If you just signed up to SteemIt…Read this First!

in #steemit7 years ago

Hi there!

I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you what I learned over the past two months being on SteemIT. My hopes are for you to get up to speed faster than me; to start earning that SP (Steem Power).

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This will be a non-exhaustive list. There’s no way for me to learn over two months every detail about SteemIt. And posting everything I’ve learned here would be impossible. This list is intended to hit the highlights of what I’ve learned based on reading other posts and/or learning the hard way. Hope this helps.

Rules and General Etiquette

  1. The first rule of Fight Club is…What you put on the Blockchain, stays on the Blockchain. There’s no erasing mistakes, there’s no…oops, I wish I didn’t just post that so let me delete it. If you click the post button, it’s stored in the blockchain forever. You can edit posts using the “edit” function here:
    edit function.JPG
    but the edits are also captured in the blockchain…just a different block.
  2. Blocks are created every 3 seconds…you can see them being created with this handy tool here: https://steemblockexplorer.com/. Also, typing your username in the search box allows you to see your activity and the associated blocks. Use lowercase when typing your name…Weirdgoose doesn’t work…weirdgoose or @weirdgoose does.
  3. Your posts can be downvoted…not that mine have, just know they can be…so choose your topics and words and insults…selectively.
  4. There are lots of vocabulary for different “classes” of Steemians…Minnows, Dolphins, Sharks, Whales. Those with a lot of SP are Whales. Whale upvotes (and downvotes) are worth a lot more. The idea being that they know best what deserves to be rewarded. There are many Whales that take their responsibility seriously and go about distributing the reward pool in a seemingly fair and just manner. But know also that there’s abuse among Whales (just search @haejin). Some Whales only upvote their friends and/or their own posts and some of their posts are just crap.
  5. Upvoting your own posts is an ethical decision you have to make. I personally think it’s ok to upvote your own posts if you’re a minnow, dolphin or even a shark. If you’re a whale or shark posting crap ten times a day and upvoting only your own content, I would consider that abuse.
  6. There are three different forms of currency on SteemIt’s platform. A. Steem (liquid form of Steem Power) is the main tradable token. B. Steem Power is the illiquid form of Steem and is used to determine how much your upvote is worth. Consider Steem Power your vested interest in the platform. You can “power down” your Steem Power which converts it back to liquid Steem over the course of months. C. Steem Backed Dollars (SBDs) are a secondary token that can also be sold on the open market or converted to Steem through the open market. SBDs are best used to pay for upvotes from upvote bots like minnowbooster. Internally on SteemIt 1 SBD is worth $1 USD. Externally on the open market they are generally worth more…$3.38 as of this writing.
  7. Steem Power is influence, the more you have, the more influence you have in determining how rewards are distributed. Influence in concentrated on SteemIT. This is not a decentralized currency platform like some people will lead you to believe. You’re goal as a minnow is to get the attention and upvote of a Whale and collect as much Steem Power as you can.
  8. Those with the most Steem Power earn the most on SteemIt. It’s not just about posting good content. It’s also about having deep pockets and investing in Steem. Don’t think you can come on SteemIT, posting the equivalent of a Shakespearian play, and get even one upvote for it. Most of my posts go unnoticed. 1000 minnows upvoting your post at 100% of the Voting Power, is not worth what 1 Whale can upvote you for.
  9. If you want influence and Steem Power immediately, you can always buy some Steem on the open market and Power Up. I recommend Blocktrades or Bittrex (I’m in the US).

Rewards

  1. Author rewards are paid out for the posts and comments you create. You get rewarded when people upvote them, especially people with a lot of Steem Power. Posts have a seven-day window…a curation window…before they pay out. Reward payout is determined by how you set up the post to pay out…You have three options: you can get paid out in all Steem Power, a 50/50 split between Steem Power and SDBs, or you can decline rewards.
    reward options.JPG
  2. Authored posts are paid out roughly 75% to the author and roughly 25% to the curators. Curators are those who upvote your content. If you take the 50/50 split here’s an example of how you will be paid out. Say your post has a $ value of $10 when the 7 day curation period is over. 25% will go to the curators in the form of SP. So $2.5 will be converted to SP using the current SP price. So that’s like 0.75 SP as today’s price. That 0.75 SP is then divided up among the curators on a prorated basis. Those that have the contributed the most to the post in $ terms and when they contributed matter. The remaining $7.5 or 75% is converted to SP and SBD 50/50. You’ll get 3.75 SBDs (1/2 of $7.5 is 3.75 and internally SBD is $1 USD). The other $3.75 is converted to SP based on Steem’s internal feed price (which is determined by the market). So, at today’s prices, you’d get about 1.12 SP for this post to go along with the 3.75 SBDs.
  3. Comments are also rewarded…I’m just not sure how.

