Around 3 weeks ago I started on a journey to experiment with bid bots to see whether they are profitable for a plankton like myself. The payouts for all the posts of this 2 week experiment are in, and now it is time to share the results.

The experiment

For the bid bot experiment I spent one week using upvote bots (and resteem bots) on all posts, (except freewrites, memes and contests - I explain why in the initial post). For the second week I used no bid bots at all, and no resteem bots. The idea is to see how using bid bots affect profitability, as this has been a major talking point on Steemit.

For the full rundown of how I am running the experiment check out the link in the introduction.

Week one summary while using bots

The results from week one, where I used bots were pretty unspectacular. Out of the six posts I ‘promoted’, 2 had a negative ROI and 4 generated profit. Unfortunately the overall profits were modest at best:

The overall profit for the week was a meager $11.31, or an average of $1.88 per post

For a full and in depth run down of week ones results, see the following link:

The great bid bot experiment - results from week one

Results from week two

The results for week two are amazing, and much better than I expected!

Obviously this week as I didn't use any bots the promotional costs were zero, and the payouts from each post were all profit! The largest profit on a post, was my post about New Zealand heavy metal music, which got a profit of $24.60 (thanks to a uvpote from @curie!). The smallest payout was $0.99.

The overall profit for the week was $42.01, with an average per post of $7

Even if we subtract the Curie vote it makes the overall profit for the week $17.41 with an average of $3.48 per post

Comparisons between week one and week two

If we compare week one and week two, it seems through this short experiment that infact using bidbots and resteem bots is a lot less profitable than using bidbots. Remembering from week one the overall profit was $11.31 with an average of $1.88 per post - this is significantly lower than the profit values for week two, even when subtracting the big vote from Curie!

Allowing for manual curation

I have some thoughts on why not using bidbots ended up to be more successful -

• It allows for manual curation to take place - in general if you write good content then sooner or later you will get noticed by someone like Curie. I think this is because they are generally looking for ‘undervalued’ content. Even if the majority of your post has been paid for using an upvote bot, it is not viewed as being undervalued. So by not using bidbots you are allowing for more manual curation. I did notice more ‘random’ upvoted during the bot free week aswell
• Some people don't agree with bots, and are less likely to upvote posts that have used upvote bots. Some have the opinion that if a post already has a larger payout then their upote would be better saved for some ‘undervalued’ content with less rewards.

Looking forward

Undertaking this experiment has given me renewed hope for plankton and minnows that there is a way forward without the use/overuse of bidbots. I think that there can be a place for bidbots to exist healthily on Steemit, but there does need to be some rules/regulations around their use to prevent abuse.

I recently posted a competition where I am giving away 5 Steem Basic Income Shares, and saw no other way to promote it than to buy some upvotes in the hope of more visibility. So far the results have been less than satisfying. If you are interested in going in to the draw then follow the link below:

5 Steem Basic Income shares giveaway - What would you change about Steem?

In this post I even put a disclaimer that I would be using bots to boost the visibility of the post and make the contest accessible to more Steemians.

Suggestions

The use of bots is hotly debated topic on Steemit and there are many different suggestions on how to manage them. I don't think banning them outright is the best idea (an one the wouldn’t likely happen anyway!). However my suggestions are about how the bots are being used:

• Limit the use of bots to 2 - 3 posts per week, so Steemians can use them to boost their ‘best’ material.
• Limit the amount of $ that can be spent on any one post, this will allow a more even playing field and mean minnows can be more competitive. Currently anyone can get to the trending page if they spend enough on bots. A massive advantage of this would be that it would decrease the payouts of posts on the trending page - I see this as a major problem at the moment. New Steemians come to Steemit and see the massive payouts on trending posts, and think they could have a shot at that, but don't know that the payouts aren't profits and alot of it has been paid for.

What are your thoughts on managing the use of bots on Steemit?