Answers To Bid-Bot Questions You Need To Know
As most of my followers know, the previous post in this series was all about those voting bots we can bid on and receive an up-vote. Everyone has an opinion on whether or not these should be used, but regardless, people still will.
Also, these are not going away any time soon, so I wrote the post "How To Use Steemit Bid Bots Effectively" in order to help shine some light on the subject. This was all based on a week-long experiment where I sent bids to various bots at various levels of SBD.
That post had a lot of great comments that lead to some people asking questions outside of Steemit. So in this post I will be giving my best answers to each question that I feel I was unable to cover in the last post. A big thanks to everyone who read, voted, and commented on that post. It is one of my most read posts to date and it's all because of you.
If there is a question that is not covered in this post, please ask it in the comment section below. I will give my best answer or find the best answer for you. If the question is something I feel needs to be added into the main copy of this post, I will make the proper edits.
Questions On The Voting Bid-Bots
Is it worth sending a small amount of SBD/STEEM?
This question was not explicitly stated, but the idea of not having a lot of SBD or STEEM to send arose quite often in the comment section.
My answer is maybe.
A bit lackluster I know, but that is because this question is one each person has to answer themselves. For me, sending one or two SBD to a bot in order to get a one percent up-vote is not worth my time. However, that is only because I have more SBD at my disposal to send. So sit down and weigh the pros and cons.
What if I need them to make blogging worth my time?
These bots can get addictive and over time you will feel like you need them on every post. It is better to grow organically over time and build a real follower base. It will take longer than any of us would like, and even more so if this is someone's first time blogging.
Get comfortable where you are and be in this for the long haul. It is better to focus on your content and the community that forms. It's okay to use bid-bots, but remember it is a bit like gambling your earned SBD.
Can bidding on the vote bots help my readers?
Actually, yes, paying for a vote from a bot will increase your post payout and in turn increase the curation rewards for your readers. Of course, at one or two SBD per vote the reward will be a lot less than if you send twenty SBD to a bot. So again, this is more effective at the higher range and is not worth the effort of a new Steemian.
Should I use a bid-bot on my comments?
For one, not all bots will up-vote a comment, so you will have to do some research. Secondly, I don't find it worth my time and do not bid up my comments. When we create content that takes hours, add photos, and have someone proofread that content there is justification to use a bot on an undervalued post. Comments are not thought out in the same way as a post and so it could send the wrong vibe about your account.
How long should my content be?
This is subjective to a point because some people have more to say than others. Put forth your best effort on every post you create and things will pan out well. As long as you are not posting some famous YouTuber's video and bidding it up, I see no issue on the length of the post.
Keep in mind that as we bid up our posts we may gain more exposure. This will either make or break our blog. If people see a large reward on our post only to find out that we put forth no effort, it paints us in a bad light.
This puts us at risk for down-votes to counter the rewards and will eventually lead to a low Steem Reputation. That all being said, if you are only posting memes or other people's YouTube videos, stop doing that and stop bidding on the vote bots. You are raping the reward pool of this amazing platform for a few cents in you pocket.
In the meantime, the people who are creating unique and original content get less than they deserve. This kind of low-quality content will only hold Steem back from the recognition it deserves. Stop setting a precedent for people to come here and post trash. This is not a Facebook alternative, it is a content creation platform!
What are your thought on bid-bots?
I guess I was not super clear on my stance in the last post so I'll share my opinion here. First, I see bid-bots as a tool that may be used by those of us on Steem. While technically bots are not allowed on the platform, there is no good way to stop them. That means the bid-bots are here to stay.
Second, I see no problem with them when used correctly. If I make a post that is one thousand or more words and every reader tells me it's amazing but the post is now lost in the feed, then a bid bot is a way to promote that post. Using these bots for potential exposure is a fine reason to do so. This is because, as I said above, if our content is trash the exposure will only hurt us in the long run.
Third, these can be good tools if the goal of the blogger is to earn more SBD and STEEM. I am not talking about USD or another fiat's equivalent, but just SBD/STEEM itself. Trying to earn a profit in fiat using these bots is a waste in my mind. If we believe that Steemit is going to be bigger in a year than it is now, there is no reason to cash out.
Thanks For Reading!
If you have a blogging topic that you would like my fifteen-year experience on, let me know in the comment section!
Other Posts in the "Blog Coaching" Series:
How To Use Steemit Bid Bots Effectively
4 Reasons To Avoid Steemit Drama
Using Journals To Improve Our Blog
How To Leverage Criticism To Improve Your Blog
Simple SEO Techniques To Unlock Exposure
I just followed you by the way. Appreciate the help. I'm also a long-time blogger. Blogged on Wordpress for ages. Never saw much of a return, though, so giving this platform a try. I think it holds much more promise, actually. On Wordpress the posts were helping to give me exposure in my field, as a pastor, but I would love something that can also help pay off some of the student loans. Finishing a doctorate, so could use some help! :)
it does an I am one of the proofs :D
Get it Brother!
Thanks! Gonna hit it :)
You have great posts and as you say the bots can make more people see your content. Keep writing mate!
I'll never stop blogging. It is engraved in my bones these days.
Bid bots had been good, especially when the SBD price was out of whack around the holidays and a huge percentage of payout was in valuable SBD. Now with the crash of that, the influx of new users, and steembottracker telling people fairly exactly when to bid, it is all too competitive and the returns have been negative. only use if you r into promotion currently / great post
Great point to add now that things are turning around.
I really liked how you explained it regarding exposure. I don't even have 75 followers yet and my feed is hard to scroll through every post. Coming from a background as a dj, event promotion was always at least 10% of the cost because, especially with ragga jungle--an unfamiliar niche, people didn't know what was going on unless you let them know by buying a box of flyers and handing them out in the parking lot at everyone else's show. My point is... promoting or advertising is what helps a business grow, whether that business is Amazon or a kid in a basement trying to raise money for a car by blogging. Thanks for the incite.
