This is true. Even if you're unable to invest with money, can can invest with your time and energy. Or you can invest with everything you've got! :) That's a great point.

And you're right; I've also got a FB business page and in order for any of my following to see my posts I need to promote (pay for) that post in order for it to gain any traction. I find that to be soo backwards. And with Steemit you can build your following and know that they'll see you're post (as long as they log in from time to time). Luckily, our algorithm doesn't censor our content in that way. And.. luckily the platform was built to reward users instead of the creators.

And as far as upvote bots go, I use them pretty regularly, but not for profit. If I get a profit then that's great. But my ultimate goal with using bots is to gain recognition (or viewership) and possibly gain a few followers. It's worked very well for me. But there are people who try to use them just for instant profit motives. To each their own I suppose.

And thank you!! If I do decide to setup a witness server I'll definitely let everybody know. It's not completely off the table.. but I'm just not sure yet. :)