Three months ago, four Steemit authors wrote a book about this brand-new platform. We made a difficult decision to publish it exclusively on Amazon, since that allowed us to do a free give-away. During the free give-away period back in June, 1,000+ people downloaded this and many were introduced to Steemit for the first time.

Since then, hundreds more have purchased it for 99 cents, which is Amazon's minimum price. We have not kept any royalties earned; these have been spent on ads to promote Steemit.

Today, we announce that our 90-day exclusive contract with Amazon has ended. Here is the Steemit 101 e-book, newly updated, and free for everyone. Thanks to @shenanigator for his valuable help on this revision (please follow his blog!). This book is free for everyone to use. If you prefer, here is a PDF link to it also: http://docdro.id/ZKd07nA .

Thanks to the community for your help in writing and revising this book. -Tom @donkeypong

Steemit 101

Discover How to Make Money and Have Fun on the Social Media Site that Pays YOU to Post and Vote on Content

Written and edited by:
Tom Janowicz @donkeypong
Renaud Gagne @cryptoctopus
Leah Stephens @stellabelle
Richard Kaplan @steemship
With help from the talented writers and developers of Steemit.com
© 2016 – All original material is copyrighted by the authors.

If you prefer a PDF copy of this book, you can find it here: http://docdro.id/ZKd07nA

Chapter 1. Introduction to Steemit
Chapter 2. The Trouble with Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Other Social Media
Chapter 3. Steemit’s Fast Start
Chapter 4. Getting Started on the Site
Chapter 5. Make Money Posting
Chapter 6. Tips for Creating a Popular Post
Chapter 7. Make Money Voting, Commenting, and Having Fun
Chapter 8. Mining STEEM
Chapter 9. Steemit Economics 101
Chapter 10. STEEM Power: Betting on Steemit’s Growth
Chapter 11. Finding Up-and-Comers and Rewarding Good Quality Posts
Chapter 12: Introducing Yourself Nicely
Chapter 13: How to Deal with Trolls and Bullies
Chapter 14. Following Your Favorite Posters
Chapter 15: A Supportive Community
Appendix. About the Authors

Chapter 1: Introduction to Steemit

What if you got paid to post on Facebook? What if you could make money by upvoting other peoples’ posts on Reddit? Imagine a social media site that rewards people and not greedy shareholders. Welcome to Steemit. This short guide will explain how you can join Steemit.com for free and start earning money right away. But first, we need to explain what Steemit is and how it can afford to pay people like us just for posting blogs, voting, and having fun.
Steemit is much more than a money-making opportunity. It is a decentralized social media site, like Facebook or Reddit, but without a big company at the top that sucks out profits. Steemit uses a new model for social media, relying on people instead of advertising. Users post content and help to curate it by upvoting the best content to everyone else’s attention. That puts it beyond the control of greedy corporations, large media conglomerates, and repressive governments. It is the first social media site that’s truly free of these controls.

The content is free and the money goes to the people who post and vote on it.
Steemit runs on the blockchain, the same technology that powers Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The blockchain allows information and transactions to be verified quickly, securely, and automatically. Because the site can pay you automatically, there is no need for a big corporate infrastructure, and there is no corporation to run away with your profits. You are paid in STEEM dollars, a price stable token that is always worth about $1 and can be converted to Bitcoin or regular money. You are also rewarded with greater voting power and a stake in Steemit’s growth each time you post and vote on good content.

Who are we, the co-authors of this book? We are four members of the Steemit community who want to share it with the world. In our first month on Steemit, each of us earned several thousand dollars for posting content that became popular with the Steemit community. We earned more money by voting on and replying to other peoples’ posts. We’d like to be your guides for the next few pages as you learn about this site. And we’re pretty sure we know how to have fun on Steemit also!

Maybe you want to drop the book at this point and just head over to Steemit. You are welcome to do so, but we encourage you to invest a little time and energy to understand it first. We promise to teach you some secrets that will save you time, cut down on your learning curve, and help you succeed right away on Steemit.
What are we waiting for? Let’s get started.

