Photo by Julian Santa Ana

Joined: January 6 / Article Written: February 11

Quantitative Stats:

Followers: 520
Posts: 716
Published Articles: 110

Steem Delegation: 100 SP (50 from two Steemians)

Estimated Account Value: $678.25

Qualitative Stats:

I’ve made more friends through Steemit communities, contests, and on Discord than I did through most of my years of schooling. I’ve joined discussions on major topics like the sexual assault accusation wave and its impacts on society, the pros and cons of a future made of decentralized economies, and how we can impact developing nations with easier access to capital. The content I’d be writing for free on my blog for over a year benefited hundreds - potentially thousands, on Steemit through increased visibility and genuine engagement; it also earned more money than my blog has ever made.

Steemit, I’m here to stay. This installment in my Steemit Beginner’s Series outlines how I spent my first month on Steemit, what did and did not work, the important practices and routines I’ve established, and what I’m working on next.

Whether you’re new to Steemit or you’d like a fresh collection of “tips & tricks” with which to experiment, I hope my first month on Steemit serves as inspiration for your next steps.

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Photo by Tegan Mierle

Participate in Contests + Community Activities

When I first joined Steemit, I found this post which curated a vast number of contests, lotteries, and community activities for that week. I chose a few that I knew I would enjoy and have the capacity to create content for. I started with:

• 5 Minute Freewrite

• Photocontests

• BeScouted

And, that’s it. I began investing those categories daily. I'd publish my best photography work in the contest corresponding with that day. After publishing, I'd surf the tag to see other exemplary work. I'd upvote (often too many such that my voting power was diminished​!), comment, and follow artists whose work I would enjoy seeing in my feed. I did the same with freewriting and BeScouted.

One common activity I avoided is the "follow for follow" game. It's presumed that if you follow someone, they may check you out and follow you back. Hence the perspective that this is a way to "grow a following."

You have to be a follower to earn a following.

Only engage with work and with the people creating that work if you would like to see them pop up in your feed more than once. Followers aren't numbers, they're people. People with voting power and opinions who can make your experience on Steemit far more rewarding than you ever could on your own. Cultivate a feed (the people you follow) that you actually want to read and engage with daily.

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Photo by Vladislav Klapin

Introduce Yourself

This may seem self-explanatory, but this is your first impression to the Steemit universe… and everyone is watching. I was shocked that so many people saw my intro.

When I prepared to post my intro, I wanted to stand out, so I did a bit of prep-work:

1. Learn Markdown formatting as best I could, understanding headers, spacing, and accented text.

2. Include striking imagery - I hand-lettered my Steemit intro paper and took a self-portrait with it, well-lit and with my hair slightly styled.

3. Showcase your skills, whatever they may be. Mine happen to be graphic design, writing, and photography. Even though I could “write” that in my post, I decided to show it by creating a pet collage and only sharing crisp, well-captured photos to illustrate my life.

4. Explore and engage with other individuals who are introducing themselves. This is how I met @katrina-ariel, my Steemit sister, who has inspired me to do more on this platform than I ever thought I would. I learned from her introductory post and many other posts.

By getting the 'lay of the land' reading other introductory posts, you can see what you like, what you may want to avoid, and what causes people to interact. Remember, you are writing for an audience. The individuals who are reading what you write should feel compelled to reach out to you, to interact and introduce themselves.

After reading numerous introductory posts since joining Steemit, supporting like-minded individuals and providing feedback on posting style, I've learned a few principles that make a compelling introductory post - or any post:

• Make a splash with your imagery, your headers, and your personality. Be bold, even if you are shy or lack confidence.

• Be personal whether this means simply speaking in the ​first person or sharing details about your life and livelihood, showcase the soul that you are.

• Invite connection through your writing with questions, invitations to comment, or conversational statements like, What do you think? or Does anyone else experience this? or What would you do if...

• Let your tribe know you're out there looking for them by describing your interests, your passion, and what you plan to share on Steemit. If you're into crypto, let potential followers know what crypto-related content you'll be sharing. If you're into fashion, share your style and let your audience know what they can expect from you.

• Be unique rather than copying every single style and format of your posts from other posts you believe are succesful. Know what makes you unique and share that in your first impression.
  
  

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Photo by Joel Herzog

Find Your Tribe + Stick With Them

Ten days into my Steemit journey, I discovered The Alliance - my #1 community to-date and my tribe. I created an application post to join their Discord server and community. Similar to my intro post, I wanted to make a solid impression. Making sure my Markdown formatting was tight and my pictures were crisp, I wrote a substantial but short-enough post to catch the attention of the leaders and they allowed me to join. Learn more about @thealliance and consider joining if this seems like your crowd!

Since then, I’ve joined:

• SteemUSA - @steemusa

• Steem Sugars - the largest community of women on Steemit! #SteemSugars

• Team Girl Powa - @teamgirlpowa

• Steemit Ramble, home of Pimp Your Post Thursday, hosted by @ShadowsPub

• Isle of Write - @isleofwrite

• World of Photography - @photocontests

• Inspiration Daily - @inspirationdaily

And more, which I will list but with the complete transparency that I only promote posts and engage with other promoted posts on these channels. I am not familiar with the active communities.

• Minnow-Power, home of @neader-squirrel, creator of GinaBot, {in my opinion} the most useful service on Steemit!

• Minnow Booster

• DTube

• Whaleshares

• Curie

• ADSactly

There are hundreds of Discord channels, Steemit.chat threads, and applications I've never heard of that exist to connect you with other Steemians. If I were to say there is one single thing you should do to not only be successful but to guarantee you'll have fun on Steemit, it would be to join a community and engage with them.

