I’m on Steemit…. Now What Do I Do? How Do You Steemit?

I’ve seen many posts about what to do once you get onto Steemit, and I think it is a good idea that these kinds of posts continue to be spread. New Steemers need to know what to expect when they start an account. Since I just wrote a post on my Facebook wall encouraging my friends to try Steemit for themselves, I thought I would jot down a few reminders, and/or advice.

When you first start a Steemit account, you will be given a very long master key, or password. Write that down on a piece of paper. Ya’ll remember what paper is right? You take that piece of paper with your master key, and you put it somewhere safe. You are the only one who has access to that key, and your money.

You will need to be approved by Steemit. Once you create a Steemit account, you will have a few hours before you will be allowed to run free. My advice, sign up at night, go to bed, and sometime in the morning, you will be approved.

@jbgarrison72 added: "one thing my friends are telling me is that there seems to be a long wait time for them to sign up right now... I assume it's because Steemit is getting so popular all of a sudden maybe.”

@snook added: "I had to wait for over 24 hours.......”

Once you are approved you will need to make a screen name. Your screen name, will be the name placed at the top of your blog. This can be a nickname, something clever or creative, or can hint to the theme of your blog. You can add a picture and a description of what you hope to achieve on Steemit.

You can introduce yourself to the community, by using the word #introduceyourself in the tag of your first post. The tags you use will decide where your post will be placed in the search. You can find the main tags on the side of your home page-Tags and Topics. When you decide which tags describe what your post will be about, you can pick five tags to place on each post. The first tag cannot be edited after the post is confirmed posted.

You may also choose to use Busy.org to read posts. The Busy.org site will use your Steemit screen name, and the private posting permissions key. You can find your keys in your wallet, under permissions, and the show the private key for posting. You can then sign into the Busy.org site with this password. On the Busy.org site, or Steem Connect, you can search articles in your feed, set favorites, and follow new writers. Busy.org

Your posts need to be original. Anything you write on Steemit must be your own writing, or you must cite your sources. If you do not cite your sources, your post will be flagged, and you may lose money and reputation. Your reputation is the number beside your name on the top of your blog, and on your posts. New members will start with a reputation of 25. If you see a Steemit member reputation under 25, they may be a trouble-maker, or a computer program.

The content of your writing will determine your upvotes. The readers of your posts, will decide if your post is worthy of their vote. The more interesting, original, inspiring, or relevant your post, the more upvotes you will get. The more you post, the higher your reputation, and the more chances you will have for upvotes.

When you start on Steemit, you will not have any followers. You will need to read other members’ posts, upvote, and comment to get your name out into the community. You will also need to promote your own posts. This means networking. The more members you interact with during your time on Steemit, the more you will find others with common interests, and common goals. When you do find these fine folks, you will want to follow them, so that you can see more of their posts and resteems.

Posts that are over seven days old can no longer be resteemed. You can also no longer edit your posts after seven days. The reason is because you get paid seven days after the post. Once you begin blogging, you can get paid for your posts by having others upvote your writing. After seven days, your posts will become immortal and never die. Be sure you put your best foot forward, and continue to edit, and improve your posts during the seven days grace. You do not want to go down in history as someone who didn’t use a spell check.

Promoting your posts can be done several ways. The easiest being through the Steemit chat. On the top left-hand corner of your Steemit page is an icon with horizontal lines. If you select this tab, it will open your Steemit control panel. There you can re-read the Steemit Welcome, FAQs, and you will find the link for the Steemit Chat. You will need to set up a separate account to use the chat. Again, you will want to place your screenname, and your picture.

Once you are in the chat you can go into general chat and ask questions, or you can find a topic room to explore. You can promote your posts in the post promotion channel, once every two hours. The more you promote your posts, the more Steemit members will read your posts, upvote, resteem, and comment. You can also promote your recent posts, by including a link to them in your most recent blog entries. Big Fish may have a list of articles at the bottom of their new posts. They also make a lot of money from these posts.

New members are called minnows because they are small and can be eaten by bigger fish. Try not to look at the bigger fish with envy. Instead, look at them for inspiration. If they can do it, so can you. When you see a post with many upvotes, and comments, check out how they write, the format they use, and the special features they have, and then get creative. Short posts are nice, but the longer ones seem to be more interesting to readers. Also. think about your opening sentence.

I have been using the same opening sentence in all my posts because I write a how-to blog. By doing my own curating, I am finding that I am drawn to articles that have an interesting beginning, or something clever to hook me in. Pictures are always a nice touch. Be sure to cite your pictures, as well as any quotes, or articles. To place these pictures, Steemit uses Markdown. This is a simple code in which you place the link of the picture into your posts.

(If anyone remembers the social site we were on before Myspace, where we had to write our own code to post, I cannot remember the name of it, but Markdown is the same, except it’s easier than what we had to do back then; yes I am that old. Once you get used to it, you will know the code. Then you can write it into your draft, and copy and paste it right to the Steemit without much effort.)

Here is the link explaining Markdown: Markdown

To edit your own photos, you can use a free photo editor at: Pizap

You can store your photos on Imgur and use the Direct Link to place the picture in the Markdown code.

You can Google the Steemit logo, or pre-made gifs, or, you can make your own on Giphy

The more you do to personalize your posts, the more you will draw the attention of new readers.

The more fun you will have!

