Over 95% of the people I met here are gone or aren't earning enough to stay motivated. Once upon a time, we had a very bubbly and active Nigerian community on steem hive, just like we have on uptrennd today. My first entry point into the world of decentralized social media platforms was a sever on discord--airhawk sever. Then i discovered the wafrica team and community, a very active community of Nigerians. All these communities are more or less shadows of themselves now.
Most people would blame the exodus of such community members and leaders to whaleshares and now uptrennd (as I see most of them there right now) due to the drop in the price of the token and a promise of more inclusion in governance and running of the new platfroms. However, a few of us managed to stay back and buidl or at least support the platform and that turned out to be more rewarding than moving from one platform to the other.
So I have been here for about two years. I have earned decently during this timeframe. Fortunate enough to see my post on the trending page a few things. Despite the fact that I am not much of a social bug, I still manage to get decent upvote and the type of engagement I want occasionally. How have I managed to achieve that? Well, here are my tips:
- STAY ACTIVE
I spend close to six hours on hive every day. That might not reflect in my posting habits but I do make it my priority to be informed because 'information' is equivalent to money. The more you know about the blockchain the better for you. It is common knowledge that some of the most successful content creators are hive-centric. Well, except you were here before 2018 and had made some interesting friends in high places, you might struggle to create content for the niche you fancy. People's major interest is hive and they most likely will read and comment on posts relating to hive
- BE INVOLVED IN THE COMMUNITY
There are different ways to support the community. One of the most recognized ways of doing that is by powering up your stake. There is just something about having a lot of stake that attracts upvote. One of my friends who was once an orca had a lot of upvote and engagement during that period. He had influence on the chain then with his stake and he made good content which was an added advantage for him. However, ever since he powered down that stake the upvotes and engagement haven't been that much to be quite frank. So yes, if you don't live off your earning like I do please power up. It does have a positive effect on your earning.
Asides powering up, there are other ways to be useful to the community like developing a project or community; shilling hive. This shows you're involved in the building process. Your beautiful poems, pictures, videos can get you a sizable upvote now and for a certain period of time but it doesn't last forever. I know some very prominent vloggers on dtube who are no longer on the scene again. The thing is, this space is very dynamic and it evolves every single day. If you take a break or slip you might never find your feet again. The point is that you should be involved or at least know what is involved in building here.
- HAVE AN OPEN MIND
The reality is you might do the two things mentioned above and not see the impact immediately and it can be very frustrating. Many people don't stay long enough to actually achieve anything meaningful here. It takes time, work, and luck. For me, every post I make here is more or less a gamble. There have been instances in the past when I put so much time and effort on a post and it earned nothing and there have been times when I put the least effort and gained massive rewards. Things like this happen all the time. Some people are benefiting from the relationships they formed years ago. Imagine getting autovotes from a large stakeholder who isn't active on the chain anymore. Like I said luck and effort.
Another important factor I must emphasize here is that to actually have a foothold here you need to be part of the development process on the technical level. A developer is a priced asset to the blockchain and personally, I feel my journey as a content creator will take a backseat at some point because I honestly feel creating applications and solving technical problems on the blockchain is more rewarding than posting one or two contents a day.
Following these few tips should guarantee at least a 70% success on hive. Everyone I know who isn't a major stakeholder and applies these 3 tips have a level of success on hive, even content creators I consider to be average.