Getting Started: 5 Essential Tips for New Users

in #introduceyourself6 years ago (edited)

Hello everyone!

When we started using Steemit, we found the onboarding process to be quite complex and daunting. We felt it wasn't easy learning the ropes and getting comfortable with. Sure there was an FAQ section, but somehow we didn't find it the best place to turn to for a quick start guide. The community is there as are all the information, but they seem to be all over the place. At that time, we almost gave up.

We're glad we didn't! We have since gotten over the hump and are now enjoying Steemit very much. And we want to share each of the things we have learned to all the new users out there. We earnestly hope they won't experience the same difficulty as we had on their own onboarding.

So as when time permits, we will be writing a series of posts to share information that we believe will benefit new users. However, if there is something that's bugging you now that you would need answers right away, please do not hesitate to leave us a comment below.

5 Steem Essentials


To start with, here is a 5 minute read on 5 of the most essential tips that we believe will help facilitate your onboarding process here:

I. Keep Your Passwords Safe

When you first sign up with Steemit, you'll be given a Master Password (this usually starts with a P). What you may not be told is that your Steemit account actually has 4 types of passwords (or private keys as they are called). Each offers varying degree of access to your account, so you'll need to secure all 4 keys.

  1. Posting Key - This key gives you access to writing posts, writing comments and upvoting posts. Use this key when logging in to Steemit, as these are the activities you'll be doing 95% of the time.
  2. Active Key - This key enables you to perform wallet-related transactions such as sending Steem or Steem Dollars to another user. Use this key only when doing these operations.
  3. Master Password or Owner Key - Among the 4 keys, this is the key that you should not lose! This key gives you full control on all aspect of your account, including changing your private keys. We recommend you use this key only for changing private keys. (On all other occasions, use your Posting Key or Active Key).
  4. Memo Key - We have not really found an instance where the memo key is needed at this time. Nevertheless keep it safe and secure together with the others.

To learn more about private keys, please click here.

II. Get Steem Rewards

Steemit gives out 2 types of rewards:

  • Author rewards - These are rewards you get on posts that you write. Your reward will be based on the total amount of the upvotes received for each of your post.
  • Curation rewards - These are rewards you get when you upvote a post.

A good site to check your reward summary is SteemNow.

When you write a post, you have the option to choose how Steem pays your author reward: "Default 50% / 50%" or "Power Up 100%".

  • Default 50% / 50% - This means 50% of your payout will be in Steem Dollars (SBD) and the other 50% of your payout will be in Steem Power (SP)
  • Power Up 100% - This means 100% of your payout will be in Steem Power (SP)

Which option is preferred will change over time. It is a function of the current SBD-to-USD exchange rate. In particular, our guideline is as follows: If the exchange rate of SBD is greater than US$1.00, we recommend choosing the Default 50% / 50% option. Otherwise, choose the Power Up 100% option.

Based on this guideline, the SBD/USD exchange rate at the time of writing is 1 SBD = US$1.70. Therefore, it is better to choose the Default 50% / 50% option.

To learn more on this, please click here.

III. Upvote Wisely

You are free to upvote any post you find interesting and appreciate. Just keep in mind the following two things before you start upvoting at will:

  • Wait 30 Minutes - You will get the maximum curation reward if you wait at least 30 minutes after the post is published. To learn more on this, please click here.
  • Pace Your Upvotes - Make sure you do not upvote too much too fast. Each of our account is associated with a Voting Power (VP). Every time you upvote a post, 2% of your VP is drained. Your VP does recharge over time. As an example, the 2% drain will recharge in 2 hours and 24 minutes. (The daily recharge rate is 20% per day.) Upvoting too much too fast will cause you to drain VP faster than it can recharge. Once your VP drains to 0%, you won't be able to upvote any more posts and will take 5 days for your VP to fully recharge. To learn more on this, please click here.

IV. Know your Steem and Steem Dollars (and Steem Power too)

Steem and Steem Dollars are the 2 main currencies here in Steemit.

  • Steem - This is the primary cryptocurrency used here in Steemit, similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc. Here in Steemit, the main thing you can do with Steem is power it up into Steem Power. 1 Steem will always be 1 Steem Power.
  • Steem Power (SP) - This will dictate how much value is being generated by your upvotes. The more SP you have, the higher will be the amount of your upvotes.
  • Steem Dollars (SBD) is meant to be a price-stable currency pegged at US$1.00. However, in practice, the exchange rate can actually fluctuate significantly. From our experience, the main usage of SBD has been for trading, for conversion with Steem, and for sending and receiving to and from other users in exchange for services.

To learn more about this, please click here.

V. Have Fun and Enjoy!

Lastly, we cannot emphasize this enough. For you to have a long, successful experience in Steemit, have fun and enjoy what you are doing. We've encountered a lot of Steemians who are very passionate with what they do.

What's Next

If you find this useful and believe it can benefit someone, please feel free to share this post or re-steem this on your account.

If you have a burning question that you are not certain where to seek help, please feel free to write a comment below.

Lastly, please follow us should you wish to stay updated on future posts and learn more tips on maximizing your Steem experience.

Thank you and best of luck! We wish you all the best on your Steemit journey.

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Welcome to Steemit @steemsociety!

I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.

Yes, I love Crpto too! Lots of detailed analysis on my blog along with some predictions

Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?

Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit be truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman

very nice , Informative post to understand the feature and security level of Steemit.

Welcome to Steemit steemsociety. Let me know if you got any questions about Steem or anything related to it! The official FAQ can be found here and has A LOT of information https://steemit.com/faq.html - Also remember, Steemit is just ONE of the sites built that uses Steem the blockchain. We also have DTube - our very own Youtube, DSound for Soundcloud and Steepshot if you prefer Instagram like experience. I'd also like to mention ChainBB - forums, Busy - Steemit with more modern look basically, DMania for memes and Dlive for streaming just like in Twitch! Welcome to the blockchain

And we have Steemify from @blockbrothers which is great and FREE!

Thanks, I'm fairly new so Steemit this kind of curation is really helpful. I had no idea about the VP drain/replenish cycle! Will follow.
@danielbliss

Hi @danielbliss, glad this info helped. Key thing to remember is Voting Power recharges or replenishes 20% per day. Since it drains 2% when you upvote, it essentially means that to be able to maintain 100% Voting Power every day, you can do up to 10 upvotes in a day.

same. Honestly it seems pretty convoluted and makes me feel like I'm gonna 'do it wrong' without reading and fully comprehending it all....which, TBH, i'm probably not going to get around to doing.

Do we lose steem if we comment or post too much? Or is it just voting? Cause I can blab all day, but maybe this is set up to discourage that....

Either way: Hi!

Thx for that quite informative post. Keep up with creating interesting content.
I know it's hard at the beginning to build solid follower base. But just don't give up. Steemits needs solid content builders.

Already followed and upvoted :) Cheers,

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Thanks for Shaing, Gracias por compartir post de este tipo con los usuarios de Steemit

You're welcome and I hope it has helped.

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Congratulations @steemsociety! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Upvote this notification to help all Steemit users. Learn why here!

Thanks. Quite informative. I didn't know about the VP drainage and recharging prior to now. I sure have a lot more to learn going forward. Thanks again.

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