Featuring and Rewarding Steemit’s Original Content
Blog Spotlight, Issue 3
Featuring and Rewarding Steemit’s Original Content
Curated by 
Other submissions and comments are always welcome from the community. For submission guidelines, scroll to the bottom of this post.
Links to previous issues of the newsletter appear at the bottom of this post.
It’s Working! Outside Bloggers are Coming to Steemit!
As you know, we have a $300 contest running for the most popular guest post by a blogger with an established blog outside of Steemit. Steemians, you also can make $200 for referring an outside blogger who wins this contest.
To date, we have at least five GREAT submissions. These bloggers also are sending us some of their followers and friends to upvote their posts, and that is a great way to bring in more people to try out Steemit. These blog posts from outside bloggers will be the subject of a separate feature as we get closer to the contest, so they will not be included in this newsletter issue. Here is the link to the contest announcement:
https://steemit.com/blogspotlight/@donkeypong/300-reward-for-the-most-popular-guest-blog-post-200-finders-fee
Featured Original Blog Posts, Worthy of Being Read and Upvoted
Such Wow, an original song on Steemit! This one has barely been noticed by voters and I almost missed it myself. People have dumped so many YouTube links in # music and # videos that this man’s original submission fell through the cracks. Thanks to 
Not only did he post a video of himself singing, but also the written lyrics. Dude, what a voice! Future frontman there. Come on, this guy recorded a heartfelt song and posted it. Give him some upvotes for both the effort and results!
https://steemit.com/music/@proggr/you-came-you-saw-such-wow--original-song
Let’s thank 
https://steemit.com/science-education/@dorit-israeli/water-ose
Maybe Tuck should have tagged this one in # humor or # funny instead. It was a well-designed satirical post. At least much of it is satirical until you get to this part where he makes his intent rather clear: “The code's no different from the last 49 guides, but this time the title says, "ELI5", "For Dummies" or "The Easiest" ... so you click it. What not one of the guides will tell you is that you're an idiot. Why are you an idiot? Because you and many others continue clicking the upvote button on each one of these copypasta guides, wasting the funds that were to be donated to new user adoption when a Markdown syntax guide is linked to on the page where you post!”
Now that’s a manifesto to remind us we are supposed to be upvoting original content! And some of us still don’t use much markdown (sometimes, I kind of like to see the bare links like this):
https://steemit.com/steem/@tuck-fheman/the-1-reason-why-you-need-to-make-a-markdown-syntax-guide
Just in time for summer. This “how to” blog post deservedly received lots of upvotes already. Though I normally like to highlight posts that haven’t received as much notice, 
https://steemit.com/barbecue/@lovelace/make-an-experts-side-smoker-from-a-200-char-griller-smokin-pro
This is a nice blog post documenting how 
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@bleepcoin/my-crypto-journey
In this age of video, the photo essay is underappreciated. Here is one in which 
If you have an idea for a good blog post, give it a try. As the author J.K. Rowling wrote, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
https://steemit.com/harrypotter/@ash/harry-potter-london--a-quotation-journey
If the only posts you upvote are STEEM-related, then Steemit risks becoming a circle jerk. Apart from its financial rewards, Steemit is a great forum to post anything related to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and companies in the crypto space. We are all in this together. Think of what would happen if the Bitcointalk forum moved some of its discussion action over here or if new coins decide to use Steemit to host their forums. They’re crazy not to do so, since they could be earning money right now. And we would get a lot more users and volume.
Here is an honest and descriptive blog post by 
https://steemit.com/bitcash/@officialbitcash/bootstrapped-a-startups-journey-why-blog
Look for a Special Feature Issue on Outside Bloggers, Coming Soon
The newsletter will have a special feature soon to feature guest blog posts from outside bloggers, several of whom have been posting up a storm on Steemit. Don’t forget, guys and gals, we want you to bring your followers/friends/members/subscribers to Steemit, also. They can give you more upvotes!
Submissions and Comments
Submitting Your Blog to the Spotlight: If you have another independent and original blog post to recommend from writers, blog authors, photographers, videographers, journalists, commentators, moviemakers, music artists, visual artists, or other fresh content creators, then please reply to this post and include the link in your posting. Other readers may upvote these also, and all ‘reply submissions’ will be considered for featured spots in upcoming issues of the Blog Spotlight.
Criteria for Evaluation: All featured blog posts are evaluated based on their originality and included here if the curator feels they help make Steemit a better place. The curator does his best to establish that these posts contain unique content, and that work includes cross-checking the content online. This is harder to do with videos and some photos, so as always, the community may decide which posts are most deserving of its upvotes.
Community comments are always welcome. Just reply to the newsletter posting thread here in #blogspotlight.
Link to Issue 1: https://steemit.com/blogspotlight/@donkeypong/steemit-blog-spotlight-issue-1
Link to Issue 2: https://steemit.com/blogspotlight/@donkeypong/steemit-blog-spotlight-newsletter-issue-2