I just made $1,024.94 writing on the STEEM blockchain. Here’s your beginner’s guide to doing the same.

In  today’s media climate of collecting and selling eyeballs with “rage  porn” and fake news, there aren’t a lot of ways to make a living doing  thoughtful writing. Books are the most honest exchange of  money-for-words there could be, but in the months or years between  releasing my books,  I personally have found myself waiting for a payday. Then, I discovered  STEEM, the cryptocurrency that powers the Reddit-like social network, Steemit.I joined Steemit about a year ago, and it has turned into a decent revenue stream in my business as a writer and podcaster. In 2017, I earned a modest $2,000 on Steemit. But, things are picking up. Last week, I cashed in more than $1,000.

I also cashed in nearly $1,000 two weeks ago. So I’ve already come close to surpassing my 2017 STEEM earnings. My account is currently “worth” almost $12,000. (I’ll explain in a bit why these aren’t earnings yet.)

Where  does this money come from, and how can you get started making money for  your writing on Steemit? I hope to show you the basics in this post.Before I get started keep the following in mind:

• It will never be easy to make money writing  if you aren’t a good writer. Writing on Steemit will not get you rich  quick. I have been working on writing and building my platform for  fourteen years now, and I have been writing on Steemit for a year. Maybe  you’re more talented than me, or can learn a way to do it faster, but I  caution you that if you aren’t willing to put in the work, you will be  wasting what time you do put in.
• The main criticism I hear about STEEM is that it’s f*cking confusing. This is correct, but it doesn’t mean it won’t work. Just watch the video of Good Morning America hosts trying to understand the Internet,  and you’ll see that it’s possible for large groups of humans to learn  to use and sometimes understand complex things. These are still the  early days of this technology. It will get more user-friendly, and  people will learn.
• I’m going to simplify things as much as possible  to help you understand the minimum you need to know to start earning  money on Steemit. If you’re like me, you’ll learn more by actually  doing. There are lots of complexities built into STEEM to mimic the  economic mechanics of the “real world.” Just as LeBron James doesn’t  need to have a PhD in physics to play basketball — you don’t need to  understand every last bit of how STEEM works to start earning money for  writing on Steemit. If you want to get a deep understanding of how STEEM  works, this is not the post for you. Start by reading the STEEM white paper.
• I’ll probably mess something up from a technical standpoint.  Sometimes this will be intentional and okay because it will help  beginners understand better. Remember, this post is a beginner’s guide  to making money for writing on Steemit. Other times I may just plain be  wrong (I’m not a trained software engineer, and I don’t keep up with  every aspect of STEEM). I’m open to corrections in the comments.
• It’s possible to invest in the STEEM cryptocurrency.  It’s also possible to invest your time writing on Steemit. You could  lose all this money and all this time. This is not investment advice.  Read this information, do your own research, and decide for yourself how  to invest your money and time.
• If you join Steemit, follow me, and upvote my work, I will earn more STEEM.  I tell you this to point out that it’s a potential source of bias. You  also might decide that you’re grateful for this beginner’s guide to  Steemit, and you want me to earn more STEEM. It’s up to you.

Where does the money you earn on Steemit come from?

The  question I usually get asked first when talking about STEEM is “where  does the money come from?” The short answer is that STEEM is a  cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, that investors trade on the open market,  and which you can track the value of through charts.  When I joined Steemit, the price of STEEM was about 14 cents. Recently,  it has jumped as high as over $7. With many cryptocurrencies climbing  lately, you can imagine how valuable STEEM could become.

The  long answer to where the money comes from is that STEEM is a  cryptocurrency built on blockchain technology. Steemit is a social  network built upon that blockchain. The STEEM blockchain is a database  that holds all of the posts, comments, upvotes, and transactions of  STEEM. Part of what gives STEEM value is people trading it on the open  market. But, as you’ll see, STEEM has inherent value within the Steemit  social network. Let me explain those pieces in more detail.

