- Download, compile, configure, and run the node. You can get it here: https://github.com/steemit/steem
- Join the #witness channel on steemit.chat. You can get help there with configuration issues, advice on hardware, hosting, etc.
- Make a post announcing your witness and link it to your witness account using the update_witness command in the CLI
- Vote to approve yourself as a witness using the vote_for_witness CLI command.
- Set up a price feed script, or commit to updating the feed manually using the publish_feed CLI command
At this point you are now a witness, although you will be low on the list and won't get to sign many blocks (depending on your SP it may take hours, days or weeks to sign your first). To move up the list you will need to get others to approve you. The more SP you have approving you, the higher you go on the list and the more blocks you get to sign. The top 19 sign dramatically more than the rest.
Thank you, this answer should be a post by itself i believe. I guess it will be difficult to join the top 19. I'm running a web company and i could put some devs and servers up to the task, but i can't invest much if i don't have any return on investment, at least to pay the expenses. Witnesses are paid in Steem, let's say you don't make it to the top, any idea of how much are we talking here ? Just to run some numbers and calculations to see if i can allocate resources to this. Thanks.
The higher ranked alternates probably sign a few blocks per hour (reward per block is 1 SP) but I haven't looked at the detailed calculations. For the very highest of the alternates (say ranks 20-25), they will sometimes enter and leave the top 19 due to changing votes, top 19 witness downtime, etc. so their rate of earnings is higher; between ranks 15 and 25 there is somewhat of a blend between the earnings of a primary witness and a backup (and especially between, say, 18-22).
It seems like witnesses also do some kind of work for the community, i guess to earn votes on the witnesses list. Some are doing marketing, others are coding.
@najoh Earn votes yes, but also to improve the value of our investment. One of the effects of paying witnesses well and paying in SP (witnesses receive no liquid pay at all) is that all become major stakeholders over time whether they started out as such or not, which aligns incentives to work toward Steem/it being a success.