How to Steem (Part 1): Two essential services for a newbie!
So, you've scrimped and saved and by hook or crook you have earned or stolen your first full STEEM/SBD. It is like the morning after the tooth fairy arrives! What to do, should you spend it on lollies, or save it or splurge on a bidbot to try and crack the depressing string 0.01 cent posts that you've had since you first joined?
Steemit is a pretty depressing place to try and grow into at the start, you are surrounded by posts that are earning more than you, and you are still relying on that intial 15SP delegation that lets you have the barest minimal bandwidth to touch the fabled blockchain.
So, with that first SBD/STEEM I would recommend 2 services for the beginner to Steemit. Services that will help your initial growth in the beginning wilderness days. A bidbot or a vote buying service is a nice one time hit, but these two initiatives are for the long term.
Which to choose? Well, at the moment, because of the huge disparity between the SBD and STEEM values, it really depends on if you have saved up STEEM or SBD.
Dustsweeper
In the initial stages of learning on Steemit, you may have not noticed that there is a limit (dust threshold) below which you do not get any payout from the reward pool. This stands at under $0.03, so if you aren't seeing at least that number on your posts or comments, then you are not getting the rewards from that. Now, there are good reasons for that threshold to exist, namely computation and avoiding rewarding crazy spamming. However, for a legitimate Steemian that is beginning their journey, this threshold affects you disproportionately as most of your posts will not clear this bar.
This is where the concept of @dustsweeper comes in. You subscribe to the service by sending 1 SBD (OR STEEM) @dustsweeper. The full instructions are here.
What this service does, is to upvote any of your comments/posts with the required power to bring it just over the threshold, thus ensuring that you get paid for your interactions and content. As a bonus, the initial investment of 1 SBD is doubled to be a 2 SBD credit against the voting that will be done upon your account. All the threshold defeating votes will be taken against this credit.
Steem Basic Income
The second service is a Steem version of an Universal Basic Income. This investment gives you a small but guaranteed upvote for each STEEM (NOT SBD) that you invest with the programme. The full details can be found here.
Now, in a curious and generous twist, when you buy a share, you are actually sponsoring one other person that you nominate. However, as a plus, you also receive a share. Thus, there are two shares that are 'purchased' one for yourself, and another to spread the community love! Or if you are feeling generous, you can opt to not have your share and sponsor two people with your application.
So, by sending your hard earned STEEM to @steembasicincome, you are guaranteeing a share of the VP in the service. As you grow, this will become less important to you (unless you steadily invest more) as you will be hopefully getting votes from other sources due to the quality of your writing and posting! But in the beginning, that extra little boost can be a large part of your post payout!
Note that this service works only on original posts that you make and not comments.
My 2 cents
Ok, let me explain that picture, I was looking for something funny. I searched for "bad advice" and got that instead... a book with spinach...
Steemit is a much nicer and more developed place for newbies than when I first started out nearly 6 months ago. I remember bouncing off it hard, and then only trying again a month or two later. Most of this was due to the fact that you really felt like you were alone.
These two services are a great help for a beginner, although nothing can substitute for finding community and interacting with others as much as possible. You will start to notice that Steemit is NOT a get rich platform, but a community driven platform that earns only as much as you put into it. We grow stronger as a group and not as individuals fighting for that last little bit of reward.
That said, for a beginner, at this moment of writing, I would recommend the @dustsweeper for your first shiny coin. The dust threshold is real and a big barrier to the beginner. However, it is a new project, so there might be some danger that it might be viewed badly by some, or shutdown due to abuse (I hope not). Steem Basic Income (@steembasicincome) is a longer term plan that I would recommend you invest your second coin into (or try and win a share via contests). It is a more established programme, however, it's benefits are realised over a much longer time frame, which may be no use to you if you aren't breaking the dust threshold anyway.
Again, these services, whilst being amazing, are NO substitute for good writing and good community interaction!
Or you could get a sugar rush and buy a bid-bot vote... you will regret it! That's for when you are bigger!
Hope you found this useful! Now to decide if I want to work on a Blockmountatin project, or write up a post about democracy... or develop a post idea about Quantum Computers... or some crypto advice for new guys...
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Thank you so much for this awesome awareness, i especially love dust sweeper..... It's super awesome.
No problem, glad you are using them already!
