Basic Starter Guide for Newcomers

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Welcome to Steemit! If you are reading this then chances are you have already written an introduction blog. Congratulations on taking your first step to being a part of the Steemit community! Now you might be wondering to yourself: what should I write about, what to do next, how can I network to gain followers.

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What should you write about?

Make a list and brainstorm about two things. Things you know and things you wish you had a better understanding of. Writing about things you know is a good way to build confidence in using a platform like Steemit, meeting likeminded individuals, and reinforcing your knowledge of such topics. On the other hand, writing about topics you do not know gives you the opportunity to ask questions, make new friends that have an understanding in that topic, and researching to gain a better understanding.

Example of my brainstorming

After you have made your own brainstorming list select a topic and break it down further. In my case since I have not written much about gaming, and there are a lot of fun things I could blog. So what can I write about gaming? I could write a fanfiction about corporate espionage and add in some real things that happened in the game; while, adding in my own artistic spin on things to make it more interesting. There was that one time I was an armor dealer, and traded in rare and hard to find armor that players hunted me down for. I could also talk about microtransaction, and their role in destroying what would have otherwise been great games to play.

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What to do next?

A lot of people ask this question. Many will tell you should engage with the community. Most people take that as replying back to every comment on their introduction post. While doing so is a good start. We often mean going out, and get to know people outside of your social influence.

• You should think about writing your next blog while exploring many others blogs. Both topics you want to blog about, and things you want to gain a better understanding in. A great way to find and meet other people on Steemit is by asking questions, and adding content to another blog or post you have found. I have met some wonderful people while being active outside of my own blogs.

• If you have not already read the FAQ I recommend doing so.

• Scrooger has written a wonderful guide on using markdown to enhance your post. It can be found here

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  Why are images so important to use with your post? They are three ways I see people use them here on Steemit. First, they can be used to help break up large blocks of text. A lot of people on Steemit are here for a good time, and a very long post might cause some to skip over it. Second, they can be a way of illustrating, and enhancing by being related to what is being discussed. Third, they can have no relation to what is being discussed as a way to lighten and bring humor into a rather complexes and detail oriented post.

• When I first started a site like Pexels was recommend to me for using images from there. Site has imagesfor such thing as “free for commercial use,” and “no attribution required” When you click on them.

• Consider following someone like @steemitblog for site news. While many others cover site news this is a basic place to start till you find someone else if you choose to.

• Consider using a site like Steemdb. This site lets you track: follows, who is voting on a blog or comment, and even tracks your voting power (you recover 20% of your total voting power per day-- 10 100% votes).

• Learn more about what a Witness is; later on, how to vote for one.

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How can I network to gain followers?

I’ve done a few things to get followers so far, and I have changes tactics more than once as I continue to grow. First I started by doing follow for follow. Next, I switch over to just following people I found interesting, and if they followed back that is great. Finally, joining communities, and start to let my growing reputation work for me.

• You might notice a lot of people will have a blog with a title “follow for follow,” or “join our discord server for follow for follow.” While this is one of the many ways on Steemit to get followers. Will these people have any interesting in what you are writing about? One of the nice things about Steemit is going to your feed section and getting to see what everyone you followed has been up to. Using the follow for follow method, you might notice that not only are you not interested in what is showing up; but, some people spam 10 blog posts a day with little content in them.

• Follow those you are interested in, and if they are instead in you they will follow back. I rather fill my Feed with lots of interesting, and different things. So, I tend to go around and looking for people that meet this need. This way I have a wide range of topics filtering into my feed, and it’s not like front page of Steemit. Where everything is flooding by so fast you end up missing out on something important to you.

• Joining a community is a great way to meet people who have knowledge in a certain topics, and share things they have found to be interesting. If you read the Curation Trails you might have noticed these places are a great way for a minnow (new Steemit member with less than 500 followers and 5k Steem power) to get noticed. Example, you wrote a business blog that you consider high quality so you checked out business-trail. A lot of topics you write about will have a “trail curation" account that could also have resources like a discord channel, and places to share information. Places like these help get what the community is interested in noticed.

• For a minnow one place to start is the minnowsupportproject they work on supporting and uplifting new members of the community.

• Reputation can be one of the many factors people use in deciding to follow someone or not. While it does other things, the higher your reputation the more someone in the Steemit community may find a reason for following. Reverse can be said if you fall below your starting reputation of 25. Only way to get a score lower then this is by getting negative votes and being reported. One of the most common ways new members of the community take a reputation hit is by abusing such tags as introduceyourself. You might have noticed we really bring out the welcome wagon here to make new members feel welcome. When people take advantage of our kindness by spamming that tag in every blog they write we respond back not so kindly.

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