***** Multiple Updates are at the bottom of the post.

Are Upvoting Bots a problem here at Steemit?  Depends on who you ask.

Are Whales upvoting their own posts a problem on Steemit?  See the answer to #1.

Is Beer good? Yes.  I emphatically repeat, YES!  (whoa.  that groucho beer is hilarious!)

Back to bots.  

How does a minnow become a dolphin become a whale?

Well, to ask some Steemians who have been here for a while, there’s only 1 way to do it.  Always produce the highest quality content where you pour your heart and soul into it.  Then post it and pray to every god, angel, spirit, and craft brew that you’ll get more than 1 upvote (yours) worth more that 1 cent.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

That’s where Bots come in.  Bots can kick Ass!!  That’s how you can get some growth.  But, you gotta do your homework and you gotta be fast on the trigger.

First, you want to get the booster to vote the most within the first 15 minutes of submitting your vote.  But, if it takes longer then it takes longer.  But, you’ll maximize your Return On Investment (ROI) if the votes come in the first 30 minutes after you post.

How much is a bots vote worth?  Well, start here (https://www.steemnow.com/) and enter the bots name in the upper right corner and click save.

Then look in the upper left and it will tell you what a 100% upvote is worth.  In @booster’s case it’s $92.47 at 100%.

Is that good, bad, or indifferent?  Depends.  What percentage of that vote are you going to get?  If you send 1 SBD to @booster for an upvote then you need to get at least a 1.1% upvote to possibly break even from that booster.  There’s more to it than a straight return because of the Follow guild that votes on many of @booster’s upvotes before it does.  But, that gives you a brief overview.

I will be sending money to every bot on this post so you’ll be able to see in the comments how you will be notified when you use this.

Here are the boosters I’m most aware of how I use them.  

The notes you see in italics are the language from their home page.  I’ll be sending money to the bots and updating the page below as I receive upvotes..

@minnowbooster - Send 1 SBD upto 1 time per day and 5 times per week. Always delivers a nice return and tells you the exact worth.  It usually responds within 2-3 minutes of you sending it money.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 1 SBD, and I received back $1.30  Per @eturnerx you can go STEALTH on this one by add an S and a space before the url  you send to them.  Then you won't have the comment in your comments.    Details on it are here.

@booster - bids open every 2.4 hours. Ex: @Axe & @Bob both bid for the same voting batch. If @Axe bids 4 SBD and @Bob bids 2 SBD, @Axe will get 66.66% and @Bob 33% etc.  Also, use this site to see when @booster is voting - http://steem.cool/booster/  @solarsherpa will be sending in 6 SBD (because the return looks great @ steem.co/booster/), and I received back $6.25.  I expected a bigger return on this.  

@randowhale - Send 0.500 Steem/SBD - URL as Memo.  If you get the bid you sent back then that means Randowhale is asleep.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.5 SBD, and I received back $.69

@nettybot - ** Public Vote Bid Bot ** Minimum bid: 0.100 SBD, Vote weight: 50%, Vote interval: 1.2 hours. Current SP: ~23k  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.3 SBD, and I received back $.28.

@lovejuice -  send 0.1 SBD to me, put your post URL in the transfer memo, and I'll spray my love juice all... over... it.  (Nothing subtle there, @lovejuice)  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.3 SBD, and I received back $.21.  I better follow the directions more closely and only send in 0.1 SBD

@buildawhale - Bid at least 0.1 SBD and get a vote for 0%-100% with 100% voting power. Rounds last: 2.4 hours. Win random bonus upvotes!  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.3 SBD, and I received back $.42.  Not bad.

@steemthat - The Ultimate Upvote Bot. Beta Special Send 0.010 SBD to @steemthat and get an upvote. As I grow I get more powerful! Random Bonus From @binkley  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.01 SBD, and I received back $.01. hmmmm

@minnowhelper - bids open every 2.4 hours. Ex: @A & @B both bid for the same voting batch. If @A bids 4 SBD and @B bids 2 SBD, @A will get 66.66% and @B 33% etc. NO REFUNDS.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 1 SBD, and I received back $2.01.  Great return.

@bellyrub - Send SBD To bid for a piece of a 100% upvote . 2.4 Bidding times. Do not send while bellyrub is at 100% / 87K SteemPower.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 1 SBD, and I received back $.97.  That's a disappointing boost.

@drotto - Bid 0.001 SBD or more every 270 seconds and get a vote of 0% - 3.13% (with full voting effectiveness). No refunds.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.01 SBD, and I received back $.03

Ones I’m still trying to learn about to see how well they work.  

(Please let me know your experience with them in the comments.)

@upgoater - (https://steemd.com/@upgoater) Upgoater charges up every 2.4 hours to knock you over with good ROI! The dual headed upvoting beast is sitting on 7649.642 SP which is worth a bleating $1.25 with a 100% vote.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.10 SBD, and I received back $.23.  Well done @upgoater.

