You've joined! Now what?

Hello Friends

Now that you have your steemit account and you're looking through and liking everybody's posts, just hold your horses for a second.
Important things to note:

-> Your vote has power but it needs to recharge. Every time you vote your vote is worth 20% of your total voting power. This means that unlike FB, you can't just go through and vote for everyone without it affecting your voting strength.
Check your vote strength here on Steemnow
Here you can also see who has been voting on your posts and how much you can expect from your created and curated posts.
Removing your vote from a post makes a black mark against the writer, so don't vote, remove vote and vote again on the same post.
Comments can also be upvoted.

-> A post can only earn for 7 days after it was written. That's all. Beyond that if a post is liked it just adds to the like counter but does not give any kind of monetary value. You can also only Resteem ( Share) an article during these 7 days. Should you wish to share it again later you would have to write your own post saying something about it, crediting the creator and then sharing the link.

->Resist the urge to upload a bunch of work all at once, especially very early in your blog. I would suggest doing about 5 posts and then doing your Introduceyourself post.
An introduceyourself post consists of a hello, a bit about yourself and then taking a selfie with your Steemit name and the date to prove you're a real person. Use the tags introduceyourself, introducemyself, introduction and blog.

-> Do not post spam or nonsense posts. People take the time to read your work. Don't waste it.
Rather post 4-7 times a week and do 100 comments. You are here to get to know people and make friends and have people read your work. The payment is a bonus :) Coming in with the expectation for Steemit to take over your day job is not realistic and you will be very disappointed.

-> Do not beg for upvotes and follows. If people like your work they will do that of their own accord. Rather go to steemfollower.com and have a look at possible people to follow there. Being part of the community also helps boost your post payouts. If you are South African go to the @teamsouthafrica page and follow other South African creators.
Find your tribe by going through the tags and seeing what people are posting in the categories that you are interested in.

-> Refrain from flagging unless you're really sure you want to flag the person. Reasons to flag would include blatant hate speech or abuse, after trying to discuss it with the creator. Flagging wars are ugly things and it is possible to get your account blacklisted which would mean that no one will see your posts.

-> Take some time to read through this very long but very informative list by @fitinfun Make Money Blogging on Steemit Top Tips and Checklist for Better Results!!

Other useful tips
-> I post photos to Instagram, share on FB and then if I'm writing a Steemit post I copy image from Fb. This is easier than first downloading my camera roll to my PC and uploading from there.

-> When inserting a link to a website into your post use [ word] plus (link).
In the first block you make your clickable buttoni e [Modern Dragon]
and then in your second part you post your link (https://themoderndragon.com/)
Now put the 2 together [Modern Dragon] and (https://themoderndragon.com/)
remove 'and' as well as any spaces and you get Modern Dragon

-> If you're a videographer, upload some video's to Dtube the Steemit version of Youtube.

Ah so many things!
I will leave it there for now.

There is a lot to learn about Steemit and how it works. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask someone. Also do lots of research on Youtube, read Steemit articles and make sure you understand how it works.

Keep your passwords safe!

Hope that was helpful :)
Let me know if you'd like to learn more and also pop your username in the comments so I can follow you

Cheers
Lizelle