All this time, since I started way back in Summer 2016, I have refused to make use of bots, voting pools and other tomfoolery. I felt, and still feel, that it's contrary to the spirit of Steemit and a band-aid pasted over a structural flaw in the platform that is better addressed in the next hard fork.
But, I also see people boosting total garbo to the front page using those bots. They seem to be great for boosting visibility, and that's really what I need. Ideally I need one or two more whales. Somebody with over 6,000 followers shouldn't be making ~4sbd/post on average.
I am not a greedy man. My history of organizing charitable activities should demonstrate that. But to give, you must first have enough for yourself. For basic needs like eating, living indoors, paying for electricity, water and internet. Right now I don't.
Mostly the severe dip in crypto prices is to blame for that. But I'm also earning about one tenth the SBD per post that I used to. I've heard from the grape vine that many of my whales powered down/cashed out in advance of the coming cryptocalypse.
I hope when shit recovers, they reinvest. I hope resorting to vote bots will give me the visibility I need to attract new whales. I love it here. I still believe in the Steemit dream. A place to monetize various skills that the somehow even more dysfunctional real world economy has decided it has no use for.
But I can't eat dreams. I also haven't held down a proper job for longer than a month in the past 7 years. I don't fit into that machine, and not for lack of trying. I've got my fingers in a bunch of other pies, like game development with 
Until some of those other seeds sprout and begin bearing fruit though, Steemit is what puts a roof over my head and food in my mouth. It's going to pay enough to cover that because it has to. Because if it doesn't, I'll be living out of my car by May.
So I'm giving in and using vote bots from now on. @Randowhale is offline or I'd be using that already. I'm researching the others and will begin utilizing the ones that suit my needs in the coming days. I feel like I've compromised on my dream for what Steemit could be. But it was a naive dream I have since woken up from.
I want to say I'll never use voting pools, but then again, I once said I'd never use vote bots. Who knows how bad things could still get, even now? Maybe next month SBD will be at $5 and I'll feel foolish for crumpling under pressure, I don't know.
I'd welcome it though. It's preferable to seeing how low desperation can force me to sink. If this is the most I ever sell out, I'll count myself lucky. In a perfect world the problems that vote bots exist to solve would be solved structurally, by changes to the Steemit platform.
But idealism like that begets poverty, and I cannot pour from an empty cup. To sustain the minimum degree of generosity I insist upon, I need to be bringing in enough to support myself first. This is me compromising with reality. Send in the bots.
Stay Cozy!