Love them, or hate them...everyone has an opinion about voting bots. I am not exactly sure where I stand in my opinion of them...but @helenoftroy and @rulesforrebels asked me to explain how some of the services work.
I have used some of these services to try to get some visibility on my posts. Remember that the point of using bots is to get some traction, you should only be using them on posts that you feel are ones you put effort in. Low effort and spammy posts are always looked down upon, and even more so when you are using bots to up-vote them.
Bid Bots and Flat Rate Bots
Flat Rate Bots
These are primarily what I use. You send the minimum to maximum amount from your wallet (in SBD or STEEM) to their account with your URL link in the memo and they will pay out X in return. You can find out the min/max amounts on their page in the heading. Check them frequently because these amounts do change over time as they increase or decrease in voting power/SteemPower.
The FLAT RATE BOTS I use are:
- @minnowbooster - I typically send 0.11 SBD and get around 0.20 in upvotes.
- @treeplanter- I send their max limit right now of 0.50 SBD and get 1.00 SBD in return, plus this bot helps a charity that has a goal to plant a million tress in Cameroon!
- @smartmarket- The amount of possible up-votes varies through out the day. I typically send around 0.45 SBD and get 2x back. You can check the current vote value and send money through SteemConnect with Smart Market. You can also sell your excess votes! I haven't done this yet, but I do plan to do it! If your vote is worth more than a couple cents you can earn passive SBD this way. Here is my referral link: https://smartsteem.com?r=emmyem84.
How to Use These Services:
Submit your post to Steemit like you normally would.
Step 1. Copy the link URL of your post
Step 2. Go to your wallet and enter the name of the bot, the amount you want to send (example 0.11 SBD) and paste the URL into the memo box. Double check everything is correct and press SUBMIT.
That's it! Your votes should come through in a couple minutes. These services do refund you if their voting thresholds have been met. If that happens try a smaller amount or wait a bit!
IMPORTANT: Make absolutely sure that you never accidentally copy and paste in your key/password into the MEMO box! There are bots that will find the key and use it to drain your accounts and lock you out. ALWAYS double check that you are sending the correct amount and the correct URL. After doing this for a while you may get careless about how quickly you are doing this. It's important to remember to be careful!
Bid Bot Voting Services
Bid bots are a different animal all together. In order to use bid bots you need to check out a great tool made by @yabapmatt called Steem Bot Tracker.
Steem Bot Tracker shows you all the bidding bot services and how much time they have left before they vote. Make sure to check to see if the bot is actually profitable. Most of them will be negative as too many people put in their bids. I have never had much luck with these ones. I would rather use the flat rate bots. You can use these bots at a loss to gain visibility, but I would do it modestly.
Yea, this bot is in the negative! Which means that by using this bot you will be spending more than you will get back. Some people still use bots like this to gain visibility, but I don't. I have never really had luck with these bid-bots, but who knows, if you are lucky and watch the bots you might be able to catch a good deal. It's kind of like gambling.
If you do decide to use the bid bots the process is the same as using the flat rate ones, simply send the SBD or STEEM to the bot from your wallet with the bid you want and the URL link in the MEMO field. Then you wait for the bid to go through.
Some other things to note: I always stick to the bots that have a 3.5 day max voting period. There is a very "grumpy cat" that hates bid bots that vote past the 3.5 day period and he will come by and flag your posts in an attempt to fight last minute voting and abuse. Keep that in mind.
Another bot that I use everyday is @resteembot. It works the same way as the bid bots but it resteems your posts to its followers. You have to follow Resteembot's account for at least 3 hours before you use it. I like to do this for friends posts too to gain visibility for them. The pricing structure is simple. It is based on your reputation. If you have a reputation of 53 like me, you send 0.053 to Resteembot with the URL link you want to resteem in the memo. If you have a reputation of 49 you send 0.049 and so on.
I hope you enjoyed this noob overview on bots and how to use them. If you found this useful I certainly would appreciate your up-vote and/or follow! I am looking forward to connecting with you here on Steemit! Steem on!