What I Have Learned From Being a Top 10 Curator

What I Have Learned From Being a Top 10 Curator

Over the last few months I have been learning the art of curating, and for most of the time since early November have been in the top 10 on both the 7 day list and 30 day list. I temporarily hit the top spot (for all of a few hours!) in early December. But curating being what it is, I slipped from there quickly, as others either adapted their strategies, or had better luck than they had been having. As such I have learned to also adapt my strategy as I have progressed.

I wanted to write down what I have learned as a result of this experience, particularly sharing the tools I use which I have found useful. I will touch briefly on strategy, but wont give my own specific one. I will instead talk about how to develop one, based on what really is (or should be) common knowledge within the curation field.

I have recently read a few posts lamenting the lack of decent curation rewards from following other so-called expert curators through the auto vote services available. I don't access any of those services, so I can't comment on them as my knowledge of them is just guess work. But what seems to be happening is people are looking for the popular curators there and following them, making the error of assuming large numbers bring higher rewards. I have found the opposite to be the case. If there are already lots of others on the curation list and you join, then you will be down the list, and you will see just a small fraction of what those higher up the list receive. I have noticed this as I have been studying the vote lists on various posts, and their returns, and trying to come to my own understanding of the dynamics involved in this.

Auto Curating

One website I use everyday in my curation is www.steemwhales.com. If you click the down arrow next to the Trending list at the top of the page, you will see “7 days Curators” and 30 days Curators”. Click on 7 and take a look at the list. This is the most successful curators based on percentage return on their Steem Power. These are the curators to look at following. There are people on this list that have NO curation trail. Yet they are proven money makers. I would look at this list if you are intent on sticking to the auto voting method, and find one of these to follow, that doesn't have a list already. Don't just follow the herd, but search out and try to develop some way to be unique.

Another website I have found to be useful is autosteem.learnthis.ca, from @unipsycho. He has expanded this site in the last week, so there are several ways you can autovote. I use this to help me vote on authors I like when I am not at my computer.

One method that people could learn and apply rather easily is one I noticed through studying the successful authors and the curation lists they seem to attract. The lists seem to swarm to those who consistently get payouts of $25 or more, yet fail to notice the ones that consistently receive payouts of $5 - $10. Yet in my experience I receive more payouts from the lower rewarded posts, because I was able to get into them before the crowds arrived. On the higher payout posts even getting in at the 15 minute mark (and giving up half my curation reward) there could be as many as 100 votes already received. This is not a good strategy for successful curation. I am sharing this method as I rarely use it now, but if understood and applied correctly you will do far better than just blindly following others. The trick is to take the time to study and observe the authors who are regularly successful and take into consideration how many votes they get, when they get them, and apply a strategy around that data.

Manual Curating

Having said that though, I believe the way to be truly unique is to develop your own curating method and do so manually. Understandably not everyone can devote the time to this, which is why I gave the above advice. But if you can then that is where the highest rewards will come.

@inertia recently wrote a post which I believe sums up the secret to developing a successful curation strategy. In his post he listed 3 rules:

1. Given the post has not yet reached 10 votes.
2. When the post is older than 30 minutes.
3. Then vote, if it's good content.

Now this is rudimentary, but also to the point. A successful strategy can be developed, over time, just on these rules. My own one is not too dissimilar to this. The key is point 3. The first two will ensure a high reward, but it wont get any reward if its not good enough to receive votes from others. I am not as concerned whether it is 10 votes, or 30 votes, but preferably no more. But what I have found is the current reward counts also. You could have 5 votes, but $1, and that to me will not return a good reward. So low current reward is also a factor to consider.

My Curation Philosophy

Basically my curation philosophy is I am betting on which posts I believe the Whales will vote on. I use the New page as a form guide to find posts that fit the criteria, then look for the posts that will ensure a high return, should they be voted on. This takes work, and doesn't guarantee success, although my position on the Curators list shows that it has produced a decent level of success to this point. Over time I think you will get a feel for picking good posts early enough.

I also comment on many of the posts I vote on. By voting manually I get the chance to view the post, and interact with the author. I don't do this on all of the posts, but whether curating for profit, or to reward posts and authors I like, I try to interact and comment if I have something to say.

My Follow List

Although this post primarily deals with curating for profit, I make sure to allocate votes for those who I follow, and those who have supported me in the past. I do try to maximise my return from these, but that isn't the main criteria for these posts. I think this is important. I use AutoSteem from @unipsycho to help ensure I don't miss any of these posts as often they are posted when I am not at my computer. When this does happen I use the list provided to see who was voted on so as to follow up, read them, and if need be make a comment.

Tools I use in my Curating

Steemwhales.com – curation lists

As you can see from the image (snap shot from several hours ago (24/1/2017) I am currently at #3 on the 7 day list. It can fluctuate, but generally I have remained in the top 10 for 90% of the time since entering it.
This list gives you the most successful curators.

steemstats.com – to follow the posts I have voted on, and keep an eye on my Voting Power.

Enter your name into the empty field at the top left and you will see your information. This is where you can keep an eye on your Voting Power. Mine is showing here at just under 80%, although my preference is to keep it above that level.

This image shows the right side of the page from steemstats.com. It is the stats related to some of the posts I have voted on. There is a percentage field, which will be higher if I managed to get in early before many others. The stat next to it is my potential curation reward for that post.

Steemdb.com – view my curation rewards stats and compare them over time.

The above link will take you to my page on the steemdb curation page. Just change my name to yours in the address bar to see your data. The page will look the following image.

Here you can track your curation reward progress visually. You can also see your Voting Power, the amount of vests you have (based on your Steem Power), and number of followers.

Steemd.com – view account activity.

Just add your username including @ to the end of the above address to see your specific data.

Autosteem
Very useful auto curation tool.

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All writing and images are my own work, exclusive to Steemit - except the Curation Wizard which is thanks to @elyaque.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you liked it please give an upvote, and feel free to leave a comment. Follow Me

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