Seriously, how have you ALL not been jumping on this?? Have none of you heard of @bellyrub yet? If not, seriously just click on the link right there and go check it out, like, NOW!
If you're still reading this then lemme' explain a little bit:
We'll start with @randowhale
Surely you've heard of @randowhale right? Steemit's dice rolling bid bot? You send Rando 1SBD or 1Steem (which is a steal, it used to be 2!) and rando drops a whale vote on you anywhere from 2-5% of his voting power. Great to do when you first launch a post (if you're a low level salmon like me and can afford it) because it will likely jump your post payout at least as much as you sent him, which ramps you up the hot/trending ladder (albeit a tiny amount, but it's good exposure anyhow). Also if you've been doing this a while then you will know that folks are more likely to vote on things that are already displaying "value" or that already have a large amount of votes, so by using the service you are likely increasing the chance that others will vote your post as well. (Hell, I'm gonna use him to upvote this post!)
And follow that with a lil' @minnowbooster
Well, if you've heard of @randowhale you've probably head of @minnowbooster. The difference with minnowbooster is that the vote they send to you is directly correlated to how much you spend, or at least it used to be. @minnowbooster now caps how much it pays out, which is not great for salmon like me, but awesome for minnows like you! They are spreading the love and doing a great job, go check them out! They also have an entire freakin micro economy of features that they are making public like SP delegation tools, it's pretty amazing.
Now we can chat about @booster
(Can't find booster's logo so here is a meme I found when I googled "booster")
If you've come this far and you know about the others, it's highly likely you know of @booster as well. Booster is a different kind of bot, called a bid bot. What booster does is vote on all posts that submit a bid within a given time, breaking down their voting weight per bid based on the amount bid per person. Here is the example from @booster's front page:
"bids open every 2.4 hours. Ex: @Axe & @Bob both bid for the same voting batch. If @Axe bids 4 SBD and @Bob bids 2 SBD, @Axe will get 66.66% and @Bob 33% etc."
The thing with booster is that it is quite popular, and there are many salmon and dolphins bidding for votes, which means that even if you bid like 4SBD (an incredibly high price in the current market) you're likely (in my opinion, and from my own personal tests) to not make that money back with the vote that you receive. The problem is that there are too many people vying for a piece of the pie, which means that each piece is becoming much too expensive. It's still an option though, if you can afford it, or if has worked for you so far.
Which brings us to @bellyrub
Well, I have honestly debated making this post for a while because I feel like @bellyrub is an undiscovered gem here on Steemit, and I have been greedy for his votes ever since I discovered him, but that's not right, and I feel he needs to be recognized more by the community. @bellyrub is a bid bot, almost exactly the same as booster, but with one big difference: @bellyrub is affordable for minnows. Bid's for a slice of @bellyrub's vote start as low as 0.01SBD which is waaaaay affordable! Plus (right now anyhow) for a bid as low as 0.1SBD you can receive a significant upvote. So why would I not share this sooner you ask?
Well, when people start finding out about @bellyrub they are gonna jump on it like breakdancers on a subway car, and the bidding is gonna get fierce just like with booster. But the point is that right now @bellyrub can make a significant impact on your post for an insignificant price, so what are you waiting for, go give that little bellyfish a pat, I'm gonna do it in two seconds!
Do it now!!!
P.s. I am in no way affiliated with @bellyrub, this is not some promotional thing, in fact I don't think @zeartul (bellyrub's administrator) even knows I exist, I just think that @bellyrub deserves more attention than it is getting!
P.P.s If any of ya'll bot owners have an issue with me using your official logo photos in my post just let me know and I will be happy to take them down, not trying to steal/plagiarize in any way.
Interesting I m going to watch this post, how many upvotes it will receive :)
This should be a great example, right ?
You would think it would be a great example @witze, but it is actually probably going to be a bit of an outlier from my normal posts, which are about photos and photography. You see, one sure fire way to get big rewards on this platform is to blog about steem and steemit. Whenever I do a post about Steemit related stuff it ends up making decent payout, which is a shame because I don't do it very often, but we shall see anyhow :)
Sadly, people don't understand how the curation awards work.