Your posts are valuable and beneficial to your readers, just as your conversation, your input, your opinion, and your presence are valuable to your Steemit family.

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*Photo by Bonnie Kittle

Be Patient

I didn’t see any payout beyond a few cents per post until eleven days in - and it was a $5 SBD hit on a fairly long, thought-out piece that I was tremendously proud-of. I published 45 posts before any of my posts made money. Those 45 included photos, short-form articles, long-form articles, freewrite entries, bits from my modeling portfolio, updates on my school bus house conversion, and a smattering of pieces from my archives.

Momentum is key.

What happened next? I published an absurdly long, preposterously researched and well-laid out article about non-toxic mattresses.

The article caught the eye of a curie and paid out over $100.

Need to know about Curie:

• To be curie'd, you can't have been in the past couple weeks (at least)

• Your article cannot be about Steemit

• It must be longer than 1000-1500 words

• Must be original, quality content

• Must be within 24 hours of posting

• Cannot have earned more than $10

Curie tips from a curator: @limabeing

I've learned to keep posts that I believe may be curie-able in my queue unless it's imperative that I post them to ensure the have the maximum opportunity for exposure to curation trails.

Since then, most of my posts don't earn over $1, some fluctuate up to $5, and I'm occasionally curie'd for my larger iniatives and investments in the platform.

At over 100 posts, I'm still not "banking." But, momentum is growing and it's​ noticeable - don't give up!

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Photo by Anete Lūsiņa

Manage Your Time Wisely

Steemit is terribly easy to get sucked into. Chatting for longer than you should, reading and upvoting when you should be writing content, failing to save enough time in your schedule to promote your beautifully finished post...

Because I am a freelancer and writer by trade, I put a great deal of focus on my content plans: Series-based, monthly, and weekly. Currently, I use a Poketo Project Planner, an Organizada Blog Planner, and an Ink + Volt day-planner.

*I've also dabbled with Asana as a digital editorial planner and religiously use Markable.in and Google Drive for my project creation and organization.

I split my time on Steemit between:

• Posting content - Articles you've written and resteems

• Curating and creating content - Choosing your resteems, creating compilations, saving articles for later reading, drafting your own content

• Viewing and engaging with others’ content - Surfing tags and post-promo channels, upvoting and commenting, providing feedback if that's your area of expertise

• Discovering new communities - More tag surfing, diving into Steemit profiles and seeing where like-minded individuals hang out

• Chatting with current communities - Showing up and making friends in the 'general' rooms, talking about each others' day, your families, your hobbies

• Collaborating on content - Working with other Steemians on collaborative initiatves, posts, or Steemit projects

• Learning about the platform - Researching through posts and exterior websites about aspects of the platform you may not understand like bots, curation trails, the crypto marketplace, Markdown tutorials, etc

  • Reputable sources that helped me tremendously: @aggroed's beginner post, @sykochica’s compilation post of her beginner tutorials, @teamsteem's welcome to Steemit post, @jerrybanfield's top 25 posts on Steemit

  When doing research or looking for posts that will enjoy, know that there are millions of posts that are no longer in the 'payout' period that are rich with valuable information. Even though you cannot vote for them, you can still support the writer by following them and appreciating their hard work.

• Improving your profile/position on the platform - an example:

This weekend, my beau brought up that because I post so much, it's hard to find my earlier postings. This renders them worthless/useless. How might I remedy that?

Weekly Anthologies: An illustrated collection of my week's post, including highlights of series' I'm continuing and conveniently linking their archive.

Improvements like this, while entirely experimental, are an opportunity for me to elevate my Steemit experience and make available to my community my published works they may have missed.

Other investments to make into your Steemit profile:

1. Clear profile picture

2. Clear and properly sized/formatted header image {Dimensions: 1154 x 315 at 72ppi}

3. Footer, which can display your community banners, links to your previous posts, or highlights from your blog (see mine below for an example!)

4. Series footers - for those of us that write multiple entries in the same series, a footer bibliography of the series history helps your readers stay up to speed (this post has one too!)
   
   

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Growing my Steemit profile has been the most fun I've had on the internet in years.

Learning the platform, about the blockchain, diving into cryptocurrency, and seeing real currency flow my way as a reward for diligently publishing good content is more rewarding than any blogging or social media engagement I've ever had. These tips only scratch the surface of my first month on Steemit, but I still need to refine my understanding and communication of these topics before going into greater detail:

• Maximizing your voting power, curation activities, and engagement investment
• Auto-bots: Which ones to use, which ones can hurt you, and is this even ethical?
• Creating your own curation - please see Ladies of Steemit for my curation iniative
• How much SP is enough? Growing & using SP, delegation campaigns, and having POWER on the platform
• Projects on the blockchain - how to get involved and be a blockchain pioneer

Thank you for joining me for the third edition of Steemit Beginner's Series.

Are you still left with questions? Ask in the comments below and I (or someone more experienced!) will be delighted to help.

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Don't miss a single installment to the Steemit Beginner's Series! Click the photos below to read previous articles.

Stay tuned every other Monday for a new Steemit Beginner's series installment!

Hi, I'm Amelia! It's nice to meet you.

I'm a writer, minimalist, tiny home dweller, and maker living in East Tennessee, USA. My blog has lived at www.amelia-bartlett.com until I discovered Steemit, where I now post most of my work. To learn more about me, check out my introduction post, get up-to-date on my school bus tiny house conversion, and follow me for articles on slow living, sustainable fashion, self-expression, and quality curated resteems!

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