This holiday season, I decided to experiment by delegating my Steem Power to the @MinnowBooster voting bot.
I initially delegated 800 SP, which earned me .664 SBD. I decided to go all in, delegating 2196 SP, practically the total amount of my holdings. I decided to do this because I wanted to see the max amount of earnings I could receive through delegation.
Seeing as I would be back home for the holidays, I knew I would not have the time to dedicate to Steemit content creation, at least not to the extent that I would want.
I figured a better use of my Steem Power would be to delegate it to the Minnow Booster bot. This act would allow me to receive a form of passive income while I was away. Considering the price of Steem Dollars has been hovering around 8 dollars for the last few weeks, this seemed like an ideal time to experiment with delegating SP.
For 10 days, I had all of my SP delegated to Minnow Booster
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The average payout for these 10 days was 1.716 SBD. If we assume an average price of $8 USD, this meant I was receiving about $13.72 per day due to delegation. I consider this to be a huge success.
Sure, I won't be getting rich any time soon off of my current holdings, but to receive almost 14 bucks a day to have my voting delegated out is a nice perk of holding steem as SP. Receiving a $137 interest payment on holdings valued at around $6,000 when the experiment began is far greater than any return I could ever hope to receive from a major financial institution.
Extrapolating this average payout over the course of a year, assuming SBD stayed around $8 USD, and that would be a total payout of about five grand for a year period. SBD could fall lower again closer to $1, meaning this experiment would be an aberration, not something to bank on. Nevertheless, it's shown me that SP delegation is worth experimenting with, especially if I know I won't be using the account actively for an extended period of time.
Why wouldn't you delegate to voting bots such as Minnow Booster?
Something to keep in mind about all of this. As great as it is to receive passive SBD payouts, there are a few downsides to be aware of. First, when or if you decided to undelegate your SP, there will be a 7 day 'cool down' period where you won't receive payouts from the voting bot, but you also won't have your SP delegated back to your posts. This is because the content that utilized your SP hasn't been paid out, and your SP is still delegated to the bot during this timeframe.
As a result, I recommend delegating all of your SP only if you intend to do so for at least a week or two. You don't want to delegate for a day or two, only receive a small payout, and then be waiting for another 7 days before you can fully monetize your posts again with your SP.
As delegation implies, you are loaning or delegating your SP for someone else's use, meaning your posts won't benefit from your usual 100% upvote. This can have the effect of demotivating a user from posting as frequently as they would with all of their SP to back them up. I can attest to this effect, as I haven't been as motivated to post due to not having my normal amount of SP. I've also been busy with a few different writing projects and creative endeavors, leaving less time for my usual Steemit commitment.
Overall, I think voting delegation is a great way to receive passive income through your Steem holdings. I wouldn't delegate 100% of my holdings again, as I want the largest payouts to be from the content I've created. But it's yet another strong example of how incredibly dynamic this platform is.
All uncredited pictures from the pixabay.com
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