Complete Steemit Tutorial 2018 – How to Join Steemit & Earn Money From It!

Facebook is a company with a market capitalization worth nearly $550 billion as of today (28 Jan 2018). Twitter stands at $18 billion market cap. These two are the most famous social media and microblogging companies on the face of the internet. These big companies thrive on user base; zero users meaning no worth. Despite receiving all their revenue due to their users, they do not pay anything to them. Steemit does! Why and how? This Steemit tutorial will let you know everything you need to know how to join Steemit and how to earn money from it.

Seriously, how much do these platforms pay to their user community?
Don’t they ask for money instead to boost our posts?
Google and its AdSense program prey on hardworking webmasters to push its digital advertising business. Google was well set to make $73.8 billion in net digital ad sales in 2017. YouTube is no different because it is owned by Googles and runs on AdSense too. All of these websites either do not pay a penny to their users or share just a petty percentage of the revenue that they earn. These centralized internet monopolies have controlled the social media space for too long now. It’s time for the power to go back to the people.

Steemit brings the power back to the people. It not only rewards its users generously but also has zero advertisements placed on its website. Isn’t that incredible?

What is Steemit?

Steemit is a social media and blogging platform but is different from these so-called social media platforms. The closest thing to Steemit is Reddit. You can call Reddit the ugly and far less valuable version of Steemit which doesn’t pay anything to its dedicated community. Reddit the is number 7 website in the world and is worth $7 billion. But still, Steemit is better and has massive potential.

An Absolute Beginner’s Steemit FAQ

Here are three of the most fundamental questions about Steemit and their answers from the above-linked article.

Q: What is Steemit?
A: Steemit is a social media/blogging platform but it is based on Steem blockchain.

Q: What is Steem Blockchain?
A: The blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency which stores cryptocurrency coins. For example, Bitcoins are stored on its own blockchain.

Q: What is Steem?
A: Steem is the cryptocurrency of the Steemit platform. It would be more appropriate to say that Steemit is powered by its cryptocurrency called Steem.

On Steemit, if you are considered an author worth upvoting, you will get rewards. If you appreciate others’ content with your upvote, you will get rewards. If you use different services built on top of main Steem blockchain, you will get rewarded. And if you post crappy and copy-paste content, you will be punished as well. Keep that in mind.

How Does Steemit Reward Its Users?
Steemit Inc. is a company which primarily isn’t a social media or blogging platform. It is an application powered by Steem blockchain, which is like the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin, which has cryptocurrency of its own called Steem. Steemit rewards Proof of Brain. There are two ways of earning on Steemit using your brain, which are briefly mentioned below.

Author Rewards: When you publish a post or a comment and other users upvote it, you earn author rewards.
Curation Rewards: When another user publishes a post or comment, and you determine it to be valuable enough to upvote it, you get rewarded a share of the value of your upvote as curation reward.
Creating content and upvoting content based on its quality both are activities done using the brain, hence Proof of Brain. So, Steemit rewards the use of brain (and I personally love the concept!).

Steemit users are rewarded tokens from Reward Pool which is a result annual inflation. Starting from December 2016, every year a percentage of new Steem tokens are created (a process called inflation) and allotted to the reward pool. Current inflation rate is 9.5 % and an annual decrease of approx 0.5 % is planned annually until the inflation rate drops to just 0.95 % in about 20 years time. Current supply of Steem tokens is 264,519,880 so annualy, a percentage of current supply at that time is inflated.

To learn deeply about Steemit reward system, how it works, and why Steemit rewards its users, you should study the following articles. If it helps motivate you, do look at the rewards too. The posts are written by me and have been rewarded generously.

How to Join Steemit?

Since it is a platform based on the blockchain, it doesn’t let everyone sign up immediately because an account on Steem blockchain needs a protocol to be followed. Here’s how to join.

Go to sign up page and enter your details (and please sign up with your genuine email).
You will receive a notice that account is under approval.
Once the account is approved, you will get an email.
Open that email and complete your sign up.
Keep your password/key/WIF (same things) safe and write it down somewhere (both digitally and on paper) because once lost, your account and the amount stored in it will not be recoverable.
Now that you have signed up and got your account approved, it is time to follow the one who brought Steemit to your life. I would love to welcome and support you there. As of now, this is how my profile looks. My followers are increasing rapidly due to my content being deemed useful and of high quality by the community.

Update profile picture

Copy the URL of image
Paste it into the Profile Picture URL box in your settings page on Steemit.

Different Steemit settings

Language: Choose your language. Almost all major languages are supported. More are being added.
Display Name: Write your name or the name you wish to use on Steemit.
About: Write some lines about yourself or the purpose of your account.
Location: Write the name of your city and/or country.
Website: If you have a website like I have this one, write it down. You can also link to your social media.
Steemit Settings
This is where profile picture, cover URLs are to pasted after following upload procedure.

That’s it. You are done with settings. Don’t forget to hit the Update button.

How to Start Using Steemit?

Now that your account is set up and your profile is complete, here are a few things you would want to know before starting your Steemit journey.

Steemit rewards value creation. To ascertain the value, it has a system which determines how valuable your content is and how valuable you are.Reputation Score: At the beginning, your reputation score is 25. As you contribute more towards the community, your reputation grows. People with less reputation earn fewer rewards and have less influence. Do increase your reputation to earn more. Reputation only increases when you receive a monetary reward for your post and comments.
Followers: New posts stay in the New section of the website for literally a few seconds before they are taken over by the newest posts. The only way to make your posts visible to people is that they see it in their home feed. It is only possible if you have followers. So followers help your content be visible and thus create more interactions and earn more rewards.
Posts, Comments & Upvotes: These three activities are at the core of your contribution to the community. The more value you contribute, the more rewards you get.
Reward Types: Steemit rewards its contributors in three ways. These are Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars.

Steemit FAQs

Here’s the difference between three reward types. If you read my article on understanding Steemit currencies, you do not need to read this part.

STEEM – STEEM is the base liquid currency token in the platform. STEEM can be powered up to STEEM Power, traded for Steem Dollars, and transferred to other accounts. It is a cryptocurrency token, similar to bitcoin.

STEEM Power – STEEM Power (abbreviated SP) is a measurement of how much influence a user has in the Steem network. The more STEEM Power a user holds, the more they can influence the value of posts and comments. STEEM Power is less liquid. If a user wishes to “Power Down” SP, they will receive equal distributions of the STEEM weekly, over a 13 week period.

Steem Dollars – Steem Dollars (commonly abbreviated SBD) are liquid stable-value currency tokens designed to be pegged to $1 USD. They can be traded with STEEM and transferred to other accounts for commerce or exchange. Steem Dollars may also be converted into STEEM in a process that takes 3.5 days. Steem Dollars can be used to buy things in marketplaces, such as PeerHub.com.

Start Using Steemit Now

By now, you are sufficiently ready to start using this benevolent platform.

Remember one word. Contribute!