As a new steemit user, I've been trying to make heads and tails of the system. I've been exploring, reading, learning, researching, writing, sharing, and doing all that good stuff.
It's been awesome seeing my posts get votes. It gives me a kick seeing those $ signs next to the upvote icons increase in value. I love the thrill of having a post get ever more votes. It's been a roller coaster ride too. Posting and seeing a post only receive a few votes can be deflating - but only mildly so.
Ultimately, I love that people are seeing what I'm doing, seeing my work. I love sharing my interests, and it's nice to have my interests rewarded with a little bit of Steem Power and SBD. But mostly, it's nice to read comments that people leave, and to read other people's posts to see what is going on out there in the world of Steem, and the greater world beyond that.
It took some time for me to get my head around the voting and rewards system. I'm still trying to get my head around it, in fact.
Like why is it that sometimes when I vote for a post, I see an increase in $ value, yet sometimes there is no increase at all, despite the fact that I'm fully powered up at the time having not voted for a couple of days? Why is that?
I remember my first few posts, and watching the votes go up. Oh wow! 20 votes! And a whopping $0.03 from all that. Woohoo. Oh wow 1000 votes! And a fantastic $16! Yet I see other posts getting only 20 votes, and they're already earning $10! Woohoo! It's a conspiracy!
Now I'm not thumbing my nose at any of the SBD or Steempower I've earned - every little bit counts, and it's a blast making some money from things I like sharing. But at the beginning it was baffling. Why aren't my posts making much money despite getting lots of votes? And then I discovered the answer - the higher your steem power, the higher your vote value. If a whale votes for your post, then that single vote can push the rewards value to crazy-high amounts. That's why some people have been earning $40, $60, $100, $200 for a single post! Time to go whale hunting!
This led me to try out UPVOTE BOTS. That dark, mysterious rabbit-hole of BOTness.
The BOT principle is simple. Bots advertise on certain websites like bottracker. They advertise their vote rate and value, and you bid for a percentage of their vote. The bids operate by you sending steempower or sbd to the bot's account, and adding the link to the post you wish to have the bot upvote in a memo.
Once the bot reaches full voting power, then it votes. But it doesn't just vote for your post. Numerous other people will have placed bids, too. The bot's votes, and the $ value of the votes, are divided amongst the bidders for that round, and the amount varies by how much the bidder has bid.
This worked out okay for me a couple of times. I bid 0.5 SBD, sent the bot my money, and then got a vote from the bot worth $0.9. Profit! I did it again. Profit! And again! What is this wonderful black magic?
Then a few days later, I tried again. And I lost money. What happened? Somebody had placed a bid on the bot during the same bidding round as me. That person's bid was higher than the remaining value of the bot's vote. Say for example the value of a bot's vote is $1. I bid 0.5SBD, expecting the bot to vote at a value of 35% above that. Given a 25% curation fee, this gives me 10% profit. This also leaves the bot's voting value for that round after my bid at about $0.15. That means anybody who bids more than $0.09 during that round will push the bot's voting value out of bounds, and the whole pool loses money! I found this out the hard way! (ps. maybe my numbers are a little off. Please forgive me if that is the case! I hope the principle holds though).
Yeah, I lost only a few cents, but still!
Okay, okay, I confess, the person who placed the bid which took the voting pool out of bounds was me. Yes. Me! I am utterly ashamed mwuhaha!
Then there are other factors to consider when using these BOTs, these dark magic agents of Voldemort:
- Max Age of your post. Some bots will only vote on posts a certain age. They need to earn profit after all, and to earn curation rewards they need to conform to various post restrictions ie. 30 minute post age in order for the bot to get full curation rewards.
- Does the bot post a comment with a vote? Do you REALLY want your post riddled with comments like "Thanks for using XXX Upvoter, supporting minnows!". BotTracker allows you to filter out bots which leave comments.
- Tiny dollar amounts. Most of the bots are only good for earning cents to a few dollars at most. You have to be quick off the mark when placing a bid. Many bidding rounds fill up fast.
- Risk of losing money if bidding goes over the threshold.
- Does the bot return money for invalid bids?
- Are the values displayed by steembottracker accurate?
- Don't forget to factor in 25% curation rewards when using bots!
- Keep a spreadsheet of your bids and earnings to calculate whether you're REALLY making money... you might really be losing money, even though it looks like you're turning a profit. Always measure!
- Money shown is USD on steembottracker!
It's all rather complicated, and it hurts my poor little brain just thinking about it all. Bidding on these bots is a pretty tedious exercise too. You have to go into steembottracker, line up the right bot, check if bidding is open, check the type of bot you want, check if the bid value isn't over the mark... all for a few cents to a dollar profit.
I can't shake the nagging sense that the votes sent by these bots are partly for the sake of vanity rather than any real profitability. You really have to work hard to make these bots earn money for you. It sure feels nice to see a $5 vote on your post though! But then, perhaps this is all in its infancy, and if you could develop an automated system to manage bot bids for you like some kind of auto trading, forex, or sports arbitrage software, then well, that would be amazing! Tell me if you do, I'll gladly test it out!
The best way to make money from bots, in my little old opinion? Build your own, then get a bunch of investors to delegate or send steempower to it. Advertise on steeembottracker, then rake in the SBD and STEEMPOWER as bloggers send you SBD and STEEM for votes! You'll see, I'll make my own bot, just you see. All your bot are belong to us! All your Steem are belong to me!
As for bidding on bots, for all its flaws, I still like this voodoo, and will occasionally make use of them in the same way I might make use of a tub of ice cream and a pizza on a lonely Saturday night, to boost my confidence when my posts aren't getting much love! But just like pizza and ice-cream, it's not healthy to indulge in them too often ;).
Image credits:
https://www.pexels.com/@matan-segev-188280 (wooden bots holding hands)
https://www.pexels.com/@rawpixel (voters holding plus symbols)
https://www.pexels.com/@nikolay-ivanov-167131 (magician with intense eyes)
https://www.pexels.com/@katlovessteve (crying woman)
Google (all your steem are belong to us)
https://www.pexels.com/@braden-chilton-619665 (pizza dude)