Here's how to stake your ICP in the Network Nervous System at nns.internetcomputer.org. This covers ICP only — for SNS tokens you'd use the legacy interface. I'll explain the dissolve lengths, how to get the best APR, and the one step most people miss. Not financial advice — just how I do it.
Dissolve length sets your APR
The longer you lock, the bigger your age bonus. Two weeks is the minimum and gives little bonus; two years gives the maximum. To me the two clean choices are two weeks (easiest liquidity) or two years (maximum rewards) — three months and one year only add about a percent. What's powerful is that your staking rewards ride on unrealized gains: if ICP went from around $3 to $100, that APR is effectively multiplied many times over against today's price.
Creating a neuron and handling maturity
To stake, create a neuron with your liquid ICP and choose a dissolve delay. Remember the lock can only be increased, never decreased — you have to dissolve to unlock — and it's final the moment you create it, so go slow and do it right the first time. You can auto-lock (compound) your maturity or leave it unlocking so you can spawn it. On a short two-week neuron, compounding makes sense since spawning takes seven days anyway. On a long neuron, I like keeping some maturity liquid so I can sell into a temporary pump without touching my principal.
Before you disperse maturity, always check the maturity-modulation chart on the Internet Computer dashboard under Network Nervous System governance. It trends up and down, and dispersing at 104 versus 95 is the difference between getting more or less than you earned. Time it toward the top for larger amounts; for a couple of ICP it doesn't matter.
The step most people miss: voting
This is the part that actually matters: your neuron only earns rewards if it votes on proposals. You can vote manually, or set up following so a known neuron votes for you. On the voting page, manage your neuron and follow a known neuron — I keep following set so I capture every proposal, because if your delegate doesn't vote on everything, you miss maximum rewards. Once you follow, you only start voting on new proposals, and it takes about a week from setting up a neuron before rewards begin rolling in consistently. Check your participation rate to confirm you're getting 100%. You asked for an ICP staking tutorial — this is it. If you want help, you can book a call and I'll walk through it with you on your screen; you can also follow more of my ICP work on my ICP playlist here.