If you are new to STEEM or want to have a bigger stake and influence on the platform before it goes out of Beta and dethronizes Medium/Facebook/Reddit..
...Then there is a perfect moment now!
I will explain steps and give reasoning by each one so you can read this guide up and decide for yourself on what to do.
You can also buy STEEM directly with Credit Card with a little higher price but instant from Changelly
If you go this route all you do is choose amount, put your STEEM nickname in the field and thats it.
Bitcoin has raised so price of STEEM is really good now to enter.
@steemvoter 
@thecryptodrive 
@marcgodard and put there users you want to automatically vote up when they launch posts, times and amounts of your power.If you prefer initially do this with your own hands to see who is worth auto voting and who is not.
Follow popular vote trails!
http://streemian.com by 
Then even when you are offline your account will follow good curators and get you paid. It is an great addition to self-chosen authors to auto vote.
Produce content
To "mine" STEEM unless you want to be hosting a witness node the best way is just to write. Do not ever copy-paste (it will make you flagged) just write on topics that interest you.
Below pot there is place for tags and you can add 5. GO only for 4. Currently If you add 5 it will count as adding one - so your content will be less visible.
Always keep tags on topic and you will gain viewers!
After you write post its good to let people know about it. Login to http://steemit.chat and post it to ie https://steemit.chat/channel/postpromotion and other channels. Just look for channel rules ie never put links in general channel
