🎨STEEMIT ART STARTER PACK- Etiquette, Plagiarism, Getting Noticed, and Artists to Follow🎨

Original image from Pexels edited by me.

How To Art on Steemit For Maximum Results

If you are a new to Steemit or have been around for a little bit, but are having trouble getting the level of interaction you would like then here are a few tips to get you get you squared up.

To all the newbies just let me say Welcome to The Steemit Family! There are loads of supportive people here that want you to succeed. If you have questions just reach out. Someone like myself would be glad to help. If you need to ask a question you can either drop in on the comment sections on one of my posts or find me on discord where I have the same username and avatar. There will be more about discord later in this post

This is going to be a long one, but I wanted to have a lot of this information in one place for new arrivals. Information on Steemit is scattered enough as it is. Since it is so long let me just give you an idea of what you will find here:

• Steemit Etiquette
• How Not To Plagiarize
• What You Can Do About Plagiarism
• How To Get Noticed
• Things To Get Involved With
• Great Artists to Start Following

This was prompted by a rant I did on plagiarism the other day that sparked some great conversation. If you want to catch up on the issue here is the link to that post. Be sure to check out the comment section.

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So Let Me Just Start Here:
If you have arrived here thinking that this is the place where you are going to post a few pictures and make a bunch of money then let me be the one to inform you that you are not. That place does not exist.

If you have arrived here because you were told it is a good place to post stolen content and make money then someone has lied to you.

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Well, What The Hell Can I Do Here Then?

What is actually going on here is a community of really fucking awesome people contributing value in their own unique ways while opening up, learning, and earning rewards that have the potential to increase in value. Sometimes you get paid well to engage with people you are genuinely interested in.

A lot of the time the rewards are small in comparison to the time spent on the the art and the article, but if you do well enough you can get a big upvote from an account like @curie which is huge!!!! They have been a big part of the success I have had on the platform so far. Please consider voting for them as witness.

If you have no idea what a witness is that is okay. I didn't until recently. Here is a post by @someguy123 giving a great explanation of what a witness is. Some of the information in it is a little dated, but still a thorough explanation. They basically keep this whole thing running around here.

If you are active in the community you will quickly see that the rewards are not the best part. The best part is all the people you will meet here. So many are willing to share their time and knowledge, and give support in all sorts of ways. If you open up you will find some truly great relationships

So what you can do here is post solid content, curate solid content, and meet other Steemians. Hopefully your goal is to add value to the community in your way.……and yes some money will likely be made if you play the game right.

What You Should Never Do:

Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others

Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others

Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others

Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others

Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others!!!!!

Also……You Should Never Steal The Intellectual Property of Others..........

..........JustSaying

How To Not Steal

Just don't do it. That is how. If you would like to use another person’s content there are a few ways that are acceptable to do that. Basically don't use other people's work in place of creating your own awesome content. Nobody really likes the idea of someone making money off another person’s hard work.

If you are using the work of another here it should be something like an educational post about the art or the artist or it should be promotional and littered with links back to the artists, maybe even consider sharing your rewards with the artist like we do in our Curation Posts at @helpie. Also, even if you do this you might still be outside of acceptable usage depending on the artist. Most people are okay with you using their images to promote their content.

Credit the Work.

Like This:

Here is a photo taken by one of my favorite Steemians, @llfarms. She is a homesteader with a love for the simple wonders of life, and a warm hearted and fun soul who writes beautifully about the authors she curates.. She has a great eye for compositions and color interactions. Here is a photo from one of her latest posts, Walk With Me - Seeing The Unseen | Photo Gallery that really made my night last night.

The tones, textures, and compostitions in this image are what makes it so powerful to me. That old jawbone is starting to look like an old piece of driftwood, and almost has the sense that it is as light as a piece of paper.

Notice that there are 3 links back to @llfarms here: her tag, and the link to her original post in both text and the image. Not saying 3 is a must, but there should be no confusion on who it belongs to.

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What Your Post Should Not Look Like is This:

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...Or This:

by @llfarms

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These two examples are also by @llfarms. Now, why are these examples wrong? The first one is just a post of an image with no insights of any kind. I don't know who the photo belongs to or why it exists. This is what I was talking about earlier. Don't just post an image whether it is your own or not. If it is not yours it needs to be linked back to the source.

You might be thinking what is wrong with the second one? It credits the author. Yes it does, but if this is your whole post why are you even making a post. If your motive is simply to share the art of another with nothing to add to it then that is what the re-steem button is for. Otherwise you are just trying to make a buck off of someone else's hard work.

.....But I Need Cool Photos For My Post

If you are looking for images to spice up your posts then I invite you to check out a post by @mindover that shows a few of the places where you can find images for your blog with varying licenses.

Two great image resources that I have been using for this post are Kaboom Pics and Pexels Neither of them require you to sign up for anything and you have the option of choosing different sizes as well as entering custom sizes........aaaaaaand they're free.

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Also here is a great post by helpienaut @carrieallen on how to properly find images on google to use in your posts. 💥 Game Changer! 💥 How to LEGALLY use Googled images!💥 You should definitely be following @carrieallen. She is a wealth of information.

