We create content to elicit a reaction. We expect users to view or interact with it and engage with that presentation in one form or another. Some people are successful in their endeavors and can receive any combination of the following:
- High votes
- High engagement
- High rewards
These benefits are NOT restricted to the Hive blockchain. I once thought that all I needed for high gains was a solid article posted at an ideal time. I could not have been more wrong.
The Contest
I attended PS 13, Roberto Clemente School, in Brooklyn, NY, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My teacher entered me into a storytelling contest. It was a topic of which I knew little. It seemed an odd sort of practice. No one read stories to me back then, and the stories I did know of I learned from TV.
The teacher called my mom about it, and then these two ladies went to work on me. They selected a book for me to memorize, clothes for me to wear, and coached me on speaking.
It didn't take long for them to deem me worthy. I memorized the book at the beginning of the week, and the contest started that Friday. I wasn't nervous, but I was uncomfortable. I felt like it wasn't me performing, but instead, it was the teacher and my mom. It was a dry delivery.
The kid that performed after me was terrific. He engaged the crowd, misdirected their attention, and made them laugh. The difference between the two of us? He must have understood that he wanted to be there, or he'd been doing that since he was born.
Trust
One goal of any author on Hive is to gain the trust of other users on the platform. When they trust that the content you provide is reliable, they tend to follow your content and vote on it accordingly. People on Hive, with thousands of followers, will not want for rewards or voting.
Caveat Emptor
Take care to use the correct markdown, referencing, and citations during your time on Hive or any other platform for that matter.
There are plenty of authors here who I trust entirely. I've put their articles through the wringer long enough to know that I can get comfortable and enjoy reading their work. If that ever changed, it would be some time before I revisited their blog.
People can make mistakes, and forgiveness is always possible. It's just not immediate in many cases. Be careful.
Quality
Quality in Writing
Some people are naturals at writing while others are not. I'm impressed at both extremes, especially when high rewards are involved. The point of this is not to single anyone out. Instead, it's to communicate what I feel I should focus on when writing something.
I've learned from reading the stories on @theinkwell that stories follow pretty standard protocols. It just amazes me I haven't realized this in the past. Some articles @theinkwell recommended to me include:
While theinkwell recommends these types for fiction writing, we could apply them to other topics. It represents recommendations for repeatable behaviors in writing anyone can use. It's excellent reading.
Rice on the Wall (ROTW)
When I first started on Hive, I came from Vocal Media. I had no guidance on what to do, so I started writing on various topics hoping something would stick. I don't recommend the ROTW technique for anyone. It makes for sad days.
At Hive, I didn't have many of the same issues. I was able to ask around and get some pretty good answers. I found that I loved writing about STEM and followed groups like @stemgeeks and @stemsocial for a good couple of dozen articles. I follow them still and hope to get into STEM again in the future.
Engagement
You can't grow your following unless you engage with people on Hive. Hive is an ecosystem, and growth requires networking. Outside of the occasional whale vote and introductory post, you won't generate much income unless people know who you are.
When you curate someone's post and upvote it, consider dropping a functional sentence that communicates how you feel about their presentation. More often than not, you'll get an equivalent response. If you do it enough, perhaps the author will remember you and decide to read through some of your work.
I remember someone speaking to me about their lack of support in various communities. There were two main problems with their articles:
- #1 Little to no use of references when writing about factual information.
- #2 Next to no engagement on their articles.
Issue #1 has its problems. People don't like DV'ing on Hive, so they will avoid your work if they suspect plagiarism or some other fraud. And if you keep failing to address the problem, people will eventually learn to ignore you when an article comes up.
One of the very few good use cases for a DV is issue #1. While most people will ignore you, someone like myself would not. It could be a wake-up call that helps you fix a problem.
Resolving Issue #2 takes a while. You can't expect much voting if you just put an article out there, hoping everyone will swarm to it.
Presentation
Your fans are out there whether you realize it or not. There are people ready to read your content. It's up to you to bring elements of your quality content package together and make your mark.
- Engage in the articles of others. Let them know you're there.
- Learn to create solid content that expresses the purpose of your article/video and delivers the message to readers that you want them to have.
- Oh, and ENGAGE with the people that visit your article. It doesn't have to be a single-sentence response. The more you interact with the community, the greater the chance that they will remember you.
