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Went from less than $0.10 an article to averaging around $5 an article.

wonder what he has to pay to get that...on a per article basis?

I have personal experience in using bots. Typically, there is negative ROI when using bid bots due to last minute bids from other users.

https://steemworld.org/@ultraspace if check the "recent posts" and expand each post there is a "transfer amount" section that shows what the user bid for their votes.

But he did paid for those upvotes. So the return should probably just breakeven?

I have no idea. So many bots.