Chapter 1 of 11: Have you recently Sign up on Steemit and Don't know what to do First - Basic Things for New People make their way easier on the Platform - Part 1: What you need to know to be more confident & get rewarded on the platform?

Hi Steemians,

This post is the first of 11 Posts/Chapters, all intented to help the people who recently signed up on steemit and know almost nothing about it (or very little), and for the ones that have been here for a week or 2 and are struggling to earn some rewards. I want to really help new steemians on their way to grow in the platform, by adding value to steemit, and thus benefit all the blockchain.

So, for those of you who have been here for less than 20 or 30 days, on behalf of the steemit community, let me extend in a LOUD VOICE, a big WELCOME to you.

By the way you would enjoy reading: "Welcome to Steemit" from @teamsteem to learn the Steem vision of its creators, which you will see the whole idea on which the platform and steem blockchain is based on freedom! Empowering people and give the control back to us which is were it belongs to. A world free of intermediaries, this means no banks or governments in the middle. (Here is the post: https://steemit.com/joy/@teamsteem/welcome-to-steem )

My aim is to help people understand: the most important concepts, the actions they will do on the platform, the things that they will interact with, learn about the entire ecosystem were steem is being developed, as well as give them some personal advice on how to contribute with the steemit community by adding value, and thus earn rewards.

As @cryptoctopus mentions in one of this most recent posts (in addition to what I will add of value and personal experience in this posts), I definitely recommend you to read the Steemit Welcome Page. Many of the technical questions will be answered there. Here is the page: https://steemit.com/welcome

Since there are lots of things to learn on Steemit and the steem blockchain (and you will see its a never ending learning process), below I will enumerate the learning topics I will be discussing in the series of 11 posts/Chapters (I will be publishing all the 11 chapters within 7 to 10 days).

All this topics I will be talking about are things I have learned from the very first day I signed up. There are many things to learn in order to make our way on the platform, and for sure I will miss some things.
This is because when we start doing things on repetition, we forget about them, and we just do them automaticaly, so feel free to ask any questions on the comments section. Also if you are a Plankton, Dolphin or Whale reading the post, your contribution, suggestions here will really help new People (Minnows) to make their way, and thus make steemit grow and make it a better platform every day.

Here are described all the posts and information I will be explaining on each post. So, if you are new on steemit, and would like to make your way on it, by adding value to the platform, this posts will help you be on track. You can follow me and you will see when I publish the next post easier.

[Important Note: At the end of this Post/Chapters Index, is were I start explaining everything of Chapter #1]

11 CHAPTERS FULL INDEX

Current Post/Chapter #1: What you need to know to be more confident and set your way on Steemit

1- You just signed up, whats next?
2- How fast can I earn rewards on steemit?
3- 3 ways I can earn rewards in the steemiot platform (Posting, Commenting, Curating)
4- What is an upvote, comment, resteem, follow?
5- Lets learn about the wallet area: Basics

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @teamsteem , @cryptoctopus, @timcliff (The voice of the community), @cryptogaphic , @blocktrades , @elear

Chapter/Post #2: Focusing on the Wallet: Everything you need to know about it
[ Link to the 2nd Chapter (already published): https://steemit.com/steem/@gold84/chapter-2-of-11-focusing-on-the-details-of-the-steem-wallet-to-learn-as-much-as-possible-how-to-use-it-transfer-steem-sbd ]

1- How to use the Steem Wallet?
2- How to transfer funds from my steemit wallet to a cryptoexchange?
3- What are the 2 cryptocurrencies on the Steem Blockchain?
4- How to convert steem or sbd into Bitcoin, Eth, Ltc or other crypto?
5- Amazing Bonus: The crypto managing spreadsheet and calculator by @lukestokes and Pablo Yabo

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @cryptos , @stanleyfordyale , @steemitguide , @mindhunter , @billbutler, @blocktrades , @thecrytotrader , @ilyastarar , @timcliff (The voice of the community), @steempowerwhale , @steempower , @glennolua , @jesta , @dan-atstarlite , @lukestokes and Pablo Yabo

Chapter/Post #3: Where do Resources Funds on Upvotes come from?
[ Chapter #3 already posted on January 1st 2018: https://steemit.com/steem/@gold84/chapter-3-of-11-understanding-where-the-funds-from-upvotes-come-from-focusing-on-steem-power-and-reward-pool-this-is-part-3-of ]

1- What is voting power?
2- What is SP (Steem Power)?
3- What happens when we power up? And what happens when we power down?
4- How much votes can we do per day so that it can get recovered at 100% again in 24 hours?
5- Steem applications to check the steem blockchain transactions + check voting power remaining
6- Where do resources for votes come from?
7- What does the reputation number next to your username at the top of your blog means, and what is it for?

