I’ve been using Steem for about a week now. At first, I found it pretty overwhelming. Like the other social mediums, things move pretty fast. There’s a lot to digest, so I just wanted to provide some things I noted during my new favorite social media that I hope helps other n00bs.
Payouts
The payouts are tricky at first. I highly recommend everyone give this post a read. In summary:
- Payouts are separated into author and curation (upvoter) rewards
- Author rewards are paid out in a combination of Steem Dollars and Steem Power; curation rewards are paid out entirely in Steem Power
- Curation rewards are based on the square of your Steem Power (10 => 100)
- Only a select amount of Steem is dispersed per 24 hours, which may cause rewards to change in value; they are only preliminary estimates in value.
Content Creation
I’m still trying to figure out what content gets traction. Obviously cryptocurrency is a big part of Steem.
At the time of writing this post, you can see that steem, bitcoin, and blockchain all land on the top of the trending topics list. This isn’t to say other topics aren’t read or sought after. Maybe there’s a niche out there waiting to be filled. Find what interests you, and what will be worth other’s time.
Another part of content creation that’s helped me is the strategic selection of tags to help ensure not necessarily that more people see my post, but that the right people see it. Again, I’m no expert with only a week of experience, but these steps have worked for me and made Steem more enjoyable.
Content Promotion
So I didn’t initially realize the “upvote post” check box when submitting my own posts. I thought this might’ve been seen as some sort of taboo that a younger me was too foolish to avoid. After some more research, it appears as if upvoting your own content is more than ok; it’s encouraged. Promote your content! Don’t just stop at upvoting yourself. Send it to friends. Promote it on other social mediums. Why not promote your own content, unless you think what you’re putting out there isn’t worth anyone’s time?! Mark Twain said not to use exclaimation points because “it is like laughing at your own joke.” Well why tell the joke if it’s not funny enough that it'd make even you laugh?
Anyway, I hope this helps. Please reach out with any questions, and don’t forget to follow me for regular crypto-news updates, because in the words of one of my role models…