NEW STEEMERS! - your guide for the first hour on steemit is here.

Hello, dear new steemers [ patent pending].

You have decided to take the red pill. Let's commence and see how deep the rabbit holes go!
[ just kidding, we'll just scratch the surface, your first hour here!! ]

You got here just in time to join this revolutionary and visionary platform and for that, I congratulate you. Don't worry about "missing out" or being" too late". You are just on time.

Ok, you have an account what to do now?

I. Check your wallet and familiarize yourself with what's in there.

STEEM Dollars - this is what you get when you post or your comment gets upvotes. it's worth about 1$ and can be converted into STEEM.

STEEM - the digital currency we sue here, similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. the rate at which you change Steem dollars for Steem changes every day. STEEM can be "powered up" to STEEM POWER.

STEEM POWER - the most important part of your wallet, in my opinion. this is long term deposit of your STEEM, similar to having stack in the company. the more you have, the more your votes matter and the more valuable your acount. You receive interest for holding it here so do that. IF you decide to cash out, note that you can do that by "powering down" and you'll receive it in 104 equal rates [ that's 104 weeks, 2 years ]. For example if you have 104 STEEM POWER you'll receive 1 STEEM/ week for 2 years. Plan accordingly.

estimated value --> that's how much your account is worth based on how much STEEM is selling for in the last 7 days. It's a fun estimated but don't get too attached to this number.

Hungry for MORE info? Our guide continues with part II but if you turn right and click here you can learn more. Don't forger to come back though :)

II. PASSWORDS!!

Your account has 3 levels of acces. Click on your face in the right corner and then " Permissions".

Posting --> this is a password that allows you to post and upvote if you want to trade steem or power up you need...

Active --> this is a password tht allows to trade + posting privileges. Use a different password and don't stay logged in with this [ the thinking being that if someone gets hold of this password it can cash out for you ]

Owner --> this is the master password, when you are logged in with this you have acces to the whole account including changing the other passwords. Be very careful not to lose it and make i tlong

more here

III. Understading curation and posting < --- very important!

Curation is a concept that will prove to be the most important on steemit. It means that you chose what you'll see on steemit by encouraging/discouraging people to vote a certain type of content. What do you get for spending time on " new " [ this is a way to list posts on the main page, you see it in the corner left, it's auto set to "trending" ] to discover good posts?

You get STEEM POWER for voting early on new good content. You also get bragging rights :D

But understand this, your vote power is highly correlated with how much STEEM POWER you have so basically, it pays to have more because you are literally building steemit. In time, your say will weight a lot. Still, your vote's power dwindles as you vote, this is in place to discourage you to vote everything and HOPE to strike gold. This is a losing strategy as the power of your vote would be so small when you finally vote something good that it won't matter much.

IT has been brought to my attention by @pfunk that voting in the first 30 minutes will devalue some of your curation rewards, as in you will share more with the poster. This is in place to stop bots from autoupvoting and getting all the rewards. Something to know and keep in mind but wouldn't deter me from voting first if I like the content. I suggest you do the same, after all it's not all about money :)

You can check your vote's charge here ---> https://steemd.com/@razvanelulmarin [ enter your own nick to see ]. It will recharge in time. If it gets under 80% stop for a while. Don't let it get to 6% as I've seen some of the new people doing, this will negate your power and it will take a looooooong time to recharge while you wonder [ why don't i get more SP for curating?! ]

IV. .. and finally, posting and creating content!!

Now that's how you'll make most of your Steem dollars in here. Posting good stuff, creating interesting and ORIGINAL content and working within the community. Don't copy content and don't try to fool people. This won't get you much if anything. Come with what you have to offer and persevere, you'll see the rewards soon enough.

Start by hitting " Submit a STORY". Note that it says story not "copy". So let's hear it :)

I encourage you to start with an #introduceyourself post. Tell us something about yourself, use a photo of you with a sign saying steemit and a date so we know it's really you, be honest, be natural, be REAL. You'll see the rewards :)
Also, check this in depth guide to make the best introduceyourself post ever. [ thanks @leksimus for suggestion]

If you want, try to learn a bit markdown to make your post more lively. <--- i like this cheatsheet but the one at the bottom works too.

Don't forget to use good tags

And then...look around, read the most popular posts, interact, enjoy and have your mind blown. We've all been there[ I still am :) ]

I welcome you again and wish you luck!

Steem ahead.