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @tuck-fheman , @inventor16 , @dantheman (the brilliant blockchain visionary), @penguinpablo , @boxmining , @donkeypong , @rulesforrebels , @steevc , @roadscape , @dan-atstarlite , @cerebralace

Chapter/Post #4: Keeping your Steem cryptocurrency Safe

1- How can I help keep my steem account safe/secure, by using the different private/public keys on steemit, and keeping safe the ones that do not need to be used?

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @blocktrades , @jerrybanfield , @pfunk , @steemitguide , @thecryptofiend , @dantheman (the brilliant blockchain visionary)

Chapter/Post #5: Other ways to earn on the Steem Blockchain

1- Make Contributions in @utopian-io
2- By delegating SP to minnowbooster
3- By investing Steem, and Powering Up on the platform
4- By delegating being a sponsor in @utopian-io
5- By promoting steemit in your country, city or town with #promo-steem created by @starkerz and @stephenkendal

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @utopian-io , @elear (The brilliant visionary that created @utopian-io ) , @aggroed , @minnowbooster , @timcliff (The voice of the community), @terrybrock , @steemit , @starkerz and @stephenkendal

Chapter/Post #6: The Vision of its Creators, and the Power of the Steem Blockchain (Current Developments and the Ones in Process)

1- What's the vision of Steem and Steemit?
2- Why is the Steem Blockchain so powerful?
3- What are SMTs, and what are they planning to achieve?
4- What is @utopian-io?

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @teamsteem , @utopian-io , @elear (The brilliant visionary that created @utopian-io ) , @exyle , @cryptoctopus , @jerrybanfield , @mooncryption , @aggroed ,

Chapter/Post #7: Using bots to upvote quality posts you want to be reached by more people

1- What are upvoting Bots?
2- How to use them with quality posts and to gain more visibility?
3- How to use Bot Tracker by @yabapmatt to help you choose the best bidding bot
4- Important bots to reduce spam and double posting, like @cheetah created by @anyx

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @yabapmatt , @jerrybanfield , @anyx

Chapter/Post #8: How Making Connections with other Smart & Creative People that have our same likes make steemit and our way on steemit better

1- How to make a success path way on Steemit?
2- Getting to know smart and creative people on the platform
3- Collaborate with your knowledge and experience, to help the platform grow
4- Get to know the needs of the Community and see were your knowledge fits in order to help it be a better place

Special Credits on this Chapter for: @cryptoctopus , @timcliff (The voice of the community) , @terrybrock , @bigsilver , @utopian-io , @elear (The brilliant visionary that created @utopian-io ) , @theaustrianguy

Chapter/Post #9: Learning from Experts of specific topics on Steemit

1- Trading
2- Cryptocurrency
3- Investing
4- Steem Blockchain
5- Blockchains

Special Credits on this Chapter for: This will be revealed in the next few days

Chapter/Post #10: Other useful apps on the Steem Blockchain

1- Steemnow.com
2- Steemd.com
3- Steemdb.com

Special Credits on this Chapter for: This will be revealed in the next few days

Chapter/Post #11: Steem as part of a much larger ecosystem

1- Bitshares
2- Steem
3- EOS

Special Credits on this Chapter for: This will be revealed in the next few days

Bonus Chapter/Post #12: Who are Steem Witnesses?

1- What is a Steem Witness?
2- Special personal Thanks for Witnesses that are contributing really huge for the Steem blockchain and Steemit

Special Credits on this Chapter for: This will be revealed in the next few days

--

So, lets get started with Chapter #1.

Post/Chapter #1: What you need to know to be more confident and set your way on Steemit

1- You just signed up, whats next?
2- How fast can I earn rewards on steemit?
3- 3 ways I can earn rewards in the steemiot platform (Posting, Commenting, Curating)
4- Lets learn about the wallet area: Basics

So lets start with item 1 of the 1st Chapter. You just signed up, whats next?

After you signup, you are 1 step inside, now you need to think about yourself. What are your likes. Start asking questions for yourself. Are you looking to build a list of followers? Are you looking to make a living? Are you looking to help the community with your knowledge and experience?

Doing this brainstorming and thinking is very important because it will definitely let you plan your strategy in how to achieve the goals you want. As Michael Jordan mentions in his book, step by step, I don't find another way to achieve things.

