“How seriously should I take my Hive content?”

If you've been here for any period of time, you've probably asked yourself this question and as common as the question is, a question I've been asking myself again these days. There really doesn't seem to be any one-size-fits-all answers.

What's serious to some is not always serious to others and what works for one will cause someone else to fall flat on their face. I seem to have a different answer every week. Like many of you, I have changed my approach multiple times during this 4 year journey.

When I started here, I spent a few weeks just playing around and testing the waters before deciding to put some really serious effort into my posts and started a series called "Optimism at the End of the World", hoping that I'd attract more attention and upvotes.

Yeah, I know, it's not all about upvotes, but I think most of us, first and foremost, just want to feel validated that we aren't wasting our time. There are so many things I want to do with my life, I only spend a lot of time at Hive because the friends I make, the knowledge I gain, and the overall contribution it has towards my financial freedom and ability to share my work with others.

That's a lot of reasons to stay right there, and all good ones, but they aren't always easy to quantify, and comments and upvotes are the two easiest ways for us to measure success, imperfect as they may be.

After you have been here for years, you know very well that post quality isn't the only factor for what brings success on Hive. Engagement on others posts and making friends on discord, as well as doing things that others feel benefit the ecosystem all help, arguably matter more than the quality of posts.

When I post my fiction, it usually does really great with the upvotes...and no one reads it. When I post casual blogs, I get a ton of comments, but I never go trending. Essays can go either way, depending on the content, time of day, and a ton of other factors.

As many new users, I still ask myself "How much should I really care about the contents of my posts?"

My answer to that always seems to come back to "as long as it's fun and not an attempt to milk", it's all fair game. The number one most important thing for me is that I enjoy the process of writing and sharing.

That seems like an easy enough answer, but it can get a lot more complicated than that once you actually start to gain a following and support, and the eyes of the big fish.

Since transforming from an old Hive account@whatamidoing into a young Hive account@selfhelp4trolls, I have been debating whether to keep things exactly the same as they were or changing them up. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that I am producing a lot more work off-chain, and I'm thinking of using this as a blog to link people to if they like my work.

I'm starting to take my Youtube channel more and more seriously, and no, not because I have any inkling that I may want to move my efforts away from Hive. I just see it as the best way to simultaneously bring more people to my work AND to Hive. On the channel, I talk about self-discovery and Spirituality, and will probably branch out to talk about Japan, culture and language as a whole, nerdy stuff like games and anime and also Hive and blockchain. Obviously I post all of these to 3speak as well, usually beforehand.

I am also serializing my first novel Confessions of the Damged into mini-ebooks and may use my music performances as I+Everything to promote the novel as well as do some podcasts and collaborations. I am just having fun doing all these things whenever and wherever I am inspired to and somehow feel that they will build upon each other.

I am trying to figure out where this blog fits into my collection of work. I would like my Hive blog to be where all my readers, listeners and viewers learn about new things that I'm doing, and random ideas that I would like to share in essay form rather than fiction, music or video.

At the same time, I've gathered quite a following over at my Hive account@whatamidoing account, and could easily use one account for more random, casual posts, and one for more serious stuff.

The problem with this is that I gained most of my following here from the casual, day to day blogging I did. Most people who have read my fiction or listened to my music only did so because they knew me from my casual blogging, not the other way around. That casual blogging and randomness may be the best tool I have for connecting with others here.

I may have given some people the idea when I started this new account after 4 years on Hive that my posting habits were going to be very different from the old one, or that perhaps I'd be writing only trending-worthy articles. That wasn't my intention at all. At least not at first. As I stated in my first post with this account, it's mostly about marking a new era for me and also as a way for me to connect my work off-chain with my work on-chain by using the same name.

And then Hive account@acidyo, who has always been an occasional supporter of my work made a sarcastic remark where he seemed to tease me, saying something like "you just changed you account". It got me thinking that maybe I should take this account much more seriously than the old one...that maybe I might even get on his, or other whales auto-voter since I have proven many times that I have a lot to offer the ecosystem. Maybe if I just shared my absolute best posts, perhaps, I'd reach the level of popularity that users like Hive account@taskmaster4450 or Hive account@tarazkp have, where almost all of my posts are read and upvoted to trending. If I can do that I will never have to worry again that I may be wasting my time.

To become one of the top authors at Hive no longer feels like an overly-ambitious goal for me. I'm really just a few steps away. I write a lot of good shit, I get a lot of good comments, people generally respect me and sometimes I do go trending. All it would mean is more consistency in the outcome, less of those "damn, nobody read this one...."moments. An awesome feedback loop of contributing the best I have to offer, and consistently getting back fuel in the form of thoughtful comments and big support.

