Things I wish I knew when I joined Steemit

Probably like a lot of people who are new to Steemit I heard about this new idea where you could make money by blogging. Overly excited I decided to jump right in. I wanted to share some of the things I wish I knew before I started so others don’t make the same mistakes. Firstly would be to read the FAQ section (and the whitepaper) to get a general feel for how things work – these will form the basis of your understanding of how Steem works.

Steemit is a social media platform so before you even start posting or blogging you need to have someone that will read your content (this means gaining followers). I think the best thing to do before you even post is to get comfortable with the platform and start engaging with others content (commenting/upvoting/resteeming if you see the value). You would be surprised how many people will follow your page if you engage in their content and add some value to what they have shared. Also browsing the #introduceyourself page can be a good place to meet others who are new to the platform. Don’t go begging for upvotes – if people are genuinely interested in what you have to share they will follow you. There’s no point in having 1000s of followers who aren’t actually interested in what you have to say!

Possibly after about a week I would recommend jumping on and introducing yourself on the #introduceyourself thread. Don’t underestimate the value of this! This is your chance to introduce yourself to your fellow Steem members! Make it engaging, make it informative and make it unique! There are so many new members on Steemit you have to be different to stand out. And make sure you mention what you are interested in and what you will be sharing or trying to achieve on Steem.. it amazes me the amount of people who skip this – why would I follow someone when I don’t know what their content will be??! As this is a crypto space it might also pay to mention how you came to be on Steem and at least have a basic understanding of crypto.

Commenting on others posts can be an easy and immediate way to make money on Steem. Basically what this means is that if you comment on someone's post and they upvote it (or someone else) you can make money from this. Remember to keep your comments original and show that you have actually read the article and have something interesting to say.

Upvoting, in a nutshell, is your way of showing the author you think what they posted adds value and also helps them earn money. The more Steempower you have the more influence your votes will have on the rewards people get (SO new users start off with very little Steempower). Use your upvotes sparingly tho.. You start off at 100% and this reduces 2% per vote. It takes up to days to regenerate! The less voting power you have the less influence each vote has. It seems to be most effective to not let your voting power fall below 80%. Your votes lead to a curation reward (which I will cover in detail in a future post). To check your voting power visit (then enter your Steem username:

STEEMD.com

There are other websites on the Steem blockchain you can also post onto and are linked to your Steem account. Dmania.lol is specifically for memes/gif and funny pictures and D.tube is specifically for videos (similar to Youtube). This is to filter out different content and make it easier to find and share what you want.

Remember to check your spelling and grammar! How can you expect to be taken seriously if you have all sorts of errors!

Lastly remember this is a marathon and not a sprint so start out slow and find your bearings. I hope that you find this useful and can avoid some of the mistakes I have made. The Steemit community is very helpful and it is worth doing as much research as possible – you can find just about all of the answers on here somewhere. Make sure you have fun!

I hope you enjoyed this article!