STEEM is a decentralized blockchain (here’s what that means)

The  STEEM blockchain does not live on a server like, say, Facebook’s  database. That would be what you’ve probably heard referred to as a  “centralized” model. Facebook owns and controls the database, and could  delete it all tomorrow if they felt like it.Instead,  computers around the world have copies of the STEEM database and  compare it to each other to make sure it’s up-to-date. This is what  you’ve probably heard referred to as a “decentralized” model. No one  entity controls the information.Because  of this, this database cannot be censored, which some people believe to  be a big problem on networks such as Twitter or Facebook. Anyone can  develop software for the STEEM blockchain, which is why a site such as Busy.org is an exact copy of what you’ll see on Steemit. (I’ll be referring to STEEM as the cryptocurrency and Steemit as the network for this post.)

Steemit, like all social networks, is built by the community

Social  networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Steemit are collective  projects, like big gardens. Tweets are tweeted and retweeted; Facebook  Groups are built, posts are liked, and communities mature; and Steemit  articles are shared, upvoted, and commented upon. These networks get  more valuable as more people use them, just as a huge garden will bear  more food as people plant seeds, water plants, and pull weeds.Who  owns these collective projects? In the case of Twitter and Facebook,  they are owned by shareholders. If Steemit is a community garden,  Twitter and Facebook are sharecropping plots. Users of Twitter or  Facebook are “compensated” for their contribution to the projects solely  through their enjoyment of the platform, or whatever they can do to  squeeze money out of the eyeballs they capture on the platform. Because  of these incentives, Twitter and Facebook need to find a way to fund the  development and upkeep of these platforms. That is primarily done by  selling advertising.In  the case of Steemit, the collective project is owned in part by the  users. You may already know that the Bitcoin cryptocurrency is mined by  huge computers burning lots of electricity to solve complex equations.  STEEM is instead mined by actions taken within the social network. When a  post is published, upvoted, or commented upon, STEEM is created and  distributed amongst contributors.You  can earn STEEM for writing a post, or commenting on a post. You can  also earn STEEM simply for upvoting a post: The earlier you upvote a  post that later gains a lot of upvotes, the more you earn as a  “curator.” When you see an estimated dollar amount on a Steemit post,  that is the amount of STEEM (in USD) that will be distributed to the  author and curators. Developers can also earn STEEM when people use  their applications.When  you earn STEEM, it’s not necessarily immediately spendable. In fact,  there are different types of what I will refer to as “STEEM” from here  on. Don’t stress if you don’t understand this explanation the first, the  second, or the tenth time around, because this is where it gets more  complicated.

STEEM Power helps you earn more STEEM

The  first thing you can earn is STEEM Power, which increases your influence  within Steemit. If you have a lot of STEEM Power, you earn more STEEM  (in all forms) for your posts and upvotes. When you upvote a post, it  also causes the author of that post — and everyone who upvoted it before  you — to earn more money than otherwise, because an influential user  (you) have upvoted the post.As  you can see, STEEM Power is important, and…powerful. The catch is that  you can’t immediately spend STEEM Power. You have to do what’s called a  “power down.” Your STEEM Power is converted into spendable STEEM Tokens.  At the time of this writing, when you power down, you receive  one-thirteenth of your STEEM Tokens every week for thirteen weeks (it  used to take two years).This  is why you saw me cash in about $1,000 worth of STEEM Tokens. I had  just received a distribution from a power down. This is also why my  total “account value” is not yet earnings. All of my account value is  locked up in STEEM Power.Notice  that you can’t spend STEEM Power, but STEEM Power is important to your  influence within Steemit. This will be relevant in a bit as you  understand where the money comes from.

STEEM Tokens are immediately spendable

The  second thing you can earn is STEEM Tokens (which are generally referred  to as simply “STEEM,” but remember, I’m currently using that term as a  catch-all for all forms of STEEM). You can immediately spend STEEM  Tokens. There aren’t many things I know of that you can buy directly  with STEEM Tokens, but you can exchange them for other cryptocurrencies,  such as Bitcoin (which you can then convert to U.S. Dollars or other  currencies, which I’ll explain later).You  can also do a “power up” to convert your STEEM Tokens into STEEM Power.  Doing this of course increases your network influence, but it also  makes your STEEM unspendable until you do a “power down.”

