. It took some research and asking my network to discover the value of growing your network, expanding your base until you have such a great following that you earn thousands of votes in a matter of minutes. And that the reputation and power of those voting for you makes a big difference. And yes, it isn't fair in some cases. I've seen small posts, sometimes just a picture, with some poorly written words underneath receiving a huge tanker of votes and thought "What the hell?" And then, someone else writes a brilliant post that should be presented to the United Nations on merit alone... and it receives 5 votes. Sometimes as a writer you need to look past these things. Life is hardly ever fair, but are you really here for the votes, or to share your passion for writing? Or both? I am fortunate in the sense that I love my writing so much that quitting just because not enough people vote for me just doesn't cut it. Steemit has just become another avenue to talk to my followers, and if it brings me some SBD... awesome! My message isn't really about writing because you love it. Enough writers write about that. My message is more that you should be networking, meeting other Steemerians, following, voting and chatting to them in the comments. I've enjoyed Steemit more due to participation than anything else so far. On that note, please feel free to chat to me in the comments. If you want to give me a follow and a vote, that would be great too, but I'd enjoy the conversation more. Enjoy your weekend everybody and I will be back on Monday to update everyone what I've been working on (novels, films, games, etc). --- Image source: [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/en/fog-rising-fog-steam-atmospheric-3114583/) --- Kind regards Shaun M Jooste Joint-Owner: AIR Entertainment (https://airentertainment.biz) Director: Celenic Earth Publications (https://celenicearthpublications.wordpress.com) Author, Screenwriter, Gamewriter, Journalist (https://celenicearth.wordpress.com)