There are four ways, that I know of, to get Steem

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1. Earn it - Titties and beer can speed the process, but mostly its a lot of hard work, luck (posting somebody else's video with 4 sentences of your own and making $20+ = WINNING), and some frustration (spending all day on a post, like this one, and making 14 cents from your own upvote). More on that later

2. Buy it - This can be done with SBD on the internal market or with bitcoin, ether, etc. on external markets like Bittrex

3. Mine it - Right, and if you're reading this then you will never understand this method. Science, math, blah blah, link here, link there... moving on

4. Steal it - You suck for not skipping this part

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Now Let's Spend It

Prerequisites: An exchange account that has a market for Steem (I use Bittrex) & a bitcoin debit card (Shift tied to Coinbase wallet or Bitpay in the US)

• Got my Steem wallet address on Bittrex by clicking the ➕ next to Steem (click on wallets above, then search steem, uncheck hide zero balances)
  
  Feel free to use my wallet address and send large amounts of Steem. See #4 above.
• Go to your Steemit wallet and click transfer
  
• Add your Bittrex wallet (or mine😈) to the memo field
  
• 11:29 - 11:48 I transferred 1 Steem to Bittrex, I had a smoke but feel free to go look at titties or drink a beer. Unless you did a test transfer, which you should, I strongly urge you to walk away, waiting for transfers to happen on the blockchain is nerve-wracking.

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• Trade Steem for BTC (bitcoin), clicking on the Steem link from your wallet takes you to the Steem-BTC market
  Bid (what a buyer wants to pay in BTC), Ask (what a seller wants for his/her Steem), Last (just fucking choose last already, it's one Steem and this isn't a day trading tutorial)
  
• 12:04 - 12:07 Sent the bitcoin to my Coinbase wallet, again feel free to use any of my wallets. Had to send more to meet the minimums
  
  
• Used my Shift card at Amazon
  
• 12:42 Bought some stuff that my goats will foul with their shitty feet

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• Total Time? 22 Minutes

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Earning Steem

I think the best strategy is to build up your SP early and while the platform is young and the price is low.

1. Buy Steem (internal or external) and powerup
2. Set all or most of your articles to full power

When you reach the level of followers and reputation you want then start powering down and set your posts to 50/50. At that point it won't matter what your vote does and the SP and SBD should be rolling in because you have found your way.

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