Today is Lunar New Year's Day. It is also #HivePUD day.

This isn't my first HPUD or HivePUD or SPUD or whatever the kind organizers are calling it now. It's just my first Hive Power-Up in over a year.

HPUD

When I came back to Hive on 2022.01.01 after a year's break, I had 5.84 Hive Power. One month later I have over 150 more and I powered up 81 Hive.

For those who can't divide, that's 27X increase #insanegains. I doubt I'll achieve this in a month again because I would need to make 4282. Maybe I can double it to around 300 though. Let's see.

My Plan

I stopped Hive for about a year because I was overwhelmed and wanted to do other things. No, I never quit, but I did sell most of my Hive for other investments. In hindsight, it was a very profitable decision, so no regerts. Diversify ladies and gentlemen, and not just into other altcoins or crypto stuff.

I've been trying to write 2 blogs a week - one on the weekend and one on the weekday. I'm comfortable doing this and I think I can keep it up. I find this is the right balance for now. Obviously, if I wrote more blogs, I would probably make more $HIVE, but I would also be spending more time. I just write about a variety of topics that interest me. Including the occasional one about budgeting or my investments diary.

I'm not sure how much #HPUD I'll be doing. Powering up 10 Hive a month is something I can easily handle for now. I kind of want to keep some HBD and invest some of it elsewhere, 50-50 payouts is always a good balance. Maybe I'll keep some as $HBD, especially with 12% APR.

One thing I'm not interested in is doing too many Hive contests or becoming too entrenched in any specific community. I know I can earn more tokens or whatever (it's good for people just starting out to find themselves), but I want to keep focused on me, myself and I, so I'll probably stick mostly to whatever I feel like doing. As soon as you don't enjoy doing something you are liable to get bored unless you are very well compensated. Don't quit your day job.

How I Got Back into the Swing of Things

To do #HivePUD, I went to my wallet, converted some $HBD to $Hive, sold the rest at the market and powered up HP, duh!

Anyway, like a smart boy, I changed my password keys before getting back into Hive after a year break and read up on the major changes including blockchain updates and forks. It's essential to understand the fundamental changes and keep the account secure.

For my first month, I figured I would just power up all the Hive/HBD I earned this month because, with ~6 HP, you can't do anything. For example, I needed to get a delegation of 100 HP (much thanks) just so I wouldn't continually run out of RC. I'm not in the top 5% of engaging (or a spammer), so 100HP is more than enough for my needs. But now that I earned 100, I no longer need that assistance. In any case, running out of RC is the worst. I have to say hello to old friends and have discussions on topics that interest me or with people with who I like debating/arguing.

So can anyone go from 6HP to just over 150 in one month?

Without some sort of track record around here, may be not. It's not easy if you are new to Hive unless you have experience blogging. I'm not new to either. I have a decent 74 rep account, quite a few followers and a history here. More importantly, I have experience writing and taking photos. And perhaps most important, I know how the Hive system works and had no problem finding familiar faces.

It's just like riding a bike - but now with a straightforward curation model, less drama and well-developed front ends.

Tips and Advice

If you want to have a decent blog, I recommend consistency. Primarily, it's more about the quality than the quantity. You can earn a lot more from one decent blog a week than 10 crappy ones. You can even take a few weeks off and no one will really care. Avoid spam, trolling, begging and insincerity. No one wants it. That said if you disappear for a year and power down, your income drops to 0.

No one is going to know who you are if you don't engage their blog. Also, do it in a meaningful way and not something that makes them want to avoid you like begging, scheming or advertising...upvote please, sir.

I recommend joining events and finding communities that match your interests. Unless you are a professional, if you aren't interested in the subject you are writing about, your writing is going to lack passion and you are just going to be exposed as some kind of gold digger.

Stay awhile and enjoy yourself. Stop worrying so much about how much Hive you are making, or trying to predict the price. There is no need to maximize earnings. Optimizing your time can come later, first, it's about finding what you like to do and people who like you. Fill your niche.

Happy Lunar New Year

This is the first time I remember Lunar New Year falling on February 1st. It snowed a lot last night, so I went for a morning walk. I walked to the reservoir to look for ducks. I found several interesting birbs as you can see in the photos.

After, I had lunch with my family. A few of my wife's relatives came over and we did some traditional stuff like exchanging money envelopes and gifts. Mostly we ate meat and of course ddeokguk (rice cake soup).

In the evening I played screen golf. I got a so-so score of +36 but I'm still a rookie.

I've got the entire week off so I have plenty of time to rest and relax. I'll probably take more walks, play some more screen golf and catch up on some chores and other work.

I'll be busy in about 3 weeks because my wife is due to have our son so things will change as usual. Fortunately, I think I'm about as prepared as I can be.

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year Hive Power Up Day to all of you.