What is Steem and Steemit for Dummies
This article is for newbies who do not understand what Steem and Steemit are. However, it contains a ginormous amount of useful information for everyone as well.
Before I delve into the main topic (Steem and Steemit) one needs to understand the term 'blockchain'.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is a distributed public ledger that runs on computers connected to the same node. Since blockchain runs on every computer connected to the same node, it makes blockchain not susceptible to hacking, any hacker who wants to hack the blockchain must hack every computer on the node which is virtually impossible. Ever since the advent of blockchain for the digital currency 'Bitcoin' in 2009, it's never been hacked, this shows how secure blockchain is. Blockchain is very secure, decentralized and transparent which are the least things banks and governments want.
What is Steem and Steemit?
Steem is the world's first decentralized social media and application-based blockchain platform that rewards its users or content creators with its native currencies Steem and SBD which are easily converted into other digital currencies or fiats. Steem and SBD are tradable tokens and listed on Coinmarketcap. On Steem, everyone gets paid for creating, curating and commenting on interesting content.
Steemit is an interface built on Steem blockchain in 2016 for users to easily access Steem functionalities such as account creation, create and curate content on Steem. Steemit is the first app built on Steem. However, Steem blockchain now has tons of D/apps including eSteem, busy, Steempeak, DTube, Utopian, SteemPress, Steem Monster, Musing and many more.
How to Earn on Steem?
User accounts can upvote posts and comments, and the authors who get upvoted can receive a monetary reward in a cryptocurrency token named STEEM and US dollar-pegged tokens called Steem Dollars. People are also rewarded for curating (discovering) popular content. Curating involves voting comments and post submissions. Vote strength and curation rewards are influenced by the amount of STEEM Power held by the voter. source
NB: It's advisable to curate/upvote posts after 15 mins for maximum curation rewards. If you upvote/curate posts before 15 mins, your curation rewards will be sent to the reward pool.
How do I get a Steemit account?
Visit https://signup.steemit.com to request for an account.
Steem accounts are free but it takes time to get verified as there are many people on the waitlist. You can contact me on Discord with username @horpey#0221 if you want a free account ASAP.
Steemit has a reputation system; new accounts start with a reputation of 25. Votes influence reputation up and down. Upvote increases reputation and payout while downvote decreases reputation and payout.
Password
Please keep your password secure to avoid unauthorized access, someone with your password could login and transfer your funds and Steemit cannot recover a lost password.
Supported Languages
Most of the apps built on Steem support both Markdown and HTML languages. These languages are easy to learn. I will say Markdown is very easy compared to HTML.
Markdown Tutorials
These are off-line Markdown editor apps for both Android [WriterP, MarkdownX and iA Writer] and PC [MarkdownPad 2].
Publish Quality Content
Write quality content with appropriate tags and images. Source your images properly if not original. People love to read and curate quality content. Voter's influence depends on the Steem power held in the wallet.
Good Presentation
Styling or formatting your article attract readers reading your post. Don't just post, make your post eyes catching and check the preview before you hit the publish button. You can style your post with Markdown, emoji, and images.
Images and Videos
Adding images (animations) to your post make readers enjoy the experience of reading your article. Also, note that the first image of your article on Steem becomes your thumbnail which has a huge impact to get clicks on your post. Source your images if not original 'get more information on how to source images properly'.
Get free CC0 images on:
You add YouTube videos by pasting the video link into the "Content Box" and always add a good description to your videos.
Tags
Good tags are vital on Steem, you can have up to five tags on each post. Your first tag determines what categories your post goes under, e.g posting about Bitcoin, you can have tags like [bitcoin cryptocurrency news blockchain money] separate each tag with space. From this post, "bitcoin" is your primary tag.
NB: You can't change primary tag after publishing and please don't use tags not related to your post
you try adding a hundred different tags that aren't really related to the article just to try to increase exposure, you're abusing the system and may likely get down-voted, kissing rewards goodbye. Respect the community, and tag appropriately.
