My Curation Experiment: Getting a Brand New Account Into the Top 20 Curators List in Under 1 Week.
Since my last curation post (What I have Learned From Being a Top 10 Curator), I decided to try a little experiment and see if I could get a new account into the top performing curators, and if so how quickly. A major part of this experiment was that this second account was to do one thing only – follow my main account 100%.
I decided to look into this, more for my own informational purposes, after reading many posts from people following some of the more popular curators (NOT necessarily the most successful) and see if, even temporarily, I could outperform these other curation lists.
My New Experimental Account - @naq1
I started a new account @naq1, and seeded it with 500SP. The amount of Steem Power is actually irrelevant, but I wanted enough that the growth was statistically noticeable over a short time period. The key to understand here is this is really measuring the percentage growth of the account. That is the statistic that determines who gets onto the top curators list.
I started this new account on the 28th of January, and initially used AutoSteem to set up an autofollow of my main account @naquoya. This ran very well, and in a future newsletter I will go further into how to use this website for implementing something similar. I eventually set up an account at Streemian, for both of my accounts. I started a trail for the @naquoya account, which is available now should anyone else wish to join it, and set the @naq1 account as its first follower.
So half the week was using AutoSteem and half the week was using Streemian. I did this primarily to understand both services for myself, their strengths and weaknesses. But also I wanted to set up a trail of my own for others to join.
Experiment Results
As you can see from the following images, I was able to get the naq1 account into the top 20 curators list. Both of these images were taken just a few hours ago (3rd February 2017), the Steemdb.com page shows you the daily curation returns, so you can see the daily progress being made here. The Steemwhales.com list shows you the actual position reached when the image snapshot was taken. Both of these sites can be visited in real time to confirm the accuracy of this information.
So by utilising either of the above mentioned autofollow tools, others can now follow my votes, if that is what they wish to do. If you are wanting to increase your curation returns, but also retain some of the voting power for yourself to vote on the posts you like, then I can suggest a percentage allocation – for example 50% - 75% towards the autofollow, and keep the remainder for your personal voting. AutoSteem does not follow comment votes, or downvotes, and Streemian lets you set this aspect up.
Steemdb.com - daily curation returns since account creation
SteemWhales.com - 6 Days to reach Top 20 for @naq1 (the account is not yet a full 7 days old, so the data is only available to view up to 6 days)
Joining My Trail
Now I should mention that I don't expect anyone else will experience these results. This was because @naq1 was the only (or certainly one of the few) followers of my votes. If many start to follow it will lessen this effect. But what I do expect will happen is that many of you will see a doubling, or tripling of your current returns, whilst still being free to vote as you choose with the remaining vote power. I never go below 80% (except the rare couple of times in the last 2 months).
If this is something that interests you then if you have an account at Streemian then I now have a trail there. If not then AutoSteem will work for this also. See @unipsycho for more details on how to go about this, although I will look at having a tutorial on this service in the very near future.
Curation Newsletter
I want to look at a regular curation newsletter, probably on a weekly basis. I think there is a lot of misinformation, and confusion, on how curation works, and how to benefit from it. But also how to utilise it to enhance your Steemit experience. One of the greatest benefits I have received from increasing my curation efforts is the new (or previously unknown to me) accounts I have discovered, as well as the many wonderful articles, stories, poems, and photographs that I encounter on my journey.
In the newsletter I will cover tips, tricks and tutorials, as well put a spotlight on a new account, hidden gem, or regular account. I will also include any relevant curation news.
This Weeks Top Curators
These images show you the top 7 and top 30 curators by % return on their Steem Power. These images are from the last few hours (3rd February 2017).
This Weeks News
And lastly, this week I passed the 500,000 curation score. I remember looking at my score in early November where it was less than 20,000, and wondering how others achieved their results. Well somewhere along the way I worked it out for myself, and now have passed that significant milestone. The curation score is based on “curation rewards per Million Vests”, which is why the number of Vests isn't significant, but the return you get on those Vests is.
My weekly curation returns since joining Steemit in August.
This article is my own work, written for Steemit Image Credit: all images mine, except Curation Wizard which is thanks to @elyaque
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you liked it please give an upvote, and feel free to leave a comment. Follow Me
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Feb 03. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $9.15 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Feb 03 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
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Thank you sir :)
Great work. I will definitely have to look more at my curating!
Thanks @meesterboom, hopefully some of these tips can help.
How do people choose who to follow when curating? Do they just look at the top 20 list on steemwhales?
