I did not use bots earlier. But then my posts hardly earned $0.10 It felt bad so I tried my hands on the bots. To my surprise I earned good enough. But then I decided to give-up the habit of using bots. It would make me habitual and compromise on quality. So I started avoiding bots but now my blogs are still low paid. I hope I get adopted by some whales who follow me and guide me through these tough days. I have seem many successful people lead by further more successful people.
I tried promoting my post once but did not get even a single up-vote. So decided I will never promote my posts again.