One the benchmarks of the Steemit platform is the reward of quality.

We don't have to behave like Instagram, where likes more synonymous with popularity than quality. We're not like Medium either, where users pay a monthly fee to view presumably quality content.

Steemit is a free-to-all opportunity for bloggers, vloggers, artists, and anyone who enjoys sharing to craft, publish, and promote quality content.

Tell that to your .02 cent payout.

The basis of curation on Steemit is your ability to upvote. When you upvote, whether it's a fraction of a cent or a $2 + upvote, you're deeming that post as quality and therefore curating. This is why we earn "curation rewards" from our voting activity.

This post does not detail curation rewards, as it is focused on the overarching topic of curation on the blockchain.

Without bringing up any platform politics or sore subjects, I'd like to focus on one of the best ways you can interact with the Steemit community, uphold the core values of the platform, and improve your experience (and earnings) through publishing.

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What is curation?

curate

[verb kyoo-reyt, kyoo r-eyt]

1. To take charge of or organize
2. To pull together, sift through, and select for presentation

^{Dictionary Online}

Curation is an artform in itself, and if you try explaining it to those outside of Steemit who have no background in organizing art shows, creating mixtapes, or sharing their "top ten favorite Thanksgiving recipes," you'll probably get a few blank stares.

To curate implies that you have good taste, either by your own opinion or the designation of others.

Curation reflects the taste, style, and preferences of the organizer.

For a Steemian of any experience level, getting curated by anyone is typically an honor and can entail:

• Supremely elevated post-payout on the curated post
• Surge in followers
• Jump in reputation score
• Personal pressure to continue creating exemplary work - and thus to continue getting curated

However, there is much more to curation than Curie dropping a big vote on one of your posts.

Throughout the article, I'll refer to the act of curation on the blockchain simply as 'curation,' but add that this in no way excludes or diminishes curation of any kind off the blockchain.

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^{All of us sitting around the proverbial blockchain, congratulating each other on our collective awesomeness.}

Very early in my Steemit experience, I discovered curation as a way to connect with other Steemians, foster community, and increase earnings on my own posts.

So, I set out to learn how curators work on the blockchain. If you're interested in becoming a curator, I'll describe at the end of this post the steps I took and the results I've achieved so far on my road to become a blockchain curator.

I am tremendously passionate about curation because I believe I have good taste.

There, I said it! Does this make me arrogant? That's up to you. I take that belief that I have style and translate it into many hours each week surfing the blockchain for the hidden gems, new stars, and undervalued excellence.

Why would I do this?

Because I believe that it's literally impossible for every bit of greatness to be seen. And I mourn the loss of greatness on account of bad post timing, not enough followers, or any combination that results in low visibility and low payout.

I want to see authors who are committed to quality be rewarded for their contribution.

Have you been curated yet? See if you've been impacted by one of the curation methods below.

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Types of curation intiatives:

• Manual - Merit Based
  Manual curation is done by a human, meaning a person is reading your post (among hundreds of others) and judging its worthiness of being featured or upvoted based on its quality, uniqueness, and adherence to that curator's standards.

  • Reward-oriented - Example: @Curie. Organized curation on a submission basis typically followed by a voting trail after posts are reviewed and chosen based on their level of excellence.
  • Contest or feature-oriented - Example: @Photocontests, who uses a bot to provide a marginal upvote as acknowledgement of your participation but has manual judges who choose and compile winners into daily posts.
  • Group or community-specific - Example: @OCD, who works in a fashion similar to Curie but in addition to providing larger upvotes, features each of their selections in a daily digest post, increasing post visibility.
  • Project or theme specific - Example: @LadiesofSteemit, who creates weekly curations based on a theme within the project mission to showcase female voices on the blockchain.
  • Personal collections - Each week, I publish a Curation Journal which showcases the pieces I submitted to organizations I curate for and posts I love but didn't quite make the cut.

• Manual with financial element - Example: @BuildAWhale, which is manually curated from paid upvote 'orders'. Creator @themarkymark describes further:

Our curation is what I call "on the backend" and is a value-add to our bidding service. We go through the 100+ posts daily that are submitted through our bidding service and pick our five favorite posts for the day to feature in our daily Curation Digest.^quote

• Bot-Oriented - I won't mention names but they're likely to send 0.001 SBD to your wallet and try to convince you to buy on a "resteem to thousands of followers".
  For the sake of length and rantiness of this article, I will not discuss bot- or automatic-curation any further.

Major Takeaway:

In almost every situation of curation, another human being just like you saw your post, judged it, and took a chance on you because they believed in your work.

^{What each of us generally looks like when we've discovered an undervalued, undiscovered bit of blockchain excellence.}

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Curation sounds great! Higher earnings, more followers... Ready to get curated?

There are undoubtedly one bazillion posts that go into great detail about how to create a quality post. But, for those that need a refresher:

• Most large curation initiatives work in English, save for OCD's international branches, so endeavor to have English as the primary posting language for all of your posts.

  • If English is not your first language, I cannot stress enough to go beyond the automatic translation and have an English-language proficient friend or colleague proofread your post.

• Diversify your posts with multiple markdown functions [headers, bold/italicized text, justification, tables,] and high-quality images.

  • For goodness sake, CITE YOUR IMAGE SOURCES. Instead of starting with Pixabay, which is riddled with copyright infringement within its available media, head to Unsplash for license-free images and still cite the creator.

• Publish articles that enrich your reader, provide them value, and are consistent with your personal interests and style. Avoid publishing for the sake of quantity or trend.

• Use relevant tags, and continue researching tags related to your work to remain relevant. If you are an artist, use tags related to whatever artwork you are creating, and make sure the tags you are using are "live."

