Random Advice for Hive Newbies

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It can be a tough job being a newbie on the Hive blockchain. You write a post, upload it, and then watch it drift to the bottom on the New page garnering zero votes along the way. Do that a few times, and who wouldn’t start having thoughts about giving up?

I am far from being one of The Old Ones here. But if things on the intertubes can be measured in anything like dog years, I have passed the puppy stage or, since this is Hivelandia, the guppy stage. And I’ve learned at least a few things along the way.

Many things that newbies do here simply do not work.

Begging for upvotes is a fool’s errand. Stop doing it. It’s beneath you, it makes you look like a dork loser, and it does not work. Just stop.

Follow for follow pleas are even worse. People who’ve been here any length of time are annoyed by them no end. And even if you do manage to pick up a few followers, so what? Having followers is very much overrated by newbies. Having readers is what you really should want. Somehow, I’ve gotten over 2,000 followers, but only a few dozen of them are semi-regular readers. Your readers are gold. Your nominal followers are fluff.

The value of having followers is a bit like being Vice President of The United States of America. John Nance Garner, FDR’s first Vice President, nailed it when he described the Vice-Presidency of the United States as “not worth a bucket of warm piss”.

You want readers, not followers. (I’m speaking about mostly-text posts, but the same things are true if you post your art, photography, or video content.)

There’s no easy method, no quick fix, no magic bullet.

This is an attention economy. You’ve got to post content that people will want to spend their time on. Sometimes, that means useful. Sometimes, that means entertaining. Sometimes, that means from the heart. But it never means taking shortcuts. Spamming and plagiarizing will earn you enemies rather than readers. You’ll get downvoted, your Reputation number will drop like a rock, and you will earn zero.

So write stuff that people will want to read. And not just posts, write comments like that. Avoid “Nice post!” comments like the plague. If you’ve got something to say, engage with the poster and the Hive community at large. Lots of people read comments. I’d bet that there’s a significant subset of folks here who spend more time reading and writing comments than reading and writing posts.

Hoping to have Whales spray you with some of their massive upvotes? Fuhgeddaboudit. There are only 30 of them, and half of those aren’t even active as curators. And of those who are, you can count the number of those actively searching out newbie content on one hand. Of a guy who’s had an industrial accident that cost him a few fingers. But there are a lot of Orcas and Dolphins who do manual curating.

But know that whatever you do, it’s hard to earn Hive. And as more people join and post, it’s going to get harder. Hive just is not a get rich quick scheme. It never has been, except maybe in the very early days of The Old Chain Whose Name Will Not Be Spoken.

One thing that you might notice is that those who do earn well here are not newbies. This is not their first rodeo. And the posts that they earn well on are of consistently high quality. People like @meesterboom, @nonameslefttouse, and @tarazkp (all very different “styles”) somehow make it look easy. But looks are deceiving; they’ve all busted their butts here. And, after all, it’s pointless to compare your earnings to someone else’s. That way lies madness.

Hive is a long-term thing. Take ownership of it. Most noobs should not even think about cashing out their earnings for at least several years. Granted, there will be some exceptions, like those who live in Venezuela just trying to make it from one day to the next, struggling to put food on the table for their families. But even in those cases, I’ve seen people who siphon off their liquid earnings, but not their Hive Power.

So if you’re taking 50/50 rewards, strongly consider using the internal market to convert your HBD earnings into Hive and powering it up. Or (still keeping it in the Hive ecosystem) buy some Hive-Engine tokens for the long-haul. I like EDS, EDSM, LEO, LBI, and SPI, but do your own research.

Hive is very much a community. And in the great scheme of things, not a very big community. Yet.

Look around your in real life community. There are people who plant flowers, work in their gardens, and pick up after their dog’s poops. And there are people who toss their cigarette butts onto the street, smack their kids because that’s what their parents did, and piss in alleys after drinking too much beer.

Which would you want to have in your community?

Be that person in Hivelandia.

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Badge thanks to @arcange

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21 comments
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Wonderful post filled with great advice. One of the things that irritates me most is when I take the time to write a comment on a newbie post, and they don't bother responding. Being engaged is how you can make your account grow!

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As a newbie I was/am happy as can be if one was responding to my posts. I cannot understand how some don't bother to respond. Even if it's days later but still, try to engage.

I get it if you are hesitant to engage to other posts in the beginning. I felt like a creep the first weeks, but being consistent people sort of get to know you and some sort of relationship is building up.

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Exactly! Because of all the comments you have made your name has become recognized here and you have made friends who are happy to support your work. Engagement is key!
!ENGAGE 25

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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Lol, it pays off to creep around 😄 . But it takes two to engage, so I am very grateful that you all have done so and welcomed me with open arms.

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A lot of noobs here seem to think that the formula for success is write posts, make money. If it were that simple, we’d all be driving Lambos.

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I've found that making friends is the most important thing you can do to grow here!
!ENGAGE 25

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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Ahhh true words spoken, says the person that still considers herself a newbie. It is easy to fall into the trap of envy, probably human.

You join for whatever reason , you see the numbers, you want the same. Plus you may not get the whole ecosystem in the beginning. But if you be yourself it pays out more on so many different levels. Plus it pays out to learn how a decent post should look like, long or not.

And yah, most of us are just normal beings, so why not show that? I'm all over with my content. Having a funny moment, having a sad moment, having a smartass moment, be sure you will find it here.

Drawing readers, hard work for sure.

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And it’s just going to get harder and harder. Folks (especially newbies who haven’t yet developed relationships here) may have to concentrate on niche Communities and Tribes

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Well in the end that's the way to go anyways. At least for me it was a way, finding little niches where I felt comfortable and exploring from there.

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Thank you very much for this information I am new here to hive and I believe this is going to help me. I pray others gets to see this and read it and we all build this community together...I think most of them are here mainly for the rewards and not focusing on the platform's aim...hope this helps too?

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Thank you for the advise this will really help me grow henceforth ❤

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The next hard fork can't get here fast enough. Getting rid of convergent and the time of curation frontrunning by autovoters will encourage comment upvotes again. Engagement should be better which will help newbies since comments upvotes are likely the route by which their account will grow at first.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

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Agreed. The convergent voting algorithm has been around for way too long. Why anyone ever thought it was a good idea is a mystery to me. Have a !BEER

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thank you for the helpful direction you have shared with us!

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Wonderful post Sir. This is what newbies like me needs to read and take into consideration. I have always understood that any earning platform isn't a get rich quick scheme but you have to dedicate your time in engaging which I am doing here to build my account.
Thank you so much.

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This post not only fits well for newbies but anyone using Hive blockchain. I for one have a stupid excuse for not being engaging with other as much as I should on Hive. Most of my free time I devout it towards Hive games and discord channels. This leaves me with little time to go through the rich posts around Hive on a daily basis.

Ever since Hive moon to $0.70 I have try to realign myself to spend more time blogging than gaming. Still hook to the games but slowly doing more interaction on blogs too.

Thanks for the tips for blogging.

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I liken it to building a beautiful home. It's hard work, it takes effort, but is so worth it in the end. :)

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haha this sentence made me giggle

The value of having followers is a bit like being Vice President of The United States of America.

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