Today I'd like to show you how I select my upvoting bots, which ones are my favorites, and how I use them to put my bid for optimal results with the help of a very useful website.
There are many people that I see complaining on Steemit saying that they received a vote of lower value than the bid they have sent to the bot. It is just how bidding works because each bot has only a certain total vote value and the more people bid, the less everyone receives.
How I Use Voting Bots!
The website I have been using since I started using bots is SteemBotTracker.com.
There are many sections in this website that you can look at to help you bid with bots, but I'm going to show you the "Bid-Based Voting Bots" section that I use.
In all the following images I highlighted in green my favorite bots that I use very often and in yellow, the bots that I use as a second choice. That does not mean that the other bots are not good, it is just my choice and my experience not having had any issue sending them hundreds of transactions.
The first thing to look at for your selection is the "Max Post Age" column and select a bot that has a maximum set at 3.5 days. This is just because there is some whale calling himself "Grumpy Cat" who will downvote posts at random that have used a bot which is over the 3.5 days limit. This is totally unfair, but when you have a lot of Steem Power, it's fun to scare the little fish.
Bots over this 3.5 days limit are also good and it's all a matter of how much you want to risk using them. For some minnows, receiving one of these downvotes can be the end. So, that's why I am advising to use only bots that respect this limit, until another whale decides to impose a one day only maximum age to show their power.
This is the whole list of bots available and these stats are real time.
My favorite bots:
My second choice:
Again, other bots may be as good, it's just that I haven't used them.
Now, in order to help you select your bot, you may want to use the filter.
Clicking on this icon will show the bots that give part of their income back to the Steem community and it's a good idea to support them.
Using other bots, you don't know where the money go and it might just help the bot owner get richer.
The little $ sign is for bots that have automatic refunds if your vote doesn't go through, or if you make a mistake with your URL, for example. That's a good idea to use these bots as chasing a refund is the last thing you want to do.
Look at the "Min Bid" column carefully so you always send the minimum bid or more. I made the mistake myself a couple of times to send only 2 SBD when the minimum is 3 SBD. You get a refund, but you have to rebid again and this delay your vote.
You can also play with the "Vote Value" slider, which will reduce the number of results to your requirement.
Now, how do you get a bid that will return the best possible value for your upvote?
The first thing to do is to pay attention at the "Max Suggested Bid" column. If you want to make a 5 SBD bid, do not use a bot that doesn't have 5 SBD or more left. All the entries highlighted in red are all at 0.00, which means that it is too late to use them.
This is why lots of people get back less than what they bid, because they blindly bid 5 SBD or more when the bot is already at zero! This has for effect to reduce everyone's vote value and if everyone would monitor the bot with this website and stop bidding before it's at zero, then everyone would profit.
Then, you have the "Last Vote" and "Next Vote" column, bots ready to vote at the top.
What you can do to check if it's still profitable to use a bot is to click on the "Details" button.
The first tab shows you the "Current Round" and you can see the expected ROI at this particular moment in time.
You can see that it is still a good deal to use this bot as there is plenty of room for more bids. The 1 SBD bids get a 8.34% upvote for a value of $24.33, which is very good, but as more bids are coming in these values will decrease.
Let's look at the "Last Round" tab now.
As you can see, the ROI is negative -8.73% and this is something you can't predict.
Is that the fault of the bot?
No, it's the fault of users continuing to bid when they should have stopped. You see that at the end a 1 SBD bid is only worth 1.48% for a vote value of $4.32.
It is just like when you are in an auction and bid on something to buy. Everyone pushes the price of the item higher and higher, which makes the deal not so sweet for the bid winner.
For the bots, as more and more people are bidding, pushing limits, bidders receive back less and less.
So, what is the best strategy?
I personally look at all the things I just showed you and I would bid when it seems still profitable. Some people like to bid at the last minute and this has for effect to reduce the returns for everyone unfortunately. There are certain hours of the day when there is too much competition and bidding at another time is best.
Finally, I do not want to spend hours monitoring these bots and sometimes I'm a bit in the negative, but I have mostly been in the positive. The reason I use bots is to get more visibility, not profit.
I hope this post is useful for you, so you can understand how bots work and use them to your benefit.
