I have started using services by smartsteem and overall very satisfied. Smartsteem provides 4 main services which I think are useful for everyone in the Steemit community.

1. Buying Votes

To gain more visibility for your posts, buying votes can be quite beneficial. Simply send 0.100 - 1 SBD to @smartmarket with your post's URL to get it upvoted. You might be thinking why spend money upvoting your own post?

Firstly, it helps give your post more visibility. You want more people to see your posts and the value your post is, the more likely someone will notice it. You may not have noticed, but people who are selling their upvotes to vote your article will notice your article too. If your post has an interesting title, they might actually read it and start following you.

Secondly, you get 1.8x - 2.1x the author rewards than just keeping your SBD in your wallet. I have personally seen this guaranteed return although the actual value may drop due to SBD price and the rewards pool size at the end of 7 days (read my previous post for more information on the rewards pool in the STEEM bluepaper).

Lastly, you also gain reputation! It encourages you to write more original content and boost the Steemit community with diversified topics added to the Steemit blockchain. In the process, get more comments from readers who really appreciate your contributions :)

https://steembottracker.com/

2. Bid Voting

An alternative way to get upvotes is to bid for upvotes that are given out every 2.4 hours based on the @smartsteem bid-bot. Send 2.0 or more STEEM/SBD to @smartsteem to get a fraction of the upvote given out in the next 2.4 hours. Use steembottracker.com to check how many voters are there currently voting.

3. Selling votes

Selling votes is a MUST. Because we are never physically here upvoting when our voting power reaches 100%. Yikes! Use the auto upvote services of smartsteem to make sure that you continue to earn curation rewards when you are on vacation or sleeping at night.

4. Delegate Steem Power SP

I currently know @minnowbooster and @smartsteem to be the only places where you can delegate your Steem Power. It is a good way to help the Steemit community by delegating some of your SP out to @smartsteem as up to 95% of their profits come back returned to you. As a delegator, I am proud to be part of @smartsteem community.

I am currently on the waiting list to be whitelisted fingers crossed by @smartsteem as they are providing author reviews that produce quality content. I don't think I will get a 3-star rating, but would be honoured to get whitelisted. Being on the whitelist also allows the smartsteem bot to recognize you as an original content creator and not a spammer / listed on their blacklist. I really appreciate their team of reviewers doing us this service.

If you have not signed up on smartsteem, please do so by clicking on the banner. While I thank you now for letting me become your referrer, you can thank me later after using smartsteem services. Good luck!

- tylser