At the end of the day, the way to make your path on the platform is defined by the amount of value you start to give on it. This is like anything we do on life, if we give focus to it, and percevere, after a learning process, it pays out, and sooner or later we'll achieve results.

You will notice at the beginning that many New Posts get $0 payouts, and others 1 cent payouts. All this payouts are NOT in USD dollars for now. They are in SBD and Steem. As of now the value of Steem is around $1.80 USD per unit, and the value of SBD is around $11 USD per unit. So, 10 SBD cents in the post payouts means around $0.55 USD dollar you will get as far as SBD, and you will get a part on Steem (When choosing to be payed 50% in SBD and 50% Steem). But this will be discussed further on the next Post/Chapter #2. I am planning to post 1 chapter every 1 or 2 days.

Don't get in panic if your posts are like that. You can browse on my @gold84 first posts about 4 months ago, and you will see the payouts of $0 , $0.01 cent or $0.07 cents. You can also click on this older posts I made, and you will realize the quality of them is nothing compared to this post. You will also see, some even have very few information. So, the question to reflect is: Was I going through the way on the platform with a strategy at that time? Was I writting quality posts, or posts that were adding value? Was I clearly focused on a target audience?
If the answer is NO to this questions, it is clearly easy to realize that the platform is very smart, that it is rewarding posts and people who are really adding value. The more value we add, the more rewards.

I also want to add something to this. At the beginning, the first 2 weeks or 3, I was learning, researching a lot, and I had less to give, than what I could learn on the platform. So, my posts were more simple, I was trying the system, I was doing, and seeing how the platform reacted to it.

Hope that by now, if you are still reading, its because you already thought about your current state in the platform, what have you been doing, and perhaps their is a lot you can do, to put yourself in the right path to success on Steemit. I really enjoy upvoting quality comments, and replying to all questions that will arise for you. When I don't have the answer, I for sure think of whom in the platform can help you with it.

Once you start adding value with your knowledge and Experience in the platform, you will notice how open and collaborative are people on the Steemit Community.

Now, lets move on to item 2 on this chapter.

2- How fast can I earn rewards on steemit?

On Steemit we can start earning rewards from the first day in which we make something that means value for somebody else in the platform. This can be by making a post that helps other people on the platform, thus they will upvote. Another way is to make quality comments adding value to other steemians (Many of us on the platform use the term: "Steemians" for people that are on steemit) posts. Once you receive an upvote, you are getting a reward in exchange for the value you are adding. We'll discuss this more in the next item of this chapter.

@cryptoctopus made a great post with 3 case studies of people making it in big in the platform. So, I want to credit him for this top quality contribution, and thus share his post with you, so that you can see how each of this 3 steemians (complete different people, likes, and stories, and each of them are making their way with success on the platform) https://steemit.com/casestudy/@cryptoctopus/people-who-started-with-nothing-and-made-it-big-on-steemit-for-newcomers

In @cryptoctopus post, you will really enjoy reading about this 3 smart guys on the platform:

A- @elear (creator of @utopian-io), he is a smart visionary and is disrupting the way open source projects are funded, thus chaging the industry forever.

I had the possibility to exchange several comments with @elear and he is very commeted to his project, and he is a very smart and collaborative person, that if we add this to the power of his vision, we can understand were his project will take him.

B- @lemouth , he is a scientist, and looked for people of his likes and make a special subcommunity to promote scientific posts, which rewards comes from the support of the sub-community he was able to build.

C- @dontstopmenow is a very smart guy that is great at finding quality content .
(When you upvote quality content, and that content goes hot or trendy, you also earn rewards. This is something that will be covered in the next item)

D- [This SPACE will be yourself: "Have you thought on your likes? Your strategy? And how you will add value to the platform, and thus start earning rewards?"]

So, let me clarify on the rewards, once we get an upvote of say: $0.01 cent, $0.10 SBD cents or $0.30, we need to wait for a period of 7 days until it is available to be claimed on the wallet. Once exact 7 days have passed, we go to the wallet, and press a button that is called "Claim Rewards". (This button is only visible when their are rewards to be claimed). We'll explain this further on the next Post/Chapter 2. You see I devided this in Chapters. And the reason is that their is so much to cover and explore, that I realize its better to read and learn things from Chapter 1, then explore everything with your account, and after that, go to the next Chapter. Then you can always go back to any Chapter to have some things even more clear.

So, now that we have cleared some of the answers about rewards, lets move to item #3 of this Post/Chapter.