Chapter 2: The Trouble with Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Other Social Media

To fully understand Steemit, let us start with one of the problems it was created to address. Wall Street values Facebook at more than $350 billion. Facebook has great technology, it has built a successful business, and it has established itself as the face of social media. But most of Facebook’s valuation comes from its users: one billion of them around the world.

Why are Facebook’s users worth so much? A company with access to one billion people is a huge market for advertisers. Companies want to reach Facebook’s users to sell them products and services.

When big companies come calling, Facebook and other social media sites are only too happy to sell them data they have gathered on their own users. They gladly sell advertising to these companies. Advertising is content that someone has paid to put in front of you. And Facebook is happy to let big corporations dictate the content that Facebook’s users see first.

Why would Facebook and other social media sites sell out their users this way? Even if the Facebooks of the world began as tiny, innocent startups with good intentions, they now are owned by mega-banks, corporations and rich individuals. These owners and shareholders demand constant growth and increased profits; truth and privacy are lower priorities.

In their world, people are money. Users are a commodity to be mined for information, so that these same companies or their clients can turn around and target the site’s users with the right kind of advertising. Then they can sell lots of products and services, and make more money off the site’s users. When you post on most social media sites, you are fueling a vicious cycle, and you certainly do not get paid for posting or voting like you do on Steemit.

Facebook allows people to share their life, opinions and beliefs to people they know. But what if Facebook had a bias and kept on silencing opinions it doesn't like? Just think about the collusion with Germany to censor conversations regarding mass-immigration or the Gizmodo article about how a former Facebook worker came out and said that they routinely suppressed conservative news and finally the story that the social network banned a Canadian libertarian for criticizing Facebook’s practices. These are just the tip of the iceberg.

Both Facebook and Twitter are owned by large shareholders, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Clearbridge, Vanguard, and T. Rowe Price, each of whom own around one percent or more of one of these companies, some on behalf of their clients. Morgan Stanley, which owns 5% of Twitter, has a huge amount of potential control over that company’s content. Reddit is owned by a large private media conglomerate that was built by buying and shutting down competitors. It has created news monopolies and raised advertising rates in one market after another in a practice that the famous investor Warren Buffett has likened to an “unregulated tollbooth.”

When your largest shareholders are mega-banks and big companies, they either control or have the power to control the agenda and content. But they’re not the only ones. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Chase are all mega-banks on the so-called “too big to fail” list of the United States government and other powerful governments worldwide. They are considered “systematically important” banks and the world’s major governments permanently stand ready to bail them out if needed. These banks’ CEOs sit on the boards of the regional Federal Reserve Banks in the United States and the banks actually receive stock in these government institutions. If you are looking for more government connections, consider that Saudi Arabia’s royal family controls that country’s government and a Saudi prince now owns 5% of Twitter.

Hmmm, let’s recap here. Powerful banks and governments hold enormous potential control over Facebook and Twitter, while a monopolistic and controlling company controls Reddit. We haven’t even started on other social media sites, but you get the idea. We are not saying that these institutions run the sites on a day-to-day basis, but when stories emerge about censorship and certain content being banned, think about who has ultimate control over them. Is it any wonder that social media sites get criticized for monitoring their users and controlling the flow of content?

Steemit is controlled ONLY by its community members. There is no agenda. Most certainly, there is no large corporation or government calling the shots. Even if a large corporation were to buy into Steemit with a large stake of STEEM Power, regular Steemit users can achieve the same status through the hard work of posting and upvoting. Over time, that power can grow proportionally. On Steemit, everyone has an opportunity and anyone can be a factor.

We still believe in the free and open marketplace of ideas. We believe that when differing opinions are allowed to compete against one another, everybody learns more about those issues and perspectives. Everybody has a chance to discuss and debate ideas. May the best idea win, and may everyone treat each other with respect and understanding.

