Since I started curating for curation projects in 2018, I have seen a lot of complains from authors not getting the attention and votes they expected. Most of them are, of course, gone now, for the same reason.
Upon getting onboarded on Hive, some authors expect they could just post, go to sleep, and expect to get votes magically after they wake up. I'm gonna be frank,
that's not how it works, my friend.
No matter how good you think your post is, if you don't make efforts, there will only be a small chance that your post will get noticed.
BUT ISN'T THAT THE CURATORS' JOB?
The role of the curators on chain is to look for posts they want to vote on. Curation groups have different criteria of what to upvote, but most of them find quality posts that are under-rewarded.
So if you are a new author or a returning author, if you still haven't figured that out, I'll tell you some of the things that you can to do increase visibility for your posts.
Tell me how
Don't compare yourself to other authors
I guess this is the most important thing to remember so I'm putting this first. The moment you joined Hive, you might have looked in another author's blog and was like "Damn he earns big shit for this type of content. I can do better than that so I should earn more." Then you post your first content and it didn't get the rewards that you were expecting, so you went to some random Discord servers and complain about whales circle jerking and they only care about their friends blah blah blah.
No.
Don't do that.
You're new. That author you saw who earned $30 for a witness update with a short text was probably a witness and an investor who did lotsa shit to improve the blockchain, and is probably one of the reasons why you got here in the first place. They're getting those rewards because people voted for them, they want to reward them because they knew what he has done and is doing to the platform.
Pretty sure those authors started from the bottom first before earning the trust of the community. You? You have to start from there. Climb up the ladder, nobody reaches the top in an instant.
So, walk your own path, focus on it instead of glancing at your neighbors. You'll soon get there if you put in some effort.
Make use of the communities
Before the communities exist, we, curators, look for content on different tags, self-promotion channels on Disord, other people's feeds, literally everywhere. It was quite harder but since now we got commmunities, we are able to find new authors easily. Make use of that. Create your content and post them to appropriate communities. Soon enough people will see your content once they visit that community or if they are subscribed. And you will meet people of the same interests. :)
Engage
Do you ever wonder how a new user got followers and comments right away even when they just joined Hive days ago? Well of course, because they engage.
Hive is a social media platform and it makes no sense if you're not going to socialize. Like why are you even here in the first place lmao. (unless if you want to just invest but I'm talking to a content creator)
In order for you to increase the chance of exposure, ENGAGE. This could mean commenting on other author's post, joining different Discord servers, making friends, joining Discord meetings, etc.
Of course, engage without spamming the chain. That means don't just comment on 20 posts and be like "Nice", "Great post", etc. Because that would look like you're just there to get noticed. You should engage sincerely you know.
If you want people to read your posts, read their posts too.
Browse your feed
It's for you to know what's going on and what content the community is posting. Find authors you would like to follow. Look at Trending to see some updates with the latest juicy drama or some Hive party update. Just explore the chain.
Create content consistently
This will give you more chance of getting seen because, duh lol. Like any other social media platform, those who don't post every day get fewer engagements than those who post every day. More entries, more chances of winning but of course, still keep in mind the quality that you create.
Don't spam too. 1-3 posts are enough for the day.
Also, there are a few curation projects that I know that includes consistency in their criteria for voting. They'd rather curate those who post consistently than those who post today and be gone in a second and come back 2 months later.
Know your audience
Do you have more followers from this country than that country? Then consider the time zones and the time of your posting. It isn't much important but it's also one of the things that you might be forgetting about.
We have users all over the world. Some have fucked up sleep but you'll notice when your friends are awake and are actively posting/engaging.
If you think you have more followers that are active in the morning (your time), then expect that there's less chance that your followers will see your content that you posted at 2am after you just jerked off.
There's a good thing for that too, other authors are active during that time so who knows you might be making new sets of followers. Just experiment.
Bee involved
If you really want to know more people, then consider getting involved in some projects. There are several competitions on chain or some activities or projects that might interest you. Of course if users see you regularly, there are more chances that they'll remember you.
Nickelback is the best metal band ever
Are you still with me?
No, I don't think they are the best band. xD
But if you have read up to this point, then I am effective in keeping your attention... which leads me to my next point.
Be creative with your content
Okay, so you already got their attention, now what? Each person has different interests and you should do your best to keep the attention going. The reason why I am writing like I'm just talking to my close friend throwing cuss words above is because I want my content to be funny. It's just how I write. And apparently it is effective since you're still here, reading my shit.
Anyway, the point is, you'd want your readers to keep on reading til the end. How? I don't know. You figure that out. We have different styles so choose what works best for you. Do you think your readers would like to see a post with a big wall of text with no proper spacing and other stuff? Some might like it. Personally, I don't. If you want to add GIFs or whatever, you do what's best for you but consider the readers' first impressions on your post.
One author that I would recommend that you look at as a role model, is @derangedvisions. Look at his neat formatting and how he tells the story. You'd want to finish reading everything. :D
Final thoughts
So yeah. If you really want to be succesful on the platform, you need to make big efforts. Nobody gets noticed in here that easy since there are thousands of posts everyday.
You can't just expect the curators to do everything for you.
You have to make moves yourself too.
TL;DR
No, lazy ass. Read the whole post if you want us to read your posts.
We wish you good luck on your journey and looking forward to your next posts.