Strategy

  1. Post every day if you can. The more you post, the better your chances are for getting upvotes. It’s work to post good content every day. Believe me, I know. But by having “active” posts (i.e., posts that are less than seven days old) you have more options for using upvote bots.
  2. Using upvote bots to buy upvotes is critical! Minnowbooster is the best. Avoid upvote bots that require you to bid against other steemians. Unless you can outbid the dolphins and sharks, stay away. Minnowbooster is a guaranteed 2.5 to 2.7x upvote. If you put 1 SBD in, you get a $2.70 upvote. Using the example above under Rewards #2…if you took the 3.75 SBDs you earned from above and put it back into minnowbooster for more upvotes you’d get roughly $10.12 in rewards on another post. And you just need to keep recycling the SBD back into minnowbooster to earn SP on your posts. Minnowbooster allows you to upvote posts that are no older than 5 days. If you upvote your 4 or 5 day old posts, you can recycle those SBDs every 3 to 2 days.
  3. Your voting matters. Voting Power is how much of your influence you have at the moment on a % bases. If you're VP is at 5% you can't really upvote posts for a payout. You can track your voting power using https://steemblockexplorer.com/. You can upvote 10 times a day at 100% and maintain your voting power. It regenerates itself 20% per 24 hour period. Each 100% upvote depletes a full 2% of your Voting Power. Thus, 10 upvotes depletes your VP by 20%. Hence, 10 votes per day. You could do 20 votes per day if you only used 50% of your upvote power on each upvote. Make sense?
  4. Your votes can earn you curation rewards. Be the first to find and upvote content after the first 30 minutes of curation and earn curation rewards on that post…if other people upvote it after you you'll earn more curation. You should never let your VP reach 100. You should be voting to earn curation rewards every day. You can use SteemVoter.com to help you with voting enough and at the right time. It does it automatically, you just have to tell it who and when to upvote. I keep my VP between 90 and 97% at all times.
  5. Sell your vote to minnowbooster. If you have enough SP to earn $0.03 per upvote (roughly 120 SP at today’s prices), you can sell your vote to minnowbooster and you should. You get roughly 77% of the SBD that someone used to pay for your upvote. You get paid SBD directly into your account. Then you can use that SBD to upvote your own posts….it’s a cycle. Plus, you can earn curation rewards on the upvotes you sell.
  6. Leasing and/or delegating steem power may also be a viable strategy for minnows…I just haven’t researched it as much and don’t know much about it. Seems like more of a Shark and Whale strategy to me.
  7. Track Steem’s internal feed price using https://steemnow.com and use upvote bots only when you think the internal feed price is going to go up or sideways over the remaining curation period of your post. See my post on this here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@weirdgoose/why-today-is-the-time-to-use-upvote-bots-like-minnowbooster-steem-s-price-feed-is-set-to-explode-higher I determined if the internal price drops 15% or more, you’re losing money. Read the post to understand what I’m talking about.
  8. Don’t pay minnowbooster to have your posts on DMania or DTtube or DLive or etc… upvoted. These are extensions of the SteemIT platform but for other content than just blogs and they take a large portion of your rewards payout. You won’t get back the SBD your put into it your posts. It’s okay to post to them if that’s your thing, I just wouldn’t use any SBD to pay for upvotes. They cut into your profit too much.

That’s all I can think of for now…hope this was helpful.
Good luck out there!

With Love,
Chris

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Upvoted and resteemed! Keep up the good work!

You got a 2.29% upvote from @upmyvote courtesy of @weirdgoose!
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Thank you, Chris.

Hey goose,

thanks so much for our insights. Most of it I roughly new, but that it is advisable to rent your upvote even as a minnow, that was good information I will use from the moment, I have the 120 SP.

Thanks again and keep up the good work (Your article linked in this one, I will read next.)

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