Chapter 3: Steemit’s Fast Start

Steemit was founded in early 2016 by Ned Scott and Daniel Larimer. Having worked together before, they met for a discussion in January 2016 and found that they shared a common vision for an online social economy. The social media portion of this, Steemit, is just the beginning. In the future, we hope it can be combined with other blockchain-based features, organizations, and third party apps, all geared towards improving peoples’ lives in measurable ways.

Ned Scott is Steemit’s CEO. Based in New York City, he has a background in financial services and business operations. Over the last few years, he had been investing in the Bitcoin space and sharing its opportunities with Wall Street investors. After becoming interested in cryptocurrency, Scott approached Daniel Larimer about creating a blockchain-based social media site that would allow community members to create a mutual aid society. They soon decided that they could accomplish much more than this with Steemit.

Larimer, Steemit’s CTO, is a programmer based in Virginia. He has been involved in cryptocurrencies since the early days of Bitcoin. He one of the few living people to have exchanged messages on Bitcoin’s public forum with Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary and elusive creator of Bitcoin. Larimer famously told Satoshi that Bitcoin was not fast enough, which seems to have foreshadowed his achievements.

Larimer went on to found BitShares, one of the most innovative Cryptocurrency 2.0 projects. BitShares attracted a team of talented programmers, working under the label of Cryptonomex, who improved upon Bitcoin’s blockchain technology by creating the ultra-powerful Graphene toolkit that now powers Steemit. It enables lightning-fast transactions and instant payments with extremely tight security. BitShares also has enjoyed a large and heavily involved community of users who helped create, test, and refine its decentralized exchange.

When Scott and Larimer began work on Steemit, they already had an expert technical team and they also had an active community of users from BitShares, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrency projects. They did not have to spend time recruiting and training a new group of programmers, though others have joined the project. Having a ready-made community of supporters and an active user base is almost unheard of for a startup. Many companies buy smaller competitors just to acquire a user base, but Steemit already had a foundation of people who could test the site and begin to share it across the Internet.

From there, the growth has come quickly and steadily, yet it is only just beginning. As we write this, Reddit has about 38 million users, Twitter 300 million, and Facebook 1 billion. They offer gimmicks such as karma points and likes and meaningless upvotes, but none of them pay users. Steemit should continue to grow as fast as word-of-mouth can spread it. Since the four co-authors of this book began using Steemit in the spring of 2016, it already has grown by many thousands of users, and we believe that is only the beginning.

Why does this growth matter to you? Because Steemit will still be a young site for a while. It has lots of room for growth and you have the power to get in early. The more reward tokens you build up in Steemit, the more you effectively will have a stake in future growth. And your stake can grow proportionately along with Steemit until you decide to cash it out in price-stable currency tokens that are worth about $1 each and can be converted to Bitcoin or other currencies. You will gain a much better understanding of Steemit’s financial aspects in the coming chapters.

Chapter 4: Getting Started on the Site

Getting started with Steemit is quite simple. Just go to Steemit.com and create a new account. At the moment, you need either a Facebook or a Reddit account in order to sign up and get a few dollars for free in your Steemit account, though this may be expanded to other sign-ups in the future.

If you do not have an active Facebook or Reddit account, then you can use a backdoor method to creating a Steemit account; just click this link for instructions. There is a small registration fee to prevent spammers. Using this backdoor method, you can pay the same fee with Bitcoin, with BitShares, or with STEEM that you have purchased on an exchange. If you have never bought Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies before, you will need to convert some money first using a site like Coinbase, CCEDK, or Local Bitcoins.

This is what the Steemit site looks like (see below). This view shows the top of the Trending page. The developers are continuing to add new features, so the site might look different by the time you read this. But basically, the articles are in the center, there are Tags for various topics on the right, and then in the top corners there are all sorts of other features. We will explain those features soon.

How Content is Organized: Views and Tags

Posted articles are in the big center column. You can view them by Feed, New, Hot, Trending, Promoted, and Active posts. To change this view, just click on one of the menu choice items near the top left part of your screen.

