SteemIt Guide - On Steem Dust
The greatest frustration I have had on SteemIt.com is dealing with the problem of STEEM DUST.
The value of one's upvote is determined by their STEEM POWER. SteemIt.com delegates 15 STEEM POWER to every account. The problem is that the value of an upvote with just 15 STEEM POWER is under a tenth of a penny.
If I voted for my account a hundred times, I would give myself less than a dime.
To add insult to injury, the SteemIt engine rounds votes with less than $0.02 worth of upvotes to zero. If the upvotes for your account add up to less than two cents, the money disappears.
80 of my first 100 posts had upvotes. But the upvotes were erased as dust. All of that work for nothing.
I've discovered two different approaches to handling dust. The first approach is to buy enough STEEM POWER so that your upvote is worth $0.02. From that point on, just drop an upvote on any post or comment that has under $0.03 and you will always get your STEEM DUST.
Another super sneaky way to handle the problem is to hire the DustSweeper Robot. This handy robot will vote on your posts that are worth less than $0.02. I don't like bots, but the STEEM DUST problem is so frustrating that I felt compelled to hire a bot to deal with the problem.