STEEM Dollars (SBD) can be spent to promote posts

The  third thing you can earn is STEEM Dollars, or SBD. Like STEEM Tokens,  you can convert SBD to other cryptocurrencies (then to U.S. Dollars).  You can also spend SBD to “promote” posts on Steemit, which gets them  more exposure, in turn earning more STEEM. You can also hold SBD in  savings — sometimes with interest — on your Steemit account.Originally,  STEEM Dollars were meant to be a stable currency, always worth $1 USD.  Lately it has spiked as high as $13, and at the time of this writing  it’s around $8. Apparently it’s due to it being listed on the Korean  UpBit exchange.

STEEM has value because it’s useful in the Steemit network

So,  where does the money come from? STEEM Tokens and SBD are both traded on  the open market. STEEM Tokens and SBD also have inherent value within  the Steemit network. STEEM Tokens can be converted into STEEM Power for  more network influence, and SBD can be spent to promote posts within the  network. Both of these actions help people make more STEEM (in all  forms).STEEM  represents the value of the collective project that is Steemit. STEEM  has inherent value within the Steemit network. This all works together  in a virtuous cycle to help STEEM maintain value.In  the garden that is networks like Facebook or Twitter, users have to  live off of the crops grown — what’s leftover after Facebook and Twitter  take their cut, anyway. Those gardening in the community garden that is  Steemit share the food, and can also sell some of it at the  Sunday-morning Farmer’s Market.

How do you earn STEEM?

Don’t  be frustrated if you still don’t understand what I’ve explained so far  in this beginner’s guide. The best way to learn is to simply join  and try using Steemit. Now that I’ve provided a beginner’s background  on STEEM and Steemit, I’ll explain how you can earn STEEM for your  writing, and convert it into the currency of your choice.As described earlier, you earn STEEM each time you:

• Post content, such an article (75% of a post’s earnings go to the author).
• Comment on a post.
• Earn upvotes for a post or comment.
• Upvote a post or comment (25% of earnings are shared amongst “curators” who upvote).

Upon  joining, you’ll be “delegated” a bit of STEEM Power to get you started  (This means you can’t power down that STEEM Power, but it will help you  earn more STEEM). To join, you’ll have to verify your email address and a  phone number that can receive SMS messages. Accounts are still approved  manually, so it may take a few days for your account to get approved.  So, it’s best to join as soon as possible.I  can’t stress enough that this is not a path to quick riches. It is,  however, a way for writers to earn money for the value they create  within a community, rather than having to attract eyeballs for the sake  of eyeballs. There are always going to be barriers to making it as a  writer, and not all of those can be knocked down by new economic models  such as Steemit. If you want to make money writing on Steemit, it will  be hard work.

A note about NSFW

Steemit  is a community where just about anything goes. By default NSFW posts  will be hidden, and you can view them by clicking. I personally prefer  to not see these posts in my timeline at all — I’m working after all.  You can disable NSFW content under Settings > Private Post Display Settings, and set the drop-down to “Always hide.”

Post articles according to tags

Content  on Steemit is organized by tags. Since the main timeline is crowded  with a variety of topics, many users will look for content on a  particular tag, similar to how Reddit users hang out in a particular  subreddit.You  can see a listing of exactly how many posts have been issued to the top  tags, and exactly how much STEEM has been earned on said tags over here.You’ll  also see the most popular tags on the left-hand side of the Steemit  home page. At the time of this writing, the most popular tags are: life,  photography, and steemit. Naturally, this model causes a bias toward  STEEM and other cryptocurrency-related content, but there is plenty of  STEEM being earned in other topics.The  tags you choose for your posts will greatly affect their exposure. When  you’re starting out, you want to choose tags that actually have some  volume, but aren’t so popular that it’s impossible for your work to get  noticed.Just  because you don’t see a tag listed on the tags page, doesn’t mean it’s  not worth writing on that topic. Just type in steemit.com/trending/[tag  name] for whatever topic you might want to write about. Chances are  you’ll see some level of activity. A couple of my favorite topics to  write for — entrepreneurship and productivity — don’t  show up on the tags page, but still have plenty of activity. I’ve even  had a reader tell me he discovered my work on the entrepreneurship tag.

