STEEMIT Quick Start Guide. information on how the platform works.

1. Backup your password

Unlike centralized web services, the Steem Blockchain has no account password recovery.
You are entirely responsible for keeping your password, and keeping it secure.
Save your master key and keep it somewhere safe.
It is strongly recommended that you store an offline copy of your password somewhere safe in case of a hard drive failure or other calamity. Consider digital offline storage, such as a flash drive or burned CD, as well as printed paper. Use a safe deposit box for best redundancy.
If your account is valuable, treat it like a valuable!

1. Read the Helpful Posts from Steemit Users

The Helpful Posts from Steemit Users section of this Welcome page contains many well written articles from members of the community with tips on how to succeed.

1. Setup your Profile, Avatar, and Cover Image

Under your user settings, you can update your profile. This includes your display name, location, about info, and website.
To set your avatar image, type or paste a link to the URL where the image is located into the "Profile Picture URL" field.
Create your "introduceyourself" post
While not required, the tradition for new users is to create an "introduceyourself" post, to let the community know who you are.
You can see some examples of what other people have done here.
It is not required, but a lot of users will take a picture of themselves holding up a piece of paper that says "Steemit" with the current date, so we know you are a real person.
It is not required either, but if you have other social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) you can help the community verify that you are who you say you are, by sharing the link to your Steemit introduceyourself post with those accounts. If you are claiming to be someone famous, this is pretty much expected.

To set your cover image, type or paste a link to the URL where the image is located into the "Cover Image URL" field.
Once you have made all your changes, click the "Update" button to save your profile.

1. Choose your "NSFW" (Not Safe for Work) Display Preference
   By default, content that users have tagged as "NSFW" will be hidden, but a link will be shown to reveal the content.
   You can update your display preference so that NSFW content is always shown by default, or is completely hidden with no option to reveal.

2. Sign Up for Steem Chat
   A lot of users hang out and chat when they are not posting or browsing Steemit. It is a great place to meet people!
   There is a link to sign up in the main menu in the upper right corner.
   Your steem.chat account is a separate account from your Steem account.
   Some channels allow you to share links, but others don't. For instance, general is for discussion without link promotion, while postpromotion is for promoting your Steemit posts.
   Each channel will have its rules posted in the "Info" section.

3. Create your "introduceyourself" post
   While not required, the tradition for new users is to create an "introduceyourself" post, to let the community know who you are.
   You can see some examples of what other people have done here.
   It is not required, but a lot of users will take a picture of themselves holding up a piece of paper that says "Steemit" with the current date, so we know you are a real person.
   It is not required either, but if you have other social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) you can help the community verify that you are who you say you are, by sharing the link to your Steemit introduceyourself post with those accounts. If you are claiming to be someone famous, this is pretty much expected.

4. Quick Start Guide
   No Cost to Participate
   It is free to post, comment, or upvote all content on Steemit.com. You might even get paid for it!
   Upvotes
   Upvotes are Steemit's way of saying you like someone's post or comment.
   To upvote, click on the Upvote icon at the bottom of the comment/post.
   Comments
   When you are first starting out, commenting on other people's posts can be a great way to get involved and connect with people!
   To comment on a post, or reply to an existing comment, click on the "Reply" link at the bottom of the post/comment.
   Creating Posts
   To create a post, click on the "Post" link in the upper right corner.
   Posts have three main parts: Title, Content, Tags.
   You will want to make your title attention grabbing, and relevant to your content. The first image that you use will be the thumbnail image.

Tags will help people find your posts. Each post can have up to five tags, separated by spaces. The tags should all be relevant to the content in the post. You can browse content by tags, as well as see a list of popular tags that other users have used in their posts here.
There are several guides for creating posts in the "Helpful Posts from Steemit Users" section below.

Followers and Feeds
To follow an author, click on their username and click the "Follow" button.
Once you follow someone, all of their posts will show up in your "Feed" on the homepage when you login.
As other Steemians come across your posts and comments, you will start to gain followers.
You can see all of your followers and the people you are following in your profile page.

Resteem
If you want to share someone else's post with all of your followers, click on the resteem icon.

Digital Currencies
STEEM, Steem Power and Steem Dollars are the three forms of digital currency used by the Steem Blockchain.
More information on the three types of tokens can be found in the Steemit FAQ

Curation
Up to 25% of the reward for posts goes to the people who voted on it. These people are called curators.
The more Steem Power you have in your account, the more your upvotes will be worth, and the more potential curation rewards you can earn!

Payments
Payouts are made 7 days after the post/comment is created. You can claim your rewards in your wallet after 7 days.
The payments may fluctuate (up and down) until the final payment is reached.
Payments for posts are split between the author (at least 75%) and the curators (up to 25%).
The author reward is paid 50% in Steem Power, and 50% in liquid STEEM/SBD.
Authors also have the option to decline payout, or be paid in 100% Steem Power!

Reputation
A reputation score is one way Steemit measures the amount of value you have brought to the community.
The higher the number, the more weighted votes an account has earned.
All new users start at 25.
Your reputation will go up as you earn upvotes for your posts and comments, but it can come down if they are flagged.

Cashing out or Spending SBD
You can exchange SBD for STEEM in the Currency Market. Once you have STEEM, you can "Power Up" in your wallet to gain additional Steem Power.
You can spend your SBD at the Peerhub Store.
You can also exchange your STEEM and SBD for bitcoin on a third-party exchange such as BlockTrades or Bittrex.

Plagiarism
The community is looking for you to add your own personal touch to your articles.
Plagiarizing, that is posting someone else's work as if it were your own, is very frowned upon by the Steemit community.
If you are using anyone else's material as part of your posts (including images) - please cite your sources.
Also, make sure that you are not violating any copyright laws if you are using someone else's material/images. Limited, sourced material sharing is OK under fair use and fair dealing doctrines.

Password Security
There is no lost password recovery for Steem accounts. You are 100% responsible for having it backed up. This means secure digital backups, as well as secured paper backups, off-site if possible.
Your Steemit account is worth real money. Treat your Steemit password like you would your bank password, and keep it secure!

Earning on Steemit
The best attitude to have is to expect to make nothing. Have fun. Get engaged. Make friends. If along the way you earn something - bonus!
It is possible to earn thousands of dollars, but most authors who are doing this have put in a lot of time and work to contribute to the community and build followings.