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I simply go to https://www.steemcreate.com and create an account for $20.

Good to know that you used this tool to create your account. I think, Blocktrades is cheaper than this but may be they are giving you some extra support, I dunno. Since I'm already on Steem, I don't prefer to pay anything on top of the official account creation fee.

Thankfully, I was finally able to successfully use SteemConnect tool ...the cheapest available tool to my knowledge.