<br />![upvote youre doing it wrong.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmamPHgdjxeDMsYyzvC9p9AU5dfPvCHr5pfBda9ZJYqnQ6/upvote%20youre%20doing%20it%20wrong.jpg)
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Upvoting: You're Doing it Wrong

I love getting upvotes. I'm an artist that creates photography and written pieces of work. I'd create even if no one views my work but it makes me feel good if I know I've enhanced someone's day. I also like being helpful though, for both my fellow artists as well as the wider community, and I've seen a very consistent set of mistakes being made when it comes to upvoting.
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Problem 1: Voting too frequently 

This is the biggest mistake most minnow's are making. Until you have 500 SP and can vary you're voting weight you should never vote more than 10 times a day. You read that right, 10, that's it, no more, don't you do it. 

The reason for this is the way your voting power regenerates. If you limit your voting to 10 upvotes per day the reduction of voting power by your votes will balance with the amount your voting power regenerates in a day. This is important because as a minnow you don't have much of an upvote to begin with and as your vote power diminishes so does the amount of vote reward. I regularly get upvotes from people with 50 or less SP and a vote power of 30% or less. These votes are basically worthless from an SBD reward standpoint. 

Why should that matter to the upvoter? The more power you upvote a post with the larger your curation reward can be. Going back to our 50 or less SP and less than 30% vote power example, when you keep voting like that you have no chance of getting a curation reward. 

So you've already got your vote power really low and want to know how to fix it? Simple, Stop voting. Or if you can't stop all together limit your upvotes to 5 a day till it recovers to over 90%. 

Hey you, yeah you with the over 500 SP. What's your excuse for having a 20something% voting power? You have an extra tool in your tool box that you need to learn how to use. It's the vote weight slider. The less vote weight you use the more votes you can hand out and still balance usage with regeneration. You also should take into account the amount of the reward so that you're not making it so small that it's worthless anyway. If you're at 500 SP, a 100% upvote right now gives a 0.06 SBD reward. I wouldn't go below 50% voting weight that way your vote alone will ensure a payout. That means you can vote 20 times a day responsibly. As you gain more SP you can lower that vote weight % and vote more often. Here's a list of the voting weight % and the number of times you can vote without continually lowering your voting power. 


Vote weight			Number of Votes
100%					10
50%					20
25%					40
20%					50
10%					100
5%					        200
2%					        500
1%					        1000

Here's a great site that will help you track your vote power and calculate upvote rewards:
https://steemnow.com/
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Problem 2: Voting Too Soon

This won't effect the person you're voting for at all. In fact they want you to vote as soon as they post. What it will effect is your curation reward. The sooner you vote before the 30 minute mark the less of a reward you are eligible for. 

So just vote at 30 minutes every time right? Not exactly, the more people that have already voted the smaller your reward will get as well. So for minnows without a lot of voting power you need to find content that, like mamma bear's porridge, is just right. 

First, don't cruise hot or trending to find stuff to upvote, that's not for you till you have more vote power. Hit the new list of your favorite tag then scroll down to the posts that are right around the 30 minute mark. You're looking for content you like, that doesn't have a lot of upvotes(4-8 is good), and that already have at least 0.02 upvote reward. Look at the author's reputation ranking. The higher the number the more likely they will get upvotes after you vote. 
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10 votes aren't enough

Having just 10 votes can feel very limiting, but showing some discipline now will help you, and the content creators you like, get SP faster. Luckily,  Steemit has given you three more ways to show support for you're favorite content creators. 

Comment on their post. Trust me, a well thought out comment about a post generates more feel good for the creator than a .01 upvote. The best thing about leaving lots of goods comments is that some of them will get upvoted and make you extra SBD's!

If you like a post that is similar to the content you post and you've used up your 10 votes for the day go ahead and resteem it instead. You're followers should have similar tastes to yours and you might get the creator some extra upvotes.

If you've upvoted, commented, and/or resteemed the same author 5 or more times you should go ahead and follow them. This will help you find more of their content because now it'll show up in your feed. Trust me, everyone checks their follower count to see it they gained new ones. I do, admit it, you do too.
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More Votes

So you used up your votes and want to upvote something great you just found. If no one else has you can call on @originalworks. Just create a reply to the post with “@originalworks” (without the “”) as the text of the reply. Original works will upvote your reply and the original post if it determines it's not plagiarized. Bingo! You now have unlimited upvotes for original content.
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Conclusion

When you're a minnow you need to make every vote count. Show a little discipline and keep that upvote powered up. You'll be helping yourself and your favorite content creators if you do.