you will also need at least 1 incoming channel, otherwise it's not possible to route through your node (you can only send payments when you initiate opening a channel).
Either wait until someone opens a channel to you, or buy some incoming liquidity using Boltz or Lightning Loop (or even bitrefill IIRC)
Yes, I'm aware of that. However, I'm not interested in buying incoming liquidity. I think that is a bad business for the Lightning Network. It keeps people away from opening channels freely when what I simply want is to help the network. One shouldn't be "forced" to pay to help the network.
I'll speak to some friends to see if I can find someone willing to open a decent channel with me.
Btw, my node ID in in my signature, so if anyone want to open a channel with me, I appreciate! I'm still not sure if I'm going to open a single channel with larger capacity or a few smaller channels!
I'm not sure i'm understanding... You can just open a channel and then do a reverse submarine swap for ~50% of the funds in that channel to gain incoming liqudity?
It keeps people away from opening channels freely when what I simply want is to help the network.
Hmmm, I think you'll end up disappointed. unless you have extremely large capacity, or put more plainly, a large amount of open channels with nodes depending on you, it seems unlikely that any payments at all will be routed through your node, unless I'm misunderstanding the lightning network.
There's no reason why else it'll be routed through your node, right?
Like, should I go for a big, stable and already stable node with many channels (an contribute for some more centralization) or should I go for a smaller node, maybe less channels but also don't contribute that much for centralization? Or should I open a bigger and single channel or a few smaller channels? I mean in terms of liquidity
I think if you'd really want to contribute to the network, the answer should be both? To gain any sort of routes, you'll need to be an intermediary between wallets from webshops & more "hidden" nodes.
If you just connect to large nodes or extremely small nodes, there'll be no reason for them to route through you. Nor a possibility
^^ But I don't think there's much room for competition, fees are extremely low, and i'm pretty sure the top service providers are all well connected.