how to get the most out of steemit

Lots of people sign up for steemit and quit soon after.

Common reasons are:

• not earning as much as they expected
• the slow growth of your reputation
• getting posts hidden for no good reason
• difficulty creating your own content
• confusing

As someone who loves steemit but can see that it's not as good as it was, I want to offer and get some advice.

Earnings have always been rather random. Some posts I would make a few cents, another I made $80. Now I rarely get more than a dollar even if my post have 20 upvotes. I don't think people realize that their voting power diminishes fast. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we used to get 40 high powered votes a day and now we get 10. It also takes awhile for your voting power to replenish.

So some advice here is to vote daily, but not too much. Spread it out and give it time. Don't be stingy, but maybe picky. I like to start by upvoting posts that have low earnings but are good quality. Something I'm interested in and I believe deserves rewards. It's fine upvoting posts by whales on here too, some of them are living off what they earn on here. Just make sure you don't neglect the little guys. Your upvote can be the deciding factor on whether they stick around or not, so make it count.

Make friends! I have a few mutuals on here that comment on my posts often, and I theirs. When someone takes the time to check out your post and leave a comment, it's nice to return the favour. It doesn't mean you owe them anything, but it's worth checking out their page. Making friends on here creates a much more enjoyable environment and you'll have more to look forward to.

As for content, I believe everyone has something to offer the world. I've told a few people that they should share their art, poetry or thoughts on this platform and a few of them did. If you have an interest or hobby, this is a great place to share it! Don't overthink it or doubt yourself, and don't try to find shortcuts like plagiarizing either. You can write about anything you want and chances are you will find someone who's interested.

As for reputation, patience is key. All you need is one post to gain popularity and you're set. I'm at 52 and most my posts have little value. Just keep putting content out their and eventually it will pick up, don't lose hope. This will also help with having your posts flagged, because reputation plays a big part in that. If you have one flagged because you did something wrong, then move forth and try to follow the guidelines. You can recover from it.

Something else that takes patience is understanding the platform. Luckily it's gotten a bit better, you can insert images into posts instead of getting a url for them. But you will still need some basic understanding and that will be learned with experience. There's the markdown styling guide which is super handy, and a lot of people post tutorials on here about what to do with the money you earned so it's not stuck in your wallet on here. People are also willing to help so if you have any questions, you can just ask!

If you have any more advice, please leave it below. I'd love to start earning again. And if you're new to Steemit, don't be discouraged by any of these problems...

It's such a great site and they're worth working through!