<center>![Essentials To Steem Thumbnail.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/zord189/WLirh96Z-Essentials20To20Steem20Thumbnail.jpg)</center>

<center><h1>This Guide will help you</h1></center>

<center>Over my 2 years + on this wonderful blockchain, I have found that there aren't many tutorials on Steem and how to get started as a content creator here. A lot of these tutorials will be from my experiences and also the things I've learned the 'hard-way' on Steem. Nonetheless, I'm happy to share them with you all and hopefully, you will take back something useful from this post and turn into a beautiful butterfly. 

<center>https://media.giphy.com/media/124jbarTbBFB6g/giphy.gif</center>

<center><h3>*Smart people learn from their own mistakes, Smarter people learn from other's mistakes and not do it*</h3></center>

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<center><h1>1. Understanding Steem The Best You Can</h1></center>

<center>Everytime someone new comes to me asking for guidance and help, the first thing I would ask them is, 'Have you read the FAQs'? When I first got into Steem, I had no one to guide me and no community was known to me yet. I believe some of you reading this are in the same shoes.

<center>*OMG! He understands me!*</center>

<center>Yes I really do, because what I did next is what you are going to do. Did you know there is a pretty solid FAQ to get you started? Though I don't expect everyone to understand Steem and its websites in a day, it'll definitely come in handy whenever you are wondering 'Where does my Steem tokens come from?'.</center>

<center>[FAQ HERE!!!](https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_is_Steemit_com)</center>

<center>Read through the FAQ and try your very best to understand the basic terms and lingos used on Steem. If you have further questions, my following steps will guide you on how u can cry for help.</center>

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<center><h1>2. Be Part of a Community</h1></center>

<center>https://media.giphy.com/media/xqN3w2LvVYOru/giphy.gif</center>

<center>Steem is a people-centric platform, same like any other social media platform. You need **to engage with people, create friendships and even start something of your own.** But you can't do all this, without a community behind you. You may think that you just come on to Steem to blog and earn some side income, you don't want to socialize. Yes u can do that, but I'm talking to those who want to take Steem to the next level. Cause truth be told, no one will see your posts whereas in a community, there will be members supporting you and giving you advice and tips on how to improve.</center>

<center>You can start with one community first, where you actually engage with the members inside and build priceless connections/friendships. Here are some of the communities I am in.</center>

![steemit logo(teammalaysia).jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRTd8tjuyxpFwg1Nqu9Mr24afEFhvnEsov45wjLirxS8j/steemit%20logo(teammalaysia).jpg)

<center><h2>Team Malaysia</h2></center>
<center>A Malaysian community of Steemians.</center>

<center>Only for Steemians who lives in Malaysia. #teammalaysia</center>

<center>**Subscribe to this community here :** https://steempeak.com/c/hive-127719/created</center>

<center>![phc_thumbnail_01.png](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/zord189/EMhkVzGY-phc_thumbnail_01.png)</center>

<center><h2>PowerHouseCreatives</h2></center>
<center>Do you consider yourself a quality content creator? If you do, this is the community that will help you learn & grow. With support from all members, you can take your blogging to the next level.</center>

<center>**Subscribe to this community here :** https://steempeak.com/c/hive-114105/created</center>

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<center>These are just a few communities that I joined. IF you have a country's community like #teammalaysia. I strongly advise you to join it. What better support than your homeland buddies.</center>

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<center><h1>3. Drafting a Post/Find your Niche</h1></center>

<center>https://media.giphy.com/media/xkmQfH1TB0dLW/giphy.gif</center>

<center>Many times, a lot of new Steemians come onto Steem with the wish of just posting whatever and whenever they like, without proper focus, goal or strategy. Mostly by the lines of 'I will post things about life or things that just come to me'. You can definitely do that because there are no rules about what you should or should not post. My advice here is this, if you want to get somewhere on Steem, you </center>

<center><h3>Need to find a Niche</h3></center>

<center>Work on your <b>Strengths</b> and not on what you're bad(weaknesses) at and 'want to improve'. You can work on your weaknesses when you're further down the road. Right now, it's all about **building a strong foundational presence.**</center>

<center>There are still a lot of niches to be covered on Steem, now that's your homework to find out. For a headstart, we need more dancing videos or talent videos. You get the drift.</center>

<center>When I first started Steem-ing, I thought that I could do <b>photography</b> and <b>animation</b>. After looking at the niche market of <b>photography</b>, there is no way I'm going to be the one that's prominent in this field. Hence I switched to <b>animation</b> which was what I'm good at. The downside about <b>animation</b> niche is that it takes a lot of time to create an animation, could take days to weeks to months. It is not so efficient on Steem having only 1 post per month. After a few trial and errors, I found out that the people of Steem needed someone who was able to design good banners, GIFs and videos for their profiles and initiatives. And Thus, I found my <b>niche</b>.</center>