In addition, the TAGS list on the right side shows the various topics or subgroups where content is posted. So you can browse through those topic tags to find the ones that interest you most. Co-author @stellabelle, a very prolific writer, probably has posted in more categories than anyone else on Steemit. Here is a screenshot from one of her posts in which she explained how to add a Steemit icon to one’s YouTube channel. You can see that the TAG category within Steemit ( # steem-marketing) shows up at the beginning and end of her post, as well as at the top left corner of the page.

As more people find Steemit and post, additional tags will be created and the list of them will be quite long. Fortunately, you can search the tag names by clicking in the search bar just under the word TAGS. By typing in a keyword, you will filter the list to show you only tags that include that word. For example, if you are looking for a food category and cannot find it, you could type in “food” and the food tag would be displayed. If there is a separate “food-restaurants” tag or “food-fights” tag (anything with food in it), that would show up also and you could select the one you want.

While TAGS look like topics or subgroups, they are created when you submit a post on Steemit. Rather than having to file it in a category, all you need to do is include a # tag in the text of your post (with no space after the number sign). For example, if you wanted to post in the “steem” category, you could just include # steem in your text. Your post will be filed there automatically when someone browses the steem topic tag. We will cover posting, including tags, more fully in a future chapter.

Goodies on the Top Right

You can find many functions on the top right corner of your screen. These include Search, Submit Post, Your Account, and Steemit Menu. We will cover each of these separately below.

Searching Steemit

Moving from left toward the top right corner of your screen, the first thing you’ll see is a search icon. It looks like a little magnifying glass. Clicking on it open a Google custom search that lets you search all of the content on Steemit.com.

For example, let’s imagine that you have an interest in gardening and you want to learn how to apply mulch to the trees in your yard. You could go to the gardening tag and browse around, but you could find the right content faster by running a keyword search for a term like “mulch trees”. This custom search will show you every post on the site where your search term has been used.

Submitting a Post

When you click “Submit a Story” on the top right, a submission form will open up. This is where you can post your blog articles, videos, photographs, and other content. We will cover posting shortly in another chapter.

Viewing Your Account

You can view your account by clicking the picture icon near the top right corner of the screen. When you click on it, you will see a drop down menu that provides access to your feed, your own blog, posts, and replies. This is also where you will find your wallet and a set of long keys called permissions. Let’s cover each of these in turn.

Blog, Posts, Replies, and Feed

When you click on your “Blog”, it will look something like this (see picture of Renaud’s blog page below). It displays your posts, beginning with most recent. This is a good place to keep track of how your recent posts are doing or to find something you wrote in the past.

“Posts” shows you everything you have submitted. That includes the blog postings. And it also includes any reply comments you have posted on other peoples’ blog posts, not merely your original blog posts.

“Replies” shows you any comments you have received from others. They might have commented on your blog post or they might be replying to a comment you made elsewhere.
Some posts generate a lot of discussion, particularly if they are controversial, while others rarely get many replies. It is good to check on your “replies” regularly, because sometimes others have questions or important comments they communicate to you.

“Feed” is another way to view posts from bloggers you have chosen to follow.

Wallet

Your wallet shows how much value you have in currency tokens and STEEM Power. These currency tokens, STEEM, STEEM Power, and STEEM Dollars, are covered fully in Chapter 8. The wallet itself even includes basic descriptions of each. Here is a screenshot of the wallet. Since you may not be able to read the fine print text there, we are including the website’s description of each token below, plus a few additional notes on each one.

STEEM: Tradeable tokens that may be transferred at any time. Note: this is liquid STEEM, a cryptocurrency that may be transferred and exchanged outside of Steemit. To cash it out, you can click the Steemit menu at the far right and use Blocktrades to exchange it into Bitcoin or another currency. If you want U.S. dollars, British Euros, Chinese Yuan, or other fiat currency, there are many sites online which will buy your Bitcoin. And there are many other sites where you can spend Bitcoin directly. Other financial gateways may be added to Steemit in the future. As it grows, the infrastructure of third party applications around Steemit will improve as well. STEEM has a high inflation rate, so it best to hold only for short periods of time.

