Leofinance.io is a crypto and finance blogging "first" platform designed to bring the best minds together in creating, engaging, and rewarding each other's contributions to the platform. How do you contribute to this wonderful ecosystem? Most people begin by writing their first post; then they write a second, a third, and before they know it, they have written thousands of posts. So, how do you go about posting?
In this post and the one that follows, join me as I develop the ultimate guide to posting on Leofinance, where we will explore all the best practises for posting on Leofinance.
This post will cover the following:
- What can you post on Leofinance?
- How do you make and publish a Leofinance.io post?
What can you post on Leofinance.io?
By implied meaning, you can simply deduce from the word "Leofinance" that the platform is basically about Financial Matters. Leo is a Greek word that means "lion," so basically, we are the Lions of Finance-related matters on the Hive blockchain. What does this mean?
Basically, all conversations, and posts on Leofinance.io should have some financial connotations and implications. So, does it have to do with money? Just bring it on. You are not stereotyped in what you will write about, and as long as you do not deviate from the whole idea of the platform, you are good to go.
Leofinance bloggers may occasionally write about unrelated topics while incorporating financial connotations and implications.However, most bloggers on Leofinance feel comfortable talking about issues like:
Cryptocurrencies: latest crypto updates, latest giveaways and airdrops, heads up on scam projects, managing one's crypto portfolio, Hive and Leofinance issues, and many more. As best practice, it is important to avoid giving direct financial/investment advice.
Personal finance: Some Leofinance writers also share their thoughts on personal finance and general financial education topics.You can write on issues such as investing strategies, saving, frugality, etc.
World order: Some Leofinance writers find it fun to write about global financial issues and events, and sometimes, political issues in relation to finance. Such events include but are not limited to the activities of multinational corporations (e.g. Apple, Google, Twitter, etc.) and their financial implications, as well as political issues that could have some financial implications.
Leo offerings: Leofinance is more than just a blogging platform. It is an ecosystem that offers a lot more. These offerings include the Leofinance Decentralized Exchange (LeoDex), Leofinance Wiki and dictionaries (Leopedia and Leoglossary), a Leofinance statistical tool for Hive (Hivestats), Leofinance Decentralized Finance (DeFi) offerings (CubFinance and Polycub), among others. The Leofinance team always appreciates people writing about these topics. So, having a grasp on them, and creating content surrounding these other parts of the ecosystem is a Leofinance worthy content.
I cannot exhaust the list of Leofinance worthy contents, but as most people would recommend - "Learn from the Best". Here are some of the best I know of, whose contents, writing style, and level of depth, among other things, can be emulated:
@Josediccus: There is a lot to learn from this dude. To me, he seems more like a personal finance blogger, and a financial educator. Once he in a while, he delves into some deep crypto stuff like Splinterlands gaming, and more. He is a reputable member of the Leofinance community.
@Taskmaster4450: Taskmaster is more of a crypto guy and a Hive-centric blogger. He has a unique twist for every global event and almost always proposes how Hive could save the day. He is a pro-Hive person, and an excellent Leofinance writer.
@Geekgirl: Women and girls can blog just as well as men, and Geekgirl is an excellent example.Her blog is a mix of almost everything, and you will find well-structured contents there.
@Idiosyncratic1: Idiosyncratic1 is a cryptocurrency blogger who discusses everything Hive and other cryptocurrency projects.
@Finguru: Finguru is another excellent blogger with a broader scope to his blogging activities. I find his blog very interesting.
Disclaimer: The examples above are just good ones to model after. But do not go about copying their or other people's blogs. Plagiarism is an offence with severe consequences.
How do you make & Publish a Leofinance Post?
Making a Leofinance post for some seasoned writers is a very simple process. In fact, some writers dish out so much content that you even suspect them of cheating in some way.
Regardless, making a Leofinance post could be broken down into nine basic steps:
- 1-Selecting a topic/title for your post
- 2-Researching the mainstay of your post
- 3-Writing/compiling the results of your research
- 4-Proofreading and paraphrasing (if required)
- 5- Adding Sources and Photo Credits Where Photos Are Collected From External Websites
- 6-Creating a cover image
- 7-Plagiarism checks
- 8-Publishing, Markdown, and Tags
- 9-Finalizing
These are just the ideal stages to typically go through when preparing and trying to publish a blog on Leofinance. There could be more, or you could cut down on some (depending on your circumstances). With that in mind, let's talk about these steps individually:
1-Selecting a topic/title
I believe this should be the first and one of the most important aspects of your blog. Your topic/title is what attracts readers to your post. It is commonly said that first impression matters, thus, your first impression is the title of your post, and it should matter. Making it matter means you have to ensure that it is very catchy and meaningful.
