Hi Everyone,
I have reached 500 posts on Hive. This feels like quite a significant milestone. Many hours have gone into writing posts, making videos, creating pictures and running contests. I have enjoyed creating this content. I have learnt a lot along the way; this has come from both the research I have done as well as many useful comments and feedback from the community. I look forward to creating my next 500 posts.
Two things that have kept me going
There are two main reasons I have managed to consistently post on Hive. Reason one; I am passionate about the content I post. Reason two; I believe my content has value to my intended audience.
Being passionate about my content has been very important. It keeps me coming back to it and drives me to maintain or improve the quality. I use a combination of words, pictures, videos, and contests to express my content. Different people digest content differently. I aim to make my content appealing to as many people as possible. I try to make my thumbnails unique and clearly recognisable as @spectrumecons content.
Most of my content relates to economics. I believe economics is an important field that everyone needs to know at least a little about. My content varies in complexity. Some of my content involves deep technical analysis. While other content is focused on explaining the application of economics to readers/viewers who are less familiar with the more technical aspects of economic theory and terminology. For my more technical content, I normally provide plenty of links and references to other content that elaborates or simplifies the more technical aspects of the posts.
To give you a better idea of my content. I have categorised all 500 posts in the following table.
| Topic | Number of posts |
|---|---|
| Actifit | 86 |
| Buying Selling Game | 13 |
| Covid-19 | 9 |
| Conference Papers | 9 |
| Cost Benefit Analysis | 10 |
| Cruelty Free Economics | 26 |
| Dark Side Economics | 44 |
| Economic Models | 8 |
| Economics is Everywhere | 9 |
| Economics Facts | 3 |
| Economic Solutions | 5 |
| Economic Theory | 41 |
| Game Theory | 19 |
| Getting to Know Me | 19 |
| Holiday Adventures | 8 |
| Collection of Posts | 5 |
| Macroeconomics | 18 |
| Market Structure | 14 |
| Memes | 17 |
| Explaining My Work | 10 |
| Puzzles | 40 |
| Steem Economics | 40 |
| Steem Milestones | 29 |
| 6 Week Economics Challenge | 17 |
| Total | 499 |
Note: I have one cross post, which brings the total to 500.
What about the money?
Earning from creating content on Hive has its allure. In my first six months on Steem, earning money from my posts was quite a draw. Other social media and blogging platforms offered close to nothing in terms of financial rewards. On Steem, I was occasionally receiving over $100 for a post. To earn as much on YouTube would require a massive following.
In the longer run, earning from posts was not a strong pull. Instead, I saw Steem as an investment opportunity. In November 2017, I bought over 15,000 Steem when the price was below $1. In November/December 2018, I bought over 60,000 Steem when the price was under $0.30. In October 2019, I bought another 25,000 Steem when the price was under $0.15. In March 2020, Hive was created. My Steem holdings were replicated on Hive. My Hive Power enables me to earn considerably more Hive from curating content than from posting content.
I have made the decision to focus on Hive rather than Steem. The Hive blockchain is taking a more decentralised path than the original Steem blockchain. I am currently powering down my Steem account. I have converted some of my Steem into Hive and some into Bitcoin. I am still deciding how much of my Bitcoin I will convert into Hive. In regards to Steem, I do not intend to keep much Steem. After the split, I believe Steem has lost most of its value. Many of the DApps have left and more are migrating to Hive. Much of the community has joined Hive and currently powering down. Steemit Inc. heavily controls Steem; I do like the idea of central control over the blockchain. Steem is considerably less censorship resistant than it was prior to the split.
Censorship Resistance
Hive content cannot be completely censored. Written posted content is stored directly on the Hive blockchain along with links to photographs and videos. Therefore, it is possible that photographs and videos could be removed, as they are not stored on the blockchain. Even though I use pictures; photographs; and videos, my written content has the most value. Written content posted to a centralised platform or blockchain could be subject to censorship. My content is often critical of Government or about topics that some platforms consider controversial or unfavourable to their advertisers or sponsors. Posting such content is not a problem on Hive. People that don’t like my content can downvote and reduce its visibility on many of the user interfaces. However, tribe and community user interfaces can maintain the visibility of the content to the people that are most interested in it.
Where to next?
I am aim to complete as much of my 2020 Vision as possible. I think I am off to quite a good start. My ‘Economics Solutions’ Series is progressing nicely; I have completed 5 posts. I have completed several more posts that have helped to tie my work together. My post Power, Money and Me Me Me, described my thought process and reveals how I interpret actions and behaviour. I have changed the look of both my @spectrumecons and Economic Community pages; I believe the new looks better represent the content on these pages. I have started up my contests again. The ‘Buying and Selling’ game has returned. I aim to run this contest for a couple of months as a lead up to my 2020 Economics Challenge Series.
I have yet to begin my 'Blockchain Economy' series. I believe this series logically follows on from my ‘Economic Solutions’ Series. I have not begun my e-books yet. I plan to complete my first e-book in the final quarter of this year. The content from my e-books will be mostly from my posts. I have not started my Udemy Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) Course yet. Progress on this course is running a little behind schedule. I spent more time writing about Covid-19, as I felt it was more relevant at the time. I will begin work on the CBA course in June and aim for an August release. In the second half of the year, I will spend more time on my Economics Community. It would be great if I could attract more people to write about economics. If the price of Hive climbs a little higher, my Hive Power should be sufficient to dish out some good rewards to content posted to the Economics Community. I will also need to promote the community more on Twitter and Facebook.
Big thank you to all that have supported me
I would like to end this post by thanking all those awesome people who have supported my page and my content over the years. People have come and gone but there have always been a few that have given great support with upvotes, engaging comments and useful advice. Next month will mark the end of my third year on Steem/Hive. In that post, I will focus more on the people that have helped me get to where I am today.
More posts
If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.
Future of Social Media