STEEM Power: Influence tokens that earn more power for holding long term and voting on posts. The more one holds the more one can influence others’ rewards and earn rewards for accurate voting. Note: This is the vesting power that makes you a stakeholder in the Steemit platform, and you can increase it by Powering Up any STEEM that you do not need immediately. The more STEEM Power you have, the greater your voting influence will be (even on your own posts, if you want to pay yourself that way)!

STEEM Dollars: Tokens worth about $1.00 of Steem. Note: this is the price-stable token and is designed to be roughly equivalent to one U.S. dollar. It allows value to be estimated in U.S. dollars. The currency’s value is still a work in progress.

The wallet shows your account’s balances of each type of token. You also can see an estimated total value and a list of recent transfers to and from your account.

Wallet Actions: Next to each of the token balances, you can see a drop down arrow. In the drop-down menu are some actions that you can take with each currency token. For example, with STEEM, you can choose to Power Up some of your balance, increasing your STEEM Power. In the STEEM Power drop-down menu, you will see a choice to Power Down with part of your balance.

Cashing Out

After you have been paid in Steem Dollars, you may want to transfer these to another account or convert them to STEEM. As the platform’s liquid currency, STEEM is the easiest to convert using external bridges and exchanges. Some of these also accept Steem Dollars directly, including the Blocktrades bridge and the Bittrex exchange.

When you want to cash out, you will need to use one of these third party services to exchange your STEEM or Steem Dollars into Bitcoin or another currency. To convert into fiat currency (such as Dollars, Euros, or Yen) that you can spend or deposit into your bank, you will need a gateway as well, such as Coinbase or CCEDK.

Tom @donkeypong and Mahmud Adeleye @infovore wrote two helpful articles about what you can do with your STEEM and Steem Dollars. Thanks to Mahmud @infovore for letting us rely on his article here; make sure you follow his great blog on Steemit as well.

Powering Up, BitShares, and OpenLedger: @donkeypong/ready-to-power-up-or-cash-out-part-1-your-july-4-guide-to-steem-power-bitshares-assets-and-openledger

Cashing Out Using Blocktrades or Bittrex: @infovore/ready-to-power-up-or-cash-out-part-2-your-july-4-guide-to-using-blocktrades-and-bittrex

Also, here is a good list of cryptocurrency-to-fiat gateways: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/List_of_payment_systems

This page also lists eWallets and sites for Bitcoin banking; scroll down until you find the list: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

The financial elements of Steemit, including the important roles of each currency token, are covered in the chapter on Steemit Economics.

Permissions

Finally, in the Account drop-down menu, are “Permissions” and “Logout” functions. Logout does not need any explanation. On a day to day basis, as you use Steemit, you probably will not need to use the Permissions tab either, but it is important for you to understand its importance.

Steemit is a very secure site. The permissions section contains four keys that are used for different functions. They are stored in Wallet Import Format (WIF), which is a coded version of a private key. The owner key is a master key that can be used to change the other ones and control the account. You should keep a copy of your owner key offline in a secure location where you can retrieve it if necessary.

The active key is used for transactions, such as spending. The posting key is used for voting and posting functions on Steemit. And the memo key is used for message encoding. Save copies of all of them in a secure place such as a password manager, but the most important is the owner key, which allows you to change the others.

If you have signed up through Facebook or Reddit, then the password you chose has full control over your Steemit account. The most secure way to handle this is to save that password securely somewhere else, go into your Permissions tab, and find your posting key. Click the button to “Show” this key, copy it, and then use only that posting key to log in anytime you will just be posting or upvoting. It does not allow you to make transactions, but in the event that anyone steals it, they would not have access to your money. Use the owner key to log in when you need to make transactions such as Powering Up or transferring money.

