Anyone who has been around on Steemit for more than four weeks, at least, ought to know what bid bots are. However, for the sake of newbies who don't know, bid bots are automatic accounts on Steemit (which are owned and controlled by one or more Steemians) created for the primary purpose of selling votes through bids.
Bid bots are paid in either SBD or Steem to upvote posts. Usually, bid bots upvote posts based on their voting powers in relation to the total number of bid sent by users per voting time (usually every 2.4 hours).
For example, if a bot which has a voting power of $200 receives a bid of $50 from user A and $10 from user B within a voting period of 2.4 hours, user A would get 50/60 multiplied by $200 which is $166 votes. Whereas, user B would get 10/60 multiplied by $200 which is $33.33 votes. In both cases, the bidders have made massive profits.
What Then Results to Lose When Using Bid Bots?
The answer is simple: when the total number of bids (in SBD or Steem) within a given voting period becomes equal or greater than the voting power of the bid bot.
For example, when a bid bot which has $200 voting power, as in the case of the example cited earlier, receives total bid of $200+ within a given voting period.
Two Major Reasons Why Bid Bots Are Becoming Unprofitable
A lot of the profits that can be derived from using bid bots are being eroded because of two major reasons, which I will now explain:
- Ignorance
Many of those who use bid bots on Steemit do not even know that there is a website created by a fantastic Steemian by the username 
- Too Many Vote Buyers Chasing Few Bid Bots
Today, even Steemians who have excellent knowledge of https://steembottracker.com are forced to use bid bots blindly and make loses because they have waited for several rounds of bids without seeing any opportunity for great profit. This is because there are two many vote buyers chasing few bid bots such as 
The Way Forward
The following are what I personally see as the solutions to the trend of loses arising from using bid bots:
There is an urgent need for investors on the platform and other whales to create more bid bots to remedy the market hijack by the popular bid bots.
There is a need for every Steemian who wishes to use bid bots to STRICTLY track the bots using https://steembottracker.com before sending their bids. This way, bid bots will be more profitable.
Lastly, more attention should be given to other bots which have fixed upvotes for every SBD sent. A good example of such profitable bot is
@minnowbooster. The bot votes an equivalent of about 3x for every SBD sent to it. And it automatically refunds when it notices that the vote may turn out unprofitable for the buyer. More predictable bots, such as
P.s Unfortunately, this post will never trend because the author is a minnow and does not have enough money to buy upvotes from bots.