"If one of these big guys put me on autovote...." Stop right there though. So I want to start pandering my work to whales now? Is that who I am? And is it really worth complaining with 5-10 comments and $8-15 upvotes?

Even if we have a few good whales and curations projects, am I going to start writing with them as my main target? Or will I keep writing to the people I've made deep connections with here?

I think one of the biggest reasons I have come as far as I have is that I've always been honest (brutally meta, even) and have never let the prospects for bigger rewards stop me from doing what feels right and natural to me. It's how I had the balls to start the #nobidbots tag back most of our rewards system was at risk of becoming totally meaningless and most of the whales were in on it or resigned because they didn't think enough people cared about quality content. I would argue that may have been one of my biggest contribution to Hive even though I doubt many people realize how much I contributed to that.

Being myself and not worrying about whether or not the whales were into it is how I became known to Hive account@abundancetribe and Hive account@naturalmedicine, the initiatives which have given me the most consistent support over the years. And even if Hive account@acidyo probably thinks a few of my posts aren't worth his vote, I didn't become someone that he follows by always kissing his ass. He must have seen that I was producing enough gold or doing enough for the platform to warrant the occasional massive upvote.... Actually, don't tell him I said this but I always seem to have more success in tickling his upvote finger when I tell him (in nicer words) to go F himself (Make no mistake, he is one of the best whales we could ask for, but as with anyone who holds power, he occasionally needs a good loving middle finger).

Yes we are getting very meta with this one.

I love being the one who says the shit that everyone is thinking, and not caring much how much trouble it might get me into. I only have the best intentions. I love being the one who makes content that looks lazy and “unprofessional” on the surface but is filled with gems from start to finish. I love being someone who can be honest about all the ways I’m fucked up while also insisting that I have a shit ton of greatness to share. I love showing my vulnerabilities even at the risk of losing some respect because then I know that when you do respect me, it’s always for the right reasons.

I like breaking every unspoken rule and showing that it can be done without being disrespectful or destructive.

I like fooling people into thinking that I don’t know whatamidoing.

So rather than trying to make every post a trend-worthy post in the eyes of others, like I was almost swayed into doing, I think I’m going to keep doing what I’ve always done, but do it better.

I’ll still share random thoughts and I won’t format every post to be on the cover of New York Times or The Onion. I will be uncomfortably inconsistent with both content and tone, because I can be many different people with many different perspectives at the same time.

The fact is, even if I do everything the same as before, the best I have to offer and the worst I have to offer is all better than before. And as much as many curators want to promote trending content that impresses people from off-chain, it's really difficult to predict what will impress people from off-chain, and having more content meant for people already on-chain will become more and more important once we grow in size. I want to connect with who is watching, not some theoretical people that may want to join Hive but aren't sure. And actually, what impresses the former, will often impress the latter, whether a whale sees that or not.

I WILL still try to step up my game though. I will try to make all my posts trend-worthy in MY eyes. I will feel great about all my posts, whether they are random musings, tough answers to tough questions, calls to action, building community, sharing passion projects or a shout out to other beautiful souls and amazing works. I won’t worry about trying to fit someone else idea of "trend-worthy". I’ll speak as if I’m already a household name, because I’ve already earned it at Hive and let people see exactly what goes on in my head sometimes, because that’s what I like to do and it seems to be what all my favorite people like to see from me.

That post I mentioned above that Acid teased me for, I have to admit, was not exactly inspired. If I ever want to post something especially lazy, I still have that Hive account@whatamidoing account.

Please excuse any and all self-promotion I drop here and there. It’s just that my music and novel and YouTube content, despite all their many imperfections, are awesome and deserve the same level of love and support that I’ve gotten in this community over the past few years, and dare I say, maybe a whole lot more. I'll do my best to make it quiet and seemless.

I'd like to engage with inspired posts too, regardless of what form they take...posts that you feel good about sharing, whether it's your daily life, your artwork, sarcastic musings or Hive/Crypto commentary. If you aren't excited to share it, I probably won't be excited to read or watch it. I think this is the best answer I can give to the question in the title.

Let me know your experiences with trying to figure out what deserves a post and what doesn’t. I’d actually love to hear that

I love everyone who ever reads this. I love Hive. I love myself and what I share and I love this world. ❤️

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🎬Self Help For Trolls

🎸I + Everything

📕 Confessions of the Damaged Coming March 15

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