3rd part of Steemit Field Guide: how it works and how to survive its first 30 days
Hello World!
Steem is a system that converts human creativity into currency without any commercial transaction. It is a zero loss economy, where people's expressions of value generate a tangible and negotiable asset without having to buy or sell. It is a free market without the market. It is simply revolutionary.
Healing
25% of the payment corresponds to the curators (that is, to anyone who has voted by mail). How this is distributed is a complex formula that weights upvote time, upvote position (the number of people previously voted), the curator's SP, and the voting power used for popular voting.
Time:
You want to vote no less than 30 minutes after a post was created. There was an issue with users and bots promoting content from popular authors as soon as it was published for maximum curatorial reward. Therefore, a time limit was added to avoid playing with the curatorship system.
Position:
The number of votes before you is key to getting the most rewards. You want to vote before the job gains traction, ideally within the top 10% of voters. But the sooner the better, as long as it's after the 30-minute mark.
Steem Power:
Unless you have high Steem power, you won't get many rewards. As of now, the most I've achieved has been 0.01 SP for curatorship, and I've been in excellent positions in some posts. So develop your Steem Power before spending serious time on curation.
Voting power and weight:
The more weight you vote, the greater the rewards. As previously mentioned, keeping your voting power above 80% is key to your rewards and to the authors you voted on positively.
Watch your votes! II - A guide to maximize your curatorial rewards
Obtaining Fiat (cash)
If you want to convert your rewards into cash that you can deposit in your bank, you will first need an account with an exchange where you can sell cryptocurrencies for fiat. I use coinbase, it is the most popular in the USA. USA And relatively safe. There are other exchanges, but I cannot vouch for them. I would not keep any currencies long term on any centralized exchange, I use coinbase as a fiat / crypto conversion medium only, and I suggest you do the same. If you are interested in exchanging cryptos, I would search bitshares.
Once you have your account setup with your preferred exchange, it's as easy as going to trading blocks and converting your SBD to a currency that you can sell on the exchange. Litecoin is universally accepted, and my preferred currency for this purpose. All you will need is the wallet address on your exchange (all encrypted coins have wallets with a chain of addresses to accept currency deposits / transfers). I would avoid Bitcoin and Ethereum. They have very high transfer rates and the networks are slow. I use Litecoin because it costs pennies to transfer and it verifies in minutes.
Step by step process to get fiat through Blocktrades, Coinbase and Litecoin
- Create an account with coinbase.com
- Find your Litecoin wallet address on Coinbase: Account> LTC Wallet> Receive
- Open blocktrades.us in another tab and select Steem Dollar to send and Litecoin to receive
- Paste the Litecoin wallet address of the coin base into the "Your receiving address" field and click "Get a new deposit address"
- Make a note of the "Account Name" and "Memo" fields
- Navigate to your Steemit wallet and click on the Steem Dollars drop down arrow. Paste the account name and the note you received from the blocks in the previous step and send
- Once the transaction is complete, you will see Litecoin in your currency account account and you can exchange it for Fiat's.
How to survive your first 30 days
When you first start, you should expect most of your posts to drop pennies. It is a great ocean, and you are an insignificant little fish. You can write the most amazing and thoughtful post, and end up with no comments and pennies for a fee. If you're lucky - by some miracle - you can find it in a large curatorial account or be voted on by a random whale. But in most cases this will not happen. No one knows you exist, and your messages simply sink into the void. The key to success is creating a network of followers and connecting with a community. Here are some tips that have helped me along my way from absolute darkness to constant growth.
1. Make an initial investment in Steem
Before following someone, I want to know if they are here to stay, or just playing. If someone drops $ 100 on the platform, it tells me they plan to stay for a while. Nobody takes you seriously when you don't have Steem Power and your positive vote is only worth a tenth of a cent. If you don't have the money, expect to try a little harder to come up with a percentage vote of 1 cent.
2. Make an introductory kickass post with the Presentyourself tag.
- Take a photo of yourself with a handwritten note with your username and date, this will let everyone know that you are a real person and not a bot or scammer.
- Make sure your post is not too long or too short, 3-8 paragraphs with some photos is a great variety
- Make your niche, angle, and voice as clear as possible, but don't snag on
- Tell the Steem community how you found Steemit, why you're here, your abilities, and what kinds of things you plan to write about
3. Enter Discord and join a Steemit community
Discord is a chat application originally designed for gamers. But the Steem community has struggled to fill this platform's missing Direct Messaging and Group Chat functionality gap. You would create an account with the same username you chose for Steemit to make it easier for people to find you.
Connect with like-minded people, share your articles on relevant channels, offer help where you can, ask for help where you need it, and build relationships.
PAL (Peace, Abundance, Freedom) is the best place to start.
4. Install Steemify for iOS or use GINAbot for notifications
Steemit does not have a native app, and there is no notification system on the Steemit website. So if you want to know who is commenting, promoting, following and interacting with you, you will want to download the Steemify app. It is currently only available for ISO. So if you have an Android phone or another, press GINAbot, it is a Discord bot that sends notifications through private messages in Discord.
5. Comment, comment, comment, but interact with the author
Once you've done the above, it's time to start interacting with the authors. Comments should be organic, look for posts that inspire and engage you. Ask questions, share similar experiences, complete yourself, be yourself.
If you're just going to write "good posts," don't bother. Be sure to commit and express something of value. Most likely, the author will review your blog, possibly vote, and possibly follow it. The authors are being inundated with spam comments, they appreciate people who take the time to read and offer a smart response.
6. Use your restems wisely
You want your blog to say something about who you are and what you're getting into. You also want your blog to maintain a constant flow. Only resteem posts that are high quality and added to your blog stream. Everything else looks jerky and users will have to work to find the content you created.
7. Be intentional with whom you follow
Your Steem experience will have a direct correlation with who you follow. Show discretion and follow the authors with whom you really have a connection and who write about topics that interest you. Avoid at all costs the nonsense of "Follow me, I'll follow you".
Keep your follower to follower ratio around 2: 1 or less. Having more people you follow than following may seem like spam to you, especially if it grows in the 10: 1 range.
8. Condense your writing and edit it profusely.
Use headings, people want to know if the content is worth their time before investing in reading.
Be concise as possible. No one likes unnecessarily long and repetitive posts that take forever to get to the point.
9. Diversify your content
Subject matter: writing on a wide range of subjects but finding a common thread or voice
Types: tutorial, update, insight, resources, opinion, education, entry to the contest
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