"I am literally a "nobody".
I don't claim myself to be an expert blogger or a crypto-currency expert in any way. In fact, I'm more or less the opposite to those things. I am also not native in English which means that my articles will be filled with spelling and grammar mistakes here and there. As I cannot change these facts so easily, I accept the situation and work with it as it is.
What I do have, is many years of experience as a freelancer. I am also often brutally honest, about myself, my mistakes and about others. I also talk about the things I do and base everything on my own experience and my own knowledge. That being said, I am usually never arrogant and that reflects in some level of professionalism. This often tends to act as a welcoming to my readers as I invite them to "me" and not the content at first hand.
I also suffer from panic anxiety, depression and panic attacks. And even though I hate it, I try to be very open about it, as this will make each thing even more personal. And I want my content to reach some sort of personal level.
- No matter who the readers are.
However, I am obviously more than a brutally honest freelancer who suffers from various diseases. I am also a streamer, a passionate gamer and a caring person. Amongst many other things. Each of the things I am and how I function, is also what shapes me into the person I am.
So with all this being said, this "nobody" is actually a pretty awesome individual with various qualities. - As long as you give me a chance.
That was a rather long "introduction" for this article, but I felt it was necessary to create a decent atmosphere and set a good tone before we get into the meat.
"Why Should People Choose Me?"
As a freelancer, I work along with and against many different competitors on a daily basis. Many of my co-workers I've had in the past have launched their own businesses, as I have successfully managed to teach, educate and helped them to become better. Not just a better freelancer. I have helped many of them to become better persons.
I have to be competitive at all times. Many of my competitors lower the costs of certain services and I have to weigh the price versus the job at hand.
I often see no other possible outcome than to lower the prices, but every now and then, I keep the prices and offer "the same" service for a higher price compared to my competitiors. I also lose clients due to this. At first glance.
However, it's not about losing clients or not, because I do my best to not work short-term. I always try to work long-term and towards goals I have in the future. Sure, it's impossible to work like that at all times, so I obviously do short-term work too. But in general, I always try to work towards "the greater good" so to speak... And long term.
- That's how I build relationships and get recurring customers.
Even if I charge more for the "same" service compared to my competitors.
This is applicable on my Steemit journey too.
You join Steemit and you want to be like all the users on the trending page. You want a piece of the pie and you want as much as possible. It's a very common feeling.
- I mean, who wouldn't want $200, $300 or even $700 for a single post?
Don't even get me started about such rewards on a daily basis. Everyone would want that. No matter what they say. However, everyone does not work towards such goals, even if they would never say no if someone would give them $500. The rather interesting thing about this though, is the fact that most people don't work towards such goals because they don't believe in themselves to be good enough or "worthy" of such rewards. - The good news on Steemit is that authors themselves does not decide whether they are worthy or not.
- Others decide!
Having said that,
There are so many talented, amazing authors and content creators on Steemit so it's literally an ocean with the most delicious fishes to chose from. - Which is one of the reasons you don't get picked...
And another reason is that your fellow Steemian are doing things better than you. That doesn't mean that they are better than you, it just means that they did something better than you this time.
If you stop for awhile and think about your competitors on Steemit:
What are they good at and what type of content do they share?
Many established Steemians focus on a just one or two specific niches for instance.
If you're not an expert in those fields, you might want to look elsewhere, if you cannot bring anything new to the table. And I'm not talking about new as in super-awesome cool well-researched details. I am talking about your own perspective, your insights and your experience.
The truth is, that no matter how many incredibly talented competitors you have on Steemit... You are your only competitor because everyone have an equal chance of getting exposure, hence the same chance of being rewarded for their contributions.
And right about now, many would think otherwise.
I've been a member since July 2016 so I've most likely heard almost everything about this already.
- Steemit is like a lottery.
- Only the early adopters earn.
- Investors makes money, others don't have a chance.
This goes on an on...
Meanwhile this is true to some extent.
- It's nothing near the real truth.
Let me debunk these myths for you:
I've been busting my balls for more than 19 months with only a few short breaks. I am what most people would call an "early adopter", but I do not have continuous support from several whales and dolphins.
I had outstanding support and raked in thousands of dollars in the beginning of my Steemit career. - But haven't had a $100+ payout in 2 months.
And truth to be told, this only reached such rewards due to @teamsteem's generosity. A 100% upvote and a Resteem to his 10,000+ followers. (I don't know how many followers he had at the time though).
Before that...
I had a $100+ payout 6 months ago.
Ever since the payout 2 months ago, I've had low payouts in comparision, and even though I've had a handful of payouts of more than $20, $40 and $50 since that day, those payouts are based on the votes from bid bots.
- So, I'm an early adopter with low results. Which obviously turns me into a perfect example to state that claims like:
Only the early adopters earn.
Is nothing but false and inaccurate.
Investors makes money, others don't have a chance.
This is also not true. However, a whale can easily upvote his own content with hundreds of dollars. This is what happens at the time I'm writing this. Many dolphins and whales are self-voting due to the price of SBD and Steem. They make a fortune upvoting their own content instead of spreading the wealth across the platform.
However if and when the system works without flaws and without selfishness. - Whales and dolphins are spreading their wealth across the platform and enrich hundreds of minnows and other authors on a daily basis. While doing that, they also makes money themselves due to the curation rewards they earn.
So when self-voting does not occur like it does right now, others will earn due to the existence of whales and heavily invested dolphins.
Steemit is like a lottery.
I have to say that this is probably one of my favorites. I can totally see why some people compare Steemit to a lottery and even though I can still see their reasoning and understand why, I always politely disagree, to some extent.
If you publish one post and make a couple of hundred bucks. - Yeah, I would say that you're lucky and that you "won the lottery".
However, if you're consistent and publish content on a daily basis, you'll increase your chances of "winning the lottery" during the same time you'll reduce the amount of luck that is required to win.
- Pretty logical, right?
And due to that, I politely disagree with such claims, to some extent.
How To Carve Out Your Own Space.
There is nothing wrong with doing the same things as others. However, you cannot do the exact same things as an already established Steemian, freelancer or business owner and think that you will get better results than the original owner.
You can piggyback all you want, but 99% of the times, you'll never be able to overcome the person you piggyback on. There can always be people carrying you, but you'll have to do things yourself to overcome certain obstacles.
One way of doing this is to find your own niche or by locating your own approach.
We have all these amazing travel-bloggers. We have awesome authors sharing their recipes and cryptoexperts sharing their knowledge. - If you cannot beat them at their own game, you'll have to draw attention to your game instead.
Take me for instance.
I don't have a certain niche I'm specialized in, even though I could focus on freelancing content. I choose to share my knowledge, my experience and my expertise with a broad variety of content. I talk about Steemit and my results. I try to educate and teach others through many of my guides and reports. I also share personal stories and gaming related content just to name a few things.
I do this not to target certain users. I do this to reach a wide group of users because I personally believe that this is the best approach for me. I am fully aware of the fact that I might have lost a bunch of followers due to me sharing gaming related content for instance, because many of my readers might be interested in Steemit-related content or my freelancing contributions. However, once again, I weigh the potential outcome from one act with the outcome with another one.
I do believe that I will be able to reach a wider audience by sharing content in multiple niches instead of targeting only one or two. But no matter what I share I will always contribute being myself. An open, rather humble random "nobody".