The first step is to be humble and recognize that your node/miner isn't helping anyone but yourself.

Run a full node for better privacy when you lookup your txns, and to enforce the rules of BTC on your own UTXOs.

Run a miner if you have cheap electricity and/or you value the ability to stack sats with noKYC passively and/or you can use the waste heat generated for other productive uses.

Run an LN node if you want to engineer your own liquidity to transact cheaply on LN.

The Network doesn't need your support. It works because people do things that make it decentralized for selfish reasons. If you aren't benefiting directly from joining the network, then its ok to "just be a user".

Read more first:

• https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/recommendations-for-ln-users
• https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/lightning-node-maintenance
• https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/managing-lightning-node-liquidity
• https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/what-bitcoin-ln-node-software-can
• https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/private-lightning-nodes
• https://darth-coin.github.io/general/bitcoin-will-save-the-world-en.html

In other words, supporting the network is also:

• test all kind of wallet apps and solutions for merchants
• learn every aspect of Bitcoin and help others to use it, especially merchants
• help apps developers to find bugs, errors, improve the apps, test them and report back to devs, do translations, documentation