A Warm Welcome to Steemit! You're going to love it here! You've made a great choice in getting on board the world's fastest and most used blockchain! This article helps explain why the future is so bright!

In order to make things more enjoyable and to help you have greater and quicker success here are some helpful hints for newcomers!

I met Ash (now member @bit-sp) in Tenerife. He saw our Steemit gear and we had a great chat!

Successful Blogging

Frequency:

Whatever your interests are don't forget to be consistent. If you can post every day that would be great but if not try and publish something at least one or two times a week. The old adage "Out of sight out of mind" really holds true in this case!

Formatting Your Blog:

Good looks count! A blog with headlines, bullet points, proper spacing and good visuals is both easier to read and professional looking. Don't present your readers with a wall of text!

Branding:

One of the best pieces of advice that I got early on was to develop a brand. In order to do this I purchased a logo and I insert it in every one of my articles. You can use the services of one of our many skilled graphic artists here on Steemit to create a logo for you. Just use the hashtag steemgigs and away you go!

Commenting:

One of the mainstays to success on Steemit is to make meaningful comments on other member's blogs. This will help them to get to know you and don't forget that your comments can be upvoted which can earn you both SBD and Steempower!

Commenting is a fast track to success and should never be underestimated. Please check out the article I wrote that shows a great example: The Old Dog Asks: Can YOU Succeed On Steemit Simply By Commenting? Meet @eric-boucher

Do not copy and paste the same comment in many posts or promote your posts in a comment. This is considered spam and is likely to be downvoted thus harming your reputation!

Stay Positive:

Positivity breeds success and is attractive to others. If you don't have success as quickly as you'd hoped for keep at it. For some inspiration have a look at this article here: @meesterboom Steem Card. He's a great example to follow towards success!

Following Others:

This is NOT a follow you follow me environment. Many make the mistake of following anybody and everybody as is the custom on other social media sites like twitter. However, ask yourself if you can possibly read and curate material from hundreds or thousands of bloggers. Also, you can't possibly vote for them all in any meaningful way as you would completely deplete your voting power rendering your upvotes useless!

Voting:

When using the interface at Steemit.com until you have at least 500 Steempower all of your votes will automatically be at 100% power. After reaching 500 Steempower you can use the slider to adjust the value of your vote. This will allow you to vote many more times over a 24 hour period.

Please have a look at his article on voting which explains it well and has a work around for the use of the Slider.

For Minnows🐠: How To Have A Voting Slider Before Reaching 500 Steem Power And Adjust Your Voting Percentage

Here Are Some Sites That Can Help You to Enjoy Steemit Even More

First of all, to get an idea of all of the apps, sites and front ends that have been developed using the Steemit blockchain have a look at steemtools.com. Amazing! Are you now convinced that you're onto something special? Oh Ya!

Post Promotion:

1.) Steemit.chat Here you can private message other members as well as promote your posts. Just join the various rooms but don't forget to post the link to your initial image separately like this.

This first one is the link to the article:

https://steemit.com/steem/@kus-knee/the-old-dog-reports-learning-to-see-things-the-steem-way

The second one is the link to the image:

h ttps://s10.postimg.org/43ucvsucp/IMG_5775.jpg (I added a space after the first h so it wouldn't load)

In the sample above the link by nobutsd has no image link therefore nothing shows up! The second one has the link to the image and it makes for a more interesting presentation.

2.) If you use Facebook you will also find many Steemit groups where you can promote your posts. In this case just paste the link to your post and the image will appear automatically.

Search for Steemit user groups on Facebook and you can promote your posts there!

3.) Telegram channels. Here you will find all kinds of groups including other languages!

Here you can see some of the channels that I frequent including Bitshares which is the father of the Steem Block chain.

4.) Discord is being used more and more by many Steemers! Just search for the groups that interest you!

You can search for and join different groups on Discord

Alternative Front Ends

All of these use the Steem Blockchain!

Note that whatever you post using these sites will also show up on your Steemit.com blog.

1.) Busy.org provides a slightly funkier interface with different bells and whistles and remember that if you post through this site using the tag "busy" you will get an upvote from their account!

2.) Chainbb.com Forum style interface. A percentage of your rewards goes to them. It was developed by the very talented Steemit Witness @jesta and you can read the original announcement here: chainBB.com - a blockchain forum platform for Steem

3.) DTube is Steemit's own version of YouTube but it is decentralized! In this case 25% of your rewards go to the creator of the site. A very successful and happy user of this platfrom is @exyle. You can check out Steemit's very talented vlogger here.

4.) Zappl is a twitter style micro blogging site.You can catch up on all of their news here.

5.) Dmania is Steemit's interface for memes. You can read more about it here

6.) esteem, available as an app is another great interface for blogging on the Steem blockchain. It's creator @good-karma is alos a steem witness and you can read all about this project here.

7.) Dsound is a web application that allows you to upload, listen to and discover music and other sounds stored on top of the IPFS Network. It uses the STEEM blockchain as a decentralized database, which allows authors to earn rewards in Steem and SBD! Awesome! @prc is the force behind this project!

Here is the latest Bitshares hangout posted on the Dsound platform! Oh Yes!

There Are Many More And New Ones Every Day! Search For More Here

Sites That Help You Examine, Access, And Use The Steemit Blockchain

These are the ones that I consult every day!

1.) Steemd.com you can quickly see all incoming and outgoing votes as well as comments and rewards. You will also see at a glance what your voting power is. Just take out my username and add in yours!

2.) Steemworld.org will give you all kinds of info including a chance to see how much your vote is worth, how much you have made both in curating and authoring in both the past 7 and 30 days. Again just take out my username and add in yours!

3.) Steemify is a nifty notification app available for iOS devices and built by @blockbrothers

Here is a partial look at the notifications that you can receive!

Help For New Members to Get Votes!

One of our dear members @xyzashu has put together this guide to help newbies. It's great!

101 Ways to Get Easy Upvotes!

Voting Bots

Love them or hate them bots are a big part of Steemit. Many make use of them to automatically upvote some of their followers. The one that I use from time to time can be found at Steemvoter.com. You can adjust the time of your vote as well as the percentage.

In Summary

So my dear newcomers I hope that this fairly comprehensive guide will help you to get a good start on Steemit!

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)