My Guide To Getting Started On Steemit

WOW!!! This week FIVE friends joined steemit!!! I had the grandbabies and barely found time to say "Hello" to them! I think they all have mastered the things I am covering here but just in case, I decided to cover a few basics of using the platform. So...

WELCOME TO STEEMIT!!! Congratulations on getting your account up and running! PROTECT THOSE PASSWORDS!!!
Now what...?

Top to bottom, you have the steemit logo which is also a link back to the home page. "Trending" are posts that are garnering lots of votes right after posting. People get excited about hitting the trending tab but truth is... a LOT of "trending" posts bought the votes to hit trending, they are not really THAT popular with actual humans here.

Next is "New" which is the most recent posts. Duh. :)

"Hot" are posts that have a lot of discussion going on and are making lots of money. They are basically posts by whales and dolphins, minnows do not have enough followers or clout to hit the "hot" tab.

"Promoted" are posts that people literally paid to have in that tab.

The only tab I use is "New." I then go to the tags and look for NEW posts on topics I am interested in. As a newbie, it was mostly " contests" and I still enter a lot of contests. The general wisdom is to use the chat rooms to network and make new friends, but I get overwhelmed in there and just can't seem to get the hang of it. I use the contests to meet people instead, plus occasionally win a little something! One of the reasons I like contests is many of them instruct you to make a post to enter, so you get two for one. Your posts can earn for you, plus the entry in the contest can earn some upvotes for you. That is without even winning the contest! Comment and upvote other entries, and you will make new friends.

OK, moving on... next is the search tab. Search function is one of the weak things on steemit, along with indexing. It is hard to find stuff, especially old stuff, but it is what it is.

Next is your avatar, click it for a drop down menu. "Feed" is where you find everything that has been posted by people you follow. That is where I go, not to "trending, hot, promoted." There is a temptation to follow everyone who follows you, especially in the beginning. Your feed will become useless if you do that. If you really want your feed to be the stuff you are interested in, you have to have a little discretion about who you follow.

"Blog" is next down, it will take you to your page where all your posts and resteems appear. Resteem is a great way to "make friends" but do understand it drives anything on your page down, including your posts. It costs nothing to resteem, and it only "rewards" in good vibes. "Comments" is just a list of all the comments you MADE, "Replies" are what people said to you. I check replies first, then go to my feed.

Wallet is where you get paid, and you can pay others from there, or buy and sell you SBD. You pretty much want to put everything into steem power when you are new, to build up clout for your own account. About 500 Steem Power is the first milestone you are aiming for, you get a "slider bar" then, which gives you greater control over your voting power.

"Toggle Night Mode" and "Change Password" I have never even clicked... lol!

"Settings" is where you can put your picture for an avatar and for the background of your blog and a few other things. You can also find a list of everyone you have muted there.

Lets talk about the MUTE button...While porn is not a huge problem here, there are people pushing it as hard as they can and rather than get in a twist, I just mute them. POOF! Gone from my world! The guy who insisted I am amoral because I eat meat... POOF! Gone from my world! The guy who makes fun of people for not being as greedy a prick as he is? POOF! Gone from my world! Steemit is what YOU make it. Do not tolerate stuff that ruins your day. Like bots. I do not like them. I used them at first, at this point I do not pay for votes or follows or resteems or any of it. I am here for the human interaction.

So that is the basics of the page. The basics of blogging here are pretty simple: COMMENT. You do not have any followers yet. Posting the most amazing post ever written will earn you less than a nickel because no one will see it. You have to build some followers. Where do you find them? On OTHER people's posts. Go to the tag of the section YOU are going to post about. Look at the POPULAR posts there, and jump into the conversation. Say INTELLIGENT and PERTINENT things and the people following THAT poster will start following you, too. Do NOT ask for followers, but go ahead and say "Hey, I am following you!" if you are, or say "I resteemed that" if you did. Don't lie about it, this is the blockchain, we can all see everything. So read other posts, make good comments, and do that every day. If you have something to say, make a post. Shoot for about 20 comments and one post a day is my recommendation, but NOTHING is written in stone. I committed to a month when I started and at first I sat there staring at the screen not sure what to say. Now I have to make myself shut up, I could post a dozen posts a day!

Mostly I want to say WELCOME aboard, HAVE FUN, and be prepared to have your mind blown. This is not utopia, but it is an amazing little community, an experiential anarchy experiment and if we do this right, the way humanity regains financial liberty.