Making Sense Out Of Losing Cents
I noticed your post went over $2 on the 15th minute of its release, congratulations! Since hf20 rolled out, I wait until that 15 minute mark strikes before I Upvote new posts. When I Upvoted yours yesterday, your value raised two dollars with just two votes — congrats! Lucky you, my vote’s only worth $.05 so you must’ve got hit by someone with a lot more SP than me. We all love the transparency options our world is evolving toward so I decided to take a look at who your biggest contributor is.
It’s you! It seems as though you believe it’s necessary to pay for seats to your own concert, I’m still trying to make sense of that. 🤔 How can you perform on stage and watch from the audience at the same time? The whale who paid you that $2 is so big with a combined SP of over 500k I dare not mention their name. I know how I can get them to pay me $2, though, just do the same thing you did and transfer $2.20 to them. You threw away .20 cents that could’ve gone anywhere else on this platform and I don’t understand why. So your post shows a $2.00 value at that 15 minute mark?
I guess what I’m trying to say is:
Can someone help me understand the purpose of paying for a bid? If I give a bidbot $2.20 and my immediate return (ROI) is $2.00, didn’t I just lose .20 cents? And if my votes are worth a nickel, didn’t I just throw away the equivalent of four 100% Upvotes that could have gone anywhere else? Hold please, I’m going to grab a calculator. 🔢
Bidbot fee = $2.20.
Bidbot return = $2.00.
Author portfolio summary = -.20 cents.
Bidbot portfolio summary = +.20 cents.
Did I do that right?
The figures aren’t adding up. So what’s the point of paying a bidbot? Are the people who actually paid for a seat to your concert not cool enough? That can’t be it, I know you appreciate your followers. Is the bidbot you paid going to include your concert in their portfolio and over time you’ll get your .20 cents back? The reason I ask is because I don’t know. Is it a visual thing? Once your post hits 15 minutes, you need to be visually stimulated with a dollar amount so you pay a robot to increase its value? If that’s all it is, then wouldn’t it make more sense to pay your friend $2.20 who could then pay it right back to you and you don’t lose .20 cents? Am I misunderstanding the function of a bid bot?
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It's actually much worse return than shown in your example, because the value shown on Steemit and most tools does not strip out the curation reward. So they paid $2.20 for a $2.00 upvote that will payout $1.50.
The only way that ends up profitable is if Steem goes up 50% over the week between the bid and the payout. And even then, they would be much better off buying STEEM (or using the Conversion function, since SBD is below $1 right now).
Now, @chekohler is right about using careful timing, etc. I did this late last year into a rising market, and did quite well with it, but it required hours of tracking and choosing the best times for each post. A $2 bid is scarcely worth the effort.
Even if you assume you can get 10 - 15% ROI (my average over 100+ posts on 2-3 accounts before the market turned and I stopped using them), you need to be bidding $100+ on every posts, spread across a dozen or more bid-bots, in order for it to scale enough to be worth the effort. If you're doing all that, you better be certain your post is premium quality, because it will attract the attention of people that are skeptical of bid-bot usage.
@josephsavage, thanks! This is why I wrote this post, hoping someone could make it make sense to me. Spelling it out in big numbers like that did. Big numbers, spread across the board is the only way it would seem profitable. And then you’d run into those skeptics, exactly like you said.
And yes, you’re right, the payout on $2 will be in the nerighborhood of $1.50 at the end of its cycle which is even worse so the buyer is actually losing 70 cents, not just the instant 20. 👍🏿
Thanks a lot for stopping by @josephsavage!
I spent 25SBD on a bot for my 🏆50 STEEM Cover Art Contest - Latest Single 🎵 🔥 ANOTHER DAY - Ed Privat (Produced by @heaterville) and I can't help but thinking that it's 25 dollars less to feed the tribe, but I am a super stingy dude...
I don't like to spend money on anything quite frankly :)
I steal the towels in hotel rooms...Shhh
And lotions and shampoo’s, too, “guilty!” 25SBD for 50 Steem is a good deal! The one I was referring to was 2.2SBD for a return of ‘about’ 1.5SBD, it’s just didn’t make sense.
I’ve learned though, through this post, there’s beneficial ones out there. I didn’t know.
While I got you... Man, that drawing of you will make it here, I promise! We’re in such a mobile place right now, I’ll be turning in our 30 day notice next week I think. With Pura Vida around me all the time bro, I can’t draw, it isn’t physically possible. I’ve tried. There’s no other way to say it, it’s just not physically possible.
Writing can actually be difficult at times but it’s much easier for me to drop the notepad every 30 minutes than a pencil. Drawing is different than writing, you can come and go with words, just by reading the last sentence. A drawing, though, especially a portrait, especially a friends portrait on #steemit.. it’s just different. It’s a mind-funk from start to finish without words to fall back on, if that makes any sense. I hope you understand.
That photo of you may be 6 months away (I hope not!) but I won’t draw anything before I draw you.
edit Ed, my bad! Hey I saw that post about the art contest when you released it but refer to the above, art, drawing, etc, I have no desire right now. But I missed the teaser!!!
