Are voting bots profitable? they can be, but not necessarily!

there are complications in profit calculations, which makes it a bit vague, in the term of profitability:

SteemBotTracker, a very useful resource

1. STU concept
   when you pay 1 STEEM to a bot, it votes for $1.3
   but this is neither USD nor STEEM, it is STU

2. Curation
   a portion of the votes goes to curators, including yourself (if you have voted yourself)

just to be rough over my own experience and not precise or mathematically proven, the amount you receive, is 77 to 81% of the shown number in SBD and USD in equal.

it means if you have paid 10 STEEM to a bot (below as an example, SmartSteem), you will receive 13.11 STU and suppose 80% of it is yours: 5.24 SBD and 5.24 USD in STEEM power (SP)

if 1SBD is 1.07 STEEM and 1 STEEM is 0.86 USD, as they are now, you have received 5.6 + 6.1 = 11.7 STEEM

it means you have had a 17% profit on your vote. all these numbers can change, you may even lose money on different conditions.

Your post should be at least half an hour old and maximum 3 days old to be legit to buy votes for.

if it's less than half an hour old, the vote would be less but you will have more curation share.

other benefits

your account will grow in reputation. it's not directly important, but it will affect how others contribute and engage!

the trending and hot pages
you will be probably listed in hot and trending pages depending on the tags you have chosen and amount you have bought vote.
This may increase your post's visibility and if your post worth being read, it may attract more votes.

I hope this helps someone. and if you have questions, I will be glad to answer.