Can Hive change my life?
"Is it possible to use a social media platform to change my life (for the better)?" - It's a question I've been asking myself for a few years now.
It's a question that arose from being unemployed, overweight, single and generally unhappy with my life. I wanted a change and since I couldn't really afford to change my environment, I needed to change myself.
Freedom
To clarify what I mean by changing my life for the better, I mean using a platform to generate enough money to pay my ever increasing rent, but also not being a time-suck / grind to generate that kind of income.
I also need to be able to create content on the go, wherever I am and preferably on the same device with minimal editing.
There also needs to be community support to keep me contributing regularly, preferrably daily.
Plus, any income needs to be easily transferred into fiat currency or exchangable for goods that can be traded for cash if I need it (rent, food, bills, etc.).
It also means personal transformation. A change in attitude, becoming fitter and of more benefit to both myself and the community around me.
I guess that requires personal accountability too.
Other Platforms
My original foray into social media was a site called Livejournal. Free to use, no censorship but you had to pay if you wanted to upload photos.
Myspace was alright for it's day, but was soon replaced by the early rendition of Facebook.
YouTube was great in it's infancy, when you could make a difference. I just didn't have the upload speed, video equipment or editing capabilities to really make it work in the beginning. I got to the point where I was making US$100 a year before they changed their monetisation policies and my channel stopped running ads.
Google still owes me US$35!!
When Steem was worth something, I posted a photo of a chocolate icecream sundae from McDonald's and it ended up paying for itself multiple times.
Instagramwould have been great, but you have to present a lifestyle that I just couldn't fake and after my weight loss, I doubt I could fill a bikini properly. You also need millions of followers to get anywhere there. I use it to post images to Facebook mostly.
Twitter is largely to share my Hive posts for the various tokens doing so generates.
Appics is pretty good, but I can't connect my Steem account to it for some reason. It's also been a fruitless grind.
They also need to connect to Hive in a big way moving forward.
3Speak is a good video platform that allows me to upload video from my iPad. It's still not as easy to use as YouTube, but I can get paid in Hive, quite handsomely occasionally.
I need to post more regularly and build up a following for this to be really beneficial. They also don't use Hive keychain, which means that anyone can hack your account password.
You can sign up with your existing Hive account, but it still requires an email address and password.
Hive allows me to create posts like this one, and incorporate many of the above block-chain dApps (decentralised apps), like 3Speak, Aurreal, and Ecency (which I use to type this). There's no censorship in regards to posting content, but I sometimes feel like an outsider here because my life experience is much different to most people.
I am also at the mercy of whatever the community deems to be true or agreeable in regards to upvoting or downvoting. It's quite random.
Hive also has various other forms of income like dCity, dCrops, Splinterlands and other block-chain games which provide a trickle of residual income.
So far, Hive is the best option in regards to income generation via social media. If you know of other dApps or ideas that could be beneficial, please let me know.
Maybe it's just a pipedream, the idea of being able to work towards my own freedom / liberation using social media, or maybe it just might work. The future is uncertain.
For now, I am off to pay my rent and if the wind permits, record a 3Speak video (I remembered my password!).
Thank you for reading.
Shaidon
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