Information on Posts: Author, Voting Buttons, Number of Votes, Who Voted, and Time of Post

This last part should be clear when you look at the site. But it is worth mentioning that there is some important information that’s visible on each blog post. Again, these posts appear in the middle of your screen and there are different ways to view them (e.g. Hottest, Most Recent, Most Votes, etc.) as described at the beginning of this chapter.

When you see a post listed, it will display the headline as well as the first few words of the text. Whether you open the post or not, there is some more information displayed also. At the bottom of the summary (and on the full post if you open it), you can see buttons that allow you to upvote the post. There also is a drop-down menu arrow; if you click on this, it shows you who has voted on this post. You also can see the screen name of the post’s author, how many votes it currently has, and when it was posted (UTC time zone). Separately, there is a flag icon in the top right corner of each post; this flag is used to “downvote” posts if they are misleading, abusive, or contain plagiarized content.

Chapter 5: Make Money Posting

Some of you skipped right to this chapter, didn’t you? You have reached the heart of this book, because the next few chapters will show you how to post your content, vote and comment on other posts, and make good money from staying active on the site. The posting and voting are really two sides of the same coin, because in order for posts to make good money, someone has to discover them and upvote them. This is really what you are doing with your votes and comments also. Steemit pays you to make the site better, either by adding good content or curating it.

In this chapter, you will learn about posting, followed by some tips for making a successful post. After these chapters, we will move on to explain how voting works and how you can make money by voting, commenting, and staying active on the site.

Voters Decide Which Content Rises

There is no advertising on Steemit. Unlike Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, blog platforms, news sites, and just about every other revenue-generating site on the Internet, Steemit runs on a different business model. The great thing about this is that big corporations do not control the flow of information. They do not get to decide which content people see.

On Steemit, voters like us decide which posts are worthy of being upvoted. This means that you need to post good quality content if you wish your post to become popular and successful. Only the most popular posts will rise to the top. Those will get more exposure and additional upvotes. Ultimately, they will make the most money.

Which Kinds of Posts Make the Most Money?

In the next chapter, you will learn some tips for writing a great post. In general, the posts that are most popular (and most highly paid) on Steemit tend to be clear, well-organized, and longer than average. They deliver original content that adds value to Steemit.

Content that adds value can be practical, such as a “how to” article. It can be entertaining, such as a parody or set of memes. It can be creative and artistic, such as an original video or story that someone has written. Steemit’s voters prefer original content that has not simply been re-posted from elsewhere on the Internet, but that represents your own unique work.

One other feature that seems to correlate closely with popularity is making your post personal somehow. This is not essential, and you can earn money without doing it, but making it personal is an “it” factor that really, really helps. Someone who can write a blog post that brings in emotion, life experience, or lessons he or she has learned is a whole level above most of the other content on Steemit. There is so much information on the Internet; you will help elevate your writing above the pack by making it real.

For some good examples, please see some of the introductions that people make in Steemit under the #introduceyourself tag. These are real and personal. The next chapter has some great tips also.

Writing and Submitting a Post

Submitting a post is as simple as clicking the button near the top right corner of your screen. That will open up a form which asks you to include the proper tags (for example, using the # steem tag anywhere in the test of your post files it in the steem topic - just do not use a space after the # sign), a title, and the body of your post. The first few words of your post’s text will appear in the preview when people see the listing for your post.

For example, this list of hot posts in the law tag shows one of Richard’s articles (an Immigration Law Guide) at the top. The first part of his text appears in the preview. Since Richard always begins his articles with his name and @steemship handle, those appear first along with a few words from the article’s first sentence.

People browsing Steemit will judge your post by its preview. Some will not open your post before they vote, though most will. To ensure that the preview gives people a good impression of the post, be sure that it starts with an impactful first sentence.

