Curie Curator Journal - Week 1 (Jan. 23 - Jan. 28) A Learning Curve

As part of my journey here on SteemIt and as a Curie Curator I want to keep a sort of journal of how things goes. My purpose in doing this is to not only keep track of everything I have done, but also to spotlight those that I submitted and had accepted, but also especially the ones that didn't get accepted so they might get a little exposure.

Also, for those out there who are part of the Newbie ReSteem Initiative #newbieresteemday who might want to send info on the exceptional posts they find, it might give you an idea of what to be on the lookout for. Of course, don't stay constrained inside a certain box, a certain type, just use these posts as a bit of a guideline.

The Learning Curve

After I had my mentor (and now friend) @carlgnash convinced I was Curie material he began helping me and teaching me. During the timeframe that we had to wait for him to be eligible to nominate me as a curator I found two great posts in like 90 minutes. I was like, "OK, this seems easier than I thought it would be." Looking back now, I do think it was a bit of beginner's luck and great timing that allowed me to find those so quickly.

Since I was not yet a curator and could not submit them, Carl did instead. Why waste two great posts and also have two authors miss out on the chance for the big upvote. They were both accepted, and here they are. Of course they are now closed, but you can still check them and their authors out.

A day on set with Judge Judy -- or -- Proof that I was right
by @jpgaltmiller
This was a great post about @jpgaltmiller frustrating day at work on the set of Judge Judy with some humor mixed in.

Payout: $111.44, Upvotes: 31, Comments: 18


Freezing My A** Off: First Visit to Cryotherapy
by @magistra
This one was a fun story about @magistra 's first venture into something that seems alien to most of us, a Cryo-Therapy chamber.
Payout: $105.40, Upvotes: 33, Comments: 11

After I was officially accepted as a Curie Curator my next submissions were no-brainers. I had two "ringers" set up, two women who I met in the comment section of my own posts and then followed and have become friends with now. These women were definitely going to be posting something I could submit, something that deserved and needed to be shared with the masses. It was just a matter of timing, and not surprisingly their timing was perfect. Within an hour of my Curie acceptance one of them had posted the perfect story that had to be shared, and then not long after the other posted some of her amazing original art. So my Curie career was easily off and running.

Now before I share the posts I submitted I need to explain that when we submit a post we are allowed to add a comment to it for the Reviewers to see, something to maybe convince them that it needs to be accepted and upvoted by Curie, our "pitch" if you will. I will be sharing these comments in these posts, and I will be referring to them as "My Pitch." Please keep in mind that our comments are submitted as one long line of text which is why they will appear as one big run-on paragraph here. At times my pitch might be more personal if I have an existing relationship with the person, or if I can take away enough information in what Carl would call my "deep dive" into the author and post. Basically the deep dive is just checking as many things about the post to assure it will be accepted by Curie. It includes checking things like: Has this material been posted before somewhere else?, Has the author had a big upvote history with Curie and without?, If the images aren't sourced, does Google's Reverse Image Search say they belong to someone else?, the list goes on. Carl is a great mentor and teacher telling me what to check so I can try to assure a high acceptance rate.

NOTE: Please remember that these posts are all still open. Why not head on over and check them out, upvote them, comment on them, and resteem them?

Submission #1

The Birth of a Lioness: Motherhood and Self-Transformation
by @katrina-ariel

In this post @katrina-ariel takes us along with her on her journey into motherhood and beyond. Speaking about not only the overwhelming joys of motherhood, but also the many pitfalls and losing ones old self.

Curie Status: Accepted - Pending Payout: $174.27, Upvotes: 60, Comments 43

My Pitch:

This author has been posting quality content since her first day on SteemIt. The majority of them have gone mostly unnoticed. The main exceptions being her application to become a part of a group which was then voted up by that community, and a more recent post which was pushed up by another community she is becoming a part of to support those new to SteemIt, which is exactly what we are also trying to do. Most importantly the majority of her posts are not just exceptional quality posts, but also engage the entire community. Whether it be how Rocky Horror helped her discover who she was as a teen, or this post I am submitting about becoming a mother. People identify with what she talks about, and that is a great thing for our community as a whole. She did recently get a small upvote through Curie channels, but I think she definitely deserves the big vote to help encourage her to keep up the great work she is doing and continue creating great content for us all. This post in particular deserves our vote because she talks about not only the joys of motherhood, but also many of the pitfalls. Which again many will identify with and in turn engage with her and her post.

Submission #2

Green Eyed Girl ( Digital Art and Process)
by @krishnendukj
This post was all about @krishnendukj 's first venture into using Photoshop for her digital art. One of the things I loved about her posts is that she doesn't just post a photo of her art and say "here look", she actually shares the different steps that went in to making the final piece. It is fun to see the process as well as the finished piece.

