April 30 of HiveBloPoMo and the prompt is - Share your HiveBloPoMo experience
I'll be happy to do that in this post. And I want to start by thanking @traciyork for organizing HiveBloPoMo here on the Hive blockchain and for putting together 30 blog prompts for each day of the month. Sure, I didn't follow the prompts all the time, but they did save me quite a few times. It was also interesting to see how many national/international special days there are 😆. Who knew? Not me!
As the cover for this post, I chose to make a collage of all the individual cover images I used. Should you count them (which I hope you won't) you will see that there are only 26 and that I cheated a little to make the collage fit. So, I missed the first couple of days because I forgot - boooh me! = 28 and then there were two photos that weren't mine (Splinterlands and a stock photo) = 26, I can't, well, didn't add today's cover = 25, so I added another image from my last March post into this collage. Fits all nicely, right?!
Now to my experience... I am sorry, Traci, but never again! Okay, never say never but never again in the foreseeable future. Why? Several reasons but these two are the deal breakers:
Too much pressure creates stress
I do not need any more stress in my life. If you have read any of my - previous - blog posts you know that I have a pretty demanding job. I happen to like that job most of the time so I am putting a lot of effort and time into it. And time is the keyword here. My job takes up most of my days and being in management I sometimes have a hard time switching off when I shut down my work computer.
Then there's working out, making dinner, having dinner, and hopefully, having a little free and fun time in between and after. Usually, that means blogging or commenting or playing a little Splinterlands and watching a film or series with the hubby.
With my commitment to HiveBloPoMo I found myself under pressure in my free time to fit it all most of it in. That was really stressful, and I'm not doing that to myself again.
Content quality
I felt that over the course of the month the quality of my content gradually declined. There were some posts here and there that I am happy with but especially over the last week I barely made a few days. If you look at my blog you will know exactly which ones I'm talking about.
That is not okay. I want to be able to like all of my posts. And by liking I don't mean getting lots of upvotes and payouts but me liking them for the quality of words I wrote, photos I took, or pictures I painted. It is my own personal standard that I am committed to and I failed to meet it in order to just post each and every day. That is no bueno, and I am not going to do that to myself again.
Now, having said all that, there is definitely a lot of positive about HiveBloPoMo.
If you do something daily for a longer period of time you are getting into a routine and will form a habit. That is not a bad thing especially if there are other positives. Let's start with the one that most seem to be focused on
Rewards
Over the past month I have grown my HP from 870 to now 970 but within the next seven days and their payout from April + a little HivePUD tomorrow I'll cross that magical line of 1000 HP and will also - probably - reach a reputation of 65. That means that my really small vote on other Hivians' posts will be a tiny little bit bigger - that makes me happy 🙂.
Building relationships
There are three Hivians that I know of that were on the same HiveBloPoMo journey and we have upvoted, commented, and replied to each other's posts over the course of the whole month.
Big thanks to @the-bitcoin-dood and @epodcaster and @greensandpinks for following along. I know we'll continue our journey further together.
On these two graphics, I highlighted my three new HiveBloPoMo friends in pink while the yellow crosses are members of my Splinterlands guild whose posts are upvoted by me and vice versa.
Engagement on your posts
These four pictures are my comment and replies stats for my posts of the last month. Some days weren't great, they were probably the ones where I just didn't have the energy or time to do the post PLUS comment as well. It shows - I didn't comment/reply hence there was less engagement. The effort, time, and energy you put into Hive anything will determine what you'll get out of it.
You might wonder if comments and commenting equal rewards? Yes and no. You will get a little monetary crypto reward for every comment. However, the real reward IMO is the engagement and relationships you are building. Most of my posts will get very few comments, maybe 2 or 3 or 4 and that's o.k. And then there are those that rack up 15 or 20 or a whopping 42! Okay, half of those comments are my own replies to other Hivians' comments. Since Hive is a social platform so I recommend that you do take the time to read and reply to comments on your posts.
In conclusion, I am very happy that I pushed through, it really wasn't easy - just ask my hubby who had to wait for dinner more than once 😂 - but it was worth the experience, the HP, and the relationships. Will I do it again? Not in the near future. Will I post more and more regularly? Absolutely, that is my goal.
Also, the above screenshots were all taken from my Peakd dashboard. If you haven't looked at yours yet I urge you to change that. Have a good look at it, it is able to tell you tons about your Hive experience here.
These here for example are my 5 most viewed posts of last, well, this month incl. time spent on the post i.e. you get a pretty good idea if people are actually reading your post or just skimming over it.
It makes me happy to see that these five posts include a lot of what identifies me and hence my blog: Photography, painting, writing, our pets, and stars.
And with that - this was my final post for HiveBloPoMo April 2022 - have a great weekend!
Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee
However, both blog dividers you see all over this post are up for grabs!
