Hello and welcome back to my blog!
I have been on Hive for almost three years and just crossed the milestone of reaching 10,000 HP. I never thought I would get 10K HP this quickly because this is entirely earned from author rewards. I think when I came to the blockchain in late 2021, HIVE prices were at all-time highs, crossing even 3 dollars and making HP was tough but over the years prices have gone down and it helped me achieve this feat. But to say that it was entirely due because of the prices going down would be an injustice to this awesome community. I got a lot of help and support here.
I was one of those guys who never posted on Web2 networks, never shared anything on the likes of Facebook, and rarely posted anything on Instagram or Twitter (X now)... used them just to keep track of my friends and as a source of information. Going from that person to writing now more than 750 posts in total is a drastic change and this helped me learn a lot of things about myself and also about this beautiful community.
From never writing anything online to making posts consistently now. It has been some journey. My past self would be so proud of my progress and the development of my writing skills and consistency. This tree has grown a lot bigger from a seedling.
Here are the 9 things I learned in this journey to 10K HP.
Consistency and Engagement is more important than Quality. Why?
Posting consistently and engaging with others is the key to this platform. In my opinion, it is even more important than making quality content. Sometimes you work on that one post that you think will receive everyone's attention and upvotes but it never does and you think the post was not good. But in many cases, it was just that people didn't even bother to open your post and read it. Why? Because you were never reading their posts and engaging with them. Why would they take an extra step to go and read yours?
And about Quality content... quality is quite subjective so for me a gaming post with a well-made video with voiceovers and original thought but just 100 words may be a quality post but for others, it might just be too short of a post. I would recommend going for 'okay' quality rather than going for perfection in writing, presentation etc and using the time saved to read other's posts. Once you have an established audience, strive to improve your quality. This automatically happens to most of us as we write consistently.
Discord is one of the best places to network and learn
I joined a couple of discord communities in the first few days of mine and that was the best thing I could have done. I was referred to @theterminal because I was asking too many questions about the workings of blockchain and that completely changed my life. I learned a lot of things there, cleared a lot of my doubts, made a lot of friends and later became a member of their staff just to help others like I got help there.
Since then, I joined a lot of Discord communities, I am on my 100 Discord server limit now and most of them are Hive-related. Most of the time, you can get easy access to information about a specific project, you can talk to the heads of the communities and it just helps to network a lot. I can't recommend enough joining all your favourite community's servers on Discord. I bet most of them have a discord community.
Knowledge is Power
I would be honest, this is a much more complex platform than your average social media. You have to manage all of your Keys and learn about things like RC, delegations, Hive engine tokens, good curation practices, proposals, cross-posts, Web3 lingo etc and there is no one source to know all of them from... but if you are curious enough you will learn them easily. There is a lot to learn and I still learn things daily. So, never stop learning and ask questions until you get something completely.
Negativity attracts negativity and Positivity attracts Positivity
I learned this fairly quickly on the blockchain. Some people only talk about negative things and maybe they enjoy talking about those or they feel good but not everything is negative in this world. Sure, there are a lot of messed up things on every platform and everywhere but just focusing on them will make you sad and depressed and not willing to do anything positive. I am not saying you should ignore every negative thought but don't blind yourself to the good things that are happening all over the world just like on this blockchain.
As I told you when I joined HIVE the price of 1 HIVE crossed $3 and I have since seen it go down in value almost consistently. But with the price decrease, I got the opportunity to make more HIVE and that's how I reached 10K HP now. I try to look for positive things and recommend the same.
Helping others feels great
I got a lot of help in my early days here and that's the reason I love to help newbies and try to make them feel at home and not strangers in this unique but strange online place.
I came on this platform on my own and I knew no one here and I know that feeling. You feel alone and think why would someone help a complete stranger but if you get some unconditional help, you feel amazing. I remember in my first month, a dear soul, @wesphilbin powered up 10 HP to my account on HPUD and I was so moved by that gesture and thought why would a random soul send me money? He didn't have to do it; he barely knew me at that time. Maybe he saw the potential in me, maybe he just wanted to help me. I received some more gifts over the years but that was the most special one and I will remember that one until I die. God bless you, Wes! (You made my faith in this place even more stronger).
Write what you are Passionate about
I wrote on a variety of topics in my early days. At some point, I was going for communities like LeoFinance just because they were getting more rewards. But I quickly realised it was more like a chore and not fun to write on that topic for me. Naturally, I found some communities for me. The travel and gaming communities looked like they were made for me. I love to talk about those topics and now I am just writing about those. Even though I know that I should grow and write about more things but I am happy with what I am doing right now and that's the most important thing for me.
Attending Live Shows and Events is great for network
There are a lot of good weekly live shows ranging from PYPT (Pimp Your Post Thursday) to multiple weekly shows on Ecency Discords and these shows helped a lot in making a lot of friends. I was able to overcome my fear of speaking in a foreign language. My English was bad at the start, especially my Speaking skills and they improved a lot after participating in those shows actively. A huge shout out to @shadowspub for hosting PYPT and encouraging me to speak. (I will come to PYPT this week and pimp this post there...lol).
Hard work never goes unnoticed
I gave my attention and love to this blockchain and it gave me twice as much back. I have some good friends, got promoted to moderators and staff members in a few discords, became curators at a few different places and got almost 500 followers (499 at the time of writing this, I wonder who will be the 500th one) and a ton of love and support from many people and communities here. Some people noticed my potential and gave me those roles while I worked a bit for others but all in all, my hard work was noticed and the love I have for this community didn't go unnoticed too. I am forever grateful to all those communities. From knowing no one in this blockchain to getting noticed and praised, it all felt like a dream.
Make friends and don't forget to enjoy
I would have never lasted this long here if I hadn't made some good friends. I made a lot of lifelong friends on this journey. Also, celebrating small milestones with your friends is much more enjoyable. I don't know why but most people on this blockchain are super nice and friendly. Maybe it's the nature of this place, maybe this blockchain attracts all kinds of people and more of the good kind stay longer. Whatever the case, there are a lot of interesting people here and I have enjoyed a lot in my almost 3 years journey here.
If I were to mention all the individuals that helped me in this journey. This post would be more like a book. But I remember all of them and each one of you has a special place in my heart. Thank you for making my life easier on this blockchain! It has been some journey!
Thanks for reading...
Wes & Grindan