First piece of advice is do it!

It really wasn't that hard and I'm no computer genius. It did take a few days instead of a few hours and I'll tell you why and a few pitfalls to avoid. I will link to the full tutorial's I used, but this certainly isn't going to be a full tutorial.

You just need to accumulate 10 000 SMART, which for some reason remains quite inexpensive still, and I'm honestly considering getting another one.

Second update your wallet

Here's the link to the wallet page, you'll need to 64bit Smart Cast 1.1.1 Version to run a smart node.

This extra step was actually super easy, and the new wallet download just upgraded itself with no extra steps, but don't be a fool and make sure you back up your wallet first, before making any such changes.

Third bootstrap is a lifesaver for wallet syncing

It took me a while to figure this out and I wish I new this when I starting syncing my wallet the first time. It took me over a month to sync my wallet the first time and I almost lost my mind when I had to sync it again as part of this process, but with bootstrap it only took a day.

Bootstrap is just a download of the blockchain that you add to your wallet directory. It's a life saver. You can download it directly from the very bottom of the wallet page here.

Here is the instructions for running it.

The smartcash.conf file

This was another small hiccup I experiences with the video tutorial I used. It talked about making sure you have this file, well my wallet didn't, but it was super simple just to make your own. I followed this simple instructions below, that were from this tutorial post here.

Also just to let you know, it was creating this smartcash.comf file that triggered the whole wallet re-syncing thing, so when that happens don't be alarmed.

VPS Hosting

I still don't even know what this means, but I was already using Digital Ocean to run a steemit voting bot, so I was hoping I was able to use them. I don't know the sign up process for the others, but I can say that this one is pretty simple. It costs $5/month to host your server, but they have a great referral program, where you get a $10, if you sign up using a referral code, and luckily enough I have mine right here. https://m.do.co/c/b463774e91cb