Note To Steemians: This is an onboarding post as I have been asked a few times now what steem is and how it works

Hello there, and welcome to steem, I'm glad you decided to come check it out!

Get an account:

So, firstly, to do anything here, as with most websites, you will need an account. You can do this by clicking the register link in the top right-hand corner, or in the drop-down menu on mobile.
The process usually takes 2-3 Days to get approved, so best to do it now.
If you don't get an email within a week, this probably means that your account will not be approved, so I recommend using one of the alternate methods mentioned in This Guide by @mermaidvampire.

Why is steem(it) so special?

Steem(it) is special because it rewards you based on the upvotes you get. Upvote values vary depending on who gives them, their vote power, and their steem power.

Vote Worth

A user's upvote worth is determined by their Vesting shares, known as steem power, which is steem that has been powered up.
Steem power is used, because when you power up, you have to wait 13 Weeks to power back down, this is to stop people from abusing the system, and means that they have to commit to doing it.
You can also delegate power, as in lending it to users, it remains yours but it is used in their vote value, this is usually used by dolphins and whales, steemians with a high amount of steem power.

Why should I Vote?

You will earn rewards for upvoting users, known as curation rewards, your curation rewards increase if you have more steem power, and decrease if you have less.

Voting Power

Voting power is given to you at the rate of 20% per day, up to 100%, and a standard upvote costs 2% vote power, because of this, I recommend that you don't use more than 10 full upvotes per day, you can check your current vote power at https://steemd.com/@[username] where [username] is your username, for example, you can see mine at https://steemd.com/@cadawg

Your first post

I recommend that your first post is a #introduceyourself post (Main Topic / Tag) as they get a lot of views, in these type of posts, you should write a post about yourself, and if you feel comfortable take an image holding a piece of paper saying:
@[username]
Today's Date
#introduceyourself / Hey Steemit / Your Message
In this post, you should write about

• Your Life
• Your Interest In Steemit
• Hobbies / Interests
• What you plan to bring to the community
• Anything Else you feel like sharing.

Safely Logging In

Once logged in, make sure you go to your wallet, click permissions and copy and note down all your keys, you should use your posting to log in to steem, active to pay/make transactions and authorise apps, and memo to read memos that have been encrypted.

Posting Your Next Post

I recommend using https://busy.org to post on steem when you go to log in, it should take you to a page called "steemconnect" ( http://v2.steemconnect.com ), here it is safe to give it your active key to allow busy to use your account's posting permissions, it needs your active key as that is the one which can give apps posting permissions, busy only uses these to post for you, when you create a post, vote when you vote and so on, so forth. Also, as a bonus, when you set one of your five topics as busy you get a ~$0.40 Upvote

Posting open source software / tutorials / translations and more

I recommend using https://utopian.io as they reward you with a ~$25 upvote if your post is approved, just make sure you read the rules!

Note: When I Say ~$25, I mean steem display amount, it varies with the current market price of SBD, so you may get more than $ 25 in value
Note 2: 25% of your post payout goes to the curators, and 75% to you, but still it should be worth more than it shows

Posting Memes:

Visit http://dmania.lol

Sending Money:

Go to your wallet on steemit, click the drop-down arrow next to the currency you want to send and fill in the form, then authorise it with your active key if required.

Making Money:

• Post Content
• Participate in contests Writing Contest List Here list by @moneyinfant (Check his profile for more)

Tips For Posting:

• Make your posts of a reasonable length, preferably longer
• Do not spam or ask for follow for follow/upvote for upvote .etc.
• Use properly licenced images, and reference your sources
• Don't plagiarise, we have bots to deal with plagiarism
• Don't get involved in a flame war, because it will most likely kill your account.
• Make sure your posts have correct spelling and grammar, write it in your word processor if you like.
• Stick to these guidlines from the @steemcleaners
• Tag your post properly, go to the tag by searching for it and look at what is posted there.
• Interact with people with similar tags but never spam comments.

My Posts aren't getting views/votes:

If you have some SBD (Steem Dollars) you can trade them in for votes, depending on the service they have different payout rates, some are profitable whilst others are not. Here is a list:
Note $ = Steem Dollars

Lifetime Subscriptions

Username	Cost	Rules/Requirements
@qurator	4 STEEM (NOT SBD	High-Quality Content, Upvote all their posts and get a more valuable upvote (You Can Use https://steemauto.com to setup auto-voting)
@steembasicincome	1 STEEM	Good For People who plan on sticking with steem for a long time

Monthly Subscriptions

Username	Cost per Month	Worth it?
@moonbot	$1	If you post More than once a day
@blockgators	$5	If you post many (~4+) Times a day

Per Post Services

Username	Min Bid	Max Bid	Notes	How To Use
@minnowbooster	$0.01	$variable	See https://www.minnowbooster.net for working bids, guaranteed profitable	Send $#.## to minnowbooster with a post link as the memo
@originalworks	Free	Free	Free $0.01 Upvote	Comment @originalworks and @originalworks2 on a post
@earthnation-bot	Check Profile	Check Profile	Gives 4x - 5x upvote to steemians with less than 500Steem Power (Minnows)	Send The Amount on their profile page to them (with link as memo)
@bumper	$0.50	$.50	Returns Vote of $1.50	Send $0.50 with memo of post url
@lays	$1	$8	Vote of 245% - 270% Back	Send with memo as post url
@steemlike	$1	$13	Vote of 250% Back	Send with memo as post url
@smartmarket	$0.10	$20	Vote of 245% - 270% Back	Send with memo as post url

Hope this helps to introduce a few of you to steem