Posting on Steemit is a competitive endeavour. It takes time and patience before one gets a post that "explodes". Most people look at these successful posts in terms of how much Steem they earned on post - not noticing that they have been given some super powers.
Steemit Super Powers?
When a post hits a certain payout - the links in your post will change from NoFollow to Follow. This is a valuable occurrence that gives you the opportunity to give some power to other worthy sites mentioned in your post (like the diy blog im working on) or maybe you own stocks in Yahoo!. If you write in a particular niche - perhaps you could look for a sponsor looking for back links by an author in their genre.
What are Follow and NoFollow Links? How Powerful Is Steemit?
In the code behind every webpage links can have attributes assigned to them. Two of these attributes are called Follow or NoFollow. A NoFollow link is the default kind of link in a Steemit post. It tells the search engines that find the page to ignore the links on them. Some people argue there is some value in "NoFollow" links - but thats not where the money is. Follow links on the contrary remove the attribute NoFollow and tell the search engine to follow the link. Links are like votes in a big contest of whose website is better than whose. Steemit is a top thousand site in the US according to Alexa - that means its a decent link to get if you can get a proper Follow link. The more links you get from relevant powerful sites - the better you rank.
How Do I Know If My Links Are Follow? How Do I Make My Links Follow?
There is a thresh hold where your post's links have the NoFollow removed. Its reported to be based on rshares (I havent been able to find the exact number - gitbhub is likely the answer) - but at some point over the $10-$40 mark your links become Follow. You can look at the source code of the site to see if the links are Follow or No Follow or you can install the chrome browser extension Nofollow. If a link on a page has a red box around it - it is NofFollow - if it has green around it - it is a Follow.
Why Else Should I Care?
Proper linking is not only good for your users (which can earn you more money) - its great for everyone involved. Steemit needs outbound links - and "the worthy" can use links from a powerful site. As common practice - linking to other peoples posts where appropriate (internally) and linking to sources or projects mentioned in the article will at the very least make Steemit a stronger site - which will compound your reward - as the links you place are immutable on the block-chain forever.
Conclusion
Links are another benefit of posting on Steemit. At the very least your should shamelessly link to your own project like my diy blog. If you are one of those who earns enough to unlock the potential of Follow links - a sponsorship is not far away. A simple banner at the bottom of your post with your contact info could turn into a sponsorship opportunity by a related site!
Thanks to:
https://steemit.com/seo/@cryptoctopus/steemit-seo-today-i-learned-dofollow-links-are-not-about-reputation-at-all
https://www.ordinaryreviews.com/2017/07/26/how-to-use-steemit-to-gain-backlinks/