Sine the last post about basic features of the Steemit platform was so well received, I decided to continue. Today, we're going to talk about another topic which is extremely popular: how (and why) do you get paid?

For What Am I Getting Paid In The Steemit Platform?

You can get paid for writing articles, comments and for upvoting (curating) other articles or comments.

If I Write Something And Nobody Votes It, Am I Still Getting Paid?

Nope. It means nobody found your content worthy of attention. You get rewards only when somebody upvotes your content.

In What Currency Am I Getting Paid? I See A "$" Sign Near My Rewards Number

You're getting paid in a combination of 2 currencies and 2 types of storage. Let me explain:

the currencies are:

-- STEEM, which is a currency produced by the Steem blockchain, the same way the Bitcoin blockchain produces Bitcoin
-- Steem Backed Dollars (SBD), which is a smart contract on the Steem blockchain, intended at creating a peg between the USD and the Steem. In other words, SBD is "1USD worth of STEEM". That means one SBD should always worth one US Dollar. Lately, the peg was broken, because SBD is in high demand, so right now one SBD trades at around $2.

the storages are:

-- liquid currencies: your Steem and SBD balances are liquid, meaning you can transfer and transact them immediately
-- vested currencies, namely Steem Power. Think of Steem Power like some sort of a deposit which blocks your Steem in a special account, from which you can take it back only by powering down (see below).

You see the "$" sign because the conversion is done automatically by the platform.

What Is Powering Down?

Powering down is a process of withdrawing your Steem Power from the vesting storage to your liquid storage, in 13 equal weekly payments. So if you have 13,000 Steem Power and start powering down, you will get, each week, into your Steem wallet, 1000 Steem, for 13 weeks in a row.

Why Is It This Steem Power Good For?

Steem Power influences the power of votes in the Steem Platform. When you vote an article or a comment, you take a specific part of the reward pool and allocate it to that content, based on how much Steem Power you have.

Is That All?

Nope, when you vote, you're also eligible for a curation reward. The rewards a post receives are split into author rewards (going to the author of the post) and curation rewards (going to the voters and distributed based on the amount of Steem Power they have at the moment of voting).

How New Steem Is Generated?

By inflation. Just like any other token minted by a blockchain, Steem has a fixed inflation rate which "prints" (or generates) new coins every day. This inflation is the reward pool.

How Is The Reward Pool Organized? Everything Is For Writers?

Nope. Only 75% is for writers (and curators). 15% is distributed to witnesses, for maintaining the network, and 10% is allocated as interest for the Steem Power holders.

How Big Is The Reward Pool?

Roughly, every day around 43,000 Steem are allocated to the authors. When Steem was trading at $0.16, that meant a total of $6,880 / day. Now, when Steem trades at $2.3, that means $98,900 (almost $100k / day).

How Long Does It Take To Cash Out For A Post?

Around 7 days. During this time window, your post is "open" meaning it can accumulate or lose rewards based on the upvotes/ downvotes it receives.

Are the Rewards Displayed Guaranteed?

Since during the 7 days window everybody can upvote / downvote your post, nothing is set in stone. No reward is guaranteed until the blockchain actually is disbursing the rewards in your wallet.

What Are Minnows, Dolphins and Whales?

These are names (specific not only to the Steemit platform, but common in other blockchains as well) designating the worth of a specific account. At the current values, a minnow will be somebody holding a few hundreds dollars worth of Steem, a dolphin will be somebody holding anything between thousands and tens of thousands dollars worth of Steem and whales within hundreds of thousands and millions dollars worth of Steem.

How Much Does It Costs To Transfer STEEM From One Account To Another?

Zero. There are no transfer fees between Steem accounts.

How Long Does It Takes From A Transfer To Clear?

It's instant.

Is Writing The Only Way To Get Steem / SBD?

Nope. Steem / SBD are traded on popular exchanges like Poloniex and Bittrex. But it might be cheaper to get them by writing. If you write good content, and other people are upvoting you, obviously.

Steemit Newbie FAQ - Rewards: Were Does The Money Come From?