![My Steemit Curation Reward Experiment](https://s8.postimg.cc/frd3cj5bp/steem-juliak.jpg) Creative Common with attribution, by @juliakponsford

This post is a little experiment of mine on getting the best out of Steemit Curation Reward system. I agree that Steemit Curation system should be focused as a way to reward other worthy users and not focused on profit. However, for this experiment, I’ll try to take the selfish point of view on how to get the most profit out of it.

# Background story of my experiment

I was lucky enough to get the 1,000 SP delegation from Minnow Support Project’s Make A Minnow (MSP MAM) program last May . It’s a project from MSP leadership (organized by @juliakponsford, @clayboyn, and @eturnerx) to reward people who have been helping others inside MSP. I didn’t record my Steem Power back then, but I think it’s around 150 Steem Power. With an additional 1,000 SP, it’s like having six (6) times more of Steem Power. This experiment was my way of trying to get an answer of, “Will I get six (6) times of Curation Rewards if I have six (6) times more of Steem Power?” After all, the only way to monetize a delegation is through curation.

# Steemit curation reward 101 beginner’s guide

Curation is a way for Steemit users to give appreciation to other users. In return, when you give an upvote, you get a curation reward. How big the curation reward you get back is counted by a complicated formula. Well, at least it’s complicated for me. :D The easiest thing to remember about Curation Reward is, the earlier you upvote a popular post compared to other users, the bigger your reward is.

Without further ado, here’s my curation reward analysis: - I get an average of 10% of the Steem value that I gave. For example, if I upvoted a post with 0.500 Steem I usually get back an average of 0.050 Steem. - For the length of 30 days, I got a total of 8.03 Steem. Which means around 0.8% monthly or 9.64% yearly. Quite a nice investment return for those wanting to invest. - I got a minimum 0.15 Steem for the curation reward. Maximum 0.54 Steem and an average of 0.27 Steem

| | | |-|-| | 2018-05-13 | 0.1 | | 2018-05-14 | 0.05 | | 2018-05-15 | 0.04 | | 2018-05-16 | 0.1 | | 2018-05-17 | 0.13 | | 2018-05-18 | 0.03 | | 2018-05-19 | 0.09 | | | | | min | 0.03 | | max | 0.13 | | avg | 0.08 | | sum | 0.54 |

Start of delegation, before rewards
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After the delegation ended.
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| | | |-|-| | 2018-06-17 | 0.27 | | 2018-06-18 | 0.19 | | 2018-06-19 | 0.04 | | 2018-06-20 | 0.03 | | 2018-06-21 | 0.02 | | 2018-06-22 | 0.02 | | 2018-06-23 | 0.01 | | | | | min | 0.01 | | max | 0.27 | | avg | 0.08 | | sum | 0.58 |

## Delegation Rewards, week 1-4

| | | |-|-| | 2018-05-20 | 0.25 | | 2018-05-21 | 0.2 | | 2018-05-22 | 0.27 | | 2018-05-23 | 0.26 | | 2018-05-24 | 0.4 | | 2018-05-25 | 0.36 | | 2018-05-26 | 0.21 | | | | | min | 0.2 | | max | 0.4 | | avg | 0.28 | | sum | 1.95 |

| | | |-|-| | 2018-05-27 | 0.51 | | 2018-05-28 | 0.31 | | 2018-05-29 | 0.27 | | 2018-05-30 | 0.34 | | 2018-05-31 | 0.54 | | 2018-06-01 | 0.29 | | 2018-06-02 | 0.16 | | | | | min | 0.16 | | max | 0.54 | | avg | 0.35 | | sum | 2.42 |

| | | |-|-| | 2018-06-03 | 0.15 | | 2018-06-04 | 0.17 | | 2018-06-05 | 0.2 | | 2018-06-06 | 0.17 | | 2018-06-07 | 0.42 | | 2018-06-08 | 0.15 | | 2018-06-09 | 0.28 | | | | | min | 0.15 | | max | 0.42 | | avg | 0.22 | | sum | 1.54 |

| | | |-|-| | 2018-06-10 | 0.27 | | 2018-06-11 | 0.24 | | 2018-06-12 | 0.21 | | 2018-06-13 | 0.16 | | 2018-06-14 | 0.23 | | 2018-06-15 | 0.4 | | 2018-06-16 | 0.15 | | | | | min | 0.15 | | max | 0.4 | | avg | 0.24 | | sum | 1.66 |

# Variable 1 - Price of Steem

Steemit curation/upvote is based on Vest unit. The price may vary, but the Vest unit is fixed once you’ve clicked the upvote button. Thus, within the seven (7) days waiting period between the time you’ve clicked the upvote button until you get the curation reward, you may get higher / lower reward.