Curie Status: Accepted - Pending Payout: $145.76, Upvotes: 135, Comments 42

My Pitch:

This author is a very talented artist. Her posts have gone entirely unnoticed and it is a shame because her art is so good. The highest payout she has received was a $1.69. She walks people through the different steps from rough sketch to completion. I think seeing the process is such a great touch rather than just posting a single photo of the work leaving readers to only guess what went into it. She also has a great story. She has overcome cultural stereotypes in her native India where you are generally expected to become a doctor, lawyer, or some higher level professional, and instead has always followed her love of art. Luckily her mother has been supportive of her creativity her whole life. She is currently working towards an art and graphic design degree. When I first met her it was in a comment she left on a post I had done detailing my first week on Steemit where I talked about it being slow, but how I could see the potential for growth and know it is possible to succeed as I had a couple small victories. Her comment was to thank me, a total stranger who had just encouraged her a bit in a post. Till that post she was becoming discouraged because her work was getting very little attention and exposure. She has had some small victories as well since that day thanks to another group that helps and encourages Newbies to the community. She is also in it for the long haul. Until a couple of days ago she was putting her posts in at 100% SteemPower until it was pointed out to her that with the current price structure for STEEM and SBD she would be better off going 50-50 and then exchanging SBD to STEEM and powering it up.

Like I said, I knew those two were a lock and would definitely be accepted. This is where my week of Curie submissions took a bit of a turn. A post will only be accepted if it has a less than $10 upvote at the time it is reviewed. This next submission was at either $0.61 or $1.61 when I submitted it. However in the hour following my submission someone with a big upvote came along and voted it straight up to about $35. So, when it got reviewed it was considered "Closed" and not eligible. Which is a shame I would have loved to get it the bigger upvote, but as you will see it is doing pretty good in its current state, and I am certain this author will be doing many posts that I can submit along the way.

Submission #3

The Vicious Cycle can be broken, IF you choose to LOVE!!!
by @charisma777
This post by @charisma777 shares a deeply personal story of her childhood which included domestic abuse and the turmoil caused by it. More importantly it shares the fact that you can move past it and not let it control your adult life.

Curie Status: Closed - Pending Payout: $62.51, Upvotes: 23, Comments 6

My Pitch:

This author's biggest upvote was $50.70 and that was almost a month ago. She has had a couple smaller success in the $10 range, but her posts have gone mostly unnoticed. She is an active member of a group setup to support brand new members with answers and resteeming to help them get some exposure (Newbie Resteem Initiative, which I am also a part of). She has also put her own Steem behind that project contributing to different programs there. She has tried getting an audience for the newbies, I think it is time she gets one. I am also pretty certain she will put some of what she gets from the upvote back into the community to help bring others along. This post is very personal for her, and so many out there reading will identify with her and the situation she describes. They will also hopefully find her message that you don't have to simply repeat a pattern of abuse because it happened to you and someone you love.

This next submission I think I rushed into too quickly without taking into account that with as many travel posts as there are on SteemIt that the standard has to be moved even higher than a normal post. Whether it be the text or the photos not reaching that certain level this post was not accepted. It may have been that the author does a fuller blog posting on the trip a few days before sharing all of the photos. So the reviewer may have frowned upon that. One setback of the system is I will never know exactly why. However, I still love this post and how people who may never get to see this place in person can enjoy seeing it in these photos.

Submission #4

Wander Snaps #3: The Majestic Borobudur and Prambanan Temples in Jogja, Indonesia
by @wanderlass
This post by @wanderlass whisks us away to an ancient and beautiful temple located in Indonesia. In their photos we get to see all of the ornate designs carved into the temple.

Curie Status: Not Accepted - Pending Payout: $3.37, Upvotes: 32, Comments 44

My Pitch:

This author had a previous Curie upvote, but it was a month ago. Other than that their posts have had no significant reward. They actively help Newbies even though they are still in their early days here on SteemIt. This post takes readers on a journey through an ancient spot. A spot to many that will be on the other side of the world. A spot that most will never get to see in person for themselves. The author takes them there and walks them through each photo. They even link to a more in depth post talking about their journey.

At this point I had one submission left, and it needed to be a good one! In order to hit the minimum Curator Score I wanted I had to get one more approved. Then I found this next post and knew for sure it would be approved and my searching would be over until next week. However, the universe had other plans! A fellow curator managed to submit it approximately 5-10 minutes before I had. It was still great that the post got Curied anyway, but it left me in search for another post. I am still sharing this post here though because I want to keep an accurate record of what I am doing, plus the post is REALLY good and deserves to be shared.