Formatting Your Post

As you enter the post information in the submission form, a full preview of your post will appear on the screen below (just scroll down to see it). To make the post as reader-friendly as possible, it is best to add some simple formatting. Pay attention to paragraph breaks and try to use sub-headings for each section. Use bold or italicized text where appropriate. The style editor allows you to utilize any of these as well as add links and images, etc. You can upload images to http://imgsafe.org, which is a reliable host that embeds well on Steemit posts.

You no longer need to use Markdown format, since the style editor is included now on the submission form. But you can use Markdown if you wish. Markdown is a method for formatting your posts. It allows you to make headlines, turn text into bold or italics, and embed images and links into your post.

For example, if I want to write this in italics, then I could do so by adding an asterisk at the beginning and end of the part that I wanted to emphasize. That would look something like write this in italics. On Steemit, when you enter Markdown code into a post, it automatically will trigger the formatting.

For other examples and more advanced formatting possibilities, please click here to see this Github Markdown guide. It includes the above syntax guide and much more. Again, when you put any of these markdown codes into the text of your post on Steemit, they take effect. From the submission form, as you type them in before submitting, you can see what the post will look like from the preview shown.

Writing your post in another software program and then moving it to Steemit

Steemit’s site developers have improved the submission form, which is very user-friendly. Perhaps you will feel comfortable enough to use it for everything. Some of us prefer to write long posts elsewhere first and then copy them into Steemit’s submission form.

If you choose to use another program to write your posts first, there are some various options. You could write using a Word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Another really good method is to use the online editor StackEdit (click here to access it). That will allow you to use markdown and check how it looks before submitting.

The Steemit submission form usually saves anything you have typed in. So if your computer suddenly freezes up or you lose your Internet connection while you are submitting, do not lose hope. Your text and edits should be there when you open the submission form again.

However, it’s always wise to keep a backup copy just in case. Even if you do not use another program to write your post, consider making an outside copy of it before submitting. From the submission form on Steemit, you can just copy and paste it into a file (such as Microsoft Word or your e-mail program) that you can save to your computer, send to yourself, or store on the cloud. Or you could take a screenshot image, which is better than nothing. That way, if anything does go wrong with the submission process, you’ll have a backup copy.

Make More Money Posting

Richard, a.k.a. @steemship, wrote a Steemit article on this subject that was well received. It is entitled “Make More Money Posting: Follow the Success Formulas of Steemit’s Top Posters.” Though outdated, Richard’s suggestions for following successful posters’ formulas for success will always be good advice. You can read that post for free by clicking this link.

Chapter 6: Top Tips for Creating a Popular Post

This chapter began as an article posted on Steemit by co-author Renaud, a.k.a. @cryptoctopus. We have adapted it into a chapter here without changing much. When someone who has sold $3 million worth of Facebook advertising in the last two years gives you advice about creating a popular social media post, it’s best to sit back and listen. Here is his best advice:

1. It’s not about how much you work on your article

Some people get pissed because they work hard on a piece of content and then get very low payout. It's similar to the Marxist idea of the labor theory of value. How much you work as very little to do about how much you are going to be paid. After all, Steemit, work under Subjective Proof of Work, meaning how valuable your content is, is in the eyes of the voters...not you.

2. If the word for real estate is "Location, Location, Location"...

...in the Steem world the word is: "Reputation, Reputation, Reputation". You basically have to build a brand by demonstrating that your contribution is increasing the value of the Steemit.

How does one increase his or her reputation?

There are many ways to do this and you have to use your own skills and talents. Some are just such fantastic writers that they can simply write and have votes pouring on them. If you've read @stellabelle or @donkeypong, you'll know what I mean.

Be courteous whenever you reply to post and add value to the conversation. If you don't like an article, sometime it is better to not comment than to write something negative. You don't want to make enemies who would downvote you in the future. Keep your downvotes for spam not for opinions you don't like. Remember, you are acting on a public unalterable ledger (a blockchain). Whatever you say will remain. Think twice before writing something negative.

