Top 10 Steem Mistakes That Make You Look Like A N00b! [Pro Tips]
10) Up Voting and Replying to Spam Comments
We all see and get them, those comments "nice!" or "good job!" or worse outright scams or solicitations for their services! These kinds of replies offer no value and in many ways take value! As a new user you are excited to finally get a comment on your post, but do not be fooled into up voting these bots. Go out and up vote REAL content instead and develop a real following!
9) Constantly Powering Down Your Earnings
If you don't increase your Steem Power (SP) you are not adding any value to the community! The reason steem works is because more people "vest" or Power Up their Steem than sell it. The entire system is designed so that we increase our influence overtime by investing or Powering Up each week. That is why at least 50% of your earnings come in the form of Steem Power. If you are constantly Powering Down this new Steem Power, you are creating liquid Steem, which can be bought/sold/transfered. This can be good for an economy to exist, HOWEVER, if you are constantly Powering Down to cash out to other coins you are simply pushing the value of Steem down.
8) Not engaging your followers
If your followers reply to your post and you never respond to them they will stop bothering. Steem is a social platform, you must realize that your followers want to engage with you if they took the time to make a reply! On the flip, be sure to reply and engage in others' posts that you enjoy so they have a chance to do the same for you! Steem is a mutual system, work hard, work together, earn more!
7) Asking for votes, resteems and follows
Probably the most annoying and biggest no no, asking people to up vote you, resteem you etc. We know where the like button and re-steem button is thank you! We are not 2 years old! If you tell me to do something I am less likely to do it especially if it directly benefits you! Let me decide if your content is worth the vote and/or re-steem! Telling me is just insulting. Exception: Asking for witness votes is very fair since most people would not know otherwise you are a witness. I am not currently a witness (disclosure).
6) Too many replies (comments) not enough posts
You do not create content but engage very often with others. This isn't always a bad thing, especially if you add value. But, it does show your lack of ability to generate a conversation. Creating a post is in a a lot of ways creating a conversation. You set the tone, the setting etc. By not posting often enough you are not really creating the following you should. Even if you create the best comments around all day, you still need a post for your followers to read that tells them what you are up to, what you are thinking, etc. If you have not been creating posts but leaving a lot of replies, consider throwing in a few posts here and there. Watch how quickly it builds your following and future earnings!
5) Up voting and replying to old content
After 7 days (actually 6.5) a post is "expired" and no longer can earn through up votes. If you up vote a post that is over 7 days old it will cost you Voting Power and earn you and the author nothing, in effect a complete waste! Replying to old content is okay if you understand it is expired. My preferred method however is to create a new post and tag the author, quote their expired post, and then reply with a link to my new content. This gives the author a chance to converse with you and others on a new post, gives exposure and credit to their original post, and lets you have a potential to earn more for the thoughts you put into your reply!
4) Depleting your Voting Power
I see this far to often, letting your Voting Power go below 80%! Remember you get about 20% back per day (trickled in each block)! If you consume more than 20% of your Voting Power each day you will not get back to 100% before another round of voting! Your Voting Power is your life blood here, the higher it is, the more your vote matters! You want to keep this ideally over 90% and never below 80% at all times! If you are below 80% wait until you hit at least 90% to begin voting again!
3) Not consistent with content and frequency
Talking about random things and not sticking on topic is great if you just want this to be a basic social media platform and not worry about the earnings (which is not a bad idea). But if you really want to focus on earning more, you need to stay lightning focused. People do not want to read your posts or follow you if you constantly switch topics and have no theme. If you notice my theme is investing, cryptocurrency and technology. I very rarely make posts outside that. Again, I am not saying NEVER make an off topic post, in fact your followers will love that if you have been good, it makes you "real". If I NEVER talked about something like how my experience at the movies was I would probably look like a robot or just be boring. A nice healthy balance is what you should look for!
2) Under utilizing past/expired posts
As you see in #3 I linked to a past post. Sure I can't earn more on it, but remember search engines index it, and others read it which in turn lead to them liking your content more and following you. Do not forget how much time you put into creating a post only to have it never read again! You do earn from past posts, especially if you reference them! You earn indirectly! More followers and more up votes and more re-steems on your new content is what results from sharing your past expired content! Never overlook this!
1) NOT Viewing Steem like you do [Insert Facebook, Twitter, etc]
And the final point! If you think Steem is just a blog, you missed the point! We are a social revolution! We are what Facebook was to the internet of blogs! Although we are just starting and fairly new, Steem is set to become the biggest social platform on the planet! I would begin looking at Steem as the new social platform instead of just a blog site as many still do!
Thanks for reading my post, I hope it helps everyone! Let me know below which one you think is the most important!
Check out my current Steem Project @shadowbot!
For more information on ShadowBot:
Getting Started: https://steemit.com/steemit/@shadowbot/top-3-tips-to-earning-more-on-steem-and-shadowbot-pro-tips
Latest Post: https://steemit.com/steemit/@shadowbot/meet-the-team-that-makes-it-all-possible
Important Information: https://steemit.com/steemit/@shadowbot/why-we-have-the-fvl-and-why-it-is-a-fair-system
FAQ: https://shadowbot.us/shadowbot/faq.php
Signup/Login: https://shadowbot.us/shadowbot/login.php
Let me add a b section to Number 1. Downvoting spam comments.
The best thing to do about spam comments is to just let them be and upvote around them. This way, the quality contrnt moves up while the sapm moves down. Downvoting the spam will cost you VP and in essence, you are also suffering for the sins of the spammer.