Submission #5 - Attempt 1

My Life in a Fat Suit - Why do We Accept Size Discrimination?
by @appiepearl
This post by @appiepearl talks about the stigma attached to being overweight. It explains the struggles and ridicule that she found after quickly gaining a lot of weight. Ridicule that even extended to her doctors who were more apt to accuse her of lying than to accept there was some underlying problem. In the end though someone helped her. (Read the post to find out the ending!)

Curie Status: Accepted (through another curator's submission) - Pending Payout: $169.60, Upvotes: 168, Comments 40

My Pitch:

This author had a Curie upvote about a week ago, but it was only for $6.99. She had one post approach $20 nearly a month ago, but the majority of her quality posts have closed out for very minor amounts. This is such a great post with an extremely important message. So many people will benefit from reading this story. So many will identify with it, this curator included. People need to advocate for themselves with their doctors to get to figure out what is wrong with them when the doctor wants to ignore things. This post could help some out there realize this.

At this point I knew I still needed that one great post to submit, but I also needed to not take any risks with a shaky submission. I guess the pressure got to me or something. I sat here for the better portion of Saturday, and overnight into Sunday hunting and searching in every way I knew how. I came across at least half a dozen I was on the fence about. Too afraid to submit, worried it would be rejected and I would miss the needed Curator Score. As the day and night went on I saw a minimum of at least 5 of the posts I had passed over get added to the Curie list, all submitted by other curators. I got frustrated and tired as it was now around 6AM Central US Time.

Then I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, a light filled with many magnificent and unusual colors. I found a post in a rather different way. Normally there is a database to search, or a feed to scroll through. This time someone in my own feed had resteemed an artist's post. I went to look at that artist's post and feed and spotted these magnificent colors in a post he had resteemed. I thought it was such a cool and unusual method used to create this man's art that it would get accepted easily. Unfortunately it was not accepted, again I do not know why. Perhaps it was the artist's short history here on SteemIt, perhaps it was that he had shared one of the photos on his Instagram feed, I just don't and will never know. Anyway, here is the post and the amazing art created in an unusual way. I am willing to bet most of my Steem that if he were to make a video showing the process or a step by step with photos that it would easily get accepted.

Submission #5 - Attempt 2

Working with Alcohol Inks - Original Art
by @electrifiedowl
Please see above for my detailed lead in to this post. It includes some great original and unusual art by @electrifiedowl .



Curie Status: Not Accepted - Pending Payout: $2.21, Upvotes: 26, Comments 13

My Pitch:

This author is new to SteemIt but he has put in some good effort in his short time here. He has next to no reward of any sort. I believe this post will catch the attention of many as it is an unusual technique that many probably don't even know about. It has already engaged people with their comments, and over 20 upvotes in its first 16 hours.

In Conclusion

In the end I had 2 approved submissions, 2 declined submissions, and 1 closed submission. Plus 1 that I was late on that was accepted from another curator. EDIT: I did forget to mention I earned 10 Steem per accepted submission for a total of 20 Steem for my first week.

As I said from the beginning there is a bit of a learning curve to adjust to. Luckily I generally learn things quickly. I am confident my stats will improve in week number two. I will once again have just five submissions due to my poor performance in week one. I plan to have a better showing this week though as I adjust my methods and research for finding great posts. I have already had two great ones proposed to me today that I unfortunately can't submit due to a technical snafu in the way we submit things. I won't be eligible to submit again until Tuesday.

Come Tuesday though I will find my five submissions and get them in as early in the week as I can. As I said, I learn quickly, and saw that there is a lack of really great posts on Saturdays in relation to the rest of the week, when you add in the fact that all the curators are trying to rush to meet their goals it can become a tedious and much harder proposition to find the right posts.

Now please go forth and create great content. And if you create it or find it somewhere feel free to alert me to it either in the designated post I plan to set up (On Tuesday now since I cannot submit until then), or find me on Discord @randomwanderings #9929 . Also let me know if you have any questions.

Once again, remember the submitted posts listed above are still open and can be upvoted. Go visit them, enjoy their posts, upvote, resteem, and maybe follow these great authors.

Finally, you might notice that two of the submissions listed here have the #womenspeakout tag. It is loaded with great content, you should go check it out.

Also, at least four of the submissions are connected to the Newbie Resteem Initiative. Be sure to check that tag out, especially if you are new to the site and could use some help with questions or to have your post resteemed to try and get you some more exposure. #newbieresteemday

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
- Mark Twain



Image Sources: All images are property of the post authors mentioned and linked to in this post unless otherwise noted within their original post.