It's a Battle Worth Fighting

It is important to keep this platform as clean as possible from this thievery; that way the original content creators can have the space to shine instead of being buried under stolen works.

This brings me to another point, and I don't want to go off on a tangent, but we need to talk about curation. As a Steemit user you are creating and curating content. That brings up mindful curation practices. How you are using your vote matters; to paraphrase a previous post:

Your up-vote, regardless of the size, is a declaration of value, and by up-voting stolen content you are essentially saying that stealing intellectual property is a valuable service to the community. It is not.

Mindful curation practices means doing your best not to up-vote stolen content. If you can't tell by the post if the content is original then you can always do a google image search. It takes a few seconds literally.

Now, I'm not saying not to spread the love around with your up-vote. I am just saying that, for the sake of the community, don't up-vote stolen work when you can help it.

What Can I Do If I See Stolen Work?

If you see content here that you think is stolen then you can report it to @steemcleaners and they will investigate the post.

This content can also be flagged, but as a newbie you should be careful with the flagging. Flagging the wrong person could get you into a ridiculous flag war with a large account that can destroy..... your..... being.

Spread the Love Around!

I hope you haven't got you scared to vote. That is not my intention. Spread that love all around with your comments, up-votes, and re-steems. Yes, do not underestimate the power of a re-steem.

When I first got started re-steems were the only reason I got noticed by anybody. At first I was clueless to the fact that I was being re-steemed. If I would have been aware of Steemdb.com or other blockchain explorers I could have understood what was going on.

It will show you all up-votes, re-steems, and much more. I just saw some of my posts go way up and thought it was just luck of the draw. It was people showing love. I am grateful, and I aim to add value to the community to pay it forward for the faith they showed in me as a smaller plankton.

Make Great Content.

Photo From KaboomPics, The Artwork is by Jakub Kujawa

To succeed on this platform you either need to create great content or have deep pockets. If you are like me then let's just see what we can do to improve our content.

What makes great content? There are so many configurations for great content, and in some ways it is just a matter of style.

Have Some Style

Use formatting to to make your posts easy to scan and break up the text with headers and images. Also, shorten your paragraphs a bit. It will keep people more interested in reading than one continuous flow of babble.

If you don't have wordpress or some other page builder to help you with the formatting and links then you should definitely learn some Markdown. I use a combination of html and markdown to format my posts.

To find the markdown styling guide at any point you can start a comment and once you start typing you can see the link for it at the top right of the preview, or you can see it in the create a post page in the preview or follow this link.

Alternatively, you could check out this amazing post by @carrieallen that is much better than the styling guide. Here it is: 🌟ULTIMATE Markdown Tutorial🌟

NoTag Spam

When you make a post you can choose up to five tags to describe your post. Do not abuse these Choose tags that are relevant to the specific post you are tagging.

If you use irrelevant tags you are literally rendering the function of the tags useless. If someone scrolls through the art tag and and it is cluttered with crap that would be embarassing......oh......wait. It is cluttered with crap...

Don't worry if you just arrived, top minds are planning to take back these pages from the spammers, shit-posters, and plagiarizers.

Choose Eyecatching Thumbnail Images

The first image within your post will be your thumbnail image. So make sure to either use a great header image or just put the best photo first. What I mean by that is if you are doing a work in progress post then you probably don't want to put the first image of you halfcooked sketch first since it is likely that people scrolling through their feed at light speed will probably not notice it. Post the final image first in that case.

Show Everyone You are a Real Person

)

We all want to interact with living breathing human beings not soulless ghosts in the machine. Lots of people post selfies with the date and their username to verify their human existence. Alternatively, you could make a video introducing yourself and doing the same. Just show us you are real.

Don’t Post A Lonely Image

I’m not saying you shouldn’t portray loneliness through your art If you want; I would never attempt to limit your expression. What I mean is don’t just post an image, just an image.

When I see that I think:

What is this?

Whose is this?

Why is this?

Don’t leave us hanging. Tell us something about this creation that you have birthed into the world. When a lot of us see an image with no words we just assume it is stolen. Talk a little bit about your work. What equipment did you use? What techniques did you use? What Challenges did you face? Etc. Etc.

Show Some of Your Process

Show us how you make your art. Not only is it educational and fun for others, it also acts as a layer of verification of authenticity.

You don’t have to record the whole process, although that usually makes great content when edited properly, but let us in on a little bit of the magic at least some of the time.

This image is linked back to my original oil painting walkthrough

.....Or Timelapse Videos:

You can see the full post this video is from here

Follow Awesome Content (like this)

Don’t Be That Guy/Gal

Don’t Be That guy that follows everybody on the platform just trying to get followers. The followers you will acquire from that strategy will likely be crap, and it is literally impossible to have quality engagements with that many people anyway.

Usually when I see these accounts that are following like 30,000 people I just avoid the account altogether, because that is beyond friendly and moving into the world of spammy. A bunch of you probably created an insincere following like this on other platforms, but that is not encouraged here.

