I have already tried giving some ideas and suggestions along the way of my path on Steemit in some of my posts and comment, but most of this was probably futile and did not have much of a result. So I have decided to start playing with some automation to help me in what I'm trying to do on Steemit - getting to know how things work better and helping the project long term by encouraging new users and good authors that otherwise may remain unnoticed. I'm not a whale, but there are still things that I'm able to do to help and I'm doing my part as much as I can.
Thanks to 
My first idea for an experiment was to set two newbie accounts to be used by the same kind of bots, but with a little different behavior in order for them to be just like two common types of users on Steemit. The bots started like just any other regular new users with 3 STEEM POWER or with other words very little voting power and a single vote worth just a very small fraction of a cent.
The first bot was supposed to follow me and vote for exactly the same content I vote for (only Blog posts, not comments) or with other words trying to vote for new, interesting and not guaranteed to go trending posts - what new users should actually try to do on Steemit with their curation efforts.
The second bot was set to what most new users should not be doing, but are actually doing when they start using Steemit and want to try and get some rewards by voting for guaranteed to go trending posts by popular authors. So the second bot had to follow some of the whales and vote for the same content they upvote, I choose a few of the top users with a lot of voting power, but not all and things started moving.
The idea was for both minions to not go voting too much in order to dilute their small voting power a lot, but still go for a relatively normal number of posts to vote for (keep the voting power above 70-80%). Since the first results started coming in I have decided to share some interesting data that was gathered so far. The experiment itself and the data gathered from it is intended as an educational material that should be used for new users on Steemit to get their priorities straight.
The first bot, the "good" one, has already scored its first curation reward of 0.001 SP. This is the minimum you can get rewarded with, if your reward is less then you just get nothing for curating that post. Starting with Steem Power of just 3 does make it pretty hard to even score the minimum 0.001 SP reward, but with the right choice and some luck you can manage to do it. The post that scored the 0.001 SP curation reward was a hidden gem that went unnoticed for a bit, but later on went viral and netted a total reward of $1055. It takes this much to get the minimum curation reward of 0.001 SP when you start using Steemit and that is precisely a lot of people are falling for the "trick" of following the big names and only voting for them.
Most of the other posts that the bot voted for made from a few cents to a couple of dollars, but there was another one with a reward of a bit over $300 and guess how much that resulted in a curation reward... exactly zero, because the reward was apparently smaller than the 0.001 SP minimum. So the next obvious step in the experiment was to add some extra voting power, but not that much to see how much of a difference can that make. I expected that this will happen, just wanted to confirm it that it does really go this way and I did. It was them time to upgrade from the initial 3 SP to 10 SP, not much more, though the more important question is if it will really make a difference... more on that in a bit.
What about the second "bad" bot, the one that was stalking some whales and upvoting the content they like and immediately turn into popular and even may skyrocket it to the trending page? Well, that one did not score any curation rewards at all... zero, nada, 0.000 SP. This is also exactly what I was expecting to see, but then again I still wanted to confirm my expectations with actual results in order to have a proof. That bot did vote after whales, so there was not even a single post below $1 reward and the top ones went up to $229 and even $764 yet there was still no curation reward received. Part of the reason for that is that whales don't care much when they vote for a post they consider good, it may be too early a quite late in order to make the optimal curation reward from it, but that is not the only reason. Since I expected that to happen it was time to move to stage two and also upgrade from 3 SP to 10 SP this one as well and get to the next stage of the experiment.
After the upgrade to 10 SP things started moving a bit better and more optimistic results started showing up. The first "good" bot quickly scored a couple more curation rewards they were of course mostly 0.001 SP again, but got them from posts with lower total reward: $157, $258 and $290. Then a good surprise came in, another hidden gem that went trending and netted a total reward of $1843 that resulted in 0.008 SP reward. That would've scored at least 0.001 SP reward even with the starting 3 Steem Power as well. Just remember that this is the bot that was following this account's voting pattern and went for good posts that may not earn much, though some hidden gems apparently come up even on the trending page.
The second "bad" robot following the whale votes did actually score its first curation reward after the upgrade to 10 SP. The same $1843 trending post, of course made it there with the help of whale votes, so bot 2 also voted for it. The first curation reward with 10 SP it received however was lower at just 0.002 SP, a reminder that it did not get any rewards curating when it was back at 3 SP.
I'm expecting to see a couple of more small curation rewards coming to the "good" bot in the next couple of hours and it lucky maybe some for the "bad" whale worshipper and stalker as well. I do have a plan to do another step in the experiment and Power Up the two bots a bit more, maybe at 20 SP and continue to see how that will affect their results. I plan to post more updates as the experiment progresses as it has already produced some useful data.
Be a good boy and do what you are told by the Borg! That was a joke of course, don't take it as a serious piece of advice. What you SHOULD be doing as a new user on Steemit with your voting is to look through the new Blog posts and vote only for the ones you actually like. Who knows you may actually find a hidden gem and make it to the minimum curation reward, but don't worry even if you don't make it. Just try something different like actually posting something on Steemit, this may or may not end up being more rewarding than trying to get some rewards curating and not doing it like you are intended to. Even try leaving a comment or two under some of the posts you like and vote for, or even if you don't like one, but you still want to leave a comment. Don't just leave some stupid, generic or meaningless comment for the same of commenting... if you don't have anything to say, just don't post anything as a comment.
Being a "bad" bot and I really mean acting like a bot and going only for posts made by celebrities and top reputation posters to "guarantee" yourself that you voted for a successful post is actually not always a good thing. Especially if you don't like the post at all or do not agree with what is inside it, but you still vote for it as you are in for the rewards and that is the only thing you care about. Speaking about curation rewards, just try to avoid doing that kind of voting as if you are in here just for the rewards as it will actually have a negative effect on you and some not so small part of the community while the "big ones" will gain extra profit that may not always be deserved. As for you being a small fish you will either not get anything in return or the reward may be significantly smaller than if you. So don't do compromised with your beliefs or principles just for the sake of some imaginary reward that you may or may not get, just to the right thing and you might be surprised by the results... and I'm not talking only about curation rewards here, but personal satisfaction as well.
In short, don't think about rewards and only about them on Steemit. Just try to do what you want and post about what you love doing, vote for posts that you like and comment whenever you want to really add something. That way even if you don't get any rewards you will at least know you haven't sold your soul to the devil for nothing...
If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.
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