What constitutes quality content?

With a curation strategy in hand (see: https://steemit.com/steemit/@tony19r/curation-strategies-a-minnow-s-observations) and given that you initial have a limited number of effective upvote based on your steem power (SP) and voting strength as a minnow, the next task at hand is to spot deserving content to give your vote to ensure this is beneficial to both yourself, the author of the post and the platform.

While you may not initially have a major impact financial to the author, your upvote will boost the reputation of the author and validate their effort giving them more confidence that there is an audience for their work.

The number of posts that are available each day and the pressure of time to find a new post at exactly the right moment to upvote make it a monumental task to achieve a perfect balance and you may wind up voting for content which you may not had done so if you had more time to peruse it’s nature.

With that in mind it may be advisable to identify early enough the tags that play to your personal strength and where you can comfortable make a judgment call as to the quality of the post due to you own experience on the subject matter even though you needn't be an expert on the subject.

The tags available for curation are many but going through a few will give you the gist of what to look for in identifying which content deserves your vote.

1. Food: A popular tag with has a constant stream of recipes from around the world, the post should connect with you at some level if you are to leave any meaningful comment to encourage it’s author and you may not necessarily have to be a chef but it would help if you can appreciate what is on the menu.

2. Travel: With various places to travel to around the world does the post capture the destination it covers and does it for instance transport you to the place or even give you an urge to travel there?

3. Photograph: It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words. A well taken photo will have that effect and may capture what it seek to convey to it's audience. Is the quality of the shot self evident that it speaks for itself?

4. Cryptocurrency: It would help to have some basic knowledge on the subject matter if one is to even begin to leave a useful comment on the post.If the post is geared toward disseminating information does it achieve this to some degree or does it leave you more confused?

5. Art: Not necessarily one of the more popular tags and even though you need not be an expert on the subject it would be helpful to the author if you are able to appreciate the topic as it's nature is highly subjective.

6. Blog: This would require you to understand the post author’s point of view or what they are trying to convey and whether you agree with them or not. This ideally should be reflected in your comments.

7. Poetry: As with photography the post needs to speak to you for you to appreciate the efforts of the author. This usually tends to be a judgement call as not everyone necessarily appreciates the topic.

8. Sports: Interest and some knowledge on the subject are always desirable as you will be able to judge if the post is of any overall value. The quality of the post should be self evident and give you a sense of the author's understanding or knowledge of the issue.

The above examples are just but a sample of tags and what you should consider to keep in mind when you cast your vote. As you gain more experience in the tags you choose to curate you will be able to quickly identify quality content and were found, plagiarism and mere reproduction of other people’s work should be pointed out and not encouraged.

Image sourced from Pixbay.com