Back in 2017 I was mostly known as @sift666 and I thought bid-bots were bad so I didn't use them - but I kept pissing big fat whales off, my rewards sucked, and I never got my rep past 65. I was self righteous but not "approved"
So I decided to start again with a new account - @frot was starting off at 25 and I thought "fuck it I'm going to bid bot my rep up to 65" - so I did - it was fast and easy. Then I stopped and it's only taken me 3 years to get up to 69.
My dirty secret!
I used them in the early days. It was 'normal' then and a case of 'if you cant beat em...'. Part of my rep is bid-bots, but never in the $100's of dollars range like @charles 1. I love STEEM stories of the past, @felixxx is doing some posts now on the early days.
One thing I don't think people realise is how good the Steemit content was in late 2016 - it was a real treasure trove. And the payouts too - I once got over $400 for a post (no bid bots) and that was not unusual. I'm going to start reposting some of my old sift666 posts on Hive because there is no way I would spend that much time writing a post now - I'm a lazy old burnout these days, and I make more returns from curation (catch is, there is nowhere near as much good content to curate now).
Your posts stand out like dog's balls because they are as good as the best Steemit posts from 2016.
I heard about these massive payouts. I have yet to break $100 (but have come close). if this lousy token ever goes up then maybe it will happen.
Well thanks.., I just start typing and it flows usually. I don't make any special effort with my posts, though I put them all through Grammarly and attempt to proof-read them all before publication.
It was funny - all my best payouts came when Steem was worth bugger all - when it was up over $5 my good payouts were around $40 and I didn't think that was anything great (I would now!)
In Aug 2016 Jeff Berwick got $15,000 for his first post - and that was pretty much the first thing I saw happen on Steemit - my eyes popped out of my head!
Don't bring me into your psychosis you lowly vote buyer...