I think we have come to very similar conclusions. I have also decided (in part due to the relative lack of SBD in rewards) to stop using bots as a general rule. However, for posts that I have put a great deal of effort into, I am likely to throw a bot at it.

I have seen a better engagement due to the policy of giving a small upvote to good comments (hopefully my commenters are subscribed to dustsweeper).

awesome concept sir..

I know you have put a lot of time and thought into your decision.  I fully support you and your choice.  I think your pixabay curation project is a great initiative and those contributors deserve the highest reward possible. Keep doing what you do!

Congrats on your journey and I think you will be happier in the end. It is nice to see how your posts really do and who is really supporting you. Besides, the bots often cont you more than what you get in return not to mention that everyone that sees your posts immediately sees that bots were used. There is a potential negative impact to this.

<div class="pull-left">https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaSUWYsJ3AMUEMRqCSaoKJVNvtsbKm4fNAtmTidr8Uggc/C%20Squared%20Logo%20Transparency%20200px.png</div><br>This post was shared in the <a href="https://discord.gg/B8JFmJ4">Curation Collective Discord community</a> for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

How on earth so you get an average of 300 upvotes per post?

Why not use the bid bots for financial gains? Just with the purpose to profit financially from it and pay part of your Steemfest expenses.

Nice challenge @Daan! 

Unfortunately .. it's difficult to find anything on Trending that's not bot upvoted. That day I did a sample of a few $1k upvote posts and realised that they are 90% bot voted .. and one of them is a 100% copy and paste with a "Source: TheOriginalSourceURL" 

It's a sad case but well that's how this economy work .. somehow .. just hope that the Steem team will fix this before it spin out of control and to the eventual demise of this amazing platform.

Interesting article! Good luck!

Interesting to hear your results @daan. Thanks for sharing them.

I'm curious though. On the posts where you will use bots for more visibility? Where do you think the will be seen and by whom?

It would be great to do a test of 2 similar posts, one with bots and one without bots to see if they bots really do get a post seen but people who you'd like to see it.

I would be surprised if it did but it would make a good test. 😁

Good thoughts about this ... and I can only say, You're completely right in what you're saying here.

I tend to agree with your comparisons, will look out for your future statistics on this topic. 

When you first arrive at Steemit you tend to be drawn into the use of bots _(because it is a new concept)_, personally I feel using from time to time is not a bad addition if linked into communities that you already belong to.

Concept on Steemit is blogging/social media, so obtaining a true connection with people, it is better to get to know more people through communities, commenting and replying.

Reading an article really enjoyed perhaps not within your topic _(you don't wish to resteem)_, share the content further to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or LinkedIn depending on the content, help each other to get further mileage off of posts.

YAY! Good going dude, this feels so much more fair. 

And again, I love the pixabay curation initiave, so many beautiful and not recognized artists on there. Such a good spirit to send the sbd to these artists! Steem on mannn

@daan CONGRATULATIONSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I have made a similiar plan and have not boosted some of my personal blogs. Well most of posts are personal ones and I think it is good that you decide that you will only boost certain posts. 

I am amazed that you are already at 1500 SP! I just hit the 1K SP mark a few days ago.

It's funny - I did a bidbot experiment a few months ago, and although I thought at the time that the bidbots were making me a profit, they were actually making me a significant overall loss. And during that time the few posts I published *without* using bidbots did much better than the bidbotted posts. 
Not exactly a scientific experiment, but since then I've not only not used any bidbots, but I've barely given them a second thought. Re-other strategies - I think that community is the best one - making sure that your post gets attention from at least one group of Steemians who are likely to have an interest in that subject. And if there's no related community, why not start one up?
Not that I've got round to doing this - I think some of my posts would have received much more upvotes if I'd had the time to promote them more, but maybe I'm just not organised enough. And although not all of them earn as much as $1, most of them do, and if I averaged the earnings out I think it would amount more than that. I'm very happy with the state of play so far. I think bidbots take your attention away from the longer-term community building, learning and making new discoveries that is much more rewarding - that's my opinion anyway!

very informative, I like, greetings from Indonesia @daan.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on using bots, @daan. Your curation project for Pixabay is a wonderful idea. Keeping Steeming!

Very interesting! I think a few bots vote on my stuff, but I never signed up for them. I think someone else did, to be nice...
Im kind of a noob on Steemit, so maybe in the future it would be something I might try, but for now, like you, Ill be just working on my posting and getting by on my own 'steem'. ;)

I am glad that you are taking the route that you have, I think there is more satisfaction in knowing something is earned rather than bought, and it is hard to determine if your work is being accepted by the community when it is cluttered with bought bot votes.
I have only paid for a re-steem service once and that was to promote a SBD giveaway I did in conjunction with a photo contest, where I actually send sbd to have it resteemed and it maybe got it a little more exposure, that was hard to judge as well.
Thanks for following through and letting us know the outcome.

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Very interesting post! 
I think when I'm reaching $1 per post without having to boost, I will reconsider. Right now, I see it as a way of increasing my SP earnings at a time when STEEM is low anyway. I only use three (small) upvoters at the moment. 

@Minnowbooster, which I was invited to.
@thundercurator - who curates manually and makes sure the posts are kosher. 
@treeplanter - who plants trees in Cameroon, so is a noble cause. (I'll probably continue using this one even after my posts increase in natural value.) 
It definitely doesn't make me more SBD total! But, it does help me increase my SP faster, which is important to me.

To me, considering that Steemit promotion can be as much a matter of luck and popularity as it is of quality of posts, upvoters (used responsibly) can be an important boost to minnows. 

I'm so glad that you're now reaching the $1+ level without boosters though - such a great achievement!

Great job looks like you are doing really well. I stopped using bots months ago since last year. Nothing against it but you are right on that with the feeling of accomplishment. Totally with you on that. If your post does good a rush feeling of warmth goes thru your body knowing that you did good. Also you would know what hits the spot on your content in return you learn something. Makes space for improvement.