How It All Started
After my first month on Steemit, I began to write a statistical report post of my progress. I wanted to see what I was doing, and therefore, see if I could improve on those numbers the following month. I do have a business background, so I will often end up with benchmarks or metrics of some kind with projects such as Steemit.
It's been helpful to see the progress or lack thereof. What I've gained from it most is that equal time put into Steemit doesn't always equate to equal effort, or equal results. In other words, I can spend the same amount of hours sitting in the chair working away on Steemit each month, but unless I'm tracking my efforts on a daily basis, it's easy to think I'm accomplishing something when I'm really not. As far as results go, they simply vary. Effort does not always equal a good payout, but in the end, effort is necessary in order to get noticed.
Me, trying to keep up the comments every day.
So What Does Any Of This Have To Do With Comments?
One of the statistics I keep track of is the number of comments I've made. In my first month, January, I managed 244 comments, for an average of 11 a day. At the time, I thought that was pretty good. In February, I put in the hours again, going about the same routine, but when it came to compiling the report post, I found I'd slacked off somehow. Instead of increasing, the amount of comments I made fell to 188. I put in more or less the same amount of hours, but for some reason my production was off.
This Sounds Like A Report
I believe it was late February or early March when @themanwithnoname first mentioned @abh12345's Curation and Engagement League (yes, I've written about this before). It wasn't until the latter half of March that I decided to join, and I experienced my first true Steemit eye opening experience. For all the work I thought I was doing, including commenting, I was doing nothing in comparison to everyone else who finished in front of me that first week.
So You Doubled Your Efforts, Blah, Blah, Blah
Actually, for the second week, I managed to nearly triple the amount of comments, and then the week after that, almost quintupled my initial comment count. In that two week period I went from placing in the mid-twenties to the top of the engagement league, where I stayed for four straight weeks (including after a bye).
Okay, Now You're Just Bragging
There's a couple of points to this. One is, the work I thought I was doing previously was not tethered to reality. And I was getting down, not on myself, but on Steemit. I thought I was running as fast as I could every day only to find that I was either running in place, or running in circles, and it was all Steemit's fault because, dang it, I was working my tail off.
The leagues made me realize that nothing could be farther from the truth. It wasn't Steemit's fault. I just wasn't accomplishing as much as my brain was telling me I was, and not only that, there were plenty of people doing much more than me, so I had no excuses. Time put in was not equating to effort made. I had been weighed, measured and definitely I had been found wanting.
Welcome to the new world.
One of my favorite scenes from A Knight's Tale.
Another thing—making a monthly report was well and good, but I needed to know what was happening more frequently if I wanted better results not only at the end of the month, but every week with the leagues. Since I now had a weekly report through the league results post, I decided to keep a daily tally of my comments, along with my upvotes, to show me what I needed to do.
That Was The Point?
I don't have a set amount of comments I do every day, but for the most part, I average around 50 now. I've tried to increase the average, without a whole lot of luck. It really depends on the day, how many posts I'm finding to comment on and how many replies or how much engagement I'm getting on either my own posts or the comments I've made. Over the last 10 weeks, the lowest number of comments I've made in a day was 23, with the highest at 90. A far cry from the 9 to 11 I was making.
You've Got More?
Well, I increased the number of comments I make because of the leagues, but it's been paying off outside of them. I've noticed a significant uptick (significant being relative) in the amount of comments on my own posts, as well as the number of upvotes I've received. By getting out on other people's posts attempting to add value to them through meaningful comments, I've benefited by reaching a wider audience for my own posts.
Now, I need to emphasize something here that I believe to be crucial. Never comment just to comment. Comments are only good if there's something in them. It's not all about the word count or the character length, but it is about the content and the intent. I try to comment with way more than just, "I like your post," or "This was awesome, thanks for sharing." One, because that's considered spam in many quarters, and two, because I'm trying to take a genuine interest in the post and in the author. There are things I want to know, observations I feel I should make, great points to acknowledge, and more. I do that through commenting.
Time's Up
I average roughly 50 comments a day because it helps me get out there and connect with people who in return connect with me. I started to do it because of the leagues. I continue to do it because I see the good it's doing, not only for me, but for those I connect with and the platform at large. I hope to continue to keep up the comment count, with meaningful content, and see where it all leads.
This post is brought to you by the May 30 Days Writing Challenge, the brainchild of @dragosroua. Today's topic: How Many Comments Per Day Do You Post? Why?