Steemit vs Busy vs eSteem Surfer?

For maximum rewards when posting which one of these interfaces into the STEEM blockchain should you use?

Source

Well that depends when you joined Steemit, what kind of payout on a typical post you get and the kind of things you compose.

Using Steemit.com

This is what everyone uses when they start posting anything with a new account. It is also the least rewarding of the three above methods of creating blog posts. Steemit.com does not take any beneficiary rewards from the author, nor does it give any incentives.

For me, a post gaining a reward of $1.00 will yield a payout of $1.00 to the author (minus curation rewards).

Plain and simple, you know what you are going to get.

https://steemit.com/

Using Busy.org

Busy.org do offer an incentive for using their interface as opposed to Steemit.com. The reward is calculated from the total SP of ALL the followers of the poster. This is why I say above, ‘that depends when you joined Steemit'.

Source

The heyday of this platform was between December 2017 and March 2018. I joined in March 2018 and rode on the coattails of a declining STEEM token for a while.

There were many more Steemians before this date and it seemed easier to get followers then, even if they are useless ones. Also if you have been active since 2016, you are likely to have many more followers.

More followers = more cumulative SP = a larger weight vote by @busy.pay.

Busy does not appear to take into account the size of YOUR SP, but of your followers' cumulative SP. I can't say I like the idea, but that's just how it is.

I have 712 followers and am not going to follow people just so they follow me back. Consequently, my @busy.pay vote weight as of 12 days ago (I occasionally use busy.org) is poor at 1% which equates to around 9c.

You also need to use ‘busy’ as a tag or you will not get a vote. Otherwise the vote appears to be guaranteed once per 12 hours.

Busy.com also does not take any beneficiary rewards from the author; in that respect it's a very positive incentive.

For me, a post gaining a reward of $1.00 will yield a payout of $1.09 to the author (minus curation rewards).

https://busy.org/

Using eSteem Surfer

This brings me to the last choice, which is a dApp. You need to download eSteem Surfer Desktop to use this which can be obtained here.

Now it get's a little more complicated as you are not guaranteed a vote from eSteem and the vote weight is variable on your usage.

Source

eSteem take a cut of your author rewards in the form of 10%. Yes, it's a high cut but it can be worth it depending on your circumstances.

On the positive side, the eSteem Surfer interface is great, and you can use their draft facility to compose and save for posting at a later date.

You don’t need to use the esteem tag for a vote and as I say it’s not guaranteed. What I would say to you is, don’t post more than one article in any 24 hour period and post meaty quality content.

I do get regular votes from them, they don’t tend to vote up any old crap and unlike busy, the vote appears to be curated manually.

The calculation for eSteem is more complicated as the vote weight seems to vary on how much you use eSteem Surfer. My current weight is 6%. There are also TWO votes of any substance, one from @esteemapp and another from our good witness, @good-karma.

As of now, this equates to @esteemapp at 69c and @good-karma at 10c totalling 79c.

For me, a post gaining a reward of $1.00 will yield a payout of $1.61 to the author (minus curation rewards).

Reward = $1.00
Incentive = $0.79
Beneficiary Deduction = $0.18
Total Reward = $1.61

What makes this all the more interesting is if your posts make a lot more.

Eg… another post gaining a reward of $12.00 will yield a payout of $11.51 to the author (minus curation rewards).

Reward = $12.00
Incentive = $0.79
Beneficiary Deduction = $1.28
Total Reward = $11.51

In the last example case, I would get the bigger reward of $12.09 if I used Busy as opposed to eSteem.

This appears to be the reason the guys with the bigger payouts all use Busy. For me, the cut-off is around $7.50 - $8. If my posts earn more than this amount then it's better to use Busy than eSteem Surfer in the case of efficiency.

These calculations are for my circumstances only. You will need to do your homework for yours.

Considering Steemit is still the most popular interface, I have to wonder if it’s by pure ignorance that this is the case.

If you are brand new to the platform, then perhaps Steemit.com is the best interface, but you really should try Busy. If you get a vote of 0%, you are not going to lose anything by having a go, but don't forget to use the #busy tag.

Otherwise try eSteem Surfer; I use this for over 90% of my posts now but be aware of the 10% cut. I do believe the cut is taken regardless of whether you get a vote or not.

If you are established Steemian, then you should be looking at one of the other alternative interfaces (not Steemit.com) if you want to maximise your rewards.