I've just stumbled across this, after seeing a few people using it, and thanks to a recent post by @celestal.

I've paid for a couple of upvotes, and the return seems to be around an insane 50% - A 30 steem payment = $20.24 upvote (30 steem = $13.50)

I know I don't get all of that back personally, but even so that's a good return.

I've been posting through steempress for several months, and getting a nice upvote from them, but they take a 15% cut.....

@ocdb seems a lot better. I'm actually just digging around to read people's posts about it!

Oh and everyone knows the reputation score is a joke, so don't worry about that!