As you know I have been looking for the best tool to help me out in my search for a balanced Steemit grow, together with a little bit of personal investment on the platform. Below you will find my thoughts after one month of extensive Steeming

Bots are overvalued

I have been using bidding bots from the beginning and after quite a lot of use, plus my last post regarding that subject,

I have come to the judgment that these are a waste of time and money.

As their popularity is on the rise, it's also the rise of unprofitable bids. Also, the rising price of Steem makes that from the STUs you receive, you now get even less Steem Power, and on the other hand, SBD loses track, which makes the whole thing less attractive from a USD perspective.

What next then?

After getting in peace with the idea that I will not get rich myself from using bots, and that the only solution is to grow mostly organically and that profit would come eventually. I rather prefer to spend my hard earned SBDs into Steem power that keep making bidding rounds over and over again, and be drained by greedy users who do not understand the basics of how STU works, and that you only profit if the ROI is over 150% or above (which never happens).

SmartSteem the new upgraded solution

There is this cool German guy, who comes to be a great developer, and it also has a good sense of business development, you may have heard of @TheRealWolf. He has developed this new Market for vote buy and sell called @SmartSteem. You may find their website 2.0; I have to tell it looks even better than Steemit. SmartSteem link

There, as mentioned above, you can buy upvotes, which work in two different ways, a low-value upvote, which works for everybody (except blacklisted) and, to my opinion, the best, the Curated version. To access the second option, you need to apply for a whitelist approval. They will verify you are not blacklisted and that your posts have a minimum of quality. I prefer myself this second option, after being certified I know my posts have a minimum of class and makes me have a clear mind that I am buying what I deserve. Buy site link.

They have three different types of White listed users;
-1 Average Content
-2 Good Content
-3 Excellent Content
After applying for the Whitelist, I got a "2" which makes me happy and at the same time pushes me forward to keep improving.

Selling your Vote

Besides buying, you can help this tool to grow by also selling your vote, this works same as a voting Guild but with certain functionalities which are great. You can choose to sell only a 5% of your vote, and then leave it for your own curation. Also, you could leave it down to a 50% of your voting power, that depends on you. In the website, there is a well and simply explained FAQ.

Personally, I tend to vote only when the Post moves me to write an answer or discuss in profound something that mentioned there. So, I am happy to delegate my vote on the Guild, and then use it myself when I see something moving.
I am not a "bootlicker" in life as we say in Spanish, meaning I do not follow people on a personal interest, I know this is the strategy of many who will comment only hoping on a positive upvote or a follow from a Whale. Hence, Smartsteem is my time-saving tool, and it gives me a profit while helping quality writers to climb up. Sell site link.


Furthermore, you can even choose if you will only sell your votes to those who are whitelisted. Besides, to add richness to its features one may choose to only vote for Rank 1, 2, or 3. The last makes the whole voting guild thing much more interesting and fair in my view. I have seen voting bots, with people getting 500 upvotes, and the whole STU after curation being 1 STU, really depressing.

Talking about honesty

Let's be honest bidding votes, are pure gambling, and same as in Vegas, The House always wins.

My recommendation, invest your SBD in steem power, that will give you a higher voting weight. Then, either delegate some SP to SmartSteem or grant permissions to sell your vote. At the same time, apply for a Whitelist status and start purchasing higher value votes. In the end, you will get a refund if your payment was above the received upvotes value.*

• [*] As long as it keeps working correctly.

Keep the good work #SmartSteem team; this post is my humble and small grain of salt to support your work!