My Thoughts on Upvote Bots

Hi all, I'm writing today because, after seeing many people using them, I experimented with a few upvote bots and had a change of mind in my opinion of them.

My Progression of Opinion

When I first came to steemit I saw upvote bots in a totally negative light. I thought it was either a scam by the bots or a pathetic move by the user. As I steemed on I noticed more and more people using them shamelessly, and decided to look a little deeper and, having gained little traction, try some out myself. Here are the main points of what I noticed.

1. Total upvote value minus bots upvote value is greater than my average value having not used a bot. By this I mean I earn more natural votes having "primed" the post with a bot. This I can only attribute to people phycologically not wanting to lead the pack in validating content.

2. Using bots is not a get rich quick scheme. Bots generally payout upvotes worth about 2x to 3x your pay in. Authors are guaranteed %75 the post payout, I generally receive that portion. So if I pay 1SBD and get an upvote of 2x or 2SBD my actual payout is %75 or 1.5SBD. This is a net gain yes but the payout is split 50/50 of SP/SBD, so the actual payout is $0.75 worth of SteemPower and 0.75SBD. Effectively, using that bot I bought $0.75 worth of SP for 0.25SBD. Being that currently 0.25SBD is worth about 0.27STEEM, and $0.75 worth of SP is about 0.18SP, you actually lose out(with current market conditions) with any bot payout less than about 2.5x.

3. Upvotes bots will NOT make poor content profitable. I used a bot for a post of mine that wasn't getting any upvotes and, wouldn't you know, it still didn't. Steemit users just weren't interested in that post so even having been primed, it didnt not draw extra attention.

Conclusion

Although upvote bots will not get you rich, they can help you increase your visibility and steempower. If you are posting good content and not getting anywhere, try out a bot and see for yourself. Bots are not great for creating liquid wealth, but are for increasing your vested wealth, and if you are in steemit for the long run that's very useful, otherwise the profit isnt worth the required time and effort. Bots will not make all content profitable, but can bring good content to the eyes of those who can make it profitable. All in all I now support the use of these bots, as they seem to act act more as a way to grow plankton to minnows, than a way to generate free money.

Edit:I have invested 2.25 SBD into this post.  0.75 to three different services.  We'll see how this goes, though, as perhaps looking at Schrodinger's  cat will kill it.  Regardless steem on friends.

Update: The votes are in and the results are as I anticipated. A total cost of 2.25 SBD yielded a return in votes bringing this posts value to $4.87. 4.87/2.25=2.164, not a bad return right? Slightly more complicated.

The author is guaranteed %75 post payouts, so 4.87 * 0.75 = 3.65
and that payout is split 50/50 SBD and SP,
so that's 1.82 SBD and $1.82 worth of SP
Currently $1.82 worth of Steem is about 0.47 Steem
My total return, were this post to payout right now, is 1.82 SBD & 0.47 SP
0.47 Steem would cost 0.42 SBD, so the SBD return value is 1.82 + 0.42 = 2.24 SBD

So you can see these bots will not make you rich, but, as I've said, they do seem to help increase exposure. For this post, time will tell.

Comments, Questions, Corrections? Let me know!