Hey Steemit... Is Using Randowhale Cheating Or Smart?
When I first got to Steemit, I kept seeing this whale thing giving big votes to all kinds of people? When I looked into it, I found that you can pay 2 SBD in order to get a vote from an account called @randowhale. I've seen some people call it cheating.
(image designed by an awesome Steemonian @anrtico - check out his work here.)
Using @randowhale is pretty simple. You transfer two sbd to @randowhale and put the link to the post you want him to up-vote as the memo and the rest is magic. He shows up almost immediately and upvotes the link provided and comments.
Generally your post will jump from nothing to $3- $7 in value almost immediately, but more importantly it helps move you up on the hot list.
There is no doubt that it works. I've used it several times and after all is said and done with payouts, The 2SBD that I spend using @randowhale net's me about a 20% positive return.
The question isn't if it works, but the question is if it is cheating?
In some ways I feel weird about using the service that @Randowhale provides, but I keep doing it and here is why.
1. Whenever I use the service it is 100% in the open. There is comment and the link is forever put on the blockchain when I transfer money. Nothing is happening in secret.
2. It is a good service and I believe in free markets. Somebody, whoever @Randowhale is, spends a lot of time creating and maintaining his service. I kinda like how he has been really clever on how he uses his Steempower.
3. When you are starting out, I've been here three weeks, it really helps to gain some traction because the price point is so low.
4. You are almost guaranteed a positive return on your investment.
TIP - when using Rando, do it almost immediatly after posting so you get all the curation rewards too.
To be honest though, I wonder if it is gaming the system. It is open to everyone, but whales don't use the service. It is mostly new people that are trying to gain some traction. I see it as advertising cost.
One thing that I am going to start doing is sending @randowhale links to content that isn't mine. There are a lot of new people out here that are putting up some great content that should get noticed. My little vote won't really help too much, but I could spend some sbd and hep them out.
I don't think using the service that @randowhale provides is cheating. I see it as a brilliant way for that cigarette smoking whale to make some money and for new people to get some traction on their posts.
Those are my thoughts, but what do you think?
TO HELP THE PEOPLE THAT READ AND COMMENT ON MY STUFF, THE BEST COMMENT AFTER 24 HOURS WILL BE PICKED AND I WILL PAY FOR AN UPVOTE FROM @RANDOWHALE FOR YOU. SO LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON USING @RANDOWHALE. IS IT CHEATING OR SMART?
Just to be clear, I use the service that @randowhale provides sometimes, but I'm not paid or sponsored by him. I've never even talked to the guy. I'm posting this for honest discussion.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this and as always, I deeply appreciate your feedback and follow. You rock! Steem On!
So now I know. I have been seeing randowhale comments everywhere but have no idea what it is. Personally I think it's not cheating. Call it investement. No matter what our excuses are for being in Steemit, I am sure all of us here want to make money. If we want to blog, we can always use other platform like WordPress or Blogger. But why choose Steemit? There are far bettter sites for blogging out there. Because of the community? I am sure there are good communities for bloggers out there. So bottom line is we are here to earn money and if we can pay someone to accelerate that process, why not? Just my opinion 🙂
I think regardless of what 90% of the people here may say, the ability to generate some revenue from doing what they love is a major contributing factor. May not be the main reason. I think a lot of people come here for many reasons, but it has to be in the top 3. lol. I've been testing it out today seeing what I get with Rando and what I get without him. We'll see the results. I'm interested to see. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate your point of view.
It depends though. Sometimes you may not get the $2 back. Imagine if you get $2 from randowhale. You only keep 75% of the author rewards. Furthermore, your rewards decreases over time since people are using up their voting power more often after HF19.
I don't think it's cheating since you may not actually earn more than what you paid. It's great for minnows to help boost their post's traction.
I agree you don't always make your money back. It is like advertising. You can't spend and thing you will always get your money back immediately, but I do think over time, the traction that it gives someone can help. For example. If I get extra views thanks to Rando and it picks me up 5 new followers, those follower's votes over a lifetime on Steemit could generate 100x the amount that I spent with Rando. Kinda how I see it. Thank you so much for reading and replying. I really appreciate your thoughts. You have a new follower.
Yea I do hope with the use of rando my posts would get noticed. Followed you back. Thanks!
Thank you and nice to meet you. Looking forward to reading your stuff!
have a great day
Thanks! It is nice to meet you. Let me know how it works. I'm very interested. Marketing and Advertising are two things I do for a living, so I like to watch things like this and get input from others. Thanks again for reading.
Thanks for this post! I was also wondering if using @Randowhale was cheating but I understand your perspective. I will just have to wait to get 2 SBD to try it out. I have been on here for a couple of weeks and I am enjoying having a place to express my thoughts on homesteading. Thanks again for this post...keep up the good work! :)
Thank you for reading and responding. you got a new follower. I'm kinda torn about it, but I do like the service. I don't see me using it much longer as I am starting to pick up traction, but I think it can be really helpful to some newbies. Thank you again!!!!
You are welcome - thanks for becoming a follower! :)
@walkingkeys I am a newbie too having posted about 10 blogs or so out of which a majority are some random photographs. I did use randowhale only once. that was previous to my present blog up there.