Most times, a good post is basically one with value - it should enlighten, educate, or at the very least, entertain its reader. If possible, try to do all of this in one. So, when planning to write, find something trendy, or significant, and work on it by building your topic around it. Remember, as much as you do, (especially as a beginner), your topic should contain one or more keywords so that whoever will be interested in reading understands what he/she is about to read.
After brainstorming and choosing the next best post title/topic, the next thing to do it research.
2-Researching the mainstay of your post
Research is very important, especially when you are not developing an opinionated piece. The basic rule of thumb here is: never assume on anything, if you are not sure, research on it.
Research is basically needed to gain a deep understanding of the subject you are developing, so that you present the thoughts and facts like a pro, and present yourself as a reliable/trustworthy authority.
By doing a simple Google search, you could grasp the length and breath of an issue through news updates surrounding it, and a better explanation of the concept. If you wish to (as part of your research) find published posts on Leofinance, you could simply add Leofinance to your keywords when you search on Google to help it reveal only results available on Leofinance.
In the course of your research, do not be quick to close your tabs. Keep them open to aid in information gathering and referencing.
3-Writing/compiling the results of your research
This is the time to gather your thoughts and the results of your research in one place. So, develop/build on your thoughts, well blended with the results of your research. Be careful not to copy verbatim the thoughts of another person without making due references; plagiarism is highly frowned upon on Leofinance.
It is at this stage that you will need a good note-taking application. For most people, the Leofinance text editor is good enough to get the job done, at least you could apply markdowns (more on this later) and see how your markdowns turned out, and you have an autodraft feature that automatically saves the progress of your post just in case there is an interruption or you would simply like to continue later.
But if you prefer working outside the Leofinance text editor, I have two recommendations: Google Keep Notes & Joplin. Both note-taking apps have excellent cross platform compatibility, making it easy to write on the go on your smartphone and continue later on your laptop/desktop. However, I will mostly recommend Joplin because of its markdown editor, which makes it easy to visualise the appearance of your post before publishing.
4-Proofreading and paraphrasing
This is basically editorial in nature. You don't want to be that person who dishes out poorly worded posts with very little or no regard to basic grammar rules, thus, it's a good practise to proofread your posts before publishing to ensure that your audience has the best experience.
When writing, it could be best to think more about the impression and impact of your work on your readers than on how it makes you feel. With the foregoing in mind, it becomes more imperative than ever to put in every effort to dish out the best for your audience, thus, proofread thoroughly, and paraphrase where necessary.
I will recommend a tool for this as well: Quillbot. Quillbot has the best proofreading and paraphrasing tool in the market, according to my judgement. Proofreading and paraphrasing with AI tools such as this is especially important when you are a non-native English speaker.
More pro tips: It could be best to break long lines of thoughts into smaller paragraphs rather than simply muddle everything up together. This will make the reading experience of your readers more pleasant.
5-Sourcing Photos, Adding Sources, and Adding Photo Credits Where Photos Are Collected From External Websites
You are not an encyclopedia, nor do you have all the time to take all the photos you will use for your blog (recommended). As a result, you may need to share thoughts from other writers, whether here on Leofinance or elsewhere.
As long as you shared thoughts from an external source, citing or referring to the original source is the best practise for both SEO and ethics.
Citing on Leofinance is similar to citing in an academic paper. You can choose from a range of styles, such as in-text, and off-text, basically, you just need to acknowledge that the thoughts aren't your own and share with the community where you got them (usually a link). Here are examples of different ways to cite/reference/indicate sources (I will also reveal the markdown format below each example):
- According to taskmaster4450 in his recent post the US Treasuries are risk free because of its abilities to repay.
According to taskmaster4450 in his recent [post](https://leofinance.io/@taskmaster4450/hbd-a-safe-form-of-money-with-little-counterparty-risk) the US Treasuries are risk free because of its abilities to repay.