Oh crap! I won’t use this space to compare you to anyone because that’s only special to the person making the comparison but that was special! I wasn’t expecting that, at all, that was a great teaser Ed. (Fun fact: my autocorrect had teamster for teaser.)
For a second I pictured @dandays bringing an apple to the teacher, and then going on a long explanation on why he couldn't finish his assignement,but it wasn't his fault, he got distracted by @puravidaville! I thought it was hilarious!!!
"25SBD for 50 Steem is a good deal! " hell no the 50 STEEM is the prize money for the contest , you're confusing me now ...
we paid a bot 25SBD and it upvoted the post to a value of $29.99, and it's actually kind of a waste of money, we doing it just for the visibility and hopefully that will be enough :)
Dude you never have to apologize, we're in it for the long run, and it's not like I commissioned you to do a portrait, it's actually something chilled, drawing and art is all about enjoying what you doing and not forcing it.
Every day I feel guilty for not recording something, and then I try to remind myself that everything comes with time, and when you force it, it looks all weird n' shit.
"but I won’t draw anything before I draw you." I don't know why I thought it was fucking hilarious I can't stop laughing, please draw something it's getting weird now
Totally sounded weird. Leave out the word ‘Portraits’ and it really makes for a weird sentence! Haha. ...any portraits before, that’s what I meant.
Lol you went back to edit hahah "Oh crap! I won’t use this space to compare you to anyone because that’s only special to the person making the comparison but that was special!" Smoking some good shit I see
I’m a big JT fan. If that helps. Do you compare someone to JT because he sings acapella in that high pitch? That’s “tenor,” correct? Or because you’re a fan? And what if the person you tell that hates JT, that’ll suck. I think I’m going to put a post together about the way you said I write. I mean, not about you, but just writing a post completely off the cuff.
Star it “I don’t like opening sentences” or something like that. See what happens from there? Man, thanks! May ya’all be having the best weekend of the year.
things on Steemit are much more than just a form of social media. There are all kinds of strategies to get the best ROI, curation rewards, and rewards for posts for that matter. What I think really creates a problem is all these bidbot boosted posts are the ones on the trending page. They don’t even speak for the community. What I mean by this is the community didn’t vote those posts into trending.... the author did. So is the trending page the first thing we want new users to see???? I’m in vote of NO
Did you see the response from @josephsavage? He broke down the cost it takes to come out ahead and you’re talking about a hundred bucks per bot, spread across the board just to break even.
The ones that are an investment, I’m even holding shares myself like @qurator, @sbi, @dustsweeper but they’re long term. A robot who’s sole purpose is to put you on the tending page or ‘show you a value’ (which is a losing investment) just doesn’t make cents. I hope more people start to realize that.
Thanks for stopping by @jlsplatts!
Confusing!!! Above my pay grade. Got a couple 😁😁😁 though.
After reading some of the comments, you and I are right about the same pay scale. Above mine too.
Thanks for stopping by @thebigsweed!
you are welcome!
From my understanding of bid hitting it can be a profitably exercise if done correctly! Most people don’t bother to learn how to use it so they just throw money to see a dollar value attached to their post as some sort of validation but are actually making a loss in terms of ROI
Looking at the $ value is a bit tricky since that can change with the value for Steem over the course of the week it’s better to look at the stake you sent and earned
So if I sent 1SBD and I got a 2 dollar upvote and it’s 600SBD and 750 STEEM after curation I made a profit on my bid in terms of stake! It’s all about gathering stake
The issue with bid botting is when too many people bid on a vote round for that specific bot the voting power is reduced and you won’t get the max value of the upvote! So it’s a bit of a gamble! It’s safer to do multiple bids across different bots and spread your risk and over the average spend make sure you still end up with a higher return stake
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I agree with people throwing money at a losing investment just to see ‘value.’ That’s pretty lame though, in my humble internet persona opinion.
Regardless of the price of Steem, the value of a dollar isn’t going to change. Are you saying there’s a bot that will pay me $2 for my $1 bid? I have about $30 worth of votes right now if that’s the case. 😉 I’ve never seen that robot.
We agree on the part spreading your risk, absolutely! The robot I’m referring to in this post, though, it still doesn’t make sense to me. Would you agree that rather than forfeiting that .20 cents on a $2 vote, buying two shares worth of @dustsweeper or @steembasicincome makes more sense? And cents.
Thanks for stopping by @chekohler!
Yes there are plenty of bots that could give you great returns on your bid if you get the timing right, but thats a big if - https://steembottracker.com/
You can use steem bot tracker, click on action and then details. It wil show you the current bids on a bot what the bid value vs the vote value will be and the % ROI after curation so you know exactly what you're in for. You'll need to watch bots and see where you can find ones not being bid on too heavily and then drop your bid in.
I think the method you use would be based on your behaviour. If you're a big commentor I'd say go for the dustsweeper and power up big, (in fact everyone should use dusty really) and if you blog daily SBI is a must. But if you're one of those steemians who mostly read and on occation blog then bid botting may be worth getting the most ROI for your efforts while you're still looking to join a community or win favour with other steemians who will eventually support you
Right on @chekohler, thanks! The ones like you mention who mostly read and occasionally blog, it actually doesn’t seem like a bad idea for them.
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