So as I've promised, by PAYING artists to let me promote their works, I intend to use profits from this Steemit account to generate interest in my website Artopium.com. It's really that simple.

"How will you do this?" you ask.

I'm glad you asked that question. So on a basic level it works like this:

1) You sign up to Artopium.com, a website I designed to help artists, musicians, authors, filmmakers and fashion designers to sell their works online.

Really, Artopium is very similar to Etsy or DeviantArt or whatever, but the difference is that Artopium is a sole proprietorship owned by me, run by volunteers, and isn't a giant corporation just interested in making profits from you. Instead I can focus more on making you money; something a corporation actually isn't permitted to do by law since it must always put its shareholders first. Artopium takes about a 10% to 8% plus $1 commission on most things (except mp3 downloads which is just 10% and $0.15), and only after a sale is made. NO listing fees ever. I don't make money unless you make money.

2) Next, I will promote the works you list on Artopium, as I'm doing here with other artists.

I will see that you signed up and I'll grab stuff you put on Artopium and promote it here on Steemit.

3) Next, it gets tricky because I've been using upvote bots.

In my posts I am promising to share anything over $1 SBD in profits, after all is said and done. Right now I have a some SBD to spend on upvote bots, which in turn causes the post value to go up as it accumulates bot votes, but this value that the post gets from the bots isn't always profitable, especially in terms of SBD.

What it does is promote your work, because more votes means more visibility in the Hot and maybe even the Trending categories. I can be spending upwards of 5 to 6 SBD to promote your work for you.

Lets do some quick math

The value you see for a post is not USD, but rather STU (Steem Token Units). To figure out how much a payout will be from a particular post you must do this calculation: 75% of STU divided by 2. Example: a post shows $100 STU. You get 75% of that as the author reward, so $75 STU. Divide that by two you get the number 37.5. This means you get 37.5 SBD, and $37.50 USD worth of Steem Power, which depends on the current price of Steem on the open market. (This is why post values change during the 7 day period before payout).

What's the math for the bots?

If I pay 5 SBD for an upvote bot, on average the bot will upvote the post 250%. But not really, because it's 250% STU, not SBD. So 5 SBD gets an upvote of about $12.5 STU (5 x 250%). So let's do the math from above now: 12.5 X 75% = 9.375. Divide that by 2 and that's a return of 4.6875 SBD (a loss of 0.3125 SBD), but a gain of $4.6875 USD worth of Steem Power. Because of the nature of Steem Power, I cannot pay out with this, BUT you are getting a lot of promotion for free that you'd otherwise have to spend 5 SBD to get.

What does this mean?

It means that in order for the post to generate a profit I can share with you we are both still relying on good 'ol fashioned organic votes from real people and from my growing list of followers. It also means that as I use the upvote bots this account will gain more Steem Power that can in turn be used to upvote artists' works and help them earn that way too. No matter what, I'm hell bent on getting you some money, either way.

I stopped using the bots for a day or two

I think they're not very useful in a bear market, and I'm interested to see how many organic votes I'm actually getting lately, so a lot of the posts I make in the next day or two will probably look like I've suddenly lost all my followers! LOL! NO, I just want to give the bots a break and work on real people for a second.

OK, I hope that clears some things up.

Upvote this post and let me know you're out there!

And check out these related links:

My Posting And Profit Strategy For Earning Artists Money From Promoting Their Works On Artopium.com