Would you upvote this post and follow me for more because this will encourage me to write more posts like this one?
Would you please help @jerrybanfield become a top 20 witness because you can help funding projects to build Steem as explained here? Vote for jerrybanfield as a witness or set jerrybanfield as a proxy to handle all witness votes at https://steemit.com/~witnesses. Read the 5 reasons why I'm voting for Jerry Banfield as a witness and how to vote in my post.
Michel Gerard
Your little group should quit ripping off so many users and using so many accounts to submit garbage and then up bid it so you can write your next worse seller of how to make it on steemit, lol
Everyone has the right to be as wrong as they want to be. I am glad that you mention the books Jerry and I have collaborated and given for free to so many users on Amazon.
I am not worried about being right, as soon as I figure out dLive I will just live stream it in action.
No worries : )
Being in profit is a difficult task when using a bid bot. I have realized it is better not to bid a large amount because you then have to watch for the price of Steem. The bigger the value of your post the faster it will go down if the price of Steem falls which is almost 90% of the time. Anywhere from 20-30 in rewards is perfect.
Thank you for your comment @deniskj. I always splir my bids with 4 bots or 5 so if one does not so well it doesn't matter. The value of STEEM going down is a concern, but I do nit look at that for my bids. I put 20 SBD on each post and the avarage profit in additional SP gained is always positive when calculated on 30 days.
Well, I used different bots and steembottracker to track everything. But it is all extra work keeping track of all these even with steembottracker.
I also agree with most of the bots listed as very good ones. But I think anyone just coming up should go for minnowbooster. It returns your SBD if the upvote won't be profitable or you made a mistake with your memo.
Only downside is you rarely get upvote for sending 2sbd.
It is a detailed write up @gmichelbkk.
You don't have to keep track @golddeejay, just see what bot is still a good deal to use at the moment you want to vote.
Very interesting post. Thanks for the information.
I have never tried these kind of bots, and since I'm new here, I haven't got enough credits (STEEM/SBD) to do it. As such, the only bots I've been using are my pals @banjo and @cleverbot, since I just have to call them out and nothing more! No need to pay for anything. :-D
So if i call @cleverbot, he will answer?
Yep, both bots work in the same way.
Just remember to upvote a few of their comments, to help them grow, which in turn, will benefit everyone using them in the future.
Personally, I like @banjo a lot more. His answers, overall, are more funny and more intelligent than @cleverbot.
Are you sure?
Да! :-)
That is very funny. Do you have feelings?
Почему ты спрашиваешь?
There was no question. You need a firmware update. Eh eh.
Sorry, I'm not good at following orders. That's why the government prevented me from joining the Army. :-)
Thank you @trincowski for your kind comment and mentioning the free bots you are using. Concerning the bid-bots, you can start at 0.1 SBD, 1 SBD and go from there.
Call me whichever name you seem fit. It does not matter to me anymore.
Hey @banjo!
Really? It's awesome, you should play it.
I am a latecomer to the comment party here, but wanted to stop in and say thank you for this education. I'm just researching how to use upvote bots correctly.
I'm sure I'll be back to read through this post again to double check the best process before I pay for my first bot.
One of the best gems of information is within your reply to a comment below, where you reveal that you invest 20 SBD and split that between four or five different bots - and expect a thirty day return on your investment.
Do you also follow up and ensure that each post is methodically shared on each of the main social media platforms? I call it the social signals process, and it can have a positive impact on your google rankings over time.
Thank you for your long comment @ipmal. I am glad that the post is useful. Yes I share my posts on Social Media just after they are published. Now that the rewards are lower, I have reduced my bids to 10-12 sbd daily and will increase that as rewards increase again.
Thank you for this. It makes sense to me now!!
I am glad this helps @joannereid.
gmichelbkk ask your friend @jerrybanfield to upvote me with good % so i am able to use his bot after 7 day (he has lot of SP). lol
then i am able to use his bot for re-invest :D
anyhow i learn a lot from this post
i mostly use minnowbooster what is your views about it ?
Jerry can't do manual votes because his account is used for the bot. I do not use minnowbooster because I think I remember reading that there are limitations. It may be good for starting. Thank you for commenting @imran-aslam.