It depends. Streemian offers a curation trail service, but a curator has to be set up there - which is why I opened an account there this week. If you wanted to follow someone there are 2 things to look out for - 1. the higher on the list the better THEIR results are proven to be, 2. - how many others already follow them? -you can't always know this last one, but you will start to see the results are either good or bad. For example - Biophil is No.1 curator. Has been for a long time. But he is not setup at Streemian and instead offers a paid service (I believe) to follow his bot. So my guess is the list of followers is large - meaning your own return from following him will be diminished.
So when choosing - look at steemwhales for high ranking, and try to find ones with small trail (may take experimenting). My last curation post may also be of help.
Thanks for the reply
What about AutoSteem. Can you pick anyone to follow (eg Biophil)?
Yes, through AutoSteem you can follow anyone. Try it out and see if you are happy with results - but I think you will find there is a lag before your vote is registered, because he has a decent trail already (see point #2 in my previous reply). But it doesn't hurt to experiment with these things and see what result you get.
So the trick is really to find someone on the top 20 list who hasn't got a big following?
To maximise your returns - yes :)
Oh, wow! Congrats on the successful experiment :D I saw @naq1 vote earlier and I immediately thought that it was yours. Great job cracking the top 20 so early in its infancy. I'm sure you're going to be helping a lot of people with this brand new initiative.
Thanks @jedau, I just wanted to see what was possible, given there is virtually no trail currently following me. And I don't particularly need one, but if people are searching for someone to follow, to help their curation returns, then this may be of use to them.
Thanks naquoya for the mention and for your stories of using autosteem. I hope to release version 1.3 tomorrow, which will have a TON of enhancements and capabilities for much more than just auto-voting.
I've actually managed to reach the top 20 currators myself now that I have autosteem filling in my extra voting with copy and advanced voting. One of my techniques is using advanced voting to vote for posts that have more than 6 images, but less than $1 in earnings after 30 minutes. It seems whales like to vote up some of the image posts hours after, not right away, and they like many images, so I've got some good curation from that as well as copying (yourself included). I actually use autosteem to autovote with a lower percentage, but then I can follow MORE people, to keep a regular streem of votes going out.
Here's an example of what browsing your blog looks like in AutoSteem 1.3.
Thats good to hear about the new version on the way. I'm liking the autovote/follow feature, so happy to let others know about it. I have noticed your advance up the curators list, well done, and this goes to prove my point - people can do better when they follow successful curators, as opposed to popular curators. I like your method to, smaller amounts spread around.
Is there something special about waiting for the 30 minute mark?
rewards at 0mins go 100% to author and ramp down to 75% at 30mins, so that remaining 25% for curators, ramps up in that first 30 minutes. However, that is also affected balanced by who votes first, so always a tradeoff incuration, ideally, you would 1 of the first 4 voters on a post at 30minutes to maximize curation profits.
Thanks for that explanation. I thought I was being so smart by voting asap on many posts.
I wil cover this in more depths in future newsletters, as there is an art to timing these matters right. Do you wait until 30 minutes just to watch many others jump in before you? Do you make a trade off and hit the 15 minute mark? When you understand the logic behind it then you can start to strategise.
However, what I would say is, when trying to make curation returns, best not to jump in asap.
Whoa! Those are incredible results. There are weeks where I vote my little heart out, but curation rewards are something that, after some 5 or 6 months, I have yet to fully understand, as far as how to make voting profitable. I think my highest amount of curation rewards was just a couple of weeks ago - at that time, I think I hit between 12 and 15 SP for the week. After seeing your past week payout, I realize that I have A LOT of work to do...
My problem is when do I vote to get the most rewards?!
Following you now, so I don't miss any tips! :)
Yes, I know the feeling of voting your little heart out, and wondering why nothing is happening. I will be talking about curating on a weekly basis, as I think others do lack knowledge of how to do it and be successful. So hopefully I can help you with some tips and tricks.
Following you also, thanks.
I look forward to your posts! I'm eager to learn.
Thanks for the follow. :)
hey, can you tell me more about this? Are you in the Rocketchat or at steemspeak?
Sure, I'm at Steemit.chat, although I don't hang out there often. I have Steemspeak setup on discord, if thats the one you mean.
ok, same username at steemspeak?
can't find you on streemian
edit: found you now, their search function doesn't seem to work
I've noticed that, thanks for persevering.
Hi @naquoya, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads yesterday and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Hey, are your votes all manual? We've been trading back and forth on the steemwhales lists for a while now. Nice work!
The vast majority of my votes have been manual. Although I am experimenting with some more auto voting. But it's a small percentage. And thank you for the compliment, although You've been at the top for most of the time I have tracked that list. A record of consistency I admire.
excellent review - i am also curating more and more but far from this - good advise, will check all out @naquoya
Thank you, I'm glad this has helped. More reviews soon.