Quality Content Takes Time and Effort!

I'm probably very old fashioned in some ways.

One of those is my somewhat single-minded belief (originally taught to me by my dad) that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Followed by the maxim that doing things well might take time... and rushing leads to shoddy work. 

I look around at some of the best content creators on Steemit, and I recognize that many of the posts we see that end up with hundreds of comments and top rewards... well, they also took many hours-- if not days-- to create.

Prompted in part by a question in a comment... I thought I'd take a break to share my impression of what goes into a "quality" post. Again... this is just my opinion!

Anatomy of a Steemit Post

Fact: I almost never sit down and just create an article from "idea" to "published," in one sitting.

Stage 1: Most of my posts start with a sudden idea I get-- typically occurs when I do not have time to sit down and write. So I scribble the basic idea on a bit of paper and set it aside. I write just enough to be able to remember what I was thinking, when I look at the paper later. Maybe there are a few bullet points of the highlights.

Stage 2: is the initial write out. I take out my handwritten idea note and start typing it out. This is basically a rough draft, during which I expand on the original idea. Not particularly worried about "sequential logic" at this point, or whether I am using good grammar or repeat myself. I just want something typed out and saved.

Because I access Steemit from several locations on several computers, I've taken to using my online email client as my "notepad" to keep drafts on.

Once the rough draft has been written out, I usually let it sit and "percolate" for anywhere from overnight to several weeks. 

Stage 3: is my attempt at creating a clean "working copy" of the post/article. At his point, I usually end up organizing the order of what I trying to convey into a meaningful sequence, and a number of ideas are added to the original draft. 

This is also the point at which I decide whether to "keep and publish" or "trash" an idea. I'd estimate I trash about two-thirds of my ideas as boring or dumb or not worth pursuing.

Stage 4: involves image selection and visual formatting to create what I hope will be a visually attractive post. 

Although I use all my own photos, I often end up editing, cropping and resizing images to fit an article. This is also the point at which I figure out final paragraph breaks and sub-headings. I find that large blocks of text without some sort of visual break are difficult to read... and people tend to lose interest.

Once the images are formatted, I upload them to a remote hosting service.

Stage 5: This is actually the first time I am actually working ON the Steemit web site. I copy my mostly finished offline article into the "editor" version of of the "Submit a Story" window. I prefer this over using "markdown" because it allows me to toggle the view to "Raw HTML," which is how I ultimately finish the article.

At this stage, I also determine how I'd like people to interact with the post. Those of you who have followed these pages for some time might have noticed that there's always a block of related questions at the end of my posts. Because "engagement" is a central part of community building on Steemit, I find this to be a great way to get readers "involved" in posts.

And yes, it "works." If you look through my post history, you'll see it's not that unusual for my posts to get 30-40 comments, sometimes as many as 75-100. Give people a reason to leave a comment!

Stage 6: HTML formatting. Once everything is written out, using the editor formatting tools as much as possible, I switch to "Raw HTML" view. 

This allows me (among other things) to add photos with wraparound text and captions, as well as "alt" image descriptions (in case there's a problem with images loading-- old "backup tools" from days of building web sites). This is also the stage at which I do final checking for grammar, spelling and typos. 

I've found that reading a piece out loud to myself is a really useful tool to catch any "weirdness." 

Stage 7: Tags and fine tuning the title. Although I usually start with a working title for my posts, it's seldom what I end up using, in the end. 

Truth be known, I am not always sure what a post is really "about" till I've finished typing.

Same goes for choosing tags-- I'm seldom sure what "fits best" till the very end. 

LAST thing before posting... copy all the final HTML into a text document. Or, at least, copy it into the buffer... just in case Internet/Steemit gremlins are afoot and your post ends up in the 7th dimension... but not in the "new" stream.

And then... POST!

Wait! We're Not Done Yet!

Quality content doesn't end at "post." 

Once you've sent your new piece out in the world, you get to curate your own content. 

What I mean by that is that a large part of what makes "good" content is that it's rather interactive. Read the comments you get and respond to the posters. Don't be afraid to upvote good and meaningful comments... it's a nice way to say "thank you" to those who took the time not only to read your post, but to interact with you. 

If you look at some of Steemit's top content creators, you'll notice that not only do they tend to get 100's of comments on their posts, but they also reply to a large number of comments. 

Remember, your followers are people-- not just a source of coins for your piggy bank!

That's a LOT of Work... Isn't It?

All told, most of my posts take a minimum of 2-3 hours to create, with the exception of a few photo posts, which I can do in about 45 minutes to an hour. Some pieces take closer to 5-6 hours to finish. 

And that's not counting time spent on post publication follow-ups. 

Is it "worth" the effort? In my book, yes. Philosophically speaking, I'd rather put my name on one well-done piece than ten quick "hack jobs." But that's a personal thing-- a statement about what I value.

There's no law that says you "have to" create posts the way I do.

Last-- but by no means least-- a quick shoutout to @egregorian whom I told I was writing this post "next"... eight hours ago. He's a relative newcomer to Steemit worth reading; working on restoring an old Airstream travel trailer.

How about YOU? Do you lean towards "many and quick" posting, or "fewer and slow?" Does quality content matter to you? Do you have your own style, or do you try to emulate popular content creators? Do you have any sense of how much time you spend on an "average" post before publishing? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published at 20170728 23:42 PDT