Steemit 101 - Payouts, Steem tokens, Steem Power, Steem Dollars.

This next part of my Steemit 101 blog I'm going to cover when you get payouts and an explanation of what the three currencies within the Steemit platform are and a rundown of how to Power up.

As always I'm not going to go into any complicated terms or explaining the algorythms involved in the distribution of these commodities.

PAYOUTS
Before I get into the currencies on Steemit let's get down to the nitty gritty, the one thing most of you newcomers are so excited about, WHEN DO I GET PAID!. Ok for a start Steemit is not get rich quick scheme, when you start out first on Steemit don't be surprised if you are only earning a few cent per post for a long time and don't give up if you are, I'll get into all that in a later blog.

Payouts will be sent to your "wallet" 7 days after you post or comment etc. So if you post something right now you will receive whatever rewards you are due as an author of that post 7 days later. Don't sit their all week thinking " It says it's worth $5? But how do I get that $5?"

The other side is as I described in my earlier post "STEEMIT 101 - UPVOTING" you won't get $5 in return for that post, the author will get 75% of the value of the post and the curators (upvoters) will get the other 25% in Steem Power.

Smart tip! - when you post an article leave the reward setting at "50/50" this will earn you approx. 32% more in rewards than "100% power up"

STEEM DOLLARS
Think of Steem dollars this way, you currently live in the Republic of Steem and in the Republic of Steem the currency is Steem Dollars, so anything you do within Steemit itself, Steem Dollars can be used to pay for it but they can't be used in say USA the same way you don't use US dollars in Europe. You're probably wondering "what can I buy with steem dollars?" don't forget Steemit is currently in it's beta stage and much more is to come!. I can imagine Steemit will have a system of shopping where you can buy items on Steemit using your Steem dollars.

The other side of Steem dollars is that they are tied to the value of the US dollar, so when you earn $5 on a post you will be paid to the value of $5 USD in Steem dollars. The way this works is for example if the value of Steem is $0.50 USD cent per steem token and you are due 1 steem dollar in rewards, because steem dollars are tied to the value of the USD you will be paid 2 steem tokens which will equal to $1 USD. Quite difficult to explain but I hope you get the idea.

STEEM
Our second form of currency is STEEM or STEEM TOKENS. Steem is the the actual crypto currency which is available to trade on the market. To put it simply STEEM is the universal currency on steemit that you can sell on trading websites such as bittrex or poloniex in exchange for FIAT based currencies such as the USD and Euro then transfer it back to your own bank account to spend in your country.

STEEM POWER
The easiest way to explain Steem Power is think of it as shares in a company, the more Steem Power you have the more shares you have in the company which equates to you having a greater say in where the rewards are distrubuted to within the company. In it's simplest way to explain it, the more Steem Power you have the more your upvote will be worth. There is more to it than that in regards to interest etc. If you would like to watch a video by @andrarchy explaining the three currencies in more detail click here.

Steem power is also more of a long term investment it takes 13 weekly payments in a proccess called powering down to convert your Steem Power back into Steem tokens that you can sell on the market.

POWERING UP
This final part is a quick way of explaining how to increase your Steem Power after you receive your reward.

1. Go to your wallet.
   

2. Find your Steem Dollars (I have just powered up so it's at 0).
   

3. Click the little triangle next to your Steem Dollars to open the menu then click 'market'.
   

4. Next in the 'BUY STEEM' section enter the amount of Steem Dollars you want to exchange for STEEM. (Mine says 0.000 if you have Steem Dollars it will tell you how much here.) Once you have entered it click "BUY STEEM" then click through the various screens including your password. Once you are directed back to the market after a few seconds a notification will pop up at the bottom of the page saying "order placed"
   

5. Time to power up, return to your wallet and once the order is complete you will see the balance of Steem appear. Once again click the little triangle and in the menu click "power up"
   

That's about it for powering up, my suggestion is to power up everything you get, Steemit is in its beta stage and hasn't got that many users, once Steemit gains more users and the value of STEEM tokens on the market increases to say $10 your Steem Power will be worth more than 5 times the value it is right now. Your upvotes will also be worth more when you upvote yourself.

If you cash out the little you make right now you devalue STEEM and Steem tokens are only worth $1.50 (last time I checked the market).

The key word here is INVEST.....in Steemit, don't cash out of it!.

I hope this sheds a little light for some of you on how the Steemit economy works.

For a video by @andrarchy explaining the economy again click here

For a pretty great post on almost everything in Steemit check out @sc-steemit post by clicking here

FINAL RUN DOWN

1. You get paid 7 days after you post something.
2. You use Steem Dollars in Steem Town!.
3. STEEM can be sold on the market for e.g. US Dollars and transferred into your bank account.
4. Steem Power is like investing in the company, more Steem Power you have the more say you will have in the payouts!.

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