Find Your Kind

This part should be natural enough. Just find people that you are genuinely interested in and follow them, interact with them. Finding the people that are in your niche first makes growing your following go much faster in the beginning.

Pro Tip: If you find an artist you like see who they are following. If they make art you like they probably follow other art you will like.

Follow Accounts That Do Art Curations

Accounts like @helpie, @juliakponsford, @thermoplastic, @melooo182 and many others do a great job of finding the awesome content and putting it into one place for you. This is the quickest way to find new artists to follow.

Also, while @curie doesn't do art specific curation, you should follow them to find some of the best content on the platform all around.

Go Comment on Stuff. Geez

If you are just posting your stuff and running off until a later time at which you can collect your piles of money you need to slow down. That is not the name of the game.

This place is loaded with badass people from all walks of life. Go meet some of them. Really the only way to interact with people on this platform is the comments section so go dive in one.

Pro tip: Comment on posts that you are genuinely interested in.

Things nobody wants in their comment section:

Don’t Be Generic be genuine. Talk about the parts that you are actually interested in and don’t do that cheesy crap where people drop some insincere compliment. This isn’t facebook. It is okay to use your words here. Quality comments produce real engagement. Don’t just write, “Cool”.

Don’t Ask People To Follow You Nope….Just Don’t

Don’t Shamelessly Promote Your Content on Unrelated Posts Again this isn’t facebook. Unless the link you are sharing is related to the conversation going on then it probably isn’t a good idea.

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Care Package

Get Involved

What Should You Check Out?

Discord- It really is Steemit’s Backstage

Come on in and get a heal. If you aren’t involved in any discord servers then it is time to start thinking about it. In Discord you will find all the coolest people on Steemit in a chat environment with radio shows and tons of channels to find the great content all over the platform.

You can get the app here. Go find some people to connect with. Follow @minnowsupport and join the pal server. Also go check out @steemartists.

There are so many servers, and I warn you right now that you are likely to have so much fun that you start logging into discord like an addict looking for a fix.

Sometimes interacting in the discord servers feel a little bit like being part of a really big and awesome brain. Other times it sorta feels like Chocolate Cake Addicts Anonymous. It’s loads of awesomeness.

Challenge Yourself to a Contest

There are tons of contests out there which can be some fun to join even if you don’t win. You will definitely meet people with similar interests.

Here is a list of contests that was updated two months ago and is a great resource for steemians. Steemit Contest Compilation (05.02-11.02): Win free SBD and STEEM (more than 95 contests and challenges!)

Here is a list of contests posted by @doctoryak Contests of Steemit - April 2018 Edition

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Top Shelf Aritsts To Improve Your Feed

These are some of the best artists I have found on the platform. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but a little something to get you started. This is in no particular order and I really wouldn't even know where to begin that endeavor.

@denniskonstantin

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@elohprojects

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@ishmol99

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@jungwatercolor

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@leoplaw

@kimal73

@libaws

@itsdatneighbour

@jhoneil

@davidcheifetz

@livvu

@mayasky

@voronenka

@zeitlini

@codyseekins

@jkobrinart

@midlet

@normazaro

@oendertuerk

@samuel-earp-art

@thermoplastic

@kathleenscarboro

@adelepazani

@gric

@ankapolo

@reinhard-schmid

@eterno

@arthurgain

@mattphilleo

@beekart

@chessmonster

@absoluteama

@andrew.tischler

@bella-volen-art

@chrisdyer

If you made it this far thanks for reading. By now you should have a much better idea of what is happening and what to do here than when I first showed up, and again if you get lost around here holla at ya boy.

I know this is a lot. So here is a recap:

• Welcome to The Steemit Family!
• Don't Plagiarize
• Don't Plagiarize
• Don't Plagiarize
• Help Combat Plagiarism
• Credit other Creator's Content
• You Can Find Free Stock Photos to Use For Your Blog On Cool Sites Like Pexels and KaboomPics
• Up-vote, Comment, Re-steem
• Make Great Content
• Use Formatting For Your Posts to Make Them Easy To Read
• Use Tags Properly
• Choose Eyecatching Thumbnail Images
• Show People You Are a Real Person
• Don't Post Images by Themselves. Tell Us Something.
• Show Us Your Process Sometimes
• Don't Follow People Just to Get Follows.
• Find Creators in Your Niche
• See Who Your Favorite Artists Here are Following
• Follow Accounts That Do Art Curations
• Follow @helpie
• Follow @curie
• Comment on Posts You are Genuinely Interested In
• Don't Be Generic in the comments. Be Real.
• Don't Post Links in the Comment Section That Are Unrelated to the Post.
• Don't Shamelessly Promote in the Comment Section.
• Get Involved In Discord.
• Join a Contest.
• Follow Awesome Content.
• Don't be Scared to Reach Out and Ask Questions.

Also, another great resource for new users is a post by @sykochica
❓ Answering Common Questions: An Easy to Use New User Resource Library ❗

If you know of other resources that will be helpful to new artists, or users in general, on the platform then please let me know. I plan on adding to this starter pack over time until it holds everything a creative plankton needs to know.