Steemit For Noobs: The Basic Functions and Fundamentals of Steemit

I hear it all the time, whenever I suggest joining I get the response "How does it work, that's too good to be true." Well, here is an article about how it works.

Signing up

To sign up you need somewhere safe and secure to store your password which is 52 digits long (I recommend Norton Identity Safe, Password Safe, or any product with a similar function). You also need a phone to enter a confirmation code and an email.

Posting and Author Rewards Where do They Come From?

As an author when you post you have 2 main goals: 

1. Interest the largest number of people possible in the topic you're writing about

2. Interest the largest number of whales, or people with a lot of voting power, in your topic.

The way upvoting works is the more Steem power someone possesses, the more their vote is worth. Everyone's vote is worth a certain percentage of the amount of Steem currently in existence (The Blockchain). To answer a commonly asked question you are NOT being paid as in they are giving you their own money, but earning a certain percentage of the blockchain. This makes you like a shareholder in the Steem enterprise. The more quality shareholders there are, the more valuable Steem becomes, giving those with Steem power incentive to curate.

Curating Why should I vote and give someone else free money?

For starters, the more voting and commenting you do, the higher your reputation score goes. As you vote and comment you gain more followers, and lastly as you vote on other people's articles you make a certain percentage of the money they make after you vote. This means if you vote for an article that a lot of other people vote for after you, you get a Curation reward. However there are some disadvantages the amount you get from curating is at it's lowest at 1 second of the article being up, and it's highest at 30 minutes, so to make the most money you should wait until the article has been up for the closest to 30 minutes it can get before you think it will take off.

Building a Fan Base

Many people think they can just join post and get rich, however like all other things, posting is only half of your job as a shareholder in Steem. The other part of your job is commenting, and trying to get people to like your content and want you to succeed. Building a fan base allows you to have more successful articles, and a higher reputation. The more you comment, the more people see you're not a robot just voting for curation, meaning the more they follow you. Don't expect every post to be a hit, but if you post consistent, quality content you should expect consistent, quality followers. Also, please make sure your comments are relevant and meaningful, if they are not you can be downvoted and lose reputation. Hear that trolls? BEAT IT!

Introduce Yourself

When you join, make sure to do a meaningful introduce yourself post, with  a picture of you holding a sign that says Steemit, and the current date. This shows that you are a real person, not a robot, and many people monitor that category to make new members feel welcome. Make sure to include your passions, and what you intend to post about. Here's an example 

Pictures

Generally posts do better with pictures in them, so I recommend Pixabay.com for free Public Domain photos, and I recommend Postimg.org to include them with the direct link.

[Image Source: Pixabay.com, license: cc0, Public Domain]

Later on, after success, you may want to learn to convert what you earn to Bitcoin and other advanced topics, but that is a post for another day. Here are some of the other things you might eventually want to learn about.

[Image License cc0 Public Domain]

Hopefully this article has helped you realize how to use and enjoy Steemit. Please be fruitful and multiply (Invite your friends)!