I'm still learning how to make my posts better on steemit. But there's no sense in waiting until I've mastered it before making a post to show you some of the things I've learned so far.
[hyperlink text]+(url)
But without the "+"
For example, if I wanted to link to steemit blog page, in the text of a post I would write something like this:
Be sure to check out the rest of the posts on [my website] (http://theawarenessrevolution.com/).
The text above would look like this on steemit:Be sure to check out the rest of the posts on my website.
The first image in your post is used as your thumbnail when others see your post in their feed. So make sure to choose your first image wisely. Obvisouly, choose the best image you can. Choose one that will make people click on your post. If you have a video in your post before an image, the thumbnail for the video will be the image used as the thumbnail for your post.
You can easily add images or video to your steemit posts. Just drag and drop images on to your post. Make sure you have rights to the images you use, or at least have permission to use them. Depending on the licensing agreement, you may or may not have to give credit to whose image it is.
I use Pixabay.com a lot for free images, but you can get better images on sites that charge for the use of royalty-free images. I also use Canva.com to create my own images for free. It's limited in its capabilities, but at least you don't have to learn a complicated program like Photoshop. I've paid to have a lot of images made on Fiverr too. You'd be surprised how much you can get done on Fiverr for as little as $5. It has saved me a lot of money and time, while helping me focus on what I do best - content creation.
Videos are almost as easy to add. Just simply copy and paste a Youtube video's url and it will show up. There's even an option on Youtube to make the video start at any point you want when they click play to watch it. Ideally, post your own videos on Youtube and then add them to your steemit posts. But if you're far away from being able to produce your own videos, don't let that stop you. You can still use other people's videos, just make sure you add something to it, such as your own thoughts on the subject.
Avoid posting others' videos and writing a short amount about it. Personally, I think that's tacky and it looks like yo'ure just trying to take the easy way of producing content for the sake of getting upvotes. Add video when it's supportive to your post. Don't just add video to piggyback on someone else's great content. Produce your own great content and you will do better in the long run.
Headers are also important for search engine optimization (SEO). Header tags tell search engines how important that particular text is. It's a good idea to put your target key words in your header tags, but only in a way that describes the text below it and makes sense to the reader.
It's pretty easy to add headers to your posts on steemit. Just add a "#" before the text. For example, an h1 tag would look like this:
# Write The Best H1 Tag You Can Think Of
To make an h2 tag, as a subheading, just add another "#" so there's two of them. For h3 tags you'll use three #s, and so on.When you search for something on google, you see the title and a description below. However, on steemit you only see the title and a photo. That's why your title and thumbnail image is so important.
Choose a title that catches people's attention. Use titles like:
*italics*
**bold**
would look like:italics
bold
Besides commenting on others' posts, another good tactic is to link to your fresh content on others' fresh posts. The fresher the better because people don't visit older posts as much. Just make sure your post you're linking to is related to the content you're linking from. And don't just add your link as your comment on someone's post. Add a good comment to go with it, preferrably one that shows how your post compliments the one you're adding a link on.
Another benefit of creating a series of posts on steemit is you can crosslink to and from them. Consider writing the entire series and then spacing them out when you publish them. That way each one is still fresh when they're reading the other posts that link to them. You don't earn steem from posts that are older than a week old. Therefore, while linking to a post that's over a week old is still beneficial, it's not as beneficial as linking to a post that's less than a day old. If you post 2 posts a day, for 3 days, that's a total of 6 posts that one person can upvote if they read each one. Whereas if you link to 5 posts older than a week in your newest post, they'll only be able to upvote your newest post.
You can mention that your post is part of a series, or not. It all depends on your post. Regardless, having a few related posts written before you publish them gives you the chance to crosslink to and from each one while they're new enough to still earn money through upvotes.
Consider sharing your steemit posts on other social media sites. If you have a blog on your website where you publish the same posts as you do on steemit, you probably don't want to exclusively share you steemit posts on Facebook. You'll still want to drive traffic from Facebook to your website, hopefully to capure their email addresses. But you don't want to only share your blog posts either. It's probably a good idea to share a combonation of blog posts from your website and your steemit posts. That way you get the best of both worlds. Turn your Facebook fans in to followers on steemit and they'll upvote your content so you make more money. And if you don't have a blog on your website (you should), share all of your steemit posts on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
There are plenty of initiatives on steemit too. They have contests that give rewards and offer more exposure. There's also groups that curate rewards for undervalued content. Look for initiatives like this that specialize in your niche, if possible.
It's a good idea to have a call to action at the end of each post. When someone is done reading your post, they have to figure out what to do next. Why not tell them what you want them to do? It's the Aladin factor - ask and you shall receive. Telling your readers what you'd like them to do greatly increases the chances of them actually doing it.
You can direct your reader to another one of your posts on your website, or you can get them to take action on steemit. There's nothing wrong with doing both either. Just don't over do it. You could link to one of your posts at the end your post, then add a GIF as your call to action on steemit, like the one below. You can find freely usable GIFs like that one here.