Facebook is a company with a market capitalization worth nearly $500 billion as of today. Twitter stands at $13 billion market cap. These two are the most famous social media and microblogging companies on the face of the earth. These big companies thrive on user base; no user means no worth. Despite receiving all their valuation from their users, they do not pay anything to them. Steemit does!

Seriously, how much do these platforms pay to their user community? Don't they ask for money instead to boost our posts?

Google and its AdSense program prey on hard working webmasters to push its digital advertising business. Google is expected to make $73.8 billion dollars in net digital ad sales in 2017. YouTube is no different. All of these websites either do not pay a penny to their users or share a petty percentage of the revenue with them.

Steemit is different though. It not only rewards its users but also has zero advertisements placed on its website.

Note:- This post will serves as a complete Steemit Tutorial for anyone who is new to Steemit or anyone in your circle who wants to join it. You can bookmark this to help newbies around you and resteem to help the newbies following you.

What is Steemit?

Steemit is a social media and blogging platform but is different from these so-called social media platforms. The closest thing to Steemit is Reddit. You can call Reddit the ugly and far less valuable version of Steemit which doesn't pay anything to its dedicated community.

Reddit the is number 7 website in the world and is worth $7 billion. But still, Steemit is better than it and has massive potential.

To understand what Steemit is and how it works, you will have to read each article and watch every video that I'm going to include in this article. Reading thoroughly will help you in the long-term as well and you will be able to get maximum benefit out of this exciting platform.

Article # 1: Steemit (Wikipedia)

Here are some of the excerpts from this article.

The general concept is similar to other blogging websites or social news websites like Reddit, but the text content is saved in a blockchain. Using a blockchain enables rewarding comments and posts with secure tokens of value.

If you are considered an author worth upvoting, you will get rewards.

User accounts can upvote posts and comments, and the authors who get upvoted can receive a monetary reward...

How Does Steemit Reward Its Users?

Steemit Inc. is a company which primarily isn't a social media or blogging platform. It is a company like Bitcoin which has cryptocurrency of its own called Steem. The company increases the amount of this cryptocurrency at the rate of 9.5 % per year.

75 % of the Steem tokens are distributed among content creators based on the value they create with their content!

I would like to thank my friend Rizwan who sent me the following video by Suppoman. Watch the video to understand Steem (the crypto coin) and Steemit. This video was my first knowledge about Steemit.

Let me share a screenshot for you to see what I am talking about.

People are literally making thousands of dollars in some hours and days!

Disclaimer: These incomes depend on investment in Steemit in form of time and/or money. Do not expect massive rewards in the beginning. There is no easy money!

How to Join Steemit?

Since it is a platform that pays for creating value, it doesn't let everyone sign up. Here's how to join.

1. Go to sign up page and enter your details (and please sign up with your genuine email).
2. You will receive a notice that account is under approval.
3. Once the account is approved, you will get an email.
4. Open that email and complete your sign up.
5. Keep your password safe and write it down somewhere (both digitally and on paper) because once lost, your account and the amount in it will not be recoverable.

Now that you have signed up and got your account approved, it is time to follow the one who brought Steemit to your life. I would love to welcome and support you there. Also, join the Steemians - Grow Together Facebook group to learn and get support from fellow steemians.

Do connect!

How to Set Up Your Profile?

After logging in, the next thing to do is to update your profile settings. Here's a quick look at everything you need to update.

There isn't a lot to do in settings.

As the profile uploading procedure is a bit different to other social media platforms, I'll quickly cover the settings for you. Here you go.

To update profile picture, you will have to upload the image on the web first.

1. Go to Img Safe website. If the site doesn't work, try CTRLQ website or google 'free image hosting' sites.
2. From the Upload tab, click browse files and select your profile picture from the storage.
3. Click upload.
4. After it is uploaded, click the image. A new window or page will open containing your uploaded picture.
5. Copy the URL (website address) from the address bar.
6. Paste it into the Profile Picture URL box in your settings page on Steemit.

Here's a visual guide if you didn't understand the procedure.

It's a simple process.

Going quickly through the remaining settings.