@boomerang - Still BETA! Send SBD to bid for votes. Voting every 2.4 hours with 100%.  @solarsherpa will be sending in 0.1 SBD, and I received back $.28.  Nice return.

@treeplanter -  PLANT TREES AND GET PAID FOR IT! 0.1 – 0.5 STEEM/SBD to @treeplanter + link in memo = vote approx. 1.5 times your donation. $1 = TREE .   This was a late entry that a friend reminded me about.  He sent in 0.3 SBD for it and the Upvote is worth $.45.  Then I just read that @treeplanter is shutting down.  You can read the article here.

Voting bots

@jones420 - The BEST ResteemService On Steemit! Boost your post to the sky! Send 1 Steem/SteemDollar and put your post in memo. I wil resteem as soon as I am online.  I haven’t used this in a while.  It gave me 60-70 votes.  Not sure if I got my $1 back in return.  But, it was fun to actually get over 100 votes on a post.  I haven’t used it in a while.

@frontrunner curation guild - sign up here - http://frontrunner.steemspeak.com Once you’re signed up, your account will pre-vote projects submitted to @booster, so you’ll get some of the curation rewards.  And, the poster will get more votes and more Author rewards.  I’m testing it now to see how effective it can be.  Probably discuss on a future post.

Ones I would appreciate more understanding on

@null - https://steemit.com/@null/transfers

People send a lot of money to this address with their link.  It’s my understanding that this is a burner account.  Any SBD/Steem you send to this account is gone.  So, why do people send money here?  Anyone?  

@shello educated us on @null.  To paraphrase her comment below:   @null is where your SBD goes to when you click the "promoted" button at the bottom of your post when it's open. You can promote at any amount you want and 2 things happen.You get half of your spending added to the total of rewards on your post, AND you get listed in the promoted tab. Think about it like it's a special 6th tag you can get.People use promoted to get their posts that they believe are good content more exposure and can bump a post up pretty high on a category list. 

@lottobot -  A lottery bot on the Steem network! Send 0.1 SBD or STEEM along with a post URL to @lottobot for a chance to win a 100% upvote!  As I see it you send $.10 to get up to $.53.  Depends on how many people send in money.  Not many do right now.  @solarsherpa sent in 0.1 SBD and did not win that vote.

That’s my list for now.

This goes in conjunction with a future post I’ll do (or you can find several others already out there) about how curation works and how you go from getting 100% of the value to 75% over time.  It feeds in well to this topic.

Also some will say that you shouldn’t use more than 2-3 bots on your posts and certainly not all of these.  I say use what you want.  But realize that while it may get you to the HOT page, it may not gain you (m)any followers if all the comments are only from the bots.

Let me know your comments.  Flaming appreciated if you’re mad at me (bro) for letting the new Steemians better understand the Bot ecosystem.

*Update 1:  I sent in 10.32 SBD to 12 bots.  30 minutes in I'm at $13.12.  From what I can see I've been voted on by 4 of the 12 bots I sent SBD.  I'm at 32 votes overall.

**Update 2: I hour in.  3 more bots have voted.  I'm at $13.73 and 41 votes.  

***Update 3:  2 hours in.  I'm at $14.92 and 50 votes.  Not bad for me.  8 of the 12 bots have voted.  Typically they vote at least every 2.4 hours, so my 3 hour update should have all bot votes in.  

****Update 4: 3 hours in.  I'm at $19.49 and 55 votes.  11 of 12 boosters have responded.  C'mon @upgoater.  

*****Update 5: 4 hours in.  I'm at $19.92 and 58 votes.  All 12 boosters responded.  There's  a late entry of @treeplanter, so my next update should have the result of that one.  

******Update 6: 5 hours in.  We've flatlined.   Somehow I've gone down to $19.87 with 59 votes.  I've seen that occur before and don't understand why it occurs.  No big deal.  It's always just a few pennies.  It just seems odd when it occurs.  Thanks all for the votes and comments.

*******Update 7:  18 hours in.  Now at $22.44 with 61 votes.  (Did Steem go up that much overnight?).  @treeplanter responded.  Just sent 1 SBD to @jones420.  Will check back in with the results.  

********Update 8: 2 days in.  Now at $22.87 and 70 votes.  It turns out that @jones420 did not provide any value at this point.  Wonder if I can get a refund for it.  In better news, @shello posted (top comment below) on what @null does.  I've updated the section based on her comment.  Thank you, @shello!

*********Update 9: Almost 3 days in and at $22.97 and 72 votes.  Solid and (mostly) stagnant.  However, I just found out that @treeplanter is calling it quits, so i updated for that.  And, I just found out about the Steemthat.com site with it's vote bot updates.  Potentially puts this article to shame.  I'll look into it more tomorrow and possibly add one last update.

Thanks for all the comments and input.  I appreciate it.  

Steem on.