There is always a learning curve to everything - but after that, things are easy. Building an audience on the Steemit platform is no exception. While reviewing the popular posts of Steemers with good content, I began to notice comments below their posts that referred to 'upvote' services.

At first I shrugged, took little notice, and went on about creating posts with detailed and helpful content.

But after a while I noticed newer Steemit profiles with 'thin' content were really growing their audience fast, gaining a great stream of comments AND they were earning significantly more revenue from their short and easy posts. I began to hear disgruntled comments from other Steemers who put a great deal of work into their posts - and see the same phenomenon with less meaty content providers growing much faster.

Can Steemit Be GAMED for Profit?

Rather than good content taking the show - could it be there are repeatable methods to make money on Steemit that require less skill and less authentic benefit for readers, simply by 'playing the game' the right way?

If so - are there tutorials on how to use Upvote Bots for best effect?

@jameslparis has been asking the same questions - wondering How do you make money on Steemit. His initial findings suggest

the only way to make money on Steemit is to get up votes from a select few whales that have significant financial influence on the network - and that if you are not part of this clique, you stand very little chance of making much money.

Networking For Organic Growth?

@cngrobler (161 followers) states that he started blogging on Steemit for the potential to earn money - a clear attraction for many of us. His focus as a beginner is to build authentic relationships by commenting on other people posts in addition to writing his own content. He states:

You'll see that I spend quite some time purposefully and transparently [replying] to other people's posts. This is like networking really, and it creates opportunity for conversation and ultimately, relationship building happens as a result.

@mateen (43 followers) agrees and replies

spot on. interaction with commenters is essential. Comments build active followers which in long term can create good results.

@evernoticethat (870 Followers) goes on to point out that the quality of the relationships you develop is much like gaining real friends in your life. If you are only interacting with, and praising people from whom you may gain some benefit... the insincerity becomes evident and you lose the respect and cooperation of people who could be genuine friends and helpers.

I had a friend that started out with me on Steemit and noticed that once he passed me in SP, he stopped interacting with me and now only chases Whales. It's a toe-sucking charm offensive that is very obvious to me. Everything he does is about himself and what "you" can do for him.

@zedessex (28 followers) brings up a good point about the truth about the impact of influencers across many social platforms:

for what it's worth, what social media platform DOESN'T have the Whales problem? It's a huge problem on Twitter, plagues Facebook even ranking on GOOGLE generally involves getting authority sites to link to your web site

And after all the valuable conversation below his post, @jameslparis has not participated in the conversations with a reply... and I still have not unraveled the truth about how Steemit Upvote Bots work, nor am I any further ahead in knowing how to test them.

The Best Steemit Upvote Bots And How To Use Them

@binkley (2231 followers) created a fantastic step-by-step tutorial on how to use Upvote Bots. At the time of this writing, his post is 8 months old and ranks well for the search for Steemit Bots.

As a result of his instructions, I plan to send some money to some bots to promote this posts. Bots usually accept SBD but some take Steem as well.

He emphasizes:

...when your are sending to the bots be sure you are sending to their wallet address. Most Good Up Vote Bots Should Display This In Their Description/Bio. The memo text field of the transfer wizard is where you place the link to your post you want up voted.

How much should you spend on an upvote bot? Will you gain more benefit than you invest?

Some of the smaller upvote bots only charge like 0.100 so you can get 10 up votes for a buck... Usually I double my SBD ......USUALLY But Not Always! It really depends on how much voting power the bot has left.

See How Much Voting Power The Upvote Bots Have

Before sending money to the Upvote Bots you find, @binkley shares a key tip about checking the stats for the Bot on steemd.com to be sure they have strong voting power.

His Steemit Up VoteBots List is a little dated, but a good place to start exploring.

Where to Find The Best Upvote Bots

A great resource was posted recently by @yabapmatt, the creator of the SteemBotTracker website - detailing improvements and updates to Steem Upvote Bot Tracker. His Upvote Bot Tracker is billed as 'the #1 place for information on voting bots and other options to promote your posts on Steem! ' and there is a lot of information for new Steemers to absorb!

It's not just a list of Upvote bots he has found - bot owners can list their services and configure their listing to specify a link to the rules / terms of service for their bot.

The In's and Out's of Upvote Bots

My virtual friend @gmichelbkk encouraged me to get posting on Steemit - and has posted several helpful guides including 'All You Need to Know About Your Votes on Steemit!' (a must read for noobs like me)

Most importantly, Michel recently posted 'How I Use Voting Bots', where he teaches about the "Bid-Based Voting Bots" section of SteemBotTracker Website. I had to read this post several times, while checking back and forth between the tutorial and the site, in order to get a grasp on the specifics.

There are good times and less favorable times to select each bot, and even a better time of the day for paying an Upvote Bot. Be sure to check out his article to learn more on how to use upvote bots for the best effect.

It Takes Money To Make Money On Steemit

Before I start paying for upvotes - I'm thinking of it something like 'activation energy' to get the process rolling, and once I have an established following - then perhaps I will not need to pay for advertising.

@gmichelbkk reveals

The reason I use bots is to get more visibility, not profit.

One of the best gems of information Michel reveals is that he invests 20 SBD and splits that between four or five different bots - and expects a thirty day return on his investment.