@to7 you're absolutely right. That's exactly why I'll occasionally pay for upvotes. I just wanted people to be clear that its by no means a profitable solution. It was only a few weeks ago when the upvoting services all were repping "get a 200%+ return" and now if you check, most of them do not say that anymore. I think that's because it was a misleading statement (even though it may be technically true for their end of the upvote).
Another good time to pay for upvotes is when you get like a 75 SBD upvote and you wanna push it up above 100... sometimes that helps to push you to the trending page and that essentially guarantees an onslaught of upvotes and follows.