How to Make a Guide on stephud

• The best guides solve one problem, not three. Can you say what success looks like in one sentence? If yes, that's your guide.
• If your topic is 'set up a home server,' pick the smallest version: 'Set up a home server in 30 minutes on Ubuntu.' You can always publish a second guide later for the advanced stuff.

• Five fields, all shown in search results:
• • Title — short, specific, action-first. 'Replace a PSU' is better than 'Power Supplies: A Comprehensive Overview.'
• • Description — two sentences max. What they'll build, fix, or learn and why it matters. Read it out loud. If it sounds like a textbook, rewrite it.
• • Category — pick one of the dropdown options. If nothing fits, use Other.
• • Difficulty — 1 (Easy) through 5 (Master). Be honest. If you Googled three things while writing it, it's at least a 3.
• • Time in minutes — add 50% to whatever you think, then round up.

Optional but recommended. A photo of the finished result gets way more clicks than a blank card. Pick something that tells the reader what they're about to make.

• This is the sidebar — what they need before they start.
• Good entries are specific enough to buy: 'Phillips #2 screwdriver' is better than 'screwdriver.' '8oz cream cheese, softened' is better than 'cheese.'
• Skip the things everyone has (desk, laptop, electricity). If they need pliers in step 4, put pliers in the list.
• You can group entries by category (Tools, Ingredients, Parts, Software) so the sidebar doesn't get cluttered.

• The body of the guide. A few rules:
• • One action per step. If your step has 'and' in it, split it. 'Cut the wire, then remove 1cm of insulation, then attach the connector' is three steps.
• • Lead with what to do, then say why. 'Remove 1cm of insulation off the red wire (so it makes clean contact in the terminal).'
• • Number your steps automatically — stephud does this for you.
• • End with verification. 'Plug it in. If the LED lights up green, you're done.' A reader should know they're done without reading the next step.
• How many steps is right? Whatever it takes. Don't pad a 5-step job into 15. Don't compress a 30-step build into 8.

• Especially for: the before state, the thing that goes wrong, and the finished result. Text alone loses people at 'now do the same thing to the other side.'
• A blurry phone photo is fine. A missing photo on a visual step is not.

• Lower on the create page you'll find these options:
• • Published — on by default. Leave it on. Unpublished guides only you can see.
• • Locked / Price — turn on if you want to charge for it (the payment provider handles this). For a first guide, leave it off.
• • Password — optional. Share the guide only with specific people (private recipe, work procedure). They get the link and password, no account needed.
• • Link only (unlisted) — hides it from search and browse but anyone with the URL can view it. Great for sharing in a chat or email without publishing to the world.

• Before you hit publish:
• ☐ Title says what they'll DO, not what they'll LEARN
• ☐ Description is two sentences and sounds like a person
• ☐ Difficulty and time are honest (round up on time)
• ☐ Every tool or ingredient is specific enough to buy or download
• ☐ Each step is one action with a clear success state
• ☐ Every visual step has a photo
• ☐ No 'I' or 'we' — use 'you'
• ☐ Read it out loud once. If you stumble, fix it.

• Hit publish. Then for the first week:
• • Watch the comments. People will ask the questions you should have answered. Edit the guide to answer them — every edit bumps the 'updated' date and brings it back into feeds.
• • If a step gets the same question twice, that step is missing something. Rewrite it.
• • Share the link in ONE place where your audience actually is. Don't spam five Discords.