This is my first ever official contest entry on Steemit. Thank you to my new friend @janicehung for pointing me toward this opportunity. I really hope she is considered for the 500 SP. Thank you to @suesa for offering this wonderful opportunity to those of us that want to do more on this platform.

My name is Spencer Coffman.

I joined in September of 2017 and had no idea what I was getting into. I heard of Steemit and understood that it was a platform to blog and make money. Being an author, blogger, online entrepreneur, and deemed an “Internet Hustler” by The Secular Barbershop and Ramit Sethi – that is now a title I have adopted.

For my first few months here, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had no idea I was supposed to create an introduction post and still haven’t done one. I guess it’s not too late, however, I’m not really a new user anymore. In mid November, I decided to really dive into Steemit and understand exactly what goes on here. I began reading articles and watching videos to learn all I could about how to grow a following and be of some value. I got a discord account and joined servers, signed up for steemit chat, et cetera. Then I started learning how to do markdown so my posts would look a little better. Now @sumatranate has created a great course so everyone can easily learn markdown.

I made a commitment to start a posting campaign. I post a Verse Of The Day each day and a quality article post every three days. I also share them to my website’s blog. Eventually, I’ll start posting articles every other day. In January 2018, I decided to start commenting on a minimum of 10 other posts each day. I wanted to start adding more value to Steemit. I was determined to encourage others and grow my following. Therefore, I did something that every good achiever does.

I set a goal.

By February 1, I wanted to grow my account by 100 followers.

However, this hasn’t happened like I planned. Since January 1, I have worked so hard on commenting on other people’s posts. I’ve welcomed new-comers to Steemit and posted a lot of advice for them. Many of them reply and thank me for the comments. In addition, I’ve met some really cool people and have begun to network with them. Despite all of this, my goal didn’t happen. It’s 3/4 of the way through January and I didn’t grow by 100 followers.

My Steemit Followers on 12-31-17

I Have Already Grown By 200 Followers!

My Steemit Followers on 1-19-18

This goes to show that if you provide value to the platform, you are going to grow. This is true no matter where you are. If you provide valuable and informative content people are going to find it and follow it. This is the same for Facebook, YouTube, Steemit, your website, et cetera. Write amazing valuable and informative content and you will succeed.

I cannot believe the millions of spammy posts that are placed on Steemit. It seems like everyone is simply out to make a quick dollar without doing anything of value. Well I’ve got news for you guys, nothing good comes easy and get rich quick doesn’t exist. You need to provide valuable and informative content if you expect to be paid for your writing. This is a goal that I have been inspired to fulfill since I first began in online business.

To write great content.

Throughout my life, I have learned a great deal. I have gone through many hardships and trials and have continued to persevere. You can read about some of them here. Eventually, I began thinking, if I struggled through all of this stuff and learned how to do it, then there must be other people going through the same things. You are never alone. There is always someone else who has experienced, or is experiencing, what you are going through.

Therefore, I decided to start writing books. My books would be for people who wanted to learn how to do things on their own without having to go through all of the trial and error. I wanted to help them achieve their goals much faster! I priced all of my books super cheap so that people would read them.

The trouble was, they were too cheap so no one bought them. I tried free and that didn’t work either. Eventually, I bumped the price up to a mere $7. Then the books started selling. I’ve had people tell me to try $47, but since I’m not in this for the money, and simply want to get the information out there, I’ve stuck with a $7 price tag and will occasionally do free promotions. You can see my books here.

I have always been a very studious and academic person. I love knowledge and can never get enough of it. I have studied and learned so much in my life that it really is amazing. Yet, I’ll never be satisfied. I don’t want to go into my full bio here, but I will say that I have 8 higher level degrees, been in several honors programs, studied languages, and taught myself many skills that people learn in college through online courses and trial and error. If you want to know more you can read my bio here.

In September of 2015, when I published my first book, I needed to build an online presence. At that point in time, Spencer Coffman didn’t exist. I was a ghost. I had no name recognition and the only social media account I had was Facebook. It was locked down so tight only my friends could find me. That’s when I decided that I needed to get out there. If I wanted people to read what I wrote then I needed to have an online presence.

While going through this process of building my social media accounts, growing a following, and getting a website, I discovered so much more! I couldn’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to have these things done for me! Book layout, editing, publishing, website design, et cetera. So… I embarked on a self-taught journey of trial and error.

I discovered something that blew my mind.

Many of the people who created plugins, software, and other tools were only in it for the money. They created a product that would supposedly make life easier and help people do things. However, the products didn’t work that well and the developers barely supported them. Often times, they would launch a product, then post some video about the tens of thousands they made and that was it. A few months later they’d do it again. Meanwhile, their products were junk and didn’t work properly.

This drove me nuts, so I decided to start another quest to inform people about all of these products. It is the same driving force that motivates me to write books, blog posts, and create videos. The drive to help other people succeed as quickly as possible. I created a YouTube Channel designed to review plugins and software so people could see how they work before buying them.

I also started posting about how to stay safe on the Internet because so many people are out there trolling to steal your personal information. This channel has really taken off and I am thrilled that my review videos are helping people make informed purchases rather than impulse buys and being disappointed. It is also helping people find products to make their lives easier.

Therefore, all of my efforts of writing books, creating YouTube videos, and writing blog posts are dedicated toward helping other people succeed in whatever they are trying to do. I strive to provide them with valuable, honest, information so they will know exactly what is going on. I also strive to seek out other people online and provide feedback to what they are doing. I comment on numerous posts and really try hard to be available if anyone ever needs any help or advice.

Having a good amount of steem power is essential for this to happen. As my followers have grown, and the value on my posts has increased, I have started earning more. I have also invested some money into my account because I quickly realized that building SP was very important. Currently, I re-invest all of the SBD I earn back to my posts. Each time, half of that is paid back to me in SP. My votes are gaining value. However, if I could get a huge 500SP boost I would really be able to start having an influence here on Steemit.

I think there are so many poor posts out there that Steemit needs people, not bots, to spend time combing through the content and upvoting the right stuff. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about voting bots. There are projects out there designated to downvote anyone who uses them. I think this is a terrible way to go about it. Instead, they should only downvote the spammy posts that use the bots. If good quality posts use bots to get a boost they should support them with an upvote.

If more people realized that Steemit is a platform designed to get people to work together for success, then things would work out much better for everyone. The only way to succeed is by sharing your wealth with others. If you don’t share it, then you are not using it. Therefore, you can either give it away or let it burn up. It’s your choice. Personally, I choose to share the wealth rather than let it go to waste. I can’t give it to myself anyway. I can either share it or do nothing. By sharing it, I’ll have a better chance of someone sharing their wealth back to me. That is the purpose of Steemit. They are a platform created to silently promote altruism and those who are the most generous often reap the largest rewards.

Hopefully, you found this post to be worthy of consideration for the award. Thank you for reading it. I apologize if it seemed long but I feel that it was all worth saying and worth taking the time to read.

Thanks again,
Spencer Coffman

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