Upvote around!
Ha I love that concept! https://steemit.com/steemit/@bigdeej/why-down-vote-when-you-can-up-vote-around
Good tips for newbs (even Steem veterans ). Not managing my voting power was something that was challenging for me particularly.
Being extremely new, like first post today. This post was a very valuable read. Thanks for your insight and I'll try to take it all on board.
Glad to help out! Be sure to read through all my past posts as well especially the "pro tips"! Also check out @shadowbot for a community that can greatly help you grow here!
I've just started steem and this is definitely a good heads up :) Thanks!
Thanks for reading always glad to have another steemian on the platform! You are going to love Steem! Just learn the basics and you are off to the races!
I think I am guilty of misusing my steem power. I still need a proper knowledge about this system. Please how many upvotes do you need to perform per day to bring your steempower to 80%?
10 votes a day will keep you at where you are at now. So to gain VP back keep under 10 votes per day or don't vote until you are happy where your VP is
use this app to keep a check on it
https://www.steemnow.com
Just put your name in the username box and save
What he said ^^
Thank you very much.
Be sure to check out our Steem app/bot: @shadowbot free for all to join and we are expanding to a full platform the next few months!
It is the other way around, Every up vote costs 2% so if you use more than 10 per day and do not have the voting weight slider you are going below 80%!
I was pretty excited the day I noticed the slider bar appear. I didn't even know it was an option until it just appeared one day when I'd acquired enough SP to get it. It makes it so you can vote more than 10x per day without dropping below 80. When I was new i didn't know any better and I depleted my voting power very quickly---giving out upvotes like Oprah.
I wish it was easier to set the voting % on the esteem mobile app. It's hard to make it land on a round number with no decimal and sometimes the vote doesn't seem to take (get an error message) when set at certain values. I prefer steeming on my PC but I'm not home very often unfortunately. At least it doesn't seem like it.
Yes that is true but it is part of the system. I have explained in many posts that reading the white paper is so crucial because so few get the concept at first. I am a developer and build apps on steem (such as @shadowbot) and even I took a month to get the concepts fully. That just shows it is a learning curve and we need a better way to ensure people do learn!
Thank you very much for your post and respond.
That is what we are here for! Thanks for reading and replying! Don't forget to follow where we are going with @shadowbot and @shadowbook!
I shall follow these and be a pro, Thanks!
Thanks for reading, be sure to read through the FAQ and white paper if you haven't already! All my tips come from how the platform works!
I've seen an increase in number 5 (voting on expired material that's been paid out) recently, some votes going back to posts from weeks or months ago. I definitely appreciate the gesture but it's a shame when a person depletes their voting power in any amount and it doesn't benefit anyone. I think it's just the learning curve for new users.
I also see #9 happen fairly frequently. Some people use this nearly solely as a source of income which maybe is necessary for them to pay their bills...I'm glad I'm not faced with that situation and I guess I can't really judge or look down on those people if they need the money to put food on the table and keep the lights on.
However, there are plenty who send out a lot of earnings to trade for other coins. I've done this a little bit but not on a large scale. This is the biggest egg in my crypto basket and I normally convert most or all of my SBD's to STEEM and power it up since that steem power can generate additional daily earnings (on top of authoring and commenting) through curation and delegation of steem power.
And of course you've hit on a good point of the spam comments...I get annoyed by them because often the person posts two words and upvotes their own comment without bothering to read or upvote my post. I don't flag them or anything but I certainly don't try and reward them in any way. My wife has seen people with rep scores in the 50's and 60's comment on her posts (these are usually more than 2 words, mostly 1-3 sentences) yet not upvote the post and sometimes they'll vote on their own comments. Those people should know the system by the time they have that high of a rep score. If you find the story interesting enough to read and comment on, then for God's sake give it an upvote even if it's just a few %. Even if it's more of a gesture than an addition to the rewards for the post at least they're voting on it.
Couldn't agree more, look if you NEED the money I can't fault someone for taking it off but we both know the majority of people doing this are those who look at steem as a get rich quick scheme and abuse the platform rather than give back to it! Thanks for reading glad to have a great steemian like you onboard!
Thanks man. Yes there are those whose names I won't mention and also others I'm not even aware of who are merely using this as a get rich quick scheme and are taking value away from the platform and ultimately helping to hold the price of STEEM down by selling / trading so much in for other coins or for fiat. People are free to do what they want with their rewards but they might end up regretting not putting some of those into the form of steem power some day if STEEM hits $10, $20, $50, etc as many people have suggested it could.
Lol you haven't talked to me recently I theorize steem could break $1,000 easily once @shadowbook @shadowchat are online! We already got @shadowbot rolling just wait to see the value we add here! People are going to wish in 2 years they bought more under $5 not sold it!
1,000 0.1% up votes is a nice reward TBH! They can't even spare that yet toss out a comment AND up vote their own comment! MOOCHES: https://steemit.com/steemit/@bigdeej/mooches-vs-givers-who-gets-more-in-the-end-pro-tips
hi @bigdeej , what is happening with shadowbot ? I can't log in and none from my community:(. And can i translate the important articles you made regarding shadowbot, for my romanian community? Thank you.
Useful guides and tips for a newbie like me but sometime hard to tell which one has the good content and some follower don't even post any article I mean some stay invisible and did not leave any comments right after they upvoted our articles..I'm curious about self upvote our own contents what are the consequences or the effect after...Thanks for sharing
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