I saw some people chatting about @dustsweeper the other day and I couldn't get my head around it so thanks for such a succinct explanation!
I have posted this in our Discord "useful-info" section as we have a lot of new musicians joining all the time.
Thank you!
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No problem, thanks for the resteem and the pin. Glad I could explain it clearly!
I am constantly having to explain to people that they should follow the @MusicVoter curation trail at 100% fixed upvote with a limit of 95% when their account is small for this reason. The default on SteemAuto doesn't work too well until you get a larger SP.
I think it isn't a problem for the curation trail, the dust is all accumulated there and total something bigger than the parts. It is only a problem for single votes, or a group that doesn't pass the threshold.
@dustsweeper is another awesome idea to help the community, I joined as well! I don't even know comments value below $0.02 won't pay as you mentioned, huge thanks!!!
Glad you were able to discover a new thing! There is alot on Steemit that isn't readily obvious!
I try to let a lot of people know about @dustsweeper, It is a great program, and it helps everyone involved in that dust vote. The giver, the receiver, and even dustsweeper, everyone wins everyone gets rewarded. I love it.
Yes, but sadly I can already see the potential for abuse... I hope it doesn't come to that.
Daniel and dave are both on the look out for that, but it will be hard to detect possibly if it becomes overly automated and then sort of forgotten to be checked manually every now and then. I think the biggest potential abuse part is going to come in when you can get protection for your own less than 2.5 cent vote. I can see people sliding their slider down to 1% and doing a lot of carefree voting. So they will need Vote Slider % stop points, example 100SP and below, no sliding below 50%, 101Sp-300SP no sliding below 40% , 300SP-500Sp no dropping below 25%, over 501SP no sliding below 20%. But we will have to wait and see what happens. I know they are on the lookout for Multi vote back accounts, (2nd, 3rd, and more accounts owned by someone), voting at dust levels just to get a dust lift, so they are on the lookout, but like I said automation tends to remove the human eye.
I have to agree on both counts. Neither existed when I started and that's only 3 months ago, how things change quickly.
Its very hard for the new guy to get going, especially if you knew NOBODY likes yours truly.
Couldn't be anything to do with that cute avatar that you use! It still freaks me out each time I see it!
He's ingrained into me now, never to part :)
Those are a couple of great essentials for newbies! The @dustsweeper is really taking off, isn't it. Today I found out that you can send money to it with a memo and "gift" it to someone as well; right now Daniel would have to input it manually, but I think it's in the works to be automated too.
I would add to your post, the importance of joining a Discord group too, like @newbieresteemday or @greetersguild, so as not to feel so alone when you arrive. Then, the people you meet soon become a part of your own community too.
Cheers :)
Great! Gifts are always good! Maybe time for a new giveaway...
Great post, you describe it in a funny and easy to understand way.
It is all pretty confusing when you start participating on steemit.com. You get things you have no idea what to do with, SBD (and sometimes STEEM), and the stuff you do want (SP) seems pretty hard to get.
Dustsweeper is a very good initiative. It helps me a lot. Although I have to say, the little money that I have mostly comes from winning contests :)
Thanks, I just hope some of the information reaches people that don't know!
That's a great post, @bengy. In the beginning, it does seem like you're at a restaurant without a wallet. So many people feasting, and you're not able to get a crumb. And then there are offers that appear in the comment section, offering to buy you soup, if only you'll give them coin. Your recommendations may give newbies confidence to accept the more legitimate offers--a step that may take them through the initial period of Steem-it hunger.
Wow, that's my first comment this morning, and yours is the first post I read. Don't know why I'm being so metaphoric, but that's how the words tumbled out :). Coffee!!
Thanks for the long form comment and good morning! I had hit the afternoon slump after a bad night sleep, so the idea of writing about crypto or quantum computers or democracy just wasn't going to happen....
Have a nice breakfast! It sounds like you are hungry....
:))
@dustsweeper is a great project that every newbie should join. I am happy I did, and have seen it in action on my own posts. @steembasicincome is another great initiative. I have been lucky enough to win a couple of shares through contests. I don't think you can buy shares for yourself though, you can only be sponsored in by someone else.
I forget, I need to edit my post to clarify that. You sponsor someone else for a share, but you also receive one share for yourself.
Thanks, that's what you get for writing when you are brain fried...
nice liebe grüsse