Steem Tutorial

Complete Steemit Tutorial 2018 – How to Join Steemit & Earn Money From It!
Facebook is a company with a market capitalization worth nearly $550 billion as of today (28 Jan 2018). Twitter stands at $18 billion market cap. These two are the most famous social media and microblogging companies on the face of the internet. These big companies thrive on user base; zero users meaning no worth. Despite receiving all their revenue due to their users, they do not pay anything to them. Steemit does! Why and how? This Steemit tutorial will let you know everything you need to know how to join Steemit and how to earn money from it.

Seriously, how much do these platforms pay to their user community?
Don’t they ask for money instead to boost our posts?
Google and its AdSense program prey on hardworking webmasters to push its digital advertising business. Google was well set to make $73.8 billion in net digital ad sales in 2017. YouTube is no different because it is owned by Googles and runs on AdSense too. All of these websites either do not pay a penny to their users or share just a petty percentage of the revenue that they earn. These centralized internet monopolies have controlled the social media space for too long now. It’s time for the power to go back to the people.

Steemit brings the power back to the people. It not only rewards its users generously but also has zero advertisements placed on its website. Isn’t that incredible?

What is Steemit?
Steemit is a social media and blogging platform but is different from these so-called social media platforms. The closest thing to Steemit is Reddit. You can call Reddit the ugly and far less valuable version of Steemit which doesn’t pay anything to its dedicated community. Reddit the is number 7 website in the world and is worth $7 billion. But still, Steemit is better than it and has massive potential.

I created this tutorial in early June 2017, just after three days of joining Steemit. As I gain more experience and learn new things, I keep updating this tutorial. Last big update was in September 2017. The latest update is sort of an overhaul of the whole post due to my increased exposure to how Steemit works.

To understand what Steemit is and how it works, you will have to read each article and watch every video that I’m going to include in this article. Reading thoroughly will help you in the long-term as well, and you will be able to get maximum benefit out of this exciting platform.

Article # 1: An Absolute Beginner’s Steemit FAQ

Here are three of the most fundamental questions about Steemit and their answers from the above-linked article.

Q: What is Steemit?
A: Steemit is a social media/blogging platform but it is based on Steem blockchain.

Q: What is Steem Blockchain?
A: The blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency which stores cryptocurrency coins. For example, Bitcoins are stored on its own blockchain.

Q: What is Steem?
A: Steem is the cryptocurrency of the Steemit platform. It would be more appropriate to say that Steemit is powered by its cryptocurrency called Steem.

On Steemit, if you are considered an author worth upvoting, you will get rewards. If you appreciate others’ content with your upvote, you will get rewards. If you use different services built on top of main Steem blockchain, you will get rewarded. And if you post crappy and copy-paste content, you will be punished as well. Keep that in mind.

How Does Steemit Reward Its Users?
Steemit Inc. is a company which primarily isn’t a social media or blogging platform. It is an application powered by Steem blockchain, which is like the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin, which has cryptocurrency of its own called Steem. Steemit rewards Proof of Brain. There are two ways of earning on Steemit using your brain, which are briefly mentioned below.

Author Rewards: When you publish a post or a comment and other users upvote it, you earn author rewards.
Curation Rewards: When another user publishes a post or comment, and you determine it to be valuable enough to upvote it, you get rewarded a share of the value of your upvote as curation reward.
Creating content and upvoting content based on its quality both are activities done using the brain, hence Proof of Brain. So, Steemit rewards the use of brain (and I personally love the concept!).

Steemit users are rewarded tokens from Reward Pool which is a result annual inflation. Starting from December 2016, every year a percentage of new Steem tokens are created (a process called inflation) and allotted to the reward pool. Current inflation rate is 9.5 {51dd7ed95205891393782e36461aa0d439b6d3b9828c25a34c6c88cac41da828} and an annual decrease of approx 0.5 {51dd7ed95205891393782e36461aa0d439b6d3b9828c25a34c6c88cac41da828} is planned annually until the inflation rate drops to just 0.95 {51dd7ed95205891393782e36461aa0d439b6d3b9828c25a34c6c88cac41da828} in about 20 years time. Current supply of Steem tokens is 264,519,880 so annualy, a percentage of current supply at that time is inflated.

To learn deeply about Steemit reward system, how it works, and why Steemit rewards its users, you should study the following articles. If it helps motivate you, do look at the rewards too. The posts are written by me and have been rewarded generously.

Article # 2 (a): Understanding Steemit : Learn About Steem Economy & Currencies Powered By The Steem Blockchain!
Article # 2 (b): Understanding Steemit : Know How Steemit Reward System Works and How Rewards Are Distributed!

I have been a member of Steemit since early June 2017 and have started receiving good rewards. In fact, I have always been acknowledged for the quality of my content. Therefore, I am sharing a screenshot of my personal Steemit blog to show you why I speak so highly of Steem.

My Recent Steemit Rewards

Disclaimer: These incomes depend on investment in Steemit in form of time, effort and/or money. Do not expect massive rewards in the beginning. There is no easy money!

How to Join Steemit?
Since it is a platform based on the blockchain, it doesn’t let everyone sign up immediately because an account on Steem blockchain needs a protocol to be followed. Here’s how to join.

Go to sign up page and enter your details (and please sign up with your genuine email).
You will receive a notice that account is under approval.
Once the account is approved, you will get an email.
Open that email and complete your sign up.
Keep your password/key/WIF (same things) safe and write it down somewhere (both digitally and on paper) because once lost, your account and the amount stored in it will not be recoverable.
Now that you have signed up and got your account approved, it is time to follow the one who brought Steemit to your life. I would love to welcome and support you there. As of now, this is how my profile looks. My followers are increasing rapidly due to my content being deemed useful and of high quality by the community.

