The best known ways to earn from Steem are:
- Post rewards. This relies on people voting up your posts. When you are starting out it can be hard to get noticed. More on this below...
- Curation rewards. This is pretty irrelevant to new accounts with just a few SP as you cannot give a big enough vote to make much.
Here are some other ways you could be earning:
- Comment rewards. Comments tend to make a lot less than posts as they are seen by fewer people, but they can make you something. You need to look for bigger accounts who tend to vote up comments. The quality of the comments is very important. Saying 'Nice post' is very unlikely to get you anything, but adding to the conversation is generally appreciated, especially if they are not getting that many comments generally. Being genuine rather than just fishing for votes can help.
- Contests. There are lots of these on Steem. Some involve doing a particular sort of post, but others may involve answering questions. Check the #contest tag.
- Gambling. This is not my thing, but there are various gambling apps built on Steem. You will probably have to bet some of your Steem, but it seems to pay off for some people.
- Games. With something like Splinterlands there is an initial cost to get started, but if you have the time to play you can win cards with real value. There are tournaments with good prizes to be won.
When it comes to posts you need to think about what has value to others. Of course you can post your daily steps on @Actifit to get their vote, but that may not be so interesting to others. Likewise with your selfies, although of course platforms like Instagram thrive on that and @Appics aim to do that on Steem. It is key to build your audience. This is where commenting also has value. Find people who share your interests and comment on their posts. They may opt to follow you.
Steem communities are still in beta, but they have great potential to bring like-minded people together. You will be able to follow a topic rather than just individuals to get the content you are into. You need to make Steem fun, especially in the early days when you are not earning much, so you want your feed to be full of things you will actually like.
I am posting these suggestions as we see a lot of people getting off to a bad start. They may pump out lots of low quality posts that get no attention or resort to buying votes. The latter is just not a good strategy these days and it may get you downvoted as people want more real curation now.
Let us know what other suggestions you have for new users to start earning. The best ones will get a nice vote.
I will include an update on the progress on growing the Steem community. We are seeing very little growth in minnows, but dolphins have gone up a lot more this year. Maybe we should change the project name to TenKDolphins as it will happen sooner than that many minnows at the current rates.
Stats from @arcange
This account will keep on voting for smaller accounts. It has some delegations and people following the trail to give it more impact. The list will be reviewed, so there may be openings for new people soon. Stay tuned.
Steem on and happy Christmas!
