Steemit Upvote Bots: Are They Ethical, Useful, or Even Profitable?
A lot of debate surrounds the use of upvote bots on the Steemit platform. Are they ethical, useful, or even profitable? I'll answer all of these questions in today's video and show you how to calculate your ROI if you decide to use an upvote bot for your content.
Good Content... Check!
Yeah, lol. I keep driving that home. I think above anything else anybody does on Steemit, producing great content should always come first.
I absolutely agree! I've got so many things to write about. I'm just trying to narrow it down to a few core topics like Photography and Blockchain amongst a few...
But your tips and tricks have been helping a lot so far over the past couple of days to get my account off the ground, thanks a bunch! :D
You're welcome. I'm glad that these videos are helpful. As I learn more I'll continue to add more videos like this. :)
This is super helpful!! I've been going back and forth about using the bots because I wasn't sure how it works. Thanks for this video. I might try one out!
Thanks @musclegirlfusion, you're most welcome. I was the same way too. I had to test them out for a while and gather my thoughts before I made this video. But I've definitely come to the conclusion that they can be very good if used correctly. :)
I think it was very a very interesting video and subject. I am quite new here but from what you said you repeatedly talked about good content, my point of view is most people think they genuinely provide good content, I mean I hope.
I just started a few days ago on steemit and I am still struggling finding a lot of article that I found are helpful to me.
Because it is still a fairly newish platform I believe that with time we will have more and more people, better content. I don't think paying for upvote is a really great long term strategy, everyone got to learn and I think that if you pay it does not really allow you to improve your writing skills, video making skills, or even improve your content, because you can't know what are the areas that are not working.
Most of the content it is in majority about steem/steemit, which is strange because a social media platform is not only to talk about the platform, I hope that we will see more variety to make Steemit better.
I hope I am not too negative it is not my intent, I jut want to share my thoughts.
I agree. Most people probably do "think" that their content is supreme. But it's really more important what others think. And if you're only focused on how the bots are performing then you could potentially miss the boat (or the point of Steemit in general). In order to become successful here or on any other social or blogging site, you must focus on your audience and provide what they want. So you're right; I think that if you use upvote bots and don't actually have communication with your audience and listen to their needs, then you can fail miserably. That's why I always listen to you guys and gals and try my best to communicate with you all. Those upvote bots don't comment anything useful, lol. So I depend on you to tell me what you like, don't like, or aren't sure about. I made a video the other day on the 5 Things Every Steemit User Should Be Doing where I point out ways to grow your channel beyond using upvote bots: https://steemit.com/steemit/@brandonfrye/5-things-every-steemit-user-should-be-doing
And you're right that a lot of content here is about Steemit and/or crypto currencies. This is for two reasons: 1) Steemit is brand new so people are still trying to learn how to use it and make the most out of it. 2) A lot of people find Steemit due to their research into crypto currencies. So these are people who are already fascinated with crypto and that's what they like to talk about.
I've mentioned this before, but I know that Steemit will become more robust and have more variety as we continue to move forward and grow. Much like Facebook was all about college in it's early days, Steemit is all about crypto these days. So it's up to the new people coming on board to add to the variety. But that makes it all the better opportunity to dominate a category (or tag) and run with it. Lots of opportunity here for the early adopters. :)
I pretty much agree with everything you just said and will check your article. I am very excited about Steemit and look forward for it to have more variety and also a suggestion tab so I can find people that provide similar content to what I upvote. Like Youtube and IG do. Maybe it exist and I am just clueless
Every video,i learn something , thanks man
Thanks @aliexplorer, thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you found this helpful. More videos to come soon! :)
i tried to watch the video but my network is bad please. i want to start using
steemit upvote bot how can i go about it.
Check out this site which @brandonfrye was talking about in this video: https://s3.amazonaws.com/yabapmatt/bottracker/bottracker.html
thank @brandonfrye i am trying one of the bot hope i get profit. you are amazing
Great video. Thank you! Especially for encouraging good content!
It's an old post now, but I wrote about this very subject:
https://steemit.com/steem/@ironshield/bribe-a-bots-are-they-worth-it
@ironshield
Thanks for sharing, @ironshield. And yes, I believe 100% that good content should always come first. :)
I tried an upvote bot on a few posts, and while I do understand their potential ROI value, it's basically a "get what you pay for" model. I understand that, maybe if you used enough upvote bots, you might make it to trending or hot on a particular tag, but definitely not on any of the major tags (like steemit). Those are basically the same people everyday, upvoted by themselves or whales. And since discoverability on Steemit is horrendous at the moment, it's pretty unlikely that you'll gain much additional value beyond what the upvote bot will give you.