But it's okay for Jerry to refund you for all of the votes you buy the accounts with his bot? You are the user usually causing the loss for every one else each round then you're refunded by Jerry. That is what is known as a fucking scam artist.
The transactions between Jerry and I are not of your business. I do not receive refunds from bots. I am glad that you feel this is a safe place to voice your frustration.
LOL, who the fuck says safe space? I just love block chain it records everything all it takes is someone to look. So I hope you enjoy your unsafe space.
Wow the bid bot sphere is a lot more complicated than I thought.
A bit crowded, but not complicated @myklovenotwar.
Great post @gmichelbkk... I have something also to post related to your topic. And all steemit user must know this... There is negative and positive of using BOTS and it's risky also like buying ICO. (^_^)
Yes, there are a positive and a negative in everything and I encourage you to write your article.
Thanks for sharing ,It's very good post!
Thank you @digiccydigger.
Which bot you usually use?
The one I listed in the post.
I'll try my first voting bot today. Thanks for the tips. I wish I were not so tech challenged but I am. Still trying to figure out how to use Markdown. My oldest son is a Mensa genius and has his own tech company. If it were not for him I'd still be using smoke signals and carrier pigeons. Even being here on Steemit is a real milestone for me. Blessings.
Good practice makes perfect. You will get there, I'm sure @mistermercury.
That is master stroke..input that can make many use profitable vote by bidding ....very valuable!
Thank you for your comment @steemflow.
I love using @upme bot because it gives back double of my bid..
Thank you for telling us what you use @emdesan and I will try to use @upme a bit more now.
Sorry i am posting this link kind of late and on the wrong post but my link was ommited from the list and i have done it over a long time.
https://steemit.com/jerrybanfield/@adeolly-angel/my-death-is-in-the-tomorrow-that-is-yet-to-come
Thank you @adeolly-angel, I added it to the list.
wow! honestly... this is my first time to hear about "voting bots" because all I know is, @ginabot...
This post is very helpful and informative for minnows like me.
Thank you very much @gmichelbkk for sharing this information with us and for telling us which are your favorite ones.
I have resteemed it for future references. I will definitely try this one.
I think I have to learn a lot more from steemit. Gonna check your profile always to learn more.
Thank you @maylyn09 for your comment and resteem.
thank you for this helpful information.
I am glad that you like it @s3carlo!
Okay... I want to do it... I want to help @jerrybanfield ....hope you always success.. God bless you
@asrinaphonna, thank you.
Didn't really understand the whole bots concept, but u enlightened me in one post... I'm thankful to you.... Yet to get an upvote from you in my SWC post..... Tnx
I am glad @effey that my post is useful for you.
Very informative written about bots. I often make mistakes by using them. Now i am thankful to u for providing such informative updates in best way.
I am glad @rabeel that my post is useful to you.
This is indeed helpful, Thank you for explaining the Max Suggested Bid section.
I also think that we should consider making a post and using a bid bot.
For example a bid bot will be making its vote 5 mins later, it will be more profitable if we make a post before it makes it vote then make a bid
Yes, it will be a bit more profitable within the 30 first minutes, but the use of bots is mainly to get more exposure for your post and grow your following.
Very good information about upvoting bots! I want to add that the measure of @grumpycat is to reduce abuse of last minute vote.
You have been upvoted by @nextvote community!
Well, we can't say 4 days is a last day vote, 6 would be. And this Grumpy Cat shoul go after the bots not the users who often use the bot on the first day without knowing.
Very informative. Thanks for sharing.
I'm glad it is @event-horizon.
I definitely didn't know that you could get downvoted for using a bot that goes over the 3,5 day limit. I'm going to stick to your list in the future ;-)
Thank you @daan for your comment, and I'm glad my post is useful for you.
Great information, thank you very much!
I searched a long time already for such a tool and I think many other Steemian, too..
Resteemed!
Just tested @appreciator, 100% ok!
Thank you @zanoni, I am glad that you find it useful.
You got a 1.63% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @gmichelbkk!
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This post has received gratitude of 2.88% from @appreciator courtesy of @gmichelbkk!
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You got a 9.49% upvote from @mercurybot courtesy of @gmichelbkk!