3- 3 ways I can earn rewards in the steemit platform (Posting, Commenting, Curating)

There are 3 ways to earn rewards in the steemit platform. Let me explain each of them.

a- Posting: When you make a post, you will reach people that are on the "New" posts Category. Also, each post you make will appear in the feed of people who follow you. So, if our post adds value to anyone that looks at it, you will definitely start getting rewards, once they upvote you.

b- Commenting: When you start exploring the Categories, you can first select: Trending, New, Hot or Promoted, and then choose the tag you like, for instance, life, or cryptocurrency, or steemit. Once you do this you will start looking at posts of the category and tags you selected. You can click on the posts to read them, and finally if you feel it is giving value, you can upvote, follow and/or resteem, comment or do all the 4, depending on how you value what you have discovered.

So once you start reading posts of other authors, if you would like to leave a comment, at the end of the post their is a "reply" link. After clicking there, you can enter a comment. And here we go. It is the same as a blog post you make. If people consider this of value, they will upvote you, and you will start earning rewards.

c- Curating: The term curating on the platform is used to the fact of discovering great content and upvoting it. Just by upvoting content that will go to the hot or trending page later on, it will give you rewards at the end of the 7 days. How much of rewards? This depends on the amount of SP, and also depends on other people that have or will upvote the same post within the 7 day period, and how much steempower they have. (Steempower you have invested in the platform, or earned by adding value. Steem Power will be explained in more detail in Chapter #3).

Thanks to @cryptoctopus I mentioned above a great example of a steemian making its way of success in the platform by making one of the best curations in the platform.

4- What is an upvote, comment, resteem, follow?

Althoug this 4 actions can be found explained on the welcome page (https://steemit.com/welcome), I would like to emphasize on them by adding something valuable.

a- upvote: as we use likes on facebook, we use "upvotes" on steemit, and it means we like the content we are reading and that it is adding value.

b- comment: as mentioned in the previous item 3 of this chapter, we can comment on any post we like, by clicking reply. It is a great way to make yourself noticed when you are starting. Each comment is also considered a post and it will be counted as a post. Comments are great to get ourselves noticeable by the community, and start knowing about us.

c- resteem: we resteem when we want to show somebody elses post, in our blog. This helps the person who posts the blog to reach more people (some of your followers and people who see your blog). This also helps yourself you earn more curation rewards, in case you have upvoted the post of this person. Because the more people who see it, and the more Steem Power the votes have, after you made your upvote, the more curation rewards you will be receiving on that specific post you upvoted.

d- follow: same as in other social media platforms, you can follow the people that are presenting and creating valuable content and interesting information for you.

5- Lets learn the Basics about the wallet area

Now its time to understand the basics of the Steem Wallet. On the steem wallet you can keep in a safe way, all the Steem and sbd that you buy from cryptocurrency exchanges, and also the steem and sbd that you earn in rewards for adding value to the platform, or to the people of the platform (On Chapter #2 we will give total focus on wallet details, and here we'll mention the basics to start learning how to use it, and the different functions we can do).

On chapter #2 focusing on the wallet, we'll explain how to use each of the functions and we'll show you videos and posts with images to help you understand how it of the functions are made. Their are many valuable contributions made by different steemians on this, and I will be selecting the ones I see easier to understand, so you can learn faster, about each of the possibilities on the wallet.

a- STEEM: Steem is one of the 2 cryptocurrencies of the Steem Blockchain. If we click on the STEEM tab at the right of the page, we have 6 options (below I am explaining the most important ones):

i) Transfer: You can transfer your Steem to a cryptocurrency exchange with this option (in case you want to trade with other crypto like Bitcoin, ETH, LTC or any other the exchange works with, and finally transfer it to your own countries fiat currency), or transfer it to another user. I will explain in more detail how to do this in the next Post/Chapter #2 that is focused on the Wallet.

ii) Transfer to Savings: if you leave the funds on the STEEM area above, in case someone discovers your active password or master password, they can transfer them almost instantly in a matter of seconds or minutes, and you can loose your funds. So transferring to Savings means a 3 day period to get the funds available. This gives you time to get into your account, and secure your funds, before they are stolen.
(As an important note, it is not recommended to use your Master Password to login to your account, because that password is used to change ownership. This master password must be kept offline and secured. We'll speak about this in more detail, and about the posting, active and other passwords on Chapter #4. In this way you will learn which passwords to use, to keep your funds more secure most of the time)

iii) Power up: When Steem is "powered up" with this option, it will be transformed to SP (Steem Power). And the steem power can be understood as your power of influence on the platform. The more Steem Power you have, the more your votes are worth, so the more responsability you have on the platform to choose were to distribute rewards, thus which posts will tend to get more exposure. The more a post is upvoted with more power, the more it can get noticed.
When we power up, it is having our steem invested in the long term. If we want to get it back, it will be returned in a period of 13 weeks (around 3 months). We'll explain SP (Steem Power) in more detail in Chapter #3.

