Last night I went to bed with 998 followers and I had a feeling I would jump up 2 during the night. Well I woke up and now, on July 4th, (2017) the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and our Independence Day I have 1,009.
In honor of Independence Day, here are some fireworks, hot dogs, beer, and Americans:
Now, I began using Steemit on May 8th, 2017 off of the recommendation by Gregory Mannerino (@marketreport). I am a subscriber of his on Youtube and enjoy his videos. I noticed towards the end of all his videos he kept mentioning Steemit, saying things like "Frankly, (he always says frankly lol) you'd be stupid not to be on Steemit." I was like "whoa buddy" who you callin' stupid. But at the same time it intrigued me. He said you can earn money simply for posting videos, blogging, whatever you want.
Immediately I thought it was too good to be true, probably like most people who started using Steemit. I was skeptical. Then I visited the site. I went to @dollarvigilante's page and saw his first post was $15,000. I also watch his videos on YT. I couldn't believe it. For a simple biography post, less than one page in length. I thought, he must've gotten lucky. Then I started browsing other people's pages and seeing $10, $20, $100 posts. I thought "there could be something to this."
I did some research on Steemit by watching some Youtube videos. The first thing I did was type in Steemit 101 and this video came up: 
I later found out that the information in this was mostly correct, but some of it outdated. The power down went from 2 years to 13 weeks (hell yeah!) I remember I didn't really understand the difference between Steem and SBD but understood at least one of them and Steem Power.
Now back to my 1,009 followers. I want to send a huge thank you to all of my followers for getting me here! I'd also like to do a big shout out to a few people for helping me along the way. I'm really sorry if I forgot your name but these are the people who consistently upvote and or comment with positive things:
@hansenator - a friend of mine with whom I work professionally - good dude who posts a lot about different beer, breweries, and piloting airplanes (good mix HAHA just messin')
@marketreport - Without Gregory Mannerino, I wouldn't be here so a big thank you to him (I could hug him, but I'm not sure if he wears pants haha)
@dollarvigilante - With Jeff B. I would probably be here, but he helped sell the idea of Steemit to me.
@salivatemetal, @juniusmaltby- Youtube silverstacking superstars who have recently come over to Steemit
@roxanad18 - My wife, so I'm obligated to put her in here HA!
@raybrockman - a really good guy who upvotes and comments on many of my videos
@tylersilver, @silverfortune, @ikeonet1 - other awesome silverstacking youtubers
@islandliving, @canadian-coconut - two great people to follow here on Steemit
@tedcarr - raw food frutarian who's inspired me multiple times now on Steemit
@sjennon - really cool person who's always in a good mood
Now I'm going to list off some of the peeps that have been biggest contributors according to SteeMVP, I won't name people if they've already been named:
@randowhale: awesome whale bot that gives you a random upvote between what seems like 1-5% if you pay it 2 SBD.
@teamsteem: I must've gotten lucky enough to get a 1% vote for every post I make from this account. Big thank you!
@hr1: another whale that sometimes votes on my stuff.
@trogdor, @full-measure, @neoxian, @fyrstikken, @syn999, @grognak, @bullionstackers , @lenskonig, @steem-id, @diggndeeper.com, @berkah, @gigafart, @pnc, @dwinblood, @missiontothemoon, @gregbit, @dylanhobalart you guys rocks! Thank you all so much again if I forgot your name just send me a comment I'll add you if I feel you are worthy lol.
Again thank you very much guys I really enjoy your comments and I enjoy Steemit. I think it's the social media platform of the future!
