Hello newbies!
Welcome to the platform which rewards you for your content, life here is not going to be easy, but remember, nothing good comes easily.
Let us discuss things that will broaden your scope on what the platform has to offer. Sit back, relax and have a good time and I hope this article simplifies a lot for everyone.

All about content

Content generation is the main focus of the platform and steps have been taken to promote content creators, steps like the introduction of smart media tokens among others.
But wait a minute, what is content creation?

Content creation is not simply about the posts you put up in written format, content generally refers to "value" created on the steemit.com website or steem blockchain.
A created content could be a video log or vlog for short, a normal post, application and software development and so much more.

Not to make steemit sound like a haven for science geeks only, even artists and photographers are doing well on the platform and a quick visit to the photography tag will give you insight into what the photographers are up to.
A platform known for it's uniqueness and additional values other than upvotes, steemit is a place where your talent(s) can be marketed without fear of criticism. If you think I am lying, try the nsfw tag and be convinced.
Please note: The nsfw tag is for adult content and viewers under 18 are not allowed to go there. Thanks.

Sounds too easy right? I guess not. What many won't tell you or you probably failed to listen to is that the platform discourages lazy authors who simply steal the intellectual properties of others in the hope of making quick gain. There are web crawlers or bots like cheetah who simply lie in wait to graciously embarrass authors who have made it their job to plagiarize.

Repeated plagiarism attracts the attention of steemcleaners which shows you've been such a bad boy or girl and when steem cleaners strike, off to detention you go...indefinitely!
Create a style of content which best suits you so that you don't deserve punishment. The platform also recognises that certain blogs require quotations or citations from web sources, and as such there is room to reference authors or sources from where you were inspired to write.

Understanding the blockchain and it's properties

A blockchain, simply put, is an online or digital store of records. That means it is a warehouse basically for online record keeping.
The steem blockchain is what we'll be talking about for it's uniqueness and well due to the fact that if you are signed in right now to steemit.com, then congratulations, you are on the blockchain.

With zero transaction fee, fast transaction rates and a large community size, the steem blockchain is one of the best out there. I take that back, it is the best out there.
The steem blockchain is governed by a system known as the direct proof of stake (DPOS) which encourages everyone to have a say(in a way) in what happens here.

There are a group of people who ensure that the blockchain upholds it's standards and also basically mine blocks and ensure everything is as it should be, they are called witnesses. Vote for one today! If you need more info on them, please click here. To vote for a witness, click here.

If you have difficulties selecting a witness, go to the witness page, scroll down and allow me vote for witnesses on your behalf by selecting ehiboss as a proxy
Get to work and vote,the witnesses won't vote themselves you know.

On steemit, you come across certain terms, I will try and break down a few famous ones:

Upvote: This means to reward a user monetarily through a like.
Downvote/flag: This means to remove a user's monetary reward which sometimes affect the reputation score of the individual.
Reputation score: This is a numerical history of votes received on the account, it is the number at the top part of your account, starting at 25 and sometimes going below that in the advent of a flag.
SBD: The steem backed dollars is one of the currencies issued out to authors at the completion of a seven days post cycle.
Steem: This is another currency on the blockchain.
Steem power: This is locked steem, think about it as your share on the platform.
Resteem: This means to reblog an author's content to a wider audience.
Delegate: To vest or rent a portion of your steem power (which the person cannot withdraw) with an author.
Undelegate: To remove delegation.
Curation: Simply put, to vote.
Fiat: Local currency.
Whales: People with steem power over 70,000
Dolphins: Lower than whales but higher than minnows.
Minnows: Steem power of 500-4,999

Content curation and Steem power

I have been getting this question like "is it only through content curation you can be rewarded" I say a big no. You can be rewarded through content curation.
When people vote your work, they are in fact curating it and curation is a profitable source of steem power generation. Usually in each post, curators are entitled to 25% of the payout which signify that voters get paid at the end of the day.

That means as you are reading this, you could start voting people with decent content and earn more or you could stay and complain about not receiving payouts all the time.
The platform has made it even more rewarding for readers with this move and you could vote and reward people with as high as over $20,000 on a single vote (@steemit account) provided you have the right stem power to match it.

So if you want to profit more, why not invest your fiat in the platform? There is no compulsory rule as to voting as an investor although it is advisable to vote more to earn more.