- The US Treasuries are risk free because of its abilities to repay Source.
The US Treasuries are risk free because of its abilities to repay [Source](https://leofinance.io/@taskmaster4450/hbd-a-safe-form-of-money-with-little-counterparty-risk).
So, basically, the long and short of the whole referencing is this: when it is not your thoughts, or your work, indicate and in what ever way you can, give is a direct route to the source of the work.
Additionally, Leofinance operates Leoglossary, which contains some keywords that may be found in your post. You could easily add a hyperlink to a Leoglossary definition or more to help explain the terminologies to your audience.
Another thing you have to add sources to are the images you are using in your post. Whether it is yours or not, it is important that you indicate where the image has been sourced from. If you took the images (or made them), simply indicate that they are yours. If you took them from another website, simply indicate where the image was obtained, as shown in the example below:
From the above example, the Source text under the image has been hyperlinked to the website where I got the image from. To reiterate, I simply copied the link to the image and hyperlinked it to the source text. You can also, alternatively, use the format recommended for sourcing by the website, for Pixabay, after downloading an image, they bring up this crediting option:
Simply hit copy and paste it after your image as I have just done here:
If you notice, the image has been obtained from Pixabay. But there are lots of other websites where you can obtain free images to use when blogging, here are some of them:
- Pixabay.com
- Pexels.com
- Unsplash.com
- Freeimages.com
- Pikwizard.com
6-Designing a cover image
Now your post is almost ready, and you are a few steps away from publishing it. The next important thing to do is to create your cover image (thumbnail). The cover image is a simple but catchy image that should provide a clue to what your content is all about. It makes part of the first impression, so, it should be well-thought out.
You can easily take a page from YouTubers' principles for creating a good thumbnail for their videos. According to content by UScreen, here are some qualities of a good thumbnail/cover image:
- Include bright colors, icons, and faces.
- Appear good on all devices.
- Have a design that matches your brand.
- Show what the video (in our case, a post) is about.
- Make people want to click.
There are lots of free tools you can use to make a cover image for your post, some of which are:
- Canva.com
- Visme.co
- Adobe.com/express/
You could also use PowerPoint or even Photoshop if you want to get into more granular details. Irrespective of the tool you are using, here are a few things to take to heart:
- Be as creative as possible while following the 5 keys outlined above (by Uscreen).
- When making a post, the first image you add to your post is your thumbnail image (even if it's a line or divider), so be sure to make your thumbnail image the first image you add to your post.
- It is usually best practise to make your thumbnail image landscape (1920x1080, with a longer horizontal sides and shorter vertical sides); this is the preconfigured format for displaying posts on Leofinance (for now), so if you have a vertical image (1080x1920), most of it may be cut off when displayed.
- Leofinance may not allow "not Safe for work" (NSFW) contents, such as those that depict or suggest nudity, sex, or other "adult" contents, so you may kindly refrain from such content and avoid images and thumbnails that depict them in your post. If they must be part of your post, simply indicate in the title or as part of the cover image that its a NSFW post.
7-Plagiarism checks
Plagiarism is a very huge offence on the Hive blockchain. You cannot earn from what someone else has worked hard to publish, either on Leofinance/Hive, or outside the blockchain. Found guilty, you may be blacklisted, receive downvotes, and sometimes be muted entirely.
But interestingly, sometimes, we may not intentionally plagiarize, and in a few cases, one or more of your thoughts may be strikingly similar to those expressed in an already published article. So, just to be sure, once you are done putting your piece together, take a few moments to subject your post to plagiarism checks.
Here are some tools for that:
- Smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker
- Duplichecker.com
A plagiarism check is especially necessary when you are not developing a highly opinionated piece. However, even though the plagiarism checker reports that your work is plagiarized, take note of the plagiarised areas, and if you have referenced the author or added a source to the thought expressed, it is not plagiarized. Plagiarism could be more, but it mostly occurs when you use the work of someone else and fail to credit the author.
