New to Steemit? 10 Crucial Tips for Getting Started and Earning STEEM, & List of Tip Articles for New Stemians!

Many say there is no such thing as love at first sight. Well, I knew the day I met my wife that we would always be together and I knew the first time I visited Steemit that this community was worth joining. While I knew that, I didn't know A LOT!

I started spending hours on Steemit and reading about. While I still believe that I have a TON to learn, I wanted to provide this list of tips to new members so they have an easier time making the most of Steemit.

So welcome to Steemit! Good luck! And read below!

10. Get to Know the Platform as Well as Possible

Your success on Steemit in large part depends on your understanding of the platform and how to use it. I know that sounds sterile and very impersonal, but it's true. I'd recommend coming up with a list of 10-20 questions about Steemit and how to succeed on it. Then, search each of those questions in the Steemit search to find posts about these topics. Read and comment on each one. This will give you a great early foundation of information about the platform and how to use it.

9. Post and Vote Carefully

Your posts and votes are like money--you only have a certain amount of it. You can invest this "money" by making posts and votes, but if you make too many too soon, or bad investments, you'll lose some of your power here on Steemit and have a hard time growing your account.

Before you hit the "post" button on any article or response you plan to publish here, ask yourself "who am I helping with this post and what value are they getting out of it?" If you can't answer both parts of this question, don't make the post.

When voting, think of this as saying that this piece of content or this reply by a community member is better than others, or you appreciate it more (since you can only upvote a certain amount of posts each day). Don't withhold all of your votes, but make sure you value you them and use them carefully.

8. Develop Your Focus on Steemit

Outside of a few people who will just follow and upvote you because they're nice, most people will follow you FOR A SPECIFIC REASON. You need to give them that reason by focusing on something that you love and are good at, and that other people on Steemit are also interested in.

For example, look at @boxmining. Michael has developed a fantastic channel and following because he provides deep dives into and interviews on topics related to cryptocurrency. People follow him for this information. This doesn't mean you need to pick a single topic, but you should have a core focus of your channel. In short, be able to answer this question: What do you want to give the Steemit community?

This is one of several tips on this list that I am still working to master, but I have it narrowed down to a few ideas.

7. Enter Contests

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I've had a lot of fun here on Steemit in my first few weeks, and I've had a lot of conversations with members. A lot of these interactions have come from already developed communities due to contests and giveaways. These are also great posts to upvote because the community around this contest is very likely to share and upvote as well, which increases the overall amount of money that will be paid to the users who interact with the post.

Above is a screenshot of a NBA prediction contest hosted by @sportsncoffee, however, there are competitions for nearly everything on Steemit. In the past week, I've entered a poetry contest, hosted my own cryptocurrency prediction contest, and have joined around 10 other contests and competitions. It's a great way to potentially win Steem by winning, but even more than that, it's a good opportunity to join a community within Steemit. Within minutes of entering the poetry contest, I received feedback from users I was not aware of who enjoy reading posts and interacting with other people interested in poetry. Search "contest" to find some and start entering them!

6. Follow the Price of Steem and Steem Backed Dollars

This tip is made with a huge warning attached--do not track the price of Steem or Steem Backed Dollars all day everyday. This will drive you crazy and will likely result in making bad decisions based on your emotions.

What I am recommending is that you stay aware of the price of both for two important reasons:

The relationship between Steem and Steem Backed Dollars impacts you financially. When Steem is high, Steem Backed Dollars are close to the same vale. When Steem is low, a Steem Backed Dollar may be worth much more than a single Steem coin, presenting a good opportunity to load up on Steem.
As long as you can handle the dips and rises without having a panic attack, following the price of Steem will help you recognize good buying opportunities. In three days we saw the price of Steem go down to around $4.40 and then quickly go over $6 again. Many Steemians bought additional shares during this dip because they follow the price and understood that this was a good opportunity to buy.

5. Ask Often, But with Care

On Steemit, it's okay to ask for help and to ask for things like votes, resteems, and follows. In fact, if you want to be successful, you probably need to do this, but with care. Users who constantly ask for these things without providing any value or help to others will quickly fail. This is a community--in order for people to want to help you, you need to help them. So go out of your way to add value to other people 10x more than you ask for it.

4. Invest in Your Own Success

Make no mistake about it--spending time on Steemit is an investment. Those who do the best invest in themselves.

Investing in your own success means that you are committed to learning about the community, investing your time, purchasing additional Steem if you're able to, and developing your account (picking images to use for your profile, adding links and information at the bottom of posts, etc).

Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the image I created to encourage other members to vote, share, and comment on my article if they find it valuable.

3. Interact with the Community, Meet New People

This is very simple and straight-forward, but very, very important. You want people to know who you are and to follow you. One of the best ways to do that is by getting to know people the MOMENT they join Steemit. Search the "Introduceyourself" tag, read about new members, and comment on their articles. If you do this often, you'll gain a lot of followers. Sure, they might not have a lot of influence right now (meaning their upvotes will be worth .01), but the point is to grow with them.

2. Use Available Tools

The steemit community has done an amazing job creating tools to help users manage and grow their account on Steemit. From automatically upvoting accounts you follow to tracking your estimated payouts, there's a tool for that! These tools have really helped me maximize my impact and payouts so far, so get started using tools now!

Tools I Use Include (feel free to share additional tools in the comments please):
SteemVoter
SteemStats
Steemd

1. Steemit is Just the Start -- Sign Up for Other Steem-Powered Platforms

Wait, there's a video platform too? Whoa, there's a photo sharing app? You mean to tell me I can play free poker and earn Steem Backed Dollars!!??

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I learned a lot in my first couple of weeks, and some of the most valuable things I've learned have been the other platforms that have been created using the Steem blockchain. There is a growing list, check them out here thanks to @webosfritos: https://steemit.com/steemit/@webosfritos/a-full-indexed-list-of-all-steemit-apps