How to NOT make money on Steemit!

Since guides are a bit hard to find for newcomers to Steemit in the the last couple of weeks, and the platform is a lot to take in at once. I decided to write down a guide that first brings up some thoughts that newcomers might have to make "quick cash", and what they should focus their time on instead.

First I will write what you shouldn't do and in cursive why you shouldn't do it.

Authors

• Finding this very interesting article on randomsite.org and copy-pasting it it to Steem, pretending you wrote it.

There are already many users here, someone will noticed its Plagiarism. Your odds of tricking users and whales into voting it and hoping they won't notice will become smaller before the payout timer ends, and sooner or later someone will notice it and you will get downvoted to oblivion.

• Writing your post in a hurry, submitting it without checking for typos or grammar, editing most of the article after posting.

This is something that you should be careful with, not just cause its annoying to other users who notice the article is being edited and changed, but also since there is a 4 post / day limit on their rewards, editing it might still trigger the diminishing returns on your posts payouts.
Here I am hoping there will be a better way to spot edits in posts and comments in future updates. A star after the post or comment with mouseover function that shows when it last was edited would be enough to not cause unnecessary confusion or abuse.

• Writing content for the whales.

Whales are just people, like you and me, don't try to direct your content at them, they aren't many and chances that they will be on the same page with you, your hobbies or views in life is low. Try directing your content to your own audience and build that audience up with followers and feeds. Over time the rewards will come if you are committed and dedicated to your blogposts.

• Mimicking other authors, writing similar posts that were successful the next day or week.

If anything has shown lately, its too much of the same content will run out quickly on Steemit. Even from same users, no matter the fame or status. Comparing Steemit to other sites it should go without saying that quality is definitely rewarded more than quantity. At least now with real value at stake.

Curators

• Voting on a popular post (cause everyone else is doing it)

Your voting power is precious. Most effective is around 25 votes per day to keep your voting power as high as possible. For small-time Steem Power holders, these are the worst posts you can vote on, if they are over 2 hours old and already have gathered a 3 digit value, your vote won't get you much curation. Save your votes for other small-timers, and when many of you have voted on good content early that whales haven't seen yet, you will all be rewarded by them voting on it.
Of course if the post is something you really find unique and worthy of your vote even though it already has a large amount of rewards, you are free to vote on them and show your support (and your vote will then also be valuable more to the author)

• Flagging content that you don't agree with, or flagging users you are in disagreement with.

Since there are no real rules about flagging, and this is a free market where everyone can do what they want, you are obviously free to flag any content you dislike. But remember that if its a discussion that can go both ways, and you are the first one to have flagged and hidden this other users content, it may backfire on you.
You should always try and flag abusive content and content that doesn't fit here first. If you start flagging comments and posts you just don't agree with, but notice many other users might find it differently, they will want to know your reasoning for flagging. So if you do decide to flag, at least leave a comment and reason why to, so others can make their own choice based on your conclusion. Misusing the flagging may get you more enemies than friends.

• Voting on a post as soon as its up.

*Voting for posts within a minute of creation time won't get you much curation rewards. There was a feature added to fight bots, that makes 100% of your vote go instantly to the author if voted on really early, at 15 minutes you receive 50% and the author gets 50%, at 30 minutes you receive 100% of curation rewards of your post.

Commenters

• Oh, a "hot" post and the highest voted comment is valued so much already, better reply quickly to him and hope for some votes.

Steemers aren't idiots, and if this site has shown any difference from other social platforms, its that quality in general is valued. Not spam, not "fishing" for votes, or anything else unrelated. If you feel like your thoughts on the discussion are important and matter, help other users out or that they find it valuable then you are free to express yourself. But if you just add random comments to something that doesn't relate to what you are saying or trying to debate, your time that went into it won't be rewarded.
I don't want to discourage users from commenting, but remember that discussion is key in the comments. If the original commenter who received x amount of value responds to your reply on his comment, he automatically shares the profit of the whole comment tree with you. If your comment was of low quality and unrelated, he won't and your comment won't be worth anything.

• Voting up your own comments/content from other accounts you control.

Now this is sort of a grey area, as many users have multiple accounts, or bots chasing their activity and mimicking it. But generally if you vote on your own posts from other accounts just to make it seem like your post has value and in order to fish for bigger votes, remember that the blockchain is transparent. Anyone can see who has voted on your posts, and if done the same for longer periods of time they will eventually call you out on it. Curiosity wakes the best detectives in us and the blockchain isn't hard to track if someone thinks something fishy is going on.
This should go without saying that voting on your own content and flagging others just so yours get more visibility is also a big No-No. What I personally do is vote up my own comment if I think that the rest are spam/irrelevant that have been voted up so far, thus making it easier for others to read mine first. That's okay, but silencing someone else for your own gain isn't what Steemit is about.

A summarization of me returning to Steemit a month ago and how I have evolved along with the site.

I have been involved with blockchain and bitcoin since 2013, on and off but when I was on I was very active for long periods of time. I have been a redditor for an even longer time, but now that I have witnessed Steemit and how it is evolving... I have to say hands-down this is the single-most amazing beta since the launch of the email.
Many people think that the Steemit website is the only thing that will power Steem in the future, they do not yet realize how much more Steem can become!

This is one of my favorite articles concerning Steem and its future by author @andrarchy: https://steemit.com/steemit/@andrarchy/steemit-s-real-diabolical-plan-for-world-domination

Then this priceless one by @donkeypong:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@donkeypong/still-confused-by-steem-steem-dollars-and-steem-power-the-power-plant-analogy

English isn't my first language, apologize if it made the article hard to read, but I wanted to let new users know that your contribution is what is valued here. Don't get discouraged of not getting many votes or views per day. Try and make connections with other users, relate to their articles and vote on the things you like and are interested in, and the community will build itself over time on most of your hobbies/work/interests.
I started from nothing a month ago and not having many special skills at developing software, or writing really intriguing articles, instead I just read a lot, looked at what was missing, helped newcomers on the platform, brought in friends and followers and tried to contribute in any way I could. Over time the platform rewarded me for the time I had given to it. I kept trying, fine-tuning my posts more and more over time, seeing where my contributions would be valued the most, how I could most effectively bring in more users to bring alive tags that still haven't been used.

Looking back at some "articles" I posted here in the beginning I can already tell I have evolved along with the platform, it has been upgrading over time and my general thought process of what quality is has been getting better. It feels kind of weird to say, but in a sense Steemit has already made me a much better writer than Reddit did after 5 years and around 100k karma. So what I want to say is, take your time. Read other articles, guides and try making quality posts that relate to you or your hobbies/interests. Over time they will get better by practice and with the connections you make a long the way its going to equal to something amazing in the end.

Its almost scary how quickly things are going forward here, but I have become a Steem believer now and want to ride it out to the end and see where it takes us. I think the future will be very exciting.

If you like spending a lot of time on Steemit too, I suggest start off by browsing the "new" section. I know many posts at once can be a challenge to filter and read what is worth it, but finding new real users and connecting with anyone in the world is a great start into your Steemit Experience!

If you want to follow my routines, I am going to narrow down my comments now to newcomers and other interesting discussions around the forum. You can check out my activity on steemstats.com or steemd.com/@acidyo and don't forget to give me a follow for future blogposts! :)

Thanks for reading, Steem on!