The Art of Curation
My Curation Methodology
As a curator, I like to think of myself as a prospector panning for gold. The feed is my stream, and the posts are the rocks and pebbles which I sift through in my search for those precious golden nuggets.
I thought I'd put together some guidelines that I use to locate the best content Steem has to offer. My hope is everyone can benefit from this to some extent, whether curating themselves or authoring posts.
I am not claiming that this is in any way a definitive guide, or that these are rules that can't be broken. There have been plenty of times where I decided against voting on a post for one reason or another only to see it trending a few hours after I looked at it. Such is life.
In the end, curation is much more an art than a science. I try to take a balanced approach that has potential for decent earnings while also striving to recognize content that I think benefits Steemit as a whole.
My Curation Workflow
I always use the "new" category, or "created" as it is referred to in the URL and through piston. I want to start with fresh posts in the hopes that I be the first person to notice something incredible. As I scroll further down the list, I will often keep finding overlooked posts to consider that have been posted 4 or 6 hours ago. I rarely look past that though, because it's less likely that I'm going to find something that slipped through the cracks. And besides, by the time I get that far there will be plenty of new content in the feed.
When I'm looking at the overview of the feed, the following things will make it less likely that I consider the post for promotion:
Greyed Out Listing
- Negative Rep Accounts
- Flagged Posts
No Images
Most well rewarded posts contain at least one image. Many people interpret a lack of images as a lack of effort.
Title
- Steem/Steemit, Whales, Post rewards, Complaints
- ETH/ETC, Bitcoin, Crypto, Markets
- News articles
- Advertisements/Referrals
- Gimmicks/Scams
- Foreign language (nothing against them, but I can't evaluate these posts)
Category
Really the only category that I try to specifically avoid is 'introduceyourself'. I think it is something that the most influential voters will be avoiding more and more as time goes on. The previous success of these posts has led to scam attempts and money grabs. There are exceptions for high profile individuals and very well made posts, but generally speaking I'm not looking for these posts.
However, a post that I might otherwise overlook might warrant more attention based on:
Votes and comments
These are good signs that the post deserves some attention. When bots were running amok, it was not useful to look at this. It has since improved quite a bit, and it is relevant information.
Payouts
I am not necessarily looking for a post that already has a high payout, since that defeats the purpose of curating. But I will be interested in a post that has a few dollars on it. That is a good indication of a high quality post and content that other users appreciate.
After I spot a post in the feed that looks promising, I open it up and read it to make a final determination based on these considerations, among others.
Quality of Presentation
Images
- Broken Links
- Balance of Images to Text
- Subjective Effectiveness
Length
An ideal post will find the sweet spot between being too short and too long. That tends to be more than 1 or 2 paragraphs, but not much more than a 10 minute read (if that).
Styling
- Headings for main points
- Paragraphs - No walls of text
- Overall visual appeal
Quality of Content
The most subjective part of the process is determining if the content itself is worthwhile. Some considerations:
- Will the topic be of interest to users on the site?
- Could it help the platform in some way?
- Does it offer something new, or is it a rehash of previous posts?
- Might this spark some conversation?
- Is it entertaining, enjoyable, informative, or interesting?
And finally... I always check whether it has been flagged by @cheetah! There are times where it misses something, or incorrectly flags something. But it is a great tool for pointing out when there is a question about the source being misappropriated.
Keep in mind that if you don't have a lot of steem power it is nearly impossible to get a curation reward no matter what you do.
That's true. A great reason to buy some Steem and power up!
That requires money and that I don't have.
If that's not an option for you, I'd suggest posting and commenting. You will eventually earn enough by participating in the site, if you stick with it. It takes some time to get going, but you will get there.
I gave up posting after putting in many days of work only to get a few cents. As for commenting I keep getting a lot of .01-.03 comments but the payout always disappears at payout time.
That's how I'm getting there. Great write up btw. It's interesting to get perspective of curator.
how much steem would one need?
A couple hundred SP will probably be sufficient to start receiving modest rewards from curation, though only on your best posts. I'm not 100% sure, though.
Posting and commenting will benefit the author and curator. Good comments occasionally catch a whale and that is the unexpected magic of this site.
Keep up the good work!
Well I applied all that to this post. I have found that it does not meet the criteria...... nah jk lmao is good
Yes sir! Great post man. I'm going to do something similar as your post. I think it will help members with the post format and organizing their content into a great post.
Not to hijack your post..lol.. But I'm always looking for that original post, the one that is different than what is trending. The one that makes me say "wow. now that was a great post!".
Be original!! And keep on steeming!!!
Nice guide! Personally, I feel this is completely subjective. When you enjoy an article, you just do.
I pay close attention to the people I follow. I do this using Steemstats, which offers notifications. But a Following feed is coming to Steemit in the next few days to make this more accessible.
I try to follow the "New" page as much as possible, but of course I miss a lot that way.
One thing that I don't consider a con is a lack of images. I have upvoted a couple of really good analysis / academia / fiction articles, which were unfortunately lost in the void. On such posts, adding images would be forced and undesirable.
There's also the rewards to consider, and how you can maximize them.
I get where you're coming from with forcing images into a post. I've noticed some people have had success with using an image as a signature. That way you're not changing the content, but you still will have an image in the listing. modprobe has done that for articles that he wrote which ended up becoming very popular:
https://steemit.com/anarchy/@modprobe/response-sorry-libertarian-anarchists-capitalism-requires-government
Yes, I've started doing that with my short story series. It is indeed effective. Went from 2-5 upvotes a chapter and getting totally lost to 60+ for the last chapter.
Quite so; I've found that using the signature image got me a lot more traffic, without compromising the mood of my post (or however you want to say that).
Excellent guide, @bacchast. Thanks for putting this together. I've been focusing too much on the posts that are 30 minutes old, and forget there are often diamonds out there a few hours older.
There absolutely are. This one was at $15 after 5 hours, for example:
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@neilstrauss/introducing-neil-strauss-and-a-steemit-book-club
Wow. Dang. So much for not voting up #introduceyourself posts, eh? Heheh. We are drawn to personal stories. It will take some time (if ever) for that to change. Hopefully we can just do better and sifting through the scammers and reward those we want to reward.
"There are exceptions for high profile individuals" :)
I am hopeful that it will improve over time. Fool me once....
Even more exceptions for high profile individuals who are very easy on the eyes to look at... :)
i'm with you totally especially the part about having at least one image.
I follow the same rules, like upvoting between 15 and 30 min and choosing good posts. Many times a like a post with 10 upvotes on the beginning and 4 hours later he had 200 upvotes and 5k value but i dont win nothing, how to solve this? i have to invest on more steem?
Yeah, having more SP will directly influence your rewards for voting.
Do you know how much SP is good?
I'm not entirely sure, but a couple hundred will probably start showing some curation rewards.
Really great summary. Just one question - what are your thoughts on the best time to curate/upvote? As I understand, it's not until after 30 minutes that you get the full curation amount. And at 15 minutes you get half; 7-8 minutes a quarter, etc.
Yes, that's correct. If you're trying to maximize your curation rewards, you have to weigh the risk against the reward. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that votes are going to come in before yours. Yet if you vote too early, any reward you would have received is going to be greatly reduced. For the most part, voting in the first 5 minutes won't earn you much. After that, it's a guessing game. There is an element of luck to it.
Got it, thanks. Thought of one more question. What times in the USA do you think most people are online curating the new feed? That would be the best time to post but maybe not the best time to curate. Thoughts?
I haven't given that much thought. Interesting idea, though.
thanks for the miniguide!