Introduction
I found Steemit about 3 weeks ago. My first post did fairly well all things considered pulling in $0.03. I posted a video of my son from YouTube. At that time I had very little understanding of the Steemit community and even less understanding of how Steemit works in general. The first post I made that did fairly well was my introduction post which originally pulled in over $40! It's now decayed to around $30 but I'm still happy with that! I would like to share some of the things I've learned that I think might help new users!
Music to listen to as you read, or don't, I'm not your mother.
Getting Started
First and foremost, for the love of God there is an FAQ on the website! I found out about this the long and hard way. Until I made this post as a matter of fact I was basing all of my strategies off of outdated information from Steem.io. Don't be like me, use your noggin and read the FAQ's. (thanks again @eliyahu, @bryan-imhoff, @preparedwombat for straightening things
out for me. If I had more vote power to give you I would!
While lots of things regarding the specifics of how things work are addressed in the FAQ's. There is still a lot left to learn in the wild . I'm not for one minute claiming to be an expert but I have enough of a basic understanding now to at least help a couple noobs (like myself) stumble through their first few weeks.
Start Earning!
Things start slow, that first week of waiting for rewards to start trickling can feel like it will never end. All the while your first few posts' value starts to fluctuate. For me that means they have lost value due to the ever shifting values of Steem. Don't lose heart though that's just the way of the world and as Steem starts to grow again they should (hopefully) grow in value.
Be sure to make a thoughtful #introduceyourself post and don't give any of the no effort bots your votes, they don't deserve it. Look for people that post generic welcomes immediately after you post (example below taken from single account).
Image slightly altered to protect identities.
Include a selfie that has a piece of dated paper to prove you are a real person. Not only does this improve the chances of your post performing better but it is also the right thing to do for transparency's sake.
For added bonus, don't take your photo with a potato like I did.
Dos and Don'ts of Posting and Commenting
- DO Proofread, stylize and edit your posts as well as comments.
- DO Use correct and fully punctuated grammar.
- DO Actually read posts you respond to.
- DO Actually read comments you respond to.
- DO Be courteous to everyone whether they can do something for you or not.
- DO Act like an adult.
- DO Center almost everything in your posts (NOT LISTS)! It looks nice and all the cool kids do it.
- DON'T Post spammy comments.
- DON'T Ask for votes, follows or anything of the like.
- DON'T Be an asshat.
- DON'T Hijack other people's posts.
- DON'T Post walls of text. Break it up with a thing or two.
- DON'T Steal content or plagiarize. Add value to content don't take it!
- DON'T Act like a child.
I know there is likely a lot I missed but this is a good start. This is a noob's guide afterall.
What Not To Do.
I have gone through several strategies to build my account. I want to share them with you so you can learn from my mistakes and hopefully save yourself some time and heartache. My first strategy revolved around getting as many followers as possible. I learned quickly that many people come to Steemit with the Twitter "Follow for Follow" mentality. With that in mind I spent several hours over several days manually mass following and un-following people. Not only is this a waste of time, it's borderline scummy behavior and I'm not proud of it but in the spirit of transparency I felt it prudent to mention. This method works well enough if you just want numbers. But if you want actual engaged followers this method is a complete waste of time.
After that I moved into a phase where I tried building value by constantly refreshing the New tab to catch posts from high rep users early. I thought that if I was one of the first to vote for it my curator rewards would be substantial! Turns out this was also a complete waste of a week. There is a time frame during which upvotes give all rewards to the author. It phases out starting at 15 minutes (50/50) then 27 minutes (97/3) and finally at 30 minutes you receive the full curator reward.
The last lesson (for now) I have to impart is fairly straightforward. Low value posts will (in general) generate low value. If you spend your days reposting memes you'll reap very minimal rewards.
What You SHOULD Do!
Firstly, be thoughtful and engaged in commenting on posts. If you are simply after building account value look for posts that interest you from thoughtful content creators. Once you find a post that you can easily engage with READ it. I can't tell you how many times people simply glance at a post and comment in hopes of getting votes. If you do this you should feel bad. While not everyone is willing to share their votes, and in fact many people simply won't give you a 100% vote there are many people that aren't that way. Sadly people often just vote their own content. They'd rather use 9/10 100% votes on themselves and then break their last vote up as small as possible to garner votes from commentators. Those people aren't WORTH your newb 100% vote and don't bother with them. Instead engage with those that are engaged themselves with the community. I have had numerous comment chains earn $5-10 just by being thoughtful and engaged.
Secondly, post thoughtful posts. If you spend the day at the beach snap some photos and write it up (though try and do it sober as that post was a MESS drunk). When you post be certain to take the time to read your replies and respond in kind. SPREAD THE LOVE, for the love of GOD VOTE for someone's comment if they took the time to read your post and thoughtfully comment! You don't have to do all of them but do make an effort!
