The discussions at the London Crypto Show have got my head buzzing. It's great to be around people who really want this platform to succeed. That's not always for their own sake. When I first found Steemit I realised it had massive potential to help people all over the world. Artists, musicians, writers and other creative people can earn from their work without relying on other parties to collect the money for them. Developers can build new tools around it. Those with a service or goods to sell can market them here and get the funds instantly from anywhere, without fees. That sounds like a winning combination, but there is a long way to go.

As it stands Steemit and the Steem blockchain is a small player. There may be around a million accounts, but there are people on Twitter with far more followers. There may only be around 60,000 active users. That's smaller than some Facebook groups.

The Alexa rank is currently dropping from a peak of being in the top 1000 worldwide. This may be due to people not sticking with it when they don't make anything. The recent fall in the Steem price may also be a factor, but it's been much lower.

Minnows

What should a minnow do here? When I started Steemit was a bit different. There were far fewer people, but it was still hard to earn much. The old voting algorithm meant you needed to have thousands of Steem Power for your vote to be worth anything. Despite that I stuck with it as it was fun. Making it fun is key. That's the reason you use other sites that don't pay you. Meanwhile you can be building a following and connections by talking to people.

Don't:

Beg for votes or follows
Plagiarise (copy) the work of others
Bombard people with low value comments (e.g. I like this)
Post lots of junk posts. There should be something on your feed that people will like
Abuse the tags. Make them relevant to your post

Doing any of the above could get you flagged and destroy your reputation score.

Do:

Find people who share your interests. You can use tags for this. Even if they are minnows you can still talk and they may be bigger players later
Post quality content. That may take some time, but it can be anything. Take pictures of where you live and write about it. It doesn't have to be in English. You can build a community around your native language. Use appropriate tags to help people find it
Enter contests and play games. Musicians can do openmic. There are games to play too. The @crowdini account does daily 'surveys' that may just be for fun, but they can pay.

Don't worry too much about curation rewards to start with. You won't make much that way. Good comments could make you far more. Support those who are doing things you really like. It may take a while, but you can build a following of people who are genuinely interested in what you do and not just people looking to get your votes.

Dolphins and orcas

These are people who have built up their accounts to thousands of followers and SP. They can make a real difference to minnows with their votes. They can delegate to minnows they trust to help them build their accounts. They can also delegate to projects. They can also play a part in dealing with some of the abuse that goes on. You can flag posts that blatantly just plunder the rewards. If enough of us do that then retaliation is futile.

Whales

These people can make a massive difference. I know a lot of them are working hard to build Steemit, but some seem more intent on maximising their short-term profits. Some sell votes and are raking it in. They often give massive votes to a few posts (paid or otherwise) when the rewards would do much more good if spread out. They should also be delegating to those they trust who will vote up good content. They also have the power to deal with some of the worst abuses of the system. They can undo the ridiculous rewards some people give themselves for junk posts. That leaves more for everyone else.

Steemit Inc

I know they are working hard on taking Steemit to the next level. We've had some updates from @steemitblog, but many of those are aimed at developers rather than regular users. People need to be reassured that the platform will progress. It will need to get to millions of real users for the world to take notice, but it can't handle them just yet. There's a danger someone else (Dan?) could come along with an alternative that steals all the attention.

Ignore the trending page

It's a shame this is the first thing people see. It does not give realistic expectations for new users. Okay, so those posts have hundreds of dollars, but most have bought their way in. It's nothing to do with what users really like. The post by @howo is a exception. I met him on Saturday and his project deserves attention. I'm not saying these are bad posts, but I will hear about good things via people I follow.

Trending

Communities

We've had some hints about what the communities feature will bring, but we need to be building something now. We can exploit the available features. A good example is @runningproject. They resteem good posts about running and have been commissioning articles about training and nutrition. People can follow that account rather than the individuals. They have a voting 'bot' that supports the community. You work with those who share your interests to build something like this.

These are just a few thoughts from me. I'm sure you have your own. I know a lot of people are desperate to make anything, but this is more of a hobby for some of us. I want to see Steem change the world and I am supporting others who do too. It may well pay off for me in the long run, but I can wait.

Steem on!