For me as a minnow an not a techy or computer language literate person I am cautious and weary to send and steem SBD at all. I have never used an upvoting bot not because I don't want to but because I am unsure what is safe how it works and if it is ethical or a scam even. I think this may be the case for many minnows like myself.
I think a good solution would be a task oriented payment, to get a post upvoted and resteemed a user would have to complete some sort of task like resteeming and upvoting an already made post by the said bot account. Or maybe creating a new post with specific content referring to the bot account and info.
This way new minnows can get attention and not feel scared or confused on how to send SBD. I am actually going to send SBD for my first time tomorrow in order to pay the winner of my first SBD random giveaway so it should be interesting.
Thank you, @isteemithard for your input.
I agree, sometimes this whole new system becomes too confusing, but after you learn it, it becomes more comfortable. In addition, I like that you are cautious and careful. In crypto world, that is always good. Yet, I suggest you invest in learning more and more. Knowledge would help you protect yourself better.
Upvoting bots are not a scam. However, the ethical side of using them is still a controversy.
What you propose is what i claim somewhere in the comments here, I will get my time paid back from supporting votes in the curation articles (like the one you had a bad experience with).
You might have little SP but you have some good articles in there, and if you join discussions and keep bringing quality comments and helping shape ideas, people will start following you and you will build a voters base in no time.
If I can allow myself, somewhere you ask me for advice; stop the spammy techniques and find your self a niche ( something you really enjoy doing for steemit, Vlogs, writing about what you do or whatever it is you enjoy.
I see many people trying everything to see what works, well when you work in what you love, life is a permanent holiday.
Some of us have no choice but to post in 2 languages, (spanish impared lol) but you don't have that problem :D
Also if you like to give me a hand we can replicate what i'm doing in Spanish for a group of English speaking minnows, my vote is not worth much, but hey those are 46 more cents for the author.