Seems like you should get paid for reading all these steps to starting on Steemit. If you upvote and comment on this post you will get paid.

So, what are you being paid for?

Steemit members are getting paid for contributing to the community. Everything you do on Steemit will contribute to either your wallet, or your reputation. You are being paid to write for the readers, and you are paid to read for the writers. You are getting paid to let others in the community know if you approve, or disapprove of a post with the power of your vote. You can also downvote a post, or flag it if necessary. Your comments will encourage, and inspire the writers to create more interesting content. You can also upvote comments.

How are you getting paid?

You are getting paid in Steem Dollars, and Steem Power. Steem Dollars can be transferred to Steem and then cashed out for Bitcoins. Bitcoins can be exchanged on the stock market for whatever price it is selling at the time of exchange, or can be used to purchase goods and services. Steem Power is stock in the company. You must hold on to this stock for two years. (This way, not everyone is cashing in at the same time.)

@ecoinstant added- "SteemPower can be powered down into Steem, which can be moved or sold. This process used to take 104 weeks, or two years, and giving a payout of 1/104th every week.
This has now been lowered to 13 weeks. So if you choose to power down some SteemPower now, you will recieve a 1/13 portion every week for 13 weeks."

You will be paid directly into your wallet seven days after your Steemit earning activity. If you write one post every day for seven days, on the seventh day, you will receive payment for your first day’s posts. You will then receive payment for the posts you wrote throughout the week, when their seven days conclude. You must go into your wallet to accept this payment.

You will be paid half of your earnings in Steem Dollars, and half in Steem Power. You can leave your Steam Dollars alone and earn interest on it, you can convert it into Steem then exchange for Bitcoins, or, you can Power Up to Steem Power which will give you more stock in Steemit. New Steemers will not make much at the beginning, unless you have managed to bring your entire following with you from another platform. And this brings us to how Steemit can afford to pay us.

How can Steemit afford to pay you?

There’s these magical beings who mine imaginary gold, and this gold is worth money… Seriously does it matter how it is funded?? I’ll let the expert explain all that… I’ll just tell you that these magical beings who distribute their gold to the members of Steemit, will give 90% to the members according to their stock, which is Steem Power, and then 10% of it goes to the contributors of content and curating.

So, the smart play for new Steemers is to become involved in the community, save up their Steem Dollars, and build their Steam Power. The more Steem Power you obtain, the more of the 90% you get from the gold, and the more powerful your vote. Also, this will make Steemit a better community, because every member has a stake in the success of the platform. If you want to get paid in 100% Steem Power, you can Power-up your posts by selecting the 100% option at the bottom before posting.

This video explains the process of Steem Currency:

Is this too good to be true?

No. This is not a sit back and watch the money roll in scheme that is free to join, and then will pay you to exist. This is an opportunity to be involved in a ground-breaking new community. You are investing your time, knowledge, opinions, and skills in the community, and the community is investing in you. You will have to work for your money. And you will have to be good at what you do. As increasingly more writers emerge from the shadows, the competition for votes will increase and only the best will earn the upvotes.

This is your chance to get ahead of the crowd, and earn as much Steem Power as you can while you are new. If you do not write, you can follow the same guidelines I gave to the writers. Go to the chat rooms, because that is where writers promote their posts. Find topics, and writers you like. Follow the writers, and topics you know. Your input will be more valuable on subjects you are knowledgeable.

Write strong and encouraging, or inspiring comments that will draw the attention, and the upvote of the other curators. Resteem the posts you find that are well written and provide valuable information. Write your own posts about your opinion on another post. Keep the communication going...

The truth is, you will be getting paid in much more than Bitcoins.

What do I do with my Bitcoins?

To cash in your earnings from Steemit, you will need a Bitcoin Wallet. If you have a fancy phone, you may have a Bitcoin wallet in your apps. If you don’t have one, or you are using a desktop, you can download Exodus. This is a free and simple program that you can use to get the Steem to the bank.

If you don’t know what Bitcoins are, here is a smart video you can watch:

I hope this explains most of the concepts of Steemit, how you can contribute to the community, and how you can earn rewards for your contributions. I’m glad, just to be able to get away from Facebook and other platforms that seem to want to control their content. In Steemit, there is always new and interesting content being sent out into the community. There are groups gathering together to talk about interests, and there are plenty of contests, and ways to socially interact with other members.

If you are new, I encourage you to read all you can about Steemit, so that you can write your own cash cow. I didn’t mean to write a book, but it looks like I got carried away. And I know that I will have left some things out. Throughout the week, I will add more links to other members who have written on this topic, so this post will become more valuable.

Until next time,

Happy Steeming- Sim Girl

Links for Beginning Steemers/ Information About Steemit

Why I am using Steemit - What is it good for?

Why I powered up, and why you should too.

Dummies Guide to Basic Steemit Account Security + Account Recovery Guide! Must Read For Steemit Users!

What is Steemit?

For More Posts @simgirl, follow these links:
Creation of A Sim: Creating a Sim From Scratch
Creation of A Sim: An Outfit For Every Occasion
Creation of A Home: Buying the Land
Creation of A Home: Rough Framing
Creation of A Home: The Details
Creation of A Home: Final Touches for Functionality
Picking Sally Steemit’s Life Goal
Sometimes it Is Okay to Cheat

How-to Sim Your Life: A Guide to Winning the Game of Life