On January 2nd, 2017, I logged into my steemit account for the first time and made my introduction post. https://i.imgur.com/WYehmrV.jpg?1 Steemit looked like an incredible platform. I knew all about bitcoin and had been hoping to get more directly involved in cryptocurrency… so a place like this, where I could post my music and earn some tokens, was a perfect way to get started. I was nervous… Would it be possible to earn some money for my content on Steemit? It seemed too good to be true. But I saw other people doing well on the site, so why not try?

Steemit Delivers

My first year on Steemit and within the broader steem ecosystem has been nothing short of incredible. All of my wildest dreams have come true! It turns out that the community here is amazing. There are so many free thinkers, talented individuals in fields as diverse as programming and visual art and homesteading and a million other things. The music scene is pretty good and getting better by the day. Most importantly, the whole platform is growing fast. When I first joined, the entire music scene here was supported by Open Mic and some Curie votes… now we have Illuminati, Steemit Music Alliance, a new [eBook steem-marketing project](https://steemit.com/steem/@heymattsokol/steem-marketing-proposal-an-open-source-ebook-introducing-musicians-to-steemit) I’m working on, Sndbox for those lucky enough to get in, Steemit Songwriting challenge, The Cut, and much more! Sometimes this growth is slow and steady. Other times it is dizzyingly fast. I went from financial desperation to success in like one month from November to December lol, it felt like a make-believe story it was so fast and weird. https://i.imgur.com/gNyEQ6b.png https://i.imgur.com/A1ZEXKO.png So much stuff! And that’s just one year, and leaving out SO much - like joining @sndbox, @curie, @ocd, and @illuminati-inc all within a six month span o_o, and making tons of friends everywhere.

Alexa Ratings: Climbing to New Heights of Popularity

We cruised up to a good altitude on the Alexa charts, being the ~2,000th most popular website on the entire internet (up from [rank 20,000 back when the site started](https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemrollin/steemit-s-engagement-numbers-continue-to-climb-alexa-ranking-top-20-000-in-us)). That 2000 rank proved hard to beat, and we got stuck for a while. People thought it would take Hard Fork 20, with a faster signup mechanism, to get us higher on Alexa’s charts. However we proved that wrong and are making progress again :-D Check it out: https://i.imgur.com/U5QZiPE.png _{wow. [source = @penguinpablo](https://steemit.com/steemit/@penguinpablo/daily-steem-stats-report-tuesday-january-02-2018)} Each rank is harder to attain than the one before it… 1,634 is astounding. Especially since in my opinion, we are still in the very early days of Steem.

My Own Progress

Steemit has been good to me. There is still a long way to go, but so far I am very happy with the results: https://i.imgur.com/c5w0uUg.png _{Within striking distance of 2,000 followers.} https://i.imgur.com/SVRssqO.png _{been like this ever since SBD first pumped} My earnings will of course go way down as soon as SBD resumes its old value… and besides that, I will only have direct vote support from @sndbox for about [five more months](https://steemit.com/incubator/@sndbox/sndbox-s-new-incubator-program-schedule). Without sndbox I would have maybe 50% of these earnings each week… The point is, this is a full income for me right now. I am still maintaining other income streams and will do so for a long time as a risk mitigation strategy - but, if Steem does as well as I think it will, I honestly believe that this can be my new full time job. Today it is a bit risky and requires some caution - but within the next few years it is possible in a sustainable way. Just like many people today earn a living off of YouTube, Instagram, and other social media… many are now doing it on Steemit. It’s incredible.

Goal for the Next Year

My main goal for this next year is to help grow the Steem platform. I am going to pursue projects that will directly lead to more musicians signing up and becoming active on Steemit. ([like this one](https://steemit.com/steem/@heymattsokol/steem-marketing-proposal-an-open-source-ebook-introducing-musicians-to-steemit)) That’s the beauty of a decentralized system - synergy. What is good for me is good for Steemit, and vice versa. And I’m lucky to have the support of [Sndbox](sndbox.co) which is greatly amplifying the impact of everything I do. That’s one of the most important projects on Steem and I am pumped to keep working with the first official Sndbox Cohort between now and May 2018 :-) https://steemitimages.com/DQmapy5CkBdyH5uQTnwbCiUZU9tZfrXqzJKNmCjdcysexLw/sndbox-diagrams-04.png _{[source](https://steemit.com/community/@sndbox/sndbox-end-of-year-review-community-hubs-projects-and-a-glimpse-at-the-sndbox-foundation-pt-4-of-5)} I no longer feel the need to try to get larger rewards - I’m being supported fairly for now. Thus I’ll be able to focus on sharing Steem with as many other people as I can. THAT IS SO COOL. Thank you so much to all of you on Steem who have made this possible for me. It’s been one hell of a first year. Here’s to the next one, and many more thereafter. Cheers! https://steemitimages.com/DQmYuuW18gWNZPLC1A53SoZ6CHMYTPL4rraFh4gcJ5DYDKf/follow_heymattsokol.gif https://i.imgur.com/hgkeIwR.jpg?3