I'm not going to be giving a tutorial as much as opening a discussion here. Correct me where I'm wrong, and add additional info if you can, please!
- Play nice on other people's blogs. This is not so much a matter of etiquette ( and see The Complete Steemit Etiquette Guide (Revision 2.0) for a good dose on that subject), as it is a matter of good curating. You aren't doing anybody any good by engaging in troll wars or spending all day in a back-and-forth with someone that has both different assumptions and different views of the facts than you do.
One of the points of Steemit is to add value to the community as a whole; this in turn makes your own Steemit investment more valuable.
And DON'T forget the value of etiquette in itself!
And before anyone points this out to me, yes, I have ignored this sensible action once or twice myself ;> - Add value. Let me repeat, add value. Back the OP up with a fact, provide a complementary link, continue the discussion. At the least, if you are just going to say "good post", mention a specific part of the blog that was good. Creators love hearing that someone actually READ their work, instead of wondering if somebody just made a penny by upvoting and leaving a cut-and-pasted "I loved it!"
- This may be counter intuitive, but curate the things that interest you. If you are just checking votes in the Trending category, you aren't really adding value to the platform; if all you have done is to add a few more cents to Steemit, you aren't really adding value. The value in pennies is always going to rise, one way or another, but a site full of upvoted crap will not pull in new creators, or retain readers. By curating content that interests YOU, you have the opportunity to reward quality content and to add value to that content with your own knowledgeable comments.
- Always upvote @stevescoins. Really ;> Even when I am an ass ;>
- Remember that it's hard to be a creator AND a curator, but that as a creator you should try to curate as well. If we all just post our own creation and never check out the work of others, then none of us will benefit. This is the thing I have the hardest time achieving myself. I tend to zone out for a while after completing a post.
- I don't see anything wrong with resteeming good content; in fact the only reason that I don't resteem more is a selfish desire to see mainly my own work on my blog. If you aren't creating your own stuff, please resteem those posts you enjoy the most. I can't qualify this, but a resteem is more valuable than an upvote for minnow curators.
- Make the effort to look for new Steemers, especially for those working in your area of interest. New contribuors are just as much as an investment to the platform as posts are.
That's all I can think of, but I'm sure we can add quite a few more!