Write an introduceyourself post

Soon after joining Steemit, you should write an introduceyourself post on the introduceyourself tag. If you do this well, this will be the easiest STEEM you make early on.I  would advise taking a picture of yourself with something that says  “hello Steemit,” and has the date on it. If you’re notable (or really,  really good-looking), you should also share the link to your  introduceyourself post on your social media accounts such as Twitter or  Facebook, so people can verify it’s really you. Here’s my introduceyourself post, and the current most popular introduceyourself posts.

STEEM rewards come in after seven days

At the bottom of your posts, you’ll see a dollar amount. That is the amount of STEEM, in USD, that your post has earned.

Early  on, this will be a very small amount. You can see that some posts make  hundreds or thousands of dollars. 75% of this will go to the post author  (you), and 25% of it will go to people who upvote it.After seven days, you’ll earn your rewards for your post.

Your  rewards don’t transfer to your wallet until you click this “Redeem  Rewards” button. You can see ahead of time how much you’ll be earning.  “SP” stands for STEEM Power, and “SBD” stands for STEEM Dollars.I  find this reward claiming process useful for accounting purposes. If  you’re writing on STEEM as a business, keeping track of earnings can be  difficult. I won’t get into the complexities of it, but I treat any  cryptocurrency in my business like a hot potato: I convert STEEM to  Bitcoin, then to USD, as fast as possible to make accounting simple.  Still, I record receipt of these reward redemptions and Bitcoin  transactions in a spreadsheet, just in case I need this information in  the future. (Since it’s not spendable, I don’t count STEEM Power as  earnings — until it’s powered down to STEEM Tokens, of course. Check  with your tax professional.)

Build STEEM Power first. Power down later.

Early  on, you’ll have very little STEEM Power, so earning more STEEM will be  slow going. But, the more STEEM Power you gain, the more STEEM (of all  forms) you can earn. This is why I recommend doing 100% power-ups on  every post when you’re just starting.While  composing a post, you’ll see a drop-down menu. This is where you can  choose how you’ll be paid (or whether you’d like to be paid at all). The  default will be to get paid in 50% STEEM Power, and 50% SBD. I  recommend choosing “100% Power Up,” to gain STEEM Power and increase  your future earnings.Just  how long you’d like to keep doing this is up to you. You’ll gain a feel  for how soon you’d like to collect earnings, or how badly you need more  STEEM Power to increase your earnings. Remember you can always power  down through the drop-down menu in the “Wallet” section of your account.

Approximately  one-thirteenth of your STEEM Power will be converted to STEEM every  seven days, until you cancel the power down. As you gain STEEM Power so  that you’re actually earning, this presents a balance you have to  strike: Do you want spendable SBD now, or do you want more STEEM Power,  which will help you earn more, but which is not spendable without  waiting for a power down?

You can buy STEEM Power

If  you’re impatient to get some STEEM Power so you can actually earn more  STEEM, you can buy STEEM Power (or STEEM). This is not investment  advice. You run the risk of losing all of your money. If you decide you  want to do this, you can click on the “Buy STEEM or STEEM Power” button  in the “Wallet” section of your account.

STEEM politics

As  you would expect in any money-making venture, people are always trying  to game the STEEM system to make as much money as possible. A big issue  within STEEM is that there are many “minnows” (people with little STEEM  Power, and thus little influence, and little ability to earn more  STEEM), and there is a smaller group of “whales” (people with lots of  STEEM Power, and thus lots of influence, and lots of ability to earn  more STEEM for themselves, and anyone they upvote).You’ll  see lots of bot activity on Steemit. You’ll also see a fair amount of  pointless comments for the sake of trying to earn more STEEM, or  requests to follow to build one’s network. I don’t participate in or  think about these tactics. My strategy is just to keep doing my best  writing, and to share it. My posts have begun to be upvoted by whales  more often, and that makes a big difference in how much I earn.The one tool that I do find useful is called Streemian.  You can use it to syndicate an RSS feed, schedule posts, or  automatically upvote the posts of a member through their “Fanbase”  feature.

