Guide for Newbies- Basic Guide for the Journey ahead on Steemit

Introduction

It's a great pleasure to be putting down a piece in the community today and I believe everyone is doing great. For today, I have chosen to write a letter to our newbies to make them understand some basic things on Steemit such that they don't carry spam or any abuse label in their early days on Steemit, this article would not only be useful in this community but for every newbie out there. Let's see some of the things I have for the day.

---

_{Designed with Canva}

---

Originality

You must have seen a lot of articles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on, that end with "copied" as a way of telling the audience that they are not the creator of such content but found it useful for other people read (thousands and even millions of people can circulate this information throughout the platform). In such situations highlighted above, the original owner is missing and value has not been preserved for the content which tends to wasted effort for the original creator.

Steemit is entirely different from such platforms with that method of operation, this (Steemit) platform is built on the concept of the Proof of Brain (PoB) to reward original authors who have produced their articles with 100% originality, as such, they are the ones that are eligible to get rewards based on the allocation from the reward pool. This is an implication that sharing non-genuine content on Steemit is not tolerated and can even make a user have a shattered reputation to be excluded from participation in several communities.

That being said, as you are starting your journey on Steemit, endeavor to share your original content that shows that you have utilized your brain to create genuine content that is morally upright for the reading of your audience. In addition, it's possible to have utilized some quotes or words from other authors, if that is the case, ensure the copied words are properly quoted and proper source is added.

For example, if the following sentence is an unowned content I'd like to use in my article- I looked up and there came flashing from the above, it was heavy and frightening, I shouted "Father"..., if this piece is not mine, I would have to quote it using the tags below and also add the adequate source.

< blockquote>I looked up and there came flashing from the above, it was heavy and frightening, I shouted "Father"< /blockquote>

Using the above with no spaces between blockquote tag produces the result below.

I looked up and there came flashing from the above, it was heavy and frightening, I shouted "Father", Source.

You can even use the markdown element > (greater than symbol, space, and the quote. It would produce the same result as above, If you have not mastered how to add links to your articles, you would learn more as you progress with your achievement tasks.

In essence, your article must be genuine and 100% original. If you had copied from other sources to be utilized as quotes, ensure it is very minimal.

---

Steem Exclusivity

We have discussed how creating an article on Steemit must be entirely original, your originally written content, unfortunately, your original content may not be sufficient to satisfy that criteria if you have written about them in the time past, on other social media platforms and reproduced them on Steemit, hence, your articles must be Steem exclusive at all times else they will be condemned by the MODs/Admins and you would be ineligible for supports.

In essence, Steem exclusive implies an article you have created yourself and has not been shared on any other social media platforms before, as such, you can't bring your articles from Facebook or other platforms and present it on Steemit, regardless of your status as the owner, it's not allowed. Everything you write about must be new from time to time and ensure you don't repeat your Steemit articles as well (that's self-plagiarism). Utilize the #steemexclusive tag on your Steem exclusive articles.

---

The Use of Images

Before now, many of us have been involved in the use of downloaded images from the Internet without showing concerns about the license on those images. Such practices amount to nothing but plagiarism even though if a user has written an article of up to 5000 words, the inappropriate use of images would easily dent such an article, for this reason, it's very important to pay attention to the images you use in your articles.

There are different types of licenses on images that determine their suitability for use in our articles, it's mostly recommended to use images that are license-free, as those are free to use without violating any of the licenses. I have written a guide in one of my previous articles on how to get free images, types of licenses, and how to add the source links to them. Check it out from the link below to learn more.

• How to Properly Utilize Free Images and Sourcing them the Right Way (Practical Steps) | by @fredquantum.

---

Conformity with the Club Initiative

The Steem ecosystem utilizes the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, the amount of the Steem Power (Staked STEEM) determines how effective your participation in the governance of the blockchain is (for example, voting for witnesses on the Steem blockchain), as such Steem Power (SP) gives you influence on the Steem blockchain and the more they are, the greater your influence.

Your Steem Power can do more for you, remember you can earn on Steemit as an author and even a curator (voting content to earn curation rewards), rewarding articles on the platform is a stake-weighty mechanism which implies the more locked STEEM asset (SP), the more voting value you have and allows you to earn more curation rewards.

To earn more curation rewards, authors should consider not withdrawing all the rewards from their articles but rather work on locking more STEEM through the powering up process, this would increase the amount of an account's SP, give them more influence on the Steem blockchain and allow them to have increased Steem power to earn more curation rewards and support their friends/community and reduce the dependency on the top curators.

The Steemit team has created the club initiative that comes with adequate plans that encourage users to power up a certain percentage of their earnings or even all, this has helped a lot of users to increase their Steem Power (SP) which gives them more influence in the ecosystem. You must join the club initiative to be eligible for supports on Steemit, treat this as very necessary. I have written a guide about the club status some time ago and you can learn more from it below.

• Understanding Club Status, its Purpose, and Period of Calculation (Practical Steps)

---

Utilize your Steem Power Everyday

Your Steem Power is meant to be utilized every day to support other authors (those that have created genuine articles) in your communities, it's not there to display how much Steem power you have gathered over time, using your Steem power frequently would increase your stake and as well help in contributing to the growth of your community as your vote on an author can have something added to them daily and it goes a long way to motivating many authors out there. In essence, don't make your SP idle, utilize it every day.

---

Actively Engage other Articles

You must interact with articles created by other authors, it goes a long way to motivate them as they would be satisfied that someone have read and found value in their articles. In the process of interacting with other users, ensure you have read their articles and leave quality comments on them, desist from comments like thank you..., thanks for sharing..., good article... and so on, make sure you leave quality interaction on any article you have chosen.

In addition, avoid hate speeches or abusive comments. You shouldn't be found using words that are considered inappropriate and unacceptable in public places, using such may land you in trouble in the communities and I'm afraid there might be some dents on you in the journey, kindly take this into practice.

---

Burn Steem Initiative

There is a project that was launched a few months ago that is aimed at reducing the supply of STEEM tokens through burning by utilizing the eater address, @null. @null is an eater address utilized on the Steem blockchain, users can easily set 25% of their rewards as beneficiaries to the account where all assets sent there are destroyed permanently.

You can also contribute your quota to the cause by correctly setting beneficiary to @null at 25% (part of your rewards) or 100% (all your rewards) and use the tag #burnsteem25 (for 25% beneficiary to @null) and replacing 25 in the tag above with 100 if you had set 100% rewards to @null. You can read more about an eater address from one of my previous articles.

_{Eater Address In The Crypto Ecosystem | Link}

---

Conclusion

In conclusion, you must learn a few basic things as regards operating on Steemit which would guide you on doing the right thing in the ecosystem and increase your visibility to opportunities. There is a form of a bad practice known as vote-buying, do not be involved in such practice because it dents the Proof of Brain (PoB).

In this piece, we have discussed originality, steem exclusivity, the use of resources, club status, and so on. Working by the recommendations in the piece would give you a good start on Steemit and you would go a long way to becoming a prominent user in the ecosystem. I will be willing to answer any further questions in the comment section.

You can share this with your fellow newbies to learn more about the things to pay attention to when starting the journey here. Thanks for reading today and I hope you have learned enough from this. Do not forget to attend your achievement task in the Newcomers' community, you have a lot to learn in the process. I look forward to answering more of your curiosity. Good luck on the journey.