I've been seeing some users post less and less or being discouraged from blogging when the rewards are low. It's understandable but all I have to say is...
Just Keep Steemin'!!!
It may be a difficult thing for many but it can take time to find continued support. If you think about it, how can people support you if you don't really do any blog posts?
Need to remember that this is a social networking platform or from the recently updated whitepaper, a public content platform. Either way, it's an attention economy which means you need to get people's attention to like or upvote your content. Some of you may ask how you can grab users attention with your content?
There are many strategies out there and Steem has its own set of strategies but here are some that may help to find some success.
Headline
Consider your title headline of your blog post. The first few words that readers take notice are the headline and the first sentence of your post since that is what shows up on the feed.
Like an old newspaper, they strategically use words to catch a reader's attention to have them read the article. If you don't have an eye catching headline, your post may go unnoticed.
Now I'm not saying to use clickbait but we see this on any social media platform. Although you may want to stay away from this since many users don't appreciate being misled.
Engage, Engage, Engage
Since this is an attention economy, you may get some attention just by blogging but it can only go so far. Networking can definitely help your content gain some attention.
Communicating with others and building relationships can lead to others seeing your content, liking it, and sharing it with others. Which leads to more exposure and support. Commenting on your posts and on others can help gain followers as well. Especially upvoting on other users content.
Steemtools
Utilize some of the Steemtools to your advantage. There are sooo many tools out now that help makes things easier and gives you an edge on others. You could try checking out STEEMVP developed by witness and the MVP himself, @roelandp.
With this tool, you can see who's been voting for you, giving the most rewards and constant support. Then you could try to reach out to that user and engage them and perhaps build a better relationship with them.
How Can You Reach Out to Your Supporters?
By using more of the tools of course!
There are live chat tools that can be used to get in contact with your supporters and communicate with them in real-time rather than just through comments on posts. You can try http://steemit.chat, developed by witness @riverhead.
If you prefer to possibly speak to your supporters or engage with others on voice, you can try the Discord app where tons of communities for Steem are growing such as: SteemSpeak, Steemit Talk, MinnowSupport/PAL, Steemit 101, Steemgigs, From The Ground Up, Steemtrail, Steem Gigs, Esteem Network, and many more!
Try Multiple Topics and Mediums
This goes into knowing your audience and finding what topic to blog about can hit a wide range of audiences. Some like games, some like crypto-currency. Generally, since the Steem platform is a blockchain, topics on crypto-currency and Steem do well but doesn't mean others don't. This is a growing community and the platform is only about a year and half old so expanding the range of topics are good and will likely find support over time.
With knowing what type of audience you have, you increase getting their attention by having video, images, and text. Some like to watch video, see images, and some just like to read. Having all of the mediums increase your chances of getting their attention.
Length of The Post
You may want to decide how long or short you want your post to be. According to a Microsoft consumer study, the average attention span of a human is currently 8 seconds. Which is less than a gold fish apparently since they have a 9 second attention span...
So doing a lengthy post may not play in your favor since it could bore your audience out or just be "too long" for them to read. Something I should have considered when making this post. But Steem is a bit different and there are those that will take the time to read and take notice that a lengthy post would generally mean the author took the time and put in an effort to create the post and should be rewarded for that.
This is for you to decide how long you want your content to be.
Presentation
How you present your post can make a difference. It can be boring just looking at a plain blog post. Get creative with your content and have it stand out from the rest by formatting and presenting your post different.
Learn markdown. It's a fairly easy way of formatting your post and can combine it with Html. You can check out a previous post I did for this.
https://steemit.com/markdown/@bitcoinparadise/making-your-posts-better-with-markdown-and-html
Originality
On the Steem platform, generally we don't like to see the rewards be distributed to plagiarists or even spin articles(rewrite an article in your own words but generally the same as the original). Being original with your content such as creating your own images, or writing your own text will most likely find support. That's of course if you can get readers attention. Being original will contribute better content on this platform and add more value.
This can be difficult for some to do so when you do use an image or some text from another article, just cite the source so your readers know from the start, it's from another content elsewhere. Otherwise, you risk getting flagged or losing potential support.
Tags
Using the correct tags is fairly important. Your audience may be searching for specific keywords on posts with the same topic. Make sure your content is focused on those tags you are using and try to make them unique. Using the wrong tags could lead to your audience not finding your content and less support.
Invest and Power up
Making an investment will not only help with the price of STEEM, it also shows how much you believe in the platform especially when powering it up. This can help in a few ways:
More support. Some users look for support and take notice of those with a larger stake. You are more likely to receive support on your content by having a decent amount of stake in the platform.
Having more influence to where the rewards get distributed. Technically you can upvote your own content but doing it selfishly could lead to having less support. If the community sees that you are distributing rewards to content other than yourself, you are more likely to gain support.
Larger curation rewards. Some people forget you earn rewards by voting up content. Depending on the weight of your vote and the amount of stake you have, you increase your stake. Then that leads to your voting weight increasing, which means having more influence on reward distribution, and likely gaining more support.
It's up to you to decided what tips or strategies you want to go with but if you want to stay in this competition, you're going to have to try some different things.
If you don't believe me, take a look at @stackin and his blog posts. He only been on this platform for 3 months and is doing really great!!! He even had an awesome post discussing why gaining attention is important. You can check it out here:
Image Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
