Now that we have the "Promoted" section, many users have already tried it out and paid a few Steem Dollars to have their work, or the work of others, gain more visibility.
In the few days that this is working, there have already been several analyses on the costs and rewards of those who've used it. I'll now try to take this into a new direction, on how you can maximize your exposure and your return on what you've spent for promotion.
The most critical element is to realize that the Promoted listing has a market component built into it.
Put simply, it's like a small auction. This means that the more one pays, the higher they go into the list.
There are two things that can make a huge difference with practically zero cost difference for the promoted party:
1) Outbid other listings by a tiny amount (+0.01 Steem Dollar)
Let's say there are 10 articles that are promoted for 1.00$. Let's also say you wanted to pay 1$ to get your article promoted. The question is simple: Why be in the end of that queue of the other 10 articles, listed below them, instead of paying 1.01$ and leaping ahead of the 10 articles that paid 1$.
By simply donating 1 cent more, you leap ahead of all those articles that paid the same amount.
A small "market survey" before you click the promote button can be very helpful: You can see where the price range is for the other posts and then "outbid" them for a higher-up spot. By the mere fact that you are "bidding" later than them, you have a de-facto advantage that you can use in your favor.
You can see what others are paying for their promotion, by clicking on the right drop-down button, next to the payment estimation. The "Boost payments" is the amount paid for promotion.
2) If you are going to promote something, it's better to do it from the start
An article that only has a few hours from payout is not that attractive for the curator - who ideally will get more money if a lot of votes are piled up on it. And this will usually require time.
I understand that some times an article doesn't go all that well and that's when one can opt for the "promote" button to save their day (kind of "last resort" measure), but ultimately, it's just better if its done from the start. If you do it from the start, your exposure is maximized for the entire 24hrs period where the votes count toward your payout - and this is important to maximize the returns on your promotional expenses.
Some common sense about quality: Don't expect wonders if the quality is bad
Remember that just because you promoted something, it doesn't automatically mean it's going to start getting upvotes if the quality is low. The quality criteria of curators will not suddenly vanish just because something was promoted. That much should be expected.
Closing, I hope you found the above tips useful for getting the best value your Steem dollars can buy. Good luck with your articles and ...Steem on!