It might seem like an odd thing to do but if you are a minnow and you want to get more exposure for your posts, and you have very little steem power or not many steem backed dollars (SBD) then this might help you get some more exposure, steem and SBD.
It will take you time and effort but it may be a way to grow your presence on the many platforms of steemit, Dtube and Busy to name just a few.
@jerrybanfield and @molometer (me) at #steemfest2 in Portugal.
I invested money into steemit to get the vote power slider, then I invested some more just because I have faith in the platform after meeting so many steemians in real life at steemfest2 in Lisbon, Portugal and at other meetups in the UK.
I have not taken one penny out of steemit in the entire time I have been on here and I always powered up every cent I made.
Not the most sensible strategy in any venture.
@mammasitta and me having a coffee on the sidewalk.
I travel a lot which doesn’t come cheap. When I make a post, in my mind it has a dollar value based on what it cost to get that content and I do want a return on my investment.
When you first start on steemit and you put all that effort into a post and get $0.2 in return. It can be disheartening.
You may rationalize, that like many things, it can take time to build up a following. But then you see brand new people joining steemit and you see that they are making $100’s right from the start?
Their content isn’t any better than yours and in many cases it’s just a crappy photo with no explanation whatsoever?
In fact, there are many accounts that are just complete trash, fake and plagiarised content from the web.
Memes and suchlike. Luckily we have @steemcleaners that track this stuff but they are overwhelmed with the number of posts that they have to deal with daily. I support them with what little I have.
I had a great chat with @logic about which was the most affordable country in Europe to live in? Portugal it turned out was top of the list. I may have to move there to survive in my retirement.
The secret to 'success' on Steemit
When I looked into some of these accounts two things stood out.
They are either getting a lot of support from a very few whales or they are using the upvote bots.
It’s then that you may come to realize that you are actually in a game. A real and serious game. It’s a social experiment called capitalism and you better get your act together and fast.
As I have no whales to support me. I decided to try an experiment.
I started to power down my steempower to give me something to bid with and I began using the upvote bots which you can track using a great tool at steembottracker designed and maintained by the developer Yabapmatt
Steemit developers.
You will have to experiment with it to get a decent return on your bid but in general it has been worthwhile to spend the extra time to get my post a bit more of the oxygen of publicity.
Whether it is going to be successful is another question but at this point I’m not going to sit by and ‘hope’ that things will suddenly improve. I’m going to do what I can to make it happen.
Steemit does have it's own post promotions tab on the main website that you can use but virtually no one uses it, as the money you spend with it is just burned and you get little in terms of more exposure.
What you should be trying to do is raise your profile, earn some more steem and improve your chances of your posts actually being seen.
Watch this video from Joe Parys on how to use the upvote bots and rather than redo the video myself I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me sharing it with you.
You can also bid for and upvote your posts on the bot tracker website.
Do your own research and be careful. If you see one of the upvote bots and you think it might be wise to wait to the last minute to grab an upvote.
Don’t do it, because there are loads of other people thinking exactly the same thing.
And when you all bid at the last minute. Not only do you lose money but everybody in that round of votes loses money. It's a quick way to piss off a lot of people.
My advice is to bid early and forget about it. If you are profitable that’s great and remember. When you upvote your post.
Everyone that commented and upvoted your post is going to get considerably more in curation rewards. This will make your upvoters and resteemers a bit more money.
You are supporting the upvote bots too which allows them to help more minnows. So it’s a win, win to all involved.
I often use @jerrybanfiled 's upvote bot of the same name, as the revenue from this bot goes to fund other steemit based promotional projects.
Ethics: In any business the first priority is to be profitable. Steemit is a business as well as a social network. We are the shared owners of this business. Use the network effect to boost your exposure.
If you want to deprive these sock puppets and fake accounts? Then it is almost your duty to use these bots and make it less profitable for the scammers.
The upvote bots are there for a reason. They were developed and deployed for you to use and to be successful.
They are a tool that you should use respectfully. Don’t abuse them. If you feel that your content is worth more than what you are earning. Try them out.