Image Hosting Services
These are services you upload your images to and use them on Steemit.
| Websites | Info |
|---|---|
| imgbb.com | Supports any image file (png, jpg and gif) |
| postimages.org | Upload and resize your images |
| picresize.com | Upload and resize your images |
| giphy.com | Upload and download Gif images (Animations) |
No to Plagiarism
Please do not plagiarize. If you are posting another website’s content, paraphrase it, don't just copy and paste. And if you need to copy some part, quote the part using '>' before the copied content with a backlink to the original page. You will see an example in this post.
If you plagiarized, you will get flagged and it reduces account reputation, constant plagiarism leads to a permanent blacklist. Be innovative and creative, let's bring our own ideas to the world.
Why Plagiarism is Risky?
Duplicated content results in a lower page rank. If you publish an article or web page content that is not entirely unique and original, there is a significantly higher risk of being blacklisted by Google and other search engines. So, if your goal is to have a higher page rank and search engine results placement (SERP) then it's simply not worth the risk of publishing heavily duplicated content. source
Plagiarism Checker
This check content you are posting if it's unique or plagiarized.
Website: http://plagiarisma.net & https://www.coderduck.com/plagiarism-checker.
Download Plagiarism Checker Premium for Android and Plagiarism Checker X for PC.
Motivation
Steem's value is $0.24 as at the time of writing this article [11-Dec-2018]. The value of Steem increases and decreases depending on the markets in which law of supply and demand hold. Be optimistic! What if you could make 500 Steem or invest hugely in Steem at the present low value and it surges up to $5 or more in near future, that will be a ginormous profit.
Make Extra Money With Steem
Unlike other cryptocurrencies when you only earn by speculating the price, you earn on Steem anytime, the more money (Steem power held in your wallet) you have the more money you make. You earn more for creating and curating content.
What Is My Voting Power Percentage?
This is like an "energy bar" in a game that gets depleted every time you use the energy. Your VP starts off with 100% and every time you vote it gets depleted depending on the percentage you used to vote, hence reduces your vote value. This is to control abuse by not voting for everyone you see and mess up the reward pool. Each 100% upvote reduces 2% of your VP and VP recharges 20% in 24 hrs. Presently, Steemit does not show your VP but other apps like eSteem and Busy do.
What is Resource Credits (RCs)?
Resource Credits (RCs) is a term on Steem blockchain similar to an Internet bandwidth allocated by your ISP, the more you surf the web the more the bandwidth consumed. On Steem blockchain, your RCs depend on your SP either owned or delegated. It was added in the recent fork (HF20) to avoid spammed accounts and bring investors on Steem.
You can get info about your Vote Power (Manna) and RCs on https://steemd.com/@username.
Why Do the Earnings for My Post Go Up or Down?
The amount that is shown next to a post is the estimated "Potential Payout". This depends on the average Steem price in 3.5 days.
Depending on various factors, this value could go up or down until the payout window closes:
Post Value Goes Up
- If a post receives more upvotes.
- If other posts receive more downvotes.
- If downvotes are removed from a post.
- If the price of Steem goes up.
Post Value Goes Down
- If a post receives more downvotes.
- If other posts receive more upvotes.
- If upvotes are removed from a post.
- If the price of Steem goes down.
Steem Tools
| STEEM TOOLS | Info |
|---|---|
| esteem.app | Steem Mobile and PC apps |
| busy.org | Steem Interface |
| steempeak.com | Steem Interface |
| steemd.com/@username | Tool to check account info (VP, RCs, SP...) |
| steemnow.com/@username | Tool to check your upvote value, vote power, voters, curation reward, author reward... |
| steem.supply/@username | Steem account potential payout... |
| steemitboard.com | Steem award or board of honor |
| steem.makerwannabe.com | Steem followers info. |
| SteemPress | Steem Cross-Posting app for WordPress |
| Steemfriends.org | Track Steem Account |
Steem Witness
Most Cryptocurrencies use miners to verify transactions but for Steem uses Witnesses (DPOS). A witness is someone that runs Steem nodes (runs Steem server), determines the price of Steem and SBD, can change/upgrade the system if an agreement is reached between the top 20 witnesses called FORK. Without witnesses, Steem can't be accessible. Witnesses are ranked by number of SP voted by users. Vote only those you think are helping Steem as a witness.
