My First week without Bidbots
The recent HF and the #newsteem mentality have changed things around here and I have decided to stop using bidbots.This is a quick recap for the first week with not using them.
I have to say that it's been quite a positive experience! With using bidbots there was always the thought in the back of my mind that what I was doing was ultimately not helping the platform. Bidbots have enabled authors to promote their content, but it always felt fake and it actually was... The trending page basically consisted of bidboted posts.
Without bidbots the feeling of organic curation is real again. Upvotes are coming largely from the community and although most of these votes are very small (and automatic) at least one knows how one's post is being valued. Of course there is still the problem that many posts which are good do not get noticed, but with most of the whales switching to manual curation there is a much higher chance that your post will be upvoted in a meaningful way!
Another thing I have noticed is that I have become much more engaged with the community. This is largely also due to being a curator for @tipu's community curation project. It is fun browsing through /created and upvoting and commenting on new posts and ultimately to make a difference or even just make someone happy by appreciating someone's post.
And the cool thing is that my post payouts have actually not declined! With using bidbots there was generally a 10% ROI for upvotes, but what I am seeing is that only getting one or two upvotes from @curie @ocd etc. in a week is more rewarding than using bidbots. Of course these votes are not guaranteed, but creating valuable content is the basis for having higher payouts (at least as a general rule).
I guess there are hardly any people left using bidbots due to the high chance of being downvoted, but I would recommend everyone to stop using bidbots for the simple reason that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Hopefully, there will be another option to promote posts on steemit that really works so that people also have this option (which was one of the reasons for why bidbots became so popular in the first place).
Anyway, what are your thoughts? :)
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wow, thanks @ocdb, really appreciate it :)
Another entity that I see supporting lots of accounts but rarely mine. I'm complaining today. Sorry! Gotta get out more.
use the #oc tag !
I do, when I remember to. still nothing but a resteem.
Only one @curie a week?! I would be very happy with one every three months! What you got that I don't got? It's my images, I know. My writing is good, I know. My images suck. Another game I have to step up. erg.
I'm working my tail off here trying to curate and make MAYBE a half a steem a day doing it for hours on end. So sometimes I'm one of those tiny votes you get. But I actually read what someone posts if I upvote, every word.
I'm glad it's working for you. I'm still peeved about the upvote curve which no one is talking about. My vote value has been decimated on the accounts I support, accounts that were making not much more than the penny I gave them, and now get next to nothing at all.
More people are reading my posts, a major plus, but my earnings have not gone up, a bit of a bummer
You asked for my thoughts, so there you have a few of them.
Actually I think I might have gotten 1 or 2 curie upvotes in the last 2 years ;) ocdb was a lot more common though. It's taken 2 years until I slowly have the feeling that I am getting some meaningful rewards, and even so it's not so much. Here are some tips:
-buy steem! For only a 100$ you can get almost a 1k steem; I don't expect it to be this low too long
-with more steem curation gets better and better; I make about 10 Steem/week with curation
-Don't just curate small accounts, you have to balance it with the large ones
-Use @steemvoter for automatic votes
-And the most important thing: have perseverance. It takes a long time to climb the ladder, but if we help each other it's so much easier.