Here's the lowdown on what you can expect from steemit from what I've gathered after about six months of research.
I'm just gonna get straight to the point. Don't worry I'll find some meaningless pictures to break up this text so your technology-addled brain can secrete that little hit of dopamine you've been waiting for.
Unless you're super lucky you'll have to invest at least a year producing content consistently (as in almost every day) before you can regularly make over ten dollars per steemit post. It also has to be good, but I saw a one paragraph post about beaver dams that appeared to be written by a child for a school assignment that made 50 steem dollars so you never know. Consistency is key with steemit I guess. Everyone is impatient and pictures are also a must. Once a body of text reaches this length you begin to exceed the capacity of the modern attention span and you have to break up your post with a picture like this.
Here is a random meaningless picture of a mushroom I took for my Mycology blog
You'll also need to invest in your steemit account by purchasing steem power. It isn't essential, but I think it'll save you a lot of time trying to get noticed. I've been a part of all kinds of communities and groups like @curie, @c-squared, @minnowsupport and #whitelist, @smartmediagroup, etc... I received one vote from either Curie or C-squared that boosted my post to 40$ and I gained about 75 followers and I gotta say it felt amazing. I totally got my hopes up envisioning a traveling mycology blog throughout the pacific northwest and a massive online art portfolio that would buy all my supplies for me. But that was just one post that did well. I had been going for six months and I'm back to nickels and dimes. It might have killed me to change up my genre all the sudden. I post under a big variety of topics, and I think it's probably best to build them up one at a time. A "one-track" sort of approach.
Steemit is a slow climb to the top with a few lucky strikes in between.
I think the groups geared towards minnow support are like those rich youtubers who offer courses on how to become a rich youtuber. There is a massive pool of wannabies like me and you out there trying to climb the steemit ladder. People who've gained a little traction online see this and they take advantage of the huge market value that presents itself when you have travel bloggers presenting a totally effortless and majestic dream of life like the carrot that is the illusory Utopia we all chase. Nothing comes easy, unless you are lucky as fuck. But if you're not lucky as fuck and you expect things to come easy and that never changes then you're whole life is fucked, like so many millions of others.
This baby bird was going to die from heat stroke in a hot window well but I saved him. He is lucky as fuck, unlike the majority of the steemit community.
I'm my own professor dude
You have to invest a lot of time and energy into your account. With steemit you have to be the person quality checking yourself. You have to be your own professor dude. Credit your images, don't plagiarize, learn a little bit of the programming you need to make your posts look beautiful, work on your writing and editing skills and treat everything like your own personal masterpiece. The sources are out there to figure this out after just a quick google search. The programming codes are so easy to find I'm not going to include them. Too many people have written Html Editor posts.
How often should you post?
I think the best amount to post would be twice a day, some people think minnows will get noticed faster if they post 3-4 times per day which is a little ridiculous. I wouldn't do that. Put a flower in front of your computer that often and see if it survives, that's way too much time in front of the computer. 1-2 posts per day is plenty. I think the @minnowsupport whitelist can be a good opportunity. I recently got added to it but I haven't been able to delve in too much because I got bit by a brown recluse spider (I know wtf??) and my fuckin back hurts and I wanna puke. Luckily it was just a spec that had barely left it's mamma's back, otherwise I'd be in the hospital. There are now about a thousand dangerous little spiders crawling in and around the house right now. Hopefully my parents get bit so they spray the damn place. I'm trying to become a live-in groundskeeper at a local cemetery, because there won't be spiders there... Anyways! Back to the point, the people succeeding on steemit are hard working and talented individuals. People who are definitely more resourceful and creative than the average person. I think as steemit grows and the massive pool of minnows grows you'll see alot of mid-range (dolphins? Orcas?) players out there forming support communities and projects to take advantage of all the newcomers.
Consistent, quality creation is key
So it seems fundamentally, the goal for you as a steemit author is to consistently produce the best content you can and to market it in any way you can. Some upvote bots are a total sham, but there are a few I've used that really boosted my following, If I put 500 bucks into boosting and marketing my posts over the next six months the rate at which my account would grow would be exponentially faster. The difference between one of my regular posts and a post I paid about 7$ to market is about 500 upvotes, although they were all from minnows and I didn't even break even, it can be a good investment to grow your account more quickly. There are countless upvote bots out there and you'll have to check em out for yourself but they will for sure follow you. So check your following for names like Whalebot or autoresteem or some shit like that, experiment and see which ones give you the best results. Don't trade or sell your steem power, just steem tokens and dollars because steem power gives you more influence and attention.
The most important aspect of Steemit I want to stress is that Steemit is a community.
Steemit is a place you can go to find people just like you who share your interests. People who you would never be able to find anywhere else will be happy to talk and work with you and you'll find it's a very rewarding experience to reach out and connect with people here. It's a place where you can establish solid and lasting relationships that will have a powerful influence on your journey in life. I've received valuable information from professional mycologists on identifying difficult species from some of my mushroom forays. I've connected with people from across the country to learn about the ecology and wildlife diversity of other parts of the world. With Steemit you have a place where you can hone your skills and piece together thoughts, while receiving advice, support, and valuable information from incredible people. You can also think of Steemit as your creation portfolio which is valuable in of itself. And with the way this platform works you'll always be edging ever closer towards gaining exposure.
And Finally...
There is a whole slew of shit you need to learn about cryptocurrency
@curie, 
@c-squared, 
@minnowsupport and #whitelist, 
@smartmediagroup, etc... I received one vote from either Curie or C-squared that boosted my post to 40$ and I gained about 75 followers and I gotta say it felt amazing. I totally got my hopes up envisioning a traveling mycology blog throughout the pacific northwest and a massive online art portfolio that would buy all my supplies for me. But that was just one post that did well. I had been going for six months and I'm back to nickels and dimes. It might have killed me to change up my genre all the sudden. I post under a big variety of topics, and I think it's probably best to build them up one at a time. A "one-track" sort of approach.
@fractalobserver