Dear Minnows,
It is great to see so many new users signing up and checking out SteemIt. I understand it can be a tough start up process.
While I hope over the last 9 months we have made some progress with on-boarding, I want to hear your experience. I also want to help a bit. Although, I think technically I am still a minnow, things change quickly as you develop your account.
Over the next week, I will be making a series of posts geared towards helping minnows get established, and also managing your expectations.
A few quick things:
- You will likely not trend or earn a lot right away, it take time to build a following, getting votes from those who have SP is your goal, and it has to be earned.
- Like anywhere else that you join or work your influence builds over time.
- There are voting bots and not all votes are equal. Votes are weighted with the Steem Power the account holds (At least for now) So, accounts that have been established and that hold a lot of Steem Power are the votes you want if your goal is earning.
- Flags and down-votes happen - When someone flags or down-votes your post it can reduce or remove the value of the votes you have received, changing the potential payout of your post. Don't "bank" on having those rewards until the pay-out has occurred.
- You will see posts calling out other users, criticizing the site, making allegations, I got caught up in this when I was new and it wasn't helpful. My suggestion is to make sure you understand the site and the users a bit, before you get sucked into the rabbit hole of "It isn't fair or so and so is cheating".
- Just have fun, post about what you know or are interested in. Post some questions, find some challenges, make comments. More on this in my next minnow post.
- Most important... Make some friends! Networking is a part of this game.
Take care in the oceans of SteemIt, one post can hurt your reputation. Don't drink and Steem. ;) (kidding, err mostly)
If you are a minnow that feels you are producing interesting and engaging content and you just haven't gotten any traction please comment and leave me a link to a open post. Also, check out 
Best of luck in the Sea of Steem, there is no guarantee of success - like anything else, keep trying and you will get better at it and also learn some of the finer points of success.
Welcome and enjoy remember you are among those savvy enough to recognize this is a sexy, cutting edge experiment, rough around the edges, but really cool for those who can handle it.
Say Hi in the comments!
https://steemit.com/faq/@timcliff/major-updates-to-the-steemit-com-faq-page-pull-request-submitted