![Steemit_Profile_BannerGamerpool.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPHg38KwmzTXy9EFyfRzENhcbTDPn3HkQGefhKCftGqu8/Steemit_Profile_BannerGamerpool.jpg)

![mountainwashere.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfFjz4cLAC8gqq9VKfU68AuswPj6qdYTgyyhNSVYhqBEV/mountainwashere.jpg)

<center>https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/zord189/dnyWExsP-brittandjosie.gif</center>

<center>https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/zord189/PcViNr3b-d00k13.gif</center>

<center>*Some of the profile banners/signatures I've designed for amazing Steemians*</center>

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<center><h1>No. 4 Dos and Donts</h1></center>

![jon-tyson-420512.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZN8RLF4CfqiLr6yHRgDkpwSUKnDPCjBi3b3J45mdFPCt/jon-tyson-420512.jpg)

<h2>Do to be awesome</h2>
- Reply comments on your post ASAP.
- Engage with other authors in their articles
- Give <b>quality</b> comments
- Upvote Steemians who comment on your post. Be generous for good comments.
- Give more than you take in support.
- For your post to be of quality, make sure they have no less than 3 photos & 700 words.

<center><h2>Don't be less awesome</h2></center>
- Hold your upvotes thinking they're worth a thousand USD. Be generous
- Beg other people to upvote/follow/resteem your posts.
- Bad & short commenting.
- Ask people to look at your post.
- No single image posting without any words.

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<center><h1>No. 5 Basic layout and title</h1></center>

![kelly-sikkema-251938.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmS1yLSiydsymGD2TUkhmd8k6FYH3kQ2WVBPwwGRwunv38/kelly-sikkema-251938.jpg)

<center>Keep your post consistent in its layout and title. For example, if you are doing a post on cooking. You may use titles like <b>*Food for thought, Kitchen-works, Foodie etc*</b>. This would allow your readers to quickly identify the post's niche.</center>

<center>Also, if you're planning to do a series of a certain topic, you may use title like this.</center>

<center><b>*#01 Photography*</b></center>
<center><b>*#02 Photography*</b></center>
<center><b>*#03 Photography*</b></center>

<center>Having a footer is great too, it doesn't have to end with an image footer. But I would recommend your footer to have images/banners so it looks good.</center>

<center><h3>Things you can include in your post footer</h3></center>
1. Links to your previous posts.
2. Your vision/purpose/how/why you join Steem.
3. A shoutout to another Steemian.
4. A community logo/banner that you're involved in.

<center>*Note that the footer can be consistent in every post you write*</center>

<center><h3>The Important Post Tags</h3></center>
<center>When you've finished your post, you may be clueless on what tags to use. Well, fear no more! Your first tag is usually the most **important** tag. The other 4 tags even though they can be edited, it is still important that you use the right ones. Do take note that different frontends like **www.steempeak.com** allow **up to 10 tags**.</center>

<center>Also, if you are in a community, you can write a new post in your specific community.</center>

<center><h3>*Use Good Tags*</h3></center>

<center>Do not use tags that you create yourself, cause no one would look at it. </center>

<center>
**Example of bad tags :**
#lifeishardsoieatcupnoodles
#yolobolo
#ilovemycatsomuch
</center>
<center>
**Example of good tags :**
#food
#steem
#writing
#community

</center>

<center>*Note that there are some specific tags like #teammalaysia that is ONLY available for members of #teammalaysia. Upon abusing the tag, #teammalaysia will flag/downvote you.*</center>

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<center>I hope that you've found something useful here that might help you in your Steem Journey. There are plenty of other guides out there and there are many more things that I can explain to you but here are the few basics you should grasp.</center>

<center>*GIFs taken from www.giphy.com*</center>

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<center><h1>Thank You</h1>

If you like what I do, check out my other posts on my artworks, photography & animations.

I'm also open for

<h3>Personalized Steemit Profile Banner,logos & GIFs</h3>

<center>*DM me on discord : zord189#7776*</center>

![Sketches_Footer.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSqueeD2Az1he74iEMgj9jEAFHoQCfwkp99qDWB1q2Vxy/Sketches_Footer.jpg)

<center>Credits to @pinstory & @coloringiship for this lovely photo of me.</center>

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<center>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZMTckzqpfBShZSELLFNotjm43vJfjg79Ynz4ndB3i86a/PHC-Footer-05.gif</center>

<center><sub>*Animated Banner Created By @zord189*</sub></center>