My "How To Get Steemin'" Tutorial For Newbies!

I have MORE friends who have joined steemit this week! (I think I am up to 14 now!) I keep learning a few new tricks, so I decided to write a new "how to get started" post, I hope this will be useful for any newbies who happen to see it!

So then, how DO you milk a cash cow?

Leave your ego at the door. You may pick it up later after you realize it is not especially helpful around here. 🚪

Comment on ten posts a day - AFTER you read the post. In your comment, SHOW that you read the post. Ask a pertinent question, share a similar experience, but make it clear you actually read and enjoyed the post. 📑

Vote on ten posts a day. In honor of the contest @papa-pepper is currently hosting, lets call the reward pool "the cash cow." The cow makes a certain amount of milk per day, and about 10 votes worth of it is all yours to distribute. You may upvote your posts, which is a reasonable thing to do as a newbie, I am JUST weaning myself of it. (EDIT: I used the laptop for this, still had the box checked so I upvoted myself - lol!) You may be the only one reading your posts for a little while, upvote them! But realize you will not make friends and gain followers upvoting only your stuff. You have to spend some votes on other people to get them to look at your stuff and maybe upvote you. Upvote the same ones you comment on to really indicate your interest in the post, or upvote 10 other posts to spread your interactions around, or go somewhere down the middle. Do NOT leave the cow unmilked! That leaves potential rewards just unusable, get them into circulation with your upvotes! Why only ten? Each vote costs a little vote power, which rebuilds at about a rate of one vote worth every 2 hours. You would get the most bang for your buck by voting once every 2.4 hours. That is getting into a deeper subject than I wish to cover here, feel free to look at some of the fine work other steemians have done on the topic. Everything I know I learned HERE, so... seek answers and you will find them!💡

DO NOT VOTE ON POSTS THAT HAVE PAID OUT ALREADY!!! I still do it sometimes, I just get excited about a good post and hit the upvote and then realize it is 10 days old... It is not the end of the world, but no one actually gets paid for that. Go find a post they have that is current, and upvote it, maybe with a comment about "I am really upvoting this old post that I really liked."👍

This is a little tricky, but find your peeps. Use the tags and the "new" tab to look for active members doing the same things you like to do. Do most of your commenting and upvoting in THAT group. There is almost certainly a discord room associated with whatever group you hang out with, join that and hang out there, also. I am REALLY bad at that aspect, but even a little time over there helps you make new relationships over here. I have recently joined thealliance, and I cannot say enough about how supportive that group is. There are good people here, be one and go find some
more!👩‍👩‍👧‍👧

NOW, you are ready to post. You may start posting right away, but no one will see it. Until you have followers - real ones not just spammers and bots - no one is reading your stuff unless it is in the comments of THEIR post. Make your first posts with the understanding no one will read them, so don't throw all your best stuff up. Hold back a little while. Make your posts MOSTLY original content. If you are sharing news articles (or anything) be sure to credit your sources, but give YOUR commentary also. The "value" of steemit is the brain power WE put into the platform, so just sharing articles like you do on facebook will not earn you followers here. Original photos in your post help a LOT, and can BE your post if you are a photography buff (or even just got a lucky great pic!)📷

Do not expect to make diddly-squat. Do not EXPECT it, then any little bit that comes in seems nice. If you look at some whale who posted a picture of his big toe and made $200 in 2 minutes and you think you are going to get some of that action, you will be frustrated every time you post. Compare instead with what you would have made if you had posted it on facebook. Then that nickel is kinda cool!😃

An abundance mindset and attitude of gratitude will carry you through the volatility of cryptocurrency markets... which this still is at its core. It is also what will draw positive people and positive input to you and your blog.🙋

BE CONSISTENT. A lot of people sign up, make a few posts then get frustrated and disappear. If people do not hear from you for a few days, you are out of sight and out of mind. Maybe you can't post every day, at least try to have a regular schedule - every Saturday night or something. Getting those votes in daily is perhaps the most important thing you can do, followed by the comments, and lastly your posts. 🙈

Resteeming... DO resteem posts you like, but do it BEFORE you post. They will push everything down on your blog page, so make sure YOUR post is at the top of your blog by NOT resteeming anything after it for a few hours. Be a little choosy about what you resteem, you do not want to clog your followers' feeds with stuff that is not yours. If they followed YOU, they want to see YOUR posts. 👀

This is, in my opinion, how to "supercharge" your start up... Enter a contest with every post you make. There is SOME contest for everything, all the time. As a newbie, you have few followers. Putting your entry in a contest will get MANY more eyes on your post PLUS give you the chance to maybe win the contest. 🏆

ASK FOR GUIDANCE, people here are happy to help! Not sure how? Like this...

HEY!! I am still a minnow myself, I could use some tricks for improving my steemit skills! Dolphins🐬🐬🐬, whales🐳🐳🐳, and smart minnows, PLEASE share your insights in the comments!