Reputaion has a important role. When some one with higher rep upvote you then your reputation also increases. And if your reputaion increase people will likely to give importance to your content, provided they are good do. Reps has do with the psychology than money.
If you have lot of steem in steem power then its worth deligating (you can earn around 24% per year). Else it will help in increasing your vote value ( please read my post on "the power of steem power".)

Start with bidding with small amount with different bots, but chose your bots carefully. I have provided detailed instruction on how I pick bots on my last 2 posts.

Post all your questions any time and I will be more than happy to answer.