- Be consistent in your content creation.
- Avoid producing content with next to no substance unless that is what the community requires.
Avoid No Content Pieces
It's a recommendation more than anything. My personal opinion is that if there's not much to say, then there's not much to vote on concerning content.
Take, for instance, the topic of images. I can look at virtually any picture I want on Google, and it would have the same impact on me as something on Hive or POB. Why would I need to vote on that article? HOWEVER, if I were to learn why the author chose that image and what it means to them, it would make all the difference.
@Proofofbrainio, if I remember correctly, was against the introduction of a POB tag for images. I argued that you couldn't have a community accepting all topics and then be selective about images. However, I see his point now following conversations with other members of the community. And so, I must make the change.
Given DPOS and ProofofBrain concepts, I can't prevent anyone from just slapping an image into an article and call it good. Given the same ideas, however, I choose not to vote on them. There are plenty of communities that are fine with single-shot images with no discussion whatsoever. In those communities, it's okay because that's what they seek.
In my opinion, Proof of Brain shouldn't be one of them. It just looks like spam to me without context. I think we can take things to another level, and we should.
In Closing
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
I see someone older, yet still devastatingly handsome, hoping to provide a good life for his family.
I didn't realize this, but many of the things that I'm doing are now centered around them. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I'm doing it anyway because it feels proper. I spend most of my nights up late into the morning and do everything I can to keep the weariness away from my family. Storytime, however, is my favorite part of the evening.
Until bedtime comes, then they become little jerks and DGAF that daddy's exhausted, lol. Kids.
I look forward to providing more in the future. Thank you for reading and following on throughout my Hive journey. The discussions I've presented are my own. These aren't rules to follow, but instead, are guidelines I've learned along the way. The exception, of course, is fraud and plagiarism so don't do those.
If you like this article, please consider upvoting and following @scholaris!
Thank you so much for your continued efforts and invaluable contribution to the betterment and development of our community, despite the difficult circumstances and peculiarities of your life. If we had such a nomination, you would well deserve the title of Most Valuable Player of our community)
I wish you better health, unceasing creative inspiration and achievement of all your aspirations)
Alekst7, thank you for the compliment. I don't see things that way, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I'm not going to blush, but I kind of feel like I am. Have a great evening/day.
This post by @scholaris really means something to me personally as it feels like it reflects the pattern of my own growth and experiences as a person and here on the Hive. I always strive to write something of quality and often refrain if I feel I don't have anything to say. And so I apologise profusely in advance for the long comment here, which could be a post in itself, and if anyone is offended by my insistence on leaving it here instead as a direct response to @scholaris, then please scroll on by🙏
I started on Hive writing about crypto....argh... only because I thought that is what the community demanded. I was so wrong and so bad at it!!! Looking back, I feel like I was just respinning. Bad huh?Fortunately, I only wrote one or two articles in that vein and I even wrote a short cameo story about it lol. Now there is nothing wrong with writing about crypto, but it was inauthentic content for me having very little experience in the field. Maybe in time, I might feel the need to write something in this field but for now, it is something I 'do', not something I write about as a central theme. When I engage with new authors I try to encourage them from the outset to be real and write from within so that they share the real them with the world through their writings.
The first time I truly connected with anyone on Hive was when I wrote from within myself, for myself, about something that filled me with passion. After all, the reason I had come to Hive was to write more regularly so that I could get back to my book project. And so the realisation hit that I was only happy writing if I was writing something meaningful to me. And in doing so I started connecting with people authentically and it felt good.
I mix things up with WOTW entries because some weeks the word just does not spark anything creative in me, try as I might, and so then I'll do a more discursive entry instead, and at other times there's either an abstract or a story banging down the doors of my minds' corridors screaming to be let out, and all I can do is hope and pray that I somehow do it sufficient justice when it is released into the metaverse.
I have always loved both reading and writing. At junior primary (age 7) I was ahead of my years in terms of the level of reading content that I was consuming daily at a rapid pace, my thirst for stories and adventures held between the pages of books, seemingly unquenchable. My teacher put me in a group of 2 for reading time and kicked us out into the garden as we were a distraction to the rest of the class😂We were so bored with the books they were giving us to read that we used to read them with accents and try to translate them as we read too. We found it hilarious, but we were just bored. So I used to take books out of the school library and the community library that better met my needs. I also always had books at the top of any birthday or Christmas list that I was ever asked for by my parents or family and friends. I devoured words like a chocoholic devours chocolate. At the same time, my passion for writing bloomed and I wrote many short stories, poems, and essays throughout my school years. I was an active member of the school's junior and later senior debating teams and took part in the Alan Paton Literary Competition, with my paper on Johnny Clegg: The Musician as Contemporary Poet in South Africa.
