Yesterday I was reading @nickyhavey’s excellent post and thinking I must do my own.
Apologies for the multi-post but I don't write things by halves and I feel 1500 words is enough for a single sitting. The next one will likely be another 1500 followed by another. There's simply a lot to tell.
My introduction to STEEM was merely by chance noticing it sitting at #27 in the https://coinmarketcap.com/ ranks. It seemed like there was a tangible idea behind the coin and so I applied for a Steemit account.
In The Beginning
On March 3rd, 2018 I received an email that my Steemit account was ready for use. I applied sometime in early February and had given up on it. I was reading at the time that there was a ‘waiting list' but surely not this long?
It was all so exciting, I was going to earn some of this STEEM simply for writing something. My expectations were not high and though I noticed ‘Trending’ and all its huge potential pay-outs, that was just for the fantastic content, right..., RIGHT?
You can hardly miss ‘Trending’ after your introduction from Steemit Inc. ‘Have a look on Trending…’ or words to that effect are thrown at you.
On my first day, I did write something. At home, something was creeping around in my loft and I wasn’t sure what it was.
That seemed good enough. It was not too long, had a little comedy and earned me a ‘big vote’ from someone named @hr1 and a total reward of 27c.
From the very first day, I started looking around for others who had my interests. I started following this person and that one for mostly the wrong reasons.
One was a very large Orca who blogs daily about cryptocurrencies. You may guess who it is.
‘He gets loads of votes so maybe he will give me one'
Talk about being a STEEM lamer! We have all been there. The votes and even a singular ‘vote’ never happened, and so I did a search for a band that I was really digging at the time, ‘Porcupine Tree’ and found this post from a certain @steevc.
This was my first interaction with someone who would become my STEEM role model. It’s now a year later and I can honestly say I couldn’t have found a better teacher.
I commented on his 10-month-old post but even at this early stage realised it was pointless to vote it as the reward had already been paid out.
He responded, and we had some comments go back and forth. This was exciting, and I hailed my colleague @goblinknackers and said, ‘Look at this guy, his account is worth $41,000 (STEEM was much higher then), he’s a whale’.
He wasn’t a whale but a dolphin. Something I would learn about very shortly.
....almost 400 words and I barely got started, hope you readers are patient..…
I posted the next day and earned a fat $0.00. My next post took some writing and earned me a resounding ZERO again!
That @steevc bloke had encouraged me to write some stuff about music and didn't even give me a vote! (he will be laughing right now, I can just see it).
I was disheartened, to say the least. It had taken me much more effort and it was my low point. I did a little rant in a post somewhere expecting scorn but was surprised with the reaction I got back.
Support and motivation from @steevc and this wild haired drummer dude named @heymattsokol who was writing some inspirational posts at that time.
"If you want to be a real Steemian you must endure the pain of several $0.00' posts'
Does this happen in today's world, with all those incentives available to us? Yes, if you write crap it does, but I was already writing these meaty articles. At this point, it was time for a change.
"My writing would be shorter, and I would save masterpieces for when I gained a healthy audience."
This seemed to work, and I got just one more $0.00 post before never seeing another. How many $0.00 posts did you have to endure?
That @steevc character had now followed me and I waited with bated breath for that ‘big' vote and usually the ‘only' vote for my posts.
My eighth post was to be the introduction one and this is where things started happening. @steevc resteemed it and he had ‘loads’ of followers. Some read my post and I netted over $5.
Woah…, this was great and some other people had noticed me.
@shaka and @gtg gave me these nice votes and I had no idea who they were at this time. There were others I'm sure that were @steevc's followers who had also commented and noticed it.
I was a happy @slobberchops that day I tell you. $5 on every post was great and so I wrote the next one that didn’t do as well but still gained me $2.
Who was this @surpassinggoogle character and why had he taken an interest in my Fish and Chips post.
Little did I know that he was the saviour of the Philippine community at the time (and still is) and I had used the #philippines tag. My wife is from said country.
@stav and @silviabeneforti had also started following me. I always remember the early support I gained and appreciated it.
I made some cheesy posts about large rabbits and seagulls which brought me down to earth with a bump. They were pretty crappy but I was struggling to think of content to write about at the time.
‘Whatever happens during the day, it doesn’t matter, just write about it’
This became my motto and I tried to post every day and made sure I responded to all comments.
Curie Recognition (18th March 2018)
One day I noticed all these votes streaming in. What the hell was going on? @curie has noticed a music post I had written, and I had another $5 post.
It wasn’t necessarily deep in content but was opinionated and made people think. You always remember your first @curie don’t you?
From my very early days, I started buying STEEM. 84 STEEM on the 10th March, another 276 on the 14th and 139 more on the 23rd. I wasn't quite a Minnow but was close.
SteemCamp, Birmingham, (7th April 2018)
I was hearing about this 'thing' called ‘SteemCamp hosted by a certain @lloyddavis.
He seemed a big shot to me, and so I tried to get his attention. Credit to Lloyd he responded to comments, and so I made a choice that might have been make or break.
The 7th April 2018 SteemCamp was a question mark to me. Should I stay, or should I go? Yes, that an overused cliché, and I had to think hard whether it was justified to drive to Birmingham to meet these people who may be akin to crazed Scientologists that may be trying to indoctrinate me.
I remember @pennsif sending me a message about SteemCamp and he voted up my reply with a vote of 2% which still had some value. Christ, this guy was one big player!
The days proceeding SteemCamp I bought quite a bit of STEEM and was running at around 1400 SP. Considering STEEM was just under $2 per at the time It would have given me a decent vote. Even then I must have believed.
I persuaded my reluctant wife, @bingbabe to accompany me to SteemCamp. The location was central but in some very downtrodden area in the city.
Whilst leaving the car park I noticed this tall bloke walking along who looked suspiciously like @steevc. ‘It's him', said @bingbabe and so I hailed the prospective @steevc who confirmed that it was indeed him.
SteemCamp was a strange affair to me, something like a work-based role-playing session from the eighties.
@lloyddavis paced up and down giving us menacing stares and it was all getting a little heavy. There was a drawing board and we all had to add our ideas to it and discuss.
After the initial session, it got more relaxed and I started talking to some of the others. When I say others, it was a poor turnout with around 12-14 people. I made some connections with @article61, @beautifulbullies, and @redrica amongst others.
People were passionate about STEEM and blogging, that’s what I picked up from them all.
Some people were supposed to attend but didn’t turn up. Where was @pennsif, and @shanibeer? One bloke turned up but couldn’t get in the building. I found out later that it was @revisesociology, someone I would be destined to meet later at SteemFest 3.
SteemCamp is hosting their second meeting in April. It's worth going and you will get some connections. If you are in the UK I do urge you to attend.
The SteemEngine - a choosy curation group (3rd April 2018)
Several days before SteemCamp, I had applied to become a member of @thesteemengine. It was not easy to get admission to this curation group and I was not exactly rejected but kind of put on hold. @catweasel was not convinced I was going to stick about, and they had rules about length of service.
I had been blogging for only a month and so I was very new and didn't tick all the boxes. In response, I wrote this article which made him and them reconsider. I didn’t get on my high horse and gave a review of what I had seen so far of TSE.
The post did rather well in terms of rewards and earned me a place in @thesteemengine.
Just before all this happened I bumped into someone named @daan who was great, supportive and had sent me the information about TSE.
I'm still a member of @thesteemengine to this day and they are still as choosy as ever on admittance. If you are a new blogger, can write in English then try your luck, it's still worth being a member of TSE.
To be continued...
All images used are in the public domain or are from previous Steemit articles I have written or referred to.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.