In that manner, I didn't like that it just felt like a transaction. Playing the same games as all the whales, but at such a small scale that it just felt sad. And at it's worst, you're propagating the oligarchy of Whales. Some of these accounts could be connected to other users, and they simply funnel a portion of those profits to another user. Not to mention the fact that many of these bots also get curation rewards for the upvote that you paid for (likely more than you paid them). Basically they figured out that they can forgo creating content, get the same curation rewards without actually reading anything, and get paid to do it. Pretty corrupt imho.
Maybe this will all work itself out in time, but in order to do that, the people who are profiting off this system will have to want to make a change, which will only happen if growth slows and new users abandon the platform thus driving the value of Steem/SBD down.
That said, great posts (sincerely). Wish there was more good content like on here, or at least it was easier to find amongst all the nonsense.
Those are some great points. I personally have not had a negative ROI on any of my posts that have been upvoted but I know that this is possible. And I agree that we could have better functions on the site that allowed us to connect with other like-minded users. I suppose we’re still in Beta so many of the improvements we’re looking for are still to come.
I am curious how you found me though? Was it through a tag search or Google search? I’ve only been on Steemit for 2 weeks and have connected with some awesome people. I’ve also gained over 120 followers in that time which I think is pretty incredible. So I personally haven’t had any issue connecting with people but I know this can be improved.
Also I should mention that I regularly get upvotes from people with large accounts who enjoy my content. I’m thankful for the “whales” who support the newbies. And I plan to do the same as my account grows.
I believe it was through @exyle. He made a video about his app Steemify, and I think he mentioned you in that video, as someone that reviewed his app (which you did). Although I could be remembering wrong, lol.
Do you use the Busy.org interface? If so, you can see the people that voted for you at what % and the value that translates to. Super helpful for understanding stability of earnings. That's what worries me more than anything. If you look at many trending posts or videos, you can see that a massive percentage of the value comes from just a handful of accounts. And if those whales stop supporting you, then your income is really in trouble.
You've seen DavidPakman's posts I'm sure. Here's the breakdown:
All but $13 comes from 5 accounts. Awesome for him now. But not a scalable model for the platform. And on top of that, those 5 people, ESPECIALLY thejohalfiles basically can handpick the trending section.
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah I made a video about his app and how I'm using it. Cool! That's actually a great example of how to get recognized on here, even though that wasn't my purpose with the video at all. But I learned a valuable lesson with what happened with @exyle and @blockbrothers. Get the attention of the whales and it can be very rewarding. As Gary Vee always says, if you want to get ahead then do something for others expecting nothing in return. That's really what happened there and was a great experience.
And yeah I've been using Busy.org the last few days. I actually made a video on that as well. And you're right, it wouldn't be a long-term strategy to depend on a select few accounts to keep the income coming. I agree 100%. That's why I am trying to help people understand the importance of good quality and valuable content. Plus, interaction with your followers. That's why I like to dig deep into my comments as much as possible and speak directly to my followers.
In my eyes, the old rules of blogging apply here. If you want to be successful you'll build a loyal following by providing them what they want and developing a relationship with those people. Using upvote bots only works for so long and only to a certain degree. And it certainly won't provide you with a stable income stream for the future. I hope nobody is trying to go that route.
Great points, my friend. I really appreciate the feedback and discussion!
Hello, I'm new in Steemit, and I didn't know about upvote bots before, until I watched your video. Thanks a lot and thanks to you, I can stop replying an upvote bots from now because it's useless makes me look crazy. None of what they say makes any sense, they say something unrelated thing to my posts, I kept replying it because I didn't wanna be rude. Now, after watching your super helpful video, upvotes that I got from the upvote bots doesn't make me feel good, I just wanna be appreciated by people who really enjoy my post. If I get a little upvote from my post, I just have to accept it and that means my post doesn't good enough for them and I just have to keep trying to make it better next time. It's really a great video, keep doing good, thank you so much. :)
Hey @sugar.tumonggor, welcome to Steemit. We're glad you decided to join us here! :)
At first I was using many bots. Trying them out. Never really went understood the idea of bidding bots. Now I do. Thanks man!
You're welcome, I'm glad this was helpful! :)