This is a great point. If we create the best content we can for that day and always strive to be better these bots can act like a promo fly would out in physical reality.
When you say promote, are you referencing via a bid bot or through the promo feature?
It is not a direct feature of the bid bots but can be a side effect of getting a higher payout on a post.
You mean in the sense that someone scrolling through will think oh, they're making some money, they must be worth a follow! In that sense? Also, what's the deal with these Discord groups? I'm pretty new myself. I think I was able to get on one, but it all seems so confusing. And what's the deal with Steem.chat? Appreciate the help.
Not so much about that but more like "oh this looks like a good article to read"
Discord is a chat app that was created for gamers but is now used for all sorts of things. A great one is the P.A.L Discord group by the @minnowsupport project.
It is another place to chat but has less features than Discord. It was the main chat site until groups started to move to Discord for the added feature and controls.
Wow! I guess there is so much to learn than just the basics for few cents. Newbies like us need to understand what are required to be successful on Steemit. One should focus on creating good contents that will Seduce the interest of others without being forced. We are our own enemy. Most of us newbies feels rewards would come to lazy bloggers but fail to see that to become a successful constant STEEMIANS is indeed an extremely difficult task. But if we are opportune to come across posts as this, it's really a wake-up call for us and it will equally reawaken the consciousness in the old STEEMIANS who have have become lazy and can't do without bidding up their posts for massive upvotes. I can't imagine myself taking such risk without a rethink. It is one thing to itch for something and another thing to scratch for it. You wanna have more Sbd at your disposal like the author of this post, then you've got to double your efforts to create good contents. I am taking my time to learn more here. Not In a competition with some lazy STEEMIANS Hustling for few cents. I have got more demands on my time than waste it on such a temporary course because when your posts begin to get down votes, it becomes frustrating and you go back to square one. Why not learn now and earn Big later?.
Thanks so much for this. It's really an eye opener!
You nailed it! Almost every new blogger fails to realize how much work goes into creating great content on a schedule.
Thanks for the well thought out comment sir!
You are welcome.
Thanks for writing this post. As a newbie minnow, I've been trying to wrap my head around how I feel about bots in general.
I especially like your reasoning here: "If I make a post that is one thousand or more words and every reader tells me it's amazing but the post is now lost in the feed, then a bid bot is a way to promote that post."
I think I still have a lot to learn before I use bots, but this gives me food for thought. Cheers!
Thank for reading! If you have any questions in the future please feel free to message me on discord.
100% correct @jrswab
Can break this down a little better for me? In what way does it serve as a promotional tool. I've used bidbots on posts, and it seems like they help me get a higher return on posts than what I put in, which does make it seem more worth it to me. But in what way are they promotional in nature?
Since we are boosting the payout on the post there is the opportunity for that post to land on the trending page and seen by more readers. Each category also has its own trending page that is much easier to get to by using these bots.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Oh, I got you now! So for the purpose of hitting a trending page. Makes sense. And does one need to hit the bots within a certain amount of time in order to hit the trending page?
no it can happen naturally, especially in specific topics (hashtags).
Nice post! I think there's a certain psychology that goes on when one uses bots. You mentioned one, which is that a bigger $$ = "must be a good post. The other is that it may draw the attention of curators who autovote. They may add you because they expect your next vote to also use a voting bot, thus get a bigger curation reward.
This is true but we must not try to 'game' the system. When we start doing so we run the risk of compromising our creation efforts.
Agreed. Nevertheless, that's what people do. Hence how some of these folks go from having only a few votes to 50 by minute # 28-29.
Not saying it's good, just that it happens.
For sure and to be honest the accounts that are in it for the pay outs are obvious. I was skimming through the transactions of the bots a few days back and kept seeing the same name. So I went to their profile page, and while they had good payouts the posts seemed dead and the engagement was low.
We can boost our posts all we want but if our quality is poor than no one will care about our work.
Yup. btw, I like your thumbnail images.
Thanks! Make them myself :D
Thank you for this. As a new Steemian, the whole question of bots is really confusing, and is something I've been starting to look into. I completely agree with your view on not using bots to promote trash, there's way too much of that on here, and it, ultimately, is bad for the reputation of the user.
It's very disheartening as a new Steemian, to put effort in to good content only to have it lost amongst adverts for bots, pointless selfies and endless offers for resteems. Not just that, but endless scrolling, looking for interesting content to curate on amongst this clutter, is also frustrating.
You are quite right about concentrating on producing creative content and working our way up on our merits. When we first join Steemit we expect it to be like other social media sites and quickly learn, that it's those very 'Facebook' habits that we need to break, if we want to make a difference in here.
Keep in mind that this "exposure curve" is the same everywhere. I think steem is the best place to grow right now due to a very accepting community. Join some Discord chat groups and make new friends. This will help get your blog out there faster than posting alone.
100 time yes!
That's really helpful advice, thank you. I have tried to join chat a few times, but it doesn't seem to recognise me. I love this community and have already made some amazing friends, so no matter how long it takes, I don't plan on going anywhere.
That's the right mentality. As a blogger of 15 years I have been on every platform and even created my own. Steemit yielded greater results than any other in the same amount of time.
If you are not in the P.A.L Discord Chat by @minnowsupport make sure to join by clicking that link. <3
Thank you. I'm a first time blogger, as well as a new Steemian, so I think your advice is going to be invaluable. I'll follow that link now.
Great! I write posts to help all bloggers on Steemit be the best they can be. Every Tuesday and Thursday :D
Great. I've followed you and joined the discord group. Thank you so much, I'm really looking forward to getting to know more people and being more involved in the community.