Where do you find the time?

We all post to the Hive blockchain regularly, some of us every day, and some even multiple times a day. Many of the daily posters also post in a very engaging way, covering off many ideas and points within a single post, with tastefully chosen images to convey the message that they are looking to portray to those that will read it. These posts take time to put together and often take some research or pre planning, so my questions to you are:

when do you post?

How do you post? Mobile/laptop/tablet? Hive front end or another?

I'll answer these questions for myself now, to get things going. I have no real set time to post, and will post when ever some spare time reveals itself, but with three young kids, a wife, a dog, a job, golf, soccer and a large extended family, spare time does not reveal itself all that often! However, as you'll have gotten to know by now, I am a glass half full type of a person and as such, I'll always look for a positive if there is one to be found. One good example is my early rising kids, they often wake up at 6am, 6:30am or 6:45am if we're lucky. My wife or I will get up to make them breakfast etc, allowing the other to catch a few more Zsss. So when it is my turn to get up with them, I get their breakfast ready and when the morning chat and questions are all sorted and the boys are grazing on their breakfast, I either start thinking about what I might post about or even make a start on the post itself.

Sometimes, I'll get the post signed, sealed and delivered before I start work at approx. 8am, which is a real bonus, when it happens, as you almost feel like you are getting a day off. Sure, I could take a day off whenever I like, but now that I have a streak of over 50 days of consecutive posts going, I want to keep it going for another while, as the habit is well and truly formed now and I actually really enjoy posting and hearing feedback from my friends, as well as randomers on here. There are other days of course when work, the kids, my job and all sorts of other things that can pop up on any given day, can mean that I am staying up until between 10:30pm and midnight to get that post in. One thing I try to never do as well is sacrifice quality. It took me a long time to build up a following and support here on Hive, so compromising on quality won't be something that I will entertain. I'll only post about things which I think people may want to read and will always try to put some structure into the post and spend some time writing and thinking as I go. My god, that was long winded!

Ok, so I'll try to be a bit more direct and to the point while answering the other query around how I post. I'd say these days it is 95% on my my mobile and I always use the Hive.blog front end, even though I have heard people raving about the other options and how good they are, but for me, it's not broken and I know my way around this platform just fine at this stage, so this is what I use. However, I'm always interesting in hearing your thoughts and have got countless top steers over the months and years from many of you and how to tag certain sidechains, how Splinterlands works and loads more. There's no community like Hive - you are pure sound the lot of you!

What to post about

Ok, so you've etched out the time to post, the kids are asleep, the other half is gone for a walk and you've an hour to kill. Time to jump on Hive and post about something useful or interesting or share a great day out or dish you've just made. I used to struggle for ideas on what to post about when I first started to blog on the blockchain, but now because I post regularly, I always have something to share. One thing that help me is that there are two days every week where I don't have to think about the subject matter, as it is predetermined, instead, I just need to think about the content itself. I am talking about Tuesdays and Saturdays. Every Tuesday I choose 3 songs to share with everyone for Three Tune Tuesday something I started myself over six months ago and every Saturday I write a post about beer for #beersaturday, which is a really cool hangout that @detlev started over 4 years ago - I mostly do beer reviews on IPAs or other beers I have tasted over the weekend. Come and join us this Saturday or any Saturday - it's always fun and @detlev even gives out prizes of beer token, liquid Hive, amongst other things, which is brilliant.

What that means is that I have only 5 days in the week where I need to think about something to post about. One day a month will be Hive Pud day, so that's another one sorted and I try my best to support @cryptoandcoffee and the guys and gals at #sportstalksocial with one post per week (sometimes it goes 10 day or 2 weeks, but I try my best) The other posts can be about just about anything, but I often take inspiration from my photo reel, which can mean posts about my dog, days out with the family, golf misadventures, foodie posts, science posts, finance posts for Leo finance - the list goes on and on.

Engagement really matters

I remember reading this at the very start and it is as true today as it ever was and anyone starting out needs to make as much meaningful engagement as they can. This will mean reading a lot, so be ready for that. Don't drop in bullshit comments like "Great read" or "Excellent post", instead write a few lines or better still a few paragraphs about something specific in the post or ask a relevant question or make a good and useful observation. These interactions are much more important in the early days, so that people might follow you or jump over to your page to see what you are all about.

So, if you are reading this now and you are early in your journey, remember to build up the engagement first and forget about posting loads, as chances are even if you've written a contender for the Booker prize, you'll only get a smidgeen (read small, that's a Galwayism!) of upvotes, as the harsh truth is that in those early days you are largely invisible unless you are very lucky and an Orca or Whale spots your post and gives you a good boost from an upvote. Instead work on removing that cloak of invisibility through interacting with others on their posts or on discord.

That's it for today, stay safe

The images used are not my own and the following are the sources:

https://pixabay.com/

Peace Out