Thirdly, be prepared for rejection, be prepared to fall on your face. It's not at all likely that your first post will make you rich or even leave you satisfied. Scrape together some SBD and start using some of the vote bots. While many don't encourage this, the way things are now new people really can't get a leg up without them and you almost always make at least the amount spent back.
Lastly share your lessons and experiences, ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE! If you learn a valuable lesson SHARE it so other's can benefit from it as well. Don't give up and don't complain when you don't succeed. Just keep trying and keep making yourself better. Who knows, maybe someday you'll be a big-shot with 100 sp like me!
Thank-you so much for reading and to those of you that comment and vote! You all rock! If anything here is wrong, I apologize, it is a noob's guide after-all.
Akuda (Zach)
Nice write-up. As someone that has been on the platform for just over a week, I'm trying hard to do a lot of your Do's & Don'ts? What are your thoughts on how often to post? Once a day? More? Thanks.
I believe that you do not have to bother yourself with that. Write when you have the topic, when you want to share something interesting with community.
When you are not inspired - READ and COMMENT. That will bring you a lot followers.
Some research I've seen says no more than 10 times a day including your resteems. Much more than that is too spammy for your followers. I would say post as many meaningful posts as you can manage. For me that's not all that many, damn kids, wife and job keep getting in the way! :)
I am on the same line with you @akuda.
I am also a newbie (been on Steemit since the end of a June) and I love this community.
In my opinion there is a lot of people here who came to earn money. That incentive is not the best one. If you relax, read, comment and enjoy; if you write about topics you are interested and familliar than you will be awarded. In long term only those who really
engage will successed.
Exactly if you're doing it for the money you won't be here long and you won't be invested at all. Do it for the right reasons and the money will come eventually (hopefully)!
I am so with you on that... and finding many interesting things to relax and enjoy!
"Don't be an asshat." Words to live by. ...I have a noob question, so if I give a vote to a post that is older than 30min, basically I'm giving myself that money? Because sometimes I will read a post and like it and give a vote but not leave a comment. So, instead of being nice with the vote, really I've just been kind of a lurker asshole paying myself? Shit.
So when you vote on a post, think of it as an investment. You aren't going to get the money from your vote but you are investing it in that Steemian's post. You are saying you think it will do well and then if it does you'll reap curator rewards. So when you are browsing if you see a post that you think will do a lot better than it already has give it your attention. Vote, resteem and comment on it. Curator rewards aren't super meaningful to us noobs but they do add up eventually.
Just one more way to earn and build an account! Thoughtful commenting is probably the best way though as a noob.
Ahhh... okay, so I re-read the FAQ and it makes much more since this time. I wasn't understanding the separation of author (75%) rewards and curator (25%) rewards, and that the 25% is then further split between author and curator based on time of vote. I think I got it now. Thanks!
Yeah it's kind of confusing. I was going off old information originally when it was a 50/50 split and voting first was the most important thing. Now that's not the case.
P.S. How do you have 20 votes on this post, and only 2 views? Actually, I'm assuming the little eyeball next to the Facebook symbol means views...could be incorrect there as well.
There are a couple reasons, firstly check out this post. Using @good-karma's app eSteem has some added benefits. He throws in votes for noobs posts to help get exposure. Secondly bots and people that just vote without reading. All techniques for exposure and things I probably should have included in my Noob's Guide. But hey, I'm a noob too so I get a pass! :)
Dear Zach,
Thanks for sharing this kind of info with newbies like me.
I have been on the platform for a couple of weeks myself and even though I'm usually a quick learner, I often feel like you need to be a rocket scientist to do things the 'right' way here.
Keep up the good work!
You're welcome! Good luck!
Thank you @akuda! I am making my first steps here, browsing from one category to the other to see what's interesting and I found your post. Now I know where to get started by creating quality content!
Hi Sophie! Welcome and good luck! Thanks for the comment!
I appreciate this post very much. I have been somewhat feeling my way around and learned some things from you. Honestly I would love to make money posting things that I care about and love to do... ie drawing! Have spent years on other social media platforms! So thank you for the info and I better damned well read the FAQ!
LOL oh man I kicked myself so hard when I realized the FAQ's were a thing.
A great post ! I must admit to being the type that tends to jump in and look later. There is a lot of useful information in your post, thanks!
Many people are but what I've found is that I'm significantly more likely to get meaningful votes by taking the time to be engaged and thoughtful.
Hi @Akuda its good to see more people around. Have fun in this community. I wish you many followers and new friends :-) Cheers @chrisx
Very Helpful post. Will be keeping all these things in mine when I do my next post.
This post has received a sweet gift of Dank Amps in the flavor of 3.57 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @akuda. Vote for Aggroed!