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I've been on Steemit almost a year now and have finally made it to 1,000 followers. I'm not gonna lie, it feels good, because the followers were why I came in the first place. When I joined Steemit I had no illusions of making money. I didn't even know what cryptocurrency was. I thought Steem was like tokens on other gaming sites; used in the site for the site. I came to Steemit to be popular. I shared on Facebook before this and that's not really sharing at all. You have your friends who like what you're posting but there was really no interaction or feedback. It was the same old, same old. I wanted to be qualified and challenged. Then my son, @lokii, introduced me to Steemit. I checked it out and decided I wanted to be involved.

MY TIME ON STEEMIT SO FAR

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When I first joined I entered many contests. I also perused the tags endlessly trying to get a feel for the community. Back then @blocktrades was handing out stellar upvotes for good memes in the memechallenge and I earned a couple. I used those earnings to promote my first posts, at that point I still had no understanding of Steemit, Steem, or cryptocurrencies. I knew I was gaining something and I could use it to immerse myself into the community. My first posts were poems. It was a pretty big interest in the community and I could write poetry. That led me to @robyneggs Poetry Dice Challenge. It was fun, it was comfortable, and I made a lot of contacts there. I began to get a little bit bolder about where I wanted my blog to focus. I started my own poetry challenge, the Ode Challenge. I had thought that it would take off because I was seeing all of these other contests with active participation but it really never got a following. I don't know if it was because it was a shitty challenge or I just didn't haver the followers to get it off the ground but it was discouraging so I stopped it before it could be too detrimental to my time here. Around that same time I started my DARK POETRY series. I wrote the poems white on black as images and tried to stay with darker subject matter. This was one of the better ones - HYDE AND SEEK:
![hyde.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWTzjcJcMBYccQ1M1TVd7wkWSMPHzLyBjTWkpxJUFTH5n/hyde.jpg) That was well received in the community and, honestly, one of the biggest reasons I'm still here. I ran them for around two months and started to branch out my creativity into other interests. I did some photography, wrote a couple of short stories, some 3D modeling, basically anything I liked to do at my computer I was sharing with the community. I was also starting to understand the community and cryptocurrency a little better. I learned that I had wasted a lot of my money on efforts to promote myself. I learned that resteem services are like jailhouse scams targeting newbies with the promise of exposure. They don't work, don't waste your money. I learned that upvote bots only glitter like gold. What you paid in is more than you're going to get out. Again, save your money. The best way to become bigger in the community is to become more visible in the community. Get out there and comment others, let them know you like their efforts. It is well worth your time, I promise. My blog thus far has been about creativity but I don't really focus on one niche. I do whatever feels good when I'm at the computer that day. I see no reason to change that. I'm comfortable with the things I share and I have a 'fan base' of loyal commenters. My latest creative endeavor has been Blackout Poetry and I'm going to start some initiatives to garner it a larger audience right now. So what's ahead?

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

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I'm going to try to streamline my blog a bit to keep my audience and gain more followers. I have a few ideas to try out in the coming weeks and months on Steemit. I'm going to start with a 30 Day Blackout. I'm going to write at least one blackout poem everyday for thirty days. I'll invite the community to get involved and submit their own blackout poems. I'll create a tag and focus my voting power there. If it gets enough attention I would like to star a Blackout Elimination Contest. I am also going to share more of myself with the community. Comedy is starting to gain a strong presence in the community and I love a good laugh, both giving and receiving. I'm going to start making more videos to share on DTube and DLive as well as my YouTube channel. The Steemit community has had a positive influence on my life and I would love to help others to feel that. I'm here for the long haul. I see Steemit as the future of social media and I have no intention of getting left behind. STEEM ON!

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