# Variable 2 - Whom to vote?

As the main premise of Curation Reward system is to reward those who found great post earlier, whom to vote is a deciding matter. In my experiment, posts from big-rep users with lots of upvotes usually perform poorly in giving reward compared to those with a smaller number of upvotes. This is because the reward for a post is divided among all who have upvoted it. The more people, the smaller the pie.

# Variable 3 - Self-vote

While on the subject of whom to vote, why not we discuss self-vote. Yes, it's on the gray area, some call it unethical actions. However, as long as Steemit allows it via its code, there will be people who do self-vote. The question would be, would doing self-vote increase the curation reward significantly?

In my experiment, my self-vote doesn't really give special/significant rewards. I got less than 10% of any voting power I gave. Which means my self-vote was actually below average. It would be better for me to use the same voting power to other users.

Also, as mentioned by @carlgnash and @tcpolymath, with HF20, users with lots of Steem Power will get lower rewards from self-vote. Further information on self-vote on HF20 can be read at Carlgnash’s article here and Tcpolymath’s article here.

# Variable 4 - Voting percentage per user

I saw several cases where giving too big upvote value is not exactly a very rewarding activity. For example, for user A, when I normally give upvote with my 150 SP at 100% I got an average 10% reward, but then I upvoted with 1,150 SP at 100% I didn’t get an average of 10%, but an average of 6%. It looked bigger in term of Steem Power, but it was actually smaller in term of percentage.

# Variable 5 - My Voting Percentage when voting

Next comes the question of when giving upvotes with 100% will it give ten (10) times of rewards compared to giving upvotes at 10%? Apparently not.

One of the example from my experiment, before the MAM delegation, when I had around 150 SP, I get an average of 0.10 Steem with 100% upvotes from certain users. After the 1,000 SP delegation where I had around six (6) times of voting power, my 100% upvotes gave me only 0.30 to 0.40 Steem, which was only around three (3) to four (4) times rewards. When I cut back and only give around 50% upvotes I got around 0.20 to 0.25 Steem, which was better because I could preserve my voting power and vote more people.

Because of the mathematical function of the reward system, it seems there’s a “limitation” of how much you give and how much you receive back. After all, it operates under the premise of finding great posts before other (power) users.

# Variable 6 - My overall Voting Power

I’ve read some users advised that we only use at minimum 90% of our voting power, because it gave better value in term of Steem, the bigger our voting power, the bigger the Steem value. I’ve also read some users advised that we used all of our voting power until it reached zero. Which one is better?

At the start of my experiment, I used my voting power until around 60% until 70%. I then tested what would happen if I have 90% voting power. As a result, apparently giving upvotes until I have 60% voting power gave me better curation reward than when I gave only until 90% voting power. The value of upvotes was smaller but I could give more upvotes, which then gave me more rewards. I had not tested what would happen if I used up all my voting power, maybe next time.

# Conclusion As a conclusion: - The bigger Steem price jumps between seven (7) days period, the bigger the reward. - Upvoting post with lots of upvoters might be worst compared to upvoting post with a smaller number of upvoters. - Self-vote is just a normal upvote. In my case, I got lower rewards on average compared when I upvoted others. - Giving too big voting percentage may not necessarily give a bigger reward. - Scaling the voting percentage is not the way to multiply the reward. - Giving more upvotes is more profitable regardless of the overall voting power.

I’m not claiming that I’m an expert in curation reward. Furthermore, this is just a little experiment. My result could be different with yours, as curation reward system is a complex mathematical function. If you have another opinion or better information about how to get the most out of Steemit Curation Reward system, please give your comment below.

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Start of delegation, before rewards<<===

After the delegation ended.===>>

Start of delegation, before rewards
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After the delegation ended.
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