Why Get Started With Steemit?

Steemit 101

I've only been on Steemit for a couple of weeks. However, I've already had the opportunity to meet people from many parts of the world, introduce a few friends to the platform, and see some payouts coming down the pipeline. I'm no Steemit Guru. I'm a tiny fish in a big ocean that is full of other little fish, some friendly dolphins, massive whales, and even a few hungry sharks.

Still, I believe I have a good basic understanding that is evolving all of the time. I'm excited enough to mention the platform to other people and seek out other steemers on a variety of different platforms for discussions. I wrote this post as a reference to give to friends and social connections who ask me questions about Steemit.

Why Bother With Steemit?

Of course, the most important thing people want to know is how Steemit can help them. I see two main benefits that will appeal to most people:

• Earn crypto: Steemit is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme for most people, but you can earn valuable crypto. It takes some effort to build up your account enough to earn consistently, but like most things, your potential should increase over time.
• Promote your business: At its core, Steemit is a social network, so you can also use the platform to promote your other businesses or endeavors. In this way, many people successfully use the platform just like they use Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or even LinkedIn.
• Potential SEO value Apparently, your post has to gain a certain amount of upvotes for dofollow links, but this platform has a lot of authority. Even if you don't get a dofollow link, you can still gain direct traffic and possibly, some authority from nofollow links.

Of course, you can enjoy some other benefits while you use Steemit.

Just from reading posts, using some related apps, and following a lot of really smart people, I've learned more about the world of crypto in a few weeks than I had learned in my entire life before Steemit. I learned about good services and things that more experienced folks would warn others to stay away from. This education is priceless.

I've also enjoyed connecting with a variety of smart and articulate people who share some of my interests. I've met people with an interest in silver, cooking, art, travel, and so on. I've seen pictures of places I've never been and food I've never tried. I've laughed, cried, and been inspired. Again, you can't put a price on this experience.

Getting Started With Steemit

You can search on this site or on Google for some basic guides to help you get started, so I'm not going to duplicate that information. I will share a couple of tips that I had to learn on my own:

• Don't vote too much: Use a tool like SteemWorld.org/@YourUserName to watch your voting percentage, and don't let it drop below about 80 percent because it takes time to power back up.
• You probably shouldn't vote for yourself at first: If you're not sure why you're voting for yourself, it probably won't help you. IMHO, you can let a few other people get votes in and then slip your own vote in later after 15 to 30 minutes or more have passed.
• Your vote won't be worth much if you don't have a lot of steem power, which you can check in your wallet or with SteemWorld.org. At first, your mission might be to collect more steem power and not worry so much about the other currencies. On the other hand, having a few steem dollars can be handy because sometimes you can trade them for useful services.
• Figure out how to gain an audience: Look, you and a ton of other bloggers will be writing posts at the same time. If you have followers both on Steemit and on other social networks, you can post your articles there to help expand your audience. You're only going to win by connecting with other people.
• Read and comment on what you like: Look at the tags on the left side of your feed, and then get involved with some interesting discussions. That's how you make friends. I've probably earned just about as much in rewards by having discussions on other people's posts as I have by creating and participating in my own blog posts.

Finally, just enjoy the platform for the education, entertainment, and information. Enjoy it for a chance to socialize with great people who you never would have met otherwise. Of course, most of us are here to make some money, but it's usually a lot easier to profit when you love what you're doing. Getting started here can be hard work, so it's better to find niches that you like and enjoy them.

By the way, if you're looking for a good Steemit for Dummies post, here's one from last year: https://steemit.com/steemit/@mindover/steemit-for-dummies-like-me-everything-you-need-know-to-get-started It's by @mindover

PLEASE leave me questions, comments, corrections, and all of that stuff. I respond to any comments that relate to the post and usually upvote until I run low on voting power -- then I may come back tomorrow and vote more.