Where do I start?! An AWESOME guide to get you started

[zord189]

Fraid Not! This 5 Step Guide will help you

After posting the 'Simplest Guide To Sell SBD for STEEM', many have asked me to do more tutorials on Steemit. A lot of my tutorials will be from my experiences and also the things I've learned the 'hard-way' on Steemit. Nonetheless, I'm happy to share them with you all and hopefully, you will take back something useful from this post and turn into a beautiful butterfly.

Smart people learn from their own mistakes, Smarter people learn from other's mistakes and not do it

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1. Understanding Steemit The Best You Can

Everytime someone new comes to me asking for guidance and help, the first thing I would ask them is, 'Have you read the FAQs'? When I first got into Steemit, I had no one to guide me and no community was known to me yet. I believe some of you reading this are in the same shoes.

OMG! He understands me!

Yes I really do, because what I did next is what you are going to do. Placed in the top right hand corner, there is a drop-down menu. Click that drop-down menu and you are greeted with a navigation tab. Proceed to click 'FAQ' but because I love you all so much, you can just click this.

FAQ HERE!!!

Read through the FAQ and try your very best to understand the basic terms and lingos used in Steemit. If you have further questions, my following steps will guide you on how u can cry for help

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2. Be Part of a Community

Steemit is a people-centric platform, same like any other social media platform. You need to engage with people, create friendships and even start something of your own. But you can't do all this, without a community behind you. You may think that you just come on to Steemit to blog and earn some side income, you don't want to socialize. Yes u can do that, but I'm talking to those who want to take Steemit to the next level. Cause truth be told, no one will see your posts where as in a community, there will be members supporting you and giving you advices and tips on how to do better.

You can start with one community first, where you actually engage the members inside and build networks. Here are some of the communities I am in.

Team Malaysia

A Malaysian community of Steemians.

Only for Steemians who lives in Malaysia. #teammalaysia

Discord Link : https://discordapp.com/invite/9duHqQG

Steemit Bloggers

Do you consider yourself a 'QUALITY STEEMIT BLOGGER'. If you do, this is the community that will help you learn & grow. With support from all members, you can take your blogging to the next level.

Discord Link : https://discord.gg/gRypnga

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These are just a few communities that I joined. IF you have a country's community like #teammalaysia. I strongly advise you to join it. What better support than your homeland buddies.

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3. Drafting a Post/Find your Niche

Many times, a lot of new Steemians come into Steemit with the wish of just posting whatever and whenever they like. Without proper focus, goal or strategy. Mostly by the lines of 'I will post things about life or things that just come to me'. You can definitely do that because there are no rules about what you should or should not post. My advise here is this, if you want to go somewhere on Steemit, you

Need to find a Niche

Work on your Strengths and not on what you're bad(weaknesses) at and 'want to improve'. You can work on your weaknesses when you're further down the road. Right now, it's all about building a strong foundational presence.

There are still a lot of niches to be covered on Steemit, now that's your homework to find out. For a headstart, we need more dancing videos. You get the drift.

When I first started Steemit, I thought that I could do photography and animation. After looking at the niche market of photography, there is no way I'm going to be the one that's prominent in this field. Hence I switched to animation which was what I'm good at. The downside about animation niche is that it takes a lot of time to create an animation, could take days to weeks to months. It is not so efficient on Steemit having only 1 payout per month. After a few trial and errors, I found out that the people of Steemit needed someone who was able to design good banners, GIFs and videos for them. And Thus, I found my niche.

Some of the profile banners I've designed for amazing Steemians

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No. 4 Dos and Donts

Do to be awesome

• Reply comments on your post ASAP.
• Engage with other authors in their articles
• Give quality comments
• Upvote Steemians who comment on your post. Your VP is not that important now because your Steem Power is low. So be very generous.
• Give more than you take in support.
• For your post to be of quality, make sure they have no less than 3 photos & 700 words.

Don't be less awesome

• Hold your upvotes thinking they're worth a thousand USD. Be generous
• Beg other people to upvote/follow/resteem your posts.
• Bad & short commenting.
• Ask people to look at your post.
• No single image posting without any words.

