Curation is by far the most difficult topic to come to grasps with on Steemit. This is also true for those who have been around on the platform for some time. Curation and its rewards can be a bit difficult to understand but knowing the concept really helps and you can increase your earnings when you comprehend it better.
What is Curation?
Curation is where you find good posts to upvote on, thereby rewarding the author but also creating curation rewards for yourself payable in Steem. The basic concept that curation is built on is that the early bird catches the work that is, the earlier you vote the higher will be your reward. But there are more details that you may need to understand.
The authors rewards accrue in the first 30 minutes after a new post's publication. While the immediate rewards after the post is published goes to the author it reduces in amount towards the 30-minute mark. After 30 minutes the curators get the curation rewards divided among themselves. The total allocation for curation rewards is 25% in each post.
Deciding Factors
The amount of Steem Power also counts when the rewards are allocated. The greater the SP the more the rewards. That is the reason why curation is a highly rewarding activity for anyone with a high Steem Power. High powered Steemit users can easily earn 500 to 1000 SP a week solely by curating content.
There are many whales who practice this and never need to create a blog post to earn Steem, if they don't wish to. Investing in Steem, especially in larger amounts, is worth it for this reason alone.
Voting weight is also a factor deciding the amount of curation rewards. Lower voting weight results in decreased rewards. This is because the voting power determines the amount of the upvote which in turn affects the curation reward.
Ideally a voter who upvotes at 30 minutes after the post was published gets the entire 25% but this is usually not the case. There are many other upvotes and the reward is distributed among them according to various factors like SP and voting weight.
The most common technique for curation is to vote after 30 minutes on posts that are good quality and will be voted upon by many people after your upvote. If you're the first to vote you will be in line for the maximum reward but there are also other factors. Your SP should also be substantial as well as your voting weight.
It is highly advisable to accumulate Steem in Steem Power so that the voting power is always higher than the average vote. Also keeping your voting weight at 80% and above will ensure that you have a good amount in your upvotes which in turn will result in higher rewards.
Looking at it from a practical point of view you could vote on a popular post within the first 30 minutes more towards the end of the time window. Without waiting for 30 minutes to get over you could vote between 20 and 30 minutes if many others have voted for the post. If you do have a good SP and voting weight you will still pull in a bulk of the rewards that are available.
Looking at another scenario, if you vote too early on a post you will not be able to maximize your curation rewards. At the same time if quite a few people have voted on the post in the first few minutes and you vote after them you will again be behind them in the order that rewards are allocated.
To make it confusing your voting weight and SP play a big role so you might end up with the largest reward among all the upvotes on sheer might alone. So the best person to judge when to upvote a post for the best curation rewards is you.
The Best Strategy
If you are good at spotting new posts which will become popular and will receive many more upvotes, have a good SP and voting weight you can earn well through curation. Even if you don't have a high SP it is always good to upvote high quality posts and encourage authors, while earning a small reward for it - small amounts add up in the end.
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