It is Fucken' Impossible to Earn on Hive!

Forewarning

I will start with a caveat.
I have had a few glasses of wine.

And another:
I am still drinking.

I don't know if that absolves me from future sin, but perhaps it will clear me of some of the typos. I make more than I used to and have trouble going back and editing at times - but that is all part of the consequences of being legally brain damaged. I don't have a card or anything pronouncing my status, but since part of my brain died and the entirety doesn't function as it did or should, I am now counted amongst the mentally challenged.

This means that I am able to make fun of other challenged people, as well as enter into the special Olympics. Though, if mental inability is the hurdle required for getting into the Olympics, much of the world would be a shoe-in.

Moving right along...

OI000140.jpg

I got a comment recently stating how "these days" it is near impossible to grow on Hive without buying in heavily. This might be true and things have certainly changed on the platform over the years, but for the worse?

This, I am not sure about.

Firstly though, I would like to say that I have been on the platform a while and long enough to be part of many of the changes that have taken place over the years here. But, one thing has remained constant, I have always been told that creating a large account on the platform is near impossible. I have been told that since I started getting noticed, which was when I had a lot less than 10,000 HIVE POWER (it was called something else back then), and all of that had been earned on the platform and largely, without any kind of consistent support.

I remember when @acidyo (who has been one of my main supporters throughout the years and helped me in many ways) asked when we first started chatting if I had earned my stake through writing alone, or I had bought in. Back then, I would write for a couple hours and still get rewards under the dollar mark at times, rarely breaking 5 - but multiple times a day over the space of six months adds up.

But, I digress...
Kind of.

My point is that even when I had under 10K HP which is more than 255,000 less than I have now, people were saying how hard it is to earn and impossible to grow without buying in heavily (the token was under 10c then) or being a spammer, scammer or in some kind of circle-jerk. I did none of that.

Some of those people who said it was impossible back then are stillBut here, many of them haven't grown that much, at least in terms of HIVE POWER, but this doesn't make the task impossible, or even really that hard. After all, how hard is it to use our experience and daily life to create content once or twice every day? How hard is it to read and comment well on a few posts, make some friends, learn about the Hive blockchain, trading and crypto in general? How hard is it to participate in the community as a normal person with some semblance of personality?

Too hard for many.

But.....

Things have changed!

"Dad, you are too old to understand!!"

Don't call me Daddy.

I don't know why any man would want a sexual partner to call them Daddy.

This is how people talk though, like I am no longer Jenny from the Block and don't know what the grind takes these days.

Yet, things have changed.

There are far more ways to earn on Hive than there was when I started here in early 2017. Back then, video wasn't even possible on the platform and most of the time, pictures failed to load in the editor. There were no games (there might have been a dice game by @pharesim), there were no formal communities and there were definitely no second-layer tokens. No LEO, Splinterlands, Exode...

Speaking of Splinterlands.

How many people are going to "get rich" from blogging on Hive, compared to how many are doing it through Splinterlands? What people forget is, this is part of Hive and while independent, has been facilitated from the start by leveraging both the technology and community. There are quite a few Splinterlands millionaires already who owe a great deal of gratitude to this blockchain and the community to make it possible. It is an ecosystem after all and the dynamics in play are complicated, but nothing is standalone.


On a side note:

I look forward to Resource Credit delegation and the ability to use my claimed account tokens to empower more apps and users onto the platform.


Is it hard to earn a lot on Hive?

Fuck yeah!

But if it was easy, no one would be earning much, because it would have no value. Just like token scarcity affects price, skill scarcity affects the value of contributions onto the blockchain. As I noted earlier, most people can't even find a way to post consistently, yet still feel they are not rewarded enough when they do.

Have they never had a job?

If a person turns up to work but can't do the job most days, their ass gets fired. Pretty much every job requires some level of outcome and consistency, from being a Formula One driver, to stacking beans on shelves at the corner store - perform, or don't get paid.

But....

Almost anyone with some modicum of sense is able to earn something on Hive and those who really struggle to get anything, have to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror, because the hurdle to earn is very, very low. A shitty comment can often get something - A decent one a fair bit more.


Fun fact:

I have made 44,164 comments on this blockchain. If I take on overage 2 minutes for each (it is quite a lot more than this I am sure), that is 1472 hours of comment making in 4.5 years. That is almost one hour a day on average, seven days a week, since I started.


While I agree, the easiest and fastest way to grow an account on Hive is to buy in, I disagree that it can't be done starting from scratch. I can't say if it is possible now, but considering that I have heard the exact same words from people for four years, I assume that for some people who are truly skilled and dedicated, it is possible.

The truth of the matter is though, most people are not the kinds of people who are skilled and dedicated enough in the ways required to be successful here or on any social media platform. The types of people who "make it on Instagram" for example aren't the average person posting shit from their day, unless they are already famous. Citing Kim Kardashian and Ronaldo as examples of earning is useless, because they were famous prior to Instagram, which made them immediately famous on Instagram. They didn't need to build up an account, Instagram did it for them because of who they are.

Even looking at those Insta models who don't do much else but post selfies, are already in a minority of the general population, as usually they are pretty and fit, which means they have the power of scarcity behind them. However, in terms of Instagram accounts of "influencers", they are nothing special, which is why most don't earn enough to pay for the holidays they take to tropical islands, so their parents foot the bill.

I had a look at the content of the person who brought this up and found that they have four posts in the last month and 18 posts in the last two years. They joined in late 2017 when the previous token was heading up toward its ATH and post in a non-English language, content that until recently, didn't seem to have much effort behind it. Is it any wonder?

I know this post is ranty and the glass seems to be absorbing my wine, but I just wonder what people expect from Hive and the world in general. Do people really think it shouldn't require consistent effort and some level of quality to earn here? Do they think that it should be that whenever you feel like it, you can just drop a post of some kind and get paid enough to cover living expenses?

I know so many people who had the ability to be quite comfortable on Hive earning by now, especially those from countries that are far cheaper than the one I live in, yet they aren't. The reason for most is not just that they were not consistent (because some are), but they produce content that very few people are interested in.


Quiz time:

Do yo know why poets on Hive don't generally earn that much?
Because poets everywhere don't generally earn much


We are not living in Shakespearean times and this definitely isn't the place the millionaire poetry lovers join to support their love of their preferred art.

While anyone can earn something, relevancy to the audience still matters and while everyone can post as they like, what they like - it doesn't mean that the audience is obligated to add value to it, regardless of the effort that went into it.

I am lucky, I have gathered a fair amount of consistent support on Hive, but it is not by chance, I have put in the work and continue to every day without fail. Come rain or shine. In sickness and in health.

I don't know what the account value would be, but I would suggest that if someone else put in the same level of work and dedication, as well as considered what the audience might enjoy, they would be doing pretty well by now. Not many do - even those who earn well consistently, often fail to be consistent.

The greatest hurdle to earning on Hive isn't unique to Hive, it is the same everywhere and it is very easy to see, because it looks back at us from the mirror. You might not agree of course, but I suspect that for many of the people who have taken the journey and built an account that gets consistent support, they will agree with most of this, because they have done similar.

Another 4 years down the path, and there will be people saying how impossible it is to earn, while some people joining today have proven them wrong.

Time for a top up.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

H2
H3
H4
3 columns
2 columns
1 column
135 Comments
Ecency