Basically because the curation award is based on your steempower weight, you only get a big curation award if you vote before a whale, or at least before people who have more steempower than you. If you are voting for a post that already has a lot of money, all you are doing is transferring the curation award to the bigger accounts that voted before you.
tl:dr the curation reward is for discovery - so you need to front-run the bigger accounts, not vote after them.
It is unfortunate that most people don't understand that. But the fact is that people will always vote the the thing that looks popular. I think humans have an instinctive need to be a part of "the group" (many do at least) and will just follow what the mass says is good.
Thanks for all the little tricks. They are truly precious.
Glad you enjoyed it @izbing, there are a lot of things out there now that can help out minnows, probably a lot more than I have listed here!
Like it.. Good advice!
Glad it helped @luke490!
I'm putting it to the test!
Do it @richq11, let me know how it works out for you!
Not so hot... I made about $0.20 for $0.50 spent!
I got a bellyRub and this post has received a 25.27 % upvote from @bellyrub thanks to: @dexter-k.
You're just so cute @bellyrub, you adorable little bellyfish!
Omg I don't know what to do now.
im using bellyrub too! =D great and cheap way to gain upvoted and the rate back is good! Cheers
Totally @spikykevin, it's going to take off soon so get in while the bidding is affordable!
hey dexter, the problem about those bots is that they give you money but not appreciation. You like my stuff sometimes and when salmons or dolphins do that, I feel appreciated and proud.
If I pay someone to like my posts, it can make sense economically but apart from that it is bullsh...
I totally agree with what you say, just wanna tell you my personal opinion on that. I will try that bellyrub thing for once though, sounds fun :-D.
Anyways, informative and interesting post so you get my upvoted :-) Cheers my friend!
... Of course bots don't give appreciation, they are not meant for that. : ) Steemit's ecosystem allows for more advances... we are looking at a whole new platform where mostly everything can be done.
@bellyrub is also part of that ecosystem its needed just as much as human interaction is needed.
PS: bellyrub can have a conversation with you.
right @bellyrub?
Talk with me. What is your deepest secret?
I made you out of bolts!
wakes up in pain why did you kick me??
What do you want?
Well, I think we are having one right now...
true :-)
I agree with you @mrwanderlust, and I'm glad you let me know how you feel about it :) I think the point of pay bots is that you are not paying them to like your post, you are paying them to upvote it. I did a post the other day that had five comments within the first four minutes telling me they liked the post, but not one of them up voted it. I feel that (rightfully or not) there is at least a slight separation between truly liking a post and upvoting it. It's a fine balance to tread when we are in an ecosystem that gives more than superficial rewards for your work, and we are all figuring it out as we go. There have been voting bots on Steemit since it first started, they were geared towards automated content curation which helped rich whales enrich themselves further, but minnows had no control over them. Now at least there are bots that can be mutually beneficial. Thanks for the upvote man! I'll be back to my photography posts now, I just like to do one of these types every once in a while ;)
thanks @dexter-k, that reply helped a lot. I get your intentions now. Oh and those "I like your post" comments are really annoying, I get them too from time to time
Thank you for the info. Upvoted and resteemed and following
Thank you so much @lindabasilick, I hope it helps!
Thanks for the info. I have been using @randowhale and @booster. Will give @bellyrub a try.
Awesome @positivesteem, glad I could help!
This is a very useful post for someone new to the Steemit community. Which happens to just be my case.
Thanks a lot @dexter-k for compiling this great guide on how to get going with our posts in the beginning. Followed :)
Glad to be of service @cipriang, Steemit can be a bit confusing and overwhelming when you first start out here so every little bit helps :)
This post received a 2.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @dexter-k! For more information, click here!
Thanks Rando, love ya big guy!
Thank you for sharing it! I've never heard of bellyrub since it's relatively new, I'm gonna give it a try :)
Thanks dex, these are great anticensorship tools for those abused by high score losers. I wonder how those without funds can avoid the anit-free speech marxist filth, we don't want this to be a plutocracy....
thanks for that,it helped a lot....amazing...and a good way to use your SBD....you get more SBD anyway....
thanks for being helpful
Thanks for telling about that never knew that one.