My Steemit Blog

To follow me, simply go to my Steemit blog and click follow. You need to be a member and signed to do that.

How to Set Up Your Profile?
After logging in, the next thing to do is to update your profile settings. As the profile uploading procedure is a bit different to other social media platforms, I’ll quickly cover the settings for you. Here you go.

To update profile picture, you will have to upload the image to the web first.

Go to CTRLQ website. If the site doesn’t work, try any of these 16 free image hosting sites.
Click the Upload Picture button and select your profile picture from the storage.
CTRLQ Screenshot
After some processing, the image will be uploaded, and you will see its link (not the image itself).
Copy URL
Copy the URL (image link) as shown above.
Paste it into the Profile Picture URL box in your settings page on Steemit.
Different websites have different layout and options but the process is same. You have to upload your image and copy its URL to save in settings. When more than one links are available, choose the one having the file extension (.jpg, .png etc.) at the end. If you still have any trouble, visit the latest Steemit profile picture guide by me which has more options explained.

Going quickly through the remaining settings.

Language: Choose your language. Almost all major languages are supported. More are being added.
Display Name: Write your name or the name you wish to use on Steemit.
About: Write some lines about yourself or the purpose of your account.
Location: Write the name of your city and/or country.
Website: If you have a website like I have this one, write it down. You can also link to your social media.
Steemit Settings
This is where profile picture, cover URLs are to pasted after following upload procedure.

That’s it. You are done with settings. Don’t forget to hit the Update button.

You can also see the Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content visibility settings. NSFW content means nudity, violence etc. I always hide it. It can be revealed manually but hiding it keeps the user experience safe even if children are around.

How to Start Using Steemit?
Now that your account is set up and your profile is complete, here are a few things you would want to know before starting your Steemit journey.

Steemit rewards value creation. To ascertain the value, it has a system which determines how valuable your content is and how valuable you are.Reputation Score: At the beginning, your reputation score is 25. As you contribute more towards the community, your reputation grows. People with less reputation earn fewer rewards and have less influence. Do increase your reputation to earn more. Reputation only increases when you receive a monetary reward on your post and comments.
Followers: New posts stay in the New section of the website for literally a few seconds before they are taken over by the newest posts. The only way to make your posts visible to people is that they see it in their home feed. It is only possible if you have followers. So followers help your content be visible and thus create more interactions and earn more rewards.
Posts, Comments & Upvotes: These three activities are at the core of your contribution to the community. The more value you contribute, the more rewards you get.
Reward Types: Steemit rewards its contributors in three ways. These are Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars. They are briefly explained later.
Now let me briefly discuss reputation score and reward types.

How is Reputation Score Calculated?
To get a detailed answer, read the following article by me.

Article # 3: Steemit Reputation Score 101

However, I am going to copy the gist of the above article here.

Upvotes you get on your content—posts and comments—are the only variable related to your reputation score. However, upvotes/downvotes by negative reputation holders cannot affect reputation score of other users. If you have a lower reputation than the user you are flagging, his/her reputation will not be affected but upvotes will affect reputation.

Difference between Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars?
The following information is copied from the official FAQ page which you should go through to find answers to all your questions.

Resource # 4: Steemit FAQs

Here’s the difference between three reward types. If you read my article on understanding Steemit currencies, you do not need to read this part.

STEEM – STEEM is the base liquid currency token in the platform. STEEM can be powered up to STEEM Power, traded for Steem Dollars, and transferred to other accounts. It is a cryptocurrency token, similar to bitcoin.

STEEM Power – STEEM Power (abbreviated SP) is a measurement of how much influence a user has in the Steem network. The more STEEM Power a user holds, the more they can influence the value of posts and comments. STEEM Power is less liquid. If a user wishes to “Power Down” SP, they will receive equal distributions of the STEEM weekly, over a 13 week period.

Steem Dollars – Steem Dollars (commonly abbreviated SBD) are liquid stable-value currency tokens designed to be pegged to $1 USD. They can be traded with STEEM and transferred to other accounts for commerce or exchange. Steem Dollars may also be converted into STEEM in a process that takes 3.5 days. Steem Dollars can be used to buy things in marketplaces, such as PeerHub.com.

Here’s video posted by @andrarchy in this post.

Start Using Steemit Now
By now, you are sufficiently ready to start using this benevolent platform. To assist you further, I am attaching my personal Complete Steemit Guide so that you can have a head start.

Remember one word. Contribute!

You can simply access a sea of Steemit knowledge that I personally created for the benefit of others.

Resource # 5: Complete Steemit Guide

Things to Do on Steemit
After following me, the next thing to do is to set up your profile as explained above. Once you are ready, make sure that the first tag (and the main category) of your first post on the blog is ‘introduceyourself‘. I recommend following good users, commenting on their posts (you get upvotes on good comments), and gaining some following and reputation through this activity before publishing your first post. Here is why and how to do good comments!

Then create your first post and it must be the introduction post. Here’s a great guide on how to write an introduction post.

Conclusion
Steemit is the golden opportunity for you to contribute to the community and earn handsome rewards. You can build a fortune if you persistently deliver value in form of quality posts, comments, upvotes and new relationships.

Join it and reap the benefits of benevolent economy and decentralized currency. Remember me in your prayers, spread the word and do support me with your shares on social media.