Steem Discord Communities
Steem currency other than Steem and SBD is 'relationship'. Join Steem communities, make interactions with fellow Steemians, help people then you will see your account grow faster. Remember; 'In giving, we are receiving' and 'patient is virtue'.
| Discord Communities | About |
|---|---|
| eSteem | Steem Mobile and PC app |
| Busy | Steem Interface |
| Dtube | Steem YouTube like platform |
| Utopian | Open-source developers and blog contributors |
| Promo-Mentors | Arena of Learning |
| SteemSTEM | Science Community |
| SteemPress | Steem Cross-Posting app for WordPress |
| Oracle-D | Bringing investor on Steem |
| Adsactly | Crypto Community |
| SteemSpeak | Amazing Community |
| Peace Abundant & Liberty | Amazing Community |
| Fundition | Crowd-funding platform |
| SteemHunt | Quality Product Hunters |
| Curie | Content Curator |
| Steem Monsters | Digital trading card "MMORPG" game |
| Minnow-Power | Gina-Bot notification Discord bot |
| Steemauto | Steem trail, fan-base, schedule ... |
| Steem Gigs | Steem Fiverr like |
| Super 8 Ball Club Official | Super 8 Ball Game |
| Qurator | Curator |
Whao! This is great. More ink to your pen bro, We newbies here have to be cautious because of the way things are done here. We hope to learn further
Welcome aboard bro! Steem is great, you will find it amazing!
Great work brother, you really did outline all the facets and pitfalls on the steem blockchain. This will be a great manual book for newbies, nice work man. Resteemed!
Thanks man for stopping by. I appreciate your kind words and reblog, hopefully this serves as a guide to new Steemians. You are appreciated!
This is much needed for newbie’s thanks for the work
Resteemed 👍🤗
you are appreciated
This is a very impressive post. However, I am sad to say that it is ineligible for review as a Utopian post. While Steem is an open source platform, it is such a common topic here that if we reviewed non-technical posts about it, that would be all we ever did.
If you want to contribute content that is relevant to Utopian, please read our guidelines. I would also recommend reading our weekly Top Of Utopian posts to get an idea of the kind of content we particularly like.
I look forward to seeing awesome relevant content from you in the future.
Due to ineligibility, your contribution has not been evaluated.
Need help? Write a ticket on https://support.utopian.io/.
Chat with us on Discord.
[utopian-moderator]
nice info :)
i think low rc budget is still a GIANT problem for new users to be interested in steem.
i hope ned realizes that someday..
🤔🤔🤔🤔
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 4 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 8 SBD worth and should receive 220 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigHi @horpey!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.298 which ranks you at #2554 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 5 places in the last three days (old rank 2549).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 368 contributions, your post is ranked at #135.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
This post has been included in today's SOS Daily News - a digest of all you need to know about the State of Steem.
Promoter of The SOS Forums : Weekly Discussion Forums on the State of Steem.
Co-ordinator of SteemClub-UK.
Editor of the weekly listing of steem radio shows, podcasts & social broadcasts.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
Whoa! I'm honored, thanks.
Hello. May i use this as a point of information in our Steem-discord server? https://steemit.com/discord/@xcountytravelers/join-us-for-a-fascinating-journey-into-de-mystifying-the-steem-blockchain-and-discord
Sure! Use it.
Thank you very much.
You're highly welcome.
As a new steemian, I've refreshed and learned much. Thanks a lot.
I'm happy you learned from the post. Keep steeming! and do visit my blog to learn more 😉