This is not financial advice just common sense.
I wish you every success, however you define that word. Steem on.
Nice post, keep it going and putting out the original and helpful content, and you should be rewarded! Good luck!
Steemit has an etiquette. Please take time to read this information @erikmagner upvoting your own comment is not cool unless it contains valuable information. Your comment just looks spammy. Which will actually damage your reputation. Reputation on steemit is super important.
"Advice For Comments:
Leave a comment worthy of a reply
Don't just comment 'great post' or 'upvoted' one or two word comments show a lack of effort and could make people think you didn't even read the post
Do not spam the same comment on every post you encounter - this will likely get flagged
Try and provide feedback or insight
Generally try not to be offensive or rude - hate speech can also result in flags
Don't paste irrelevant links into comments
Don't ask for vote swapping
Same goes for following
Don't ask people to visit your page in someone else's post"
From full article
Very insightful post Mr. @molometer, I'am aware too that Steemit is not just a social site, but it is also an investment site, and I agree with you that one should do research and try to experiment things here to be profitable. I once use bid bots too but I just stopped it, for the one I bid never return back the value, in short I lost in investing. I'm kinda hibernating from bid bots now, but who knows, as you recommend/suggesting it, I might try it in the future again but I need to select the best bid bots that will help me profitable here. Very nice post, it hit me when you said that it so disheartening experience when you compare the amount of your quality post versus to those who just post pictures at all and they get a hefty or nice value for their post. Thanks for sharing this. By the way nice photos too ;)
I've been on steemit since June 2017 and just worked posting rich content virtually every day and getting virtually nothing for my efforts. I began to see there is more to this system than just a website and that these bots actually could be useful.
It's only since @yabapmatt put this great tool together that it started to make any sense. Prior to this you had to rely on random luck that your post would get any upvotes at all.
It turns a lot of people off steemit when they hear these mad stories of some people earning $1,000's for one post? Which has happened here, and yet they come and slave away everyday and make absolutely zero.
We have to take control of our own destiny and if that means using these bots for a while until you build up a sizable following that can sustain your efforts. Then it is the sensible thing to do. That is why they are here.
Thank you for reading and for your thoughtful comments. You need to study the bots and see how they work before spending any money on them. They can make a loss also if you are not careful.
You really makes sense Mr. @molometer, I love the way you think and the radical way of how you control the destiny. Thanks a lot for the advice.
Thank you @puroypoi I hope it helps. It also helps if you spell my username correctly lol
Lol Sorry for that. I will correct it. ;)
Thanks for that buddy.
Wow thanks for this information you gave us @molometer it was really helpful to us minnow who is just starting here on steemit. I never know that having a big steempower is like having a super power because it can change your post value.. thanks for this because i was really frustrated because my article hasn't earn a single cent.. looking forward tl your next post . :')
It's like many things is life. You only get out what you put in. In order to reap the rewards you must sow good rich and interesting content and then use a bot if needed. Not just as a matter of course.
Your content must be of some value otherwise those same whales will downvote your work even if you have used a bot. @mrsexappeal
Not everyone can just post a photo and hope to earn anything.
Your right sir! Im very thankful to you for giving me tips on how to be successful on steemit. I hope someday whales can see me.. i just need to put quality post. :')
Just be real and share your thoughts about where you are. No one knows what 'quality posts' means. It's all subjective. You are doing the right thing by finding what works and what doesn't.
Wow indeed.. your words really motivates me to push forward sir. Thankyou for your kindness for minnows like us hehehehe. I cant wait to read your next article sir. :')
As a nos-so-minnow blogger I somehow started to rely on just upvotes from random people. And stopped using bots, but the payouts declined significanly. Actually it is in a sense better to use bots if you are a minnow.
That is why they are there @ontheverge since the new tool arrived things have got a lot simpler.
In the past you had to follow a bot controlled by a whale and there were so many rules and what not and they were making a fortune from them.
