I signed up for Steemit on the on the 29th of June not really knowing what to expect.
After a busy weekend working, I snooped around on the Monday evening and sat down and did my introduction on the Tuesday evening which was 8 days ago. Since then I have picked up 76 followers and watched my rating jump up almost 20 points.
The first few days were frustrating and confusing, after spelling the first and most important introduceyourself tag incorrectly and not being able to alter it, I was gutted. Further struggling with html and markdown and still am struggling very much so with this I just tried to do the best I could.
Trying to navigate my way around all the other posts, and seeing how successful other people were, I felt like I was over my head and had no idea how to get my posts noticed. I then put my heart and soul into my first nutrition based post only to have it copied, and I almost withdrew at that point. Feeling a bit like 'what's the point'.
But Steemit showed me what it's all about, the community came to my aid and uplifted my spirits tremendously. I then found some amazing posts on topics that really interest me and got involved with the discussions on those threads, not really expecting to be paid attention to, but people almost always respond regardless of how much higher they rank than you. Everyone is so encouraging.
I put my efforts into learning how to use Steemit properly, I watched video's, I read other's blogs and the most helpful thing for my self I found was to actually read the very well laid out FAQ section on here, if you're new, READ IT. I wish I had done that first.
By really engaging in the community and throwing my self out there, taking my time to write blogs to the best of ability at the moment, and watched my account grow far more than I expected. I feel so over the moon with this and I just want to say thank you to all of my supporters and everyone who's taken the time to upvote my posts or comments and also write on my posts, and also a special thanks to 
My very first payout happened early hours of this morning, and I stayed up late to watch it come in, it's not made me rich by a long shot, but it means the world to me that I have somewhere to splurge all my knowledge and thoughts, I can talk to others on the same wavelength, learn new things from other people and actually earn some rewards in the process. What a joy.
So any newbies joining up feeling totally overwhelmed and deflated, don't be. Do your research and GET INVOLVED.
If anyone has any blogs about markdown etc, and I mean basic ones, not just a list of codes, I'm looking at it and it might as well be in Japanese, please feel free to link them in the comments it would be much appreciated.
Diolch Yn Fawr! (Thank you very much)