Over the past few days I have had a few different users, ask me for advice on what to do now they are on steemit.
As I have also been attempting to get some of my family and friends to join, but they seem to be facing some mental roadblocks that are preventing them from joining and thriving on steemit.
So I have decided to do a simple breakdown post, to try to help explain some of the most common questions I have been getting and the best advice I can provide to try to give the easiest non tech response to people's questions.
Please note that I am not a developer and I have little to no tech experience, but I have been an active user on the platform for going on 11 months now and I have figured out so much in that time - I wish someone could have just told me all of this when I first started, so here it goes.
Where to start?:
After you have created your account things can get a little daunting at first, users are often keen but unsure where to start their journey.
So my advice is to, figure out what it is you hope to get out of steemit?
You need to decide if you want to be a content creator(post), a curator (voter), a commenter or a combination of the three?
How much time and energy do you want to put into your success on steemit?
Answer these questions and you will know what it is you want to do, the next step is learning how to do it.
There really are so many possibilities on here and it's all up to you, how you participate and interact with the platform and it's users.
I think steemit is like life, it's good to diversify your investment (your time) I try to be involved in all aspects I can I post, vote, comment and resteem.
Posting:
What to post:
Posting is for the content creators and you can do pretty much anything you can think of here on steemit, from art, to political, to crypto and even simple blogs - any topic that interests you is the perfect topic for you to post on.
Unsure what to write at first write about what you know, your job, your life, your interests and if you're passionate and knowledgeable about it's easy to create a post.
If you wanted you can even document yourself learning something new, research it and then present it to others to use as a resource - the possibilities really are endless.
Benefits to posting:
- You have a greater chance of receiving a higher payout than with commenting alone
- You are more visible to other users giving you a better chance to gain followers
- You get to put your own original content out into the world for a possible reward you wouldn't normally receive
- You have the potential to earn money for your time and effort
- You have the opportunity to influence the community
- Your original work is protected by the blockchain
- You have the opportunity to engage with your readers and get feedback
Drawbacks to posting:
- Posting quality content can be very time consuming
- You are never guaranteed a financial reward for your time and effort
- Maintaining regular original content can be difficult to achieve
- What you create is on the blockchain forever, you can't just delete it and think it's gone
- Your work is out there and others are free to judge it publicly
- No matter how hard you work there is always the possibility of going unnoticed by the masses
- It can take a long time to build a loyal following
Advice on creating quality posts:
Here are some tips to help enhance the quality of your posts.
Layout:
- Try to always include an image with your post, this helps attract readers and break up any text
- Spread your images out across the entire post, rather than have them all bundled together at the end
- Try incorporating headings and subheadings to help break up a post
- Look over your work, does it flow well when you look over the post?
Formatting:
- Center align images if they are small, simply wrap the image in
<center> </center> - For Italics wrap the desired text in single asterisks like this
*italics text* - For bolding text wrap it in double asterisks like this
**bolded text** - For headings wrap the text in
<h4> </h4>the smaller the number the larger the heading - To add images to a post you can either upload off your computer or simply copy image and then paste it where you want it to display and it will be uploaded
General Advice:
- Break bulky text up into smaller paragraphs, this makes for easier reading
- Always edit your posts, even after edits I find typos and mistakes
- Source all of the images you used, I also provide links to the originals
- Include a personalised footer with your details, just don't make it pages long
- Remember to source all of your references, let people know where you got your information
- Try not to post a single image with only a line or two of text
- If your post is large consider breaking it up into multiple posts
- Only use appropriate tags
- If you have adult content please ensure you tag it NSFW
Commenting:
As with posting you can also earn by writing quality comments, though realistically at this point you are likely to earn considerably less.
Commenting allows you to interact with the community without having the pressure to create your own content, leave a quality comment and chances are you may gain a new follower - this increases your chances for higher payouts.
There really aren't too many drawbacks to commenting, it can be time consuming to read through larger articles and then leave a detailed and meaningful comment - the bigger the article you're reading the less time you have to find others and comment.
With commenting though you would almost always be including a vote, so what you're really doing is showing an interest in a post you want or think will do well and helping it succeed by showing there's interest in it - this will drive more voters and increase your chances of higher payouts.
Advice For Comments:
- Leave a comment worthy of a reply
- Don't just comment 'great post' or 'upvoted' one or two word comments show a lack of effort and could make people think you didn't even read the post
- Do not spam the same comment on every post you encounter - this will likely get flagged
- Try and provide feedback or insight
- Generally try not to be offensive or rude - hate speech can also result in flags
- Don't paste irrelevant links into comments
- Don't ask for vote swapping
- Same goes for following
- Don't ask people to visit your page in someone else's post
Curation and Resteeming:
I am combining curation (voting) and the resteem feature, because I believe the two go hand in hand together.
