One Potato, Two Potato, Eight - SPUD

First off, I need to explain why I have, apparently abandoned my WordPress blog with its Hive account@steempress plugin: my audience there is very different from on Hive account@steemit and I have noticed that this type of post gets very little traffic on that site. I do, however, sometime in the future, plan a post - for them - about Steemit, Steempress and why I like blogging on this particular platform, too.

Life off the blockchain has been rather busy over the last few months, some of which ironically coincided with the most recent hardfork. I have been posting much less frequently, but have tried to do so at least once a week. In addition to the reduction in frequency, my posts have been longer reads and have taken much,much more time to prepare.

I am not one for contests - I keep on saying - but have, ironically, participated in more of them on the blockchain than in my entire life.

Why?

Not because I will win a prize (that has occasionally happened) but either because the topic resonates and inspires me to write or, as in this case, makes me think a little more critically about what I am doing on Steemit and in my blogging life, in general.

I did not formally participate in SPUD 7, but I did power up on 1 November. For the rest of the month I followed Hive account@abitcoinskeptic's lead and powered up more frequently, and with today's infinitesimal amount, powered up a total of 61,877 Steem for November.

Getting back to my musings, and when I started SPUDding, my goal was to reach 1,000 Steem which I acheived in SPUD 5. Since then, I've delegated some SP to Hive account@phctop3 which is now transformed into Hive account@yourtop3, to the newly established Hive account@steemsa and have leased some through Hive account@dlease.

But that's not all

I've noticed that the longer posts, following HF21/22, have yielded much better returns than before. What I did not do for the graphic below, was analyse the frequency of post in any detail. You will have to take my word for it (or look for yourself) that prior to the hardfork, I was posting as often as three or four times a week. During April participated in Hive account@traciyork's #steemblopomo and produced a post for nearly 40 straight days. The rewards then were nowhere near what they are now. The rewards from curation and engagement - which if done properly IMHO - also take time and thought - are negligible. Consequently my curation is now restricted to engagement on posts about topics on which I have something to say. That is often a lot. Sometimes I have nothing to say and the post gets a vote (of a value I determine). Of course, like everyone in a social network, I follow and engage with my blogpals - just for fun.
Oh, and one other thing: I did sign up for a couple of curation trails and two things happened: I discovered I was upvoting not just the account I wanted to upvote and a couple of gazillion accounts posts I wouldn't have upvoted, and I was upvoting myself, none of which rested well with me. My curation is manual. Very manual.

So, without further ado, here is a chart of what I have powered up on my account over the last five months:

As I've already said, for this month, I've powered up just under 62 Steem. Had I not formally participated in this month's Top 3 contest, I'd have powered up another 20. This liquid Steem went to paying the entry fee and into the prize pool and therefore also stays in the big Steem(y) pond.

A final thought or two...

I admit to being quite happy with the growth in my account given that other than the income from the small amount leased, 90% of the growth is what I refer to as sweat equity - posts I've taken time to craft and which people read and upvote. I am grateful to each and every account that does, and to those who stop by and leave thoughtful comments. These are all reasons for hanging around on Steemit. And the belief that crypto currencies and Steem, in particular, is a good investment. My time, at the moment, is the only currency I have to invest. All the fiat I earn goes into paying the bills and as you see in the photograph, finding water so that we can make our garden work (and feed us) again.

Until next time
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa

Photo: Selma

Post Script

In addition to WordPress I blog on a number of platforms:

• Steemit - a crypto, social network and blogging platform, to which I post from WordPress using the SteemPress plugin.
• If you'd also like to use your WordPress blog to earn crypto, join us on SteemPress.

• My WordPress site is hosted by fellow Steemian, Hive account@gmuxx, with fees paid in crypto currency: Steem Based Dollars. If you want more information, join the Steemblogs Club on Discord
• Should you join the Steem platform, you are welcome to contact me on Discord on be sure to look out for the Steem Terminal - a dynamic team of folk who will happily guide you through the apparent quagmire of blogging on blockchain.
  
  



• Narrative, a crypto blogging platform
  


• Instagram is a mostly visual platform where I post microblogs about fluff: usually food and the cats as well as posts that sometimes promise hint about future WordPress posts.