If people think that length = quality, they're sorely mistaken. I've lost track of the number of times I've read multi-thousand-word blog posts that should have been 400 words. Also, I've published multi-thousand-word series on here, and they barely got any attention. When I see people post vlogs on here and get high rewards, it has me rethinking my whole strategy. Maybe I should write less and vlog more.
As far as the original question in your title, I think Steemit's promote feature is an utter waste. I used it when I first started, thinking that it'd be a smart move. But then I kept seeing that nobody actually checks that tab. And as you noted, you get better returns on a voting bot than you do w/the promote feature hands down.
The other side of your question is "How is vote buying different from curation trails?" On the one hand, you're bidding for a portion of a vote, and on the other, you're paying your trail (or participating in a trail) for a share of the payout. Different methods; similar outcomes.
I know that I create good content. I've been doing it professionally for over a decade, and even longer if you count my time while I was growing up. But w/o voting bots, getting to the hot or trending pages feels like a snowball's chance in Hell for a minnow like me. W/voting bots, I at least feel like I have a shot to implement a repeatable strategy and give my content a fighting chance.
I've only been on Steemit since August, so I only know the platform post-HF19. My bet is that the people leading the charge against voting bots were already opposed to them before the fork because it eliminated whatever advantages they enjoyed under the old system.
Thanks for this interesting comment.
What if vote bots were like marketing techniques on Steem? What if it was a way to get more eyeballs on your content?
You're welcome. Thank you for an interesting post. :)
That's exactly how I feel about the voting bots. It's like paying for ads on FB or Instagram, but it has the added benefit of resulting in added rewards. That in and of itself makes it way more sustainable. If you do it right, you can essentially grow your own self-sustaining ad budget from scratch.
Also, Happy New Year!