That would be ideal to be the first voter at 30 minutes then have Whales upvote it to the hot page. That may have been what happened (not the hot page part), when I waited 30 minutes to vote on my own post as someone suggested. I remember watching a video before I joined Steemit and some Whales discussed waiting 30 minutes then voting on each others posts.

I'm testing not using the upvote bots as they may be good for exposure, but they tend to drain your wallet over time.