I am now beyond appreciative and filled with gratitude daily that I can come into this space called the Hive and commune with such a wonderfully diverse group of people who all have a love for the written word in common. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that you have said in your article. Quality must be at the epicentre of all that we do here. Regardless of where we each are on our journey and in our own growth as authors, we can all ensure that we put out the best content that we are capable of at the time. We can all engage meaningfully with others and in doing so learn more about ourselves and our craft. We can all refrain from plagiarism. It's just not cool and often so easy to spot in the tell-tale differences in tone and language and word flow. @scholaris, blush if you must, but the humanness and humility of your own story (stories), your personal history, and your talents are so pervasive and inspiring to so many of us. You build connections and lead the way as true leaders should, a guiding light, instilling confidence, supporting others, and putting out exceptional quality content yourself in the process. It makes me so happy that you read so much with your children too. To be a fly on the wall... I am sure your stories are captivating. You deserve to be appreciated, so now you have to live with the fruits of your labour and the enduring praise that comes with it 😍😂🙏
Thank you sam. I'm...not blushing at all. I stopped writing about crypto because I also fell like I was respinning content. To each his own, I guess. I love reading articles from Leo Finance, but I just wish it was for me. Maybe I'll pick up on it. I just feel like with that community I really need to know what I'm talking about.
I would like to call friends on this, we all have something to learn from this article, instead of making mention, I would send the link to them privately.
Thorough understanding of these would boost any newbie on any platform. There is someone that seemed to understand some portion of this right from her earliest days as a newbie on pob.
@funshee, she understood the concept of engaging which has pushed her to have an edge on most of the Nigerian who joined at her time.
She spent her first month, if not more doing nothing else than reading people’s content and engaging, and by the time she would start creating her content, she already had people waiting to engage on them.
I don’t know why I am saying this, but I would say I was impressed with the strategy, she must have had a good mentor to put her through.
I know of some users who joined when I did, but still have little or no relevance despite the fact that they post regularly. What differentiates them is the unwillingness to read through other peoples contents.
I'm truly honor by your mention, I figure early on that if i will stand any chance at all on the hive, then i will have to invest my time in getting to know and interact with my fellow Authors.
I could still remembered one time i droped a commnet on one of your post and you took out your time to checked out my page and discovered i had not created any post yet.
What you told me that day gave birth to one of my post here and from that day on, I started to post as often as i could.
What if i hadn't drop a comment on your post that day? To get to be known on the hive is very simple, one just have to learn how to interact with others. I guess some people don't just have or find that time.
Yes it’s simple, all one needs is to read and and comment on one, and do the same for 4 others, before one noticed it, it would be so difficult to stop reading and interacting, natural love for it would grow from there, and in no time would you create awareness in the minds of others
Keep up the good work in the community. Great job.
These are some interesting and very useful guidelines and how beautifully you illustrated them. I always get spellbound with you writings. Lucky are the contests that you are not participating in POB-wotw contest because your writings are way more superb, those stories and your personal touch, its just awesome. By the way how you even take out this time for writing after all your quality time in curation and other POB stuff? 🤔🙏. !LUV
Thank you for the kind words. As for how I find the time? I don't really sleep. I suffer from PTSD waaay back from when I was in the military. My life hasn't really helped in addressing all the issues and, now that I have a family to support I must use my weaknesses as assets. There are, of course, consequences to this, but we do what we can in this life.
I'm almost done with my Master's degree too, so that will free up some time for my expansion into Splinterlands.
Master's degree 😳👀, That's really commendable. Your Vast Knowledge and Experiences are your true assets. And what's better encouragement than a Family. Don't forget now you have POB Family too to encourage and support you. We all admire you so much. Keep us inspired sir. Good luck and all the best for your upcoming ventures. But seriously please take out time for you health and well-being, its really important.
