Welcome to Last Day!
Okay, it's an obscure joke.
Here's what we've been through so far!
Day 1: Your Target Audience
Day 2: Value Proposition
Day 3: Using the Steemit Settings to your Advantage
Day 4: How to use Thumbnails Effectively
Day 5: How to Write Effective Posts
Day 6: Sharing your Posts with others - Seeding & Promotion
Wrapping up some loose ends
As I stated in the intro to this series, I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned in growing my YouTube channel and talk about how I am applying them, as a new user, to Steemit. The first six posts take you from what to write, to how to format what you write, and then ideas for sharing what you write. I want to take this last day to talk about some important elements (both in terms of general marketing and Steemit-specific content) that I didn't think to add in the previous days - or - didn't fit into the previous days. I hope you enjoy!
The Intro Post
I started writing this series for people with existing Steemit Blogs, but this seems to be an important element unique to Steemit to at least touch on. Ideally, the intro post is the first blog post you make and serves as an introduction to the Steemit community; specifically communicating why you're here and what value you have to offer (at least, this is the way I see it.) I kind of liken it to YouTube's channel trailer feature.
I did a lot of research on how to craft an introduction post (all of the content in this series certainly applies) but I did want to share a video by @brianturner about this topic that I really resonated with. It's available here on YouTube and is probably the most comprehensive guide on the subject I found.
Using Tags
Tags seem to operate more as self-appointed categories in Steemit rather than data that works with, and is weighed against, other data giving rise to mystical search algorithm (at least currently.) In other words, the techniques for tagging post here might be different than tagging videos on YouTube. It's for this reason that I was hesitant to include this in Day 5, but think it's important to at least convey some of my general understandings about tags.
Tags help other people find your content. You can find a list of the different tags people use on Steemit here and also see tags that are trending. Sorting existing tags by # of posts & comments can give you an idea of what tags are currently saturated by content, underused, and/or something more balanced.
Above is the "top 5" currently trending tags sorted by posts. These are probably over-saturated tags.
It's going to be difficult to get a post recognized in an over-saturated tag (like in an over-saturated market) simply because your competition is so large. At the same time, you don't necessarily want to have all your tags be so unique that you're the only one using them (which on a small platform like Steemit, is very likely.)
Here's an example of the bottom 5 tags by posts. What's best, in general, is to use tags that are somewhere in the middle of the two.
Here's what's currently, about, the middle of the road. We have some general tags like finance and psychology, however, some specific ones like litecoin and trump. If you've written an article you want to tag as cryptocurrency or politics (both have a very high post count,) consdier using a tag like litecoin or trump if your crypto-related or political blog post is about (or at least mentions/is relevant) to those two tags.
Steemit only allows the use of 5 tags, so getting creative is difficult. Here's some practices I'm following on Steemit.
- At least 3, if not all 5, of your tags should be in the balanced range of use.
- Consider not using more than 1 saturated tag.
- Conversely, consider not using more than 1 severely underused tag.
- Remember that all tags should be reflective of your content (including keywords in your title.)
- Tags should be both specific and general (i.e. Health versus Keto-diet) - this can be hard to do on Steemit when considering the practices listed above.
At the end of the day, as long as you're not going extreme in one area or another, you should be fine.
Additional Resources
I only started learning about and practicing Internet marketing about 3 years ago, so I want to be transparent about my biggest influences in this space. Here's a list of some people, books, blogs, and podcasts that have really helped me.
Book: 30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel
Title seem familiar? :) This book is where I started. Even if you don't have a YouTube channel, many of its principles are universal.
Mailing List: OkDork by Noah Kagan
Noah has been able to convey marketing & business concepts in a very relatable & simple manner. As someone with a Master's degree who never learned anything about business formerly, I really appreciate his point of view.
Blog: James Altucher
Blog: Tim Ferriss
Podcast: Pat Flynn
Hope you enjoyed the series!
Please leave your overall feedback in the comments below. I probably won't be talking about these specific topics on Steemit for awhile, but if I return to them - I'll certainly need your feedback :)
Good luck!
Steve Cronin