I was in a Helpie meeting earlier and @meno was raising the discussion of how we suggest utilizing the platform to make the most out of our time investment. To be clear, I'm paraphrasing, but that's what I took away from his question. I wrote a post once upon a time for @minnowsupport that I can't really manage to find as we currently still have a severe lack of working search tools for the platform, but I figured it's a great time to revisit this topic and share my thoughts after almost two years on the platform.
The first thing I suggest to any new user that is trying to figure out how to be "successful on the platform" is to actively participate and use the platform in a genuine manner. What I mean by that is to actively consume content and interact with other users. It doesn't matter if you are crafting literary gold and are an award winning author if no one can find or does find your work. Obviously, I've already pointed out we have limited search functionality at the moment, so how can the average user get seen without spending hundreds of dollars worth of crypto on bidbots?
I generally suggest new users spend time reading posts in each tag that actually interests them. This will first and foremost teach them the importance of proper tag usage for their content, but also help them find other authors and communities that they may be interested in. The second thing I suggest is to comment and interact with the other users that they find. Genuine interaction is something that we can't seem to get enough of here on the platform, so proving that you are a real human and actually have something to say about another person's content often provides value that can and will come back to you.
When we comment on someone else's posts, we initiate interaction with that user, but also we put our names in front of anyone else that looks at that post. If people like what you have to say, they can interact with you there or find your page and see what you're working on too. In general, don't expect people to just find you, sure there are curators that are actively looking for new authors, but there aren't enough of them to expect to be curated regularly. We tend to get what we give in terms of genuine interaction.
The other thing I suggest is to not chase trends or what you think people want you to post about. That is a surefire way to burn out and make this whole experience feel very results oriented. We are not guaranteed any amount of money for creating a post and if we aren't creating something that we're genuinely passionate about, it's easy to feel like it's not worth it. That being said, interacting with other users is still key to helping people find you're work no matter what you are posting.
This brings me to the last big thing that has actually evolved a bit since the last time I wrote about this topic. Utilize the applications for the platform that you actually enjoy and find value in. Applications need users and many of them will reward you for being an active user. I create the majority of my posts on busy.org and sometimes I get rewarded for that. I may also use other applications from time to time like @dlive, @dsound, or @musing. I don't expect them to pay me to post there, I use them because I like the platform and I want to see them succeed, if they value me in return, it's always a nice boost and feels satisfying as well.
Many of these applications are a great way to network with users that are interested in similar content and also help develop platforms that you are interested in using for yourself. Try to avoid looking at everything on the platform as some kind of tool to extract value from the rewards pool and instead consider this: How can I add value to the platform? I believe that when we add value to the platform and approach things with this mindset, we can often be surprised at how well we are rewarded for doing something that we genuinely enjoy doing. These are just my thoughts, but I hope they help to understand the perspective that I approach the platform with. Namaste.