Last month, I had a blast running a gif contest to help spread the word about @stellabelle's Join Hive initiative. So when @theycallmedan offered to sponsor another prize pool, I jumped at the chance to do it again! And in stupendously serendipitous timing, the announcement of the renamed and revamped WordPress plugin came out shortly thereafter, so doing a celebration of the the new Exxp release was a no-brainer!

You don't need to use the Exxp plugin to participate.

Since the plugin is newly launched (even though it's an updated and much improved version of one that's been around for years), I didn't think it made sense to limit the contest to people who are currently using it. So for the purpose of this contest, I want people who are excited about having another way to onboard people to the Hive blockchain, as well as people who are wicked psyched to have another awesome blogging tool in their arsenal. Think about what it would mean for Hive to have lots and lots of established bloggers sharing their content in our decentralized community, as well as on their traditional blogs! Maybe you have friends who use WordPress, or there are bloggers you follow - think of what it would mean for them to join us, and tweet accordingly.

You don't need to be on Hive either!

Since I'm posting this both on my WordPress and Hive blogs, I thought it only fitting to invite my non-blockchain friends to join in. If you win a prize and you aren't on Hive, you can easily sign up for free with my referral link to claim your prize. And full disclosure - Exxp, like many Hive Dapps (short for decentralized apps) takes a small percentage of the post earnings whenever you publish through their service. Which means that for anyone who signs up under my referral code, I will earn (as quoted from their announcement post), "10% of any future benefactor rewards we make on their content." It essentially boils down to, if I do make a few pennies off your post, it will be from Exxp's cut, and won't lessen your earnings. Oh, and I'm also delegating a small amount of Hive to people who use my referral link - it's like putting a gallon of gas in your blogging tank to help you get your account up and running. 😊

I'm more excited at the prospect of having more of my WordPress blogging friends on the blockchain to interact with. Kind of like when Facebook was new - if you're as old as I am, you might remember how exciting it was to finally join the site where all the cool college kids were hanging out (even though I was long past my early twenties at that point...lol), and I kept trying to get all my friends to join up so I could ~~feel popular by having more than three people on my friends list~~ connect with them on that brave new cyber world. That's how I feel now about crypto blogging!

To enter the New Exxp Gif Reaction Contest

First, follow the Exxp Twitter account.
Then, find a gif that represents how you feel about the new Exxp plugin. GIPHY and TENOR are two of the best places to browse for ideas. You can also create one either from scratch, or by modifying an existing gif (ways to do so explained below).
Tweet out the gif with an explanation how you feel, using the tags, #WordPress #Blog @exxpio and #Hive (preferably in sentence form). If you're able to include any other non-Hive tag that's currently trending, all the better, but you MUST include those 4!
Drop the link to your tweet in the comment section of this post (either on Hive or WordPress). I'll reply with the comment, "Entry confirmed" so you'll know you've been officially entered into the contest.
Enter as many times as you like, but only one entry per person into the contest.
Contest ends when this post pays out in 7 days.
OPTIONAL - add your referral link from @exxp's dashboard or @hiveonboard's site (details in THIS POST) either in the original tweet, or as a reply to it.

That's it! Follow those first 4 steps, then keep your eyes open next week for the winners announcement post!

Now to illustrate what I mean, here's an example tweet that I sent out a short time ago, using a gif I created by adding the Exxp logo to a gif I found on Giphy -

https://twitter.com/TraciYorkWriter/status/1321880023687696385
- TraciYorkWriter

Prizes

I'm going to do this a little bit differently this time. I have a prize pool of 100 $Hive (and another 100 for the followup contest... wait, did I mention there will be a Part Two to this in the coming weeks? 😊 ), but there are a few different ways I've considered awarding it - like maybe tweets with the top 3 engagement, or split up amongst all entries, or a random drawing, or via @fullalt's HiveTips. Speaking of HiveTips, if you haven't heard, they're back up and running after dealing with some Hard Fork issues - check out their recent post, HiveTips and HivePatron Update to read all about it (and if you love their service as much as I do, please consider voting for their proposal).

So, while I guarantee I'll be awarding a total of 100 Hive, I'm going to wait and see how many entries I get before making a final prize breakdown decision. Mostly because I want to make sure I spread as much Hive love as possible!

Oh, and for those of you who decide to create a gif, there's a good chance I'll also upload it to both the Official Hive Gif Libraries - HiveGifs on Tenor and HiveGifs on Giphy!

How to Gif

As I shared in the last gif contest, for me, the simplest way to create a gif is to find one I like, then use the Create function on Giphy (you do need to sign up for an account to use this function, but it only requires an email & password to do so). The creator itself is pretty self explanatory, but if you have any questions, please feel free to shout out. Here's a screenshot, to give you an idea of how it works...

giphy create gif screenshot

If you want to add an Exxo or Hive logo (or any other sort of overlay to the gif) my go to website is ezgif. It also has lots of features for adding text, cropping, optimizing, and other cool things, but for simplicity's sake, here's another screenshot showing where to click to add a logo/overlay...

ezgif screenshot

And here are a few of the Hive logos I use in the gifs, all with transparent backgrounds...

hive logo square transparent background

hive logo circle transparent background

hive logo heart transparent background

And here are a couple of Exxp logos...

new Exxp logo, square transparent background

new Exxp logo, circle transparent background

I have a bunch of others, in various sizes and transparencies, but those should be a good starter set for now.

If there's interest, I might do a more in-depth tutorial on customizing gifs in the future, but for the purposes of this contest, those two options should be enough. Again, please feel free to shout out with any questions, and...

Happy gif creating & tweeting!

EDITED TO ADD:

Well, don't I feel silly! I noticed, a short time after I published this post, that I still hadn't updated the widget on my WordPress blog that advertised the plugin with its old name (one that referred to that other blockchain). I've now created a new gif and updated the widget accordingly. Feel free to snag and share!