RE: The Epic Failure of Steemit, and Why you Should Care
Good perspective, from what I have seen there is not even a good reward for using upvote bots most of the time.
Many use them expecting to get a positive return on investment (ROI) this doesn't always happen when they figure in curation portion of 25% that is not the authors reward.
One way to look at is is not to expect ROI and just use the upvote bots for EXPOSURE of your post, to get you name out there for (hopefully) more attention and upvotes
These bots are a big earner for the WHALES who operate them, some operators even speak of it being a BUSINESS, and what is the aim of a business...PROFIT.
They are asking a certain price for them selling a product that in fact costs them nothing (the product is deducted from the total rewards pool, not from the capital of the business), it is a perfect business, like selling invisible rainbows....someone will buy.
This is why there are so many upvote bots arriving on Steemit, it's a perfect business model....is it a fair busineess model, that is very debatable.
Your explanation describes exactly how it is not a "fair" business model. The upvote bot is performing a service (upvote) at no cost to themselves and providing a measley amount of consideration. The only way you get ROI when using these bots is if the value of Steem appreciates enough by the time your 7-day payout period ends. In many cases, you will lose more because of the depreciation in the value of Steem.