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Steemit is a social media/blogging site, where likes/upvotes are rewarded with influence tokens called steem.
The more influence tokens you have, the more influence you have.
A new batch of steem tokens are made each day, and the more of them you hold, the more say you have over who gets the new ones.
There are 3 ways to get steem;
- You can blog or comment, and be upvoted by others who hold steem.
- You can upvote somebody else's blog before it's popular.
If others agree it's good and it goes on to earn a lot of steem, you get paid some of that; as a reward for highlighting it with your early upvote.
This is called 'Curating', and some people who hold a lot of steem are able to work full-time just curating blog posts on steemit, being paid for illuminating excellent content.
This is great news for those non-bloggers who struggle with what to say.
Read, upvote the good stuff and make insightful, supportive comments. (I made $14 off a single comment once. Doesn't happen often but it's fun when it does)
Without ever writing a full blog post, upvotes on your comments on other people's blog posts will increase your weight, making your upvotes more lucrative to the author, and giving you a bigger slice of those curation rewards. You'll also pick up followers, which will be handy if you decide to write a blog post at some point.
- You can buy steem from people who want to sell it, either with bitcoin or with boring old regular money.
Some people get confused and believe that steemit pays you to blog.
If that were true, the guys who built this place would have run out of money a long time ago.
Also, they're very smart and wouldn't do that.
You're not paid to blog. You're awarded new steem by existing steem holders, based on how much value they believe you've brought to themselves and to the platform, how much weight/steem they have, how popular they think your post will be over it's 7 day lifespan, and how much they like you.
Their voting power refills over time, so upvoting you some of that new steem doesn't cost them anything, except the chance to upvote somebody else instead.
The amount of steem your post has earned is displayed in it's current US dollar value at the bottom of the post.
If the price of steem drops in the week after you post (posts and comments can only be upvoted more steem for 7 days), that dollar value displayed will drop too.
You've still been awarded the same amount of steem, it's just worth less boring money than it was earlier.
It's also important to note that:
A: - 25% of the amount displayed will be awarded to those who upvoted you, as curation rewards.
B: - Only half of the remaining 75% will be immediately available for you to sell.
The rest is still yours, it's just locked away for 3 months.
I've seen steem at 7 cents, and I've seen it over $2.
People buy steem because they want to have influence over what is rewarded and highlighted here, and because they believe it will increase in value.
They believe, as do I, that as more eyeballs arrive, more people will be willing to pay more money to have more influence over what is highlighted/rewarded here, driving demand for steem.
Holders also benefit from increased curation rewards, which can be quite lucrative if you're good at anticipating the mood of the readers, and upvote well and early.
When you post, you can select up to five topics/tags.
Your post will then appear on the trending page for each of these five topics, and will move up each topic's page based on the total steem held be those upvoting it.
The higher it goes and the longer it stays there, the more people will see it, and the more upvotes it will attract.
Some readers just stick to one topic, like #photography, #writing or #teamaustralia.
Tagging your post appropriately is a great way to build a following.
More niche topics have fewer readers, but you're also competing with fewer authors, so use the most appropriate tags, rather than the most popular ones.
I've tagged this post to appear in 'steemit', 'guide', 'teamaustralia', 'advice' and 'welcome'
Tags are one way for your post to be seen; followers are another.
It's a fairly simple mechanic, and not governed by any sort of algorithm.
If somebody likes your posts or comments, they can follow you
From then on, everything you post will appear in their feed, along with everything else posted by people they follow, in chronological order.
Don't envy those with 10,000 followers. Having a lot of followers is great, but if they only followed you hoping you'd follow them back; if they don't read your content, don't upvote, or don't hold much steem, then they're not going to do you much good. Quality over quantity.
If a follower really likes your post and believes their followers would benefit from it, they'll 'Resteem' it, which is like a share on Facebook or a retweet on Twitter.
Some tips:
Everyone wants to be upvoted, followed and resteemed.
That's the assumption, so don't ask for either/all of those things.
People hate that, and will usually downvote you.
Don't enter competitions which require you to resteem for a chance to win. You're disrespecting your followers' eyeballs, and they'll unfollow you.
Only resteem for the benefit of your followers, never for your own.
Don't be a troll. Friends are lucrative here, and enemies are expensive.
Go literally anywhere else on the internet and do it there.
This is also great news for those looking for a bit of respite from all that.
I've never found a more supportive and engaged online community.