• Display Name: Write your name.
• About: Write some lines about yourself.
• Location: Write name of your city and/or country
• Website: If you have a website like I have this one, write it down.

That's it. You are done with settings. Don't forget to hit Save button.

How to Start Using Steemit?

Now that your account is set up and your profile is complete, here are a few things you would want to know before starting your Steemit journey.

• Steemit rewards value creation. To ascertain the value, it has a system which determines how valuable your content is and how valuable you are.
• Reputation Score: At the beginning, your reputation score is 25. As you contribute more towards the community, your reputation grows. People with less reputation earn fewer rewards and have less influence. Do increase your reputation to earn more. Reputation only increases when you receive monetary reward on your post and comments.
• Followers: New posts stay in the New section of the website for literally a few seconds before they are taken over by the newest posts. The only way to make your posts visible to people is that they see it in their home feed. It is only possible if you have followers. So followers help your content be visible and thus create more interactions and earn more rewards.
• Posts, Comments & Upvotes: These three activities are at the core of your contribution to the community. The more value you contribute, the more rewards you get.
• Reward Types: Steemit rewards its contributors in three ways. These are Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars. They are briefly explained later.

Now let me briefly discuss reputation score and reward types.

How is Reputation Score Calculated?

To get detailed answer, read the following article by @digitalnotvir.

Article # 2: How reputation scores are calculated - the details explained with simple math

However, I am going to copy the gist from the above article here.

Buying Steem or Steem Power does not increase reputation. Only posting, commenting, and curating will increase your rep. So if you'd like to see your reputation increase (and thus your curation power) the secret is to get engaging! Post and comment with some high-quality and original content.

Difference between Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars?

The following information is copied from the official FAQ page which you should go through to find answers to all your questions.

Resource # 3: Steemit FAQs

Here's the difference between three reward types.

STEEM - STEEM is the base liquid currency token in the platform. STEEM can be powered up into STEEM Power, traded for Steem Dollars, and transferred to other accounts. It is a cryptocurrency token, similar to bitcoin.

STEEM Power - STEEM Power (abbreviated SP) is a measurement of how much influence a user has in the Steem network. The more STEEM Power a user holds, the more they can influence the value of posts and comments. STEEM Power is less liquid. If a user wishes to “Power Down” SP, they will receive equal distributions of the STEEM weekly, over a 13 week period.

Steem Dollars - Steem Dollars (commonly abbreviated SBD) are liquid stable-value currency tokens designed to be pegged to $1 USD. They can be traded with STEEM and transferred to other accounts for commerce or exchange. Steem Dollars may also be converted into STEEM in a process that takes 3.5 days. Steem Dollars can be used to buy things in marketplaces, such as PeerHub.com.

Here's video posted by @andrarchy in this post.

Steemit Rewards Fully Explained

Just go to this post and you will never have to worry about reward system again.

Start Using Steemit Now

By now, you are sufficiently ready to start using this benevolent platform. To assist you further, I am attaching the official Quick Start Guide so that you can have a head start.

Remember one word. Contribute!

Resource # 4: Quick Start Guide

Or you can simply access a sea of Steemit knowledge that I personally created for the benefit of others.

My All in one Steemit Guide: The All in One Steemit Guide for Newbies and Minnows (Tutorials, Guides, Advice)

Things to Do on Steemit

After following me (@ilyastarar), the next thing to do is to set up your profile as explained above. Once you are ready, make sure that the first tag (and the main category) of your first post on the blog is 'introduceyourself'.

Even before posting your introduction, I recommend following good accounts and interacting with others via comments on new, trending, hot etc. tabs. I also recommend upvoting others posts and comments. This way, you will gain some audience and reputation.

Then create your first post and it must be the introduction post. Here's my introduction post. You can find more in the introduceyourself category.

Do not forget to join our Facebook group which supports fellow Steemit members in many ways.

Conclusion

Steemit is the golden opportunity for you to contribute to the community and earn handsome rewards. You can build a fortune if you persistently deliver value in form of quality posts, comments, upvotes and new relationships.

Join it and reap the benefits of benevolent economy and decentralized currency. Remember me in your prayers, spread the word and do support me with your resteems.