What I Have Learned From Being a Top 10 Curator
Over the last few months I have been learning the art of curating, and for most of the time since early November have been in the top 10 on both the 7 day list and 30 day list. I temporarily hit the top spot (for all of a few hours!) in early December. But curating being what it is, I slipped from there quickly, as others either adapted their strategies, or had better luck than they had been having. As such I have learned to also adapt my strategy as I have progressed.
I wanted to write down what I have learned as a result of this experience, particularly sharing the tools I use which I have found useful. I will touch briefly on strategy, but wont give my own specific one. I will instead talk about how to develop one, based on what really is (or should be) common knowledge within the curation field.
I have recently read a few posts lamenting the lack of decent curation rewards from following other so-called expert curators through the auto vote services available. I don't access any of those services, so I can't comment on them as my knowledge of them is just guess work. But what seems to be happening is people are looking for the popular curators there and following them, making the error of assuming large numbers bring higher rewards. I have found the opposite to be the case. If there are already lots of others on the curation list and you join, then you will be down the list, and you will see just a small fraction of what those higher up the list receive. I have noticed this as I have been studying the vote lists on various posts, and their returns, and trying to come to my own understanding of the dynamics involved in this.
Auto Curating
One website I use everyday in my curation is www.steemwhales.com. If you click the down arrow next to the Trending list at the top of the page, you will see “7 days Curators” and 30 days Curators”. Click on 7 and take a look at the list. This is the most successful curators based on percentage return on their Steem Power. These are the curators to look at following. There are people on this list that have NO curation trail. Yet they are proven money makers. I would look at this list if you are intent on sticking to the auto voting method, and find one of these to follow, that doesn't have a list already. Don't just follow the herd, but search out and try to develop some way to be unique.
Another website I have found to be useful is autosteem.learnthis.ca, from @unipsycho. He has expanded this site in the last week, so there are several ways you can autovote. I use this to help me vote on authors I like when I am not at my computer.
One method that people could learn and apply rather easily is one I noticed through studying the successful authors and the curation lists they seem to attract. The lists seem to swarm to those who consistently get payouts of $25 or more, yet fail to notice the ones that consistently receive payouts of $5 - $10. Yet in my experience I receive more payouts from the lower rewarded posts, because I was able to get into them before the crowds arrived. On the higher payout posts even getting in at the 15 minute mark (and giving up half my curation reward) there could be as many as 100 votes already received. This is not a good strategy for successful curation. I am sharing this method as I rarely use it now, but if understood and applied correctly you will do far better than just blindly following others. The trick is to take the time to study and observe the authors who are regularly successful and take into consideration how many votes they get, when they get them, and apply a strategy around that data.
Manual Curating
Having said that though, I believe the way to be truly unique is to develop your own curating method and do so manually. Understandably not everyone can devote the time to this, which is why I gave the above advice. But if you can then that is where the highest rewards will come.
@inertia recently wrote a post which I believe sums up the secret to developing a successful curation strategy. In his post he listed 3 rules:
- Given the post has not yet reached 10 votes.
- When the post is older than 30 minutes.
- Then vote, if it's good content.
Now this is rudimentary, but also to the point. A successful strategy can be developed, over time, just on these rules. My own one is not too dissimilar to this. The key is point 3. The first two will ensure a high reward, but it wont get any reward if its not good enough to receive votes from others. I am not as concerned whether it is 10 votes, or 30 votes, but preferably no more. But what I have found is the current reward counts also. You could have 5 votes, but $1, and that to me will not return a good reward. So low current reward is also a factor to consider.
My Curation Philosophy
Basically my curation philosophy is I am betting on which posts I believe the Whales will vote on. I use the New page as a form guide to find posts that fit the criteria, then look for the posts that will ensure a high return, should they be voted on. This takes work, and doesn't guarantee success, although my position on the Curators list shows that it has produced a decent level of success to this point. Over time I think you will get a feel for picking good posts early enough.