8-Publishing, markdown & tags
To publish a Leofinance post, you have to be logged into Leofinance.io. So, visit the Leofinance website (Leofinance.io), log in with either HiveSigner or Hive Keychain (or whatever convenient means), and once you are logged in, click on the pen tool at the top of the page to start writing:
Clicking on the pen icon will open up the text editor, Let's take a quick look at the text editor:
I have carefully labelled different aspects of the text editor (these are the same as in mobile, just more compact) as follows:
One[1]-Title text area: This is where you should input the title of your post.
Two[2]-Body of the Post: You can write your post directly into the body section, or simply copy all your writing from your note app, and paste it into the Leofinance text editor. It is also in the body of the post where you apply markdowns. Markdowns are special characters you add to your post to make it look more organised in the final/published copy.
Five[5]-Formating tools: These are tools you use in formatting. So, instead of mastering all the markdown styles, simply use these tools.
Three[3]-Post Preview: You will like to know what your post will look like, right? To the right of the text editor is the post preview, which shows what the final copy of your post will look like after all formatting has been applied to it.
Four[4]-Tags: Tags are basically words that help get your post in front of the right people. Using the right tags allows your post to be seen by a large number of people as well as curators. Most often, your tag should contain something key about your post first, popular tags next, and maybe, a few tribe tags. To be good at tags, do well to visit some popular posts and check the tag section, usually at the end of the post, and see how people use tags. Another pro tip is that you should always try to exhaust your tags if possible.
Seven[7]-Post, Preview and Drafts: Once you are ready to post, and have done all that needs to be done, you can click on the "Post" button to have your post published. However, for some reasons, your text editor may close when you are not done posting. Whenever you are able to resume, old progress on any post is automatically saved as drafts, so click on "Drafts" to visit your saved posts. If you would like to see what your post will look like after publishing it, click on the "Preview" button.
Six[6]-Others: This tab contains the post navigation (navigations are added to a post once headers are added - add header with hash #, with more hashes representing lower level headers). The eye icon toggles the post preview section of and on. Next is the full screen icon, to toggle off and on some aspects of the page unrelated to the Markdown editor. There is an emoji section as well to add emoji to your post. We also have an encircled question mark, which takes you to the markdown guide.
Talking about markdowns, markdowns are basically the formatting options you have, just like you have the ribbons on Microsoft Word. Here are some basic/useful markdowns and how you can apply them to your posts:
| Markdown | What it does | How it looks |
|---|---|---|
**Text** | Makes text bold | Text |
*Text* | Italicize text | Text |
[text](hive.com) | Embeds link to a text | Text |
<sup> Text </sup> | Make text small (a superscript) | Text |
> Text | Quote a sentence | Shown below |
Demonstration of quote:
Text
Other markdowns:
Add hashes (#) to headings to make your headings and subheadings stand out, e.g. # heading one text Here is what it should look like:
heading one text
The more hashes you add, the smaller/lower the heading. So, add more hashes to maybe indicate a subheading.
There are a lot more markdown styles you could apply to your post, these are just a few. I will surely provide additional resources in the end of this post.
However, once you are done writing, formatting (applying markdowns), adding images, and adding tags, your post is now ready for publishing (posting).
Publish a post by simply clicking on "Publish" to reveal this menu:
Within the highlighted area, some options I recommend are allowing "Auto Reblog", so tick yes, and if you have a Twitter account, you may also want to share to your Twitter automatically by enabling "Auto Post to Twitter", after which, you may want to publish your post by hitting "Publish Now" or post it at a date and time convenient for you by hitting the "Schedule For Later" option.
9-Finalizing:
Now your post has been published. What's next? First, you may want to scan through your post again to detect some errors and maybe make some edits. Another best practise is sharing your post on Twitter and definitely creating a thread for your post on Leofinance using the Leothreads feature.
Finally, try to engage with other users, by reading, commenting on, sharing (reblogging), and even voting on other posts. Remember, engagements are not an avenue to beg for votes. Vote begging is an offense.
I strongly believe that we have been quite exhaustive with this guide on posting on Leofinance.io. There is definitely more to learn and useful links that could help facilitate your learning. The next part of this post will dwell on this.
**Moreover, as part of part two, I will also be building on your comments and recommended additions. I am not an island of knowledge, so, no matter how exhaustive I have been on this, I am sure there are rooms for improvement. So, kindly drop your feedback and criticisms; all of them and more will be addressed in Part 2 of "The Ultimate Guide to Posting on Leofinance".
Thanks for reading through!