This series is designed for people looking to curate for profit… If you don’t like profit, look away now!

Word of advice

If you are curating for profit, here is a new word to add to your vocabulary; Whalebombed. I was not planning to touch on this until later in the series. However it is so fundamental that I've bumped it up the list.

So what is being whale bombed?

Being Whalebombed is a bit like being Photobombed. You line up a post perfectly, get ready to vote on it thus maximising your Curation Rewards and then out of nowhere, BOOM... a Whale jumps in (far sooner then is logical) upvotes the post and messes up the rewards for anyone coming after them.

Let me show you in an example,

https://steemit.com/ui/@cass/ui-ux-vote-button-design-idea-redefining-reduction-inspired-by-deepsynergy

I spotted the above post by Hive account@cass as soon as it went up. You should always use tools that allow you to find good posts as soon as they go up. [Thats another tip for a separate post]

I read the post, then waited for the optimum voting window. You should always know your optimum voting window [Thats another tip for another day... Damn I knew I was posting this too soon!].

Anyway, no sooner had I seen the post than it was Whalebombed by Hive account@summon.

He had voted on the post after an incredible 18 seconds of it being upvoted! Hive account@summon has over 750k of SP. Anyone voting after Hive account@summon must REALLY love the post. Don't get me wrong. I like Hive account@cass's posts. Her designs and creativity are fantastic. I'd thought I'd got in early and was waiting for a sensible moment to vote. However I'd been bombed out.

To compound matters, two minutes later and there was a second Whalebomb by Hive account@rainman. The post hadn't ben up three minutes and it was already in treble figures... for anyone looking to curate this post for profit this was terrible!

I was out. There was no financial reason to vote for the post as all the Curation Rewards were pretty much zapped.

Counter intuitive

It might seem counter intuitive. I'm staring at a post that was clearly going to be successful. Attracting so many dollars in minutes. However my measly 35k SP would earn peanuts on a post that is had already accured over $100 in value. Even if it went to $10,000. There are richer pickings out there.

Don't get me wrong. It's fine to vote on a post that already has high rewards. However you should be clear that you are voting for pleasure only, you are not voting for profit. The name of the game is to get in ahead of the Whales. However anyone voting within 2 minutes of a post going out loses out to the Author for voting to early. It's was a no profit scenario a curator. Don't feel bad. These things happen. Move on, there are plenty of more posts to upvote.

Why do Whales Bomb?

The curation rules are designed to discourage Whales (or anyone else) from voting too early on content. Around 99% of any Curation Rewards due to Hive account@summon would go to Hive account@cass when he votes that early. Around 95% of Curation Rewards due to Hive account@rainman for this post would also go to Hive account@cass.

I guess they did it to show support to Hive account@cass. Hive account@cass will have scooped a large percentage of the Curation Rewards on top of the Author Rewards. In the current climate it is probably a good tactic as newbies tend to jump on posts that are hot. However in the future it will be possibly misguided. As curators become more savvy about the rules, there will be more curators that pass on good posts because the Curation Rewards had been diluted too soon.

What is not Whalebombing

Whalebombing is NOT when a post has been voted on after 20-25 minutes by a Whale. If you've waited that long to vote on a post then that's on YOU. You've either misjudged how popular the post would be... Or more likely you're being a Johnny-come-lately.

If you are curating for profit, don't be a Johnny-come-lately. [Again, another tip... for another post on another day]

Until next time… Happy Curating!

Previously in this series:
Tip #1 - Make your objectives smart