How do you convert STEEM into U.S. Dollars?

Once  you have earned some STEEM or SBD, you might want to convert it into  the currency of your choice — in my case, U.S. Dollars.You  can’t convert STEEM into USD directly, but you can convert it into  Bitcoin, which can then be converted into USD. Here’s how to do it with a  Coinbase account. If you don’t use Coinbase, I assume you’re  technically savvy enough to figure this out, whether with these  instructions or not.If  you do not have a Coinbase account, you’ll get $10 of free  Bitcoin — and my business’s account will, too — when you make your first  $100 purchase of Bitcoin, if you sign up through this link. Again, you run the risk of losing all of that $110. This is not investment advice.

Get your receive address from Coinbase

First, you’ll need to generate a deposit address for receiving your transfer from your Steemit account.In your Coinbase account, go to Tools > Addresses.

1. Choose “BTC Wallet” from the drop down.
2. Click on “+ Create New Address.”
3. Select and copy the address.

Transfer your STEEM to Coinbase using BlockTrades and SteemConnect

Next, you’ll be using the receive address you copied from Coinbase to transfer your STEEM to Coinbase.First, visit blocktrades.us.

1. Choose STEEM or SBD in the “Send” drop-down.
2. Choose Bitcoin in the “Receive” drop-down.
3. Enter the amount of STEEM Tokens or SBD you want to send.
4. Paste the receive address you copied from your Coinbase account into the form marked “Your receive address.”
5. Click on “Get a new Deposit Address.”

You’ll see a “We’re ready for your trade” box, with a “SteemConnect” tab selected.

1. Enter your Steemit username in the form.
2. Click on “Transfer Using SteemConnect.”

You’ll see a SteemConnect confirmation page. Click on “Continue.”

You’ll  have to login (using the same username and password you use on  Steemit.com). You’ll see a message to confirm that you are on  steemconnect.com (by looking in your address bar) to prevent a potential  spoofing attack.

After  logging in and seeing the transaction go through, look in the “Wallet”  section of your Steemit account. You should see the transaction listed  under “History.”

You’ll  also get a confirmation email from Coinbase, telling you how much BTC  you received for your STEEM, and the current value in USD.

Within  a few hours, you should see the Bitcoin in your Coinbase account.  Remember, this can take a few hours, so don’t panic if it’s not there  right away!

Once  you see Bitcoin in your Coinbase account (remember, it can take  awhile!), you can sell the Bitcoin and transfer to your bank account.

1. Click on “Buy/Sell.”
2. Click on the “Sell” tab.
3. Choose “BTC Wallet” from the “Sell From” drop-down menu.
4. Choose your bank from the “Deposit To” drop-down menu.
5. Enter the amount you’d like to transfer. I usually click the “Sell Max” button that appears in the field.
6. Click on “Sell Bitcoin.”

You’ll see a confirm transaction page. Click on “Confirm Sell.”

You’ll see a success page. Your Bitcoins are being sold, and the U.S. Dollars are being deposited into your bank account. This may take an entire week.

But what about…?

With  how much Bitcoin has gone up in value, it’s tempting to worry about  gains I might be missing out on (and the gains I’ve missed out on from  past transactions). I could also worry about money I’m losing through  transaction fees. I try not to think about this. I’m simply trying to  get paid for my writing, not for holding cryptocurrencies. Transaction  fees are a cost of doing business.In  my experience, dwelling on things like this is one of many ways to  paralyze yourself and keep you from acting. (I think about this kind of  thing a lot, which is why I wrote my latest book, The Heart to Start). Ultimately, it’s up to you, but don’t let complex concerns get in the way of action.

Go forth and make money on Steemit

If  you’re a writer or creator who is frustrated with the economics ruling  your work, STEEM is incredibly exciting. Yes, it’s complicated, and yes,  it’s still hard to earn money. But, I’m confident this, or something  like this, is the future of compensation in media.I hope this beginner’s guide to STEEM and Steemit helps. Join Steemit, write your introduceyourself post, and follow me, if you so wish.