I would suggest anyone who's looking to increase his influence and reputation to join Steemit.chat, which contains many discussions channels. Then create connections while following the best tips I've ever heard on how to get what you want:

"If you can help enough people get what they want...you can get anything you want".

Don't go on Steemit.chat to get but to give. Give as much of whatever people on the Slack channel needs and you will never be chasing after votes.

If, for example, you were a French person who would like to do a translation of the whitepaper, create tutorial videos, bring in big bloggers name, etc. You would get my votes for a long time. I would probably even ask you to send me a private message every time you post content so that I can support you.

If you want to know more about how to become more influential and increase your reputation, I would suggest you read my article on the 6 principles of influence here.

3. Make your article irresistible to click on

If you have ever been at the checkout counter waiting in line at the grocery store, I am sure that at least once, you've picked up one of those tabloid magazines. But why? Next time you find yourself in that situation ask yourself that question.

But here are a few queues:

• The image was appealing and peaked your curiosity
• The headline was weird, interesting or shocking.
• The topic interested you

In some way, shape or form, the cover of that magazine stirred up your emotion enough for you to take action. That's the same kind of effect you want when you create a piece of content (if you want to maximize payout). If you do it well enough, people are even going to vote up even before they've read it.

I like to use animation as the first image of my post. It makes my thumbnail stand out from the crowd. Also, I come up with many headlines for the same article and choose the one with the most "humph". People complain about clickbaits as being something negative. It's only negative if the article that follows is low quality and vaguely related to the headline.

In short, you want to have a seamless message. From the thumbnails to the conclusion of your article.

4. Create High Value Content

Like I said above, value is in the eye of the beholder and is completely subjective. But here are a few queues to help you find out what is most valued at any given time.

Pay attention to Trends

Go in the "hot" section and look at what is being upvoted. Look for patterns. Is the "introduceyourself" type of post hot right now? Maybe you should jump on that train since it's an easy one to jump on.

Also, on the Steemit.chat there are many conversations that people have. These can be a great inspiration for topics that are important to the most active members of Steemit.

When you find a topic or trend that is hot, deliver more than anybody else

Let's take the example of an "introduceyourself" post. If you basically drop 3 lines, you probably won't get a big payout. But if you go full out about your life, your dreams, your goals, your experience, your connections along with a picture of yourself...you bet people are going to upvote that!

Format Properly

Your article must be easy to read and pleasing to the eye. At this point in time, steemit.com uses markdown. This basic format was covered in the previous chapter, or you can read this guide to help you liven up your post.

Also, leave plenty of whitespace and make your paragraphs short.

There are many interesting post on this topic already. Make sure to visit the #writing tag for some tips on how to become a better writer.

Practice, Practice, Practice

When I first started my career as an Internet marketer, I started with a blog. I literally blogged every day for more than a year and I only made a few hundred dollars. But what I've learned in the process was much more valuable. I've learned how to write in a way where my readers genuinely feel like I want to help solve their problem.

My focus is outward and I constantly try to examine how the reader would react to my word in a positive way. With practice, you can do it too.

5. Promote your content properly and build a following

I am surprised by how many people have come to Steemit because of my articles. That's because whenever I write a post I believe would interest people outside of Steemit, I promote as far and wide as possible. Many of them now follow my writing and also help build my reputation.
So if I write an article, I want it to:

Rank on the Search Engine
Get picked up by people on social media

If you are here for the long run, once you publish, follow the cheat sheet below.

Upvote Yourself!
Submit to Bing and Google
Ping your post with Pingler
Send an email to your email list if you have one
Pin the image you are using as your thumbnail on Pinterest with this plugin
Craft a smart tweet linking to your blog (use hashtag and tag people when relevant)
Share on your Facebook wall
Submit to Digg
Submit to a related category on Reddit

You can continue to Part 2 here: @donkeypong/announcement-steemit-101-e-book-released-for-free-part-2

Announcement: Steemit 101 e-book released for free (Part 1)