Jan 15th 2018 - Steemit for Newbies

Flip over to the first entry here to get a complete understanding of my situation. Links to other entries provided at the bottom.

Hello diary,

It's getting harder and harder to write at night. I'm always so tired. My body aches from sleeping on hard places, and I feel unrested because I have to keep half awake. I don't want some young delinquent coming into my dark alley and taking away my phone, the few clothes I now possess, and my jotting book. That would be more devastating than the incident that trapped me here in the first place.

Anyway, yesterday I had my first real hot meal thanks to Lindsay at the coffee shop --that lady is an angel, really! --and i researched on how to succeed on Steemit. There's actually quite a lot to know about the platform, I'm sure I haven't covered the half of it! But for a newbie who wants to grow fast, it isn't necessary to know everything. But there a few things you do have to get into the habit of doing.

These are the few facts and tips I've discovered.

1 About Steemit

Steemit is a decentralized social media platform built on a blockchain that rewards it's members for creating and curating content. Payouts are made in Steem (STEEM) and Steem Dollar (SBD), the two cryptocurrencies of the blockchain. However, it's not a fixed amount payout system. The amount a post earns depends on the amount of upvotes it receives, and the amount of Steem the voter, called curators have in their wallets as STEEM POWER. The higher the Steem power, the higher the upvote is worth. As you get upvoted, your reputation increases. This is the number always shown at the end of your username, and it helps the community know at a glance how much quality content you must have produced.

2 Building a Community and gaining followers

And Steemit is all about that: community. Although it's a great way to make bucks, the idea is actually to create a community of persons who genuinely enjoy themselves and the content of the platform. Hence, while every post can be seen by everyone, it is possible to 'follow' a person. When you do so, the persons created content begin to appear in your feed, so you can keep track of it more easily. Because of this, there is a direct correlation between how many followers you have, how widely your content is seen, and how much you could make from it. This means every user's game should be to gain as much followers as possible in as short a time as he can manage. Until then, your posts will have quite little payouts.

3 Building Your Followers and Reputation

Don't be discouraged though! It might take a while --shorter for some, longer for others -- but it is very, very doable. From veterans on the platform, I was able to get the following tips on building your followers-count.

Producing Great Content
Yes, this can be tasking. But the community loves great content and if you do that regularly, other users will begin to follow you to see more and more of them. Pretty simple, really! Regularly here means consistently. Do what you think you can handle. Some recommend dropping at least one post daily, some recommend two or three, while others say a couple of great posts per week will do and still others say drop as many as you can everyday.
I noticed, though that most of the most known persons on the platform drop at least a couple per day. Persons like @everittdmickey drops over a dozen sometimes. And from what I see, it's going quite well for him!

The first post you should make is your introduction. Write a bit about yourself or your account and what kind of content you intend to bring unto the platform, and include the tags #introduceyourself and/or #introducemyself. Other users are very welcoming and usually looking for new persons to follow.
Each post can have a maximum of five tags which can be anything at all. However, you want to use popular tags so your content can be easily found. Just ensure the tag has something to do with the post or you might be flagged.

Commenting commenting commenting!
Remember what I said about community? Well, a community need to interact. And authors, artists and other content creators love to read a comment on their work and see that it's being noticed, as you definitely would! Through comments you can make actual friends on the platform and find people with like minds. If you have enough actual friends, your payouts will go through the roof! And you will enjoy the platform better, which I think will sustain you in the long run. Not everything is about money, you know.
A bit of warning here. Do not go spamming posts with comments like 'nice posts' that only reveal you didn't bother reading the article. Or do not attempt to write something longer when you didn't read it either. Believe me, writers will know, and this is one of the most annoying things you can do here. And do not go asking for upvotes, or requesting a follow by follow. You will get flagged instead (a flag is basically the opposite of an upvote) and will lose both reputation and money.

Upvoting Others' Content
Steemit obeys the Golden Rule: Do to others what you want them to do to you. Users are generally very appreciative when someone upvotes their work. Now this doesn't mean upvote indiscriminately. Upvote only quality content you enjoy. This will help the community in the long run. Also, every user starts with a 100% voting power out of which 2% is taken for your upvotes. Everyday, 20% voting power returns, which gives a limit to the amount of votes a person can give per day. As your voting power declines, so does the effect your vote has. It's advisable to always keep it on the high side, around 80%.
Voting power can be checked on sites such as Steemd, Steemdb, and Steemworld.

4 The Wallet and Payouts

The payout for a post is made after 7 days, during which votes can keep coming in. Payouts can be made in one of two ways: either the post gets 50% of the post's value in Steem (as Steem Power) and the other 50% in SBD, or the entire post's value is paid in Steem power. The content creator decides which he wants. The user can also decide not to receive any payment at all, and decline payout for that post.
After a payout is made, it is the users duty to go into his/her wallet and claim your reward. I haven't gotten any yet, of course. Can wait to make my first claim!

Steemit is such an interesting platform... so much to learn and gain! Perhaps this is why I remembered it from 2089. Could it be that I was an active steemian back in my time? Unfortunately, unlike yesterday, none of my memories came back to me. I might have to find a cardiologist to take a look at me. Maybe I could find one on Steemit!

Meanwhile, I'm researching on wallets --it's about time I opened others!

See you tonight, or tomorrow as the case might be.

Diary of a Crypto Time Traveler is a fictional story used to share real knowledge on cryptocurrencies, blockchains and predictions, and my own recent findings.

Read previous entries below:
#1 Jan 12th 2018 - Arrival
#2 Jan 13th 2018 - Forks
#3 Jan 14th 2018 - Market Correction and an Expected Wall Street Boost