It also feels great to 'like' somebody's work and actually see them benefit.
This place is excellent for your state of mind.
If you disagree on a topic, do so with kindness and respect.
There are 3 things steemit has in spades; deep pockets, big egos and long memories.
Swear at the screen if you have to, but pull your head in before you start typing, because...
Everything you post, even if you edit or delete it later, will be publicly visible forever.
This is social media for grown ups.
You know that meme about, "What if every word you say was tattooed on you?" This is that.
There's no umpire here. Nobody will stop people from saying things you hate. Nobody will stop you from saying things other people hate.
There's nobody to run to if you lose your password, it's gone forever, along with all your money.
Save the email they send. Write it down somewhere safe.
Give a copy to grandma. If you lose it, the laws of maths mean you get to look at your money any time you like, but nobody will ever be able to spend it.
Don't steal other people's stuff. If you grab an interesting article off the net, even in a different language and translate it, then post it as your own, you're going to get shot down. Same with images, gifs and video.
If you use it, link to the source you got it from, or people will assume you're claiming to be the creator, and you'll lose friends quick. So for example, when I was writing this piece, the video, above looked like this
The first line is the link to the video, with the <center> brackets pulling it to the centre
The second line shows the word "Source", and links to the page of the guy who made it.
Thanks, Dave :)
It might seem daunting at first, but it's easy to pick up a bit at a time, and there are lots of guides that will help.
Don't worry about depleting your voting power. It refills over time; and running on empty is completely fine, it just means the people you support with an upvote only get your encouragement without any steem attached, until your voting power has recovered a little.
Your upvote will carry very little weight for the first few months anyway.
The guys who built this place didn't write much in the way of rules, they just left it up to the community to decide what the norms should be, so a lot of this is guesswork; but people understand that, and tend to be cool as long as you're acting in good faith.
You won't break anything, so play around with the information at the bottom of this post, look at the total payout, the number of upvotes, my reputation score, and note the tags/topics. Read the comments. If you like somebody's style, click their name and follow them.
You can click on any of the tags or EXPLORE in the menu up the top right, to find other topics of interest, and start following authors you like.
I'll leave it at that, as there's a lot of information to absorb.
The nuts and bolts are fascinating, but once you start feeling comfortable, you can search out answers to any questions you have. (There are 3 internal currencies, for example, which I've lumped into one, they each do different things, but they're easily converted, so just enjoy gains in any or all of them for now.)
I'm really warming to the idea that this is how the future of social media is going to look. Let's find out together.
Quick Edit: Reach out to me if you're concerned about providing your email address or mobile number.
A small amount of steem is needed to get an account warmed up; which is normally paid by the guys who built the place, so they need these details to make it difficult for one person to sign up 10,000 different names and collect the little bits of steem for each one. There are ways around it (I just lend you the steem myself, to get you started), so if it's a sticking point, please let me know and I'll make it happen.
Thanks @ausbitbank for the suggestion.
Love your work Matthew!
Hi Jimmy, thanks mate :)
I took your rep from 25 to 35 in one upvote.
Gangster.
You have received an upvote from STAX. Thanks for being a member of the #steemsilvergold community and opting in (if you wish to be removed please follow the link). Please continue to support each other in this great community. To learn more about the #steemsilvergold community and STAX, check this out.
I am just getting started here, trying to figure out how to find my way around and what to do first. This post had been very helpful to solidify the bits and pieces that I'd heard and gleaned. Thank you!
Glad to help. If there's anything you're stuck on, feel free to ask me.
Love your username btw. Following you now.
Thanks @mattclark! I have to now practice being consistent posting (hence the username). See you around Steemit!
Great primer post Matt, voted and resteemed :)
The only thing that would make this an even smoother transition would be to prepare some https://steeminvite.com/ links to go in those private messages - they'll let people instantly sign up without waiting for approval from Steemit Inc .
For some people I've talked into coming to steem, I often hear later on that they didn't want to share their mobile or never got their account activated - personalized steem invites remove some of the friction before they can use the site :)
Also - congrats on your new whale powers!
They've really streamlined it, that's great.
I've edited the post. Appreciate your input, as always.
Great to hear you on the Growth Forum. Nice to hear someone without an accent :)
This is a fantastic introduction to Steemit for those outside in the real world, and those who are new here. Very well thought out and explained.
I like this post so much I accidentally upvoted from my @stsl account as well ..oops!! So I guess I like it twice as much now LOL!!
