I started on Steem back in 2016. I started operating a witness several months later. SO, I've been doing this nearly a decade. I would like to share a little wisdom of running a validator/witness/HE-Witness and hopefully this helps the new people both on Hive, but more specifically towards those folks starting their journey as a Splinterlands Validator.

You want stake holders to vote for you. How should you get those votes?

The most important thing to do is ask for votes. My favorite phrase for this is to say "Would you please consider voting for my witness." It's a pretty light ask. If I'm friends with someone for a long time and have done a lot of business with them I might be more direct and say "vote my witness homie!" But generally, when you're asking for things it's best to be polite. Sometimes people will simply vote for you because they know you, like you, appreciate your business or service, but often times it's not enough to have those things. You need to humble yourself and ask them for their vote.

What if they say no?

If they tell you "no" be polite. I would try to internalize it as a "not at this time." I would do that so you don't run out there and burn some bridges saying "hey fucker, I gave you a legendary card back in 2021 and you owe me this you fucktard." Because in the long term that doesn't build rapport and won't actually help you get the vote later. So, politely handle an objection or two, and if they stay firm it's best to say something like "well, please keep me in mind."

What if they say "why should I vote for you?"

This is probably the most important thing to have an answer for. You need to have a short and concise answer of why someone should vote for you. Generally, the correct answer suggests that by voting for you the ecosystem and economy are improved, and voting for me instead of this validator over there will improve things more and faster than if you vote for that other validator with your limited votes (you get 10 on SPL and 30 on Hive).

There are various reasons why people are willing to vote for you-

• geographic considerations- it's good to have validators all over the world and it may make sense to purposefully vote someone who speaks a certain language or operates a node in a specific timezone or geography
• You are friends and do business with each other outside
• You perform a service to either other validators like helping them run the validators or building tools that give insite
• You perform a service for other community members such that they can view graphical data about the game or facilitate trading/renting of assets
• You're good at building community and help bring new players into the ecosystem
  -You're good at maintaining community and help retain community members by doing things like hosting tournaments or engaging folks in dicsord.

So, when someone asks you what you do you should have a good answer.

Table Stakes

Your answer should probably not just be "I run a node." At this time a lot of people are using a service that doesn't automatically generate a node, but the people in the top postitions are not only expected to run their validator node, but to also run a server such that the APIs are supported and there's public infrastructure tools and services can use to make cool websites for the community.

"I run a node" is table stakes for votes.
"I run a node and a full API" is table stakes for a top witness/validator.

Top validators should be running a node and a full API. So, that becomes the "table stakes." That's the bare minimum to even get on the list. You have to differentiate yourself.

Your post pitch

I suggest you give a little background to yourself.

What is your professional background?
How long have you been doing this?
What is your speciality?
What are you planning to do that helps grow the community, retain the community, or build tools/businesses within the community?

Explain how you or your services enable ecosystem growth.

Your elevator pitch

When you slide into a whale's direct messages that's not really a time to do long posts. So, this is why you need to practice your "elevator pitch." If you're not familiar with the phrase it represents what you should say in under a minute of talking to tell someone whose attention you want why they should do something with you. It can be asking for a date, it can be asking for a vote, it can be asking for money, but for all of those things you should have a 1 minute reponse handy on why they should choose you.

Softer Asks

If you're feeling stressed out you might want to consider an even softer ask. "Can you see yourself voting for someone that provides a service like this?"

That's a lot less direct. If they say "yes" then you can ask them to "please vote for me then" if they say "no, but..." then politely handle the objection. If they say "no" then try to handle the rejection well and win them over some other time.

if you make an ask then STFU

When you make an ask one of the worst things you can do is talk over the other person. So, you're going to want to hold your breath and squirm silently in the uncomfortable silence until they respond. Don't interrrupt. That's how you lose. So, just sit there and give them uninteruppted time to speak/write. Otherwise, you're likely to throw away all the time you spent getting there.

Finding accounts to vote for you-

There's two main methods I use to find potential voters. You can look at who is voting top witnesses, and then figure out if they have extra voting spots, and then ask them. The other option is to look up people that aren't voting. The trick to this is that there's a delta between hive blockchain name and discord name. So, use a site like splinterstats to figure out who is staking large amounts of SPS, and then dive into discord and do searches for their account (especially in the registration channel).

Things not to do

Don't lose your cool
Don't get in fights
Don't swap or buy votes
Try not to throw too much shade at other witnesses unless you're ready for the heat and as long as you have receipts

Getting rid of graft and bullshit is actually a useful service, but randomly starting or picking fights, especially when you don't have evidence for it doesn't get you far.

Keep things confidential

People will talk to you about things. If you're not sure if you're supposed to keep it confidential or they are supposed to keep it confidential it's best to ask and it's best to assume that whatever anyone types to you or says to you at any time is highly likely to be recorded or screenshotted. Elon Musk was writing Ashely St. Clair on Signal and using self-deleting messages. She screenshotted them with another phone to put into court. Your base assumption should be other people will do this to you, and it's a rare friend who won't.

Get yourself a brand

Overall, pitching a witness/validator isn't too much unlike other types of brands. You're showcasing how your particular set of skills and projects will improve the ecosystem overall. It will help if there's a simple story other people can repeat to know who you are and what you stand for. So, tell your story, and try to refine it to as few words or images as possible to help bring new people to the table.

Want to do more but don't know how to start?

run tournaments (retention)
Welcome new players in discord (retention)
Post a lot of articles on social media (Hive and web2) (growth) to get new players
get us listed on existing websites (growth)
Build a webpage that someone promotes the game
Build a service that let's players do something automatically or easily that didn't exist before (dev work)
Talk about strategies for players

And whatever you're doing let other people know about it in the least annoying way posisble.

I've often referred to these activities as whale ball fondling

Generally, you have to do good things for the network and then ask whales humbly for their support to continue doing those things while expanding the things you're going to do. It takes a gentle hand, a little finesse, and overcoming some fear to get the vote, but with practice, confidence, skill, humility, humor, and a good work ethic you'll get the votes coming in, the network secured, the network growing, and people recognizing your skill and talent as you make the ecosystem a better place than the one you found.

I hope this helps, and as always "Vote for Aggroed"