I also comment on many of the posts I vote on. By voting manually I get the chance to view the post, and interact with the author. I don't do this on all of the posts, but whether curating for profit, or to reward posts and authors I like, I try to interact and comment if I have something to say.
My Follow List
Although this post primarily deals with curating for profit, I make sure to allocate votes for those who I follow, and those who have supported me in the past. I do try to maximise my return from these, but that isn't the main criteria for these posts. I think this is important. I use AutoSteem from @unipsycho to help ensure I don't miss any of these posts as often they are posted when I am not at my computer. When this does happen I use the list provided to see who was voted on so as to follow up, read them, and if need be make a comment.
Tools I use in my Curating
Steemwhales.com – curation lists
As you can see from the image (snap shot from several hours ago (24/1/2017) I am currently at #3 on the 7 day list. It can fluctuate, but generally I have remained in the top 10 for 90% of the time since entering it.
This list gives you the most successful curators.
steemstats.com – to follow the posts I have voted on, and keep an eye on my Voting Power.
Enter your name into the empty field at the top left and you will see your information. This is where you can keep an eye on your Voting Power. Mine is showing here at just under 80%, although my preference is to keep it above that level.
This image shows the right side of the page from steemstats.com. It is the stats related to some of the posts I have voted on. There is a percentage field, which will be higher if I managed to get in early before many others. The stat next to it is my potential curation reward for that post.
Steemdb.com – view my curation rewards stats and compare them over time.
The above link will take you to my page on the steemdb curation page. Just change my name to yours in the address bar to see your data. The page will look the following image.
Here you can track your curation reward progress visually. You can also see your Voting Power, the amount of vests you have (based on your Steem Power), and number of followers.
Steemd.com – view account activity.
Just add your username including @ to the end of the above address to see your specific data.
Autosteem
Very useful auto curation tool.
All writing and images are my own work, exclusive to Steemit - except the 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
Although all I do is make noise on people's posts, curating might be something interesting to look at.
So far I've made a whooping 0.004 SP from my curation efforts 😃 (I'm only four days old).
I'll go try AutoSteem as a reward to my followers 😊.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing.
You're doing better than me. I made about 0.002 in the first 2 weeks. I din't do much for about the first 3 months here, as I didn't have much SP or know how. Eventually I started to figure it out. Thanks for commenting.
Encouraging words 😊
Thank you.
So after two hours, I still can't setup autosteem correctly. Any help?
Take a look at this post https://steemit.com/steemit/@unipsycho/announcing-autosteem-an-automation-tool-for-voting-curating-and-browsing-steemit
If you are still having problems send me a DM on steemit.chat, I'll see if I can help.
Thanks naquoya for offering to help, that's awesome! smalltalk, you can message me on steemitchat as well, so I can help. What isn't working for you?
Thanks @unipsycho. Happy to help. It's been a helpful part of my curating, so just paying it forward, so to speak.
Thanks @naquoya
After reading the post, I realized I set up everything well and the issue I am having is keeping it running in my browser. I'm on mobile 99% of the time and I guess once i'm out of the browser app or maybe tab, autosteem would stop working. I get to miss out on some posts that way.
Could there be a way to keep it on autopilot throughout?
@smalltalk - I can't reply yo your last comment - AutoSteem only works when the browser is open. This is a deliberate security feature, so that no server needs to hold your posting key. This is what I like about it, although as you have noticed it won't work when the browser is closed. Steemian (I think this is what it is called) is the service most use for curation trails. It works all the time, but the downside is you give them your posting key and it is stored on their server. Most don't seem to mind this, but I have been reluctant to try it. I may look into it though as a future experiment.
Yes. It's Streemian but i'm yet to find the capabilities of AutoSteem on there. You only get to "copy vote" whoever's trail your following.
I'll check it out more though. Thanks for all the help 😊
No thats right, it's only for joining curating trails, so the functionality isn't the same as AutoSteem.
I was looking into it but they want my active key not the posting key. I know many trust Steemian, but I'm sorry I think my active key should not be needed. I started using the SteemVoter, and it only needs the posting key!
