Hi everybody, I am very new to Steemit, just joined and trying to get a grasp of how it works.  In fact this is my first comment. Thanks for the heads up @demotruk, wanted to write an introductory post, but I guess will comment instead till the community will get to know me better.  :)

I think it's a bottleneck of Steemit that without followers you are nothing even if you create a great content.

<H1>Helping Hands</H1>
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        <em><a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/gondar-information-hub/images/helpinghandicon.jpg">image source</a></em>
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Maybe it's down to the community to share new members work? Most of the other social media platforms work on a referral, repost, share, retweet, basis you know the kind of thing, I share someone's post, people in my timeline/followers see it, then think <em>He/She looks fun, I'll follow them and give them a re-share too."</em> and so you build traction from there.<br /><br />

<em>Support your local Newbie, repost today!</em>

I don't know, I usually start with the new posts.

I'm very new to the blog game, but find the have old philosophy of if you build it, they will come.  I have only got 15 followers, cant imagine the response with a few hundred.  I say this regularly, I'm awed by this platform.

I've never thought of it that way. Thanks for this great piece of advice!

As well as commenting first, I think the introduction blog is very important.  Depending on how well it is written, your intro can attract like minded steemians you can follow and in turn you can drill down deeper to further find like minded steemians to follow/comment/vote to build your network..

This guy copied from my post, seems he did the same with yours:
https://steemit.com/comments/@steemitonline/brilliant-news-quick-tips-for-new-user-blog-vote-post-earn

Great advice @demotruk! Never put your cart before your horse:)

I've built a following over the last 9 months and that's largely by commenting. You have to make people interested enough to check you out. It's worth having some posts on your profile to encourage them to follow you. Just commenting 'nice post' may not get you anywhere, but I see people do it anyway. I don't respond to those who do 'follow for follow'.

Still new to the platform, than you for writing post for beginners!