I had two and half weeks after applying for an account on Steemit to read loads of stuff about the Steem Blockchain, how to be successful in it, what will help me grow, how to write a good post, how to grow your follows, designing of banner, post structure and a whole lot of stuff you already know.

One thing I understood very well during my readings and researches was that you needed a good Steem Power to get ahead. Steem Power gives you influence on the blockchain as you can see in the description of what it is on the wallet page.

I joined in September and by October there was HF20, it became clearer to me the SP is very important to me when I started noticing that small account users were getting limited in what they could do because of low Resource Credit and to get your resource credit up you either wait for your resource credit to recover or buy/lease Steem Power.

With the coming of HF21the importance of SP became even more important because of the 50/50 author/curators reward sharing formula which replaced the old 75/25 sharing formula. This new sharing format means that curation is now a big deal and to get more of the rewards from curation of contents you needed a bigger amount of SP. From what I see the fall in author rewards has been greatly complimented by curation rewards.

Fortunately, the Steem ecosystem has loads of businesses on it that helps to keep the blockchain running by providing users with the opportunities needed to overcome the challenges they face and get ahead even on a low budget. Businesses like @dlease (@minnowbooster) and @blocktrades allow you to leased Steem Power for 1 to 24 weeks in the case of @dlease or 90 days in the case of @blocktrades.

Before I continue, I’ll like to sound a very big fat note of warning that this is not a sponsored post, it is not a financial advice and it is definitely not an investment tip. I am just stating my own experience which may or may not be useful to those reading right it. I usually say “if you quote me I’ll say I said whatever I said under the influence of alcohol.” I this case I am just say what I do and not under the influence of anything including water. Lol

A lot of new members are limited because of low resource credit and they don’t have the resources to buy a large amount of Steem that they can power up and hit the ground running. Some are lucky to have joined through Dapps that offered them some amount of SP for a limited time so that they can get start. And even with that some don’t get far enough as they see $0.00 when they upvote other members. You see, getting a piece of that 50% curation is also linked to what SP you have, the voting power used to upvote that member and when you made the upvotes. In effect, there is a big difference in what you’ll receive as curation reward if your SP is 10 SP and if it is 1000 SP.

Why I Lease Steem Power

I think this question is similar to asking someone why they would lease a car, a house or office equipment/machinery. You basically don’t have the huge lump sum to buy those things in one payment and even if you do have the money to buy such things at a go, you probably don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to get other important needs.

Remember that in a lease, you’re paying more at the end of the day than you what you would pay if it was paid one time. As an example:

A cutting equipment cost $200 but there is an option to lease it for 1 year at a cost of $25 per monthly and that adds up to $300. As you can see, buying it one time is a lot cheaper than leasing it. But assuming this cutting equipment generates revenue that can cover the cost of servicing the payment monthly, wouldn’t you rather lease it and still have the cash to purchase other office needs than buying it one time and have nothing for to purchase in other office needs?

If I was already here for a long time and had say 100 SP of my own and say by chance I came up with 40 Steem would I power it up and then have 140 SP or would I lease 2100 SP and then have 2200 for 4 weeks? That is the question.

2100 SP leasing

With your own 140 SP my 100% voting weight and with voting power at 90% your upvote will be worth $0.0011 per upvote.

With your own SP + leased SP you have 2200 SP and your 100% voting weight and with voting power at 90% your upvote will be worth $0.0172.

Bear in mind that the 2100 SP is just for four weeks and not a life time lease so don’t go kidding yourself that you have arrived. Lol.

Is It Worth It?

The answer to that question is very simple and it is --it depends on who you ask.-- In my case it was worth it but I bet there are a whole lot of users that will disagree with me on that and I get their point, I really do and would not argue with them about it because they have tried it and it sure didn’t work for them. So anytime you talk about leasing SP they are the first to tell you it is not worth it.

I have had the opportunity to introduce some people to the Steem blockchain and what I tell them when they ask me about leasing SP is that they must be sure they are going to be active on the blockchain before doing any leasing. Some users lease SP and are not active and when I say active I mean you are posting at least once daily, you are commenting on users post, you are following users that are into your niche, you’re participating in contests and basically engaging with a lot of users.

Your goal is to earn at least 40 Steem/SP at the end of the end of your lease tenor. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it the first time, you try and try again until you’re good at it. At some point you are able to extend your leases you’ll be extending your leases with your Steem earnings while your earns in curation via SP increases your SP holding. This takes time and patience and is not a get rich quick thingy.

Where Some Users Get It Wrong

I think where a lot of users get it wrong in the first place is when they forget the fat SP showing in their wallet is leased and so there is a time limit after which it is removed. If you focus and know that this is serious business and it is my money burning every hour that goes by, then you’ll understand the need to be active because every second counts. You cannot lease SP and go on vacation. You cannot lease SP and post once a week. Nah. You’ll definitely come out on the losing side.

Secondly, some people lease SP and place their account on voting selling mode. You’ll definitely lose on that too because what you receive as a payments for selling your votes and the curation that comes with it is nowhere near what you spent to lease the SP.

Thirdly, some people vote for themselves 10 times a day, they upvote their post and their comments. This ethically is wrong and shouldn’t be encouraged besides you’re not going to make anything meaningful from it. If your one vote gives you $0.0172 it means 10 votes daily gives you $0.172 and in 28 days gives you $4.816 in upvote value and by the time you do the 50/50 you’re left with less. Anyway you look at it, self voting 10 times daily doesn’t help your ministry. Lol.

In Conclusion

I think the key to success is engagement and creating good contents. If you’re reading users post and engaging with them via comment, upvotes, resteems, participating in their contest/task and really making friends with time you’re growing you followers and they’ll reciprocate in like manner. In reciprocating you discover that a lot of users are upvoting you for far more than the $0.01 used to upvote the user. Creating good contents is another very good attraction because it draws people to your post regularly and if they like what they read you get rewarded with upvotes. People naturally like things that add value to them, if you are adding value then value will be added to you.

Please note that this is just my personal view on the topic from my own short experience on the blockchain, so don’t do as I do because there is also some element of luck in it too.

Thanks for reading my post, you can connect with me on Steem at https://steemit.com/@ketcom

Image credit: From minnowbooster.net leasing page