Yesterday I got a surprising note of something I had always believed to be way out of reach... so much so that I didn't even think it was realistic: I was awarded the best post of the day, that is to say the post that generated most upvotes... out of ALL the posts published on the Hive blockchain. To be quite honest, I still don't know how I did it, but I believe my speculations are not entirely unfounded, so I'd like to share them with you here, in case you were thinking about shooting for this goal yourself.
Am I Getting Trendy?
Way back, when I started blogging on the old chain, there used to be a menu on top, where you could sort through the posts that were NEW and TRENDING. Occasionally I took a glance at it, and my impression was always the same: those posts had more than just a simple blogger behind them. A professional photographer (if not a camera team), a sexy young girl as a presenter, exotic and expensive tourist destinations, but most importantly, some mighty whales, who were just as interested in keeping that blog trending!
So naturally, I never assumed it to be realistic that I should be soaring on those levels. Instead, I wanted to keep blogging for myself, and those followers that were genuinely interested in what I had to share. After all, there seemed to be enough of them, and the community only kept growing, and forming new communities. And that way of thinking is where I remained until yesterday.
A Thousand Votes... Is That All You Need?
When I got the notification yesterday, I had just over 1k of upvotes, the rest came in afterwards. Hold on, that's actually not that many! In other words, I have been there before. I'm not going to scroll back now to find those highly successful posts that didn't get me an award... or even a notification of how close I had come to one. Still, I always figured that there were more votes cast on the whole blockchain than that! Maybe they were back then. Maybe things are more diluted nowadays. Maybe yesterday's participation was unusually low. Maybe there are a bunch of other factors involved that I have not even thought about. In any case, I am quite happy about this. After six and a half years on the blockchain and more than a thousand posts published it gives me a new boost of enthusiasm.
So What's the Secret Recipe?
Again, I have no concrete facts, only my own reasoning. What was the thing about this post that made it stand out? Well, first of all there is the right topic in the right community. You may have noticed that certain subjects tend to generate more interest than others (no matter how interesting or important other topics may be). Things that seem to be a recipe for success are art and travel. Interestingly sex is not among them, quite counterintuitively, at least from what I have seen on Hive.
Another possible factor for the success of this post was maybe that I combined two popular topics, namely that of travel, and beer. Although, I must admit, I have not gotten back as much resonance from the ##beersaturday folks as from #pinmapple. Still, I don't think it hurts to combine various potential interests into a multi-layered post, and then of course spread them in the respective communities.
Good Luck!
Finally, I should close this speculation with the great unknown. Luck might be the sum of all those factors you are not aware of... And in my given situation I think there is plenty of that. Sure, I would love to reach the award of best post of the day again. But can I replicate this type of achievement? I don't think it's that simple. Though one thing is sure: my attitude toward it has certainly shifted. Getting a thousand votes is not that far out of reach, after all. So let's see how long it takes me to get there again.
THANK YOU ALL!!!
Before posting this brief speculation, I would like to take a moment and thank all of you who have voted for my post, or even ever voted for anything I posted, or commented, or shared, or follow me, or have had any interaction with me on Hive. I truly appreciate you, because otherwise I would probably not be here now.