After watching the Hive tutorial videos by the lovely @indigoocean (thank you, queen!), here is what I believe I have learned about Hive and its various tools and features.
- What "curating" is
- When and how to vote
- How payouts work
- The importance of staking Hive and keeping some liquid
- A few ways to earn on Hive
What is "curating"?
So what I understand now is that curating isn't a title that you receive or a badge that you have to go through some kind of verification process for... it's not even about taking someone's posts and tagging or linking them within your own post (though this is a great way of showcasing someone with more intentional curation!). I kept hearing this phrase early on in the month I've been active here, and was always somewhat confused about it.
Well, now I understand that just by interacting with y'alls' posts, I am a curator. By engaging in curating your content, I am actively taking part in the distribution of funds from the rewards pool into the wallets of worthy content creators! That's really cool! Effectually, what I would normally do on any other social platform by saying "hey, I like your content" directly rewards the person with whose content I'm interacting! Additionally, I also get a little sum'n-sum'n when voting on great posts - but that's just a happy little side-benefit that I personally don't care much about.
So basically, curating is all about my vote and how it rewards other Hivers. Which leads me to my next lesson learned.
When and how to vote
I gotta admit, I've scratched my head when it comes to voting and percentages and voting power and whatnot. I've seen posts saying "you should never vote more than 10% on a comment" but never really saying how much one should vote anywhere else. What I learned from @indigoocean's videos shows that voting is more nuanced than a general rule of thumb like "don't vote more than [fill in the blank]"
I understood that my voting power is directly related to the amount of Hive I have staked as Hive Power, but I now understand [I think] that every 100% vote takes about 10% of my voting power or "mana", and it takes time to build this mana back up. The numbers she gave in her tutorial video was something like ten 100% votes per five days. I'm unsure if things have changed since she released that video, but it illustrated a point: voting at lower percentages allows you to maintain enough voting power to spread your votes out to more creators.
She also shared that the threshold for rewards payout to a creator is $0.02, which brings me to the "when and how" to vote bit. I like rewarding good and meaningful comments and interactions with me, but it's likely that I would be the only one to vote on someone's interaction... with me. However, there may be multiple people interacting and voting on a creators post. SO, when interacting with a post, I have some freedom of the percentage I use when I vote (which doesn't really matter much right now because I'm still a minnow in this ocean). But, if it's a comment - specifically a response to me - I need to make sure that whatever vote I give it will result in the $0.02 rewards payout threshold in order for the person I upvote to get the benefit of the upvote. Otherwise, it's just a waste of my voting resources.
I'm thankful I learned this, because now I will be more able to make meaningful votes on both posts and comments alike - especially as I grow and invest more into the ecosystem here!
How payouts work
So this one may seem like old hat to y'all, but this really surprised me when I found out! I know that a payout takes place 7 days after the original post was created. During that time, the hopeful creator is hoping that people will notice, interact with, and upvote the post in order to receive some rewards from it. What I didn't know is that the creator only receives 50% of the rewards from the post. The OTHER 50% gets divvied up between all of the curators that upvoted the post! Cool! Again, this part is something I don't care much for, but I think it's cool how everyone gets rewarded for the social interactions they are going to do regardless!
Another thing with payouts is that you can choose how you receive rewards from them as a creator. You can opt for a 50/50 split in HBD/HP (which I think is the most common default for most frontends, correct me if I'm wrong), a 100% power up into HP, or you can decline rewards from your post so that curators of the post get more rewards for interacting with it! This last point brings me to my next lesson learned.
The importance of staking Hive and keeping some liquid
So I was advised early on in my Hive experience to power up 100% of my rewards, which I still believe to be a wise move. As a minnow, I want for my HP to grow to the point where, if I 100% vote on someone's comment, they get rewarded for it. I believe the threshold for that is 500 HP? So yeah, I'll be powering up for a while to hit that goal.
However, it is important if one is hoping to turn Hive into a full-time job or even a side-gig for some extra, needed income, to split rewards between HP and either Hive or HBD because of the 13-WEEK power down period to swap HP for Hive. This power down period makes getting income from Hive very slow and painful if you need money in a pinch. It is better to take the HBD and set it aside in HBD savings to accrue that sweet, sweet 12% APY. Then, if you know you're gonna need cash in a week or so, you can withdraw and sell some HBD from savings in just a few days. It's also good to have some Hive liquid in order to ride the volatility rollercoaster a bit - because what is investing without a little thrill involved? 🤣
As I continue to grow on the platform, I will learn more and more about how to strategically parse out my resources and assets, but this is a pretty good starting point, it seems.
A few ways to earn on Hive
This brings me back to when I first came to Hive. I was looking for a way to be rewarded for the content I created. After years of being burned by Twitch taking 50% of the revenue I generated for them, and doing everything on other social media outlets completely for free (happily so, I might add), I stumbled across Hive. I believe it was probably the YouTube video from Ashnichrist a long while back... or maybe an interaction with @ddrfr33k on Twitter... but something drew me into the ecosystem. I was hesitant at first, not understanding a bit of how it all works, and so I left my account largely unused for several months.
Then, only a month ago, I decided to give it another shot. I began streaming over on @vimm's streaming platform (if you're a live content creator, definitely go check them out. Great people!) just for the hell of it, didn't get a lot of people in chat, but had a decent enough time just creating for the sake of creating instead of the "rise and grind" mentality that seems to pervade Twitch. I hopped off after a largely uneventful, but fun stream...
... and then I checked my Ecency notifications.
HOLY CRAP! I had over 100 notifications from people interacting with my stream because Vimm posted my stream to the Hive blockchain and to my blog posts. So what I thought was a quiet, uneventful stream was actually popping with interactions from everyone who stumbled across it! These interactions and upvotes led to me generating more revenue for myself from ONE FREAKIN' STREAM than I generated in over 6 months on Twitch.
Fast-forward to today, and I am here more for the community than the rewards, but the rewards are definitely a... well, rewarding aspect of being part of the Hive community! I learned that a few ways to earn on Hive include: posting high-quality content on a semi-regular basis, meaningfully commenting on other user's posts regularly, and participating in CHALLENGES. This last one is still a bit of a mystery to me, as I have yet to find and participate in some fun challenges, but it makes sense that when a community creates a community-wide challenge-style event, it's good to participate in those! Doing so allows you to get your name out there, get some exposure to other like-minded users and creators, and further generate the interactions that take place in the community space!
Also, seriously, don't sleep on @vimm. They are an excellent dapp on the Hive blockchain, and a majority of my generated revenue here has come from streaming on their site!
Conclusion
So, that's basically it. I wanted to share the cool things I was learning with y'all - partially to document my own growth and look back on it when I'm a veteran, but also to perhaps remind you all of the times when you were standing right where I am right now. Bright-eyed, full of wonder at all the possibilities, and COMPLETELY ignorant to the true value of the gift of Hive. I hope it brings a smile to your face, and brightens your day - even if only a little bit. Thank you for your attention. As always:
Take care of yourselves and each other, and stay thoughtful.
Your friendly neighborhood dork, Thinkr
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