I'm happy to accept all support. Deliberate AND accidental :)
It's nice to see this level of detail when people promote steemit as new users often make mistakes that get them in trouble simply because they don't know any better. That or they get frustrated because their expectations are too high because steemit gets promoted as "easy money" which it usually isn't.
As for commenting on others' posts, it is definitely lucrative. I once got a $20 upvote on a comment I made on someone's post. It was about a month ago and I'm pretty sure it was @blocktrades. They hold a ton of SP!
I use a multi-tiered approach to earning here thru authoring, earning through curation since I've invested a few thousand of my own money here, and of course commenting.
Yes, there's a healthy level of skepticism amongst my friends (skepticism I once shared).
Now that I've done the research and 'get' this place, I'm trying to anticipate their misgivings and give them some context.
That's a good strategy; a bit of outside money, a bit of curating, commenting and blogging.
I have a lot of friends who lurk without posting; and wanted to be clear that all they need to do here is upvote and be rewarded for it.
There seems to be a lot of folks here who never say anything...they don't even comment (which is perfectly OK). Everyone has their own strategy.
One day I was going through my voters on a post and many of them had no posts or comments and are just voting and they hold very little SP. But they'll grow eventually though just like the rest of us. Everyone goes at their own pace. I'm a "go big or go home" kinda guy so I jumped into this thing head first.
I wonder if they're not native English speakers, so don't feel confident to speak up.
It'd be an excellent way to learn English, come to think of it :)
A lot of information is right! Flawless blog on the benefits and ethics of using steemit.com I'm very impressed, following and giving this poat a resteem. ( rare for me ).
Keep up the good work :-)
Cheers
Thankyou Cody.
Anything you think I should've included?
I think you covered the whole shooting match and then some.
Looking forward to reading more from you.
Cheers
I'm late to the party as usual!
With so many people giving up on here because the money isn't coming in for them, I was recently thinking myself what the best way to describe steemit would be. Of course I'm still learning, so you've described it so much better than I ever could!
You had me on high alert though in case you were up to your satire tricks again! 😂
It's no fun if you're expecting it.
I promise no more satire until you've forgotten I sometimes do satire :)
😂 That shouldn't take too long with my aging brain!!
Great advice for all steemian here, including your new friends. Great @mattclarke
Thanks mate :)
If you want that 'Wow' to be in a big heading, just put
<h1>before it, and make sure there are no spaces between the words and the brackets<h1>Wow</h2>Edit your comment and give it a try :)
Thanks for sharing and taking the time to explain. I am sure others benefitted from your post.
@jackpot
Awesome article, I'm actually interested in the more technical side of things, and I was curious where I could find more tips like the < center > example shown above. Just that one tip alone is very valuable for me believe it or not. Any direction would be great!
You can google "Markdown for steemit" and get a lot of good results. Some basic ones.
**This text will be bold***This will be in italics*<h1>This will be huge</h1><h2>This will be very big</h2><h3>This wil be big</h3>Three underscores draws a line across the page
___They're the ones I use the most, but there are heaps of tricks to discover, and they really help break up your article and make it pop for the reader. Best of luck, mate. Following you now.
awesome, thanks again! You have some very interesting posts, and I am getting more bullish on steem now thanks to you, I wish I had bitcoins to convert, but I have not had a full bitcoin since last year when I thought I was a genius for selling everything when BTC spiked several hundred bucks. Oh well, live and learn I guess.
At least you had some :)
This is awesome! Now I have a place to send all my friends to! Resteemed and followed!
A succinct introduction. They should pin it to the top of the site, to help newcomers understand how things work around here.
@mattclarke
You have played a massive part in helping me build my knowledge bank here on steemit.
Providing tips and advice to help me improve the quality of my content for my followers.
Anyone reading this who is interested in joining you will not regret this supportive & collaborative community I can assure you!
It's been an exciting ride so far and I have a postive outlook for the future.
Thanks mate :)
Lots more cool stuff to come...
If you want a laugh, go check out @o07's gif competition.
Best entry wins one of his actual silver coins.
How did this today's pump work out for you? Cashed in any? What IS that all about, huh?
I was driving to work; sat down on the tram and checked my feed. Wow.
I don't really hold SBD, but plenty of people made out like bandits. Good on em :)
Holy crap I've never realized you were a whale. I noticed someone posted a comment the other day (Maybe SirKnight) about how much SP you've accumulated, but congrats man.
