Been here on Steemit a few weeks and have experimented with various services and strategies. I think overall, buying votes benfits mostly the bot owners although the purchaser may get a small ROI and some more followers it is short lived. In the long run, Organic upvotes and Real Resteems / Real Comments / Real Relationships will be the only sustainable model if you want humans to enjoy their time here. If not, humans will join and quickly leave, ultimately giving the bots nothing to upvote except for the other Bots posts. With that said, the marketplace will determine the real value of the services and the Real Humans will ultimately have to decide if it's worth it to purchase the service of the Bots. Unfortunately, newer members of Steemit need some way to get exposure since the established Steemit members have a major advantage and are always on top of the trending pages. During my 1st week on Steemit I can remember thinking this was like a precursor to interacting with Cyborgs in Real Life...