Using and Enjoying Steemit: Ten Top Steemit Information Sites You Should Definitely Be Using!

Whether you're new to Steemit-- or perhaps have been here for a while-- you've probably become aware that there's a limit to how much information and organization you can actually find on the Steemit site, itself. Reputation, rewards, votes, flags... it's all great and interesting stuff... but where does it all come from? And how can you find out more?

Thankfully, our community has attracted many talented developers some of whom have created some really useful "helper apps" that make it a little easier to actually track what's going on.

And if you're a bit of a "statistics freak" like me, some of these can be a virtual goldmine of information-- both concerning the site itself, as well as your individual account. If this sounds interesting, you should probably bookmark this page!

So, in no particular order, here are 10 great "Steemit Helper Sites" I hope you'll find as interesting and useful as I do!

1. Steemd.com: 

This was one of the very first external helper sites I found when I was a "wee minnow," and I still use it regularly.

If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty and really see what's going on at the most basic level, Steemd is basically a "blockchain viewer" for the Steemit blockchain that lets you see (among other things) every single "transaction" that involves your account-- upvotes, payouts, comments, posts and what have you.

Now, the front page basically shows you what is happening right now on Steemit. The more interesting and useful feature-- at least to me-- is checking your personal account page. This link takes you to MY personal page-- you can just substitute in your own username to get to ALL the underlying data that creates YOUR identity on Steemit! 

Particularly useful is the summary at top left where you can see your voting weight and remaining voting power, at a glance.

Steemd was created by @roadscape, and is one of the most widely used Steemit "helper sites."

2. Steemwhales.com: 

SteemWhales was the very first Steem-related web site I found, when I first became a member. 

The cool feature about SteemWhales is that it lets you see where you "rank" in relation to others on Steemit, across a wide range of categories. You can also get a snapshot of your own "vital statistics" and daily progress (for the last 30 days) by visiting your own profile page. Here's a link to my own SteemWhales page-- just substitute in your own Steemit username.

SteemWhales was created by @heimindanger and is one of the oldest Steemit "add on" sites around.

Keep in mind that Steemwhales only tracks accounts that have had some kind of activity. Accounts that have just been signed up and never used are not part of the database. Which can be a handy "tell" when you find yourself wondering just how someone has followed 60,000 people... and then you discover that they ACTUALLY only follow 1/10th that many "live" accounts. 

3. SteemReports: 

A relative newcomer to the Steemit add-ons arena, Steem reports offers a huge number of statistical breakdowns... and lets you check, among other things, whether someone upvotes themselves, and who they vote for and etc. All of it presented as easy to understand pie charts and reports.

Created by-- appropriately enough-- @steemreports, this is one of my new Steemit favorites.

The graphic here shows an example chart-- in this case my own "outgoing votes," that is... the accounts I have voted for, in the past two weeks. Pretty cool!

4. SteemNow: 

Steemnow is a highly useful "live activity tracker" for your Steemit account. Inset shows a bit of my personal feed page there.

Created by @penguinpablo, this is one of my favorite helper app, and I almost always have it open in a separate window/tab on my computer, as it gives me lots of moment-to-moment information, including latest upvotes received, latest author and curation rewards (including all your comments) and more.

My favorite features, however, are that I can see my remaining voting power LIVE at any given moment, and I can see what my upvote is currently worth, given my current voting power. A handy slider lets you see the value of anywhere from a 1% to 100% upvote.

5. SteemDB.com:

SteemDB is another block and database explorer for the Steem blockchain. Similar to Steemd, this was one of the first helper sites I found outside Steemit. 

This is also a site that allows you to make a number of queries from the Steemit blockchain, to create rankings and data for your own account as well as for others. Created by @jesta, this is another site I use regularly... photo inset shows a sample of a query that lists Steemit users by reputation score-- lots of other possibilities are available!

As a related aside, @jesta also created SteemStats, which was another contender to be on this list.

6. Dead Followers:

So you've been here for a while, and you've been pretty active. And when you look at your Steemit page, it tells you that you're being followed by 1200 people. Wow!

Pretty impressive, huh? But how do you know these people are actually using the site?

Created by @mynameisbrian deadfollowers is a cool utility that lets you set your own back period to check (I usually do 30 days) how many of your followers are actually still active on Steemit. You can choose either the last time they posted, or the last time they voted... and "look back" 1, 2, 4 or 4 months. 

Interesting and insightful!

7. Steem.supply:

Ever wish you could have a clearer overview of what your potential rewards are... and when they will pay out? Well, here's your answer!

Created by @dragosroua, steem.supply is one of several "rewards estimators" for Steemitcurrently operating, but this one is the best and most detailed I have found... and my personal preference.

What's nice about it is that it covers both comments and original blog posts.... and gives you a detailed listing at the bottom of the page. It also gives you real numbers, taking into account that 25% of the dollar figure listed at the bottom of your posts actually goes to curators.

Last but not least-- and this is handy-- it breaks your pending rewards into both "liquid" (Steem Dollars) and "invested" (Steem Power) according to the latest exchange rates. Inset shows a snapshot of my page graphics as I wrote this article.

8. Steem Followers:

Would you like to get a better understanding of how well you're doing, when it comes to building your following on Steemit? 

Created by @shaunmza, "Steem Followers" will show you a graphic representation not only of your trends in gaining followers, but you can also see who UNfollowed you-- and even if someone used the "mute" button on you!

You can look at your follower activity from 30 days all the way back to "all time," but be cautious of choosing the latter, as it will generate an extremely long list, if you've been here for a while and have a lot of followers! Inset shows a screen shot of my page as an example, looking back at the last 30 days.

A very useful tool!

9. Voting for Witnesses:

This is perhaps getting into the slightly more "advanced" category, however, voting for-- and keeping up with-- witnesses is an important part of being a Steemit community member.

I won't go into detail about what Witnesses are and do-- there are 100's of excellent posts on the topic and you can also learn a lot from looking at the posts in the witness-category tag. Short version: Witnesses are the backbone of what makes Steemit possible. 

Created by @netuoso, this particular utility shows the current people running witnesses, and the strength of votes they have cast for them. You can also input your own username and bring up a list of the witnesses you have voted for, along with their current status.

What's cool about this app is that it shows something we don't often get to see so often-- the witnesses who are outside the top 50 slots, as well as disabled and outdated witnesses.

Another way to keep up with witnesses and witness activity would be to follow @lukestokes' weekly Witness Voting Engagement Reports.  

10. Steem Down:

Ever wonder which-- if any-- of the Steemit power players are currently powering down-- and who's NOT? 

Created by @bitcoiner, SteemDown takes a look at the top 200 Steemit accounts (ranked by estimated account value) and shows who's powering down and how large their powerdown payments are. 

If you're interested in who's powering up and powering down, another good resource is @lukestokes' weekly "Exchange Transfer Reports."

Well, that rounds out my 10 favorite Steemit "helper sites." I hope you found this list useful and perhaps found some new resources that'll help make Steemit a more enjoyable experience for you! If you think others might benefit from knowing about these Steemit resources... why not resteem it?

Also a quick shoutout and thanks to the hardworking people who created these resources.

How about YOU? Do you use outside sites to help you with your Steemit experience? Did you know some-- or all-- of these sites already? Or were they new to you? Is there some background information about Steemit or Steemit stats you wish were available... but you have NOT found yet? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170827 17:02 PDT