Ah, yeah, I say I wish I'd known, but to be honest, I think my head would have exploded if I'd been told this all at once. I'm just the kind of person that learns by exploring and doing, and it's been heaps of fun discovering tricks on this platform. If you're the kind of person that takes in everything quickly, by all means, read everything below and go for it.

If it was me, I'd absorb one or two things and learn them, then I'd come back to it later. Sometimes it's far more effective to go through a list one thing at a time rather than glut on everything all at once! I don't pretend I'm good at any of this stuff - and I'd LOVE to be corrected or to know more, so please comment if you've at all been engaged by my list.

1. Data on YOU!

https://steemworld.org/@insertyourusernamehere

Find out what your voting power is worth, recent followers and exactly who voted on any given post. Full of important data, most of which I still don't understand, and probably won't ever. Don't let your voting power go below 80 percent - some say 90. I still don't get why, but I'm going to trust everyone who tells me this.

This also leads to a sub point about dustvotes, which is important to know too. It also explains why a post that looked to earn say $117 drops to $110.

https://steemit.com/steem/@buggedout/spread-your-vote-but-don-t-let-it-turn-to-dust

2. Busy.org

As far as I understand, it's just a different platflom for the Steem blockchain, and has some pretty useful features not found on steemit.com. One of the things I love about it is that you can save drafts of your posts to come back to later, so I can start about fifty at once and never complete any of them. Busy.org on the desktop also shows you your voting power. Maybe it does on my phone as well and I just haven't found it. I stupidly flip between the two platforms.

3. Giphy

Pimp your posts with gifs - what fun.

4. How to get push notifications to alert you when your favourite authors post on Steemit

I have a terrible system for this where I constantly check people I love by clicking on bookmarks on my PC. That hasn't worked very well and I'm sure I miss tons of great stuff and great interactions with folk. I still haven't done this as it sounds labour intensive, but looks worth doing. If you have an easier way to do this, oh god please tell me.

https://steemit.com/steemit/@adam7/steemit-notifications-get-notifications-when-your-favorite-authors-post-to-steemit

6. Contests

Contests are an awesome way to connect with people. Click on the contests tag to see what's going on. They are a heap of fun and can motivate you to write interesting content. I wrote a horror story for the first time in years doing this. I don't even care if I win - it was just fun. I ended up getting a pay out from a whale which was an added bonus, but the enjoyment I got from participation was also fabulous.

7. Community

This is the first advice I got when I hit Steemit. Dammit, they were right. You start finding people who like the same stuff you do, and then you start discovering a whole heap more stuff that you didn't even know existed on this blockchain, let alone the world! People are really nice and helpful and can point you to even more cool stuff, let alone end up being your good friend for real. There's nothing better than waking up in the morning to find your friend has commented on your post or posted something new. It's heart warming.

8. Posting at Certain Times As an Antipodean

I'm always a little sad there aren't more Australians on the blockchain - or maybe there are and they are just hiding behind gum trees. We live in a complete different time zone to the rest of the world are totally ahead in that regard. If I post at midday here, everyone is asleep in the US and the UK. By the time they wake up, you've buried under a whole heap of other stuff. I always try to post when most of the world is up - either waking up, or just going to bed at least.

9. Just when you're gonna give up, a whale's going to come past and upvote you.

I don't get it. Why do people write shit content and get paid tons? I mean, there are people who post trailers here - it's not even their own CONTENT! - and they upvote themselves and get paid a shitload more than me, and I work hard at producing good content (you may disagree). No one loves me. I'm going to quit - what's the point? And then... along comes a whale, and gives you an upvote, and then you're like - Steemit is the BEST and I'm never leaving and I'm telling ALL my friends! Woohoo! Champagne is on me!

10. You matter to someone.

As per post 9, we write this stuff and get like maybe 2 upvotes and start to feel quite maudlin. Is anyone interested? Does anyone care? But there's always someone who thinks you are awesome, and funny, and clever. And that one person matters, so don't let the masses get you down. People follow and unfollow all the time - don't take it to heart (there's tools to find this stuff out, but I don't choose to look - it's irrelevant in the scheme of things). Keep posting. You are relevant and you matter.

11 Steem Basic Income

https://steemit.com/@steembasicincome is a great premise. Don't make me it explain it - something about pools and overflows and waterfalls. Read for yourself - please - and come back and explain it to me. In a way I'd understand. Please.

Steem Basic Income is a social experiment to bring a basic income to as many Steemians as possible. Members join by sponsoring others into the program. Steem Basic Income is delivered through providing regular upvotes to member content.

13. The Bidbot Culture

Far out, I'm just no good at the logistics of this. There's tools you can use that tell you the best time to use a bidbot but I just don't really like them. It seems unfair. I'd rather grow organically. There's a fab initiative for a #nobidbot initiative that's worth looking into. Sure it might take us longer to get to being a Minnow from a Plankton, but you'll feel better for it. Well I do - kinda. To be honest, maybe if I knew how they worked, I'd be all over it.

12. A Whole Heap of Other Randoms that Should be Common Sense

• Don't plagiarise (I've never done this, btw) and make sure you credit your posts if you are 'borrowing' from any other work anywhere
• Don't comment over and over 'great post' without reading said post and and making a worthwhile comment that shows you've read it, otherwise you look like a spamming twat.
• Reply to people who comment on your post, because if you don't, you're just damn rude.
• Spellcheck, grammarcheck, everything check. It uses up bandwidth every time you change or add something, so if you don't have a lot of steempower, you're going to stop yourself doing anything at all, plus, people like a well polished post.
• That being said, I love Steemians who are utterly themselves and break all the rules, as long as they aren't ripping other people off just for the cash.

What tools have you found useful? What is the best thing you've learnt on this platform? What's a groovy tool you use that I don't know about? Please comment below - I wanna know MORE!!!

There is a whole heap of stuff I'd love to add to this post, as I know I've neglected a ton of stuff. I might add a few more things to this in a few weeks time if you're interested, and perhaps recycle this as a #deadpost which is a whole other thing I'm yet to explore.

I totally love this platform, and I've had too much wine.