Safe usage of Voting-Bots

I was not aware of some of the rules circulating on Steemit and this has cost me a few times and I hope with this post that I can inform you guys and help you avoid these mistakes.

_{My cat, MellowCat}

Using Bots

The reason for me to create this post is to help you guys avoid the mistake(s) that I have made and if anyone has anything to add, please feel free to amend and/or correct me.

First of all, I want to use this opportunity to promote @qurator, this is a group that will help you with 1 upvote a day, to put it in a nutshell. Please have a look at this post to learn more about who they are, what they do and what this can mean for you. It’s easy to join and there is barely any effort needed afterwards (I would recommend to upvote their daily qurator to move up a level).

Step 1 – Why do people use bots?

Bots are there to ‘buy votes’ and that way help the monetization of your post. This makes your post more valuable and you appear in trendings, so that you get more exposure and followers … in a nutcase.

Step 2 – How should I use a bot

There are many bots available for Steemit users, so choosing a bot can become complicated. Maybe this can help you.

1. Look how much you want/can spend
2. Choose a bot using http://www.steembottracker.com/

Once you’re there, you have to consider many factors:

Make sure the bot does not allow upvotes past 3,5 days age of your post. Any bot that allows upvotes past 3,5 days will increase your risk of being ‘downvoted’.

Next I look at whether a bot is still giving profitable bids, for this I follow 2 checks:

1. I check the highlighted column in screenshot #1, ‘Max Profitable Bid’. If there is still an allowance there, you see it like I highlighted, but the one above (Smartsteem) shows 0, so there’s no more profitable bidding on that bot
2. Clicking on ‘details’ which opens up another window (screenshot #2) and you see the ‘Bid Value (USD)’, if this is lower than ‘Vote Value’, you should receive return on your investment. However if the ‘Vote Value’ is higher than the ‘Bid Value (USD)’, then check the next bot.

_{Screenshot #1}

_{Screenshot #2}

What I also consider it the time until the next upvote. If there’s a lot of time left, then it’s highly likely that other people will come after you and decrease the profitability of that bot. However if there’s a short time (less than 10 minutes should be safe) then you have more chance that the bot will remain as you found it.

Further make sure you honour the rules of the bot. There are 2 things you should be careful of here:

1. Ensure that you adhere to there minimum and maximum bid rules
2. Some bots will now allow votes on posts older than 6,5 hours

For up-to-date info on a specific bot it is also recommendable to read their profile pages in Steemit.

Feel free to leave me your comments, feedback, suggestions or questions.

Thanks,

Doron