Thanks for making people aware of this.
I've been using the bid-based bots pretty often, these last few days just for research purposes. I haven't processed the results yet, but I can say that you're really throwing away money by using them.
It might feel good to get the bid-bots to upvote your post and to have a high payout 7 days later, but if you add up all the numbers, you're simply losing tons of money.
I've been wondering why the bot scripts are not programmed to stop accepting money when the ROI has reached zero. Unfortunately, I think the answer is not that difficult: although they tell you over and over again, (most) bid-bots are not here to support you and help you grow here on SteemIt. (It's pretty hard to believe there would be so many good-hearted people that are willing to help you out by upvoting your posts for free.) The truth is that most bot owners are in because it pays!
It's nice to find someone who is exposing the fact that it's not a good idea to use the bid-based bots if you want to make sure you profit.
Most people simply promote the use of those bots.
(To be honest, I landed here trough your previous post Your First Month on Steemit - 23 Tips to Help You Succeed!, in which you actually promote using bots too, so I'd like to say: 'nice save'! ;-D
I use bots as the path to Trending. I just would never crack top 10 there without bots. So my main goal of even using the bid bots is not to make a profit from it per se, more to get to the trending page and hopefully get more votes without paying for it.
That’s something I understand. Using bots to get on the trendong page, I actually think its a good idea.
I need to grow my account before I can use this advice, but I’m definitely going to remember. Thanks for the tip!