iv) Buy: This option is one of the options to buy more steem. In this case you will be using the @blocktrades platform to convert any cryptocurrency you own in any wallet you have (a wallet from an exchange or a wallet were you have your cryptocurrency). What @blocktrades does is converting your other crypto, lets say LTC (according to the current market value. Not sure exactly how their algorith calculates the value) into Steem, and finally receive it in your Steem Wallet. We'll explain this later in another post.

v) Sell: This is the same as the Buy option described above, but in this case @blocktrades will convert your steem into another cryptocurrency like ETH, Bitcoin or any other supported by blocktrades, and it will deposit it on the wallet you decide.

vi) Market: This option is were you can exchange Steem for Sbd in the internal market. As of today the value of 1 SBD is around 6 Steem, and this means it is around $11 USD dolars, so it is really recommended to trade any amount of SBD earned, even cents, because for instance 10 SBD cents are worth $1.10 USD or $0.55 Steem, so its a great time to get Steem and power it up.

I definitely recommend you to read the great post from @timcliff about the current value of Steem and SBD and the huge upside potential it has considering all the great developments from the Steem Blockchain: https://steemit.com/rewards/@timcliff/don-t-sweat-the-small-stuff-why-earning-low-rewards-today-shouldn-t-be-a-big-deal (Many of this developments will be discussed on Chapter #6)

For the ones who do not know, @timcliff started like any of us on the platform about an year ago (he was a really early adopter), and he made his way to be one of the most recognized persons in Steemit. He can be called the Voice of the Community. Many thanks to all his continuous contributions to the growth of the Platform and to make it a better place day after day.

b- STEEM POWER: Steem Power as explained on (iii above on part a), can be understood as your power of influence on the platform. The more Steem Power you have, the more your votes are worth, so the more responsability you have on the platform to choose were to distribute rewards, thus which posts will tend to get more exposure.

If we click on the STEEM tab at the right of the page, we have 2 options (below I am explaining them):

i) Power Down: With this function, you will start receiving the amount of steem power, converted back to steem, in portions of 1/13, being each portion delivered on the first week. The second portion on the second week, and goes on until week number 13. You can decide to cancel the powerdown after you receive 1/13th of the total of steem power during the first week, if this is what you want, or you can leave it to receive another portion on the subsequent week.
Powering down can affect your voting power, and other things. This will be discussed in a bit more detail on Chapter #3.

ii) Buy: In this option, you can buy SP directly by using @blocktrades . You can convert any cryptocurrency you own in a wallet, into SP with the help of the @blocktrades platform.

c- STEEM DOLLARS: SBD (Steem Backed Dollars) is the other of the 2 cryptocurrencies of the Steem Blockchain. If we click on the STEEM DOLLARS tab at the right of the page, we have 5 options. They are the same available options as for STEEM, with the expeption of POWERING UP, because SBD can't be powered up. Its usage is different as the one of Steem. SBD is considered to be Pegged to the USD and be a minimum value of $1 USD dollar (never go less than it), however, it can go up all what the market is upto.

In this topic, I definitelly recommend you to check @cryptographic 's post about SBDs pegged to the USD: https://steemit.com/trading/@cryptographic/a-sbd-usd-hard-peg-at-what-cost
@crytographic is adding great value to steemit with his great correlations of BTC with other currencies, technical trading analysis on cryptocurrencies, so if trading is something you like or would like to learn, his analysis are a must see, and he is definitely worth of following.

d- SAVINGS: In this section you can Withdraw Steem or SBD if you had previously transferred steem or SBD to your savings account to have them better protected. I don't see other type of function of the Savings account, at list for now. I guess the % of interest to earn sometime ago was worth of placing it there too, however, I will leave this functionality to your research in case you are insterested on it.

e- Estimated Account Value: Here the blockchain displays the estimated value of your account/wallet in USD Dollars. The price is calculated by the platform algorith, and does not reflect the real market price of the time you are looking at it. But it gives you a good idea of the value of your investment in the blockchain.

--
In case you think this post is original and helpful for the STEEMIT community, Please:

Upvote, Resteem, and Comment , so we can all get the most of the benefits of this cryptocurrency journey.

I like to upvote quality comments and suggestions that are good for the growth of the steem community.