It's just a degree that tells people I know a lot about a little. The importance of that to me is that it allows me to enter a higher bracket of pay automatically upon achievement at work. Also, between that and my upcoming certs in business and data analytics I can be pretty secure in the employment I'll have to seek out when my current place of employment shuts down in a couple of years.
My health issues (my back) should be resolved before March of next year. I'll be meeting with a surgeon in November to confirm the spinal fusion I need. After that, I'll be good to go. I'll have to do some exotic dancing to pay off the student loan bills, but my wife says she'll manage that part of my career well.
spinal fusion, 😳, that looks a bit serious, I don't have any knowledge of that. But I strongly wish you get better quickly and everything will be fine soon.
I have fractures in my spine. The phrase spinal fusion is nothing more than a fancy word to mean putting a bracket around the fractured portion of your spine to allow it to heal, but that bracket is never coming out.
In essence, they're going to make me a cyborg except without the fancy martial arts and superpowers.
OK, but you already have many super powers,😊 and after this you sure gonna be unstoppable ☺️👍
It amazes me too. Lol. Perhaps some people have a combination of hard work and God gifted qualities. He is one of them 😊
Oh, there's one more thing I forgot about that comment you quoted. At this time, I'm under constant pressure from work, school, family, and some other personal issues. I don't always have the time to put words into documents. So, I daydream. I daydream of writing everything down and think about the topics I have to address without writing anything.
It makes for faster writing once I do get the time.
I also day dream. I am not sure if it makes my writing faster or not but it keeps me anxious for sure. 😂😂. The ideas keep me awake at night and distract me from my work at the day. Lol. I think I need to be more prganized to bring the ideas to the document.
By the way, it was really nice knowing about your strategies.
Greetings 🌷
Aside from what I told Vik, I utilize organizational techniques and scheduling. During a curation session, I select a number of articles to curate in different rounds. I randomly select a portion of them for fraud checks and then I get set to read. If something seems suspicious, then I'll investigate, but it's usually pretty straightforward.
Oh, and I leave room for fatigue. If I don't think I can curate, or I'm distracted, I don't and move on. People need breaks eventually. I usually get this stuff done after homework and when the family is in bed.
I need to learn a lot from you about management, organization and scheduling.
Have a blessed day
Have a blessed day as well. It's nothing magical I assure you.
Preparation
I'll start with a Microsoft word or excel document. I'll write the tags I plan on reviewing that session and the number of articles I'm able to curate before I begin, and then I determine how much VP I'm willing to burn. Earlier on, I'd save myself some time and plan this out a week in advance. That way I can just jump into it. Now, I've got the process down so it's pretty seamless. I give myself the following options:
In a typical curation session, I work from 100 - 80%. At least, that's the goal. A lot of times I'll do one to three sessions of a 10% drop. I don't always finish curating down to 80%. I face a significant delay when I check articles for fraud so I need to plan my time accordingly.
Selection
With my POB tags selected, I get to "work". I select the first tag and select the articles to curate. I don't care about the articles I selected at first. In my first article, I wrote that I check for the bare minimum before getting into it: plagiarism stuff (references, quotes, etc if applicable) and content. If it doesn't meet the minimum, I move on to the next article.
If it meets the minimum, I read the article. Normally, I'll apply a low and standard curation to it unless it's pretty awesome. I try to give everyone a standard curation reward and then I'll go higher when I feel it's needed.
That's quite a planned work that gives an insight into your organized personality as well
A good insight into your curation process, thank you🙏
It's not perfect, but it's efficient for me right now. I'm currently trying to put a story together for a contest on Vocal.media. They're having a fiction story writing contest where 25 people(?) have the opportunity of winning 5K USD. Other runners-up will have access to the site for free during the course of one year.
I decided to combine the mini-stories I've written for the WOTW contest and develop them a bit further. I've got 73 days left to submit my story. I read through them again and I realized that the story is going backward since my article "The discord that fell the Tower". Each story since is a chapter before that first article.
It's so odd that things worked out that way. It turns out, that no one is a bad guy in the story. Not even fate and the cold cosmos were errant in their ways. Such is the nature of reality, however. Looking only in one direction only reveals some truth in that direction. It doesn't consider any fanciful quality at this time.
But I know now why the caelumic deity drives to commit horrors. It was his wife and child that caused humanity's despairs.