If you like you may use them in your own posts, no need to credit or tag me. Enjoy!
It was really great getting to know you, and for others to get to know me a bit. I accepted the challenge and made it through, but yes, time sometimes wasn't on my side. I'll still post, but I'm sure it won't be every day!
Likewise! I really hope that we see each other around and that you'll grow into blogging step by step. It really can be fun - especially when the pressure is off, IMO.
You might not have noticed it ... but I suspect your content improved at least a bit the more you wrote. It's the nature of the beast. Eventually so does the speed that you can produce posts. Maybe not every day but try continuing as many days consistently as you can.
Honestly, I don't think the quality of my content improved. There were some posts that - were just there, to have a post on that day. That's not what I want to be posting. However, I totally agree with the more you practice, the better you'll get or the faster you'll get 😆. I totally can improve on that.
I will definitely try to be more consistent in posting e.g. every other day or every third day - that'll be great!
Thank you for commenting, I appreciate your feedback!
I tried the daily posting too, but I felt pressure as well at some point. Lives are different and changing and I can only be active here when I feel like it. When I started things were different, I had more time and less issues. The last months threw a lot of people into mental challenging states and I can say for me that it is affecting my here. When the outside world demands your brain, there is less space for creativity and I rather post like you. I feel times where I sit in front of the screen and I'm blank. Too tired to put out anything. So I may appear inconsistent here, but it is consistent with my life lol. It is great that members have the habit of posting daily, but it's not a shame not too. Great that you were so honest in your opinion, I liked how you put it.
Enjoy your Sunday!
All of what you said here: SO VERY F*CKING TRUE! After Inktobers and stuff like that on Insta and my previous blog I swore I'd never try this again - and here I am. Yikes! I seriously don't know what got into me. I think it may have been that I had a little less pressure at work? Well, that changed my second just quit meaning that starting next Monday I'll have to work that shit as well until I find a replacement.
I totally love this here
Thank you, Anna, I'm glad to see you and your doggie pictures here 😁
Gerne gerne ;).
Doing a daily post with meaningful content is tough except for @bradleyarrow who has more than 1000 days straight. I have done 15 or 16 days straight but then I seem to have a mental block. Thanks for sharing on ListNerds.
When i have mental blocks i write about having a mental block. lol
!BBH
!ALIVE
@rcaine! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @bradleyarrow. (19/30)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you.
. Keep up the fantastic work
Maybe I'll check him out and can pick up a thing or two :).
Thanks for stopping by from Listnerds and commenting.
Thanks for sharing your experience @oceanbee. I'm glad we crossed paths during HiveBloPoMo.
I also found it tricky to find enough time/energy/motivation to also do much commenting on other people's posts this month. While I also don't know if I'll jump back into doing HiveBloPoMo in a hurry (though a little more likely than you by the sounds of it - mostly because my work doesn't take up huge portions of my life as it does for you), I do want to take lessons from my experience and apply them to my overall behaviour on Hive - as it sounds like you're doing too!
Congrats on getting your HP so high. What an awesome outcome for your almost-a-whole-HiveBloPoMonth. 🙌
Hah - my post probably sounds very 'German direct' i.e. I am not going to do this again! LOL. I might do it again, it really depends on the circumstances at the time.
It really feels good to write every day and also to get and give comments. To me, Hive is THE social platform these days. I still have my Insta and FB accounts but you won't see me posting on there ever. All my energy goes here.
I really enjoy reading your posts and will surely be seeing you around, Caroline.
I like your directness. It's probably my Dutch heritage - it feels normal 😉
See you around indeed! 🤗
Congrats on making it! Youre right it was a real challenge and I also felt the pressure. Not only posting out of the Joy but posting because of a commitment.
In any it was a good experience :-)
Gratz to you too! You made it as well. And it seems that all of us struggled somewhat. Thanks, B :)
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
It was really great to get to meet and know you throughout the HiveBloPoMo challenge.
I also ran into time challenges. Which means as the month went on I was not able to meet the daily post requirements. I still kept posting when I could because I do enjoy the HiveBloPoMo experience and the energy from this little 30-day challenge community.
!LUV
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Seems like a lot of us felt the time pressure thing. Well, not really that surprising, right? Glad we made it though!
Awwwww, I like cute kitty cats!!!
Congratulations @oceanbee! You received a personal badge!
Wait until the end of Power Up Day to find out the size of your Power-Bee.
May the Hive Power be with you!
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
I have been doing this the entire month and just a few days ago I found out I missed a day in early April lol!
Good for you! And - LOL - I missed the first couple of days, too.
Thank you explaining this ... I've done NaNoWriMo, but I've also done HiveBloPoMo without even knowing it ... I didn't know this was a thing!
It sure is, NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo have been around for ages.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.