Awesome post and thanks for taking the time to write all this up. I mentioned on someone else's post, but it's times like these I wish I could pin posts like this up in community areas for all the see.
I dropped a bit of loose change into bitcoin in early 2013, and recently sold it all for steempower. I think it was a smart move; but ask me again in a year :)
Ha ha yeah. I get that and congrats on the awesome investment.
Awesome write up, definitely layman's terms enough, I'm gonna share it around good ol' facistbook!
Indeed thank you for the most informative post you shared with us. This will be resourceful for minnows who are new as well as some of us that do not quite understand how it all works. I think this post explained it the clearest of any I have seen so far. And yes the marketing video is so fun to see. I will save this as a reference to my computer and hope others will too as this information needs to get out there. Again thanks Matt my friend. We appreciate what you do here.
Looks great doesn't it.
Ask @rocking-dave nicely and he'll put you in one too. Makes it a lot more personal.
I sure wish I had read this 90 days ago lol
Could have done with this a year ago haha. You live and learn! Great blog for the newbies.
Thanks, Sarah. Always hard to know what to include and what to leave out. Hopefully we'll see some new names in the comments soon.
Well explained, concise, and not overly technical which would lose most people trying to get their feet wet. Nice work mate!
Good stuff!
I would really like to see the curation rewards adjust back to 50%!
I just dropped off my chair... Onto the floor and rolled into the .... I was lost..... This might be how some people feel... Not only those who do not know steemit yet but also those who are already here!
Marvelous post! Followed because I sure want to see more of your posts.
Well said mate. You hit some key notes on the head with explaining how Steemit works and the rewards based off actions/your blogs etc. :)
I appriciate the bit about followers. I've been trying to look into the content of those who have followed me as well as my commenters. I certainly haven't added them all, which has really aggravated my rediculous guilt complex! Also, the upvoting thing... I feel like every single kind or uplifting comment deserves it, but that's all of them!! Ugh!
So, anyway, thanks for your post. It's given me a little permission to not follow and upvote every time! Ha! 😊
Tremendous work . You help to understand the matter so easily . Many new comer are helped by this post .You clarify every inch and out of steemit . Thanks a lot for your great work ,it's motivates a lot .
Yeah if we want mass adoption we'll need those kind of tutorials, but in a even more concise manner.
Good job on this post!
It's a very good starting point.
It's hard to get the balance right, between losing them in detail, and losing context by being too broad.
It's 1:30am here, so I'll start PMing the link to this post to the half dozen friends who've recently shown some interest, when I wake up. Appreciate your support.
maybe the part about the
is too technical?
I'd remove that...
The people who've asked about steemit are reasonably switched on with social media, so I think they'll be okay with it.
If this were a general guide for anyone, then I'd agree, it's a little daunting.
That's the best promo pitch for steemit.com I've read!
Wish I'd read something like this when I first joined!
But that's what's great about this platform! It's a constant learning experience and the better and more integrated you get, the more you're able to reach people, connect, share, steem and powerup!
Love the concept and love the community!
Thanks for a great introductory post, I got it bookmarked in case I want to refer a friend :))
Peace and Love!
Hae-Joo
Good Stuff! Thanks for helping me learn, I probably have to ready it twice to absorb all this new newfangled stuff .
I believe Steemit can actually end Facebook. I keep seeing FB as the next MySpace
Great and easy advice to follow matt, you are an asset to steemit my friend, cheers mate.
Thank you my dear friend for the useful publication that is a long article but between the lines of privileged information
Thats a pretty convincing post Matt!
Super intelligent post and this video is really interesting. i enjoyed your video. thank you for taking the time to create and share. love to read you post.but these kind of posts do make it easier, followed and upvoted.
Wonderful post I promote steemit in many social network and i think you post is very helpful and creative
I like the "troll" part. Took me awhile to see this is actually true. Steemit is different
i guess everyone should read this fine post so cool for everyone !!!
Great blog for the newbies,,,,,,,,,
that was great to read........thanks for sharing
Wow! Great post. I appreciate your work. Thanks for sharing.
Totally agree with you, publish your personal posts best. Copying usually does not work. Thank you @mattclarke
Thank you very much for your advice
Nice post
A nice idea, we can use your daily publications on this subject, to be certain to make the right decision.....
Welcome you are very wonderful and what you write wonderful I wish to be friends forever Thank you .
You are a wonderful person in your articles, my friend .
Thank you for sharing! resteemed
just ah perfect click!!