One of the beautiful things about steemit is that even if all you want to do is vote, you can still earn money.
Another way to increase this is to resteem the post after you have voted, you resteem more people will see it and vote and then you earn a higher amount as a result - it really goes the same for commenting as well.
Every user on the platform is incentivised to vote and resteem posts, to increase the potential of their vote earning them some curation rewards - this leads to an overall tendency to vote on as many posts as possible.
Advice For Curating and Resteeming:
- Try to only choose high quality posts to resteem
- Join a trusted curation trail to help you maximise your voting potential
- Vote around the 30 minute mark to maximise earning potential
- When voting a slider will appear, choose the weight of the vote you wish to give then hit enter
- The more people who vote after you place your vote the higher your potential earnings will be
My General Advice:
- Do not plagiarize, there are people on here dedicated to finding plagiarism and flagging the relevant accounts
- Always remember to source your images and provide any references you used for your post
- Don't use hate speech, racism or threaten someone with violence
- If you find plagiarism let
know about it
- Don't spam the platform
- Generally just try to be nice and thoughtful when interacting with others and remember to enjoy yourself
Helpful Resources:
Steemit Quick Start Guide:
This is the guide provided by steemit for new users, it is full of detailed information on all the topic I have covered in this post - plus plenty more valuable information for new users to really gain an understanding of the platform.
I strongly urge all new users to go and check it out, especially if you want further clarification on the many aspects of steem.
This was created by a lot of steemians, but a special mention goes to 
Steemit FAQ:
This contains useful information to all users but especially new members on the platform, it explains other aspects of steemit like the reputation system, how to secure your account, the economics that back the system and even the blockchain.
If you are unsure of anything it is always worth heading there, to find out if the answer to your question has already been provided.
This was created by a lot of steemians coming together to help the community at large.
Steemit Chat:
Having access to the chat immediately helps new users have more reach, there are a plethora of post promotion channels available to advertise your posts - plus plenty of other rooms ranging from the abuse channel to general discussion to more focussed areas.
There are so many benefits to using steemit chat I can't list everything, but I can try and stress just how valuable this resource is when used well - this tool was created by 
Steemd:
Steemd is great for users to be able to view all activity on their account, from votes to comments and flags, incoming and outgoing - it's like an active view of activity rather than the content itself.
Just add /@yourusername to see your account's activity now, this tool was created by 
Steemdb:
Steemdb is an amazing tool for all users it offers and in depth view of your account, this includes things like followers and following, all of your posts and comments etc.
Simply add /@username to the address to view your account, this tool was created by 
Steem Center:
This is a shared wiki organised by 
Steemstats:
This is a really handy tool, which allows you to not only watch over your account and posts etc. but anyone's username that you add to watch.
Steemwhales:
This tool allows users to chart their long term progress on steem with an analytics style site, as well as rankings, trending curator lists and few other features.
Steemwatch:
Steemwatch is a notification system that allows you to tailor your alerts to suit your needs and it was created by 
Streemian:
Streemian is a site that allows users to automatically vote on users posts you deem worthy, it also allows users to join curation trails - this was created by 
Pending Payouts:
This tool allows users to calculate their potential post and comment payouts, it includes all active posts with a potential payout - it was created by 
Busy:
Busy is a site that allows users to view the steem blockchain through a different view and layout, it also provides a few more features like estimated reading time etc. - it was created by 
Esteem:
This is a mobile app, for using steem - it was created by 
Steemviz:
This site allows users to monitor all activity on the steemit site live, this means all posts, comments, votes even transfers and deletions - it was created by
Steemtools:
This site offers a directory of all the best tools and apps for steem, created and run by top witness 
Sweetsssj's tips to successful lifestyle blogging on Steemit:
This is a recent post by long time user 
Steemit is a platform where you can choose how little or how much you want to participate, there is no right or wrong way of doing things and this is just some of the ways I have tried to make my work more valued.
As I mentioned earlier these are not rules, just suggestions that you can either take on board or completely disregard it.
I hope that this post has helped new users know where to start and how to go about it, there are a heap of resources out there to make your life easier for new users - you just have to look for them.
What was the hardest part of starting on steemit for you?
Check out my story
or follow me on twitter @krystlehaines