It is no secret that steemit.com user retention rate is terrible. It is estimated that 1 in 10 users actually come back to use the site.
It is pretty easy to drive traffic towards one's website with ads and other clickbaity stuff but the most important metric is user retention( IE users that adopt the website.)
There are 3 types of reactions when new users land on steemit.com :
1- " this must be a scam"
2- " I'm skeptical, let's try"
3- "yeah, I'm going to make a ton of money".
You can see that all reactions relates to money because this is what's highlighted on steemit.com. The user interface dictate the user experience.
The first group won't even try, they have witnessed enough scams on the internet to know that free money on the internet = scam
The second and third group will try to do one post which will earn nothing and will leave. ( Because the site didn't deliver on their promise )
To avoid all these reactions and disapointements, first do not give user high or any expectation of rewards at all unless you can fulfil them (which you can't)
Secondly stop making it about the money.
Steemit is not a gambling site it is a social media site, the reactions you want from users who first visit the site is not those outlined above instead you want users to feel home, to feel safe, to feel smart ( because they understand everything in no time),to feel they can trust the site and the users on it, to feel welcomed, to feel excited, to feel surprised, to feel they can invite their friends over,etc...
The key for any social media site is network effect. You want to get as many people as fast as possible else the site quickly dies down. Steemit is still standing because the money keeps some users here but if there were no rewards on steemit, the site would be long gone.
The irony here is that steemit slogan is "come for the rewards, stay for the community" when in fact users that have stayed on steemit have done so for the rewards, certainly not for the UI and social media features...
The money aspect of steemit is of course important but it is secondary,like 
Rewarding users is a lure, it is not the end goal so why is steemit's whole marketing strategy based on it.
The marketing should focus on how you can spend the money earned and what the benefit of this money is ( fast, free to transact, secure,etc..)
"Open the gate to the digital world"
"Connect and transact with your loved ones"
"When commerce merge with social media"
APPICS the new app that was announced recently is also basing their marketing on the money/reward aspect. However they do it in a subtil way and focus on the passion,technology and commerce not just the money itself.
I think they have a pretty good marketing strategy but I still think they draw too much attention on the rewards by making their slogan "passion rewarded". I would use something more subjective, like "we value your passion"
Chainbb.com is another app that understand the importance of not making it all about the money. This site do not make rewards visible on the interface, which is the smartest thing to do.
You don't want to influence users's vote and interaction with money else you risk turning your whole site into a gambling machine ( aka steemit.com). Displaying amount earned is an unnecessary distraction.
I am sure you've heard about the term passive income.
Passive income is defined as being income earned with minimal to no effort.( IE using social media sites )
Most users on steemit.com I'd argue don't earn passive income, they earn active income because they put a lot of effort into their post in order to get the rewards ( unfortunately the vast majority of internet users are not interested in that and are too busy anyway, they just want to post and consume short content like they already do).
The blogging concept is outdated, the reason steemit turned into a blogging site was that in the mind of most people content that is rewarded must be good content and good content must be long and detailed content.
Also it wasn't obvious when steemit started that other apps will be built on the steem blockchain. I think if steemit wants to become big it's essential that they get rid of the blog format and move towards a reddit style format which btw is not incompatible with long post. A mobile app is also a must to reach a mainstream audience.
I went off on a tangent there...
If you want your users to earn passive income, hidding rewards is a good start. Again UI define UX.
There are many ways you could hide rewards on post while still keeping it fun to upvote. Users's wallet could also have info like voting power / voting value.
Some other causes for the low retention rate are, painful sign up process, complexity of 3 currencies, lack of guidance and social features such as private messaging, ugly outdated UI, no gamification, no sub community ( coming soon?)etc..
TLDR: Steemit.com is not the best example to follow for your app to go viral. If you think its normal that users are rewarded on social media websites why brag about it, in a decade saying "the site that pays" will be like saying " gmail, the email that sends" .