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No. 5 Basic layout and title

Keep your post consistent in its layout and title. For example, if you are doing a post on cooking. You may use titles like Food for thought, Kitchen-works, Foodie etc. This would allow your readers to quickly identify the post's niche.

Also, if you're planning to do a series of a certain topic, you may use title like this.

#01 Photography
#02 Photography
#03 Photography

Having a footer is great too, it doesn't have to end with an image footer. But I would recommend your footer to have images/banners so it looks good.

Things you can include in your post footer

1. Links to your previous posts.
2. Your vision/purpose/how/why you join Steemit.
3. A shoutout to another Steemian.
4. A community logo/banner that you're involved in.

Note that the footer must be consistent in every post you write

The 5 Important Post Tags

When you've finished your post, you may be clueless on what tags to use. Well, fear no more! Your first tag is the main category tag and it cannot be edited once you've submitted your post. The other 4 tags eventhough they can be edited, it is still important that you use the right ones.

Use trending tags

How do I know if it's a trending tag? Simple, go to the 'trending' tab at the top left-hand corner of Steemit site and you can see all the popular tags on the left bar. Do not use tags that you create yourself, cause no one would look at it.

Note that there are some specific tags like #teammalaysia that is ONLY available for members of #teammalaysia. Upon abusing the tag, #teammalaysia will flag/downvote you.

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I hope that you've found something useful here that might help you in your Steemit Journey. There are plenty of other guides out there and there are many more things that I can explain to you but here are the few basics you should grasp.

GIFs taken from www.giphy.com

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Thank You

If you like what I do, check out my other posts on my artworks, photography & animations.

I'm also open for

Personalized Steemit Profile Banner,logos & GIFs

DM me on discord : zord189#7776

Credits to @pinstory & @coloringiship for this lovely photo of me.

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CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE STEEMIT BLOGGERS ON DISCORD

Animated Banner Created By @zord189

Comments

[jasonshick]

Decent guide for new users. We all need to do our part to make the community strong and help it grow. Happy holidays and all the best in 2018

[zord189]

Thanks man! Happy holidays to you too!!

[branlee87]

Always the wonderful mentor!

[zord189]

Thank you :)

[calebleejl]

master sifu

[superoo7]

Really helpful. Will share this with my friends who are new to steemit. I was tired of talking to them about how to get write a good blog post.

[zord189]

Haha glad it made ur life easier! :)

[traciyork]

Humorous and helpful - two of my favorite things! This is a great guide (and I'm amazed by how much of it I already knew - LOL!). I've bookmarked this to share with everyone that I plan to bring over to this platform - thanks so much, @zord189!

[zord189]

Hehe! Thanks @traciyork! Glad this post can help the basic necessities of Steemit.

[hanbun]

I didn't even know half of the staff in the do's and dont's section. Really good stuff for us noobs to know. Thanks a bunch as always for sharing your knowledge!

[zord189]

You're welcome @hanbun! :)

[calebleejl]

right! he's really the master

[amarbir]

Fear not!!! Bro. Anyways awe-some article Mega-zord bro. 🍌🍌🍌

[zord189]

Fear not, fraid not.

[amarbir]

Yup.

[livinguktaiwan]

I think there should be a beginners or newbies tag, would make life so much easier for newbies

[zord189]

That's true. It would be good. But I heard the tags would disappear after 7 days

[nirgf]

An excellent guide, can help a lot of new people,
You're a good person who helps others to succeed - well done dear friend.
I appreciate your investment in our community.

[zord189]

Thank you for your kind words bro. :)

[jamesub]

You have really opened my eyes to the benefits of being in a community

[zord189]

Glad it helped

[kimzwarch]

This is insightful bro. Still working on my footer haha..

[zord189]

Haha, quick get it out!

[kimzwarch]

Right away mate!

[lhecenam]

I liked your posts❤

Upvoted by @lhecenam check my blog if you want

[phgnomo]

Use trending tags

While good idea, would be good to add that people should avoid TAG spam (out of context tags) or they May be target of @steemcleaners.

Also How much you charge to design a banner?

