Most accounts fail to buy HIVE POWER. After studying the platform I decided that the best path for success would be to start an account by buying $500 worth of HIVE POWER and then work to double the value of the account.

The Upvote Calculator shows the value of an upvote for a given amount of HIVE POWER.

The voting rewards come from fixed interest on HIVE. The value of a given upvote is determined by current price of HIVE, the amount of HIVE POWER in one's account and the number of people voting.

The calculator says that, If you were to Power Up the HIVE in your account, the value of your upvote would be $0.0152.

The risk of powering up is that it takes 13 weeks to power down. The price of HIVE might drop. When I joined the platform, the price was over $4. I bought some HIVE when the price dropped to a dime.