<><
@scholaris, you've been given LUV from @vikbuddy.
Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. (1/1)
This is just too awesome and superb to go through from start to finish.
Honestly this is a dream I wished I can attain one day to write something as perfect and cool as this,this is really amazing
Your post always amaze me and always encouraging,even tho I have write something like this in one of my post ,we have to assume our post is a product that people want to consume ,a product should b for utility ,a state of being useful , satisfactory and beneficiary,when a product like all this quality this will drive customer away ,this also applicable to our post ,when we write a post that is not beneficiary to the community ,it will only take a while when people will start ignoring our post ,also making a profit on a product is not only about the good that product is ,it is also about how we present and interact with our customers, promotion bring good return,
Thanks for your this post ,I pick the part am packing and will make adjustments
A great informative post Pal, I believe it is difficult to please all of the people, all of the time.
It would take a true master of the craft of creative writing to achieve such a feat.
With that being said you have touched on each of the key qualities of creating such great works and acheiving success as a writer.
It is never easy, takes time, dedication and of course delivery of a well presented and quality article that people want to know more about, dive in, engage and get to know the author.
You have that gift and I enjoy reading your work, I might not get to do it as often as I would like, but I certainly appreciate it and the constant work you do to make #pob a much better place.
Always engaging, always supportive, I think these are the qualities that makes #hive and #pob stand out from the crowd.
Respect.
A couple of times I read from users they think social media blogging is an easy way of earning. I was like "haaaaah! It is not easy at all." It requires consistency in posting as well as in engagement with no compromise on quality. It is a job requiring a lot of efforts.
Thanks for these guidelines @scholaris sir. They are clearly telling what we are supposed to do build ourselves and to make us valuable on the platform. The progress on any social media site is indeed a give and take process. What we give to community and individuals, we get back.
I think learning to create quality content is a matter of time. The trick is catching on to that wider audience so they can help you learn and grow.
Social media blogging is as easy as Hive blogging once you have the reputation and following. It's all about creating quality content that you can efficiently share with a wider audience that trusts you.
Lol. And that needs a lot of work
One could only imagine. This writ up clarifies that people don't just shoot up from the grass, it takes time and a steady process. Communication and consistency.
With all the work, you still have time for the people that matter the most, some daddies just keep working to make life easier and forget about the parental care they should be giving.
Its a good thing you still tell bedtime stories.
Nice write up.
This article had enlightened me the more on areas I was blinded to. Most of us here also started like you, or maybe worst with no one to guide us through writing. We just fumble with words and hope that it works some magic. Learning never ends, it's a continuous process, we learn and relearn. Thanks for this piece
I enjoyed reading this and am following you to learn more. I have a lot to learn about much of what you have written. Though I keep having to look up lots of terms that are new to me.
But that's the joy of learning. So I hope to learn much more as I read more of your articles.
Greetings and welcome to the Hive blockchain and POB tribe. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I thought it was important to share what I've observed on the blockchain as far as what I believe success entailed.
I'm not sure about the experience you have with social media and engagement platforms like Hive. Here are a couple of articles you should review to make your time in the Hive community more enjoyable and profitable:
You have really through more light to all my questions, and I Must say that I am happy reading this post.
Your piece is enlightening, all-encompassing and what I'll recommend for every newbie that comes into Hive.
I wish I had something like this to read through when I started but I had some help. One thing that was stressed to me over and over was engagement! I worked on it and I'm still on it.
I found my niche which is fiction writing and joined the necessary communities. Thanks for sharing these quality package points! 🙂
I wish the same. I had no such support when I joined and it took me lot of time to reach where I am right now. I think someone to guide you through can really be a lot of help.
Agreed. A support system is always the best and willingness to receive the help and make use of it matters too.
I noticed there are some newbies that have support but don't make use of it for whatever reason.
You have come far @sugarandhaseth and you are doing great. 😊
I'm enjoying your niche so I'm very glad you found it and a place to share your dreams.
Your post speaks about your commitment not only to the community but also to it's people; your efforts to make them grow as individuals on the platform are commendable. These are the qualities of a true spirited leader.
This is a very nice article, very intellectual and rationally sound and I really admire the way you explained things on this post very plain and clear to the understanding of people that would read the post.
Thanks for the Enlightenment and I really have gained a lot from this post.
Well done!
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