I tried it out of curiosity as everyone appear to be doing it. But then I stopped it. somehow I am not comfortable buying a vote for myself. it is like liking my own post in FB. It did not seem right. I even stopped upvoting myself during posting the blog. I dont believe in upvoting my own blog first thing when it is published.
I also dont ask anyone to follow me, I dont resteem, I dont upvote because someone asked me. If I like a content, I upvote it, If I really like the author, I will follow him.
I want to keep my page clutter free. So I dont resteem.
I want my feed to be clutter free. So I follow very few whom I select carefully.
I want my followers to follow me because of my blogs, not because I ask them. so I dont ask them to follow me. if they like my blog they follow,, else they wont. simple.
I want to keep it as simple as possible.
all I am trying to do here is try to write some quality blog ( difficult as I am a first time blogger with absolutely no idea about blogging) and then engage my readers as much as possible. rest I leave it to destiny :)
First, thanks for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate your point of view. I agree never to ask for followers and I am very picky about what I resteem too. Never when people ask, lol. I don't feel like voting for my content when I put it out there is bad though, because I believe in it. Facebook is different, it isn't like liking your own post. If anything, it is like voting on a comment you post as a reply. I think it is ok to upvote your blog though. Remember that, upvoting gets it on the hot and trending lists. The upvote serves a purpose more than money, it gets it noticed. The more votes, the more popular it is on the site and featured more prominently under your keywords. That is the main reason I use Randowhale. Not for the money, because it is almost always a wash, but to help the content I believe in get noticed by more people. The more people that see it, can engage with it and I can pick up more natural followers that like my content.
I agree with what you are saying, and it is admirable for sure. I see things a little different and want to get my stuff seen by more people. Thank you so much for taking the time to give an honest reply and you picked up a new follower in the process.
I really like this philosophy, @topdog.
Totally agree. I think it provides a good service to minnows to get their posts up. Maybe people with a reputation over 60 shouldn't be allowed to use it? Should it just be for minnows? Even at a lower price?
Thanks for your input. I agree it can really help minnows. I also think that I am going to stop using it soon too. Now that I am gaining a little traction and can stand on my own. I don't necessarily think it should be limited, but I don't see many people over 55-60 using it either. Thank you for the reply and you picked up a new follower.
As far as i know, randowhale is run by berniesanders. It is great push up for new people, and i just started using it.
Bernie! lol
That is good to know.
lol i may be wrong, thats the info i have read at people posts and comments
I appreciate it. I like the service that he provides, whoever he is. lol
Good morning @walkingkeys. I have not tried the service yet so my opinion is unbiased. From the details you provided I have formulated the following opinion. It is not cheating, rather it is advertising. One will have to conduct further research before formulating a more in-depth analysis of the return on investment. I have a post about traveling to Smith Mountain Lake that I feel is quality content. I may look more into @randowhale to see if it may be worth the 2 SBD. Thanks for taking the time to write this article. I have seen people that I follow receive these upvotes but never knew it was a service open to everyone.
Happy to help!!! SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE... I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!! I'm going to find that post after I respond here. It is like advertising, but try it out. I recommend doing it on a new post so you get more of the rewards. lol, I didn't know what it was at first either, but I tried it out and experimented. Thanks again for reading and replying. I'm going to check out your post now.
I tried it once, paid 2SBD when the price was 1.6$/SBD, and got upvote near 2$. Who has the profit?
From that time I don't play in this lottery.
Interesting. Thank you for letting me know. I've had a few posts that bring in less and a few more that have brought in a profit which averaged out to about 20% gain. The timing does seem to be an issue. Thank you very much for your feedback.
Nice Post Brother! You got me with the header title, lol
Steem Away Buddy.... I have been having a good time with @randowhale as recent as 1 hour ago.
Keep up the good work. You'll be a whale soon.
LMAO...
I think we both will be whales in just a few short months (or more lol) if we keep it up. I appreciate the feedback. One thing I learned writing 6 articles a day for two years was that the headline is the most important part. If you have great content and can't get people to click, then it doesn't matter. You also can't click bait it. The title has to directly tie into your content or people get pissed. lol. Thanks for noticing. I actually spend a fair amount of time coming up with my headlines.
Dude Lol. Your laughing gif has me rolling.
We are getting closer and closer. It's refreshing to have a small connected group in my feed that are like minded, good humored, and quality posters!
STEEM ON!
I wondered about this aswell. I use the hook up a lot for strict reasons to hopefully get my posts noticed by people who actually enjoy them. I also just saw something, and I cant remember the name of what it was, (might have resteemed) but it was similar to @randowhale except it was proportionate to how much money you sent? If I remember correctly? Will follow along, I like anyone to offers these sorts of posts asking questions or geared to newbies :) Cheers and happy steeming bud
Thank you for replying. Sorry for the delayed response. You picked up a new follower. I've seen some other things pop up like you said, and the same question really applies for all of them. I just have seen randowhale work, so I use it. When it stops working or I don't feel like it ads value, I'll move on. I appreciate your feedback. Happy steeming.