Now you can see exactly who runs the bot and if you agree with what they are doing you can use that bot knowing that you are actually helping the minnows on the platform and yourself. Study them well though before you commit. Find out who is behind them and what they are doing for steemit.
Good to know! I've only tip toed around with bots. I may need to do some research! Thanks for this!
My pleasure Melinda, time is the most valuable thing we have.
I intend to use mine wisely.
Hoping that a miracle will happen is fruitless. Get stuck into the mechanics of this and you'll see the results.
I'm here to make money. A lot of people may try to deny it but that is why they are here too.
A little more honesty about our motivations is refreshing don't you think?
I just want to make enough so that I can continue doing my Shadow Contest! I'm hoping that eventually it will pay for itself, but it sure isn't yet!
That's a good idea Melinda. I first used the bots to support my signage challenge. It broke even most of the time otherwise I could have never have made all those payouts. It was never profitable but a lot of fun and it was nice to spread the money around with the rise in the values of steem and sbd.
I've seen the shadow contest and will give it a go too.
Use a bot to fund the contest but just do your research first.
Go for the bigger bots as they seem to work best most of the time. Postpromoter etc
I'll keep an eye on them! I need to build up my SBD first.
I agree 100%!
Thanks so much for this informative post @molometer! I'm trying to be a sponge on here but there is so much to soak in.
Glad to be of service. There is much to learn here and time is precious.
Such great advice and so cool you meet so many of thes people at Steemfast
Cheers my friend
Thanks Jay, it was great to meet so many interesting people in one place.
They have designed this platform for all of us to make it a success.
We just have to figure it out. It's an elaborate game with all the usual players and pitfalls. Almost like a real life dungeons and dragons deal.
Some people are just quicker at figuring that out than others? lol
That is so true I see some that have worked out the game and play it so well and good luck to them
But I decided early on, I am not going to be focused on return on investment in such a degree that I only upvote posts within a certain time window or rely on auto voters for every upvote, Maybe I am old school but for most of my upvotes i like to do it at my own bidding and just when I see the post wether it is a minute old or a day
I am enjoying the interaction on here and will just let any earnings come as they may and not let them be my driving force
I can see your point. It can be an uphill struggle if you have no support like 90% of the people who post great content and get little reward or recognition.
This is primarily a business that just happens to have a website called steemit amongst many others.
How people interact is an important feature but not the driving force. Finding good content (whatever that is) is the job.
Curating and comments all make money for the curators and people that leave comments.
If people are kind enough and take the time to comment then it follows that we should try to reward them as much as we can by using these bots systems.
Remember also that 25% of the rewards go to curators and some of that goes to the bots too.
This is the business model we are in and it works. When you know about it. It is an investment platform that needs your active management to secure your investments.
I upvote every sensible comment. Many do not?
I need to adjust the way I do somethings myself I know and upvotes on comments is something I haven’t been doing and need to
Thanks
Every time we don't upvote peoples comments is a lost opportunity to give them some rewards. It costs us nothing to upvote. That was one of the key points in the steemit white paper. To make voting painless and costless.
Yes indeed a very good point I use my upvoting power up on people’s post and need to balance that down a bit to enable my to upvote comments
very good. friend...
I shall have to investigate some of this. See what's happening so to speak :)
Welcome to the rabbit hole Westley. Dig deep and you will find your way through.
It should prove interesting :)
Thank you molometer for making a transfer to me for an upvote of 12.82% on this post!
Half of your bid goes to @budgets which funds growth projects for Steem like our top 25 posts on Steem!
The other half helps holders of Steem power earn about 60% APR on a delegation to me!
For help, will you please visit https://jerrybanfield.com/contact/ because I check my discord server daily?
To learn more about Steem, will you please use http://steem.guide/ because this URL forwards to my most recently updated complete Steem tutorial?
This post has received a 10.08 % upvote from @boomerang thanks to: @molometer
This post has received gratitude of 4.82 % from @appreciator thanks to: @molometer.
You got a 4.62% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @molometer!
Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!