The Node.js is the route I went down and as a complete beginner, I followed this tutorial to get it set up, installing the full package from here (including the chocolatey and other stuff that does all of the necessary windows updates for me). It was pretty much painless and I had a simple node.js script running in no time. I then had to install express and steem via npm and I was good to go 👍🏼

I searched for ages and eventually found a load of old tutorials by sambillingham which I'm slowly working my way through and they're ideal for a complete beginner like me. The 1st tutorial contains the JavaScript file that you can use if you don't want to set up Node.js.

1. Auto Upvote Bot - Upvote posts from a set of users
2. Curation Bot - Copy the upvotes of a selected user
3. Auto follow bot - Copy who a selected user follows
4. Paid upvote bot - Upvote a user in proportion to receiving SBD
5. @ Mention Notifier bot - Receive an email when @mentioned *
6. Auto Reward Claimer bot - Check and claim rewards
7. Bots In The Background - Using Node.js and scheduling code
8. Stats Responder - Reply with message when @mentioed
9. Contest Bot - Storing JSON & checking hastags
10. ReBlogged List - Checking all transactions for specific data **
11. Running your Steem.js Bot 24/7 on a Server
12. User Wallet History

• Formspree.io no longer allows free accounts to send emails via AJAX.
  ** A @penderis found a better way of doing this, check the comments in that post before working through the tutorial.

All source code is also available via his GitHub too if you want it.

👇🏼 Image so that I can find this comment more easily in my feed 🙂