  • Some curation initiatives and personal curators have their own tag. For instance, #LadiesofSteemit is watched and rewarded daily (based on merit) by yours truly. Research initiative and personal curator tags and use them only on your best work.

Why is absolute quality so important to curation? What about uniqueness? Or the fact that I've never been recognized? Don't I deserve curation?

When that human being (who is just like you) chooses your post to submit for curation, they are staking their curation reputation and their reputation on Steemit on your post. They're endorsing you, and if you make them look like a loser, it isn't you who pays, but them.

Major Takeaway:

Every single one of your posts could be so insanely amazing, that you believe you should be curated every day. I have a few friends whose posts I wish I could upvote a million dollars. Curation is sporadic, infrequent, and a massive privilege. It is not something to expect, but something to be grateful for. Create content as if it would automatically curated but have the expectation that you might never be curated again.

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The lesser-recognized benefit of creating quality posts even when they aren't curated.

Consistency builds trust.

When you see Steemians with reputation scores over 50, over 60, and higher, you'll notice the average vote count (and payout) on their posts increases. Every post sees an increasing average 20, 50, some upwards 150 votes.

When you build trust with your community (some of which may be followers), you may end up on their auto-vote.

Meaning, each time you make a post, that person's account will automatically upvote your post because they trust you are publishing great content. I have a few people on my own (very small, meager, minnow-sized) auto-vote because I know they are a pro and will undoubtedly deserve my support.

I'll leave that here for you, and if you have further questions about this concept, reach out in the comments.

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Ready to try your hand at manual curation?

There are a few avenues you can take to become a manual curator, and each of them results in their respective rewards:

• Create your own curation initiative. Showcase your favorite work in some kind of digest, anthology, or broadcast. Through this, you can forge new connections with your featured authors and their audience, gain author rewards from the post you created, and establish your track record as a curator.

• Apply to become a curator with an existinginitiative​e. Get involved with @curie, @ocd, and other established organizations. Through this, you can contribute to undervalued posts achieving high earnings and exposure, as well as a potential commission earning on your accepted curation submissions.

In my Steemit journey, I've gone both of those routes and find them to be the most rewarding work I've done on the blockchain.

To start your own curation initiative, I suggest:

1. Outline the community you'd like to serve, such as: Artists, Native-language authors, Women of color, Subject-matter specific.

2. Collect the tags these authors use most often and organize them in tabs or in a document so you can visit them regularly.

3. Record your standards for curation

   • What is your definition of quality?
   • Must the author be of some nationality, gender, or personal declaration?
   • How old may the post be?
   • What will you not curate?

4. Let your community know about your curation project and forge alliances in the groups you frequent.

5. Create a stylish 'look' for your curation, including a catchy title, consistent and well-crafted header image, and post organization style.

6. Study existing curation initiatives and learn from them what you do and do not want to be a part of your personal project.

7. Publish your first curation and promote it within your communities, politely asking for feedback or recommendations without seeking upvotes.

8. Post a thoughtful, personal comment on the original posts you've featured in your curation and include a link, informing them they've been featured.

9. Keep a journal of your curation experience, checking back on your impact on the posts you've featured and on the growth of your initiative.

A personal curation initiative doesn't always need its own account. Consider that your community is interested in your style and your selection, and that keeping it on your personal profile may be fitting for the first few or the lifetime of your project.

I started my Ladies of Steemit initiative with a header image and a commitment to showcasing the female voices of the blockchain.

To join an existing curation intiative, such as Curie or OCD, I suggest:

1. Join their Discord channel and genuinely engage in the general chat, making friends and not mentioning your intent to join their curation team unless directly asked or established for a few days/weeks (use your social judgement).

2. Read their guidelines, past curation digests or posts, and get to know the organization's process for manual curation.

3. Befriend curators with curiosity and reverence for their hard work.

4. If you feel comfortable with your judgement of curate-able posts (not self-authored), consider sharing them in a "curation links" channel on the organization's Discord or in a direct message to a curator you have befriended. If the post is accepted, they will receive the benefits and this is fantastic. Continue doing this. Creating a behind-the-scenes track record builds trust in your own ability to curate, even though you are not receiving the direct benefits or acknowledgement.

   • If you do not yet feel comfortable, consider asking trusted curators for feedback on your selections. Take notes, learn what's tripping you up and causing you to pick non-curate-able posts and continue practicing.

5. When you're ready, i.e. your submissions to existing curators have been accepted or a curator has offered to nominate you, go through the necessary activities to formalize your 'application' or statement of interest in curation.

Prepare yourself for a weekly curation schedule. Some weeks you'll need hours to meet your requirements and some weeks will be a cake-walk. Only apply to become a curator if you're ready for the undertaking.

Once you've joined an existing curation intiative, keep a detailed journal of your curation submissions.

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You may be wondering why I went through the trouble of writing a this fairly long post,

encouraging you to become a curator and to create curate-able content.

This is our blockchain.

I want to spend time in a realm of quality, exceptional authorship, and reward. I'm committed to contributing to the improvement of the overall experience on Steemit through the recognition and promotion of producers of excellence.

How has your experience on Steemit been shaped by curation, either as a curator or as the curated?

Share with me in the comments and consider which path might be right for you!

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Note: All photos from Unsplash.

If you would like to cite any portion of my article in your own Steemit research and publications, please do and simply @ tag me [@ameliabartlett] and link to the post from which you derived the quote.

Hi, I'm Amelia! It's nice to meet you.

I'm a writer, minimalist, tiny home dweller, and maker living in East Tennessee, USA. You might have found me through the Ladies of Steemit curation initiative, showcasing the female voices on the Steemit platform. Let's hang out on the blockchain and see where it takes us.

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