Thank you. I read a post or two there quickly. I have bookmarked it for now and may consider it later. At the moment I don't want to spread my vote too thin. I already belong to ShadowBot - partly as an experiment, partly to get votes. Though I've been there a few months already, I have yet to get a single cent out of them :) But I acknowledge that it's not designed to be a short-term plan, the longer you belong, the better your chances of votes/payouts. https://steemit.com/bots/@bitbrain/give-the-bots-a-chance
I am against bots in principle, but I do see the potential value in them. Honestly I wish that Steem would just ban them.
I hadn't heard of ShadowBot before. In any case, @qurator is not so automated. People still choose who they upvote, and it's not netting me much but the daily $0.05 or so upvote is nice. Back in december it was up to $0.35 a day, which meant I could recoup the buy-in cost pretty quick.
I don't like bots either but unfortunately in the beginning there is not much else you can do to get some visibility. It makes a world of difference if your post makes $0.03 or $1.00 even if you paid $0.97 of that yourself - at least the latter one will get some views and hopefully a follower or two.
Sad but true