Howdy @mistermercury this is some solid advice, and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment with some words of encouragement. I pride myself on spellchecking and properly formatting things, I have been blogging outside of Steemit for quite a few years now. Your post is awesome and encouraging, I just gave it an upvote (my vote doesn't carry a lot of weight right now) however small. I need all of the encouragement I can get.

Funnily enough, I bit the bullet and just out of curiosity I spent 1 SBD on a couple of voting bots (not even sure they were good ones). This post went from 8 upvotes to its current 64 upvotes. It definitely wasn't a monetarily motivated move, and I am not sure it will do much for visibility, but interesting nonetheless.

I've been trying a multitude of different forms of content, it seems technology/cryptocurrency categorised content does quite well on Steemit. I am trying to stay clear of entering that dangerous territory of complaining about the state of Steemit, it feels like the thing to do. But at the same time, posts like this were written because I didn't want to sit silently while people upload photos without captions and earn $100.

People like you are the hope that Steemit needs for it to succeed in the long-term. Supporting and fostering authors trying to wade through the sea of spam, desperately keeping their heads above water.

I also have nothing against voting bots. I think they're a necessity as Steemit currently stands, and really no different than using something like Google AdWords to promote your business website to get a competitive edge, except in cases where people are using it to promote trash content (like I frustratingly call out in this post).

Do you have any recommendations on the best and most reputable voting bots to use? This aspect of Steemit is still new to me, and I would hate to end up on a blacklist because I used a scammy/non-reputable voting bot.

Fortunately, I am in Steemit for the long haul and I am not expecting it to be a get rich quick scheme or start making hundreds per post. I see beyond the superficial and see Steemit as a fantastic opportunity to build an audience and get rewarded for writing quality content. I very much see Steemit as a more democratic alternative to a platform like Medium (which is going the opposite way with its closed off stories and paid monthly support tier they introduced).

I would absolutely love all of the help I can get, the names of people who are helping Steemians succeed and the communities/groups that are taking authors under their wings and helping the platform succeed, that would be absolutely fantastic and greatly appreciated.