[zord189]

That's true! Thanks for this important tip! Oo I charge, 5-10 steem.

[pennsif]

Good solid advice there.

[zord189]

Thank you :)

[calebleejl]

oh my! this is amazing! need to bookmark this page!

[zord189]

Hehe, glad I can help

[mountainwashere]

I still love that banner you made me, thanks again!

[zord189]

Hahaha!!! Ur very welcome bro! Keep 'rock'ing it out.

[suzayn17]

Helpful !!

[zord189]

Glad it helped!

[anamarena]

TY, Mr.@zord189 I would add your tips to "White paper" doc if I could.

Having analyzed some successful profiles, I realized that it is necessary to specialize my niche. Still in search, but glad that have read the same idea from the person with more experience.

[zord189]

Having a niche is VERY important!! It's okay, take ur time to find one. It took me a month to nail down my niche on Steemit. :) Glad you found this useful

[tngflx]

Great advice you have there! :)

[roselifecoach]

Your post came at the right time, I've been cracking my head on how to centralize the subtitle at the same time bold and bigger, like how you did with your 1-5 title? Many thanks in advance!

[zord189]

I can't show the code here. Maybe on fb if u dm me I can.

[roselifecoach]

I will, thanks in advance.
Happy New year too!

[mountainwashere]

Don't know if you saw this competition, its right up your alley!

https://steemit.com/contest/@qurator/qurator-needs-a-banner-design-competition-40-steem-up-for-grabs

[zord189]

Haha, thanks bro! I haven't seen this competition but last night, a friend was telling me about it. :)

[penston]

I’ve come to realise that a thumbnail picture that shows a face expressing a strong emotion makes people more likely to click on a post.

Maybe funny cat photos have a place on Steemit after all.

[zord189]

That is true! It feels almost click-bait-ish. Haha, maybe the title can go like '5 things to do on Steemit, NO 4 IS A SHOCKER!'. Hahaha

[penston]

I saw a post yesterday which claimed to be a top 10 places to see in Pakistan post. They showed a few photos of trees and then didn't list a top 10. They should have put "shocker" in the title.

[zord189]

Hahaha, click-bait works! :D Either that or a really pretty girl.

[thesteemengine]

Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!

You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue #4 (1/1/18)

The STEEM Engine is an initiative dedicated to promoting meaningful engagement across Steemit. Find out more about us and join us today!

[insideoutlet]

Being a newbie I have seen many help posts but none quite like this one. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for taking the time to share your initial learning so we don't have to make the same errors.

[drayhazz]

I'm new here and have been finding it very difficult to know how it works around here but I couldn't, with this post now I now know few things and am also getting to know how it works around here. This post is really useful to me. Thanks a lot.

[zord189]

Ur welcome :) Glad it helped you

[stephhchia]

This helps so much! Thank you!! :) #thisisgettingserious

[zord189]

ur welcome :D

[karinzdailygrind]

Thanks for sharing this @zord189. I'm guilty of procrastinating on the footer part. Need to start cracking on it

[zord189]

yes yes! footer looks more professional :D

[carmenraec]

Just came about this post and find it helpful ! Yes I read all the FAQ even before i decide to join.. but then hor, i am still quite lost hahaha.. i guess i will learn the ropes and guidance along the way.. just like today, i didn't even know I need to Redeem Steem .. baru i learn. haha

[zord189]

Haha, it's okay, we all started somewhere. Do come join our discord more often and u can dm or ask the seniors there for advice and guidance. They'll help one

[carmenraec]

rightt.. that's another thing i wanna ask u about.. what is this discord thing about yeah? a channel, a website or a chatroom? there has been so many techie words since i join steemit, sorry if i ask too much! but then thanks for answering them haha

[zord189]

No worries, um. discord is like s standalone software like skype. It is usually used for gamers but a lot of Steemit community is built using discord. Means the members use discord to chat and meetup. Come join our teammalaysia, discord, but remember to sign up first ya.

Discord : https://discord.gg/2KuESkH

[carmenraec]

I think i just joined yesterday through @elizacheng tutorials on upvote. Now let me find teammalaysia :)