Account Verification Tips For New Steemians (Trust But Verify)

When I joined steemit, I did not verify my identity.

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As a new Steemian, I did not understand why it was important. Now I do. Everyone should be verifying themselves in one way or another. There are some good ways, and there are some bad ways. This post will explain the difference and give new people assistance verifying themselves.

Bad Ways to Verify

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Who knew I was Donald Trump?! It is a ridiculous and funny thing, but this is the quality of verification images I often see from new people. No one should accept an image like it as a way to verify an account's identity. At least you made an attempt though, for many people never post any verification at all.

Hopefully, @cuteve won't mind me using her image as example to learn from. Her verify image is almost as bad as my fake one above. Someone could have easily taken the real person's image, added the small graphic, and passed it off as themselves.

Her account was verified through another way that I'll explain below. The image she used, by itself though, was not a good way to verify herself. She is a talented and attractive person too, so it is even more important for her to verify.

Good Ways to Verify

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My Twitter account has some of my Steemit.com posts tweeted through it. That is an easy way to verify who I am. @cuteve had links to her Steemit account shared on her Facebook as another example. I also posted an image of my private investigator registration card. It is a government issued ID to prove that I have the credentials I say I have.

We don't need a picture of a government ID though. Definitely do not share an ID that has personal information such as a home address on it. My PI registration does not, so I did not mind sharing it. We just need a way to link your Steemit account to the rest of your online content.

Max Kaiser is on here, and he verified his account easily by mentioning it within one of his Russia Today show's episodes. Boom! We knew, without a doubt, that his account was the real deal. If you have a YouTube channel, podcast, or radio show, you could mention your account on Steemit there to verify in the same way.

Today I met Marcel while going through new user's introduction posts. His account name is @dutchlife, and he posted a photo of himself with Steemit graphics and the date with time behind him. It is an image that would be difficult to Photoshop and a good one to use for verification purposes!

He is the same as @cuteve and will bring a lot of value to the platform. Please check them both out!

Why Bother to Verify?

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When you do not verify your account, people have no way of knowing it is really you. For all we know, you are a scammer. It happens way to often too. The scammer sees someone with valuable content online, and then they steal that content to profit from it here. The more valuable your content is therefore, the more important it is to verify your account.

By verifying your account, you will gain followers more quickly. All the replies to your introduction posts will suddenly no longer be bots! You'll be engaged by real people who want to get to know you. They will trust that you are who you say you are, and you'll get more upvotes because of that trust.

Everyone should verify themselves. There's nothing to lose by doing it and an awful lot to gain. I hope this post has helped clarify the issue, given you good ways to verify, and explained why it is important. If you have any questions about the verification process, please ask below. I'll gladly assist you!

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