Every wallet is a node as it is, but for example wallets behind firewalls that do not forward incoming connections (i.e. via UPNP) create only 8 outgoing connections which is more than enough for normal wallet operation but is probably not what you look for to support the network for others to  synch faster (from you).
Wenn running on a private IP (i.e. behind a firewall) either make sure UPNP works for your PC or just statically forward the TIPS network port(44890/tcp) from your firewall to your wallet PCs IP addresss.

For an easy check to see if you are accepting incoming connections from others check how many connections you have in the wallet, if it is more than 8 you are accepting incoming connections, just be patient and see the number of connections grow to over 30-50. If it sticks at 8, you are probably not. More hints are in the debug console with the command "getpeerinfo", it tells you for every peer if the connection is incoming or outgoing - make sure you start to see connections with "inbound" : true.

Yep, just realised the jump that hashrate (and diff) made the last days - we went from solid 4-6Ghs to almost 40Ghs right now.
The current difficulty keeps profit pools from switching in completely - in multipool speak TIPS is currently not profitable. That people mine the coin when it has a difficulty over profitability means probably something. Either people in the know about something we don't, people commited to TIPS (yeah!) or miners that are unable to calculate current profits :-) My personal bet is on 1 or 2.
In any case the activity and volume on Coinexchanges DOGE/TIPS market is very encouraging.