The Learning Curve
I didn't expect a platform to be a huge task to learn. You have your usual tools for putting content up, some somewhat-familiar ways to include links and embedded media, italics, bolding, etc.
What has proven more elusive is the drive of the participants beyond the outright motivator of money. Or perhaps stated another way, if you are here primarily for the money, then how does it enrich the community at large?
The Posting Treadmill
I've seen suggestions that you take your prior content, reshape it somehow, and then repost it. This is really to keep your visibility on the never-ending treadmill of "new" posts. I find this recommendation to be self-defeating. If I regurgitate content to my followers, who am I really helping?
It is hard for me to do such a thing.
I feel it is an insult to the people that follow you. You are taking a portion of their time, and by repackaging older content you are dangling a false promise to them as well. I refuse to engage in such behavior. Just because other people do it, doesn't mean that it is inherently good.
I've never liked false pretenses anyway. I prefer to have everything out in the open and present my position clearly.
Nihilistic Nomenclature
It would be easy to throw up my hands, declare my experiment in engaging with Steemit a failure and move on, but there is something compelling about some of the new posts that I read.
Beyond the ones using tricks such as a sexy photo, clickbait-like titles, repackaging stale content as new -- there are a small core of people who seem to be using Steemit in a very original way.
Those people, I'll follow.
The rest can fight over who is the king of the sand trap, scrabbling up the slopes burying others in their wake.
If you value your time, and think Steemit deserves better than being a posting treadmill for expired ideas, you won't support those that engage in this behavior.
Otherwise, what is the point of it at all?