I don’t want to stand against the use of robots, I’m also using them all the time. Without them, many good articles receive zero or near-zero attention on Steemit. The rules permit bots. But some of them, the bidbots are really difficult to use and even with some months of experience, require a lot of time and attention.

Why positive?

And if they aren’t used properly, they can cause heavy money losses. It seems to be like a dangerous minefield. So I decided to make some points about what, maybe, newcomers, small minnows should know to avoid losses, if possible.

We can’t say that only positive return (ROI, return on investment, yield) can be good and all negative yields are bad. As advertising, promoting mostly has its price, costs in the real world, too. But you should try to stay above the waterline, or try to limit these losses. Or your hard earned STEEM will decrease in time, and this is not the target of Steemians.

Robots can generate theoretically any number, but mostly 10-20 percent of yields now on Steemit, but both positive and negative ones.

1. Distinguish between two things

For older Steemians can be obvious, but some robots are guaranteeing a positive ROI, mostly to support newcomers. (Like @minnowbooster, @smartmarket – attention, the latter one has also a bidbot with the name “smartsteem”.) They are often depleted, but if you only need (or can only afford) some dollars to pay bots, these can be enough for you. So you can avoid the risks in the yield. (Make a registration and apply for whitelisting!)

2. All bots are different

If for some reason these bots aren’t enough, you can choose the “bid bots”, which are working based on the principles of the auctions. They offer a fixed amount of upvote at a fixed time, and users are making their bids, counter-offers. For example, a bot offers upvotes worth 100 USD at 4.30 p. m., and authors of posts can send amounts between 1-10 SBD or STEEM.

If the total sum of bids results in less than 75 USD, approximately, all bids terminate with positive ROI. (The exact number changes every second with the price of STEEM and SBD.) If there are more bids, the result is an upvote with a lower value than the investment, makes a negative ROI.

But many bots are limiting (capping) the positive or the negative side, or both. There are minimum and maximum bid values, and some bots don’t accept STEEM. Some can only upvote posts newer than 2 days, most of them 3,5 days, some even older ones (with 4-6 days).

(Source: Steembottracker.com)

So, all bots are different, and you have to pay attention to this informations or you will be rejected. You can see all these essential informations on the page Steembottracker. Most bots are returning and voting again periodically every 2,5 hours. If you fail some condition – post too old, amount too low or high, STEEM not accepted or you are on some blacklist –, they return your money.

3. Recommended Amount

Other of the important information on Steembottracker is the “Max Suggested Bid”. If this is zero or very low, your bid ends with a negative yield. If you send exactly the same amount – and nobody else does –, the auction ends with zero yield. But don’t be greedy, better send much less than the suggested bid and enjoy positive ROI.

The problem is, some people don’t know this and are sending much money blindly. Or simply, several people are sending smaller amounts at the same time. So the auction ends with negative ROI, even if you take care of your bid. You are depending on the foolishness of the others and from the simple good luck. But if you don’t pay attention, you can end in negative with much more chance than without considering this information.

In short:

unfortunately, you don’t know if you end in negative or no, but you can reduce the risk if you pay attention.

4. Observe the market

You can make your own little market research, your “homework”: if the last 4-5 auctions ended in the negative (“Actions/Details/Last Round”), if the “Max Suggested Bid” is zero by the closest auctions, the market is crowded. Maybe you better come back some hours later.

There is also some daily seasonality, in the hours when people in America are sleeping, I see less activity. Maybe also Saturday night when many people go to parties, to dance or get drunk. In August – holidays – it was much less crowded than in September.

5. Is timing everything?

Many people are bidding at the very end, so they can see if the auction is full or not. (They receive also desktop notifications in Windows 10 if it’s turned on.) The more you wait the more information you have. But, don’t be too late!

Maybe Steem block time (transfer time) can be only 3 seconds, but other webpages, Steemit.com, the system of the chosen robot, are much slower. Sometimes you are also late sending money between 1-2 minutes before the auction’s end. (The bot mostly pushes you in the next round with unknown market conditions.)

6. Small can be beautiful

On the page, there is a “Vote value” – option, if you lower it, you see more bots. I think the small ones receive less attention, and if you want to spend low amounts, it can be enough.

7. Robots make the rules

By many robots, minimum ROI is set, but you can’t take this seriously, unfortunately. I chose one today, and the auction ended 11,5 percentage point lower than the limit! Bidbots can be unpredictable, they aren’t rejecting all offers they should.

(Source: Steembottracker.com)

8. Name Traps

For example, @upmyvote is a real bid bot, @upmevote is not and if you send money to the latter, you can lose it. Pay strong attention to the spelling.

(Other posts about bots)
(Interesting article about robots by @gandhibaba, a little difficult to read.)

Disclaimer:

I am not a financial advisor and this content in this article is not a financial or investment advice. It is for informative purposes only, or simply to make you think, entertain, increase testosterone and adrenaline level. Consult your advisers before making any decision.

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(Cover photo: Pixabay.com)