Must be the reason why I never used their service. I too am very hesitant to give the active key out.
FYI: There is a problem with the link when using "https."
Well spotted. Thanks for letting me know.
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Jan 24. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $9.48 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jan 24 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Thanks for the information.
Follow you :-)
Many thanks. I would also follow you, but I already was :)
Fantastic post! Very detailed and insightful. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment. I tried to be as detailed as possible, whilst still keeping some things hidden! Hopefully people can apply something useful from reading this.
Nice post @naquoya I didn't realize you were killing it in the curation game :) awesome tips and tricks and great philosophy
Thanks :) Yes I have been secretly building my curation empire! I didn't know what I was doing for a while so I was just playing a game with it. Eventually I learnt the things I posted about above, so thought to share some tips here. Hopefully people can take something away from this and learn and earn a little bit more.
With my schedule, I still haven't been able to focus on curation but I'm slowly cobbling together a strategy too. I gave autosteem a shot but that first iteration had a couple issues and then it was fixed but I found I had no strategy. It can be super intimidating but this gave me motivation. Thanks for th value add ;)
Yes the AutoSteem took me a little while but I perservered. Now it has extra features. I like it, as an extra tool when not at the computer. Let me know if you need any help with it. The schedule is the other important factor. I have a lot of spare time of late, but that wont always be the case. Automation tools can help somewhat in those times.
We watch what we know.
Greate post i learn many things from this.
Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that.
Thanks for sharing this! I've been thinking about the best way to curate lately, so this came just in time :D
Glad to hear. Should be some good tips here to get you started.
Very interesting! So far I never thought about any curating system (above all I see writing here as hobby for fun), but I will save your article and read it more thoroughly when I have time. Thanks again! :)
Writing for fun or as a hobby is still important to me, and I would encourage you to keep doing this. I actually got into curating in an effort to better understand the system here and possibly help me with my writing. So yes I try to be both author and curator.
I'm glad that there is a successful curation method that isn't all about the money magnet effect. I was afraid of curation would lose it's purpose if all the curators go for established authors as it seems. That would prove that curating don't give value on long term. But your method shows that one could earn more with "real" curating, and that's great news!
Commenting your thoughts could mean a lot to authors who feel no one read them and "there are no real people here".
Side info: I've found you at Promotion tab.
Curating y only voting the successful authors was actually my least successful method. Everyone else is doing ths so there is too much traffic already. There is far more quality material out there, so it is good to find these, and as you say, comment and interaction is helpful to the author also. This is the benefit of manual curating.
Grate , following you :)
Thank you :)
Thank you, I have been wanting to learn about curating better. Just have not been able to find the time. This seems like it will help, I'm sure your SP being much more than mine helps, but just looking at your Steemdb seems anyone should be able to pretty good just curating!
Yes more SP will bring in more rewards, if you curate well, but don't let that bother you. Look more to what percentage return are you getting. I know biophil who is usually #1 curator has less than half what I have. But when you are that consistent your total SP will build quickly enough.
That is good news. I checked both 30 days and 7 days I'm sitting high 600 So looks to me like I'm on the right track with plenty of possibility to improve. Thanks for the starting tips, now I have a better idea of where to go from here.
Excellent. Best of luck to you :)
Thank you!
Hi @naquoya, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads today/yesterday and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Thanks @shadowspub, very happy to hear that you enjoyed the article.
Why cant I resteem this post? Is it cause its too old?
Thanks for your interest in this post. Unfortunately none of this data holds true anymore. OK, the websites do, but the strategy doesn't. There have been big changes to the rules here at Steemit.
Probably still some good points in there, may need to reread it myself :)
And perhaps the Resteem doesn't work also because of the age. Not sure.
Ok got it thanks!
Hi! I’m brand new :) https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@thefirstnoel/hello
Okay, now I know more how curating works... and some tools to do it too.
Great content but please dont do this things as this will destroy the platform.
Abusing the system mean its going to loose its value.