The Biggest Mistake I've Made on Steemit: Using Vote Bots
I'm not even a week into my challenge of not using voting bots for a month and I'm already seeing the mistake I've made by using them in the first place. Over the past couple of weeks, I've read a lot of posts defending the use of voting bots and I agreed with most of them. Now my opinion has completely changed. Why? I'll explain that below!
False Sense of Accomplishment
In the beginning, I thought that the only way to grow on Steemit, was by using voting bots to artificially bump up my posts. I saw plenty of other people doing it and started using them, after convincing myself that I was just doing it to increase my post's visibility.
Now that I've stopped using them for about a week, I'm starting to realize what kind of damage I've done. I'm not talking about damage I've done to my Steemit account by the way. No, I mean that I've given myself a false sense of accomplishment when I didn't deserve it. I've played a trick on the reward center in my brain, that's one way of describing it.
At the end of the day, it's easy to think you're being successful on Steemit, just because you see these nice, big numbers under your post. At least for me, I felt that those numbers were an accurate representation of the value of my posts, even though these numbers were largely artificial.
My 'AHA!' Moment
Today I've had my 'AHA!' moment, or more accurately, my 'DAMN!' moment. I've realized that I've been doing myself a great disservice by using these voting bots. I've tried to skip a necessary part of the path to Steemit success, by taking the easy road. I should have gone through the grind of writing articles and earning small successes along the way. Instead I opted for the get-rich-quick scheme, by just buying my way into Steemit success.
Seeing how much my posts made without making use of any voting bots, made me realize that I had been duping myself into believing I was more successful than I actually was. I'm sure that I even lost some respect from part of the Steemit community.
Not any more, I'm certain that I will not use them again in the future. I'd rather take the hard road from now on, by growing on the basis of merit, instead of just buying my success. Even if it means that it will go 100 times as slow as before.
Change
I'll focus more on participating more actively in the various communities that exist on Steemit. I've already made some friends here, so it's not that this would be too difficult to expand on. For now, I really just want to get rid of that yucky feeling that I've gotten when I realized what kind of mistake I've made.
Note: I'm not against other people making use of voting bots, this post is only meant to somewhat clear my own conscience.
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I can relate to both ways.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was where you are now.
But now I’m struggling...
You see, experiments have shown that the fastest way to grow your account is by using the bots wisely. I’m not talking about throwing hundreds at a crappy post. My content is not of that good quality that I believe it’s worth getting it to trending.
Since I started here on SteemIt, I have been all about helping others to climb the ladder. But my account is only small; the help I can give them is almost neglectable.
Earlier this week I read some posts and had some conversations that made me think: growing my account as fast as possible will allow me to help more people in a better way.
You’ve got to stay true to yourself and shouldn’t exploit the system, but I trust myself enough to not do that. I will never use the bidbots if I don’t think my article is good enough (still talking about throwing just a little SBD to them, not hundreds)
This place needs a middle class, urgently. There are a couple of exceptions, but for now it’s small minnows helping plankton and the other way around. We need more bigger accounts that are willing to support the little guys if we want SteemIt to survive.
I’m not saying I’ve made up my mind yet about which direction to go from here, but the facts are that organic growth takes time... too much time.
I considered self-voting and bidbot use as things you shouldn’t do.
But if those things give me the opportunity to grow my account faster, so I can make a bigger difference in more people’s SteemIt experience... are they the wrong way to go??
Like I said, I’m still struggling with all this. It’s a fine line between using available resources to do the good thing and abuse.
You might be interested in one of the related posts and comments on it that made me think about all this.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@beeyou/what-is-the-path-to-success-on-steemit-perspective-of-a-redfish
(You’ll find some results of the experiments there that will show you how organic growth is the slower way)
Good for u bro.. i am actually doing the opposite right now and trying bots (fir the first time) as an experiment, i definitely get that false sense of accomplishment you talk about, it is addictive but then i wonder if i truly made any money at all?? Or if i lost out on a bigger vote because people already think Ive made enough.. so many questions to be answered.. i still dont care for them tho..
You can calculate exactly how much you've made, but be sure to also include the curation rewards in your calculations. On the other hand, it's impossible to know what you've missed out on, in terms of upvotes. You can forget a Curie upvote if you use bots (in most cases, not all).
It's for yourself to decide how you want to proceed, just don't fall into the trap of lying to yourself. I did that and it happens quicker than you think ;)
Well done for continuing your stance! I'm just the same as you, a reformed Steemian, no bots.. never again!
Yeah, I felt I needed to make this post, just because I was going through some sort of 'bot withdrawal' :P
Started to see that it's all fake and disguises the real value of your blog.
Edit: grammar
Tell you the truth, I've been struggling with this go or no go for bot thing every time I see others are getting ridiculous money on each post, the temptation is there, but not that strong for me to go for it.
Thank you for sharing this, at least I know I am not alone in this journey.
Yeah it's very tempting to do so and you might convince yourself that it's not that bad. I still think you would be doing yourself a disservice. Thanks for the nice comment, glad I could share my views on this :)
Thank you too! It's good to read others are having the same struggles, but no judgment on others as well.
@daan when I did sign up to steemit I swore never to use bots. Just like you wrote they do give a false feeling of appreciation. I decided to take the engagement and interacion road. Because you need to try everything once, I did play with the bots and did see the financial value of some!
I do still use a particular bot once or twice a week but only for 0.5 SBD.
The combination of genuine content creation and bot usage could be a real gold mine but my wallet does not allow this tactic.
I do have lots of steembasicincome shares, which are a big part of my income! Combined with the upvotes of the busy bots (free of charge).
When I did start had a streak of 15 unpaid posts and my income did come from commenting.
Now my posts have a value of around $1. Not much but genuine!
I do have friends who use bots a lot with a lot I do mean for $400 to $500. It is their choice but they won’t loose my respect!
As long as the quality is fine, I don’t mind!
Cheers,
Peter
Yeah I had been going back and forth a bit on the issue, but I do think that engagement and interaction is the right way forward (at least for me). I don't mind not earning more than a couple of dollars on every post for now :)
You are right! It feels better to know that every dollar earned is earned without having to pay for it. Imagine a point where you earn the same as you did with bots, without using any bots... Hopefully it all works out for those of us who aren't botting.
Good for you, I have never paid for a vote bot service and I never will, it just never made sense to me, and it wasn't like I came here to make money either. I don't even up vote my own posts, in 9 months I've done two by accident.
I did join the @theschoolofminnows and it does utilize votes I have setting around when I am not on here and upvotes other school members, and then when I post something it comes by and upvotes some of my stuff. That is as close to a voting bot as I have come and I did it more to help others more than myself, it is kind of a waste just to let voting power sit idle when people could use your vote.
Better late than never in finding this out, right?
I have used the bidbots a couple of times and I was not always so happy with the results especially with the steem price fluctuating a lot. Sometimes you would see you expensive vote fade overnight and that just sucks.
But the thing is...you write quality articles, so I guess you should be fine in the end, and I am somewhere glad you stopped using them. Good going!
I avoided using the bots pretty much for about 10 Months, and just recently have been using them a little, but I really felt kind of bad using them, and have just about decided to not use them anymore, and am weaning myself off them, I do not have a problem with others using them, but I think it is just not for me
I think many of us have been through the phase os using vote bots. Like you I also loved seeing higher amounts on my posts till I learnt more so have not used them for quite a while already. You are so right @daan, it does give one a false sense of achievement, and to me it's like cheating the system!