My Thoughts on Upvote Bots
Hi all, I'm writing today because, after seeing many people using them, I experimented with a few upvote bots and had a change of mind in my opinion of them.
My Progression of Opinion
When I first came to steemit I saw upvote bots in a totally negative light. I thought it was either a scam by the bots or a pathetic move by the user. As I steemed on I noticed more and more people using them shamelessly, and decided to look a little deeper and, having gained little traction, try some out myself. Here are the main points of what I noticed.
1. Total upvote value minus bots upvote value is greater than my average value having not used a bot. By this I mean I earn more natural votes having "primed" the post with a bot. This I can only attribute to people phycologically not wanting to lead the pack in validating content.
2. Using bots is not a get rich quick scheme. Bots generally payout upvotes worth about 2x to 3x your pay in. Authors are guaranteed %75 the post payout, I generally receive that portion. So if I pay 1SBD and get an upvote of 2x or 2SBD my actual payout is %75 or 1.5SBD. This is a net gain yes but the payout is split 50/50 of SP/SBD, so the actual payout is $0.75 worth of SteemPower and 0.75SBD. Effectively, using that bot I bought $0.75 worth of SP for 0.25SBD. Being that currently 0.25SBD is worth about 0.27STEEM, and $0.75 worth of SP is about 0.18SP, you actually lose out(with current market conditions) with any bot payout less than about 2.5x.
3. Upvotes bots will NOT make poor content profitable. I used a bot for a post of mine that wasn't getting any upvotes and, wouldn't you know, it still didn't. Steemit users just weren't interested in that post so even having been primed, it didnt not draw extra attention.
Conclusion
Although upvote bots will not get you rich, they can help you increase your visibility and steempower. If you are posting good content and not getting anywhere, try out a bot and see for yourself. Bots are not great for creating liquid wealth, but are for increasing your vested wealth, and if you are in steemit for the long run that's very useful, otherwise the profit isnt worth the required time and effort. Bots will not make all content profitable, but can bring good content to the eyes of those who can make it profitable. All in all I now support the use of these bots, as they seem to act act more as a way to grow plankton to minnows, than a way to generate free money.
Edit:I have invested 2.25 SBD into this post. 0.75 to three different services. We'll see how this goes, though, as perhaps looking at Schrodinger's cat will kill it. Regardless steem on friends.
Update: The votes are in and the results are as I anticipated. A total cost of 2.25 SBD yielded a return in votes bringing this posts value to $4.87. 4.87/2.25=2.164, not a bad return right? Slightly more complicated.
The author is guaranteed %75 post payouts, so 4.87 * 0.75 = 3.65
and that payout is split 50/50 SBD and SP,
so that's 1.82 SBD and $1.82 worth of SP
Currently $1.82 worth of Steem is about 0.47 Steem
My total return, were this post to payout right now, is 1.82 SBD & 0.47 SP
0.47 Steem would cost 0.42 SBD, so the SBD return value is 1.82 + 0.42 = 2.24 SBD
So you can see these bots will not make you rich, but, as I've said, they do seem to help increase exposure. For this post, time will tell.
Comments, Questions, Corrections? Let me know!
This post has received a 17.96% UpGoat from @shares. Send at least 0.1 SBD to @shares with a post link in the memo field.
Invest your Steem Power and help minnow at the same time to support our daily curation initiative. Delegate Steem Power (SP) to @shares by clicking one of the following links: 1000 SP, 5000 SP or more. Join us at https://steemchat.com/ discord chat.
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Which bots do you find to be the best and most worth it? I like minnowbooster but I want to find others because as of late, minnowboosterjasnt been as profitable.
For this post the payouts from highest to lowest were, @shares at 2.34 x input, @danlupi at 2.16 x input, and @minnowbooster at 1.96 x input. They are know to and will vary though.
Ok thanks for the information and i will keep that in mind.
I think there is nothing wrong with bots as long as they are used to help posts gain traction. Have you ever seen an empty tip jar? No, because no one wants to be first so you always start with some.
Which upvote bots are your favorites? I have been hesitant to use them thus far, but your post has definitely given me some food for thought.
I'm still pretty new to bots, but I've had good luck with @shares and @danlupi, @minnowbooster is decent too. Read their pages tho, they have different rules and minimums. And many upvote every 2.4hours, so timing your post with the bots isn't a bad idea.
Thank you for mentioning @shares not
Why "not"? I'm not familiar with them.
I think that was a typo/autocorrect for "bot"
Ah, that makes sense! Thanks!
Thanks for the info! I'll check them out.
If the bot has a higher reputation # than you, it will help increase your rep # faster. That's mostly why I've been using them.
I have noticed they help my rep, good point, another benefit.
I hate how most of them leave their spammy link. I think that bothers me the most lol.
yeah haha agreed, I guess they gotta eat too tho
For real lol
Interesting. I was actually thinking of delegating a portion of my voting power because I noticed I don't always get a chance to use it all each day. That would increase my ROI and also benefit the community as long as I delegated wisely.
I have heard that this only works realistically if your SP is ~75 or higher. Do you know if this is true? I delegated some of my VP and they've never used it to upvote anything, but I think it's because my SP is only 15.
Im not certain of that one, makes sense tho, I do know currently it takes about 26-30 sp for a %100 to be worth $0.01
True, that's a smart idea. A win win win. You, the bot, and the user.
The only thing that scared me off doing it is that the bot I found wanted me to enter my master password through steem connect and I just didn't want to do that being as I am not sure if it is safe.
Ive never had to enter my keys for an upvote bot, nor can i think of a reason they would be needed. Definitely made a good move avoiding that. It should be as simple as sending your SBD payment to the bot account with a link to the post youd like upvoted in the memo field.
You are very much on point i totally agree with you.
As you can see, the post paid out to me
2.17SBD and 0.52SP and I paid a total of
2.25SBD, so effectively I paid
0.08SBD for 0.52SP (That's not accounting for the help from you guys who voted, thanks btw)
Take from this what you will nd steem on friends.