My Week on SteemFollower - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As a fresh account on Steemit and a certifiable minnow, it's difficult to get attention. Even producing quality, original content on a consistent basis, building an audience takes time and diligence. There's no getting around that - hard work is the lifeblood of a successful venture, after all.

But it's only human to look for a slight advantage over the competition, and to that end, I came across SteemFollower. SteemFollower isn't a bot - it's effectively a trading platform that connects you with posts to upvote and accounts to follow, and in turn, promises that your account will receive the same amount of follows and upvotes as you've given.

Definitely a novel concept! If you wanna give it a shot, check it out here: https://steemfollower.com/?r=3673

That being said, SteemFollower has pros as well as cons, and I feel that new users should be aware of all aspects of the platform as opposed to viewing it through rose-colored glasses. Let's get started!

The Pros

• SteemFollower definitely gets you more follows and upvotes than you would organically. This is indisputable. If you vote on the platform, you will be upvoted in kind. If you follow, you'll be followed back. Plain and simple. Here is a shot of my feed before and after joining SteemFollower - below the red line is before, above is after:
• By extension, you're also earning more for your posts. More upvotes, more eyeballs, more chance that a high-value account will be upvoting your content. As you can see, my pre-SteemFollower posts earned either nothing or mere pennies. Afterwards, 10 to 20 cents was far more common, with one post even earning over $5!

The Cons

• SteemFollowers seem even less likely to actually read your content than those on Steemit proper. For example, my latest post has well over 50 upvotes, but just over 10 views! If you care less about Steem rewards and more about building a genuine readership, SteemFollower may present issues. Evidence of this:
• The followers you receive on SteemFollowers aren't necessarily of the highest quality. Because people are incentivized to follow accounts, many do so simply to receive a follow-back. Furthermore, many of the accounts I've been followed by on SteemFollower are blatant copypasta accounts, accounts producing very poor content, or accounts that are clearly not interested in my content. That's not to say this is true of everyone on SteemFollower! I have followed and been followed by many users who share mutual interests that I probably wouldn't have found otherwise.
• Using SteemFollower is also quite tedious - it's also very easy to go overboard with voting and tank your voting power, and thus, curation rewards over time, so be sure to show some restraint and upvote only exceptional content!

While my first week on SteemFollower has been a mixed bag, I do think the service provides a lot of value, especially to new accounts like myself. Is it frustrating to see a post receive so many upvotes, yet no one has actually read it? Certainly! But I've also made plenty of great contacts on the platform from people who are genuinely interested in my content and who produce great articles themselves. I'm going to continue using SteemFollower for the foreseeable future and will continue to give updates on how it goes.

Again, if you're interested in trying SteemFollower out, give it a shot here: https://steemfollower.com/?r=3673

And as always, remember to upvote, resteem, and follow if you like this content and check us out at CryptoHero.info for our latest podcasts and articles! Until next time ;)